Look Away Look Away

On the surface, Look Away, Look Away is the story of the five-year battle over the state flag of Mississippi, the last of the original Confederacy to still have the Rebel flag in its design – a fact that warmed the hearts of many white Mississippians, and pissed off most of their African-American and progressive white neighbors.

​The flag issue came to a head in 2015 when Dylann Roof murdered nine black churchgoers in South Carolina, and investigators discovered a racist manifesto and photos of Roof posing with Confederate flags.

The backlash against symbols of Southern heritage was swift. South Carolina removed a large Confederate flag from the state house grounds, NASCAR asked fans not to bring Confederate flags to races, and Walmart, a mainstay of southern retail, stopped selling Confederate-themed merchandise in its stores.

But one state remained steadfast in its commitment to this symbol of the Confederacy: Mississippi was the last state of the original Confederacy to still include the Rebel flag within its official state flag.

Citizens were fiercely divided.

Shot over the course of five years, Look Away, Look Away captures the fierce battle to remove the Mississippi state flag, and sheds light on how race, heritage, and long-simmering grievances over the Civil War shapes our sense of who we are as Americans.