A fond farewell for DNWA

It is fitting that the last stop on the tour was at the majestic Imperial Theater in Augusta, GA. This 853 seat theater originally opened in 1918 serving as a vaudeville and silent film theater complete with a Wurlitzer organ before it made the transition into “talkies.” It is a beautiful multi level space ornately decorated after the Imperial in New York, but with touches of southern charm.

For me the most poignant moment of my Imperial tour was when I asked what the theatre was like in under Jim Crow segregation. The Imperial director got a knowing gleam in his eye and suggested the projectionist might take me up the outside entrance.

Theaters like all other institutions in the south were segregated until the late 1960’s, the Imperial was no different. I was taken outside to a separate entrance off a side ally way, and led up a set of broad stairs. This entrance long ago closed to visitors, was like stepping through a porthole back in time. As we climbed higher through the thick musty air I could not help but put myself in the steps of those who had been forced by law to come up this staircase to see a movie. Though I must say the black entrance like the rest of the Imperial was quite nice, complete with it’s own ticket window and upstairs bathroom (something rare in those days), it was still a painful reminder of the reality of our recent past. The balcony was the only place African Americans were allowed to see a movie separated from the white audience by a short wall whose remnants can still be seen today.

When we came back to the main lobby after our trip through history, it was a buzz with audience members coming to see the movie. Black, white, young, old all took their seats on the ground floor, and this I think is a metaphor for the best of race relations today and what the civil rights movement achieved. Here we all were, together but with different life experience, yet willing to come, find common ground, exchange ideas all under the watchful shadow of our past, always there to remind us how close we still are to our unjust history.

The screening was like all the others on the tour, wonderful.

Now that I am back in Brooklyn on to the hustle of work and life, I look back with fondness on my time with the tour. It was my goal to reconnect with the south, and amidst the rebel flags, the Waffle Houses, and the increasingly crowed highways, I found many communities moving forward trying to create the beloved community that Dr. King always envisioned. Though we may still have a long way to go, I am reminded that we have come a long way.

dear southern arts foundation,

i'm on a plane headed back to LA...can you please find a way to extend my tour immediately? perhaps through some sort of ponzi scheme or black market organ sales? or a combination of both? i don't want it to end!!

after jackson, MS, the home stretch of my tour took me to clemson university in clemson, SC. i met up with aga, the screening's organizer, and jeff, her fiance, and they took me out for tasty, tasty bbq ribs... oh how i will miss you, Southern Cuisine...

the screening that night was one of the best attended on the whole tour, which was impressive since we were apparently competing with some sort of christian revival just upstairs. almost the entire crowd stuck around for the q&a and asked some interesting questions. clemson university: takin' it over in the '09!

aga and jeff thanked me and suggested they might even try to have me back at clemson for future events, which i told them i'd do in a heartbeat. they turned in for the night but turned me over to aga's colleague, johnathan, and jessica, one of her students, and they took me to a local bar, where we met up with a handful of other people who had been at the screening. we talked about johnathan's involvement in the late-'80s boston punk scene and jessica's filmmaking aspirations and one of the other student's troubles with the police and around midnight johnathan gave me a ride back to my hotel. the next morning i headed to western carolina university in cullowhee, NC, stopping for lunch along the way.

dear waffle house,

look...we've had some good times...but this is just not a healthy relationship. when we don't see each other for a while, we get excited and we have a lot of fun together, but it always quickly turns into...regret... i think we need to spend some time apart. it's for the best...

the drive to cullowhee was probably the most scenic of the whole tour. i took smaller roads through the mountains and passed by some quaint little towns and gorgeous waterfalls along the way. upon arriving at western carolina university, i met up with my local contact, lori davis, who showed me to the university's guest house. pretty cool: i'd have a whole house to myself for the evening! one with paisleys on the wallpaper and everything...

a warning to my fellow southern circuit filmmakers, though: lori davis is a cauldron of LIES! believe not a word she says, for it will spell your doom.

actually, she was a really wonderful host and a lot of fun to talk to and hang out with. but i have to give her shit... it started at the guest house: she had picked up the wrong key. so we had to drive back down to campus to get the right one. then she told me they had set up a wi-fi connection at the house for me to use...but when i tried to connect it wouldn't work. then at dinner, she and professor elizabeth heffelfinger (also in charge of the screening, also a wonderful host, and also a fan of Ultravox!) told me not to expect too many students at the screening, and yet the theater was packed and i even sold out of the remaining box sets i had with me afterwards!

so clearly nothing lori davis says can ever be trusted...

kidding aside, the screening was a very memorable one, with a great q&a afterwards and a post-screening reception with coffee and cookies and lots of people not only buying box sets but also requesting autographs and photos with me, which was immensely flattering.

i helped lori clean up after the reception and she offered to take me out on the town afterwards. the only problem is there isn't much of a "town" out on which to be taken in cullowhee, so she suggested driving to nearby asheville, which she claimed was only 40 minutes away.

and this is where my joke about lori davis being a huge liar was born.

