"you don't know what I got" Visits ORANGEBURG, S.C.

 artist: Leonard Edward Cave

My visit to Orangeburg was the most surprising I had on tour.   I knew it would be interesting to screen in a planetarium and I was looking forward to staying  in a "local's" home instead of the sterile Holiday Inn Express But I had no idea... The films looked and sounded amazing in the Planetarium!  I would personally travel back to Orangeburg just to screen in that space.  I was also impressed with the students at  SCSU. They were engaged and asked great questions, not to mention the excellent introduction I was given by a fellow student. 

But my surprises were far from over.  After a reception my host Ellen Zisholtz,  the Museum Director and a Professor at SCSU, took me to a delicious Thai restaurant.  We were joined by her other house guests - a visiting artist for Atlanta Donna Jackson and her son from California.  They were in town for the La Biennale 2012 Exhibit at the Stanback. http://scsucrash.blogspot.com/2012/04/current-exhibition-la-biennale.html A fabulous collection of art including works by Donna and Ellen. 

The night continued, as we all went back to Ellen's home for a celebratory glass of champagne and I shared my last remaining "Gimme Jimmie Lemon Bars" with the group.   Southern hospitality oozed out of ever inch of Ellen's northern soul.  A transplant from the big apple/New Jersey she was a wonderful host and brought a very rich experience to my stay in Orangeburg, one I will not soon forget.

Meet Linda Duvoisin

Welcome Linda Duvoisin and her film, You Don't Know What I Got, to the Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers! Her first screening is tonight at the Arts Council in Gainesville, GA. The show starts at 7:30 pm so get there early for the best seats!

About Linda: Linda Duvoisin is a partner at Mindflow Media, a Chattanooga-based television and film production company. She is a seasoned documentary filmmaker, and has worked for public television, Walter Cronkite, National Geographic, and Discovery Networks, among others over the course of her 20 year career. During that time, she has won numerous awards and accolades including an Individual Artist Grant for filmmaking from the Tennessee Arts Commission, several CINE Golden Eagles, a Silver Telly, and two regional Emmy nominations.

Linda's film will also screen in the following communities:

Hapeville, GA

Madison, GA

Manteo, NC

Orangeburg, SC

View the trailer:

From Orangeburg, SC to Gainesville, GA

Today was a day of driving, from Orangeburg, where we showed the film last night, to Gainesville, where we'll do it again tonight.

The show in Orangeburg was cool for several reasons. The film showed in the Stanback Planetarium and seeing on the curved dome screen gave the shots of the mountains in Northern Nepal a whole new scope and perspective. The students who attended the show were great: many didn't know where Nepal or Tibet were before the show, but the questions after were fun and smart.

I'd arrived early and spent over an hour walking through the Stanback Museum's current show - a Warhol retrospective that was VERY high quality and testimony to the curatorial skills of Ellen Zisholtz, who went the extra mile of giving me a place to sleep after the show, even though she had to get up early to take a group of museum curation students to Charleston first thing in the morning.

After leaving Orangeburg I headed toward Gainesville, but a conversation with my father reminded me that my aunt Norma lived along the way, so I stopped and had lunch with her and some friends at the Covenant Retirement community in Due West, SC. It turns out to be a good thing I did: Norma is moving back to California in a few months and it will be a lot harder to visit. Thanks for lunch, Norma!

Ahead of Time shows in Orangeburg, SC

Today we screened "Ahead of Time" at the Museum and Planetarium at South Carolina State Unversity, home of the Bulldogs!

The museum is currently showing a fascinating exhibition on Lorenzo Dow Turner, the first African American linguist, and his discovery of the language of the Gullah people of South Carolina and Georgia. He discovered that they spoke a Creole language, with African ancestry.

We visited the Edista Memorial Gardens and their noted rose gardens and huge live oaks with Spanish moss.

I enjoyed the hospitality of Museum and Planetarium director, Ellen Zisholtz, in her beautiful home. She was very generous with her time and her friends!

-Zeva Oelbaum

ABEL RAISES CAIN in Orangeburg, SC

When you're on tour and crossing state lines on a daily basis, it's easy to lose track of time and place. Every morning, my dad wakes up and asks me, "Now, where are we again?"



