Michael Graziano of Resistance visits Union College and The Tennessee Valley Art Association

From Filmmaker Michael Graziano of Resistance:

I've now passed the halfway point on the tour and it's been great.  After Madison, GA I headed, to quote Daniel Day Lewis from "Last of The Mohicans", east toward Kan-tuck-kee to Union College in Barbourville, KY.

Union College is a small liberal arts school tucked into a residential section of an Eastern Kentucky hamlet. Barbourville has a sleepy, all-American feel that is nicely disrupted/punctuated by a number of large murals on the sides of downtown buildings. I especially like this rendering of a wistful, if a bit haggard looking, frontiersman surveying a verdant Appalachian valley (Daniel Boone maybe?). This tile work inexplicably graces the exterior wall of a Subway sandwich shop. Another notable example is comprised of a large silhouetted face off between two founding fathers. I stared at this for a while, wondering about its genesis and why the owner of a blue sedan had chosen to park so closely to it, thereby ruining what could've been a great photo. Lincoln seems to loom (ever so slightly) over Washington. Washington, for his part, appears a bit surprised by this and has an upward articulation that suggests both a 'bowed up' confrontational posture and an unsteady weight-shifted-to-the-back-of-his-heels-I-don't-like-the-looks-of-this-guy attitude. I wonder if this was intentional?  Did the artist intend to give Lincoln (a Kentucky native) the upper head? We may never know...

The screening was on campus and was well attended by members of the school and the broader community. The film played well and we had wide ranging discussion after.

From there I traveled south to Sheffield, AL. Sheffield is part of a cluster of small and medium sized towns in North Alabama including Florence, Tuscumbia (home of Helen Keller) and Muscle Shoals (home to a number of influential musicians and musical acts). The film played in a wonderfully restored old theater in Sheffield called The Ritz. The Ritz, along with all the other theaters in the area, was at one time owned by the Rosenbaum family. A highlight for me and a nice connection to film history was seeing the Frank Lloyd Wright designed former home of said Rosenbaums - family of renowned film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum. The hosts from the Tennessee Valley Arts Association were the picture of gracious hospitality and the screening unfurled accordingly. I have three stops left and will report back on those soon.

Michael Graziano of Resistance visits Madison, GA

From Filmmaker Michael Graziano of Resistance:

 My tour started last night in the picturesque town of Madison, GA.  There was a great turnout and lively discussion that continued for some time in the reception room after the screening.

The highlight of the stop, apart from the kind and hospitable people, was the building where the screening was held. The structure is a striking 19th century red brick affair that used to be a school house - side note and interesting connection to film history: Oliver Hardy began school there in first grade, and continued for some time before Stan Laurel's became the lanky, hapless counterpoint to Hardy's rotund malcontentment. The dark-polished wood paneling and chandelier (all 19th C. originals) of the auditorium were equal to the building's exterior. The camera on my phone doesn't do the space justice.

I got to Madison early and spent a couple hours killing time. Nearly everything in the sleepy town center closed by 5pm, so instead of working at a cafe or lunch counter like I'd planned, I had the good fortune of wandering onto the town's "Wellness Trail". A lovely path lined by a creek on one side, and carefully labeled trees and other plants throughout. I made it about halfway around the trail when I arrived at the "Old Cemetery". The cemetery was full of former Confederate soldiers, including a not insignificant plot of "Unknowns". The day was warm and breezy and the small rebel flags that someone or a group had placed to mark each confederate grave, never billowed but shrugged and drooped beside the weathered headstones. I couldn't help but think of Faulkner's admonition that, "The past is never dead. It's not even past". The scene offered a poignant frame for thinking about lots of things, not least of which is the Southern Circuit tour of Independent Films, and my good fortune for being invited to join it.  

April's Films and Filmmakers

Can you believe that it's already Spring? We can't, especially as we enter the last month of this year's Southern Circuit. Finishing up the tour, we welcome April's film and filmmakers If You Build It, A Kind of Order, and Resistance. Find out more about these films below and check out the webpage to stay up-to-date with the entire lineup for the 2014-2015 Southern Circuit Film Schedule.

