Mississippi Drug War Blues

[Roger Richards]

Hi guys, a documentary I co-produced and shot last year, Mississippi Drug War Blues: The Case of Cory Maye is being shown at the Oxford Film Festival here is a link to the synopsis page

 

On the page is a slideshow and the one minute trailer. The film is about Cory Maye, who is in prison for life for shooting a policeman, and Ron Jones, who was part of a drug raid on Maye's home in Prentiss, Mississippi on December 26, 2001. Maye, who had no previous trouble with the law, awoke from a deep sleep to the sound of his door being broken down in the early hours of the morning. Thinking that he was being attacked and worried about protecting his 18-month-old daughter, Maye opened fire when his door was smashed open.

 

This film is an ongoing story about the intersection of race (Maye is black and Jones was white); the war on drugs; the disturbing increase in the militarization of police tactics; and systemic flaws in the criminal justice and expert-testimony systems. It is a tragedy in which one man is dead and another may spend his life in prison.

 

The film is narrated by Drew Carey (host of The Price is Right and former star of The Drew Carey Show and Whose Line Is It Anyway?).

 

Cheers,

Roger