Meet Zeva Oelbaum

Welcome Zeva Oelbaum to the Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers! Zeva's first screening of her film, Ahead of Time, will be tomorrow, Tuesday, November 1 at the Madison-Morgan Cultural Center in Madison, GA. The film starts at 7:00 pm so don't miss a moment.


Ahead of Time is also screening in the following cities: To see when check the screenings calendar.

Gainesville, GA

Hapeville, GA

Manteo, NC

Orangeburg, SC

Zeva Oelbaum is an award winning producer and the founder of Reel Inheritance Films, a documentary film production company. She directed and produced a short film on Ruth Gruber, before producing the feature-length film. She was executive producer of Rene and I, a feature length documentary on twins Irene Hizme and Rene Slotkin who were six years old when they survived Josef Mengele at Auschwitz.  

Meet Amy Elliott

Welcome Amy Elliott to the Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers! Amy's first screening of her film, World's Largest is tomorrow, Tuesday, November 1 at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina. The show starts at 7:30 PM. Don't forget your popcorn!


World's Largest is also screening in the following cities: To see when check the screenings calendar.

Montgomery, AL

Alexandria, LA

Savannah, GA

Tupelo, MS

Thomasville, GA

Charleston, SC

Winder, GA

Clemson, SC 

Johnson City, TN  

Amy Elliott is a photographer and documentary filmmaker based in New York City. She co-directed, shot and edited the feature documentary “World’s Largest.”  Her photography has appeared in countless national publications including The New York Times and The Washington Post. She is a graduate of Princeton University.

LTAB takes a day off...kinda.

Madison Georgia is smack dab in between Milledgeville, home of Flannery O'Connor, and Athens, home of REM. So I headed south to Milledgeville for a morning visit to Andalusia, the home of one of America's greatest writers... thanks to Craig Amason for the tour!

On my way back thru Madison I was able to squeeze in a midday screening for the students

at the Morgan County Crossroads School...a very special thanks to Bobby Mackey for all your hard work, we look forward to future collaborations with you and the Boys and Girls Clubs.

Heading north out of Madison on my way to Athens, I stopped for a taste of Plains Georgia's finest...they taste like potatoes, tiny potatoes. No REM sightings in Athens, but I did stumble upon Weaver D's...delicious fried chicken and inspiration for a REM album title.

Next stop... South Carolina!

LTAB continues on the Southern Circuit in Madison, GA

Thanks to everyone at the Madison Morgan Cultural Center (especially Dina) for putting together such a great screening...the old school house was rocking with poetry and applause. And a special shout out to the boys (and girl!!), from the Boys and Girls Club of Madison...it was great to see the youths reprezent off-screen too!

Greg Jacobs and LTAB in Manteo, NC - Part 2.

Day four of LTAB's Southern Circuit tour could pretty much be described as, well, perfect. It started with a warm, fresh-baked donut from Duck's - probably the best donut I've ever had in my life. Remarkably, the rest of the day didn't get worse from there: a visit to the Wright Brothers national memorial; dune climbing at Jockey's Ridge State Park in Nag's Head; wandering around Manteo; and geekiest of all, a trip to the Fort Raleigh historic site on Roanoke Island (as a kid, the story of the Lost Colony of Roanoke was always one of my favorites...I still can't believe there are no heavy metal bands named "Croatoan" - the word carved into a tree that remains the only clue to the colonists' fate.)

The screening took place in the beautiful theater at the Roanoke Island Festival Park. Very special thanks to Laura Martier and Lindsay Nielson of the Dare County Arts Council for inviting the film to screen, and for providing the ideal ending to a perfect day.

Greg Jacobs and LTAB go to Manteo, NC

Day 3 of Louder Than a Bomb's Southern Circuit Tour - flew from Atlanta to Norfolk this afternoon, then drove down to Kitty Hawk, NC. Definitely not complaining about the beautiful weather and the spectacular beachfront, especially with fourteen months of Chicago winter just around the corner. Tonight was a preview screening of sorts, for students who won't be able to make the main screening tomorrow. While LTAB has been shown in countries as far-flung as Portugal, Jordan, and Zambia, it had never, until tonight, been screened in a Surf Shop, so this was a world premiere of sorts. I'm just glad that the lesson from Spinal Tap ("how many times to I have to tell you - it's Spinal Tap first, then puppet show") was taken to heart, and that we got top billing above the dollar tacos.

