Mississippi University for Women "Visions" Magazine - Summer 2010
By Anika Mitchell Perkins
What started as an opportunity to speak to a group of high school seniors about her experience growing up in Mississippi in the 1960s, ultimately turned into a lesson for alumna Myra Williams Ottewell.
Ottewell was able to capture part of her journey in a one-hour documentary titled “Mississippi ReMixed,” which explores the history of segregation in Mississippi and progress made since that time. Written, produced and directed by Ottewell, “Mississippi ReMixed” recently aired on Mississippi Public Broadcasting.
It was almost six years ago that Ottewell was invited to recount her days of growing up in the South to a Canadian classroom that had recently watched the movie “Mississippi Burning.”
Ottewell remembers those days as peaceful and explained that while the facts of the movie were true, that was not her experience.
Despite her intentions, Ottewell’s recollection did not set well with the students. “They could not buy it,” she said. They couldn’t get it.”
At that point, she set out to prove the students wrong and began interviewing her subjects—some well known such as James Meredith, a figure in the civil rights movement, and others not so well known, including Brenda Travis, who was arrested at the age of 16 for entering a whites only waiting room.
Ottewell said she knew nothing about Travis’ story growing up. “I was completely ignorant about what was happening to my African-American contemporaries.
As we got feedback about our early edit from PBS evaluators, they said that the original film was too informational. We should follow somebody. So, essentially the film I started to make changed into my own personal journey.”
Throughout the process, Ottewell said a lot of her friends from college were her support system.
“I called my W friends and we met at Juleps in Jackson. They became my team. They were really key in helping me know whom to contact and were a great support for six years—especially Jan Wardlaw McSpadden (’68).”
Another interesting MUW tie in the documentary came through alumna Cynthia Acee Davis, who has known Ottewell for 45 years. Both attended MUW from 1965-1969.
“We knew each other because we were both involved with Baptist Student Union and campus publications. Our senior year she was editor of the Meh Lady, and I was feature editor of the Spectator.”
Davis and Ottewell reconnected (for the first time since graduation) at their 40th class reunion during Homecoming 2009.
“As we were participating in the Long Blue Line March for Convocation that morning, Myra was taking pictures of our class and handing out cards about the documentary she had just completed. My son (who is working on his doctorate in music theory and composition) had a piano composition performed at Carnegie Hall in October 2008.”
At the class dinner, Davis decided to take an article about her son’s recent accomplishment and share with Ottewell in case she needed someone to score her documentary.
“She told me she had already used some prerecorded music in the documentary. I was disappointed but gave her the article anyway, and she gave me a rough cut DVD of the documentary. Then, exactly one month later (on my birthday), I had an email from Myra saying she had looked over the information about Joel and wondered if he would be interested in scoring the documentary.”
The rest is history, and ironically, the producer and composer never met face-to-face until the premiere in Jackson.
Joel Scott Davis, who works as a composer in Los Angeles said, “Working with Myra Williams Ottewell was both a pleasure and a privilege. She is, in my mind, the essence of a well-rounded director. She is an extremely gifted person, and her knowledge of storytelling, video editing and musical style made for a rewarding collaborative process.”
Cynthia Acee Davis added, “I feel honored and blessed that Myra gave Joel the opportunity to be involved in such a worthwhile project. As an Alabama native, I shared many of the experiences Myra did in regard to race relations.”
Ottewell said MUW provided her with a strong foundation, especially the relationships developed with faculty and staff.
“I was a late bloomer, and I lacked self confidence academically. I found The W gave me a tremendous environment to be nurtured.”
Ottewell, who majored in physical education and minored in social studies while at MUW, resides in British Columbia, Canada.
