Noel Schwerin of A Kind of Order visits Oxford College Of Emory University and Presbyterian College

From filmmaker Noel Schwerin of A Kind of Order:

My first stop on the Southern Circuit was Oxford College of Emory University. Lovely small town Georgia, so friendly and relaxed, and to a Californian, SO GREEN! At Oxford, intrepid English Professor Stacy Bell teaches a memoir writing class where her students visit and share life stories with inmates at a woman’s prison. Visiting her class was great; we could jump right into the issues, rewards and obstacles to working with the incarcerated and the corrections bureaucracy.

Noel Schwerin (L) and Professor Stacy Bell (R) in class.

Later my film showed in the chapel to a large and appreciative audience. (It is so satisfying to hear a crowd laugh and be told later they cried as well.) Thanks to English Professor Molly McGehee for the kind introduction and for bringing the Southern Circuit to Oxford!

Next: Presbyterian College in Clinton SC. It may be the end of the term, but PC people show up! I had a fascinating (and delicious) dinner with four faculty before being greeted by a big room of attentive students. (No cell phones or snoring…that’s good at this time of year, right?) There is nothing simple about a conversation about racial ordering anywhere, and maybe especially in Clinton SC, but college students really are open and they really want to talk about their conflicts, feelings and fears. Thank you PC.

Off to Pompano Beach, FL… I hear it’s sunny there.

SMELLS LIKE INDIE SPIRIT

Columbia, SC. We arrived at the Nickelodeon, a funky little art house right in the heart of downtown. Larry and Andy, who run the operation, are true cinephiles. Their office (or perhaps more accurately, their lair) is in the basement of the theatre. Movie posters are plastered everywhere, even on the ceiling. We have a lot in common -- our office (or perhaps more accurately, our lair) is tucked under the eaves in our likewise dark attic, and we too plaster posters on the ceiling.

Larry and Andy are dedicated to bringing the ultimate indie experience to the Nick. And, they also bring a wealth of knowledge to the community; both teach film at the local university. Before long they were showing us a hilariously ironic trailer promoting their film festival, INDIE GRITS. The fest is known for its celebration of filmmakers who have a tie to the south. This prompted a lively discussion about film festivals in general, leading Vic to regale us with his perhaps all too vivid memories of the 2007 Portland Underground Film Festival, where RANDOM LUNACY was the Opening Night Selection. It was the next night, however, that Vic will never forget. A line of hippies, freaks and degenerates wound around the block and then some. As they waited to enter the theatre they were entertained by an oversized bicycle pulling a bed on wheels, upon which writhed a man and a woman simulating sex.

Inside the theatre, Vic was treated to a stage full of people stripping totally naked and dancing to the thump of house music before the curtain rose on that night's feature, BIKE PORN. The title says it all. Andy was properly shocked upon hearing about these outrages, but nonetheless, hearing that the crowd was SRO and hanging from the rafters, he thought it might not be a bad idea to reach out to Columbia's bike community and sponsor a race. A key to surviving both as an indie theatre owner and as an indie filmmaker is to be as creative as possible in trying to generate an audience. Andy is also currently working on an idea which would be a sort of open mic night for local filmmakers, who would be given an opportunity to screen ten minutes of their work one night a month at the Nick. The respect that Larry and Andy have for filmmakers leaves us no doubt that their INDIE GRITS FILM FESTIVAL is a very supportive and nurturing atmosphere for filmmakers to be a part of.

Larry took us to what would be the Nick's new location a few blocks away, a once grand old theatre that would require at least a year of renovation to be restored. But it's a huge space, and their new office would have the bonus of windows. It was a museum-like experience seeing the popcorn machine from the 30's, patiently waiting to pop again for patrons in a new century. Vic's grandfather owned movie theatres, so merely walking into an old projection booth is virtually a religious experience for him.

