The Southern Foodways Alliance, an institute of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, documents, studies, and celebrates the diverse food cultures of the changing American South. (To learn more about our work, visit southernfoodways.org.)

Over the last decade, the SFA has collected more than 500 oral histories and produced more than 30 films. We have trained our lenses on North Carolina pitmasters and Louisiana bartenders. We’ve captured the stories of Alabama shrimpers and Arkansas caviar fishermen. We’ve chronicled the work of Georgia cattlemen and Tennessee fried chicken cooks.

We have not, however, made a long-form documentary, aimed at chronicling the depth and breadth of Southern food culture. Until now. Directed by Joe York and produced by John T. Edge and Andy Harper, PRIDE & JOY is that film.

In this hour-long, ready-to-air documentary, we focus on the tradition-bearers of Southern food culture. We present intimate portraits of people and places while asking important questions about our common culture:

* What do foodways tell us about who we are as Southerners?

* How and why do traditional foodways endure?

* As the South’s ethnic and racial makeup shifts, how do regional foodways change?

PRIDE & JOY stands not as the final word on Southern food, but as an introduction to the ways in foodways offers insights on the region’s complex history and bright future.

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