asheville is, in fact, OVER ONE HOUR away. but somehow lori had never clocked it, despite the fact that she commutes between asheville and cullowhee each day. by the time i realized her error in distance judgement, we were already past the point of no return, so we continued on and i gave her a mountain of grief upon our arrival, which she took very good-naturedly. she was incredibly embarrassed and i told her i would blog all about it. she begged me not to, but THE TRUTH MUST BE TOLD, LORI!

despite the inconvenience, i was glad i got a chance to check out asheville a bit. lots of independent shops and clean streets and stuff to see. but since the drive took so long and since i had to get some sleep for my long drive the next day, we really only had time for a quick walk around town and one drink and then i headed all the way back to cullowhee.

the next day i drove past asheville (again) on my way to durham, NC and the Duke University Center for Documentary Studies. there i met professor lynn mcknight, who welcomed me and drew a map of the surrounding area so i could check it out in the remaining couple of hours before the screening. i didn't have time to see much, but i zipped through campus and had my final, genuine southern meal at nearby Bullock's BBQ. i had my first taste of brunswick stew, my first taste of carolina bbq, my first piece of fried chicken on the whole trip, and my first experience with all-you-can-eat complimentary hush puppies! (upon returning home i would discover that i had gained about 4.5 pounds on this trip. totally worth it...)

i returned to the CDS for a nice pre-screening reception on the building's porch and we screened the film to a crowd of just over a dozen people who stuck around for a pleasantly lengthy q&a. i wanted to make the most of my last night on the road, so mark, the projectionist, offered to show me around town and guided me to a nearby bar. we sat on the patio and talked about the south and los angeles and filmmaking and such and he checked out after one drink. i decided to stick around and thankfully happened upon some other people that i had met at the screening and the reception and ended up hanging out and dancing to a mix of michael jackson's greatest hits, reggae, and '90s hip hop until closing time. definitely a great way to say farewell.

you know a tour is the perfect length when you're caught between equal feelings of wanting to go home and wanting to stay on the road...i boarded my flight home with a strange balance of sadness and relief. and exhaustion, of course, from only getting 4 hours of sleep...

the southern circuit tour was truly an amazing experience and something that i hope to be a part of again in the future. it was educational, entertaining, exciting, humbling, inspiring, and tasty. i want more of all of it.

dear everyone who organized the tour, organized the screenings, fed me, sheltered me, gave me tours, loaned me umbrellas, showed me record stores, bought me drinks, changed my tires, invited me to their classrooms, drew me maps, lied to me about the location of asheville, danced with me, attended the screenings, asked me questions, and generally showed me a fucking awesome time on the road,

thank you all.

sincerely,
jeff

Southern Circuit Welcomes "Pants on Fire" with Colin Campbell, Nicolette DiMaggio and Mercedes Blackehart

Southern Arts Federation welcomes Director Colin Campbell, Production Designer Nicolette DiMaggio and Art Director Mercedes Blackehart with their feature-length comedy, "Pants On Fire," about an actor struggling to make it in Hollywood. "Pants on Fire" will be on the 2009-2010 Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers beginning Wednesday, September 30, at Manship Theatre in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and concluding on Sunday, October 11, at The Arts Council, Inc. in Stuart, Florida. Along the way, the film will also screen in Ocean Springs, MS; Clarksville, TN; Greenville, SC; Auburn, AL; Augusta, GA; Orangeburg, SC; and Jacksonville, FL.

More about Colin Campbell, "Pants on Fire" and the tour schedule

Web site for "Pants on Fire"

Audio interview with Colin Campbell

as robert frost said via ponyboy, nothing gold can stay. so it could be construed as poetic that after an extremely smooth tour thus far, i woke up in mobile with a flat tire.

the rental car company said they could either charge me $76 to come pick me up, or they'd trade in the car for no charge if i could get it to the airport rental office. no sweat: it was a slow leak, i figured i could probably just fill it up with air and drive it 10 miles before it flattened again.

but the air hose at the gas station was broken.

okay, fine: time to change a tire. it's something i've learned to do and have seen done quite a few times, but something i've never actually done. i always figured there would come a time when i'd be stranded somewhere and that would be my moment to put theory into practice, and now here i was. so i opened the trunk and started digging out the donut.

but just then, a guy in coveralls stopped me and said he'd change the tire if i could spare a few bucks for him. it seemed like he needed the cash a bit more than i needed to get in touch with my manhood, so i agreed and he got to work. he was a local dock worker who happened to be at the gas station and he said that when he saw me he said to himself "this guy's not used to getting his hands dirty." ouch. but fair enough. i told him that i'd never changed a tire and he said "god sent you an angel!" we laughed about it, but later i wondered why god bothered to flatten my tire in the first place...

i switched cars at the local airport with relatively little hassle and finally got on the road to montgomery, grabbing an absolutely perfect Waffle House breakfast on the way. oh, Waffle House...how i've missed you...i'm sorry i haven't been in touch...it's just...well, you know how life goes sometimes...