This was not our first trip to Columbia, and in the small world department, Larry actually knew the woman whom we'd fondly remembered all these years as Isabel The Filmmaker; we'd had lunch with her on our first trip to the south thirty years ago. It was then that Larry noted that we appeared decades older than most of the other filmmakers on the Southern Circuit. With that, Vic assured Larry that when the trip began a week and a half earlier, his now silvery head of hair had been a youthful brown. Truth is, our motto is, "They'd have to kill us to stop us."

Screening #6, Recalled.

#6: Nickelodeon Theatre, Columbia, SC
Oh what a difference a day off makes! After a seemingly unending series of hours on picturesque country roads (and nights of sleeping 3 to a room), we at last had a day to park on the roadside and move into the forests and fields that we'd been zipping by. Good intelligence led us from Augusta to a stone's throw south of Columbia to the Congaree National Park, where we took the above-marsh bridge-paths into the wilder bits of this old-growth forest. Benjen, a fellow who'd grown up in the tropic jungles of Suriname, filled with snakes and dense undergrowth, was amazed at the space that existed between the trees, as well as the fact that we didn't need a machete to protect ourselves.
As a mostly-Northener, it was odd being in a forest that was equal parts New England Fall (golden leaves littering the ground) and Southern Swamp (small bodies of black water sucking at the trees and roots). We walked for hours, listening for birds and feeling our eyes adjust as the sun set and the colors left the trees. Dusk brought owl hoots and bounding families of deer, smiles on all our faces.
Happily, these smiles stayed through the next days - we had the good fortune of staying with the director of the Nickelodeon Theater in his house, which meant that city tours and hot breakfasts and amiable drinking sessions were all part of the deal. Thanks Larry! We also got to see the new Nickelodeon Theater that was on the path to construction - an old movie palace that was somehow hidden within a downtown beauty shop. It'll be a gem!
The screening, as promised, was sold out (both Larry and Andy brought their classes to the show), and the Q&A was accordingly spirited (extra credit for questions asked). As filmmakers traveling with film and screening on film, it's been part and parcel of the discussion to talk about such things, and I do hope that my explanations for this particular set of films to be on film makes sense... Most of the conversation continues to center around TJUBA TEN and TRYPPS #3, films which are close enough to documentary to make their movements away from it distinct and curious.
Needless to say, we were sad to leave Columbia and certainly hope to make it back there again. Small arthouse cinemas are #1 in my book!

Southern gothic (with boiled peanuts)

From upstate hijinx (Columbia) to lowcountry atmoshpere (Beaufort) today.

Yesterday we had two terrific screenings in Columbia, SC at the incomparable Nickelodeon Theatre, a truly groovy independent cinema that would make any city proud. In between the shows, Larry Hembree (pictured at right with Columbia superstar filmmaker Steve Daniels, DP for "Willow Garden") and Andy Smith, the Nick's resident ringmasters and astrology gurus, took me on a tour of the art deco theater downtown that they will be renovating and moving into in the next couple of years.

I cursed myself for not taking a photo, but imagine walking into the dusty balcony of a theater that has been abandoned for 20 years. Tattered 1970s curtains reveal faded art deco wallpaper underneath. Pigeon feathers fill the empty spaces of the antique carbon arc lamp projectors. Steve plans to film a music video/horror movie in the space, which should be incredible. I hope that he'll employ the mad skills of Randy Schrader, another virtuoso Columbia filmmaker, who lit "Willow Garden" using only baling wire and chewing gum.

Because Steve knows so much about the fantastic landscape of the Palmetto State, he directed me to some amazing church ruins just outside Beaufort. The Sheldon Church was built in 1748 and was burned down twice by invading armies--the British in 1780 and Sherman's troops in 1865. It's quite a sight. I'm trying not to read too much into the fact that my super 8 camera mysteriously stopped functioning while trying to shoot the ruins...

Things I learned today:
1) Boiled peanuts sound gross, but are really good. Wet, mushy, and packed with peanuty flavor.
2) If you're jonesing for Wi-Fi while traveling, just pull into the parking lot of any chain hotel that advertises "free wireless" on its marquee! Schwing!

