The South Alabama Film Festival brought a diverse slate of short films to downtown Mobile on Saturday, November 3, 2012, with screenings at Bernheim Hall in the Ben May Public Library and Space 301. The lineup featured documentaries, dramas, and experimental works from filmmakers across the South, many of whom attended the festival in person.
Morning Screenings at Ben May Library
The day began at noon in Bernheim Hall with three films spanning adaptation, family drama, and local history. Sodric Dira’s “Colors of Sin,” a 17-minute adaptation of “The Pardoner’s Tale” from Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales,” reimagined the classic story of greed as three men search for “Death” and find more than they bargained for.
Joel Knain’s seven-minute film “Listen” told the story of a runaway teenage girl who phones home in the middle of the night to pour out her heart to her mother — or so she thinks.
The morning session’s centerpiece was Luke Buckley’s 23-minute documentary “The Future is in Your Hands,” which traced the history of civil rights and voting rights in Mobile beginning with the passage of the 1965 Civil Rights Act. The film featured interviews with notable local figures including Mobile’s first African American mayor, Sam Jones; Prichard’s first African American mayor, A.J. Cooper; and County Commissioner Merceria Ludgood.
Afternoon Sessions at Space 301
The afternoon programming at Space 301 opened at 2 p.m. with Joe Brown’s nine-minute documentary “Blighted Beauty,” which explored the aesthetics of urban decay through the lens of urban explorer Naaman Fletcher as he ventured through an abandoned hotel in Birmingham.
James Hughes presented his 32-minute observational documentary “Cotton Hills Farm,” part of his dissertation on Southern community and commerce. The film used visual ethnography to explore the relationship between culture, space, and place on a working Southern family farm.
David Lee and Rex New’s “Indian Santa” followed Thomas Dardar and his family as they delivered toys to children in coastal Louisiana communities still recovering from the effects of the BP oil spill.
Camilla Ann Aikin’s 34-minute documentary “We Didn’t Get Famous” chronicled the Southern music underground from 1978 to 1990, spotlighting influential indie bands including Let’s Active, the Windbreakers, Pylon, the dB’s, and others who blended punk rock and new wave with Southern traditions.
Later Screenings Featured Drama and Fantasy
The 4 p.m. block at Space 301 featured Jim Haverkamp’s “When Walt Whitman was a Little Girl,” a 12-minute film combining drama, dance, puppetry, and humor to explore growing up as a sensitive child. Joshua Matthews’ period drama “Dawn” was set in 1864 Kentucky, where a suicidal carpenter mistakes a runaway fugitive for his deceased wife and feels compelled to protect her from a pursuing bounty hunter.
Robert Clay and Becky Beamer of Birmingham brought “Z.A.R.S.,” a six-minute comedic documentary in which people answered the question of what they would do during a zombie apocalypse. Mobile filmmakers Trey Lane and Timothy Dixon closed the festival with “Found: Star,” a 12-minute fantasy about a young woman who encounters strange characters while wandering dark streets on a quest to find the owner of a lost star.