i arrived at the Lattice Inn B&B, which was adorable, and met the proprietor, Jim, who was equally adorable. after dropping my bags, i headed to the Capri Theater to meet martin, the theater manager in charge of that night's screening. time was tight due to the tire snafu, but he took me out for a pleasant dinner and we talked about his history running the theater for the past 20-odd years and his experience with the punk scene and the Great Capri Punk Raid of the late '80s, in which 30 cops were dispatched to break up a punk show being held at the theater.

the screening only drew a dozen people, but i considered that a victory for an indie punk documentary on a monday night in montgomery, alabama. and the next day, martin told me that the film outdrew new mainstream releases like Sorority Row, The Final Destination, Jennifer's Body, and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs at the other theaters around town on the same night, so i guess it was even more of a victory than i realized! Tyler Perry's new movie still crushed us, though... so now i have a new nemesis...

most of the southern circuit filmmakers seem to blog about how they get sick of watching their film over and over again, but that hasn't happened to me yet. sure, i might not have opted to watch the film this many times in a row on my own, but watching it with an audience is always interesting. thankfully, the reactions have been consistent, with the crowds generally responding to the same parts the same way. it's been great to confirm that most of the filmmaking choices my co-producer ryan and i made were successful ones, but it's also been educational to hear laughs at unexpected points, and to discover moments that don't work as well as we would've hoped. next time we'll have to do the southern circuit tour BEFORE we release the finished film.

this time, as the film started, martin invited me back to his office to show me news clippings about the Capri Punk Raid, and i figured that the laughs or gasps from such a small audience would be barely audible in such a big theater, so i sat out the screening for the first time. might not have been the best choice as a glitch with the DVD left the theater in blackness for 5 straight minutes or so and it took a second for martin and i to realize what was going on, but it was still fun to sit for a while and chat with martin about films and politics and the south. and during the q&a afterwards i told the crowd that the extended blackness was an artistic choice to symbolize the void felt by members of the early punk scene when shows were being shut down... they were a great group and most of them stuck around afterwards to ask questions, buy dvds, and say hello and thanks personally. quality over quantity!

all of the people i've met on the road have been extremely warm and generous and wonderful to talk to, but out of everyone so far martin reminded me the most of myself. i like to think of myself as a nice fellow, but i also have a propensity for cynicism and sarcasm, and some might say i'm hyper critical about movies and music and other things. turns out that martin hates stuff, too! he also comes from a punk background, and we both seem to share a tendency for rubbing people the wrong way and getting a kick out of it.

the morning after the screening, martin took me on quite possibly the snarkiest historical tour of montgomery possible. it was awesome: i learned all about the dirty politics, racism, and religious fundamentalism behind the sights we visited, including the capitol building, the dexter avenue church where MLK used to preach, hank williams' grave, the courthouse, the original white house of the confederacy, the site where rosa parks boarded that fateful bus, the f. scott/zelda fitzgerald house, and the nearby fountain that zelda fitzgerald got drunk and jumped into.

we ended the tour at a deliciously authentic bbq place called Sam's that still serves "Freedom Fries" (come on, sam...seriously??) and several thousand calories later, i was headed for jackson, MS. keeping with the theme of things not going so smoothly, my GPS decided to take me on a more "fun" route... taking me many, many miles out of the way (theoretically in an attempt to keep me on major highways rather than going the direct route on smaller roads). the silver lining is that my new route would send me through tuscaloosa, which is where george wallace stood in front of the door of the University of Alabama's Foster Auditorium to protest desegregation, which i was excited to have a chance to see.

aside from my re-routing, i also hit a dead-stop traffic jam just a mile or so from the university exit, so that gummed up the works as well. i pulled off the highway, found the auditorium, snapped a quick photo, and found a detour to get around the crazy traffic. after all that, i was really running late...i would need to speed the whole way to make it in time.

and that's when the rain started...

heavy sheets of blinding alabama rain caused everyone on the freeway to slow down to at least 40 mph for a while. it let up here and there, but it pretty much poured for the remainder of the drive.

somehow, i made it to millsaps college in jackson with a few minutes to spare before the screening...but then i couldn't get in touch with melissa, my local contact. after some frantic driving and calling and asking around, i managed to find the screening room JUST before the movie was scheduled to start. melissa introduced me and i offered an out-of-breath intro to the film.

afterwards i fielded a few questions and on their way out a number of the students made it a point to thank me for coming. melissa took me out for a late dinner and i tasted fried green tomatoes for the first time. (everyone who knows how good those things are and didn't bother to tell me is a huge jerk)

abigail, one of the PhD students (or faculty...or something...i don't understand how colleges work) who was at the screening invited me for drinks with her and her boyfriend and some other PhD people, so i met up with them after dinner at an irish pub. nothing terribly exciting, but some great conversation with some really great people. enough to make me hope that i end up in jackson, mississippi again at some point in my life so we can all hang out some more.

that's generally been a theme of this whole trip: great people who live very far from where i do that i hope i see again at some point. it's making me want to start working on another movie immediately so i have a shot at getting back on the southern circuit as soon as possible!

but for now i'll just keep enjoying it while it lasts...