Looking forward to the screening in Beaufort tonight, though it will be hard to tear myself away from the great scenery and cool breeze of the waterfront. Hey folks at Southern Circuit, will you sponsor the rest of my life? I'll wash your cars. Thanks.

Days 2 & 3

It's been a whirlwind of activity in the last few days on the Southern Film Circuit. We're currently in the Common Ground coffee shop, taking a moment to write from Beaufort, SC, one of the most beautiful and romantic Southern cities we've visited so far! The entire historic district is laced with colorful three story homes surrounded by Spanish Moss in a picturesque quality that would make any DIY movie look like a million bucks. Our screening last night was PACKED - the largest audience so far (and everyone stayed for the Q&A). Every venue has been well attended by inquisitive and understanding people who patiently sit through Kamp Katrina and then asked direct, honest questions afterwards. This morning Ashley and I had a delicious breakfast (blueberry pancakes with coffee) and then took a 3 hour stroll alongside the sandy beach with our camera in hand, capturing brown pelicans diving into the ocean to catch fish. We also found a few people to interview and they eagerly shared stories about shark teeth and David Lynch; we hope to include this footage in our upcoming film.

If you ever have a chance to visit Columbia, SC, be CERTAIN to find the Nickelodeon Theatre and visit LARRY HEMBREE. How shall I describe Larry? Perhaps I shouldn't. He's the most outgoing, blunt, energetic, friendly and exuberant person I've met in the last 10 years. After almost attacking Ashley and I with friendliness, he then asked us a million questions, made us feel at home, gave us a walking tour of Columbia, brought us to a bar (and paid for EVERYTHING after greeting almost everyone who entered) and then invited us into his home and let us sleep in his extra bedroom. He woke us up early in the morning, prepared coffee and directions, and then set up another screening before we left. Yes, Larry is the kind of person who defines a town's mood and in a way that makes someone never forget their experiences. Plus, his theater is one of the most intimate spaces we've visited (similar to the Rag Tag Theater in Columbia, MO). However, the Nickelodeon is about to shut down and reopen a few blocks down in a newly renovated 1940s building with two screens and a $5 million dollar renovation! I'd like to keep writing about our experiences in Columbia and Larry's gregariousness, but the coffee shop is closing in just a few minutes and we need to leave before they turn off the internet. More to come soon!

Paul Festa's last gasp

I hate to intrude on Socheata's tour, but I couldn't bear the thought of just vanishing from the blog without saying goodbye, as though some horrible disease had come and carried me off midsentence. That was only part of the problem.

Albert Fuller onscreen in Mobile, AL

In fact, the conspiracy against my blog was joined by several agents, disease being just one of them, and if I may say so it was overkill.

Justin Bond as Kiki DuRane onscreen in Mobile, AL

Even if I hadn't been denied Internet access at every turn, and even if I hadn't fallen prey to a numbing demoralization and loss of will facing down my Oh My God deadline, it was certainly enough to have gotten that nasty bug that left me, from Beaufort to Orangeburg to Montgomery through New Orleans (canceling my Mardi Gras) to Baton Rouge to Palm Beach to Mobile, writhing in bed with fevers in a sea of mucus, praying, in my secular-humanist way, for death.

John Cameron Mitchell onscreen in Mobile, AL

So now here I am, midway through someone else's tour, and I've just filed the final draft for the first edition of the book, and the mucus has dried up, and I'm preparing to head to New York for the screening there at St. Bart's, which will double as the book launch and triple as the New York premiere performance of Messiaen's Fantaisie for violin and piano, with my Yale and Juilliard classmate Melvin Chen tinkling the ivories.

Shanti Carson onscreen in Mobile, AL

I can't express how luxurious--almost irresponsible--it feels to be blogging after the nasty, brutish and short deadline of putting that book together, conception Thanksgiving to first edition Feb. 27th.

Ned Stresen-Reuter onscreen in Mobile, AL

And so I hate to waste my last Southern Circuit blog entry complaining about all the things that went wrong on my tour--they were acts of God, for the most part, and clearly she did NOT like my movie.

Elizabeth Povinelli onscreen in Mobile, AL

But amid the viruses and tornadoes there were incomparable moments of human error, such as scheduling my movie to coincide with both the Superbowl (Orangeburg) and Ash Wednesday (uber-Catholic Baton Rouge), and screening my movie at a South Carolina high school for 10th graders without bothering to look at it beforehand (Wayne Koestenbaum: "It also sounds--this is obscene--like being fucked by light. Fucked by light!" "OK THAT'S ENOUGH, THIS SCREENING IS OVER AND NOW WE'RE GOING TO SPEND THE REST OF THE CLASS PERIOD TALKING ABOUT CENSORSHIP.").

Wayne Koestenbaum onscreen in Mobile, AL

Since I know full well you get what you pay for, should I have been surprised that there was a dead pizza in my fridge at the Montgomery airport Motel 6? And I got so much great press that it would be absolutely churlish to point out that the Mobile Vanguard chose to alternate spellings of my name between Festa and Zesta.

Justin Bond as Kiki DuRane onscreen in Mobile, AL

The abovementioned conspiracy against this blog and its author had so many layers of redundancy built into it, so that before long an elaborately choreographed dance of fuck-ups began to emerge from the ruins of my Columbia happiness, and I saw that I could literally set my watch to the pace of disasters.

John Cameron Mitchell onscreen in Mobile, AL

Something went wrong approximately every 12 and a half minutes. I missed my flight out of Columbia after Orangeburg. I left a Thin Man book-on-CD disc in the rental car and my computer lock on the keychain. In Montgomery, I had to rent an SUV. I continued getting hate mail from Athens. The wheel on my suitcase broke. The Motel 6 WiFi in Palm Beach was broken. The Motel 6 WiFi in Baton Rouge didn't exist. I cannot blog under these conditions!

Michael Warner onscreen in Mobile, AL

My movie played to audiences of a dozen people. In Beaufort it played to fewer than that in the back of an office.

a sold-out screening of Apparition of the Eternal Church in Beaufort, SC

In Montgomery, my name on the marquee of the Art Deco Capri Theater brought in a total of 13 people.

"Control Paul Festa"

I am box office poison!

I have seen my name in lights, and it isn't pretty

In Baton Rouge, in the most beautiful modern theater I've ever seen, much less screened in, I forgot to give them the new DVD and the one they had tiled up and froze halfway through, eliciting a panic attack by the director.

In Baton Rouge they didn't know I was box office poison and gave me a star dressing room.

In Florida the movie screened at the Palm Beach Community College to an audience of 11 undergraduates who made NOT ONE SOUND from the moment they entered the theater to the moment they fled from it. A perfectly silent Q&A, which calls into question my use of the letter Q.

Harold Bloom onscreen in Mobile, AL

And then--Mobile. Closing night. In a jewelbox theater at the public library, following blanket press coverage--two stories in the Mobile Press-Register and ads and write-ups in every tabloid and posters around town--a full house!

wrap that blanket press coverage around me

More people saw the film in Mobile than the rest of the tour combined--including Greenville.

Squeaky Blonde onscreen in Montgomery, AL

Great questions afterwards, good sales at the Bar Nothing Boutique. And then, after sushi with the delightful and miraculously competent Charlie Smoke of the Mobile Arts Council (on whose Website is posted the unedited transcript of the Mobile Press-Register interview), a celebratory Oreo McFlurry at the downtown MacDonalds and a glorious, complimentary night's rest at the Holiday Inn, with a 14th-floor view of Mobile and a bed with a 1000-thread-count sheets and a pillow menu.

Manoel Felciano onscreen in Mobile, AL

At the Motel 6 I'm not 100 percent sure those things on the bed were pillows.

Ilan Greenberg onscreen in Mobile, AL

And the next day, feeling like Jack Bauer speeding down the highway on a mission of harrowing consequence, I drove my PT Cruiser into the French Quarter, parked it, and staged a commando raid on the Cafe du Monde, where I slammed down a plate of beignets and a cafe au lait before I ran back to the car, returned it, and got my flight out of Louis Armstrong International with minutes to spare and powdered sugar all over my shirt.

Jackie Beat onscreen in Mobile, AL

Socheata, back to you.

Columbia, S.C. ROCKS!

What day is it? I’m writing all these entries in the early hours of the next morning, and Blogger doesn’t honor the idea that the day before and the day after are distinguished by my having gone to bed. Technically today is Friday, February 1, 2008, and yesterday, or earlier tonight, was the screening of my film at the Nickelodeon.



Think of the Athens screening as having taken place among the sarcophagi in the museum, and Columbia as the middle-of-the-night show when the dead are raised and the liquor comes out. My first screening with beer in hand! Public screening, anyway. (There was free Dewars in New York, but only after the screening.)




So much laughter, so much connection, such great questions afterward, and such good sales at the Bar Nothing Boutique, where several people ordered fully illustrated copies of Oh My God. After all the all-nighters and the relentless, monumental stress of turning that thing from idea to book between Thanksgiving and Southern Circuit, I couldn’t have been happier if Knopf came up to me after the show and offered me a half a mil for my novel (which doesn't mean I would turn it down).

Afterward I had a terrific time with my Nickelodeon hosts, despite the fact that my guardian angel art yenta Laura had to skip out early with a migraine.

Like John Mitchell and Harold Bloom,
Laura got a headache from
Apparition of the Eternal Church

The rest of us went to some fabulous underground tavern and then to the Strom Thurmond memorial and then to the Art Bar and then the Nickelodeon’s Andy Smith--


--who, it turns out, went to Swarthmore with my boyfriend James—took me to the old theater, now a beauty shop, that they bought and are raising money to restore. Here are pictures:






Sorry no time for more detail or captions (this one is "ghost theater")—it’s well past 2 in the morning and I have to drive three hours tomorrow before reporting to Beaufort High School by lunch hour. Caffeine is my friend.

Columbia, S.C. ROCKS!

beaufort (and belatedly columbia)

It's been two days (or three?) since I last had a moment to post (and internet access for posting), and in the interim I've read Eric Patrick's Circuit blog, which was fairly intimidating. In any case, here's what else has transpired since my report from Athens.

The show in Columbia was great. I live in Irmo, SC, a relatively isolated Columbia suburb, for about 10 years. I've rarely gone back to Columbia since leaving 20 years ago, but this visit made me think I was a fool for taking such a long break. The room was full of people--many of them students cajoled/bribed/bullied into coming by Larry Hembree, Andy Smith, and Laura Kissel--and it was definitely nice to see a big crowd (however they were made to come). Andy at the Nickelodeon was the steward of my visit & he couldn't have been a better host. I saw a handful of old friends from high school & got to make another handful of new ones (some of whom, it turns out, I may be seeing again next month in New York). Columbia is really a very different town than it was when I was there--and that's a very good thing.

The next morning--after unexpectedly crashing on Andy's couch--I was supposed to make an appearance on a local Fox-TV morning show, but because of crossed wires with the person who set the appearance up, I ended up showing up too late & got bumped. It's too bad too, because the other guest that morning was Master P (né Percy Miller), the rap impresario who was pushing the new book he's just penned. I would've liked to have talked cinema with the man behind _I Got The Hook Up_ and _I'm Bout It_, but oh well...

From there, I grabbed a quick bite with Andy again (including some memorably great grits) & raced off to Bluffton High School where I was presenting my films to an auditorium full of high school students. Note to self: high school students at 1 p.m. on a Friday are likely to be VERY bored &/or restless--DO NOT FORGET THIS. Anyway, once the films started rolling, they seemed to get into them, with laughter in the right places, &c. I ended up unspooling about 30 feet of TB TX DANCE so they could see what 16mm film looks like & they seemed mostly into that (or at least more into that than they were into my prologue). It was an interesting experience overall, and I'm glad I got to see my work through a different set of eyes.

I then rolled northward to Beaufort, where I was escorted to the amazing guest digs they had set up for me. JW Rone was my guide for this part, but once I got installed there, he handed me off to Jay, another member of the Beaufort arts crowd. Jay led me down to a great free dinner at Panini's Café--consider this a plug, I guess, because the warm chocolate cake was pretty stellar (and more so for being free). We then worked our way over to the show, where JW reappeared to introduce me. The room wasn't full, but I really got nice feedback after the show, and I felt good about the way things went there. I got to go back to my luxurious digs afterwards & managed to get a full night's sleep finally (10 hours!) for the first time since I left Wilmington, NC over a week ago.

I'm in Charleston, SC today, enjoying my day off & getting ready to grill chicken breasts with one of my girlfriend's old friends. Her 2 1/2 year son is presently demanding that I rejoin the fun, so I guess this is where this post ends.

For now,
R.

Interkosmos down the street from the Capitol Building

Doing my Columbia blog before the screening since Cat Mazza, my amazing common-law wife, is in town and we are driving through the night to sunny Bluffton, SC after the show. I woke up and watched yet more coverage of the Virginia Tech massacre. This time it's the kid's strange multi-media homocide artist's notes. Pretty puerile stuff really. The Columbine kids could get away with it, but this guy is a college student. The news is still talking about how "shocking" it is when every day people are killed in Iraq. Every time a gun control person is interviewed on the news, there is a gun advocate on split screen yelling them down with INSANE ideas like everyone should have a gun and then people would be too afraid of getting shot to do a massacre. They sound logical though. We might as well be in 1938 USSR.

Back to cheerier notes. Columbia is more charming than i thought. I guess i had in my mind corporate new south. I saw the confederate flag which was moved off the Capitol bldg and put on a pole in front of the bldg, pissing everybody off. The football coach wants to get rid of it. He says, among other things, that it hurts recruitment. Good point bub. Love that. I saw the stars on the building where Sheman's cannonballs pierced the bldg. They added red onions to the tuna salad at the Gourmet Cafe. I thought it was tasty but my cousin Tracy who runs a jewelry store here called "Just the Thing" didn't like the addition. I brought it up when i got to the theater and everyone agreed that it is the South and the South tends to add onions. They did not blame her for being annoyed.

Last night while my screening was going on at Clemson, there were a number of fliers for some kind of "terrorism awareness" group, which was trying to convince people to be terrified of Hezbollah. Sure, if you are a right-wing Christian militia member in Lebanon, i agree, you should be scared. Not sure why someone wearing tan flip-flops in Clemson, SC should be scared. I guess they are trying to lay the ground work for an Iran invasion by connecting the group to the Iranians. Reminds me of the horrible Nicaraguan invasion of the 80s. Somehow that never came true. Luckily. Anyway I wrote the word Boo! on each of the papers next to the picture of the mullah and the words BE AFRAID. Pretty ineffectual but still i thought if someone's on the fence and has a sense of humor, maybe they'll get how lame it is and not go.

Anyway, Larry's great here at the Nickelodeon in Columbia. He showed me Strom Thurmond's statue where they carved his black daughter's name: Essie Mae under his white children, which i thought was great. They had to fill in the word "four" in front of children and then re-carve "five". Then he gave me a tour of the theater the city bought for them on Main street. It's an old 30's theater that became of two-story double porn theater in the 70s and then closed. They are going to be doing fund-raising and the city is excited about it. Bringing in the famous James Bond from Chicago to get it ready, who apparently just installed Oprah's home theater. This place seems great so it should be a good crowd tonight. More tomorrow. Going to try and avoid the tv and get off my massacre coverage addiction. They should bill it as the biggest US massacre since Powder River, but i think shooting Indians in those days was kind of like the War on Terror. Loose and open to interpretation.

