JOHNSON CITY (April 3, 2020) – The South Arts Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers, sponsored by Mary B. Martin School of the Arts at East Tennessee State University, will present free online virtual screenings of four films from the tour series’ “Purple Circuit.”
One film will be screened online every Monday in April at 7:30 p.m., and each will be followed by a real-time online conversation with the filmmaker or filmmakers. The link to each screening will be provided on the Martin School of the Arts website, www.etsu.edu/cas/martin/.
“We thought our spring season might be over far too early, but our film series has actually expanded to four films, rather than one more, for spring,” says Anita DeAngelis, director of the Martin School of the Arts, which sponsors the film series locally. “Each school year, through Southern Circuit, we bring six new independent films to the campus and community. This year, we get to bring nine!”
On Monday, April 6, “Life Without Basketball” will be the first streaming screening for this portion of the circuit. The feature-length documentary explores the complex world of being Muslim in America, focusing on Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir, who broke records and barriers on her way to becoming the first Division I college basketball player to play wearing a hijab. When pro ball rules disallow head covering, Abdul-Qaadir focuses her abilities on training the next generation of Muslim girls at the first-of-its-kind athletic program at an Islamic school. After the film, directors Tim O’Donnell and Jon Mercer will be available for the online Q&A.
“You Gave Me a Song: The Life and Music of Alice Gerrard,” streaming April 13, is an intimate portrait of old-time music pioneer Alice Gerrard and her unpredictable journey creating and preserving traditional music. The film, by Durham, North Carolina, filmmaker Kenny Dalsheimer, follows the now 84-year-old Gerrard over several years, weaving together vérité footage of living room rehearsals, recording sessions, songwriting, book project work and performances with archival photos, rare field recordings and animation.
On April 20, “Little Miss Westie” will be screened online with a virtual post-screening Q&A with co-director and editor Joy E. Reed. This documentary follows a year in the lives of siblings Luca and Ren as they navigate the struggles of school, puberty and gender transitioning – and the Lil Miss Westie Pageant, a local rite of passage in the small town of West Haven, Connecticut. Eleven-year-old Ren is busy preparing for the competition, as the first out transgender girl to compete in the pageant. Her older brother, Luca, competed in the pageant before he came out as a transgender boy.
The final virtual screening in the series is “Who Will Write Our History” on April 27. Days after the Nazis sealed 450,000 Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto, a secret band of journalists, scholars and community leaders decided to fight back – not with guns or fists, but with pen and paper. Produced by Nancy Spielberg, sister of Steven Spielberg, “Who Will Write Our History” mixes the writings of the Oyneg Shabes – “Joy of the Sabbath” – document archive with new interviews, rarely seen footage and dramatizations to transport viewers inside the Ghetto and the lives of these courageous resistance fighters. Their story is told featuring the voices of three-time Academy Award nominee Joan Allen and Academy Award winner Adrien Brody. Los Angeles filmmaker Roberta Grossman will hold a real-time online Q&A following the screening.
The Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers is a program of South Arts. Southern Circuit screenings are funded in part by a grant from South Arts in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts. For more information on the film series, visit www.southarts.org/touring-arts/southern-circuit/.
For more information, email the Martin School of the Arts at artsinfo@etsu.edu.