We're having fun driving around listening to big band music on satellite radio. The swinging old tunes from the 1940s follow us everywhere. Many of them take my dad back to the days when he was on tour playing drums as a teenager. Over the first few bars of Count Basie's "Jumpin' at the Woodside," he turned to me and remarked that he's only played that song 150,000 times.


I relished the irony when "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition" came on because it seems there's no shortage of churches and gun shops along the back roads of the South.



Dilapidated structures are especially eye-catching to me. I know we're on a tight travel schedule, but I feel compelled to pull over and document their sad beauty.


The problem is that I'm experiencing some technical difficulties. The dying battery in my camera (which is actually an old iPhone that I inherited from my boyfriend and co-director, Jeff) only holds a charge for 30 seconds. So this adds a certain excitement and sometimes frustration to the journey. I have to jump from electrical outlet to car charger and remain plugged in if I want to grab more than one shot.



When it's not possible for me to stop the car or recharge, the abandoned gas stations, crazy billboards and colorful landscapes pop out at me and then blur as they grow distant in my rearview mirror.



When we arrived in Orangeburg, SC, of course we were lost. Google Maps can either be dead on or deadly. Luckily, we found our way to the museum director's house where we were staying that night, but we still managed to take the scenic route.


Ellen Zisholt's home is loaded with old radios, sculptures, paintings, masks, knick knacks and other cool stuff. I loved the room that I stayed in.



I admired Ellen's artistic taste and vision. She had the idea to screen films in the Planetarium itself at the I.P. Stanback Museum & Planetarium. Another unique presentation of the film while on the South Arts tour, ABEL RAISES CAIN screened on a domed ceiling! Audience members reclined horizontally while viewing the film. I was mesmerized by the image that wrapped in such a way that, when there was any sort of camera panning motion, it seemed as if the room was spinning. It was like a ride at the amusement park!



The Planetarium was packed almost to full capacity at about 85 attendees. Ellen and her colleagues (students, faculty and staff) went out of their way to make the event a success, including a post-screening party with punch and nachos.


But the night wouldn't have been complete without a trip to IHOP. I haven't eaten at one of these since I was a teenager. This wasn't just any IHOP... a few months back, a famous food fight occurred here between two women and someone shot video of it that went viral. We would have gone to Applebee's, but on Thursday nights, they turn it into a nightclub and supposedly hundreds of people wait on line to get in. It sounds unbelievable, I know.



Truth is stranger than fiction as we travel deeper into the South!

Location:Orangeburg, SC

Burning In the Sun in the Carolinas and Georgia

I’m an oddity in the South. I’m a young Jewish woman from Los Angeles by way of Brooklyn, Vermont, and recently Portland, OR. People I meet who aren’t associated with the Southern Tour want to know what on earth I’m doing in their town. It’s been a blast meeting people from all these different pockets of the country and hearing their perspectives on where they come from.

On Tuesday I had a screening on the campus of East Carolina University in Greenville, NC, a college town, mostly. The audience there was the biggest yet, and a handful of film production students were eager to learn about the filmmaking process and other technical details. Other students were there for school credit and less verbally enthusiastic about what they saw, but I was pleased to have them there and hoped they got something from the show. Thanks to Michael Crane, Michael Dermody and Morgan for taking me out afterwards for a fun cocktail hour at a local haunt. It was especially cool to meet Morgan, a student new to film production, but obviously born to be a film producer. Can’t wait to see what she does!

Wednesday I had a long drive to Augusta, GA and was thankful again for the generally above-average high speed at which freeway driving seems to happen down here. The film was showing at the Morris Museum of Art, which I think is the first museum setting BITS has had. A gracious crowd assembled to see the film - thanks to Kevin and Michelle for including us in their lineup; in the museum’s monthly calendar we were listed next to To Kill A Mockingbird, which caught my attention and humbled me yet again. The next day I had time to go back to the museum to look at their collection of Southern art, mostly paintings, including a special exhibit on Helen Turner from New Orleans. Before leaving town, I also squeezed in a tour of my homebase, the epic Rosemary Inn, "one of the finest examples of the Beaux-Arts style built in 1902." Thanks to Diana and Kelly for being such generous hosts (they donate rooms to filmmakers on the tour). What a gorgeous, historic home, and what a treat!


Later that day I took the backroads to get to my next destination, and was rewarded with breathtaking South Carolina forests dotted with crisp red foliage and bright cotton fields. It felt like the heart of autumn.


