Jonathan P. Smith

Mississippi native Jonathan P. Smith grew up listening to his parents and grandparents tell stories about life before electricity, telephones, and automobiles in rural Mississippi, which began his lifelong love of history and storytelling. His directorial work has featured at film festivals such as the Indie Grits Film Festival and Oxford Film Festival. His interest in telling actuality-based stories first took shape through a career in archaeology, which merged with a life-long love of photography and image-based stories to lead him to documentary filmmaking. He graduated from the University of Mississippi with a BA in anthropology, East Carolina University with a MA in anthropology, then completed the MFA program in Documentary Expression through the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi.