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I’m writing from Witherspoon Hall, Room 126.
My “Intro to Film” class has a guest speaker today, an Arkansas Tech alumnus who’s gone off and made herself a name in Hollywood.
Jayme Lemons.
None of the students have heard of her. I hadn’t heard of her until last year when she reached out and we set up a meeting at Fat Daddy’s BBQ in downtown Russellville.
Little did I know, I was about to be in rare air.
Jayme Lemons talks with Pete Souza for Arkansas Tech University film class (credit Eli Cranor) |
A producer by trade, Jayme runs “Jaywalker Pictures” with Laura Dern. Their animated short film, “If Anything Happens I Love You,” won an Oscar in 2021. To top it all off, Jayme is an Arkansawyer, through and through.
Raised in Waldron, Jayme now splits time between L.A. and Arkansas, where she manages the production company via daily Zoom calls, and in her spare time, cheers on the Hogs.
Jayme’s sitting on a desk now, rocking a pair of Jordans as she tells the students she’s not the only guest speaker on the docket today. Through the magic of technology (and Jayme’s immense Hollywood Rolodex), Pete Souza, former chief official White House photographer, appears on Room 126’s projection screen.
I gaze out into the class, but the lights are low, and it’s hard to read their expressions.
My students are familiar with Pete because we watched a documentary called “The Way I See It,” which chronicles his time as Ronald Regan’s and Barack Obama’s presidential photographer. Jayme served as the producer for the documentary, hence the reason we watched it, but let’s just say it wasn’t the most popular film we’ve viewed this semester.
These days, politics, in any shape or form, are hard to discuss in public. Even a film class where the focus was on cinematography and not partisanship wasn't free of the awkward tension, as I can attest.
Jayme’s getting a full dose of it now as she leads Pete through what could’ve easily turned into a minefield presentation, but didn’t thanks to her guiding hand. Thirty minutes later, Pete disappears from the screen, the lights come on, and the class is still flat.
I can feel it, and Jayme can too.
Then a thought hits me. These students were nine, ten, eleven years old when Barack Obama was last in office. They weren't around for President Reagan at all. They didn’t even know what the word “politics” meant back when Pete Souza was snapping candid White House shots.
I interrupt the presentation to make this point, but the class still doesn’t respond, not until Jayme tells adds: “It doesn’t have to be this way.”
From there, she explains the reason she wanted to produce Pete’s documentary, the similarities between President Reagan and President Obama, citing how both men shared a common decency that seems to be lacking in politics today.
Jayme drives her point home by saying, “You guys can change it. You’re the next generation. That’s why I wanted you to watch the documentary. That’s all…”
I won’t lie to you and say Jayme’s rousing speech got a standing ovation. It barely elicited much of a reaction at all, but the tension was gone. I could feel it evaporate. Jayme had finally made it clear we weren’t talking party lines; we were talking about the future, and the students understood that.
What really got their attention, though, was when Jayme launched into her own story, how a girl from Waldron, Arkansas, who’d sat in that same classroom, went on to make movies that mattered.
By the time that story was over, Jayme had every student's undivided attention.
| Books authored by Eli Cranor |
Broiler
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The troubles of two desperate families—one white, one Mexican American—converge rest in the ruthless underworld of an Arkansas chicken processing plant in this new thriller from the award-winning author of DON’T KNOW TOUGH.
Gabriela Menchaca and Edwin Saucedo are hardworking, undocumented employees at the Detmer Foods chicken plant in Springdale, Arkansas, just a stone’s throw away from the trailer park where they’ve lived together for seven years. While dealing with personal tragedies of their own, the young couple endures the brutal, dehumanizing conditions at the plant in exchange for barebones pay.
When the plant manager, Luke Jackson, fires Edwin to set an example for the rest of the workers—and to show the higher-ups that he’s ready for a major promotion—Edwin is determined to get revenge on Luke and his wife, Mimi, a new mother who stays at home with her six-month-old son. Edwin’s impulsive action sets in motion a devastating chain of events that illuminates the deeply entrenched power dynamics between those who revel at the top and those who toil at the bottom.
From the nationally bestselling and Edgar Award–winning author of Don’t Know Tough and Ozark Dogs comes another edge-of-your-seat noir thriller that exposes the dark, bloody heart of life on the margins in the American South and the bleak underside of a bygone American Dream. |
Don't Know Tough
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In Denton, Arkansas, the fate of the high school football team rests on the shoulders of Billy Lowe, a volatile but talented running back. Billy comes from an extremely troubled home: a trailer park where he is terrorized by his mother’s abusive boyfriend. Billy takes out his anger on the field, but when his savagery crosses a line, he faces suspension.
Without Billy Lowe, the Denton Pirates can kiss their playoff bid goodbye. But the head coach, Trent Powers, who just moved from California with his wife and two children for this job, has more than just his paycheck riding on Billy’s bad behavior. As a born-again Christian, Trent feels a divine calling to save Billy—save him from his circumstances, and save his soul.
Then Billy’s abuser is found murdered in the Lowe family trailer, and all evidence points toward Billy. Now nothing can stop an explosive chain of violence that could tear the whole town apart on the eve of the playoffs. |
Ozark Dogs
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Commissions earned
In this Southern thriller, two families grapple with the aftermath of a murder in their small Arkansas town.
After his son is convicted of capital murder, Vietnam War veteran Jeremiah Fitzjurls takes over the care of his granddaughter, Joanna, raising her with as much warmth as can be found in an Ozark junkyard outfitted to be an armory. He teaches her how to shoot and fight, but there is not enough training in the world to protect her when the dreaded Ledfords, notorious meth dealers and fanatical white supremacists, come to collect on Joanna as payment for a long-overdue blood debt.
Headed by rancorous patriarch Bunn and smooth-talking, erudite Evail, the Ledfords have never forgotten what the Fitzjurls family did to them, and they will not be satisfied until they have taken an eye for an eye. As they seek revenge, and as Jeremiah desperately searches for his granddaughter, their narratives collide in this immersive story about family and how far some will go to honor, defend—or in some cases, destroy it. |
| Previous columns: |
• Writing from Bed
• Writing from Witherspoon Hall
• Writing From: Coco
• Writing from the Beach
• Writing From: Crooked Creek
• Writing from a Nursing Home
• Writing from a Firework Tent
• Writing from a Boat
• Writing from the Stars
• Writing from the Pool
• Writing from the Kitchen
• Writing from Summer
• Writing from Kindergarten
• Writing from Mom
• Writing from a Plane
• Writing from Home
• My second novel’s publication
• A New Marriage Milestone
• An Invitation to the Party
• Writing from a Thunderstorm
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• Writing from the morning of my thirty-fifth year
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• Writing on the day of the college football National Championship
• Writing from the space between breaths
• Writing from 2022
• Writing from the glow of a plastic Christmas tree
• Writing on a rollercoaster of triumph and disaster
• Writing from the drop-off line at my daughter’s elementary school
• Writing with Thanksgiving on my mind
• Writing from the crowd before the start of a Shovels & Rope show
• Writing from the depths of a post-book-festival hangover
• Writing from the Ron Robinson Theatre
• Writing to you on Halloween Eve
• Writing from my bed on a Saturday morning
• Writing from my office with two darts clenched in my left hand
• Writing from the shade of my favorite tree
• Writing from my desk on a Tuesday morning
• Writing from a pirate ship
• Writing from the airport
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• I'm writing from the water
• Writing from my wife's Honda Pilot
• Writing from my office |
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