Mississippi Damned

Tina Mabry's first feature follows three children growing up in rural Mississippi in the 1980s and 1990s, and the cycles of poverty, abuse and addiction that close in around their family. The story draws on Mabry's own life.

It's an unflinching film, but it's not hopeless: its subject is the cost of escape, and who manages it. It won awards on the festival circuit and has gathered a reputation since as a key work of Black Southern independent cinema.