Performance by Garry Burnside at the 2011 North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic, an annual music festival. Garry Burnside is the son of the legendary bluesmaster R. L. Burnside who recorded for the Fat Possum label.

For more information:
Burnside Exploration featuring Garry Burnside on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=45116254206

http://www.nmshillcountrypicnic.com

Shaky camera by Max Shores (http://maxshores.com) and sound recording by vanark. This entire set is available for download at: http://bt.etree.org/details.php?id=546399

Max Connections.

Sharde Thomas, grand-daughter of the late fife and drum master Otha Turner, performs “Stand By Me” and “Glory, Glory Halleluiah” at the 2011 North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic, an annual music festival.

For more information:
Article about Sharde Thomas
http://whyaminotsurprised.blogspot.com/2008/08/sharde-thomas-link-to-past-and-rising.html

http://www.nmshillcountrypicnic.com

Shaky camera by Max Shores (http://maxshores.com) and sound recording by vanark. This entire set is available for download at: http://bt.etree.org/details.php?id=546366

Max Connections.

Selections from several songs performed by Duwayne Burnside at the 2011 North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic, an annual music festival. Duwayne Burnside is the son of the legendary bluesmaster R. L. Burnside who recorded for the Fat Possum label.

For more information:
Interview with Duwayne Burnside at
http://recoilmag.com/interviews/duwayne_burnside_0106.html

http://www.nmshillcountrypicnic.com

Shaky camera by Max Shores (http://maxshores.com) and sound recording by vanark. This entire set is available for download at: http://bt.etree.org/details.php?id=546363

Max Connections.

Documenting Justice is a specialized interdisciplinary course in documentary filmmaking that focuses on topics of social justice. Students devote two semesters to completing the class, which involves study in film theory, documentary history, nonfiction storytelling techniques, and the ethics of documentary and culminates in the creation of an original short documentary film. The class is designed for non-film majors, but those with production experience are encouraged to apply as well. Two films produced as a part of the international division of this course will screen at the Bama Theatre in Tuscaloosa, Alabama on Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 7:00 p.m. Admission is free.

The fall semester of the course is dedicated to instruction, exercises, and readings that familiarize students with the fundamentals of video production and their application to documentary. Assignments in production, theory, and criticism help students understand the practical and ethical issues in documentary filmmaking. By the end of the first semester, students will be comfortable with the techniques of production and will select topics for their films.

During the spring semester, students work in pairs to shoot and edit a documentary film. Demonstrating a concern for justice in Alabama, such pieces may focus on an individual, a relationship, an occurrence, an institution, a sub-culture, or a worldview. Students will become well acquainted with their subjects through extensive fieldwork, interviews, and research. In producing the final film, students will have access to state-of-the-art digital video cameras and post-production facilities at the College of Communication & Information Studies. The completed films premiere at a public screening in either Birmingham or Tuscaloosa at the end of the semester.

An award-winning group of filmmakers collaborate as instructors in this team-taught course: Andy Grace, director of Documenting Justice and member of the University of Alabama Department of Telecommunication & Film, and Rachel Morgan, adjunct instructor at UA and instructor of radio and TV at Lawson State Community College. The course also includes guest lectures from other professionals with expertise in documentary filmmaking.

Documenting Justice: International
Students complete the first semester before travelling, in conjunction with students enrolled in the Alabama section of Documenting Justice. During the spring semester or summer term, students take a camera and travel abroad – developing a film topic, working with their subjects, and capturing footage. During the following fall semester, students edit their films. A public screening is held in Tuscaloosa each November. (NOTE: Documenting Justice does not provide funds for international travel. Travel funding and arrangements are the responsibility of the student.)

Max Connections.

Kenny Brown

For many people, the day after Thanksgiving is spent doing Christmas shopping. I’ll probably do some of that, but I’m looking forward to some great music too. Kenny Brown will be performing at Rooster’s Blues House in Tuscaloosa. Brown is widely known for his performances with the late blues artists R. L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough. He is also the host of the North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic which my wife and I attend every year.

Here’s an interview that was done with him a while back by Thirsty Ear Magazine and here’s some video I shot at the 2010 picnic:

Brown’s latest album, “Can’t Stay Long” features the two songs above and other recordings from the 2010 picnic on one CD and a second CD of acoustic songs recorded on his front porch. Here’s a review from Offbeat Magazine.

See ya there!