DNWA in Florida…

Driving back into St. Augustine (where I went to college and then after where I spent 5 years making DNWA) was a surreal experience. I was confronted with the hope and dreams of the Civil Rights Movement that took place here and the sometimes painful reality of the situation forty years later. I could not help but see the parallels to independent filmmaking.

Making DNWA was a total act of love requiring years of sacrifice relying on coalitions with diverse people, an ambitious hope built on dreams and a desire to change the world. I think may filmmakers working on issues of human rights and social justice want to make films that can change the world, but sometimes the painful reality of the process can make one feel like no matter how much is achieved, it never quite did enough to change things. When I left St. Augustine four years ago I had a film with an unsure future, and I left a community that had nurtured me but who’s future was just as precarious.

So it was great to come back and see some of the positive changes that have taken place in the community, not that it is totally where it should be but there are signs of hope. It was also great to come back as part of the Southern Tour of Independent Filmmakers, and though I have said it before, no other screenings of the film have been quite the same as on this tour.

The screening at UNF was no different.

Arriving just in the nick of time for the screening I was greeted by the staff at the amazing Performing Arts Center located in sprawling campus at UNF. It was personally rewarding to play in this venue and the crowed lived up to the tour expectations that at this point are quite high. After the screening of the film we engaged in yet another lengthy and intelligent conversation about Civil Rights past and present, the idea of community and responsibility. It was great to have such a wonderful local reception for the film.

Then it was on to Stuart in South Florida. This place was awesome! It was all that one pictures South Florida to be, warm sunshine, palm trees, and retirement communities.

We screened at the Blake Library that hosts an amazing line up of events. The crowd was mostly made up of retired folks who came out in droves to see the film. I was so curious to see what the reaction of would be by a group of people who lived through the time of the events depicted in the film, but especially their reaction to the contemporary section that deals with the white backlash after the movement and the continued cycle of poverty that plagues some communities.

True to form the post screening discussion was off with a bang. The audience was truly engaged and exhibited a wide range of reactions. There were a few touchy moments as divergent viewpoints were expressed, but that is the whole point of these discussions, to create dialogue and a safe place for people to exchange ideas and maybe, just maybe be enlightened in the process.

It ended with one elderly woman standing up and proclaiming in a loud voice “I just loved it! Keep making movies!”

That was the best thing any filmmaker could ever hear.

Afterwards I met a man in his late 90’s who started writing screenplays when he was 85 and has finished three feature length scripts! (a huge accomplishment for a person of any age) His ambitious movies were well thought out and engaging, and I now have some reading to do. He said that he would be so proud and honored if someone stole his ideas, and after he got over that feeling, he would sue them. I love this guy! I left so inspired by this man.

One more stop… Augusta GA

to those who have been refreshing this page endlessly over the past two days, wondering if i ever made my flight, your nightmare of uncertainty is over!

i made it into alexandria just in time to meet up with my hosts for the evening, david and nicole holcombe, before heading over to the screening.

i knew that during my trip i would find plenty of people who run counter to the standard "southerner" stereotype. but i didn't think i'd run into a hungarian folk dancing doctor and a batik egg-painting belgian with a statue of don quixote on their lawn and massive solar panels on their roof.

they had prepared dinner for me, but my late arrival meant that we would have to heat it up after the screening, so we headed downtown and the holcombes taught me a bit about alexandria. they prepared me to be disappointed by the size of the crowd, yet the screening ended up being the most well-attended thus far!

at a pre-screening reception, they had wine and cheese and grapes set out and the holcombes introduced me around to other members of the alexandria arts community. neurosurgeons and social workers and playwrights and historians...relatively few of them were punk rock fans, but it was a crowd united in support of independent film in a city where cinema is usually defined by such fare as "Paul Blart: Mall Cop".

after the screening, the holcombes and i enjoyed a long, leisurely dinner of delicious, homemade etouffee while talking about art and politics and the south and the artists who have stayed with them and their involvement with the local arts community. at the end of the meal, i ended up with a signed copy of david's book of short stories, one of nicole's hand-painted eggs, a guide book for new orleans, and a big can of local cajun seasoning. and belgian chocolate for dessert!

the next morning, they served french toast (with REAL maple syrup...) and fruit for breakfast and sent me on my way with one of their umbrellas, just in case. it's hard to say which quality i admire more: their devotion to the arts or their sheer generosity. amazing people... (visit them at holcombegallery.com!)

i had the day off, so i decided i'd spend it in new orleans. it was my first time there, so i wanted to have a quintessential french quarter experience, and i think i accomplished just that: ate a catfish po' boy at johnny's, wandered through the flea market, went to the voodoo museum, watched street performers, went into the St. Louis Church during mass, dropped by william faulkner's old house, shopped, sampled a praline cookie, and saw the house of the rising sun.

