The University of Tampa has been selected as a screening partner for the 2018-2019 Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers, a program facilitated by the nonprofit regional arts organization South Arts.
The tour will bring six films — selected by UT faculty — and their directors to UT. Each film screening includes an opportunity for the audience to participate in a Q-and-A with the filmmaker, further exploring the content of the film or their work in the industry.
The Southern Circuit is about connecting audiences and filmmakers in a communal experience and pushes back against the growth of solitary film viewing, said Teresa Hollingsworth, program director with South Arts.
“Film and media artists are at the forefront of countless important conversations,” Hollingsworth said. “Their ability to develop thematically resonant work and tell stories opens audiences’ eyes and ears to new concepts and ideas.”
All films, which are free and open to the public, will be shown at locations on campus. The films being shown include:
- The Unafraid, Sept. 18, 2018, 6 p.m., Falk Theatre. The Unafraid follows the personal lives of three DACA students in Georgia, a state that has banned them from attending their top state universities and disqualifies them from receiving in-state tuition at any other public college. The Unafraid shows us what it means to grow up both American and undocumented in the United States.
- ¡Las Sandinistas!, Oct. 23, 2018, 6 p.m., Black Box Production Studio. ¡Las Sandinistas! uncovers the untold stories of women who shattered barriers to lead combat and social reform during Nicaragua’s 1979 Sandinista Revolution, and the ensuing U.S.-backed Contra War, as these same women continue to lead the struggle for justice today against their current government’s suppression of women’s rights and democracy.
- Farmsteaders, Nov. 13, 2018, 6 p.m., Reeves Theater. Farmsteaders is as much a study of place as it is a study of persistence. Having abandoned a career as a food-processing engineer at General Mills, Nick returns home, the prodigal son, and he, his wife, Celeste, and their young family resurrect his late grandfather’s dairy farm. Heroic, benign and accessible, Nick and Celeste’s meditations on life, legacy, and resistance offer an unexpected voice from a forsaken people — those who grow the food that sustains us.
- Don’t Get Trouble In Your Mind, Feb. 12, 2019, 6 p.m., Reeves Theater. The Carolina Chocolate Drops’ story documents the journey of three African Americans from the hip-hop generation who found a mentor in an 87-year-old fiddler, embraced and revived a nearly lost Black string band tradition, and took it to new heights, winning a Grammy in 2010.
- Bathtubs Over Broadway, March 5, 2019, 6 p.m. Falk Theater. A disaffected comedy writer stumbles on a hidden world of bizarre corporate entertainment and finds an unexpected connection to his fellow man. With David Letterman, Martin Short, Chita Rivera, Florence Henderson, Jello Biafra (The Dead Kennedys) and more.
- This is Home, April 9, 2019, 6 p.m., Reeves Theater. This is Home is the urgent and beautiful story of a tight knit community of Syrian immigrants who are resettled in Baltimore. With incredible empathy, director Shiva highlights the inherent decency of a displaced community desperate for help within a country increasingly hostile to them and their plight.
UT’s participation in the Southern Circuit Film series is funded by the College of Arts and Letters and a generous grant from the UT Board of Fellows.
