Alexandria, Louisiana Here I Come!

Had a wonderful screening tonight in Alexandria, Louisiana! My hosts Matt Henry and Kyle May organize a lovely reception before and after the screening. About 40 people turned out to watch the film and stayed behind for Q&A. Discussion delve into what I learned about Daisy Bates and what surprised me the most about her. I shared with the audience Daisy's long time status as L.C. Bates' mistress was a big surprise along with her love of cigarettes, scotch and poker!

One last word from Jeb Berrier

by Jeb berrier, Bag It

Hi All

Wow, what a tour!

Just got home from the Southern Circuit and am still reeling from such an amazing trip showing Bag It throughout the South.
When I last wrote I had just left Manteo, NC and was headed to Miramar, FL and then on. Miramar’s screening was the second time I had been there with ‘Bag It’ and the turn out was even better than the first. I think Jessica and Joyce had been working hard getting the word out and it paid off big time. We also had a very fun Q and A where I met, and had pictures taken with a bunch of folks, one high school student who had written an essay for school on the subject of plastic, a young man with a theater company, people who wanted to get involved in a local bag ban, and more.
The Miramar cultural center is a quite beautiful, new facility that hosts arts performances of all sorts in the city center. I also got to finally meet Theresa Hollingsworth from South Arts, who puts the whole tour together. Big high five to you Theresa for bringing us around the region with our films. Thanks!!!

Next I headed to Jacksonville for a show at the Aurora Stage Theater. Aurora Stage has been in existence for around eight years and is actually a theater inside and old JC Penny, inside a mostly empty shopping mall in Jacksonsville. The idea came from a man named Daryll Ruben Hall as a way to revitalize an area that had been hit hard by economics and crime. The place hosts not only sold out theatrical productions but also arts camps for kids and a community center of sorts. I was treated to some very fine BBQ afterwards by my host, which was delicious. Just a side note about this tour, be prepared to eat well!

Off to Winder, GA where we screened in what was once an old industrial building and is now a theater/tv studio for the city of Winder, which can be used by schools and groups throughout the region. I see a theme in these place of taking what was old and abandoned and using the arts as a way to revitalize.

After Winder I was back in the Tar Heel State for a show at Western Carolina U with a huge college crowd, some of whom were there for extra credit, but still!!!! Rachel my host did a great job of getting the word out and packing the place on a school night. Once again a great Q and A followed ‘Bag It’ with questions about the film and also quite a few about how people could affect change in their community and on a larger scale. One young man told me the film had changed his life and he was determined to go to law school so he could work at the higher levels of power to really get at the root of issues with environmental law. Wow!

Savannah was one stop I was looking forward to as it’s a place with lots of beauty and history to take in. ‘Bag It’ was screened in the historic Lucas Theater which was just unveiling its new LED, energy efficient marquee. We had a champagne toast and were told that the lights, over the course of their expected 20 year life-span, would save an estimated $80,000. I think it was worth it. And they look great!
I took in the sights, learned that the civil war was a bit more complicated than my Yankee upbringing had lead me to believe, and headed to my last stop, Alexandria, LA.

It was here that I was hosted by the delightful David and Nicole Holcombe, who have hosted every filmmaker since the beginning of the Southern Circuit. The Holcombe’s live in a wonderful art filled home and wined, dined and conversed with me in grand style. Our screening took place in downtown Alexandria before which I took a stroll with David around town and got to see the Bently Hotel, which was the headquarters for all the generals planning D Day back in WWII, as well as the river, art museum and an Irish Pub, which I visited again during ‘Bag It’. What, I’ve seen it a few times. J. The Bentley is now empty with talk of something moving in to once again help revitalize the downtown area.

After the screening I was treated to a very nice reception where I got to meet and talk plastic with most of the film attendees. 

The next day the Holcombes put me on a plane and I was on my way back home to Portland.
The trip was a whirlwind and such an amazing chance to get to see places, talk to people and share the message of our film, Bag It, with yet more people who can help be catalysts for change in our world that desperately needs it.

Thank you Theresa, Alison, and all responsible for my great time on the Southern Circuit!

Happy Memories

I'm back in Brooklyn now, my mind full of memories and images of the South and all the great people I met there.  In Louisiana, I was welcomed by the enormously friendly David and Nicole Holcombe, who have been hosting Southern Circuit filmmakers at their home in Alexandria for the past four years. Here they are pictured with my host at the Arts Council of Central Louisiana––Kyle May.

Nicole and David Holcombe, Kyle May

My hosts in front of the beautiful Coughlin-Saunders Performing Arts Center

SAHKANAGA - Days 6 thru 9

#6 CLEMSON - The Greenville, SC, airport is a strangely soothing place. The approach is beautifully landscaped, reminiscent of the entrance to the Biltmore Estate. (I'm not kidding.) The road softly winds past flowers and greenery, ending at a dramatic display of spraying water. Inside, the dining room basks in daylight that filters through lush trees and a wall of windows that stretch upwards of 30 feet. There's also a lovely lunch counter with a killer short-order cook. Poached eggs, bacon and grits - all perfectly cooked. And the best cup of coffee I've had on the entire trip.

