The Mobile Public Library’s Ben May Main Library will close out this year’s stop on the Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers on Tuesday, April 29, with a screening of “Willow Garden and Other Short Films” by filmmaker Jim Haverkamp.
The 6:45 p.m. screening takes place in Bernheim Hall at the Ben May Main Library, 701 Government St. in downtown Mobile, and wraps up the 2007-2008 edition of the Southern Circuit series, a touring program of the Southern Arts Federation that brings independent filmmakers and their work to venues across the South. Admission is free, and the screening will be followed by a discussion session with Haverkamp and a reception.
The Southern Circuit series has become a fixture of Mobile’s arts calendar for filmgoers looking for work outside the mainstream studio pipeline, giving audiences a chance to see short and feature-length independent films alongside a conversation with the filmmaker behind them. Previous stops on this year’s tour reportedly drew strong turnout at the library, and the series is expected to return to Mobile again next year.
For Mobile residents, the series offers a rare opportunity to engage directly with working independent filmmakers without traveling to a major festival, and it has helped establish the Ben May Main Library as a modest but reliable venue for arts programming beyond the library’s traditional offerings.