Max Connections.

Monday, October 17th at 5:00 p.m. – Reception to be followed by 5:30 screening
Tuesday, October 18 at 10:00 a.m. – Screening for High School Students
Both events at Alma Bryant High School in Bayou La Batre, Alabama

The fictional home of the title character in the movie Forest Gump, in reality Bayou La Batre is one of the small communities in south Mobile County that the chamber of commerce calls “The seafood capital of Alabama.”

It is a traditional American community—patriotic, hard working, self-sufficient, and a little insular, but also a place where people without hesitation come to the aid of neighbors in need. It is eccentric and playful in the way that coastal communities can be, and like America, distinctly multi-cultural.

Since the Revolutionary War this fishing village in coastal Mobile County has been a point of entry for waves of immigrants asking for nothing more than their own shot at The American Dream. But when Hurricane Katrina displaced 2000 of the town’s 2300 residents in 2005 only to be followed by the oil spill, they were only the latest in a century long series of often catastrophic threats to its survival.

In the Path of the Storms is a story of persistence in the face of adversity. It is the portrait of a unique and authentic coastal culture struggling to preserve its heritage, sense of identity and vanishing way of life, as seen through the lives of a small, ethnically diverse group of its members each struggling against daunting obstacles of their own.

Among those featured:

• Shrimper Henry Alexander and seafood shop owner Rodney Lyons who talk about the values associated with the traditional seafood culture and the contemporary economic pressures that culture faces.
• Nancy McCall whose ancestors came to find an alternative to life as sharecroppers in Mississippi. Like their French Canadian and Eastern European neighbors, African Americans came to nearby Coden in search of self determination.
• Heang Chhun is a Cambodian refugee whose wife and two children were killed as they fled the Communist Khmer Rouge. He has now built a new life in Bayou La Batre and founded a self help group for his fellow countrymen there.
• Regina Benjamin, the child of a single parent from nearby Daphne, bypassed more lucrative opportunities to focus her medical practice on the underinsured. After Katrina destroyed her clinic she went into debt to rebuild it while buying medication for refuges out of her own pocket.

As the documentary traces its history, these and others personify the character and values of the community and its constituent cultures as it faces natural, social, and economic challenges. In the end it reaches a contemporary crossroads and must define its own identity to have a chance at preserving it.

Max Connections.

Re-Committed, starring William Mason and Andrew Carey, has been selected for screening at three festivals across the United States.

A class project produced by a group of University of Alabama telecommunication and film students has been picked to screen at the New York Television Festival’s Independent Pilot Competition.

“It’s truly an honor to have a student production chosen as an official selection in this festival,” said Adam Schwartz, assistant professor of telecommunication and film. “This festival is the premiere independent television festival, giving official selections access to studio and network executives, pitch sessions, etc.”

Of 48 total selections for the Independent Pilot Competition, only three were student submissions. “To see UA right up there with other totally independent ‘professional’ projects is incredibly rewarding,” Schwartz said.

The TCF 451 Advanced Television Production class, under Schwartz’s guidance, produced a 22-minute comedy television pilot called “Re-Committed.” With the exception of Schwartz, the entire production crew and most of the cast was composed of UA students.

The pilot centers around the fictional Jamal Anderson, who is sent back to high school by his psychiatrist after being treated for hallucination-like daydreams and constant visions of his imaginary friend Bo. Jamal encounters a plethora of unique high school characters and quickly learns that recommitting himself to high school will not be easy.

The cast of the pilot is as follows:

William Mason, a TCF major from Birmingham, as Jamal Anderson
Andrew P. Carey, a TCF major from Mobile, as Bo
Blake Minor, a TCF major from Cottondale,as Clifton
Clifton Lewis, a TCF major from Tuscaloosa, as Talon Knyghtehauck
Lauren Adams, an English major from Roswell, Ga., as Dixie
Stephen Brunson, an acting MFA student from Canyon, Texas, as Mr. Bentley
Sara-Margaret Cates, an education major from Northport, as the principal
Laura Dotson, a human environmental sciences major from Tuscaloosa, as Kathrine Anderson
Rick Dowling, a 1985 TCF graduate and instructional developer for the UA Faculty Resource Center, as Dr. Francis Perkins

The crew of the pilot (all members of Schwartz’s Fall 2010 TCF 451 class):