This bucolic surprise extends to the Clemson University campus where shiny, happy students traverse wide lawns, tossing footballs while dreaming up a cure for cancer. WHERE AM I?

I met my host, Amy, and some students for a sandwich before the screening. The questions from the students, over sandwiches and during the Q&A, revealed a student body that is curious, discerning and articulate. I tried to convey the importance of recognizing their academic and social privilege so that they can accept the responsibility of using it for positive social, cultural and political change. I could sense a lot of hope and ambition in that room. I even met a woman from the community who asked if she could adopt me, and a gentleman who had traveled to Tanzania where he encountered the burial ritual of leaving a corpse out in the open for hyenas to eat.

The best part is that the car rental company asked if I would prefer a mini-van or pickup truck. They gave me the biggest truck I've ever seen (besides a U-Haul or the equipment truck we drove during filming). The Dodge Ram. I almost returned it because it was too much truck for me, but I tamed that beast over twisting mountain roads to my Uncle David's cabin in the DuPont State Forest.

#7 MONTGOMERY - Uncle David is the Forest Supervisor at one of North Carolina's crown jewels - the DuPont State Forest. Over 10,000 acres of mountains, lakes, waterfalls, and trails. Unfortunately, I was only able to spend the night because I had to leave before sunrise to catch a flight to Montgomery.

The Capri is an old theatre in the Cloverdale neighborhood, and a rarity among smaller American cities - a bleeding heart indie/art house cinema.

Next time you find yourself in Montgomery, please catch a flick at the Capri, and grab a drink at a phenomenal new bar behind the theatre - Leroy.

This leg of the journey was made extra special by my longtime friends Janet & Jason driving down from Birmingham to spend the afternoon with me. I met Janet at summer camp when we were 14-years-old, and besides being an amazing friend and musician, Janet put her life on hold to assist our Production Designer, Kay Lee, during the shoot. She was my bunkmate, my unofficial on-set therapist, and I love her to pieces.

They're also the type of friends who can spend the afternoon relaxing in a park, talking or not talking, bare feet on warm grass, enjoying the effortless comfort that is the reward after years of friendship and shared experience.

I definitely hit a wall of exhaustion in Montgomery. After the screening, we returned to Janet's parents' house and I literally felt like gravity was pulling me forward. I couldn't even stay up to chat. Southern Circuit Zombified!

#8 ALEXANDRIA - I cannot, under any circumstances, recommend the Econo-Lodge in Alexandria, LA. By far the most disastrous Hotwire reservation ever, I entered the Econo-Lodge (inexplicably awarded two stars on Hotwire) parking lot which was completely deserted except for a white mini-van with no hubcaps and two blown-out tires, and a little girl standing outside the entrance with her back to me. Across the parking lot at the neighboring hotel I saw three men escort a woman in a tiny yellow dress into one of the rooms upstairs. The little girl had a blonde ponytail and she wore jean shorts with a rainbow-striped tube top. She seemed to be absorbed in an iPhone or something. When I approached the door she turned around revealing about 8-months of pregnancy. I don't know how she stayed balanced since her stomach was equal in size to her entire person. I checked in and drove around back to find my room. Shirtless dudes congregated in back of the hotel, sitting on the curb, waiting for... the woman in the yellow dress?

The door to my room wouldn't open so I gave it a little kick and it snapped forward, the light from the hall spilling into darkness as a roach scurried across the wall and an oppressive stale smokiness pushed itself out, as though the air was trying to flee the confines of that sad room. The baseboard had been ripped from the wall, plaster and all. Tiny specks of daylight blazed through the holes. I decided to take a quick shower and head to the venue, taking all of my belongings because it just didn't feel safe.

Alexandria is a mid-sized city in the center of Louisiana, and it reminded me a lot of Chattanooga, TN, in the '80s, before the revitalization efforts of the '90s which transformed Chattanooga into a vibrant tourist destination. Positioned along the Red River, Alexandria has great potential, and most astonishingly it's home to a gorgeous, state-of-the-art, huuuuuuuge arts complex - the Coughlin-Saunders Performing Arts Center. By far the most pristine projection on the entire tour, the film looked and sounded great, though it was surreal to watch the movie in a 615-seat theatre with 30 people.

Afterwards I met my saviors, David & Nicole Holcombe. Transplants from San Francisco and Brussels, they have lived in Alexandria for over 25 years. They found out I was staying in the Econo-Lodge, and since David works for the Department of Public Health he's privy to the hotel's bedbug infestations, so they insisted that I check out and stay with them for the night. Passionate art collectors, their house is filled with funky, colorful pieces from all over. The next morning we got to share a relaxed breakfast al fresco with greek yogurt and local strawberries before I returned to the airport. I love the Holcombes. They quite possibly saved my life.

