From Filmmaker Michael Graziano of Resistance:
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.
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