<P> DreamWorks Pictures acquired the screen rights to Stockett's novel in March 2010 and quickly commissioned the film into production with Chris Columbus, Michael Barnathan, and Brunson Green as producers . The film's casting began later that month, with principal photography following four months after in Mississippi . </P> <P> Touchstone Pictures released The Help worldwide, with a general theatrical release in North America on August 10, 2011 . The film was a critical and commercial success, receiving positive reviews and grossing $216 million in worldwide box office . The Help received four Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Best Actress for Davis, and Best Supporting Actress for both Chastain and Spencer, with the latter winning the award . The film also won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture . </P> <P> In 1963, Aibileen Clark is an African - American maid in Jackson, Mississippi, and in intermittent voice overs she tells her "career" story to the aspiring writer Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan, a recent graduate of Ole Miss and a friend of Aibileen's employer and fellow socialite Elizabeth Leefolt . Aibileen cares for the Leefolt's daughter, Mae Mobley, whom Elizabeth neglects . Aibileen's best friend is the plain - spoken Minny Jackson, who works for Mrs. Walters, the mother of Hilly Holbrook, the leader of the women's socialite group . </P> <P> Skeeter is uncomfortable with the racist attitudes of her socialite friends towards their maids . She is shocked when Hilly forwards a letter to the Home Sanitation Initiative to install separate bathrooms for the help . Skeeter later learns that her mother Charlotte fired her childhood maid Constantine for unknown reasons . </P>

Who did aibileen work for in the help