āOld Mainā documentary delivers Ļć½¶Ö±²„landmarkās fateful day in January 1959
Contact: Harriet Laird
STARKVILLE, Miss.āThe national award-winning University Television Center at Mississippi State is premiering a short documentary on Sunday [Jan. 23] that will take viewers back more than 60 years for a look at an iconic campus landmark.
āOld Main,ā a tribute to MSUās best-known building that burned in January of 1959, is an 11-minute film developed by the Ļć½¶Ö±²„Films initiative, a UTC project to tell stories of the institution through those that witnessed them.Ģż
The short film debuts on MSUās Facebook page, , at 7 p.m. and will be simulcast on MSTV, the universityās high-definition television channel. Operated by UTC, the channel is available to MaxxSouth Broadband subscribers in the Golden Triangle and those with C Spire Fiber TV throughout the state on Channel 80. After the 7 p.m. premiere, viewers can find the production at .
The production features an interview with a university alumnus who experienced the colossal dormitoryās fiery demise, with footage from that night and the aftermath. Ļć½¶Ö±²„Films also recreated scenes, taping a building being overcome by smoke and using actors as students who were a part of the evacuation. Ģż
āReportedly the largest in America at the time, Old Main dormitory was home to thousands of students through the decades. The massive fire changed everything on January 23, 1959, and this documentary short provides a firsthand account of that night, told through the words of one student who was there,ā said David Garraway, UTC director.
Last year, Ļć½¶Ö±²„Films won a national Edward R. Murrow Award for āThe Last Supermarket,ā an examination of a Mississippi Delta community which becomes a food desert when its only grocery closes.
According to Garraway, additional projects are on the way from Ļć½¶Ö±²„Films. These include a piece titled āXIIIā about alumni who played a pivotal role in 1970 in safely bringing the Apollo 13 spacecraft back to Earth. āThe Hungriest State,ā a four-part miniseries of which āThe Last Supermarketā is a part, premieres three more episodes in the coming months.
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