Producers: Clayton Collins, a TCF major from Anniston; Kate Longfield, a TCF major from Fairhope; and Heath Williamson, a TCF major from Mobile
Writers: Andrew P. Carey, a TCF major from Mobile, and Heath Williamson, a TCF major from Mobile
Director: Marcus Tortorici, a TCF major from Indian Springs
1st Assistant Director: Lindy Lovvorn, a TCF major from Carrollton, Ga.
Director of Photography: Micah Russell, a computer science major from Huntsville
Production Designer: Kristen Freeland, a TCF major from Gulf Shores
Editor: Hamilton Henson, a TCF major from Toney
Gaffer: Matt Phillips, a TCF major from Jemison
Key Grip: Andrew P. Carey, a TCF major from Mobile
Sound Mixer/Designer: Chris “Chop” Dunham, a TCF major from Birmingham
Camera Operator: Alex Armistead, a TCF major from Tuscaloosa
Executive Producer: Adam Schwartz, assistant professor of media production, from Irondale

The pilot also was selected to screen at the 2011 International Television Festival in Los Angeles and Birmingham’s 13th Annual Sidewalk Film Festival, Aug. 26-28.

Max Connections.

Hosts of The Iron Bowl Hour, Reed and Will Lochamy visit the spot in Birmingham's Linn Park where representatives from Alabama and Auburn buried a hatchet in 1948.

The football rivalry between the University of Alabama and Auburn University culminates in the Iron Bowl each year but it is talked about all over the state year-round. A new series coming to WVUA/WUOA-TV pokes fun at all the talk.

The Iron Bowl Hour is a thirty minute weekly series which will premiere on Friday, September 2nd at 6:30 p.m. It will air again each Friday night and each Saturday at 10:30 a.m. through the football season. Program hosts, Will and Reed Lochamy are the creators of “Oh Brother,” a weekly radio show/podcast on Birmingham Mountain Radio.

Series directors Rob Briscoe and Gray Lloyd have just released this trailer:

WVUA 7 and WUOA 23 are commercial television stations operated by the University of Alabama in the College of Communication and Information Sciences. Their broadcasts can be seen from Mississippi to Georgia across the Birmingham television market on cable, Direct TV, Dish Net, U-Verse, and Over-the-Air. Their broadcast antenna is located on Red Mountain in Birmingham and they reach an estimated 1.8 million viewers in the market and up to 3 million viewers within their whole broadcast area.

For more information:
WVUA/WUOA-TV
Oh Brother Radio
The Iron Bowl Hour on Facebook

Max Connections.

I just received the following announcement from Don Tingle with the Alabama Film Co-op:

It’s that time of year again, The 7th annual Rocket City Short Film Festival (RCSFF) will take place on Saturday October 22 at 7:30pm in the Flying Monkey Arts Center of the Historic Lowe Mill in Huntsville, Alabama. Entries are due no later than Oct 1, 2011. This festival was founded by the Alabama Filmmakers Co-op as a venue for local and regional filmmakers to present their films to the North Alabama community. The RCSFF goal is to encourage filmmaking at all levels of expertise.

We accept short films (15 minutes or less) in any genre: drama, horror, comedy, scifi, music videos, documentaries, we’ve even had mock tv commercials, art films, etc. Films must have been completed within the past 18 months and meet additional guidelines contained in the submission form. Films must be submitted by the Producer or Director of the film and be on DVD (DVD, DVD-R, DVD+R) or BluRay (must play in a standard BluRay player).

To help encourage filmmakers, we keep the entry cost very low ($10 per film and that includes one $5 admission!) and give awards. We have a judging with framed certificates to the top three films. We also have a certificate award for the top three audience favorites (we use a sound meter to measure applause!) and a $100 cash prize to the first place audience award winner.. We also offer a $50 award to first place for youth entries (age 17 and under).

Our festival typically screens around 25 films each year. In recent years, we’ve been getting entries from all over Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia and Florida.

The entry form can be downloaded from our web site at:
http://filmcoop.org/events/2011/RCSFF_2011_EntryForm.pdf

The Alabama Filmmakers Co-op was founded in 1977 as a non-profit, all volunteer, community service organization to provide filmmaking workshops for kids and adults and to provide a venue for screening independent and foreign films. We continue that tradition today with workshops both here in Huntsville and around the southeast at various film festivals and events and our signature event, the 7th Annual Rocket City Short Film Festival. If you have a short film, please consider submitting it to our festival. Please feel free to forward this announcement to other filmmakers in your community.

