The Island of St. Matthews (2013)

The Island of Saint Matthews is a 16mm feature film about the loss of family history in the form of heirlooms and photographs. Years ago filmmaker Kevin Jerome Everson asked his aunt about old family photographs. Her reply-that "we lost them in the flood" was the catalyst for this film, a poem and paean to the citizens of Westport, a community just west of Columbus, Mississippi, and the direct and oblique remnants of the 1973 flood of the Tombigbee River. Scenarios depicted include a water skier on the Tombigbee; a river baptism; a meeting with an insurance agent about flood coverage; the control room of the lock and dam; the parking lot of a church; the ringing of the St. Matthews bell.