John Legend’s Get Lifted Boards Segregated Proms Docu

EXCLUSIVE: He’s got projects with HBO and with Showtime and now the Grammy winner is adding the Executive Producer role for Southern Rites to the list. John Legend, his Get Lifted Film Co. partner Mike Jackson and his manager Atom Factory’s Troy Carter will serve as EPs on the documentary about the legacy of segregated proms and a racially charged murder trial in Georgia’s Montgomery County. Get Lifted brought financing to see the docu, which is now in post-production, completed. They intend to take it out to festivals once Southern Rites is finished. The directorial debut by photographer Gillian Laub is based on her study of the prom dances at the local High School. Though the south-central Georgia school was integrated in 1971, the proms remained separated along racial lines for years afterwards. Now in post-production, the film tracks the divide that develops in the community as an older white man in put on trial for killing a younger African-American male. This is all going on against the backdrop of the recently integrated proms and a campaign to election the area’s first black Sheriff. Laub herself becomes part of the story for her role in focusing attention on the town through her photographs. As well as Legend, Jackson and Carter as EPs, Laub is a producer on the docu along with writer Josh Alexander. Ty Stiklorius will also serve as a Co-Executive Producer for Get Lifted. The deal was negotiated by lawyers Nina Shaw and Laurie Megery of Del, Shaw, Moonves, Tanaka, Finklestein and Lezcano on behalf of Get Lifted Film Co. and Jonathan Gray of Gray, Krauss, Strattford and Des Rochers on behalf of the filmmakers.