Looking forward to a day of sun, sand, and historical nerdiness tomorrow (the Wright Brothers memorial + Roanoke Island). And that's all before the screening...

Greg Jacobs and LTAB goes to Gainesville, GA

Day 2 of Louder Than a Bomb's Southern Circuit Tour was in Gainesville, Georgia, a town of about 35,000 an hour northeast of Atlanta that is apparently known as "the poultry capital of the world".

The screening was held at Gainesville State College, in an academic building so new that it hadn't even been dedicated yet. Thanks to the work of the Arts Council of Gainesville, along with the school's media studies department, it was a nearly full house. After the movie, Gainesville State film studies prof Jeff Marker led a great conversation/Q&A, which touched on everything from the perils of having high schoolers as your subjects to the nature of truth in documentaries. I also got a behind-the-scenes tour of the school's fancy new media facilities, which only confirmed my sense that the average college sophomore can do my job better than I can.

Thanks to Gladys Wyant and everyone at The Arts Council, along with Jeff, David Smith, and all of their Gainesville film studies students, for a memorable evening! On to NC...

That's all folks

I am packing up tonight getting ready to head back to Austin in the morning. It has been a great tour.
Thanks to everyone who came out for mars and the q and a's. Thanks to everyone at the receptions. Thanks to all the hosts who showed me around the wonderful towns. Thanks to the cinema grad student who served me fish and chips tonight. Thanks to south arts.
I hope everyone enjoyed mars.

Savannah

I have been having a leisurely day her in beautiful Savannah. I ate some red beans and rice while watching the shipping boats come down the river. Took a beer to go from the restaurant...can't do that most places...and then settled into my haunted inn for the night.
 
This morning I learned I missed an earthquake back in Texas. Also very very unusual.
Couldn't handle waiting the two hours for Mrs. Wilkes lunch, so I opted for an awesome sandwich at zunzi's. South African yummy. Then stopped into the Lucas theater. An amazingly beautiful venue. With mars up in lights!
While there I judged a high school art competition in conjunction with the screening. They were all good, and Congrats to the winners.
Now I am going to check out a graveyard and a fort and a beach.
I am also going to try to fight off this cold. This tour is a tough schedule...tougher than me it turns out.
Fingers crossed for a great screening tonight.

Meet Greg Jacobs

Welcome Greg Jacobs to the Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers! Greg is splitting his tour with his Co-Producer/Co-Director Jon Siskel who started things off at UAB last week. Greg's first stop on the tour will be Thursday, October 20, at The Arts Council Inc in Gainesville, GA. This screening of Louder Than A Bomb starts at 7:30 PM so don't miss a minute of the action.


Greg Jacobs, The Siskel/Jacobs Productions co-founder, served as VP/Chief Creative Officer at Towers Productions, where he oversaw the content of more than two hundred documentaries on five different networks, including award-winning shows and series for A&E, History, Discovery, The Weather Channel, and CNN. A graduate of Yale University, Greg has a master's degree in history from Ohio State, and is the author of Getting Around Brown: Desegregation, Development, and the Columbus Public Schools. 

Thomasville!

Getting a post up from Texas now. I am recovering from the road and making sure thomasville didn't feel left out.
First, it is one friendly town. Second, I shared a plantation guest house with a giraffe. Third, that was some great cheese.
Thanks again Natalie. You guys really rolled out the carpet...even if airport security confiscated my jam in tallahassee...considered a liquid.
And I even got an early morning trip to wakulla springs...for more Manatees and gators.
And I want to thank everyone who came out to the screening...and thanks for talking politics after.

It's not over till it's over...

...just like some joker said...
Driving out of Montgomery in the predawn light. Watching the fog roll off fields like they were on fire and the traffic change from school buses to semi trailers. Trying to make it to thomasville in time to teach a class. Listening to vic chessnut and feeling very southern.

Louder Than a Bomb...First Night

It was a beautiful autumn evening here in Birmingham, and we are thrilled for Louder Than a Bomb to be "on the circuit" and participating in the South Arts program.