Southern Circuit tour day five - Karl Staven

Southern Circuit tour day five. Columbia, South Carolina. Before leaving Clemson I visited David Donar’s graduate animation production class. The class was working on a group project and they may have wished they hadn’t invited me in retrospect. Not because I tore their film apart, I didn’t. They had a solid concept, good modeling and lighting, and the animation moved fairly well. It’s just that they were so far along in their process that the suggestions that I made to add some additional character development and questions about some of the motivation of the actions (why is the little boy stomping on the cereal box that contains the toy that he wants?) would necessitate alterations in timing and animation that they hadn’t planned on. Such is life. Just when you think you’re about done some Yankee comes along and questions you. Ah, but what is a Yankee? I may be living in Philadelphia now but I spent my formative years (2 through 18) in Georgia.

It was good to get involved in a dialogue about a film in process and I hope I was able to offer assistance.

Drove down to Columbia from Clemson and found my temporary housing for the night. A brief exploratory walk around the hotel environs left me with a muddy shoe and a long scratch on the back of my leg. Headed over to the Nickelodeon Theatre and met Andy and Larry in their basement office. Larry was excited about an upcoming meeting he had to attend so Andy was left in charge of babysitting the visiting filmmaker.

After a beer and some tasty crawfish we headed over to the cinema for the screening. The Nickelodeon is a small but friendly theater. They serve alcohol in addition to the standard fare and are looking forward to (given a board of trustees approval) a move to a larger venue with two screens.

Not a large turnout at the screening but the attendees were engaged and actually laughed at films that were supposed to be funny (the Clemson crowd was pretty silent; they may have been smiling but they weren’t emitting humorous noises). Several folks came up afterwards to talk and a few actually purchased copies of my dvd.

Afterwards Andy and I walked over to a local pub to have an additional beverage. Andy pointed out the prominent statue of Strom Thurmond next to the state capitol building where the engraving on the side was changed to alter the number of his children from four to five and to add the name of Essie, the segregationist’s child he fathered with an African American maid that was only revealed after his death.

Fascinating. I knew of the facts but not the statue alteration.

Thanks to Andy and the Nick for their hospitality, and the kind woman who lobbied on my behalf for inclusion in the Southern Circuit tour who handed me additional information and purchased a dvd. I’m sorry that my brain wasn’t able to hang onto your name. Just so you know, it usually takes me a full semester to commit the names of all of my students into long term memory.

Cheers,

Karl

#1 skilled in crusin

Dear All,

This recap begins on day three of the tour. I was in Sweet Briar, VA. It was Halloween. The leaves were just turning and I was tired.

I thought this picture from the plane looked neat, like a vein or something.


Sweet Briar College was perfect and my room was comfortable and I had a small porch to sit on before the screening. On the porch I contemplated the leaves and had coffee and a brown sugar and cinnamon Pop Tart.


Then I went to the show. Thanks everyone for coming! And many thanks to the awesome Sweet Briar students (whose names have sadly escaped me) for making the screening go off without a hitch.


During the show I wandered the Sweet Briar campus alone.


Spooky, eh? There was a murder of crows in this patch of greenery. They cawed at me so I hightailed it back to the screening room on account of the fact I'm a huge chicken.



The next morning this gentleman drove me to the airport. I believe his name was Lou. When I hopped into his cab he was listening to a radio sermon on Halloween and the devil. I remember thinking that if I was in NYC I might have asked the driver to turn down his radio but in Virginia I didn't mind.


Our trip was short but on the way Lou managed to share with me a lot about his youth: he was the oldest of 15 kids born to illiterate parents; his mom used to make thicken gravy out of flour and chicken scraps, which they’d eat over quick breads; they were farmers and grew all their own food. He said he wanted to record his family history and I told him I'd send him a tape recorder and some tapes so he could tell me his stories, then he could send 'em back and I'd transcribe everything. I will do that soon. He was a pretty intense fellow and I was surprised and glad he opened up to me the way that he did. Made me realize there are stories everywhere just waiting to be told.


