TONTITOWN, Ark. — "Cries from the Cotton Field," a full-length documentary centering around the struggle of the Italian immigrants who moved from Rome to the Arkansas River Delta, and eventually to Tontitown, was released for the first time to festival audiences on May 8.
The documentary, produced by Larry Foley, a professor at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, includes modern footage and interviews from both locals and experts in Rome.
Foley, an award-winning former TV reporter and producer with deep roots in the area, was granted a fellowship from the U of A to travel abroad to tackle the story.
"I thought, well, maybe I can take these folks back to their roots," said Foley.
According to the documentary's website, the story began when a post-civil-war Arkansas plantation owner made a bargain with the mayor of Rome to immigrate able-bodied Italian workers who were promised land as sharecroppers.
"Dozens of families, desperate for jobs, were recruited, blessed by the pope, and sent to America," the website reads. "Growing and picking cotton at the plantation in the Mississippi River Delta was hot, backbreaking, unhealthy work" that left 125 dead from malaria and poor sanitation.
The story then goes on to cover the immigrants' migration to the Ozarks, spurred by the plantation's former priest, where they grew apples, peaches, and the grapes that Tontitown is now known for.
Upon his return from Italy, Foley had six interviews in the tank, two of which he had to translate from Italian.
Foley emphasized the importance of not only covering the story— but covering it right. "It's challenging when a story takes place around the early 1900s. We dug for as many photos as we could just to make sure we have the story and the visuals to go with it."
Thankfully, Foley had help from his editor Ed Eaves, whom he worked with in the 70s when Eaves was a photojournalist and Foley was a reporter. "It's been a great joy for me to be able to work on a project from beginning to end with Ed. It just seems like a full-circle kinda moment. We're back together, like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid."
The film opened to festival audiences on May 8, and Foley said he is exploring streaming avenues before planning to translate the entire documentary into Italian.
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