"I Will Dance" Tour with Joseph East

It was an incredible trip touring I Will Dance on the Southern Circuit. All of my hosts, as well as the people I was given the opportunity to meet, were welcoming and generous. Below are my top 10 highlights, in no particular order:

1. “I WILL” Cards

At the end of each showing, we handed out cards and invited everyone in the audience to share their stories by writing down a personal commitment. Seeing what people wrote on their cards always touched and inspired me. Here are a few: I WILL live cage free. I WILL strive to be the best I can be. I WILL stand up and stand out. What’s YOURS? 

                      

                                       

2. Central BBQ in Memphis: “Go where the locals go”

I asked them what the best thing on the menu was, and without hesitating the employee said, “you have to try the pork sandwich.” I did. And my tastebuds were happy.

3.The Kentucky Bed and Breakfast

It was unique and antique, with an illuminated stained-glass bed hanging, a trombone on the wall and homemade quiche for breakfast. What’s not to love?

4. The Diversity

One thing I loved about the tour was the wide range of screening venues and audiences. In downtown Memphis, we screened at the beautiful Halloran Centre in their state-of-the-art theatre. The very next venue was an old simple church in a small town. Some audiences were primarily students of color while others were older and white. Every experiences was unique (and terrific!).

5. The Civil Rights Museum

I had an extra day in Memphis, so I decided to spend part of it at the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. To stand in that spot was an unforgettable, emotional experience.

                             
                       

6. Live Music

Remember the old church? As part of the pre-film reception, my hosts went all out by including a live jam session! One bucket-list item crossed off the list…

7. Heartwarming reactions

During a Q&A, one woman grabbed the mic and talked about the courage of the kids in I Will Dance to stand up for what they believed in. Choking back tears and with resolve in her voice, she said, “I want to dance with those kids on the bridge.” The showing was only a couple hours from Selma, where the kids are from and her interest in putting her feet to their cause means more than I can simply express.

8. Seeing friends

Since several showings were within a few hours of Selma, some of the film’s subjects joined for showings and Q&As. Their unique voices and perspectives were a HUGE addition to the experience for the audiences and a big support to me.

9. Feet in the Ocean

When I arrived in Bonita Springs, FL, I had about an hour before the screening, and I knew exactly how to spend it.

10. Meeting Future Storytellers

At the showings, I had the pleasure to meet young people who want to tell stories– to become editors, journalists, directors and more. They are the future, and if the story of I Will Dance inspired any one of them to create, question or dream more, the trip was more than worth it for them alone.

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.

Chris Simon and Maureen Gosling of THIS AIN’T NO MOUSE MUSIC! - Madison-Cultural Center, The City of Hapeville, & The Tennessee Valley Art Association

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

According to weather reports, we expected non-stop rain to greet us in Georgia and Alabama, but we met with just gray skies and pleasantly cool weather. We launched our Southern Circuit Tour for THIS AIN’T NO MOUSE MUSIC! after lunch in Atlanta with Teresa Hollingsworth at the appropriately folk art-filled restaurant R Thomas. The first stop of our Tour was just an hour away in the historic town of Madison. The screening was held in the beautiful and carefully preserved heritage grade school that now serves as the Madison-Cultural Center. We were particularly impressed with the theater. The Q & A needed no prompting, as people peppered us with questions after the film. Many of them stuck around for the reception after.

Madison-Morgan Cultural Center

Maureen at Madison-Morgan Cultural Center

Southern Circuit THIS AIN'T NO MOUSE MUSIC! Poster in Madison

Madison Theatre

Stop Two was Hapeville, GA, just an hour back down the road, a town whose economy serves the huge Atlanta airport nearby. The screening venue was a re-purposed charming white wooden church. A couple of local restaurants provided snacks and wine before the film. One woman walked in wearing an Arhoolie hoodie. A man told us he’d spent probably $1000 at Chris Strachwitz’ Down Home Music store back in El Cerrito, CA. By the end of the reception, the place was packed and required extra chairs to accommodate the very diverse audience. We were met afterwards by a standing ovation. Regulars kept saying it was the best film they’d seen and the first time they’d witnessed a standing ovation at one of their screenings. Needless to say we were delighted. A lot of people bought the DVD, as well. We got a downpour of rain that night, but it didn’t last too long.

Church in Hapeville

Audience at Hapeville

Audience members wearing Arhoolie hoodie

Hapeville audience members

Next day we drove four hours to the town of Sheffield, AL, right next door to both Tuscumbia, the birthplace of Helen Keller, and Muscle Shoals, the site of the legendary Fame and Muscle Shoals Sounds recording studios. We visited both before the screening at the beautifully restored Ritz Theater in downtown Sheffield. The hors d’hoevres at the reception were especially delicious. There was time to have good conversations with folks before the film. The BluRay looked particularly good on their nice big screen. The theater board members commented that even though some of their crowds have been small, the Southern Circuit Tour films have had a big impact on their audiences.

Helen Keller Water Pump

Anne Sullivan and Helen Keller

Fame Recording Studios in Muscle Shoals

Maureen outside Muscle Shoals Sounds

Chris finds a Southern Circuit Poster

Maureen outside the Ritz Theatre

Sound check at Ritz Theatre

Kit Gruelle from Private Violence - The Tennessee Valley Art Association, Western Carolina University, & Robinson Film Center

From Kit Gruelle of Private Violence:

In Shreveport at the Robinson Film Center on 2/19/15 from left to right (Sgt. Lindsey Bonner - Shreveport Police Department Domestic Violence Unit; the one and only Kit; Angela Henderson - Project Celebration Sexual Assault Executive Director & Domestic Violence Advisor; Petrina Jenkins - Project Celebration Domestic Violence Community Educator & Public Relations Coordinator.

I attended three screenings of Private Violence on the Southern Circuit tour – one in Sheffield, Alabama, one in Shreveport, Louisiana and one here in my own state of North Carolina, at Western Carolina University. Each event and audience was completely different, but the common thread between them was clear: the people who came believe wholeheartedly that domestic violence is something that everyone should care about and get involved in preventing. It is not an issue that is just the domestic violence agency’s “problem.” It is not a “private” problem. And it will take greater collaboration with everyone across our communities, not just with our criminal justice professionals, to get there. Domestic violence is, in fact, a societal problem that, directly or indirectly, touches everyone.

I was inspired by talking to so many people, and was especially moved by the young people who were passionate about getting into this work. I talked to several young women and men out there who are just starting their work on ending violence against women, and they were not afraid of what they are getting into. I was thrilled to see law enforcement so actively engaged at the screening in Shreveport. I loved that half of the people who attended the WCU event were men. There is much to be hopeful about. And yet, I still heard stories from advocates in the audience that made my skin crawl and my jaw drop. One lamented the fact that a particular judge in a neighboring county refuses to issue any protective orders period because he, “doesn’t want to come between a man and his gun.” This is 2015! We have the power to change communities with this film and its community outreach initiative and we appreciate Southern Circuit for giving us the opportunity to nurture these conversations.


When people come together to watch the film and participate in its outreach and collaboration initiative, they learn about the complex realities battered women and children face in their communities. Important relationships get formed, which leads to a more comprehensive and community-based response. No one person or agency can do this work alone, but together, much good can be accomplished.

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.