GLENDORA: A Powerful Documentary About Life and Resilience in the Mississippi Delta

World Premiere at Dances With Films NY this week!

Isabelle Armand & Glendora Collaborative’s powerful documentary GLENDORA will have its World Premiere at Dances With Films NY this Friday, January 16th at Regal Union Square in New York City. 

In the heart of the Mississippi Delta,  the village of Glendora may seem quiet and remote. But beneath its stillness lies a vibrant, tightly knit African American community whose strength, resilience, and creativity thrive despite chronic scarcity. GLENDORA  is the result of five years of close collaboration between filmmaker and townspeople—an intimate portrait of life where economic fragility meets profound cultural wealth. 

Resilience in Action

Told through the voices of multiple generations, the film weaves personal testimonies with daily rituals—birthdays, graduations, weddings, funerals— capturing the rhythm of a town that continuously rises above its circumstances. As the Mississippi landscape shifts, so do the stories, revealing both the universality of human experience and the distinct textures of rural Southern life.

A Shared Portrait: The Power of Radical Collaboration

More than a place, GLENDORA reflects a larger American history shaped by racial injustice, economic neglect, and structural inequality. The film underscores the community’s efforts to stay connected and shape its future amid ongoing challenges.

GLENDORA is a film made with, and by the people who live there. It amplifies voices too often unheard, offering a powerful story of culture, resilience, creativity, and collective memory from a town long overlooked—but not easily forgotten.

Isabelle Armand is a New York–based documentary photographer and filmmaker whose work interweaves photography, film, and oral testimonies to explore the complex layers of people whose histories, lives, and potential have long been undervalued. Her acclaimed book Levon and Kennedy: Mississippi Innocence Project (powerHouse Books, 2018), which documents the  wrongful convictions of two men, has received wide recognition. Her images are held in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, Akron Art Museum, and Portland Museum of Art. Armand’s work has been featured in The New York Times, Art in  America, The Economist, The Daily Beast, and others. She recently completed her first feature documentary, Glendora, and is currently editing a photo book by the same title.

The cast

Members of the cast are: Florida B. Smith, Blacmane Hayes, Jefferey “Butchy” Rainey, Columbus McKinley, Partners in Development- aka PID, James “Pound” Willis, Curtis “Big Bull” Pittman, Shinectra “Nic” Howard and Michael “Baybay” Hayes.

Production team

The production team includes: Isabelle Armand (Writer/Director/Cinematographer/Sound/Producer), Annie Sundberg (Consulting Producer), Tamiris Lourenco (Editor & Co-Writer), Jordana Berg (Consulting Editor), Sergio Bloch (Consulting Editor), Jefferey “Butchy” Rainey (Sound Track Designer), Tom Paul /SOM VIVO (Supervising Sound Designer and Re-Recording Mixer), Jesse Peterson (Sound Designer & Sound FX Editor), Camille Laser Boswell (Coordinating Producer), Alex Laviola / CUT & MEASURE, (Post-Production Producer), Cedric Von Niederhausern (Colorist), David Gauff (Online Editor) and Mary Grace Duffy (Post Production Coordinator).

Funding for GLENDORA was provided by La Fondation Cuvelier, Andrea and Guillaume Cuvelier, and The Joan Nichols Fund, Andrea Cuvelier and Marguerite Buttrick.

Official Screening at Dances With Films NY on Friday, January 16 at 4:45PM at Regal Union Square (850 Broadway, New York, NY 10003) Running time 74 minutes.

@isabellearmandphoto @DancesWithFilms @glendora_the_film #DWFNY2026

*Special thanks to Emma Griffiths (EG PR) for press release and promotional images.