After opening in April in theaters around the world, Ryan Coogler’s blockbuster vampire film “Sinners” finally came home.
On Thursday, May 29, a three-day festival kicked off in Clarksdale, Mississippi, with special screenings of the film hosted by Coogler, his wife Zinzi, other members of the cast and crew, and Warner Bros. executives. The festival included panels with the cast and crew, multicultural events, and, of course, performances of some Mississippi blues.
Tyler Yarbrough, who played a major role in making the screening a reality, said it was also an opportunity for Coogler to see Clarksdale from a young local’s perspective.
“While people were watching the film, I was able to really show them a young person’s view of Clarksdale,” he said of a special tour of the town and its arts centers that he gave the Cooglers.
He added, “It’s always nice when people come in, and you know, just so ready to be immersed in everything.”
The multi-day festival was the result of an online petition launched by Yarbrough and other local organizers. Not too long after he saw the film, driving over 80 miles to do so twice, he noticed local online chatter about the fact that there wasn’t a way to see this film in the town itself. The last movie theater in Clarksdale closed in 2003.
After brainstorming with other local organizers, the 26-year-old community leader launched the petition online, now dubbed “the blessed letter,” inviting Coogler and the rest of the cast and crew to Clarksdale for a “homecoming” screening.
He considers the letter especially blessed because he wrote it while he happened to be attending a fellowship on a Choctaw reservation, where he washed his hands in a river that runs to the Gulf of Mexico shortly before sending the letter out into the world. Within a month of the letter’s release in late April, he was finalizing plans for the screenings and festival, including events with the Choctaw Native Americans.
It has been a whirlwind from when he first posted the open letter to when Capital B News broke the story to hearing from Warner Bros. all within a span of days, while he was also working to open a new local grocery store in Clarksdale. Despite how much Clarksdale wanted this screening, Yarbrough said he was still shocked to see so many people turn out. He noted that the panels and both of the screenings were packed. Moviegoers cheered loudly and proudly when they saw “Clarksdale, Mississippi,” on the sign at the movie’s beginning.
Attendees were clamoring not just for pictures with the Cooglers and the cast, but also with Yarbrough.
“I really wasn’t expecting, like, all the love,” he said, adding how some attendees even brought scripts and books of their own to show Coogler.
The Guardian reported that before the first screening, Zinzi discussed how the film honored ancestors.
“This is a love letter to our elders, to our recent and relatively distant ancestors, and we are so proud to be here in Clarksdale to share this movie and this moment with you guys,” Zinzi said before the first screening, per the Guardian. “We heard the call that there isn’t a theater for the local community, and said, ‘Wait, wait, wait, we will show up.’”
During Coogler’s remarks, he noted the impact visiting Clarksdale while making the film had on him, as he and his wife have familial connections to the state.
“Coming here, it blew my mind,” he said. “I got to meet musicians, I got to meet community members, business owners. It really changed me just to come here and do the research.”
In the days since the big weekend, Yarbrough said he’s still processing and taking some time to rest and bask in the glow of its success, but devising a way to harness this moment is still on his mind.
“It was always about more than just a screening,” he said. “With the heightened attention on Clarksdale, Mississippi, our creative space, I want us to collaboratively think through like, what is next.”
He added, “I would love for us to look at more ways to empower local folks to tell their own stories.”