In Orangeburg, SC, the film showed on the campus of South Carolina University, an HBCU (Historically Black College and University). It also showed on the ceiling of an awesome planetarium there – another first! Artist and Museum Studies professor Ellen Zisholtz was my host, and I was grateful that she insisted on showing me the current exhibit at the museum there, a multimedia look at the experiences of racism suffered by Jews and African-Americans. The exhibit felt fresh and daring, personal and real. Thanks to all the faculty and administrators I met at the college, and especially to Ellen, who even hosted me at her home that evening.



Now I’m headed back to the Gulf…

Ryan White - Orangeburg

When I asked how to get to Orangeburg, SC from Augusta, a guy with a handlebar moustache told me to take the country roads instead of I-20. I think when a guy with a handlebar moustache tells you to do something, you do it. So I did it. And I regretted that philosophy three minutes later when I got stopped at a railroad crossing for the Longest. Train. Ever. I didn’t know how long these country roads would take, so I was stressed about how late it might make me. But once it passed, it was all smooth sailing after that. I passed lots of cotton fields and churches, and the radios played sermons so I listened to that. I passed through Beech Island where James Brown lived.

I arrived in Orangeburg and went to the IP Steinbeck Museum on South Carolina State University’s campus. There I met the museum’s staff, who have to be one of the nicest staffs ever in the history of staffs. When I asked where the screening would be, someone said, “In the planetarium.” I ducked around the corner and checked it out. So cool! The movie played on the curved ceiling where the stars normally play. Definitely the most unique venue we’ve ever (and probably will ever) play.

During the screening the head of the museum, Ellen Zisholtz, gave me a tour of the exhibits. They’re currently putting one together on Jim Crow and the Holocaust which looks amazing – apparently historically black colleges were some of the only places to hire Jewish professors who fled Europe during the Holocaust. Then Ellen took me to the museum vaults and surprised me with their previous exhibit, which is now in mechanized stacked shelves: James Brown’s wardrobe. When he died a few years ago his family donated his wardrobe to the museum, so there were just rows and rows of mink fur coats and bedazzled sombreros.

SCSU has some great students who stuck around after the screening to ask questions and chit chat during a taco reception. This museum is a really warm place, so I recommend going out of your way to find it if you’re passing through SC.

GA, SC, GA, FLA

I apologize for the time off. I usually blog at night and the last couple of stops have been at a B&B and a private home. Both fabulous night stays but I wasn't "doing the net." I have four visits to report!

Since my last writing we screened in Watkinsville, GA (next to Athens) at North Oconee High School. For those who haven't seen North Oconee, it's the Taj Mahal of high schools. It looks like a college campus...just an incredible facility. The screening went well and I stayed in a charming Victorian B&B. The next morning I walked the campus at the University of Georgia. As much as it pains this University of Tennessee alum to write, I have to give it to our rival SEC East school - Georgia. They have a beautiful campus and Athens is everything you'd want in a college town.

Speaking of college towns with pretty campuses, it was up I-85 to Clemson. I enjoyed my time with the school's film professor Aga Skrodzka-Bates. Aga is a native of Poland, as is our film's editor Greg Grzeszczak. We all call Greg "GG" because no one in North Carolina feels comfortable saying, Grzeszczak. Aga and GG spoke in Polish about their mutual love of films and the epistemology of GG's last name. Aga claims Grzeszczak means "little pea." GG was hoping it was something more grandiose, perhaps, giant grapefruit. I'm betting on Aga. Anyway, we screened in front of a large crowd, including lots of students and had a great showing.

Then I travelled across the Palmetto State from Clemson to Orangeburg, home of South Carolina State. I met Ellen Zisholtz. Ellen is originally from New York. In true Gotham City style, we immediately had coffee and talked. There are lots of exciting things going on at South Carolina State and it seems Ellen is leading many of them. She's an energetic ambassador of goodwill, and an excellent painter! I got to tour the latest exhibit at the I.P. Stanback Museum and Planetarium: The James Brown Collection. It is an impressive collection that is very well done! I was particularly taken by the original sheet music. Our film played in a planetarium. I've never had that experience before. It was interesting, watching a crowd that reclined (usually a bad sign like they're asleep) but they weren't. The film was warmly received.

