Montana Debut
Film Premiere: A Journey of Understanding in Mississippi Queen
Missoula filmmaker Paige Williams returns to the Deep South to try and bridge the gap between her world -- as a woman in love with another woman -- and her parents' anti-gay religious fervor.By Amy Linn, 6-18-09
Jerry Williams reading the Bible on his porch in Mississippi. Photo by Paige Williams.
“When I first fell in love I was 17, and it happened to be with a girl. The news hit hard. They’d pray and pray and pray over me. There was a lot of anger and fear. And even a gun. In the South I was taught to love God first and then you love your family second, and I did. And I was really good at it.”
So begins the heartfelt and gripping documentary Mississippi Queen from Missoula filmmaker Paige Williams. The award-winning film, which follows Williams as she delves into her past and fits the jagged pieces into a livable whole, has its Montana premiere tonight as part of Pride Week activities.
The event at the Wilma Theatre, from 7-9 p.m., includes live music by Mississippi Queen composer John Floridis and by Jenn Adams, whose music is also featured in the film.
The hour-long movie starts at 7:30 p.m. Admission is $5 and includes appetizers and talkback following the screening. The film will also be shown June 20 at the Red Lion Fireside Room in Kalispell, at noon. Proceeds will benefit Montana PRIDE 2009.
“Mama always tried to protect me against being gay. I think in some ways she always knew,” Williams narrates as the film opens. Her parents, she explains, run the only ex-gay ministry in Mississippi. “They call it In His Time,” Williams says. “Ex-gay ministries are for people who don’t want to be gay any more. Because of Jesus.”
The film explores the Deep South, the Southern Baptist culture, and the myriad ways that Williams, like so many rebels, learned to hide and then leave home to get free. There is redemption, of sorts, in the homecoming, but some bridges can never be gapped. The film shows a world of black and white, gay and straight, and mamas who can never truly accept daughters who don’t fit in.
Williams’ production company, Porch Productions, is also at work on two other documentaries with co-producer and Missoula resident Matt Anderson. Trailers to those films—From Place to Place, about life after foster care, and The Beautiful Struggle, about a people-powered reforestation project in Haiti—will also be shown.
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