REEL SOUTH
REEL SOUTH reveals the South's proud yet complicated heritage, as told by a diversity of voices and perspectives, through the curation and distribution of feature-length and short documentaries.
Reel South is a PBS documentary series co-produced by PBS North Carolina, South Carolina ETV, and Louisiana Public Broadcasting, and produced in association with Alabama Public Television, Arkansas PBS, Texas PBS, Tennessee Public Television Council, and VPM. Reel South is a platform for and a service to non-fiction filmmakers in the American South working within the region’s tradition of storytelling.
Episodes
About Season 9
Season 9 adds new depth to the records America keeps and who gets to define and shape our collective posterity. 10 films offer new perspectives on our shared military, health, and spiritual histories and bring forward voices and stories culled in the name of prosperity. Above all, each film showcases the power of human connection and the communities created in any aftermath.
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Preview
The Day That Shook Georgia
In 1971, one of the worst industrial tragedies in U.S. history shook rural Southeast Georgia. The victims were predominantly Black women, manufacturing trip flares for the Vietnam War. Over 50 years later, survivors and first responders shed new light on the bravery and sacrifice of that day, and a grassroots campaign seeks to award the victims with the Congressional Gold Medal.
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The Volunteer
After being mistaken for the enemy by fellow U.S. forces during the Vietnam War, a Japanese-American veteran struggles to overcome his feelings of guilt and anger, find a sense of belonging, and reunite with the soldier from Alabama who saved his life.
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Veritas
63 years after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, the surviving Cuban-American dissidents tell the fuller story. In detailed interviews with the men who fled Cuba only to return alongside US military forces, they narrate the calamity of the US siege and the trauma they faced as prisoners. By reliving the horrors of war and the fragility of service, these men fill a gap in the military record.
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Short
Fallout
Three community members in a rural Appalachian town experience illness after exposure to contamination from a nearby US Army Ammunition Plant. Due to the open burning of waste, the facility is considered the largest polluter in Virginia, releasing millions of pounds of toxic pollutants into the air, soil, and water each year. The film incorporates contaminants from the facility into 16mm film.
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Finding Us
Georgetown University sold hundreds of enslaved people to stave off bankruptcy, scattering families across the South, never to see each other again. With the help of DNA databases, their descendants are reconnecting six generations later. “Finding Us” is a portrait of four descendants who are using their unique talents to regrow the family trees felled nearly two centuries ago.
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In Exile
In Springdale, Arkansas, migrants from the Marshall Islands gather to commemorate the 1946 bombing of Bikini Atoll and ask the questions: Why did the United States choose their islands and what are the ongoing impacts on their indigenous Pacific Island community? “In Exile” explores the nuclear legacy of the US in the Pacific and the lingering catastrophe in its wake.
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Short
It’s in the Voices
Clinton Bagley revisits his first interview from Mississippi’s Washington County Oral History Program. Amongst the files, one piece of material sticks out, the catalyst for the whole program. In a conversation he recorded in 1975 with Daisy Greene, a retired school teacher from his hometown, we learn about a devastating flood, cruel systems of oppression, and the voices that define the Delta.
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The Only Doctor
There is only one doctor in rural Clay County, Georgia, one of the state’s poorest and unhealthiest counties. After several years of working without pay, she can no longer volunteer full-time and faces the possibility of closing her clinic. Committed to her community, she seeks to continue serving her patients amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, dwindling support, and broken promises.
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For the Record
In a small Texas Panhandle town, a few things have remained constant– cowboys, high school football, conservative voters, and the family-owned weekly newspaper, The Canadian Record. Publisher and editor Laurie Ezzell Brown strives to keep the town’s paper of record and her family’s legacy alive despite an oil bust, a global pandemic, and a growing mistrust for all media and her own liberal column.
