BROADCAST ON AMERICAN EXPERIENCE, PBS

“A handful of young people, black and white, believed they could change history. And did.”
​—The New York Times

​The Academy Award® nominated FREEDOM ON MY MIND is the first film to chronicle, in depth, the story of Freedom Summer. It vividly tells the complex and compelling history of the Mississippi voter registration struggles of 1961 to 1964: the interracial nature of the campaign, the tensions and conflicts, the fears and hopes. It is the story of youthful idealism and shared vision, of a generation who believed in and fought for the principles of democracy.

​In 1961 Mississippi was a virtual South African enclave within the United States. Everything is segregated. There are virtually no black voters. Bob Moses, enters the state and the Voter Registration Project begins. The first black farmer who attempts to register is fatally shot by a Mississippi State Representative. But four years later, the registration is open. By 1990, Mississippi has more elected black officials than any other state in the union.

FREEDOM ON MY MIND dramatically interweaves powerful personal interviews, rare archival film and television footage, authentic Mississippi Delta blues, and vibrant Movement gospel songs. It emphasizes the strategic brilliance of Mississippi's young, black organizers. Barred from political participation, they create their own integrated party - the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP). They recruit a thousand mostly white students from around the country to come to Mississippi, bringing the eyes and conscience of the nation with them.

The students and the MFDP organizers put together a delegation of sharecroppers, maids, and day-laborers to challenge the all-white delegates in the 1964 Democratic National Convention. They demand equality and justice from the highest official in the land - the President confronting the country's leading politicians to live up to the democratic values they profess to hold.

FREEDOM ON MY MIND provides a sweeping panorama of a turbulent time: a time that tested America's purpose and its commitment to democracy. The legacy of that time, the achievements and failures, remain with us today. FREEDOM ON MY MIND will enable viewers of all backgrounds to better understand and appreciate this uniquely American legacy.

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“This moving, enlightening documentary on the Mississippi Voter Registration Project conveys the human dimensions of the fight with such a powerful combination of sensitivity and intelligence and pure emotional insight that it seems as if the facts were being set down for the very first time. As political history this is superlative stuff.”
—Hall Hinson, The Washington Post

​“Freedom on My Mind...is a great success. It manages not only to record the inspiring experiences of the white volunteers and black pioneers of the voting rights drive, but also to place those experiences within a larger and more depressing story of power politics at the national level.”
—Scott Rosenberg, The San Francisco Examiner

“Connie Field and Marilyn Mulford, who together produced and directed “Freedom on My Mind,” have created the best kind of historical record — one that resonates today.”
—The New York Times

“Freedom On My Mind recounts the drama of the Mississippi Voter Registration Project with a focused intensity that's alternately sobering and exhilarated.”
—J. Hoberman, The Village Voice

“Telling the dramatic story of the Mississippi voter registration project from 1961 to 1964, “Freedom On My Mind” is a landmark documentary that chronicles the most tumultuous and significant years in the history of the civil rights movement. A must see.”
—Emmanuel Levy, Variety

“To sit through this two-hour film is to vicariously experience-or re-experience-a time of courage and fear, empowerment and subjugation, interracial coalition and bitter division.”
—Desson Howe, The Washington Post Weekend

“Freedom On My Mind is a rich, provocative, and deeply moving film that deserves the widest possible audience. An altogether exceptional achievement.”
—Doug McAdam, Professor of Sociology, University of Arizona and author of “Freedom Summer”

“A splendid achievement...In its dramatic effectiveness and historical acuity, Freedom On My Mind, surpasses all previous documentaries on the southern struggle, including the remarkable 'Eyes On The Prize' series."
—Dr. Clayborne Carson, Professor of History, Stanford University

“No documentary film has captured as eloquently and as dramatically that moment in the history of Mississippi when for a number of its citizens a commitment to racial justice became a moral imperative. The struggle they waged and what happened to their vision and expectations makes for a compelling and eloquent film. This is history at its very best, when it is at the same time illuminating, entertaining, and disturbing.”
—Leon F. Litwack, Professor of History, UC Berkeley

“The powerful Freedom On My Mind is a vivid and informative evocation of the Mississippi Voter Registration Project of the early 1960's. Freedom combines archival footage and contemporary interviews in a way that is both thoughtful and passionate. This spirited look at the spirited time evokes a struggle whose enormity we have largely forgotten.”
—Kenneth Turan, The Los Angeles Times