coincidentally, the holcombes already had plans to journey to new orleans the same night to see a play, so they offered to take me out to dinner in the big easy so they could hear about my day. if david wasn't already a doctor, i'd insist that they see one to diagnose their generosity disorder.

after another lovely dinner, i continued my Official New Orleans Experience with a few hours of wandering up and down bourbon street, listening to various shitty cover bands play "sweet child o' mine" over and over again. i had three items on my bourbon street "to see" list: someone fighting, someone puking, and boobs. the only item i was able to check off was boobs, i only caught the aftermath of the other two: puddles of puke or a wafting stench from somewhere, and bouncers shoving dudes out of clubs or cops arresting people. semi-bummer. but hey: boobs! it may not sound like it, but it was actually an okay time.

i stayed out much later than i should have, forgetting at the time that the next day's screening was in the afternoon rather than the evening. waking up at 8am was rather painful, but i needed to sample a beignet from cafe du monde before leaving. i dragged myself there, got an order of beignets to go, and enjoyed them while sitting on a bench in jackson square. i can understand why cafe du monde is so close to st. louis cathedral: i'm sure many people have had impromptu religious conversions after tasting those things.

i headed to mobile, AL, hoping to see the World's Largest Rocking Chair along the way, but i was running late. when i arrived at my hotel, charlie smoke from the mobile arts council was unexpectedly there waiting for me, along with the hotel's manager, to insure that i got a proper welcome and had an easy check in. gold stars for hospitality all around!

i dropped my bags and charlie drove me around town a bit before heading to the screening room at the local library (which is actually much more impressive than it sounds). i really didn't expect much of a crowd on a sunday afternoon, but we had over 50 people, which was great. after the screening and q&a there was a reception with a very impressive spread of food, and after that charlie took me on a more extensive tour of the city.

i didn't expect much out of mobile, to be honest...i imagined it would be somewhat run-down and/or industrial. but it really is an impressively quaint city with a burgeoning cultural scene, a mellow vibe, and a lot of potential. like alexandria, there is a community of people there working diligently to expand the artistic and cultural horizons of the city...it's an inspiring thing to witness and it feels great to be a small part of their efforts.

charlie took me for a seafood dinner at a restaurant overlooking the bay where i sampled fried okra, fried oysters, garlic and cheese grits, hushpuppies, crab bisque, and gumbo. it was sub-par quality, but it was certainly a uniquely southern meal.

earlier at the screening, a contagiously upbeat guy named max introduced himself and invited me to check out the indie movie house that he owns and operates downtown, the Crescent Theater. i was pretty exhausted after dinner, but i generally live by the principle that 20 years from now it's possible that i'll look back and be glad that i went out, but it's highly unlikely that i'll look back and be glad i got a good night's sleep.

the theater was only a few blocks from my hotel, and when i arrived max not only didn't charge me admission, but he refused to let me pay for my popcorn or my bottle of cane sugar-based root beer (i have an affinity for gourmet sodas, so this was a particular treat). i was one of only 4 people in the theatre, but i sat up front because the first few rows were made up of leather La-Z-Boy-style chairs. max introduced me to my fellow theater-goers and then introduced the film, "Adam", a romantic dramedy about a guy with asperger's syndrome, which was pretty entertaining. after the film, max gave me a ride back to my hotel and bought an extra "Let Them Know" box set for his projectionist.

(has anyone out there ever done a study to see if maybe the spirit of southern generosity is the real cause of global warming? or if it can be harnessed to provide renewable fuel?)

after saying goodbye to max, i hit the streets once more to see if anything else was going on, but it quickly became obvious that mobile is a bed-early-on-sundays city, so i headed back to my hotel in the hopes of cranking out another blog entry and getting to bed early enough to catch a full night's sleep for the first time since i left home.

only one of those things happened. but hey, 20 years from now...

DNWA at Auburn and SC State

As the Dare Not Walk Alone (DNWA) tour has been moving through the south, a national debate about race has been building thanks to the “You lie” outburst by Congressman Joe Wilson during President Obama’s speech to a joint session of Congress.

In addition to being totally disrespectful and bringing dishonor to himself, his state and his party, Joe Wilson has opened a debate that has been brewing in this country since the landslide election of President Obama.

Like most Americans I experienced a feeling of national pride and unity on November 4^th 2008 when Obama was elected president, it was palpable, electric and real. I have never felt that much patriotism and belief in my country as I did that night celebrating with complete strangers in the streets of Brooklyn. My fears of a potential white backlash washed away during the inauguration a few months later, and I started to believe that maybe we had come further than I thought.

Enter Joe Wilson.

Now, no one can say definitively whether Wilson’s comment was race based, but it really doesn’t matter. He has given voice to though who truly do have deep seated racist feelings, and this is what makes it so devastating. We have seen the images of Obama as Hitler, but now we also see him as witch doctor, in “white face” (a clear racial slur) and people questioning everything from his birth to calling him racist in chief. No matter what side of politics one is on, we can all agree that this is not how we should treat someone who has reached this high office.

