This eye-opening historical drama sheds much needed light on a tragic yet inspiring chapter of the American civil rights movement, by focusing on ordinary people who found extraordinary courage,
The director Eugene Jarecki helps modern audiences connect with the very real struggles and sacrifices of the 1964 Freedom Summer campaign.
We feel personally invested in the student volunteers braving risks to their safety to register Black voters in Mississippi.
And we ache at the terror wrought by groups like the KKK, whose hatred could not overcome the rising moral tide.
Most powerfully, the film captures how everyday kindness and compassion across racial lines can help change hearts, minds and the course of history for the better.
While never glorifying or sensationalizing violence, "Mississippi Burning" pulls no punches depicting the dangers activists faced.
This makes their mission of nonviolent social change through grassroots organizing all the more striking.
The film is a sobering reminder that freedoms so often taken for granted today were earned through struggle and sacrifice.
It inspires us to carry forward the work of justice and bring light to dark corners where it is still needed. All in all, a seminal and moving picture.