Samantha Sheppard, the Mary Armstrong Meduski assistant professor of performing & media arts, writes in The Atlantic about Oscar nominated film, "Hale County This Morning, This Evening," saying that the nod is a diversion from the Academy’s typical recognition of black cinema.
"An impressionistic and avant-garde film set in Hale County, Alabama, it examines the quotidian and intimate moments of its African American protagonists and the community in which they live," Sheppard writes. "In his use of poetic images and nonclassical structure, Ross resists easy quantification and quick summary about black life in the South, making Hale County’s nomination a choice unlike any other in the Academy’s contemporary history."