I have no problem with people disagreeing on issues of policy and engaging in honest debate, that is what makes a democracy work. But this is going well beyond real issues and reveals the dark lingering racism that has plagued this country since its beginning.

Those who want to believe that we solved all our racial problems during the Civil Rights movement of the 1960’s must rethink how far we have come.

So it is with great pride that we continue to show DNWA and engage in honest discussion with those at our screenings, Auburn and South Carolina State were no different.

Both screenings were attended mostly by students and it is this generation that will truly do the job of changing hearts and minds which is the only way to eradicate the legacy of slavery, segregation and continued bigotry. As stated in the film, “You can pass all the laws you want, but if you don’t change the heart, you don’t change anything.”

In Auburn we screened at the beautiful Jule Collins Smith Museum of Art, that could double for a smaller version of the Getty. After the screening and discussion the students at Auburn decided to start a letter writing campaign to get the city of St. Augustine (where the film takes place) to return the slave market back to its name instead of calling it the flower market.

And at SC State, a historically black college, the student were adamant about being part of the solution and becoming overcomers, believing that no one has written their destiny for them. This screening was also interesting because the film was screened in a planetarium and projected on the round ceiling.

Now on to UNF in Jacksonville, Fl

The First Four Days

so my tenure as a southern arts film tourist has begun...

it was an exhausting beginning, catching a red-eye flight and changing planes and then driving for an hour or so, all with a 50-pound suitcase and a 58-pound backpack to lug around... but once i arrived at my first stop, everything got pretty cool pretty fast.

my bags were so heavy because they were (and still are) filled to the brim with dvds of my movie, "Let Them Know: The Story of Youth Brigade and BYO Records". it examines the careers of the Stern brothers, who founded the band and record label referred to in the title and contributed more than their share to the LA punk scene in the '80s. the dvd is packaged as part of a box set that also contains a double LP compilation of bands covering songs from the BYO catalog and also a full-color hardcover book. beautiful package, but murder on the spine...

upon arriving in bowling green, KY, i sat down for dinner with steve white, the film's host for the evening and the director of the western kentucky university broadcasting program. with us were majorie from the broadcasting department and campus radio station and her punk enthusiast boyfriend, jason. i was hoping to dive right into the southern cuisine on this trip, but we instead went to a nice italian restaurant, which was quite tasty...definitely a step up from airplane food.

the screening and q&a went well despite some audio problems. afterwards, a few students approached me to thank me and even had me autograph their "Let Them Know" box sets, which was incredibly flattering. they were looking to enter the film industry themselves, so it felt kinda cool that i had maybe reassured them that it's not as tough as it seems to break in. i remember being in their shoes and being at a crossroads and being completely petrified of what would become of me after graduation, so it feels good to be on the other side and to be able to say, "don't worry...just go for it."

it had been a long day, so i collapsed pretty early and then got up the next morning to talk to steve's editing class. i was worried i'd run out of things to say and would have lots of dead air but apparently i can run my damn fool mouth like a champ. i managed to fill just under an hour by answering maybe 7 or 8 questions. and again, some students approached me afterwards to say thanks and again it really warmed my little heart.

after that i had the day to kill, so i strolled through bowling green's downtown area and then went to what seems to be the city's biggest tourist attraction: the Lost River Cave. it was a toss-up between that and the corvette museum... tough decision.

i walked along a nearby hiking trail and visited the butterfly sanctuary while waiting for the cave tour to begin. only saw a few butterflies...one of them was dead on the ground when i walked in... i don't know if they can legally call that a sanctuary.

anyway, our guide gave us a surprisingly entertaining talk about the cave's history...apparently they used to have a night club in the cave's entrance in the '30s due to the natural air-conditioning (tommy dorsey and dinah shore both played there!). they still have a stage and a bar and a dance floor set up, all of it opening out onto the cave river valley...it really would be amazing to see shows there. touring bands: get on it!

after the history lesson we got in a little boat and buzzed along the river that runs through the cave and learned about civil war soldiers writing on the walls and jesse james using it as a hideout back in the day. definitely a much more interesting tour than i'd expected.

finally, it was time for me to leave kentucky and head to nashville, TN, and i arrived just in time to grab an amazing southern lunch at Arnold's. thanks yelp.com!! embarrassingly large portions of roast beef and mashed potatoes and greens and cornbread pancakes and strawberry pie went down my gullet, along with sweet tea that felt like a kick in the teeth from an angel made of sugar.

fair warning: i'm probably going to talk about food a lot in these entries.

after lunch, i met with joEl from vanderbilt university, checked out the screening room (nice!), and settled into my (luxury) dorm room before heading out to check out the city.

i weaved my way through the downtown streets for a while, snapping a few photos and soaking the place in. i ended up on broadway for dinner at Jack's, which has a well-deserved reputation for its bbq, and then did my best to walk off the meal while checking out all the bars in the area. it was a wednesday night, but the town was still pretty lively. most of the bars had no cover charge, so i wandered in and out of a bunch of them, checking out the various country bands on the various stages. it's not really my favorite form of music, but the technical talent of some of the musicians was truly astounding.