Day four: Clemson University. I arrived at the Comfort Inn mere moments before I was picked up by a gaggle of way intelligent Clemson profs who took me to the show where I was happy to see people running to get the good seats.



Turns out all the seats were good seats.



I totally admit to stalking this guy on account of his jacket.



I was redonkulously fascinated and after the Q & A...



I got my man.



Turns out this guy's dad played on the Manhattan High School basketball team in 1976 and that this was his warm up jacket. Aww.


Thanks a million to the way intelligent Clemson profs for taking excellent care of me before, during and after the show. And all joking aside, the crowd really seemed to take to the film and the Q & A was a lively one. I never get tired of people telling me they've connected to my work and I don't think I ever will. It's an interesting experience (and a humbling one) that my story sometimes makes people cry.





Day five: I rose early for the drive to Columbia, SC.

An advertisement I saw on the way but did not get a picture of on account of the fact I was driving, probably way too fast: a Confederate flag stuck in a giant BBQ sandwich. Hmm. No words for that, really.

Columbia, SC. The state capital.


The Nickelodeon Theater.



Larry Hembree, Nickelodeon Theater Executive Director. Larry's got an amazing thing going in Columbia with the Nick. He really works hard to bring movies you wouldn't expect to see in the South to the South. I was sad I was going to miss his midnight showing of WAITING FOR GUFFMAN. Larry, keep up the good work and enjoy your new digs (the Columbia Film Society/Nickelodeon Theatre recently bought a circa 1936 Art Deco theater in downtown Columbia and is renovating it).


This here's the old new Nick.


This is how I felt after the screening in Columbia. I felt Wow.


Day six: by 6:30am I'm on the road to Beaufort, SC. I'm meeting Carol Tuynman, President of the Arts Council of Beaufort County, who will be taking me to screen the film for the Bluffton High School Film Institute at 11:30am. Yowza. Should not have stayed out till 1am the night before.

The Army recruiting station at Bluffton High School. This is a normal thing, I guess.

Film crowd at BHS. (Note: the crowd got bigger after I took this shot; for a Friday afternoon at 3pm I think they did an amazing job sticking with the movie.)

The lovely Carol and her large salad before my screening at the most awesomely named school in the world: The Technical College of the Lowcountry (of which I managed not to snag a single picture).

Beaufort was very special for a couple of reasons.
The screening was fantastic and the crowd was one of the warmest I've ever had.

Also, Beaufort was beautiful.

And I was put up in the magnificent guesthouse of Lesley Hendricks, former Arts Council president. (Dear Lesley, though I did not get a chance to meet you, I would like to say thank you very much for allowing me to stay in your lovely guest home. Sincerely, Tara Wray.)

And my boyfriend, Josh Melrod, joined me.

He really took to this giant pig.

Goodbye, Beaufort, my sweet.

Day seven & eight: Rested on the 7th (obviously) and traveled to Orangeburg, SC on the 8th. Along the way, Josh and I stopped for an awesome lunch of cheeseburgers...

and grilled pimento cheese sandwiches.

Continuing on. This was the screening venue on the South Carolina State University campus in Orangeburg.

A building being fixed up on the SCSU campus.

The early crowd. We wound up with I'd say at least forty viewers. Many thanks, Ellen, for putting together the show!

Day eight: Asheville, NC. Sweet.

Innards of the Fine Arts Theater. Special thanks to Alison Watson, Executive Director of The Media Arts Project and Neal Reed, manager of Fine Arts, for putting together the show.
Whew.
Southern Circuit, you were amazing (huge thanks to David Dombrosky and Susan Leonard). To all the wonderful people I met along the way: I hope our paths cross again. And help keep the MANHATTAN, KANSAS ball rolling: post your review of the film on imdb.com; become our friend on MySpace; tell your friends, family, mental health care providers about this film; in other words, please keep in touch.

All best,
Tara Wray
http://lbthunderponyproductions.com/





As seen on the back of a car in SC.