The TRUST Cake

It’s a long darned drive from Montgomery, Alabama to Gallatin, Tennessee.  My mother and I had to smile at a sign we passed on Highway 65 – “Go To Church or the Devil Will Get You.”  Both Martin from the Capri Theater and Jim, our host at the Lattice Inn where we stayed in Montgomery, told us to keep our eyes out for it.  It was hard to miss.

I dropped my mother off at my sister and brother-in-law’s house in Huntsville, Alabama, and zoomed past Nashville to Gallatin, which has made a huge effort to revive its historic downtown, starting with fixing up and opening the Palace Theater.  My host, Donna Belote, Executive Director of Greater Gallatin, said that twenty some years ago when they started trying to bring the downtown back to life, someone said that the only way the downtown would come back to life was to knock it down and replace it with a Home Depot or a Walmart.  As someone who made Downside UP www.downsideupthemovie.org a documentary about the revitalization of my home town North Adams, Massachusetts I was happy to be part of an event in an up-and-coming downtown, with businesses and restaurants, and bars with live music.

Pharmacy repurposed to a bar in Gallatin

Sugar Paper!

This is the first year Gallatin has hosted Southern Circuit filmmakers and Donna has a nice group of people who get together to support the screenings – the mayor and a member of the city council attended and after the screening, they had a nice reception that included a special TRUST cake.

Photo: Amy Braswell, © Kelly+Yamamoto Productions 2010

I’ve noticed that in these Southern Circuit screenings, unlike any other TRUST screenings I’ve attended, members of the audience want to know how the Albany Park Theater Project (APTP) supports itself.  Chicago has a great tradition of the city and foundations supporting the arts and supporting theater and David Feiner, artistic director and co-founder, spends a lot of time fundraising, as do members of his board.  They get their fantastic space from the Chicago Parks Department.

At the end of the discussion with the audience, Paige, the MC, excitedly announced that Gallatin has been invited to take part in the 2013 – 2014 Southern Circuit.  I wish I had had more time to spend in Gallatin, the little taste of music I heard was terrific.