LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KTHV) -- A Little Rock filmmaker could hear his name called on Oscar night, and if he does win, Little Rock Central High School and the Little Rock Nine will be partly to thank.
“The story of Richard and Mildred Loving isn’t one that’s known by every American, and I think that should change,” Jeff Nichols said Monday evening.
More people will know their story as more theaters add Nichols’ latest film, “Loving.” He held a special screening Monday at the Ron Robinson Theater, and a sold-out crowd cheered him and asked him questions about his work.
“Loving,” tells the true story of the couple from Virginia who ultimately led the Supreme Court to end the ban on interracial marriage. It marks the first film Nichols has made based on real-life characters, and he admitted that telling their story placed a heavy burden on him. “To be honest I was kind of creatively paralyzed for a little while, trying to sit down and write this,” he said.
Nichols has made a name for himself with movies like “Mud,” starring Matthew McConaghey, and “Midnight Special,” which featured Adam Driver, Kirsten Dunst, Joel Edgerton, and Michael Shannon, and hit theaters earlier this year.
Nichols graduated from Central High School in 1997, 40 years after integration. “It was just baked in, the concept of the Civil Rights Movement, and that history,” he stated. “It’s just a part of my life.”
He began making the film in 2012, and met with the Lovings’ lone surviving child, Peggy, for research and script advice along the way. The story shows how far America has come in its views of race and equality, and how far is left to go.
“It’s kind of impossible to grow up in the South and not think about race, and think about the complexity of it, and our history with it,” Nichols said. “And I always knew, at some point I would make a film that dealt with that complexity, but I was kind of, I was waiting for the right story.”
Yellow Rocket Concepts, the company that owns Lost Forty Brewery, Local Lime, and Big Orange restaurants, sponsored Monday’s screening. All the proceeds from ticket sales then went to Central High School’s Tiger Foundation, and the amount was pegged at approximately $10,000. The school’s principal was on hand, as were two members of the Little Rock Nine.
“It’s important that we know about where we’ve been in this country,” Nichols said. “We know how hard it was to achieve certain freedoms and certain things.”
“Loving” was up for the Palme D’or at the Cannes Film Festival, and some experts believe Nichols and the movie’s two stars, Edgerton and Ruth Negga, could contend for acting honors at the Academy Awards, as well.
Nichols tries to take the early acclaim in stride.
“You know, I’ve made five films now,” he said, “and that means I’ve made four films that haven’t been in the awards conversations.”
At the same time, he knows the increased attention can help him accomplish his mission.
“I understand that if we stay in this awards conversation just a little bit longer, hopefully people will hear about the film. Hopefully they’ll go out and see it, hopefully they’ll think it’s worthy of their time, and if that happens, then more people will learn and Richard and Mildred Loving, and that’s what we’re doing here. So if being in that conversation benefits that, then I’m all for it.”
Central High students will get their own private screening of the film Tuesday morning. It will be available in theaters in Arkansas beginning Friday.