Today, I drove from South Carolina down to Brunswick, GA. Truth be told, I got there a little early so I could hang out at the beach for a few hours. I walked and biked around Jekyll Island before making my way to Brunswick. We played at the Ritz Theater - a great venue that dates back to the 19th century. Heather Heath runs the place and, as I'm noticing with most of my hosts, she too is an artist. Heather is an accomplished actress. She's also married to the Mayor of Brunswick but that's a whole other story. I also enjoyed meeting and talking with playwright/director Rob Nixon. As the film played at the Ritz, I strolled down the street and had a glass of wine at a local bar. I sat in one of those big comfy couches, the kind you want to lounge in but don't want to have in your house. I asked the visiting musician to play some Van Morrison. He obliged. As I sipped wine and sailed into "The Mystic" I realized I have only one more gig. It's up in Kentucky, tomorrow.

It has been quite a trip! I hope to report on the Paramount Arts Center tomorrow night. Until then...

South Carolina State University & Laid Back Seats!

THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2009

Tonight marks the second to the last screening on this fabulous Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers.  South Carolina State University is an historic Black college that I am excited to visit.  I arrive on campus and head straight to the I.P. Stanback Museum & Planetarium.  I am immediately welcomed by the staff and instantly feel right at home.  True Southern hospitality up in the Stanback.  I am greeted by everyone and eventually meet a very nice former New Yorker who happens to be the museum's curator and my Circuit Tour hostess, Ellen Zisholtz. 

The first thing we do before the screening begins is walk into the phenomenal exhibit of everything James Brown.  Ellen gives my a guided tour of the exhibit and tells me so many fascinating stories behind the items that only a curator who selected each item from the Brown estate could know and share.  I was truly impressed by how well Ellen, Darryl Murphy and other dedicated folk on her team assembled this remarkable James Brown exhibit.  The exhibit (which includes hand-written music/lyrics to some of his chart-topping songs, his furniture, wardrobe, hundreds and hundreds of personal items, awards, photographs, artwork, jewelry and even his hair-rollers) is at the museum until September 1, 2009.  So if you are close to Orangeburg, SC, you should really stop by the Stanback Museum and see his "stuff."

The All About Us screening was packed with students, faculty and adults from the town.  As other filmmakers have mentioned in their previous blogs this is the tour stop where your film is projected inside of a planetarium!  This was the first and possibly last time All About Us will be screened on a domed ceiling.  As we sat in permanently reclined seats and watched the film, I had this feeling on the inside about 30 minutes in that they REALLY, REALLY like the movie!  

After the screening the audience and I had a very long Q&A which has now become more of the norm on the tour.  I was told after the screening that the students had never asked that many questions to any of the other filmmakers (due respect, of course, if other tour  filmmakers are reading this).  But the students connected with the material and perhaps with me.  In fact, I asked how many had seen my first movie, All About You, and lots of hands went right up all over the planetarium.  That was cool.  Like the last evening at Clemson, I felt like I was interacting with my Johnson C. Smith University students again here at S.C. State.  We had an awesome exchange and a memorable event overall.  

I look forward to returning to the museum with my family this summer to show them James Brown's rollers.  -Michael Swanson

Orangeburg, SC: Preserving the Past

“Do you think if our society took the time out to drink a cup of tea, we would really be in a better situation?”

Day 9: November 20th ORANGEBURG, SC: I.P. Stanback Museum and Planetarium


We had a loyal support staff in Orangeburg, South Carolina. The morning of our journey, we received a phone call from Ellen Zisholtz and Darryl Murphy, who were eager to offer directions to make sure we arrived without a hitch. Upon entering the South Carolina State University campus, however, we got turned around, at which point Ingrid Owens, who works at the front desk, helped us to find out way to the venue.


South Carolina State University is an HBC, or a historically black college, and so this was our first African American audience, despite being in the South for nearly two weeks! SCSU is the only historically black land-grant institution in South Carolina, and it has about 4,500 students. When we arrived at the I.P. Stanback Museum and planetarium, we were introduced to Britney Cokley, the student who would later overcome her shyness and her confessed fear of public speaking to give a beautiful introduction to the film. Then we were quickly ushered into the museum to receive a tour of the museum, which housed an exhibition of Gullah culture, including paintings, crafts, and sculpture. The Gullah are African Americans from the South Carolina and Georgia Low Country who are known for preserving more of their African cultural and linguistic heritage than any other African American population in the United States. The art in the museum was both striking and soulful, encapsulating many of the artists’ memories of growing up in the lowlands of South Carolina, as well as demonstrating many Central and West African influences.


