Mississippi Today Editor-At-Large Marshall Ramsey sits down with Mississippi filmmaker Patrick O’Connor (The Invisible Patients) to discuss his new documentary titled Look Away, Look Away that highlights the efforts (and resistance to) changing the Mississippi state flag.

In Look Away, Look Away, O’Connor interviews those who were for and those who were against Mississippi replacing the old state flag, letting them tell the story in their own voices. It also tells the history behind the 1894 flag and provides context of the events covered in the movie. Its five-year timeline covers the lowering of the Confederate Battle flag over the South Carolina Capitol (after the brutal murders of nine African Americans at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church) to the raising of the new Mississippi state flag in July, 2020. It’s a frank and open look at how change takes place during a time when people when Americans seems more polarized than ever. Ramsey and O’Connor talk about the making of the film, the people he interviewed and the issues behind it.

LOOK AWAY, LOOK AWAY screens at the 2021 Oxford Film Festival on Saturday, March 27 at 6:00 PM. A limited number of tickets are available at the festival website here.

The film will also be available for Mississippi residents to watch online for one week starting April 1st. Tickets for the online screening are available here.

This is Episode 6 of Mississippi Stories.


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Marshall Ramsey, a nationally recognized editorial cartoonist, shares his cartoons and travels the state as Mississippi Today’s Editor-At-Large. He’s also host of a weekly statewide radio program and a television program on Mississippi Public Broadcasting and is the author of several books. Marshall is a graduate of the University of Tennessee and a 2019 recipient of the University of Tennessee Alumni Professional Achievement Award.