Southern Circuit Film Series
2024 - 2024
Bulls and Saints | Tuesday, October 1
After 20 years of living in the United States, an undocumented family decides to return home. Little do they know it will be the most difficult journey of their lives. Set between the backdrop of the rodeo rings of North Carolina and the spellbinding Mexican hometown they long for, Bulls and Saints is a love story of reverse migration, rebellion, and redemption. This film is largely in Spanish with English subtitles.
Lift | Saturday, November
Over a decade in the making, LIFT shines a spotlight on the transformative power of dance and the invisible story of homelessness in America through young home-insecure ballet dancers and their mentor who inspires them. Guided by Steven Melendez, who began his dance career in a shelter, these children make this aristocratic art form their own when they step from the shelter to the stage.
Family Tree | Tuesday, November 19
Family Tree explores sustainable forestry in North Carolina through the stories of two Black families fighting to preserve their land and generational legacy. Family Tree’s cinema vérité approach reveals the difficult of maintaining the land while navigating challenging family dynamics, unscrupulous developers, and changing environmental needs. The forest itself in the beauty of its changing seasons becomes a primary character in this drama about its own survival.
Home is a hotel | Saturday, February 15
Through verité portraits gathered over 5 years, HOME IS A HOTEL is an intimate cinematic journey of San Franciscans finding hope and healing in the liminal spaces of their respective 80 square foot rooms—an SRO (single room occupancy). The film weaves together the stories of CHRISTINA, a Chinese immigrant single mother supporting her aging parents, ESTHER, a blind Latina librettist fighting harassment and eviction, SUNBEAR & AMY, a former couple in recovery sharing a room to co-parent their son, SYLVESTER, a graffiti artist ambivalent about painting murals for the tech companies pricing him out of his neighborhood, and JACKIE a mom on a quest to find her runaway daughter while raising a toddler. While their experiences are diverse, each finds a measure of recovery amid the red tape, structural inequities, and quotidian brutality of one of America’s most expensive cities, as prices continue to climb. The film shows these temporary SRO spaces aren’t meant to be solutions, but rather way stations on the road toward a better future: a future that is not promised, but that starts in a single room.
This World is Not my own | Tuesday, April 1
Chewing gum sculptures, a wealthy gallerist, a firebrand wrestler, a notorious murder case and the segregated south – it’s all part of Nellie Mae Rowe’s boundless universe. This World is Not My Own reimagines this self-taught artist’s world and her life spanning the 20th century.
North Putnam | Tuesday, April 15
North Putnam depicts a year in the life of the community served by North Putnam School Corporation in Putnam County, IN. Taking a “fly-on-the-wall” approach, the film provides a raw and candid glimpse into the challenges and triumphs of the community and showcases the visionary work of a school district that makes the most out of few resources.