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Episode
I'm the Girl – the Story of a Photograph
In 1951, a little girl became mesmerized by a Christmas display window in downtown Louisville. A photo of her has remained iconic for over seventy years. To this day, the identity of this wide-eyed child remains unconfirmed, except among the dozens of women who claim to be her. 'I'm the Girl' investigates the power of a single image, what it means to be seen, and the magic of the Holiday season.
About Season 8
Season 8 forefronts the complexities and unyielding vitality of love –– love for your home, your family, your God, your people, and critically, your self.
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Short
Stay Prayed Up
The only thing mightier than Lena Mae Perry’s electrifying voice is her faith. She’s spent the last 50 years sharing and honing both as the steadfast frontwoman of The Branchettes, a legendary North Carolina gospel group that has packed churches and lifted weary hearts throughout the South.
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Stay Here Awhile
A Tennessee folklorist, a fifth-generation Carolina farmer, a Mississippi river guide, and a former professional football player journey through loss and healing in this poetic ode to the power of landscape. A film shot during the COVID-19 Pandemic, ‘Stay Here Awhile’ invites us to linger in the space we find at the end of things.
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8 Days at Ware
Suicides at a juvenile detention center in Louisiana raise troubling questions about the facility and the agencies tasked with overseeing it. Thirteen-year-old Solan Peterson had only been at Ware Youth Center for eight days when he took his life while in isolation. ‘8 Days at Ware’ examines Solan’s last days – exposing the system that failed him and a legacy of abuse going back decades.
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Love Without Parole
In a notorious Alabama prison, Michael falls deeply in love and matrimony follows. But when serving a life sentence, without parole, keeping his relationship alive proves too difficult. When Michael is miraculously released after 36 years, can he find a way to rehabilitate his marriage, too?
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The Space Between You & Me
A Korean-American filmmaker from Alabama explores the complexities of international adoption through the stories of her birth mother and another adoptee in New York. ‘The Space Between You and Me’ is an effort to reclaim a stolen identity while searching for belonging between the worlds of the Jewish South, the Korean-American diaspora, and a fraught legacy of Korean adoption programs.
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Ten by Ten
After living in Asia for over a decade and longing for a taste of home, Jessica opens a Tennessee-style diner out of her home in Jeju, South Korea. But after appearing on one of the country’s most popular television programs, she and her husband Dongseop must adjust to the shock of newfound TV fame, the crowds of curious new customers it brings, and the growing uncertainty of a global pandemic.
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Disrupted Borders
This is a coming-of-age story about two best friends living on the US-Mexico border in a scarred landscape of racial tensions, family wounds, and lack of opportunities as they embark on their extraordinary journeys in 3D innovation and artistic creativity to heal themselves, their families, and their community.
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Jared Dawson is the Church of Lavonia Elberton
After Jared Dawson’s family forced him out of his childhood home because of their staunch religious convictions, he discovered his alter ego as a radical drag performer. As “Lavonia Elberton,” Jared navigates a new sense of belonging and family within the LGBTQIA+ community of Atlanta.
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Quilted Education
In a time when books are banned and discussions around race are curtailed, Karen Hinton Robinson takes on the responsibility of teaching Black history beyond the institution. In this mother-daughter interview, the historian and skilled quilter explains how her craft is used to supplement education by creating quilts that document the important figures of Black history, missing in Texas schools.
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Episode
Wiley's Last Resort
With coal mining destroying the mountains that he loves, Jim Webb establishes Wiley’s Last Resort, a place for local activists, musicians, artists, and dreamers to celebrate Appalachian culture and help fight back against strip mining.
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A Run for More
Growing up, Frankie Gonzales-Wolfe learned to be a fighter but never imagined having a chance to make history as the first openly elected transgender official in Texas. Unfolding amidst an onslaught of legal attacks against the trans community, ‘A Run for More’ immerses viewers in Frankie’s journey as she finds her voice, questions her relationship with the community, and tries to win an election.
About Season 7
Season 7 is a study in survival and belief. With a formidable cast of unforgettable women (and one enlightened mortician), six new films offer audiences a look past the specter of our present. Difficult jobs, anxious families, and hardened communities shape their stories, but with an assured vision for a future of their own making, these Southerners offer a powerful argument for perseverance.
