Danielle Beverly from Old South visits Presbyterian College

From filmmaker Danielle Beverly of Old South:

Presbyterian College in rural Clinton SC hosted the final #‎SouthernCircuit stop of Old South. The college was born from the ruin of The Civil War and has deep Southern roots. It was the largest audience yet, for the tour. Students just kept packing the tiny room. Several football players even carried in a couch and plopped it down right in front.

What had seemed like a sleepy campus when I arrived at 5pm, now appeared to have 20% of the student body in the room. Students had been buzzing about the film I was told, and they were ready.

Many members of the Greek community attended - including a large number of KA fraternity members - as well as non-fraternity/sorority students. The conversation was at times tough, but it yielded a deeper understanding for all. It spoke well about the students that they were able to share truthfully to one another about how race and complications around legacy, impact their personal and campus lives.

Myself and faculty continued to talk with students one on one, for hours after the lights came up. A success. Special thanks to Dr. Terry Barr, Professor of English, who arranged a dinner with a young KA member, a student athlete, and several faculty members before the screening. He also introduced the film, as seen in the photo.

As this is my final blog post, I want to use it to thank Southern Circuit and South Arts for all that they do. This is the most meaningful way to screen my documentaries. As a filmmaker and as a professor, I am committed to the power that film can bring to open minds, spur difficult conversations, and touch audiences, particularly students. Southern Circuit is essential.

...until next time, with the next film....

Chris Simon & Maureen Gosling of THIS AIN’T NO MOUSE MUSIC! - Western Carolina University, Robinson Film Center, & Union College

From filmmakers Chris Simon and Maureen Gosling of THIS AIN’T NO MOUSE MUSIC!:

CULLOWWHEE, NC

We interrupted our Tour to make a brief trip to Austin for SXSW where we joined others from the Les Blank film family to celebrate the opening of A Poem is a Naked Person, a film the late documentarian made 40 years ago on rock star Leon Russell. Maureen spent two years living at Russell’s rural Oklahoma studio compound, working with Blank as an assistant and sound recordist. After Les’ death, his son resurrected the film and miraculously convinced Leon Russell to let it be released. It was an event neither of us could possibly miss. The opening was fabulous, with Leon Russell in attendance, as well as many family and friends, and the celebration lasted – well, too long!

Maureen on stage at SXSW

After 2 hours of sleep, Chris flew back to Atlanta, leaving Maureen to further celebrations, and drove to Cullowhee, NC. What was supposed to be a three hour drive was more like five, but she got there, exhausted, in time. The screening was at Western Carolina University and there were young student filmmakers, as well as musical members of the community. As usual, it was a real pleasure to talk to the folks afterwards.

Chris with some questionable barbecue on the way to Cullowhee

Coffee was very much needed on the five hour drive to WCU!

SHREVEPORT, LA

We made it to Shreveport with little time to spare on Thursday afternoon, enough to briefly check in at the fancy casino hotel. We headed to the impressive Robinson Film Center, where the screening room was set up with chairs, and a hot string band trio performing and singing for people as they arrived. During the screening, we had a delicious dinner across the hall in the classy bistro. The audience loved the film and there turned out to be among them a more than usual number of record collectors, historians and music aficionados. They not only knew a lot about the music in the film, but reminded us of Shreveport’s place in US music history, such as being home to the famous Louisiana Hayride and the legendary Leadbelly. Archivist and historian Chris Brown played a musical sample for the audience from a 78 recording of a local musician whom Arhoolie Records’ artist Black Ace gave credit for his slide guitar style. Post screening, we had drinks with Chris, his wife, Board of Directors member Jeff Hendricks and other music aficionados. It was nice to have the time to chat at length. We were sorry not to have time to make a pilgrimage to Leadbelly’s grave, but next time.

Trio playing as people arrived

Robinson Film Center's electronic billboard

Film Reel Art

Drinks with Chris Brown, Jeff Hendricks, and others

BARBOURVILLE, KY

Up and out early next morning, we flew to Knoxville, TN, where we rented a car to drive north into Kentucky to Barbourville for our last screening of the Tour. Finding our way to the correct highway from the Knoxville airport and then finding the airport again later proved to be one of the most stressful parts of our trip – thank God for GPS! Chris swore off paper maps after that one. But otherwise it was a nice, partly foggy drive to Barbourville, where the screening was held at Union College. The venue, once again, was a re-purposed church hall that housed a theatre and portable movie screen. We were pleased at the almost full house, made up of many students who’d been encouraged by their instructors to show up. That meant more young folks. During the screening, the new local and very popular Italian restaurant kindly squeezed us in, though we had no reservation (plus it was Saturday night) and we discovered that Barbourville is “dry”, so we couldn’t bring in our celebratory bottle of wine. Back at the theater, the Q & A was hosted by Union College professors and folklorists Hugo Freund and Susan Isaacs. They lead the questions and offered their own, making it a pleasingly in-depth experience for the audience who stayed till the very end. Our hosts provided treats for all afterwards. We were very satisfied with the ending of our wonderful Southern Circuit Tour. Chris headed home the next morning and Maureen went on for an overnight trip to nearby Harlan, KY, where she had lived for four years as a child.

