VCU Hosts its First Southern Film Festival

By Mike Porter

Virginia Commonwealth University is holding its first Southern film festival this weekend.

The “VCU Southern Film Festival” runs Friday, Feb. 26, and Saturday, Feb. 27, at the Grace Street Theater, 934 W. Grace St. All films are free and open to the public.

“This film festival is devoted to the exploration of the distinctiveness of the South on screen. We’re hoping to make this an annual event,” said Emilie Raymond, Ph.D., assistant professor of history and the festival’s organizer. “This year’s theme is ‘screening civil rights.’”

Raymond will open the festival with a keynote address titled “Celebrities and The Civil Rights Movement” on Friday at 4 p.m.

“Black History: Lost, Stolen or Strayed?” is a 1968 documentary narrated by Bill Cosby about the contributions of blacks to American society and culture and details the media’s role in minimizing their talents. It will be shown at 5 p.m. on Friday.

“Long Walk Home,” a 1990 film starring Whoopi Goldberg and Sissy Spacek, is the story of a maid and her employer during the Montgomery bus boycott in 1950s Alabama and will be screened at 7 p.m. on Friday.
 
“Black Like Me” is a 1964 film based on the true account of a white journalist who chemically darkened his skin to experience the everyday conditions of blacks living in the South in the 1950s. It will be shown at 10 a.m. on Saturday.

The 1997 documentary “4 Little Girls” recounts the bombing of a Baptist church in which four young girls died and explores the impact of their deaths on their Alabama community. The film is directed by Spike Lee and will be screened at 1 p.m. on Saturday.

“In The Heat of the Night” is a 1967 film about a black detective who must return to his native South to investigate a murder. Sidney Poitier stars in this film, which will be shown at 4 p.m. on Saturday.

The festival concludes with “American Violet,” a film based on the true story of a young mother who sues a Texas District Attorney for racial discrimination after being falsely accused of a federal crime. It will be screened at 7 p.m. on Saturday.

“Our goals are to explore the distinctiveness and importance of the South and how those distinctions have been portrayed on film without celebrating the romanticized version of the Old South,” Raymond said. “By focusing on the civil rights movement and its achievements in our inaugural year, we hope to start off on an open track about Southern history.”

The “VCU Southern Film Festival” is sponsored by the departments of English and history, the VCU Honors College and the VCU NAACP. Visit the “VCU Southern Film Festival” page on Facebook for additional details.