Booker's Place: A Mississippi Story

Released Apr 25, 2012

1h 30m

Documentary

History

Drama

Mystery & Thriller

List

100%

Tomatometer

17 Reviews

85%

Audience Score

100+ Ratings

The life of Booker Wright, a black waiter during the 1960s civil-rights movement.

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Leonard Maltin

leonardmaltin.com

The exploration of... these issues is precisely what makes the documentary so compelling, and relevant, even half-a-century after the film that inspired it was broadcast.

May 1, 2012

Full Review

Elizabeth Weitzman

New York Daily News

With empathetic craftsmanship, the film unspools as a brief history of hatred that may be recognizable to anyone who lived through the 20th century or has been paying attention in the 21st.

Rated: 4/5

Apr 28, 2012

Full Review

Glenn Heath Jr.

Slant Magazine

Documentarian and subject, past and present blur together like bleeding watercolors in Raymond De Felitta's gripping memoir.

Rated: 3/4

Apr 28, 2012

Full Review

Neely Swanson

Easy Reader (California)

"Booker's Place" will open both eyes and all your senses.

Sep 18, 2017

Full Review

Robert Roten

Laramie Movie Scope

The film tells a story of another America which seems most primitive, foreign and far away now, but it was really not all that long ago in old segregated, Jim Crow Mississippi.

Rated: B

Dec 23, 2012

Full Review

Dennis Schwartz

Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

A heart-felt movie that gives you a good idea of how backward a state is Mississippi.

Rated: A-

Dec 7, 2012

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StephenPaul C

The greatest 1.5 hours of real footage!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

06/24/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A true story of an American hero.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/21/23

Full Review

Audience Member

The story behind Booker's Place: A Mississippi Story begins in the intensely racially segregated South of 1965. An NBC News documentarian named Frank DeFelitta went to Greenwood, Mississippi to gently prod its residents on the subjects of race and racism. He ended up turning a black waiter, Booker Wright, into an "accidental activist," when he opened up to DeFelitta on the ways the white patrons of Lusco's treat him. Now, DeFelitta's son, Raymond, has tracked down many of Booker's friends and family members to tell a sad story: After speaking with Frank, Booker was forced to leave the restaurant, and a few years later, he was murdered. Booker's Place: A Mississippi Story is quite a touching documentary. Frank, Raymond, and Yvette Johnson (Booker's granddaughter) all have unanswered questions about this tragic saga. Is Frank morally culpable in Booker's death? What is the responsibility of a documentarian when he or she has footage that will almost certainly cause its subject some degree of hardship? And Yvette-the one who initially coins the phrase "accidental activist" to describe the grandfather she wishes she could have known-longs to know what exactly Booker's intentions were. Did he mean to stir up trouble? Or was he just speaking honestly? Booker's Place is filmed in exquisite black and white-I guess an appropriate choice considering the subject matter. It also takes a lot of time placing its viewers in Greenwood. The town's past is frightening, and the younger DeFelitta manages to get this across to us visually as much as he does with talking heads. That's not to say his interviews aren't on point; He speaks to some real characters who have a lot to say, and one can't help but realize that they can speak freely because of Booker's courage. But the film probably isn't going to get much promotion from Greenwood's board of tourism, as I suspect (and DeFelitta hints) that things haven't gotten much better since the days of Booker Wright. The murder itself is almost glossed over. Ditto the material with Frank. The film probably needed to be 30 minutes longer so these issues could be further fleshed out and given their due. When exactly did Frank find out about Booker's death? What, if any, affect did the news have on his career? How did it shape Raymond's understanding of documentary filmmaking. Of course, it's probably not easy to probe one's 90-year-old father about one of the darkest moments of his life, but a deeper understanding of these issues would have given the film a clear thesis. Instead, it's a time-and-place movie and a moving eulogy for a deserving civil rights hero. That's fine, though, when a film does these things as well as Booker's Place does. http://www.johnlikesmovies.com/bookers-place-a-mississippi-story/

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/10/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Amazing documentary about the life of one man in Greenwood, Mississippi during the jim crow era.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/18/23

Full Review

Audience Member

2012 is the year of the documentary and this is another one of its finest, taking us back to the Civil Rights era in the American South. Good movie.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/17/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A filmmaker investigates the background and eventual fate of a black waiter who gave an incendiary speech in his father's documentary about racism in Mississippi in the 1960s. A moving and vivid examination of the black experience in Jim Crow's south.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/08/23

Full Review

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Raymond De Felitta

Director

Hodding Carter III

Actor

Frank De Felitta

Actor

Yvette Johnson

Actor

Steven C. Beer

Executive Producer

Lynn Roer

Executive Producer

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Synopsis

The life of Booker Wright, a black waiter during the 1960s civil-rights movement.

Director: Raymond De Felitta
Producer: Steven C. Beer, Lynn Roer
Distributor: Tribeca Film
Production Co: EyePatch Productions, Hangover Lounge Inc.
Genre: Documentary, History, Drama, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Apr 25, 2012, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 7, 2012
Box Office (Gross USA): $5.0K
Runtime: 1h 30m

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