#9 THOMASVILLE - On this trip I've been spending a lot of time in the Atlanta airport, and I've been surprised by the number of people I've seen in tears. At one gate I sat next to a large man in a white suit who broke down while talking on the phone to someone he loved but felt manipulated by. At another gate a tan woman in tight jeans and a sequined Harley-Davidson t-shirt sat across from me and revealed, through multiple phone conversations with her son, mother & lover, that she had applied for a domestic violence grant in Miami so that she could qualify for a free trip to an undisclosed rehab center in the Appalachians. She had acquired too many "jail points" as a prostitute, so she needed to go away for 30-90 days and get clean. She asked her son not to forget her. She asked him not to get married until she was able to come home.

Thomasville, on the other hand, is a charming town in south Georgia, where people seem pretty darn happy. The Thomasville Center for the Arts  is housed in an old school that has been beautifully restored, on par with any renovation/repurposing I've seen in New York. They decided to pair the SAHKANAGA screening with an art opening featuring the works of Carol Christie and Karl Zerbe.

The evening began with a wine & beer reception (amazing homemade poppy bleu cheese thumbprints with raspberry preserves!) and live upright bass from a young Tallahassee musician who plays with the Zach Bartholomew Trio. I really enjoyed chatting with everyone, and afterwards at the dessert & coffee reception I met a teacher who brought his class to view the Karl Zerbe exhibit, which features a series of paintings inspired by the Civil Rights movement in Albany, GA, and one of his black students pulled him aside and asked, "Does this museum ever show paintings by black artists?"

This tour has me thinking a lot about the lack of integration in the arts, which should be one of its greatest advantages - the ability to communicate diverse cultural experiences and bridge social gaps through exchange and understanding. But that is not often the case.

As a filmmaker I'm hoping to tell stories about communities that are not represented often or well in movies, but beyond that, I'm interested in figuring out ways to bring independent film to communities with little or no access to the art form. This is the goal of the Southern Circuit Tour, certainly, but there's a lot more work to be done if we're going to cross boundaries within each town. The New Orleans Film Society recently raised money to purchase a projector that they can take directly into neighborhoods. If the audiences won't come to us, we should go to them. Unconventional, forward-thinking models. An aspiration. A possibility.

Last Day for We Still Live Here

Day 15 - Alexandria LA

Louisiana looked lovely and green from the plane, although there was no sign of a St. Patrick's Day celebration when I landed.  Different state, different country.  I was glad to be staying with a local couple, Dr. David Holcombe and his wife Nicole, and that they would transport me from the airport to their house and to the screening.  No more getting lost and trying to read my iPhone GPS while driving! 

Alexandria is an interesting town on the Red River that has seen better days.  Most of it was burned down during the Civil War, and when England Airforce Base closed in 1992, the town suffered again.  But there is a valiant core group working to revitalize the downtown, bringing artists, musicians and filmmakers to spice things up.  The Holcombes had worked hard to get the word out; getting a feature article in the local paper's arts section, and contacting several Native American tribes nearby.  As we arrived, I was pleased to see the small Black Box theater filling up; people seemed really excited about the film.


During the screening, I walked by the Red River and then explored the deserted streets of downtown Alexandria.  There were a lot of empty storefronts, some clothing stores, an Irish pub that wasn't especially lively, and then I happened upon the Tamp and Grind (what a name!), a funky little coffee house with a colorful bottle tree hanging outside.  The cafe was packed with friendly high school kids listening raptly to a talented young guitar player named Benjamin Richey.  He had lightning fingers and sang a raspy rendition of House of the Rising Sun just before I had to head back for the theater for the Q+A.


The discussion turned out to be one of the most emotional and engaging of the whole Southern Circuit tour.  One woman was almost in tears as she described growing up with the Aquinnah Wampanoag on Martha's Vineyard and her friends in the Vanderhoop family.  Several African Americans in the audience praised the film lavishly, reacting to the Wampanoag's story with deep compassion and admiration.  A young woman named Akeshia Singleton from the Jena Band of Choctaw Indians, wondered how her people could revive their language.  She said that her tribe has no speakers, but they do have a comprehensive dictionary that could help them get started.  I said, you need a Jessie, someone who has the passion and energy and smarts and stamina to make it happen, and maybe that person is you!  She certainly struck me as a person of passion and intelligence, and I hope she will decide to set out on this path.


This morning, I said good-bye to my hosts as they headed off to a day of Czech folk dancing in a nearby town - once again, you just can't make these things up!  The tour has been great, but now I am really looking forward to getting home tonight and seeing at last my beloved Charles and my crazy, much-loved Cassius.