Folklorists Hugo Fruend (left) and Susan Isaacs (right) with Chris and Maureen (middle)

Reception

Maureen with Daniel Boone

FINAL THOUGHTS

We really congratulate the hosts in each town we visited for their hard work in promoting the arts and keeping the arts vibrant in their communities. It’s clear that the Southern Circuit Tour is a great contribution to that. We were very impressed with the win-win that the Tour affords both us as filmmakers and the community audiences we were able to share our film with. An exhausting, but richly rewarding experience! Long live South Arts!

We Love Short Films!

Calling all Filmmakers! The Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers is accepting submissions for the 2015-16 season! Screen your film, tour the South, get paid...join the Circuit! Visit the South Arts Southern Circuit Page for more details.

Calling all Filmmakers

Calling all Filmmakers! The Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers is accepting submissions for the 2015-16 season! Screen your film, tour the South, get paid...join the Circuit!

Southern Circuit brings the best of independent film to communities across the South. Audiences have seen over 200 films and have engaged filmmakers in post-screening discussions in more than 50 communities across the Southern United States. The tour takes the audience away from their televisions and computers to connect them with independent filmmakers. Southern Circuit transforms watching independent films from a solitary experience into a communal one.

South Arts invites filmmakers from anywhere in the United States to submit their work for consideration in the 2015-16 Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers.To learn more about the circuit and film/filmmaker eligibility requirements, visit the South Arts Southern Circuit Page.

Hao Wu, The Road to Fame - Robinson Film Center, Union College, & Ritz Theatre

From Filmmaker Hao Wu of The Road to Fame:

The first leg of my Southern Circuit tour was intense; two flights each day, and one to two hours of driving to get to most screening venues. Exhausting, but what a trip! As an immigrant who had lived in six American cities over fifteen years, I had never stepped foot in the south. Not that I didn't want to - kids of my generation grew up in China reading Gone With The Wind, but somehow I never managed to. Now I'm able to have a fast and furious immersion of southern hospitality, all thanks to South Arts.

Meanwhile, I'm hoping my The Road to Fame is bringing a little China to the south. Most of the audience members have never been to China. So naturally, I was apprehensive about how the audiences would receive such a subtitled film from a faraway land.

Surprisingly, however, many came up to me after the screenings, saying the characters in the film didn't feel foreign to them. At the Robinson Film Center and Union College, students completely identified with the dreams, the anxieties over potential failures, and the pressure from family and society that the Chinese students experienced in the film. Those with ambitions in the arts felt the resonance the strongest.

Meanwhile, older audiences tended to be more interested in what China is like and how it is changing. At the Ritz Theater in Sheffield, AL, several audience members had visited China a long time ago, and it was eye opening for me even to learn about the country they knew that had been erased by recent developments. After the screening, they queried me about the one-child policy, the performance arts industry in China, and what I thought where China is going. It was extremely rewarding for a filmmaker to be able to move audiences with a universal story, and to act as a cultural ambassador for his home country at the same time.

All three screening venues so far - Robinson Film Center in Shreveport, LA, Union College in Barbourville, KY, and the Ritz Theater in Sheffield, AL - are beautiful. No hustle and bustle of the big city or the local multiplex. Stepping inside them was like being transported back in time, when film watching was once cozy and communal. My hosts - Meghan Hochstetler in Shreveport, Diana Mills at Union College and Jim Berryman in Sheffield - lavished their attention and care, for which I'm immensely grateful. I'm eagerly looking forward to the second leg of screenings in North Carolina and Georgia, and will report back soon.

Kathy McCabe and Freda Kelly, Good Ol' Freda - Oxford College

From Filmmaker Kathy McCabe of Good Ol' Freda:

Our first Southern Circuit Tour screening was at Oxford College at Emory University, and we were blessed with a pack house of interested students and a few of their elders. It was so cool to see that Beatles music is affecting new generations. One student referred to herself as a 'third generation Beatles fan.'

We had one of our best Q&A sessions ever with lots of interesting questions from the audience. Freda met so many people after the screening, posted for photos, signed DVDs, and kept answering questions.

We're very grateful to everyone at South Arts and Oxford College for making us feel so welcome.