Clarksdale

Over several days in Clarksdale, Mississippi — the birthplace of the blues — a team of documentary makers, technologists, and community members convened with local partners to build a living narrative of this place. We gathered footage from musicians, elders, youth, church members, and storied venues across the Delta.

The goal was simple and ambitious: not to document the blues as history, but to let the people who carry it speak for themselves. Interviews happened on street corners, in juke joints, in the Delta Blues Museum, at the crossroads. Relationships were built as much as recordings were made.

This environment is built around the idea of layers of place — the belief that the best way to experience a community digitally is to be able to navigate the stories that make it what it is. Not a tour. Not a slideshow. Place-based storytelling in the digital age.

You are not watching a documentary about Clarksdale. You are standing inside one.

Built as a single-file web experience using immersive 360° video and photography captured with a dedicated equirectangular camera rig. The environment runs on Three.js with custom shader materials for the musician cutout effects in the Juke Joint.

This wouldn't have been possible without the generosity of the following people and the Clarksdale community that welcomed us in.