Great audience tonight at the Alys Stephens Center on the University of Alabama at Birmingham campus...a special thanks to Eric, David and Lizzy for putting together such a great screening!

We hope to harness all the enthusiasm for the film and LTAB, and channel that excitement into future screenings and ultimately plant the seeds for "LTAB Birmingham".

Thanks everyone for coming out tonight...we hope to see you again soon!!

The week is almost done

On one hand I feel like I've been on the road for a month...on the other hand I'm a little sad to be coming close to the end.
We have had audiences of all different sizes...but all have been really excited about the film. Tonight I got to speak to a perspective future film student as well as some of the great film supporters here in Montgomery.
But before the screening I git a quick tour of Montgomery...and it is a town rich with history...and rich with some strangenesses too. They have seven buildings that look like the white house. They have a statue to the father of modern gynocology. They have a corner where Rosa parks and hank Williams share opposite sides of the same historical marker.
Jim deserves a huge thanks for putting me up at the lattice inn...amazing place...and for the scrabble welcome...and Martin for showing me around!
Seriously though, the lattice inn is fabulous. Stay here when you are in Montgomery.
Now, sleep for four hours...then back off to thomasville at 5 am!

The pics that crashed Mobil phone Blogger

Gotta love the auto correct on my mobile phone above. Ha!

Back to the future part 2

Ok, I am calling this back to the future part 2 because yesterday over lunch in ashville I wrote ... at the risk of sounding less than modest...my best blog post yet. It was also the longest. But the Carolina mountains have a special way of disabling my smart phone...and that post has been labelled "publishing" for about 36 hours. So, this is part 2. Like most sequels it will not be as good as the original.
The screening at Johnson city was our best yet. Not only did I get to visit with old friends from Texas, but we had a nice full room with 109 folks watching the film. It was followed by a great reception AND a late night visit to the cook out...where 4.39 buys 2 quesadillas, with a side of corn dog and hush puppies, and a cheerwine float. Yeah!!
But back to the movie. Shara and the rest of the faculty really got the students out. We started with an informal pizza dinner chatting about filmmaking...had a long q & a following the film, and then I spoke to two separate classes about how we made mars. It was really a great feeling to see how interested the students were in it!
I also got to have a pleasantly southern day. I got some photos with the neighbors awesome Halloween decorations and then set out in the drizzle...to go BACK TO THE FUTURE! Future 26 that is...east future 26 this time.
On the way I passed the brilliant colors of the leaves changing in the mountains, mars hill road (made me feel right at home), and the inmates doing road work under the watchful eyes of armed guards. I ate a burger with a side of dill and ginger coleslaw in ashville, and I browsed through the most impressive collection of 1970s belt buckles I have ever seen. I overheard the girls eating next to me talk about moving to Austin. I felt right at home.
Then I moved on toward culowheeeeeee. I drove along the smokey mountain expressway, and they looked smokey. And let me say that there is no finer place to get a flat tire than the smokey mountains! After a little setback, I rolled past the huddle house and on into town just barely in time to speak to another class. Lori took me for organic goat tacos and dinosaur themed restaurant and then we screened to another nice crowd of maybe 60 enthusiastic college folks.
Then all that was left was to spend the night in a cool 4 bedroom haunted mansion with 6 beds, 7 couches, 2 bathrooms, a chandelier, and just me. So I watched Thor.
Then a quick stop at the mad batter and back on the road. I ate my Veggie burger with Bacon and drove along the river. On the way to clemson I hiked a beautiful waterfall trail with lots of sparkles. Then I hiked another trail...which I thought was .8 miles but ended up actually being 2.7 miles each way. I crossed 7 creeks, 3 bridges, moved 2 downed trees, saw a turkey, an army of squirrels, and a cool snail, and did 1000 feet of elevation change.
And I still managed to drink a 44 ounce cheerwine and roll into clemson in time for tacos with some of Amy's students. Now they are watching mars on Blu ray. Yay!
Ok, here are a bunch of pictures!

Meet Jon Siskel

Welcome Jon Siskel to the Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers! Jon and his film, Louder Than A Bomb start their tour of the Southeast in Birmingham, AL at the Alys Robinson Stephens Performing Arts center at UAB on October 13. The show starts at 7:00 PM CT so get your popcorn ready!


