Press
Mississippi
Son
an award winning documentary
feature film lending a voice to the people of the Mississippi
Gulf
Coast
who continue
to be neglected by the media, FEMA, SBA, and the insurance
companies as billions continue to pour into the war in Iraq
(95 min.)
'Mississippi Son' Comes Home
Documentary will explore culture, human spirit
in THE BAY PRESS, 2 June 2006
By Gene Coleman
While Don Wilson has spent the past 25 years as a filmmaker,
editor, director and producer in L.A. he has not forgotten
his roots in Mississippi.
When Hurricane Katrina struck, Don came home to take his
80-year-old mother away from the devastation. When he arrived,
he was shocked by the destruction he found in his original
hometown of Gulfport and the rest of the Coast. Gone were
the restaurants he knew and other familiar landmarks from
his youth.
In the mid- to late-1970s, Don served as a weekend director
at WLOX, where he gained experience and began experimenting
with production, in this case giving the local newscast a “national” look
and incorporating music into the closing news segments. Don’s
success at WLOX gave him confidence that he could pull anything
off.
“We started making money,” Don said. “Our news
department started selling a lot of advertising. It started
getting profitable and I said, ‘I’m going to
ride this wave all the way to L.A.’”
Along with his confidence, Don carried with him to L.A. morality
and manners, which he credits with helping him make headway
in his new surroundings. “My Southern roots and my
morality were large factors in my success because I treated
people with respect and people responded to it,” Don
said.
Don didn’t end up at a news station in L.A., but instead
landed a job producing, directing and editing major league
sports events. His venture into new areas would continue
into major television shows such as “Barney Miller” and “MadTV.” It
would also lead him into a format that he never could have
envisioned taking off the way it did – the music video.
Here Don found his niche, at least for the time being. Don’s
background as a rock and roll musician (he was the drummer
for the local bands Witchwood and Star) gave him insight
and vision for shaping this new music video format. The first
video he made was Jefferson Starship’s Winds of Change.
One of his most groundbreaking videos was for A-Ha’s
Take on Me in which a sketchily drawn cartoon character seduces
a girl, bringing her from the real world into his black-and-white
comic book realm.
He would go onto make many more videos and win multiple awards
for his work. The star-studded list of performers he has
worked with includes Rod Stewart, Barbra Streisand, Duran
Duran, INXS, Alanis Morissette, Pearl Jam, Sting, Fleetwood
Mac, Stevie Nicks, Bon Jovi, David Bowie, Billy Joel, Mariah
Carey and more. But the peak of his video career would be
making Michael Jackson’s Man in the Mirror video, for
which Don traveled around the U.S. collecting footage that
gave imagery to Jackson’s warning that man and his
selfishness are destroying the world.
Fast forward to 2006 and Don is once again tackling an issue
of humanity – the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina – in
his new documentary “Mississippi Son.” One of
the questions that resurfaces throughout his interviews with
leaders in the art community: “What will become of
the Coast?” He asks whether the Coast’s plethora
of artists, musicians and writers will continue to remain
on the Coast. And, will they have an environment that allows
them to thrive or will it be a setting dominated by casinos
and new development?
Don, along with his wife, Leslie Wilson, who is also producer
of the film, will continue to interview residents, volunteers,
and casino representatives in the coming weeks. Don said
that his documentary will open the eyes of those who see
it to what has really happened on the coast, as opposed to
other national specials that have focused on New Orleans.
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