i got some ice cream and wandered up on a bridge that overlooked downtown and then explored some of the side streets before heading back to my dorm. nashville's all right in my book.

the next morning, i had agreed to speak to professor jen gunderman's History of Rock Music class. i was a little nervous about filling 75 minutes of time, but jen and i decided to do an "inside the actor's studio"-style q&a and she prompted me with questions about punk music and i did my best to sum up 30 years and countless subgenres in about an hour while also offering up personal anecdotes about my film and music career. i managed to get a few chuckles out of the crowd, so hopefully some pieces of what i said had some educational value. the class that was in the room before us was a History of Country Music class and their guest speaker that day was Kix Brooks from Brooks & Dunn, so my class probably felt relatively cheated.

after class jen took me to lunch with sarah childress from the film studies department and ben, one of her students. afterwards, sarah took me to a local record store (they still have those?) and said she'd buy one CD based on my recommendation. after browsing the selection, it came down to Minor Threat's Complete Discography or The Dead Milkmen's Big Lizard In My Backyard...i eventually settled on Dead Milkmen (sorry, ian...) figuring that it might be slightly more accessible.

next was pizza with some other film students...or at least one of them was a film student...there was also some undeclareds and a nursing student in the mix...but it was fun, anyway.

finally, time for the screening. i think we pretty much had 95% of the punk population of nashville in the audience...all 20 of them. the movie seemed to go over well, as did the q&a and a small, informal reception afterwards (punch and cookies!).

this morning, i made it to the airport just in time for my flight to alexandria, LA...only to find that my flight was delayed JUST long enough for me to miss my connection and now i'm sitting in the atlanta airport, trying to rectify my blogging delinquency and blasting Pantera on my iPod to try and block out the shitty music they're pumping in through the airport PA system.

actually, i'd better head for my gate to make sure i don't miss my flight... later!

DNWA in the villes…

The Customs House Museum in Clarksville, TN is yet another great community venue. The museum is partly housed in the original custom house that served as a location to levy taxes on the great amount of tobacco that was grown in the region before it headed out to all parts of the world. Now the Museum holds works of art, a theater and the most amazing interactive children’s exhibit. I must admit I had a good time playing with the huge bubble making toys in the basement.

We had another great screening with a lively Q&A. Joining the discussion was a guest panel that included a history professor and the local head of the NAACP. Both men enlightened the conversation with wit, humor and heart.

Greenville, SC…

As I approached the Peace center I could see a large crowd lining up outside and as I made my way into the theatre I was delighted to see that most of the 400 seats were already taken. The Peace Center’s Nancy Halverson introduced me to the panel that would participate in the post screening discussion. I settled into my seat and watched the whole movie and was glad that I did (most of the time I sneak out for a bit because I have seen it a bazillion times). It was great to hear and see the audience react to the film, but I was totally unprepared for the response when we took the stage as the credits rolled. Through the glare of the spotlight I could see that the entire sold out audience was on their feet, giving the film a standing ovation. It was a huge honor and rather emotional.

Needless to say that the film was well received with the crowd and panel engaged in yet another great discussion.

I can’t see how the experience of showing a film could be any better than it has been on this tour. Every venue and audience has been amazing!

Now on to Auburn, AL

Southern Circuit Welcomes Harrod Blank and "Automorphosis"

Southern Arts Federation welcomes Harrod Blank with his feature documentary film about art cars and their fascinating owners, "Automorphosis," to the 2009-2010 Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers beginning Wednesday, September 16, at The Arts Partnership of Greater Spartanburg in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and concluding on Wednesday, September 23, at the RiverCenter for the Performing Arts in Columbus, GA. Along the way, the film will also screen in Lakeland, FL; Fitzgerald, GA; and Madison, GA.

More about Harrod Blank, "Automorphosis" and the tour schedule

Web site for "Automorphosis"

Audio interview with Harrod Blank

Driving toward Ocean Springs MS, I am reminded how special this tour is. I have been showing the film in festivals and theaters across the country for a while now and it is a huge undertaking to show up on short notice and try to get the word out about a screening. That is what makes the Southern Tour so remarkable because there is a support structure and people who are already passionate about film, and in particular about the films selected for the tour.

One of those people is Eric Zala of The Mary C O’Keefe Cultural Center. He is the nicest guy you could ever meet and the best advocate a filmmaker can hope for, mostly because he is a filmmaker himself (more on that later) but also because he is passionate about the Mary C (as it is known) and about his community.

I arrive at the Mary C after doing two NPR interviews, just in time to do a TV interview for the local news. Eric is on top of it! Knowing how important it is to get the word out, he has organized a host of press to promote the screening.

Eric gives me a tour of the Mary C, and I am impressed by what this arts center is able to accomplish. They have a theatre where they show film, have concerts, plays and a host of other activities, but they also have a recording studio, painting studios, pottery studio with kilns, wood carving studio, gallery and offer a wide range of classes to the community from dance to visual art. All this just a few years after Katrina leveled most of costal Mississippi. The Mary C is a testament to the vitality of this community and to the importance of art in our lives.