Jon Siskel, The Siskel/Jacobs Productions co-founder, was executive producer and co-creator of the series "Fake Out", which ran for two seasons on Court TV. He has also produced shows for the A&E series American Justice, Investigative Reports, and Biography. His work has been shown on The Travel Channel, Discovery, and History. Jon serves on the board of directors of Free Spirit Media, a Chicago-based youth media organization, as well as the Gene Siskel Film Center. He is the nephew of the late film critic Gene Siskel. 


Jon will be splitting the tour of Louder Than A Bomb with his Co-Director/Co-Producer, Greg Jacobs (intro coming soon!).

Future west 26 - Geoff Marslett for "Mars"

Okay, I am still not convinced anyone is reading this blog of mine...but ill keep posting just in case.
After a successful dining experience in Athens ga I drove up to ashville to stay with and visit my friends Jeff and alphie...and my new friend sawyer...
Let me mention that the south isn't always what you would expect. In Athens I ate a seitan bahn mi and overheard my server and a patron talking about playing magic...and a magic lite called the ascention...which I think I am spelling wrong...but basically, it is not the south everyone expects. Well long story short, the sandwich was awesome and my waiter was applying to film school. I had a great talk with him and the world was again proven tiny afterall.
Then I drove to ashville. I ate farm fresh meals and hiked a beautiful mountain overlook with the leaves changing. Another cool town.
So next I drove across the mountains to Johnson city...where the screening is happening right now! (See picture below) . The folks have continued to trickle in and I think this is the biggest turnout yet on this mars tour.
Let's hope they like it.
I also got to meet up with old friends shara and dan. And they are trying to convince me to move here.
But enough of this prelude...the most important part of today was driving into...no, directly on...the future. And I hate to say it but the future is west...and 26...and goes right past mars hill. So it all seemed appropriate today.

Sacred Places (Halfway Through) - Stephen Cone for "The Wise Kids"

A bit late to the blog, but, you know, as they say...

I started the Tour without a laptop and spent about half an hour in Atlanta on my first day off changing that. So, here I am, typing this from the Marriott in Chattanooga (on my very first Apple product), where we're screening tonight at the Loose Cannon Gallery. The Chattanooga Film Society has impressed me in a big way with how they've prepped for and promoted the event over the past month or two (I did a radio interview for them 2 weeks prior to the Tour, and another this morning). I'm excited for the screening tonight.

There are a thousand ways I could go with this blog, but I'll just touch on two things:

Up to the tour we'd screened mostly at really wonderful and well-known gay & lesbian film festivals, winning several awards and playing to packed houses. It's been really great, as THE WISE KIDS deals with the private pain and joy that comes with grappling with and accepting one's own sexuality. What you get at themed festivals like those, though, is a very specific (and necessary) type of audience. And for a film that deals not only with sexuality but with faithand doubt and family and identity and growing up, there are more audiences to reach; audiences of a different sort. So, what I've looked forward to and enjoyed very much is playing to those new audiences on this Southern Circuit Tour, a tour that is bringing all sorts of people - southerners, northerners, gay, straight, young, old, Christian, non-Christian, etc. - to the film. From Unitarians to Catholics-turned-Baptists to young straight men and young gay women, I've had the opportunity to engage with folks who are grappling or have grappled with the same issues Brea, Laura, Tim, Austin and Elizabeth are grappling with in the film. These encounters have been so special to me, including a profoundly meaningful late-night discussion with two community college students in Gadsden, AL. How would they have seen this film otherwise, were it not for South Arts?

Secondly, and lastly (for now), I just want to state how inspiring it's been to venture to the cultural institutions hosting these screenings. The Jule Collins Smith Museum of Art in Auburn, the Acadiana Center for the Arts in Lafayette, LA, Wallace Hall in Gadsden, AL, the Clarkston Community Center in Clarkston, GA and three more I'll encounter this week. All of these places provide opportunities for people in the south to encounter the sacred, profound, silly, playful, intellectual, emotional and liberating qualities of art and it's expression. As I've walked onto these "sacred grounds" I've been moved by the architecture, the atmosphere, the cultural possibilities, and by the quiet cultural heroes doing their part to make the world a better, richer place. Fitting that I'm taking with me into these buildings a movie about finding holiness.