Max Connections.

Action from Knocking Girls Down

Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival -
Saturday, August 27th, 2011 -
8:45 p.m. at Alabama Power Auditorium –

They talk about mutual support, self-determination, and the satisfaction of a good smack well-delivered. Best known as a 1970’s entertainment spectacle not unlike professional wrestling, roller derby has been reborn as a predominantly female amateur hobby-sport with teams in roughly 200 American cities. The participants are a new breed of surprisingly well educated, middle class professionals for whom the activity is not only an outlet for physical expression but can also be a refuge and a community.

The sport personifies many of the culture’s conflicting images and ideas about women–including those of sexuality, body image, aggression and power. The new players bring a variety of attitudes to those issues but their common interest in the sport reflects a shared rejection of narrowly defined gender role boundaries.

Knocking Girls Down is a documentary about members of The Tragic City Rollers, the two year old Birmingham team. On the roster there’s a librarian working on a master’s degree, an RN at Children’s Hospital, and a metro police officer who’s also a mom. The documentary follows a season with the team on and off the track to discover not only how the game is played but why, and what the characters’ experiences have to say about gender roles in our culture.

The narrative follows the team as it prepares for and travels to “bouts” around the south, but focuses on two key match-ups. The bout at 5th ranked Raleigh, North Carolina is a milestone. TCR has narrowly beaten the only other ranked club they have ever played, and this is the final measure of whether the fledgling team has really arrived. Huntsville is Birmingham’s cross state rival, but was also the group that mentored Tragic City when it was first organized, and at their first meeting Birmingham narrowly lost on a disputed call.

What’s at stake on the track is more than victory for its own sake. It is the survival of the team itself as they struggle to build the necessary fan base and sponsor support. It is a business venture owned and operated by the women themselves. And for them, that too is part of its appeal. But it means that when they are not competing they are often pitching and promoting. Such is the case when the film follows them to an ultimate fighting event at a downtown Birmingham auditorium. As they skate around in their derby costumes to hand out flyers, they are attempting to appeal to the same crowd. But even as they are ambivalent about marketing with sex and violence they find themselves upstaged by the blood in the ring and the bikini clad models in the lobby.

The team’s star speedster, known as The Schnott Nose Kid, is a four foot ten, 90 pound police officer who patrols a high crime Birmingham district in the middle of the night alone, and raises two children by day. She takes pride in having proved herself in a job that values strength and toughness. But as she struggles with personal and professional problems there is a growing sense of her fragility, and she draws comfort from the team as a community. “At work you have camaraderie with the blue family,” she concedes, “but nothing will beat this…there is a sisterhood.”

Temper Tantrum is struggling to find a good part time job to help put herself through college in Child Psychology while planning for her impending marriage. Her interest in children, self esteem and roller derby are linked. “I’ve always been the fat kid,” she says. “I won’t enter into a sob story, but I took abuse. This is balance for me. It’s changed me. Empowered me. It’s made me more apt to stand up for myself.” But a midseason rule change sidelines Temper. If she doesn’t get faster, she may never be able to play. She struggles with ways to adapt as the film progresses, and also with a growing perception that, sisterhood or not, there may be a personal conflict with the coach.

As for the coach, Dixie Thrash is also a player, the team’s founder, and the force that binds it still. She makes fun of her “white trash” rural background but earned an English degree after forays into Marine Biology, Psychology, Philosophy, Computer Science and Women’s Studies. But she prefers hourly wage jobs that allow her to put her time and energy into her avocation. “My heart lies in derby rather than money”, she says. With the team she is hard driving, often profane, at times seemingly abusive. “She’s mean sometimes, admits Schnotty, “unbearably mean. Maybe she glues us together, and we want to beat her up, but I love her to death.”

In the final period of the neck and neck bout with Huntsville Schnotty sustains a season ending injury three days before, in the midst of a divorce, she is set to move out of her home. The team pulls out a narrow win as she is carried out of the arena and then shows up on her doorstep to help with the move. “It’s a family”, says the Schnott Nose Kid. “I’ll beat you up tomorrow; you beat me up the next day. And it’s OK, because you still love each other.”

For more information about Knocking Girls Down, click here.

For information about the Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival, click here.

(Co-directors Michael Letcher and Nick Rymer are my colleagues at The University of Alabama Center for Public Television and Radio.)

Max Connections.