''LaLee's Kin: The Legacy of Cotton'' is a 2001 American

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

directed by Deborah Dickson,

Susan Froemke Susan Froemke (born November 5, 1947) is an American film director and producer. Froemke was the associate producer and one of the editors of the influential 1975 documentary film ''Grey Gardens'', which was selected for preservation in the Natio ...

and

Albert Maysles Albert Maysles (November 26, 1926 – March 5, 2015) and his brother David Maysles (January 10, 1931 – January 3, 1987; ) were an American documentary filmmaking team known for their work in the Direct Cinema style. Their best-known films i ...

. It was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the

74th Academy Awards The 74th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), took place on March 24, 2002, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. During the ceremony, AMPAS presented Academy Awards (commonly ...

Content

''LaLee's Kin: The Legacy of Cotton'' has two storylines, both of which show the impoverished life of residents in the American South. The documentary draws the connection—a vicious cycle—between poverty and the lack of education opportunity for black people living in the Mississippi Delta, over 150 years after the abolition of slavery. Laura Lee (LaLee) Wallace, a great-granddaughter of a slave, is an illiterate 62-year-old woman who has been living all her life in Tallahatchie County, one of the poorest in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. She has one surviving son, nine daughters, 38 grandchildren, and 15 great-grandchildren. Her daily living consists of many difficulties: LaLee has to raise many of her grandchildren, her son is continually put in prison, and most of her daughters have to leave Tallahatchie County searching for work. LaLee's life is heavily dependent on the cotton industry; she struggles to earn a living by cooking lunches for people working in local cotton factories. Reggie Barnes is the superintendent of the West Tallahatchie school system, which is put on probation by the state due to poor standardized test results. The school has the hardship of trying to educate the children of illiterate parents. If it fails to raise the annual standardized test scores, the school will be taken over by the state

Production and release

The documentary is noted for using the direct cinema techniques, thus creating a "more intimate and confronting work." The film was shown at the

Seattle International Film Festival The Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF), held annually in Seattle, Washington since 1976, is among the top film festivals in North America. Audiences have grown steadily; the 2006 festival had 160,000 attendees. The SIFF runs for more th ...

(May 24–June 17, 2001) and participated in the Documentary Competition at the Sundance Film Festival in

Park City, Utah Park City is a city in Utah, United States. The vast majority is in Summit County, and it extends into Wasatch County. It is considered to be part of the Wasatch Back. The city is southeast of downtown Salt Lake City and from Salt Lake Cit ...

(January 18–28, 2001). ''LaLee's Kin: The Legacy of Cotton'' was released theatrically in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

on June 22, 2001. The film was released on DVD in 2010.

Reception

Critical reaction

''LaLee's Kin: The Legacy of Cotton'' received highly positive reviews by the critics. The documentary received a score of 78 out of 100 at ''

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

'' based on 5 reviews. ''

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s critic A. O. Scott praised the film as "an exemplary work of

cinéma vérité Cinéma vérité (, , ; "truthful cinema") is a style of documentary filmmaking developed by Edgar Morin and Jean Rouch, inspired by Dziga Vertov's theory about Kino-Pravda. It combines improvisation with use of the camera to unveil truth or ...

that allows its subjects to speak for themselves." ''

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'' rated the film 3 out of 4 stars. Meanwhile, ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' magazine considered the film "an especially humanistic entry in the Maysles canon."

Nominations and awards

''LaLee's Kin: The Legacy of Cotton'' garnered a nomination for Best Documentary Feature at both the

and the 17th Independent Spirit Awards. Veteran documentarian

won the "Excellence in Cinematography Award" at the Sundance Film Festival.

References

External links

*
''LaLee's Kin: The Legacy of Cotton''
at Maysles Films {{DEFAULTSORT:LaLee's Kin: The Legacy Of Cotton 2001 films 2001 documentary films American documentary films Documentary films about African Americans Documentary films about education in the United States Education in Tallahatchie County, Mississippi Films set in Mississippi Documentary films about Mississippi 2000s English-language films 2000s American films Cotton industry in the United States