The Help is set in Jackson, Mississippi, in the 1960s, at the height of the Civil Rights Movement. Racial tension is high, and at the core of everything going on in this town. The Black women who are maids in that town not only clean the houses of their bosses, but they practically raise their children. Yet, they’re only seen as “HELP” and treated poorly and accordingly. One young woman in the town (Skeeter) gets the idea to write the stories of these women, because of her positive experience with the black woman who helped raise her.

Private screening for USA Film Festival Patrons on July 20th. Opens in theaters nationwide on August 10.