Mobile became the only city in Alabama to participate in Community Cinema, a national civic education initiative that brought free documentary screenings to nearly 100 American cities during the 2011-2012 season. The program, organized by the Independent Television Service (ITVS), featured monthly showings of films slated to air on the Emmy Award-winning PBS series Independent Lens, each followed by community discussion.
Local Partners United Behind the Effort
Four Mobile cultural organizations collaborated to bring the program to the Port City: the Mobile Arts Council, the Centre for the Living Arts, the Mobile Museum of Art, and the Mobile Public Library. Between September 2011 and May 2012, the partners planned to screen nine documentaries across multiple venues throughout the city.
“By showing films at various venues, we hope to encourage greater community participation,” said Charlie Smoke of the Mobile Arts Council. “Also, by showing some of the films more than once, we allow larger numbers of people to explore the issues and involve themselves in the discussion.”
A Diverse Lineup of Films
The documentary lineup tackled a wide range of subjects through personal, human-centered storytelling. Themes ranged from a deaf teenager preparing for a poetry slam competition to a Marine’s struggle to readjust to civilian life after returning from Afghanistan, and from a Black filmmaker’s campaign to rethink Black History Month to a weightlifter’s quest to become the strongest woman in the world.
Five of the nine films were part of Women and Girls Lead, a multiyear public media initiative designed to educate and connect women and girls worldwide in addressing contemporary challenges.
Fall 2011 Screening Schedule
The season opened with Peace Unveiled on September 24 at Space 301, a documentary following three Afghan women risking their lives to ensure women had a seat at peace negotiations with the Taliban. Deaf Jam, about a deaf teen in New York City discovering the power of American Sign Language poetry, screened twice in October at the Toulminville Branch of the Mobile Public Library and again at Space 301.
In November, We Still Live Here explored the Wampanoag people’s effort to revive their native language more than a century after it had last been spoken. The fall schedule concluded in December with Lioness at the Mobile Museum of Art, an intimate look at five female Army support soldiers who ended up in direct ground combat during the Iraq War despite official policy banning women from such roles.