Tyler Yarbrough didn’t see Sinners once, but twice.
The film, which has made more than $200 million at the box office, is authentically Mississippi Delta through and through, he said. From the Chinese Delta history to the Black businesses, residents say director and filmmaker Ryan Coogler, who has Mississippi roots, did his homework.
On both visits to the movies, Yarbrough, who is from Clarksdale, Mississippi, had to drive nearly 80 miles to see the film, a luxury not afforded to many. There’s limited public transportation in the area and many lack the financial resources to afford a car in the majority Black town of 14,000 where the median income is $35,000.
There’s no active movie theater in the small town.
The 26-year-old community activist jumped into action.
He started a petition in hopes of hosting a public screening and extending an invitation to Coogler, the cast, and the creative team “to walk the streets your vision reimagined, to meet the people whose real stories echo through every frame, and to experience firsthand the living, breathing legacy that inspired your work and the people who are sustaining and reimagining its future.”
In the week since Yarbrough started the petition, more than 5,500 people have signed it.