Dr. Elizabeth Mayo, the planetarium manager and astronomy professor at SCSU, took the helm, steering us into the planetarium for a sound and picture check. We were surprised and excited to discover that the screen was dome shaped and the seats reclined at a 45-degree angle! Soon thereafter, the students filtered in, and the film began. About twenty-five students attended the film, and Scott was dismayed to see many of the young people using their cell phones during the film. Being a bit of a texting-addict myself, I noticed this same trend in our previous night’s audience at Clemson University, but Scott was sitting in the front row and hadn’t noticed. In their defense, some of the students were using their phone LCD screens as a light to take notes, but regardless, the phenomenon led nicely into the post-screening discussion.

Sound check in planetarium

One student directly asked, “Do you think if our society took the time out to drink a cup of tea, we would really be in a better situation?” Scott replied, “I hope so. Today there is so much technology. For instance, I noticed a lot of cell phone use during the film, and cell phones do have their place. But when you step away from that technology and the demands it places on us and spend quality time with another person, it allows you to really connect. When I was having tea with an older gentleman in Asia, I could really tell that he was noticing my energy. It really helps to be in the moment; like when I’m talking to you now, I don’t notice anything else in the universe.”


The screening was followed by an extravagant British tea party prepared by the planetarium manager Dr. Elizabeth’s mother, Olwyn Mayo. Lined up on the table was an endless array of [typically-English] sausage rolls; cucumber sandwiches; nut bread with cream cheese, walnuts and celery; almond nut pastries filled with lemon curd and topped with fruit; cakes and cookies; and a tea punch made from strongly brewed black iced tea (8-bags!), orange juice, lemonade, and unsweetened pineapple juice. Elizabeth and her mother manned the tea stand, serving tea to the line of partygoers. I overheard one student named Ashley Burkes saying, “When I was younger, I used to go to tea parties all the time. Now I am thinking about hosting a tea party at my house.”


After the tea party, Ellen and two sharply dressed (and sharp-witted) students, Kenneth McClary and Davion Petty, accompanied us to the back storage room of the museum for a special treat. Movable storage cabinets parted ways to reveal… James Brown’s entire wardrobe, perfectly preserved from his estate! These brightly colored costumes, along with some furniture and various odds and ends, were being kept temporarily by the museum for an upcoming James Brown exhibit. We felt incredibly lucky to glimpse these relics from the Godfather of Soul.


After emerging from the vault, we stayed for another hour and a half with Ellen, Kenneth, Davion, Darryl, and Neta Weston-Harris, a friendly Atlanta native who relocated to South Carolina with her husband, and we chatted about the South, politics, and education, tossing jokes back and forth like old friends. We continued the conversation at Applebee’s, the only place open at ten o’clock on a weeknight. After a light bite, we retired to Ellen’s spectacular abode, which was adorned with beautiful artwork, including some of her own paintings, antique furniture, and gorgeous South American and African sculptures. Scott and Ellen continued talking into the wee hours of the night, while I hit the sack and continued to think about the night we just had. Upon reflecting, I realized that being at SCSU really established a contrast with the idea from the film that people, especially younger folks, are forgetting about the past. While we were walking through the I.P. Stanback museum looking at the cultural artifacts and learning about the history of the region, it couldn’t be more obvious that the university’s focus on black history encourages students to develop a strong sense of ancestry, with an emphasis on preserving the past. Therefore, the work that Ellen and her fellow faculty members are doing is challenging the notion that upholding tradition is a passing phenomenon. It was really refreshing to witness this first hand. Heather Hilton, who writes the blog for the museum, praised Ellen’s work in particular, saying, “She’s such a guiding light to all of us here.” For more on the museum’s events, visit the university’s blog at http://www.scsucrash.blogspot.com/

"Ripe for Change" Tour Day 10 Orangeburg, South Carolina

This was a day of "firsts" for me as a filmmaker. The first time I ever screened a film in South Carolina, the first time I ever projected it on the curved walls of a planetarium and the first time Ripe for Change was screened and discussed at a historic black university and college, South Carolina State University (SCSU) in Orangeburg,South Carolina. The screening was sponsored by in the IP Stanback Museum and Planetarium. The audience was primarily education professors and their students who themselves will be teaching very soon.

