This is Fresh Air. I'm Dave Davies and for Terry Gross. For generations, the story of Emmett Till's

lynching was told as a cautionary tale that starts with an image of Till's mutilated body in an

open casket. The 14-year-old who was from Chicago was murdered in 1955 for allegedly flirting

with a white woman while visiting family in Mississippi. Sixty-seven years later, a new movie

tells the story of Emmett Till through the lens of his mother, Mamie Till Mowgli. Till was

co-written and directed by Chenoyah Choukou, who makes Emmett Till's mother the protagonist,

illustrating how her decisions became a catalyst for the Civil Rights movement. Choukou sat down to

talk about the movie and her career with guest interviewer and host of the podcast Truth Be Told,

telling you mostly. Like most black people in America, Chenoyah Choukou grew up learning about the story of

Emmett Till. But what she and fewer people knew was the journey of Emmett's mother, Mamie Till Mowgli,

before and after her son was lynched. In the summer of 1955, 14-year-old Emmett Till took the

train from his hometown of Chicago to Mississippi to spend a few weeks with relatives. Before leaving,

his mother, Mamie, gives him a set of directions on how to behave while down south. Here's a clip of

Mamie played by Danielle Deadwiler, talking to Emmett, played by Jalen Hall, who she calls by his

nickname, Bo. Alright, now you're going to miss your train. Bo, when you get down there. Oh, not again, Mama. I've

already been in Mississippi. Only one time before and you started a fight with another little boy. He was

picking on me. You're in the right to stand up for yourself, but that's not what I'm talking about.

They have a different set of rules for knee-grows down there. Are you listening? Yes.

You have to be extra careful with white people. You can't risk looking at them the wrong way. I know.

Oh, boom. Be small down there. That was a clip from the new movie Till, Co-written and Directed by

Chenoya Chuku. This is Chuku's third film. She was the writer and director of Alaska Land and the

2019 film Climancy, a movie about the unraveling of a prison warden struggling with the emotional

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