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Little Satchmo
Little Satchmo is an intimate exploration of the iconic Louis Armstrong's life and legacy through his relationship with the daughter that the public never knew existed. Based on a revealing memoir written by Armstrong's silent daughter, the film seeks to correct a historical narrative relying on caricature for too long.
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Bury Me at Taylor Hollow
After spending 15 years working in the conventional funeral industry, a passionate mortician is paving uncharted territory to help create the first natural burial ground of its kind in Tennessee. Bury Me at Taylor Hollow recounts his personal journey from mortuary traditionalist to global-thinking environmentalist, as he seeks a better place for his community to lay to rest.
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Quaranteened
Quaranteened follows the lives of four sisters from a blended family in Durham, North Carolina, as they cope with the anxiety of their disrupted lives and stolen dreams with humor, self-reflection, and just enough mayhem to pass the time. Filmed by their filmmaker dad as the days begin to blur one into the other, these girls languish, suspended in time, like so many of us still.
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Florida Woman
When the media gets wind of Mary Thorn’s alligator story, she’s characterized as just another crazy “Florida Man.” Florida Woman peels back the curtain on the media’s portrayal of a nurturing woman –– an ex-pro wrestler turned animal lover, who challenges the state in order to save her pet alligator. Mary and her gator Rambo reveal the humanity and complexity behind the viral headlines.
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Madame Pipi
Madame Pipi follows the lives of Haitian bathroom attendants working in Miami’s hottest nightclubs. Often invisible, underpaid, and underappreciated, their stories showcase a custodial world built on the backs of women of color, in a city known for debauchery, diversity, and exceptionalism.
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Broken Wings
In picturesque Hot Springs, Arkansas, a one-winged American black vulture named Adonis captivates a small town. The bird is lovingly cared for by two devoted women: Jayne, a down-on-her-luck Arkansas waitress, and Ann, her 80-year-old British roommate. Broken Wings asks: How can a bird who devours the dead inspire the living?
About Season 6
Season 6 of Reel South tackles this moment in American life with nuance and camaraderie. This collection of films finds common ground through ritual and participation with stories that face up to the past and bend to the future by finding pathways away from absolution and toward equity.
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Muni
A jovial love letter to the game of golf, told by the Black golfers who, despite segregation and racist systems, built a vibrant culture and lasting community on a municipal golf course in Asheville, North Carolina. Narrated by popular singer and golfer Darius Rucker. Directed by Paul Bonesteel
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Flat Town
A small Cajun town in rural Louisiana holds an annual exhibition football game between the majority-Black public school and majority-White private school, called the Tee Cotton Bowl. This meditative small town portrait examines the effects of racial segregation, and a range of perspectives on the game.
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You Asked for the Facts
Four years after the historic enrollment of James Meredith, student activists at the University of Mississippi devise a plan to defy a speaker-ban in 1966 by inviting Robert F. Kennedy, who reveals the truth about back-room politics, the belief-systems of those holding the highest power, and how campus-activism shapes the future of civil rights and all those who bear witness.
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That's Wild
When Atlanta teens Cliff, Ahmani, and Nicholas attempt to trek four, 12,000 ft snow-capped peaks in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, they face the thrills, joy, and struggles of navigating the wilds of Colorado and daily life back home in Georgia. Directed by Michiel Thomas.
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The Passing On
Renowned African American embalmer, James Bryant, puts his faith in a new generation to continue the legacy of Black funeral homes in San Antonio, Texas. But his young intern, Clarence Pierre, is conflicted about his commitment due to the judgment he receives as a queer, Christian man. Directed by Nathan Clarke. Produced by Lana Garland & Tyler Trumbo.
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Rap Squad
An Arkansas community mobilizes around a divisive ballot initiative for a new high school, led by a group of high school writers and performers who seek healing for themselves and justice for their community through hip hop. Directed by Nathan Willis.
