The small Mississippi town behind Sinnerspublished at 00:40 GMT
00:40 GMT
Ana Faguy
US Reporter
Image source, Reuters/ Kevin WurmImage caption,
Ryan Coogler travelled to Clarksdale to present free screenings of his film
Last year, I visited Clarksdale, Mississippi, a landmark for
a bygone era of American blues music that also happens to be the town that
inspired the hit film Sinners.
The genre-defying film, that just won the Oscar for original screenplay, earned more than $300m (£220m)
globally, against a $90m (£67m) budget, and attracted the world’s attention to
a historic small town.
Ryan Coogler, who created the movie, said it was his Uncle
James, a Mississippi native who loved Delta blues, who helped inspire the film.
And in May he and other creators from the film went to
Clarksdale for a screening.
That’s where I met some locals who were elated with their
town’s representation.
“It was time traveling back to 1930’s in Clarksdale, in
our town, so this is the lives of my great grandma,” Tyler Yarbrough, a
Clarksdale native, said of the movie.
“The history from the farms to the
juke joints was on full display.”
Edna Luckett, a blues singer, watched the movie listening
closely to the characters’ dialect. She watched to see if the land in the
backdrop of the film was as flat and green as it is in real life.
“It was,” she said with a smile.