Ellen Zisholtz, the museum's director told me that they have been presenting films in The Southern Circuit Independent Film Tour for several years. With only a couple of exceptions most of the cities on my tour had not previously been part of the tour. I am amazed that all ten cities on the Ripe for Change tour were able to turn out such great audiences whether they were first time venues or had done it for years like the Stanback Museum.

The discussion that followed the screening revealed a lot of complexity about issues of agriculture and sustainability in Orangeburg. I was informed that agriculture was a major focus of the university historically, and that some 800 acres that were part of the original campus' agriculture teaching and research program is now a golf course. Others expressed concerns about all of the agriculture land that will be gobbled up by a new international "port" owned and run by a company owned by the country of Dubai.

The feedback on the film itself from the audience was extremely positive. A professor asked if Ripe for Change was on PBS online. If it was she could start working it into her curriuculum. Others asked about what had happened with professor Tyrone Hayes at UC Berkeley with his studies of Atrozine, the most widely used herbicide in the US. I should not have been surprised to learn that many of the SCSU students were raised on small farms across South Carolina.

After the screening and discussion Ellen and a few professors came over to Ellen's home where we talked late into the night about the film and the issues it raises. I stayed at Ellen's that night and told her that I appreciated her New York brand of southern hospitality.

Ellen showed me some of the new exhibits coming up in future at the Stanback Museum including one of James Brown and and another of Andy Warhol photos. Very impressive but she is most proud of a major exhibition on the heritage of an African-American community on the Island populated by the descendants of slaves who have kept parts of their culture intact over centuries.

O-town.

A very good time in Orangeburg on Sunday evening.

Far out venue, as the film was shown in a planetarium. Yeah, those dome shaped theaters where they project the universe up on the walls and ceiling; however, this time around it was our Salton Sea documentary. Neat!

Then, the audience was nice mix of university students and others. The students were really thinking about the issues and implications of the goings on at the Sea, so there were a couple challenging questions, but I'm always game for a challenge and think I answered them well enough, if not very well. One never knows, as when you're doing a Q&A, it's hard to maintain a good perspective on yourself.

Afterwards, I had a chance to chat it up with a few folks, particularly, a nice young man who is considering moving out to LA after graduation to work in film, so he was wondering what the lowdown was on that megalopolis to the west. Moving to LA is always difficult, but there is is a wonder of opportunities there, so it's hard not to just give it a shot and see what happens.

I myself did LA for 8 years, which were all good, but given that there are so many interesting places in the world, it's hard to just stay in once place. Thank god for the road.

Lates.

Chris

Fred Sanford, Obama, Hilary, Orangeburg

Screening tonight at South Carolina State University in Orangeburg. It’s a historically black state college. They have a digital media major (I think it’s called that) so they’re learning Final Cut and editing commercials and short docs and some of the students are getting paid to edit university footage. Ellen just moved here from New York City to run the museum studies and I met an English music prof as well who was excited about the design for interkosmos. Not a bad turnout: about 30. It’s a Sunday night in Orangeburg. Luckily Ellen made her students come. Dropped Cat off at the airport and we ate lunch at Maurice’s Barbeque. Heavy on the confederate décor, it was pretty much of a white supremacist family restaurant. We’d been warned but went anyway. The Big Joe pork sandwich was fine but didn’t really live up to the hype. Now the hush puppies with the confederate flag mustard was good. The fries were mediocre. Cole slaw was acceptable though i imagined it had been in the fridge for some time. Went with the unsweetened tea.

The campus is getting excited about the Democratic Presidential debate coming here to Orangeburg next week. I read in the papers that Obama is in the lead. Hilary is not generating a lot of excitement in the sovereign state of South Carolina, but Bill’s coming next week with her to pump up the show. I’m not sure where I stand. I kind of feel like the Clintons had their chance. I do think it’s ridiculous the idea that America is “not ready” for a woman president. That’s absurd. Obama seems cool but it’s hard to see what he stands for and the dude’s never been in a tough race. He cakewalked to election in the Senate in 2004 when the Republican candidate imploded in wife-beating allegation scandal. Same thing did in the Albany rep this past election. Get the wife beaters out!!! Virginia Tech is starting to fade out of the news cycle though they still show the same footage over and over of the overweight cop with an assault rifle running (sort of) along the sidewalks. It’s amazing how many cops were there in the vicinity.