So needless to say I was excited to show the film here and be a part of this community, if only for one night.

The place was a buzz as snacks were sold and tickets taken. The converted 1920’s school auditorium at the heart of the Mary C began to fill up, and again I wondered how this film would be received in Mississippi, a place with such a strong Civil Rights history and a place like may others in the south, still wrestling with its segregated past.

My question was answered immediately after the film as we launched into yet another intelligent, and heartfelt discussion about issues raised in the film. The audience was instantly engaged in a passionate dialogue about Civil Rights and continuing social justice. There was even a man in the audience who was a police officer in the St. Augustine area during the 60’s. He shed light on the events of those times and stated unequivocally that the St. Augustine police wore a badge by day and a hood by night. So again, I had the feeling that we could have all happily sat in the theatre discussing these issues all night. But there was free wine in the lobby, so at some point we had to cut it off. The audience members and the conversation lingered on in the lobby until it was clear that the Mary C would have to close for the night.

So we all said our goodbyes and as the last of the stuff was being put away I talked with Eric a bit more. Come to find out he is the director of the cult classic film “Raiders of The Lost Ark Movie” a shot for shot remake of the original film made by Eric and his friends when they were just kids. This film sensation took the youth years to make and is a triumph of independent filmmaking and a great example of a pure creative impulse… truly art for arts sake, not for fame, fortune or glory, but rather something honest. Having read a lot about the film it was truly an honor and an inspiration to meet and talk with Eric.

All in all, it was a perfect night, with a great screening, discussion, and new connections made.

Now on to Clarksville, TN!

Southern Circuit Welcomes Jeff Alulis and "Let Them Know: The Story of Youth Brigade and BYO Records"

Southern Arts Federation welcomes Jeff Alulis with his feature documentary film, "Let Them Know: The Story of Youth Brigade and BYO Records," to the 2009-2010 Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers beginning Tuesday, September 15, at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, KY, and concluding on Thursday, September 25, at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University in Durham, NC. Along the way, the film will also screen in Nashville, TN; Alexandria, LA; Mobile, AL; Montgomery, AL; Jackson, MS; Clemson, SC; and Cullowhee, NC.

More about Jeff Alulis, "Let Them Know" and the tour schedule

Web site for "Let Them Know: The Story of Youth Brigade and BYO Records"

Audio interview with Jeff Alulis

Dare Not Walk Alone, first stop on the Southern Tour

Driving east on I-10, that gray unbending line rimmed by tall pine trees, I feel nostalgia set in. It has been a long time since I have been back in the South, having made my home in Brooklyn NY for the last few years. I drive past towns with names made famous in Lucida Williams songs, and I feel proud to still consider myself a Southerner. I am looking forward to the Southern Tour, showing the film in all of these amazing venues, but I’m also excited to connect with the South again… and get some Chick-Fil-A.

The first stop was last night at the Manship Theater in Baton Rouge, LA. Upon entering the Manship, one can’t help but feel like they have just stepped into one of the hallowed halls of a much bigger city’s cultural institution. Maybe it is the impossibly high ceilings and the modern design, complemented by levels of contemporary art but whatever it is, it’s totally impressive.

The theater itself is an intimate 300 seat, half round, multilevel space without a bad seat in the house. As the audience filtered in, I met Dr. Emanuel who would serve as a moderator of our post screening discussion. I liked her instantly. She is the kind of person that instantly makes you feel at ease, and I was happy to have her be a part of the discussion after the film. It can sometimes be a sticky situation to show a film about Civil Rights and the legacy of racism, especially in the South.

As the credits rolled and the post screening discussion began the audience immediately became engaged asking more than the usual questions. The discussion moved around the theater and it was clear that the film had resonated with this well informed audience as everyone stayed seated, and genuinely participated. I had the feeling that we could have sat in the theater all night discussing the issues the film deals with, and that would have been just fine with me. As a filmmaker that is the best you can hope for!

It was a great experience.

In talking with Page of the Manship after as the last of the audience members finally trickled out, she said that it was the best post screening discussion she had ever seen at the theater. In my book that is a success!

Up next The Mary “C” in Ocean City, MS!

Southern Circuit Welcomes Jeremy Dean and "Dare Not Walk Alone"

Southern Arts Federation welcomes Jeremy Dean with his feature documentary film, "Dare Not Walk Alone," to the 2009-2010 Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers beginning Thursday, September 10, at the Manship Theatre in Baton Rouge, LA, and concluding on Monday, September 21, at the Imperial Theatre in Augusta, GA. Along the way, the film will also screen in Ocean Springs, MS; Clarksville, TN; Greenville, SC; Auburn, AL; Orangeburg, SC; Jacksonville, FL; and Stuart, FL.

More about Jeremy Dean, "Dare Not Walk Alone" and the tour schedule

Web site for "Dare Not Walk Alone"

Audio interview with Jeremy Dean