Professor David Appleby's documentary film, Hoxie: The FirstStand, is about the first school desegregation battle in the souththat met opposition, in the town of Hoxie, Miss. in 1955.
Hoxie, nominated for a regional Emmy last Wednesday, isscheduled to air nationally on PBS in February.
It is competing against three other films in the categories ofbest documentary and best non-news writer.
The documentary took five years to complete due garneringsufficient funds to produce the film and other obligations of life,Appleby said.
"At a university you end up spending more time raising moneythan actually shooting, and then there are limited resources,researching, and of course you are still teaching," Applebysaid.
Finding visual documentation for the film was difficult becausewhile there were several photographers in Hoxie during the summerof 1955, most of the photos have been lost.
"We were lucky and found the "Life Magazine" contact sheet,although the negatives had been lost," Appleby said.
Despite the fact each contact of the negative was very small,Appleby was able to digitally reproduce some of thephotographs.
Other pictures were found in the U of M's Mississippi ValleyCollection.
While no news footage of Hoxie was made, similar news eventsnationally, that aired on the major networks, were used in theHoxie film.
Appleby, who has been teaching at the U of M for 26 years, wasnominated for a national Emmy for At the River I Stand in 1994.
"It was wonderful to be there and horrible to lose," Applebysaid.