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Patrick Creadon began his career as a cameraman at PBS shooting the critically acclaimed series, The 90’s. His feature-length directorial debut, Wordplay, was a breakout hit at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. The film continues to be one of the top highest grossing documentaries of all time. In 2011, Creadon made his television directing debut on NBC’s Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. He is a graduate of Notre Dame and earned his Master’s degree in Cinematography from the American Film Institute. The recipient of a number of grants and a veteran film festival jury member, Creadon is married to and collaborates with producer Christine O’Malley. They have three children.


If You Build It follows designer-activists Emily Pilloton and Matthew Miller to rural Bertie County, the poorest in North Carolina, where they work with local high school students to help transform both their community and their lives. Living on credit and grant money and fighting a change-resistant school board, Pilloton and Miller lead their students through a year-long, full-scale design and build project that does much more than just teach basic construction skills: it shows ten teenagers the power to re-invent not just their town, but their own sense of what’s possible.




Schedule:
April 08: Clemson University, Clemson, SC
April 09: Wallace State Community College, Hanceville, AL
April 12: Winder Cultural Arts Center, Winder, GA
April 14: Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, GA

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Noel Schwerin has written, produced and directed award-winning films, including two national
PBS primetime specials: Bloodlines, which was used by the U.S. Senate, the National Association of Women Judges and the Federal Judicial Center, winning top honors at the National Association of Science Writers and the Association of Women in Communications; and the two-hour A Question of Genes, which won a special citation in CPB’s Report on Public Broadcasting and The Needs of Minority and Diverse Audiences, and is excerpted at San Jose’s TechMuseum and the American Museum of Natural History in New York.


A Kind of Order follows a warden, a white separatist and a black gang-banger for seven years as they struggle to move beyond the stark reality of America’s locked down racial order. Challenged for the first time by a U.S. Supreme Court desegregation ruling and a novel mixed race program, their stories reveal the institutional nature of racial hierarchies and the hope and hidden risks of transformative change.







Schedule:
April 15: Oxford College of Emory University, Oxford, GA
April 16: Presbyterian College, Clinton, SC
April 18: Creative City Collaborative, Pompano Beach, FL
April 20: East Tennessee State University, Mary B. Martin School of the Arts, Johnson City, TN
April 22: Indie Memphis, Memphis, TN
April 23: Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Arts, Auburn University, Auburn, AL

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Michael Graziano produced and directed Resistance. He and Ernie Park, who also helped produce Resistance, founded Uji Films in 2007. Their films have aired in more than 10 countries and have been screened at a variety of well-known film venues and festivals around the world. Their previous documentary film, Lunch Line, was screened across the US and in Europe and Australia sparking dialogue and collaboration on both sides of the school lunch divide. Prior to joining with Ernie to form Uji Films Michael received an MA from Georgetown University and was a PhD Candidate and teaching fellow in film and media studies at Northwestern University.

When scientists in the mid-20th century developed the means to mass-produce antibiotics, it was a medical miracle. Only now are we realizing the potentially catastrophic implications of this innovation. Have we reached a point where we must save antibiotics in order to save ourselves? Resistance explores the global pandemic of antibiotic-resistant infection – what’s causing it and what’s being done to combat it.

Current debates over antibiotic use in human medicine and animal farming take center stage as the film follows patients, healthcare providers, and farmers who’ve confronted resistant infections first hand; and microbiologists and medical doctors who’re working to develop new solutions to the problem. Their stories are joined with insights from writers, public officials, and politicians to explain the past present and future of antibiotics and why their ineffectiveness is one of the greatest threats modern humanity has ever faced.

Schedule:
April 23: Robinson Film Center, Shreveport, LA
April 24: Union College, Barbourville, KY
April 25: The Tennessee Valley Art Association/Ritz Theatre, Sheffield, AL
April 28: Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC
April 30: Madison-Morgan Cultural Center, Madison, GA
May 01: City of Hapeville, Hapeville, GA