Sitting outside on the grass at the university. Beautiful day in a nice state. Sleeping at my cousin Tracy’s tonight. Didn’t get to see them much. Then off to Asheville tomorrow. Special thanks to Mark Dabney who helped set up the show and his gaffer Walter. They were running Sanford and Son episodes before the movie. Lamont, you big dummy!

Steven Ross - Day 8

From the rarefied air of Beaufort, I arrive back in the real world in Orangeburg. A working-class town south of Columbia, it is the home of South Carolina State University (SCSU). Founded in 1896, this HBC (historically black college) has an open admissions policy and is consistently among the national leaders in producing African-American students with degrees in biology, education, business, engineering technology, computer science/mathematics, and English language/literature. Not surprisingly, I learn that the traditionally white-dominated South Carolina legislature has favored South Carolina University and Clemson University, and funding to SCSU has significantly lagged behind.

In Orangeburg, my host is Ellen Zisholtz, citizen/activist/advocate extraordinaire. Ellen, among other things, grew up in the Bronx, went to CCNY, has taught in Spanish Harlem, worked for choreographer Bill T. Jones, raised four kids, and finally emmigrated to the South. Formerly, the head of the Arts Council of Beaufort, she is now the Director of the I.P.Stanback Museum & Planetarium and an Assistant Professor in Visual and Performing Arts at SCSU. Once meeting her, it comes as no surprise that, though she has only been here a short time, she has hit the ground running. Oh, she also throws a great dinner party.

Ellen gives me a tour of the museum, and the current beautiful exhibit of 20th century African-American art. As it turns out, it is from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Darrell Walker. Now, for the uninitiated, Darrell Walker was from Chicago (I believe a childhood friend of Isaiah Thomas), was an All-American basketball player at University of Arkansas, and then the number one draft pick in 1984 for my then beloved New York Knicks. I was told that while they were Knick teammates, one of my all time favorites, Bernard King, turned Darrell on to the joys of art collecting.

We pass a local bowling alley on the way to the campus. Ellen tells me some history about the establishment. On February 8, 1968, around 200 protesters had gathered on the campus of South Carolina State University to protest the segregation of the then All Star Bowling Lanes. Students set grass fires and tried to burn down a vacant house. An altercation ensued in which several South Carolina Highway Patrol officers were struck with thrown objects. The officers also stated that they believed they were receiving small arms fire during the incident. However, evidence that they were being fired on was inconclusive, and there would appear to be no evidence that the protesters were armed or had fired on officers.The officers responded by firing into the crowd, killing three young men, Samuel Hammond, Delano Middleton, and Henry Smith, and wounding 27 others. The ensuing trial, billed as the first federal trial of police officers for using excessive force at a campus protest, led to the acquittal of all of the defendants. Though this predated the the Kent State shootings, and was the first incident of its kind on an American university campus, the Orangeburg Massacre received relatively little media coverage. The university's gymnasium is named in memory of the three men, and a memorial square was erected on campus in their honor.

As it turns out, it is Spring Break at SCSU, and the place is a true ghost town. A smallish crowd of 30 watch the films. An intimate gathering, but fun nonetheless.

Next and final stop, Asheville, NC.

SR

Southern Circuit tour day eight - Karl Staven

Southern Circuit tour day eight. South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, SC is a traditionally black school with a healthy tradition and many varied majors. Ellen drives me over to show off the school's planetarium/art gallery that she heads. It is undergoing renovations and due to open in two weeks after being closed for a couple of years. The smell of fresh paint and floor sealer roll out of the front door when she opens it. We then head over to the auditorium to set up for my next to last presentation. Mark shows me the projector and sound system and I am taken aback by the size of the single speaker. In an auditorium that seats several hundred people, he points to a small horseshoe shaped object about 8 inches wide and two inches tall that is the 'sound system'. To allay my fears he cranks it up and I’m amazed at how much undistorted sound it pumps out.

We end up with around 40 folks in the audience and as I talk to the students informally ahead of time I am reminded of how polite many young southerners are, “yes sir; excuse me sir, thank you sir. “ We start the show, I run though my now set sequence of 13 films, stand up and talk in between each animation, and then it’s over.

