The Rising Place (2001)

Set against the picturesque landscape of the Mississippi Delta in the 1940's, "The Rising Place" follows the close friendship of two young women, each of a different race, and their struggle to find purpose in their lives during this time of social injustice and world war. When Virginia visits her Aunt Millie at Christmas, she discovers a stack of handwritten letters over half a century old, and unlocks the story of her aunt's youthful days as a young woman living in Hamilton, Mississippi, during the second World War. Beautifully shot sequences episodically shift back and forth from the past to the present. In a time when a woman's place was in the home, young Emily ventures out and falls in love with a young soldier, eventually carrying his baby out of wedlock. With the support of her best friend Wilma Watson and their draft-dodging companion Will Bacon, Emily is able to stand by her convictions in a household dominated by the standards of a salt-of-the-earth father and an unconditionally loving mother.