Afterwards Ellen, Helen B. and I meet at a restaurant that I'll call Crabappletrees for some dinner. Ellen asks what soups are available and our waiter (a nuclear engineering freshman at SCSU) informs us that they ran out of soup during their recent dinner rush (the rush is evident from all of the dirty dishes left stacked on half of the tables in the restaurant). They both order a Greek chicken salad with feta cheese and black olives and I order some fish with a lime salsa. I attempt to order a beer but apparently you cannot purchase alcohol on a Sunday in South Carolina.

The waiter returns with our food but informs us that the kitchen has run out of feta cheese, black olives, and lime salsa. We marvel at the timeliness of the sharing of this information. We begin to poke at our food and eat it. Ellen asks for some parmesan cheese since the feta was unavailable. Eventually the waiter returns with a small container of shredded chedder. As we finish our meal Ellen finally receives some shavings of parmesean and shortly thereafter the manager arrives apologetically. We inform her of the issues with the meal and she is shocked because she knows that all of the missing ingredients are actually back in the kitchen cooler. She comps our meal and heads back to the kitchen. We hear three shots ring out and the manager comes out five minutes later with a help wanted sign to place in the window. Just kidding about that last line.

Now back at Ellen’s house I finish typing this at 12:45am but will wait until tomorrow to post it since her internet computer is only accessible by walking through her bedroom and she has been asleep for an hour and a half. Thanks so much for your hospitality, conversation, and for organizing the get together last evening. It’s been a pleasure visiting Orangeburg, South Carolina State University, and your house in particular.

Cheers,

Karl

Southern Circuit tour day seven - Karl Staven

Southern Circuit tour day seven. This is my only day off on the tour, meaning that this is the only day of the tour that I don’t present in the evening. Orangeburg, South Carolina is reached after a drive on back roads up from the coast. Along the way I pass several abandoned buildings along the side of the road and finally stop to investigate one to find that the interior of the concrete block structure is covered with graffiti and empty mud wasp nests.

Arriving in Orangeburg around 5:30pm I am met outside my target house by Ellen Z. who welcomes me into her home. Carol C. is also on the scene, called up for duty from Columbia, SC to help greet the latest filmmaker passing through. I get a tour of her house, choose one of the two spare bedrooms as my own for the next two nights, and then greet Robert G. from the South Carolina State University’s music department who arrives with sausages for the grill. While Ellen and Carol are cutting up vegetable in the kitchen, Robert and I head outside to the grill to begin the meat burning process. As we are sussing out the situation, Steven C. from the visual art department arrives and provides a sarcastic or humourous remark to accompany every action and statement. Because Robert brought the sausages he is elected as the grilling expert, despite his protestations.

Tiring of the burden of being Mr. Chef (and called away to pick up a guest in town who is lost), Robert abandons the grill to Steven and myself. Steven quickly heads inside to check up on his Czech wife, Esther, and I’m left outside to flip burgers and turn sausages. Although I haven’t eaten red meat or fowl for more than 20 years, I think back to my high school days working at Burger King for guidance (I was chosen Employee of the Month at one point). This does absolutely no good since all I did there was toss frozen circles of meat onto a conveyer belt, but I manage not to burn anything by the time Robert returns to bail me out. I also manage not to actually cook anything.

Heading inside I gather some food from the central table then smile and shake hands as a steady stream of people arrive through the evening. Rosemarie D. arrives with her multilingual skills in check. Diann C. shows up from Beaufort, having seen my presentation there the night before. Marvin M. asks me questions to figure out how he will introduce me tomorrow and I talk to Mark D., who will be running the projection system, about what to expect. Eddie M. and Brian W. stride in and we discuss how it can be difficult to introduce a major or a minor as a parttime teacher (dance, in their case). After the SCSU basketball loses in overtime some more folks arrive at the house. Delvina W. describes Prince’s concert in South Carolina with exuberance despite a voice rough from screaming at the b-ball game. Tolu F. makes the rounds and Ingrid talks about the family dynamics around a recurring bible study meeting. Finally, around midnight, master seamstress Teresa and Delvina are the last to leave. Diann has brought in her two dogs from the car and is already asleep in the other spare bedroom. Ellen heads to her master bedroom to sleep and I finally crawl under my covers.

A wonderful mix of people who are outgoing, friendly, and a pleasure to spend time with.

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.