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Jasper Mall
A dying shopping mall outside of Birmingham, Alabama, its patrons, and its tenants embody the diversity and tenderness of Americana culture in a changing South. Directed by Bradford Thomason and Brett Whitcomb.
Season 5
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F11 and Be There
F11 AND BE THERE is a commentary on American civil rights, race, social justice, and art, told through the many lenses of legendary photographer Burk Uzzle. With a career that spans 65+ years, Burk Uzzle has created some of the most iconic photographs in American history. He continues making renowned museum exhibitions today, particularly focusing on African Americans. Directed by Jethro Waters.
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Unmarked
Vast amounts of African-American grave sites and burial grounds for enslaved persons have been disappearing over the years. In Virginia alone, stories of thousands at rest could vanish from history altogether if these locations are not restored. Those with personal connections to these burial sites have recently begun to uncover and maintain and preserve these legacies across the state.
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All Skinfolk Ain't Kinfolk
Through news footage, campaign advertisements and archival audio and video, All Skinfolk Ain't Kinfolk is the unprecedented story of the 2017 New Orleans mayoral runoff. The winner of this election would take office as the first female mayor of New Orleans and the city’s fourth black mayor. Directed by Angela Tucker.
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Sustained Outrage
The story of the Charleston Gazette-Mail, a family-owned, Pulitzer Prize-winning local newspaper in West Virginia fighting for survival. Directed by Gabriela Cavanagh.
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Outspoken
LGBTQ West Virginians fight to live free from discrimination, calling us to reimagine the power and longevity of a small town queer community. Directed by Emily Harger.
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First Lady of the Revolution
Henrietta Boggs, a reluctant Southern belle, finds her way to Central America in the 1940s, in search of freedom and adventure. Instead, she is swept up in political upheaval, when her new husband is elected president of Costa Rica. First Lady of the Revolution portrays a courageous woman who escaped the confines of a sheltered existence to help nurture a young democracy. Directed by Andrea Kalin.
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Seadrift
In 1979, a fatal shooting ignites a maelstrom of hostilities against Vietnamese refugee fishermen along the Gulf Coast. Set during the early days of Vietnamese refugee arrival in the U.S., "Seadrift" examines this turbulent yet little-seen chapter of American history, and explores its consequences that continue to reverberate today. Directed by Tim Tsai
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You Gave Me a Song
At 84, old-time music pioneer Alice Gerrard still performs, teaches and inspires the next generation, while safeguarding groundbreaking moments of her past. This intimate portrait of ever-youthful Alice, and her remarkable, unpredictable journey creating and preserving traditional music, is a story about getting older, but never giving up. Directed by Kenny Dalsheimer.
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Attaché
The Clinton, Mississippi Attaché high school show choir is considered to be among the most successful in history. In a region where arts and music funding have been virtually demolished, Clinton public school's music programs manage to thrive, and the choir unites generations of performers who travel across the country and complete a heart-pounding routine. Directed by Melissa Overholt.
Season 4
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Episode
Two Trains Runnin'
Set during the height of the civil rights movement, a band of blues hounds traveled to the Deep South to find two forgotten blues singers. Finding them would not be easy. There were few clues to their whereabouts. It was not even known for certain if they were still alive. And Mississippi, that summer, was a tense and violent place. Featuring music from Gary Clark Jr., Lucinda Williams and more!
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A Texas Myth
The Glover family invites an indigenous activist group to start a protest camp on their land in West Texas. Roughly 20 miles north of the US-Mexico Border, the Two Rivers camp sets out to fight the same company that built the pipeline at Standing Rock. As more oil and gas projects threaten the region, their struggle reveals much about the colonial legacy of Texas and the price of activism.
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¡Fiesta! Quinceañera
Life for a Latinx immigrant family in the New South can be challenging and sometimes terrifying, but thankfully, there’s always a fiesta to take you through the night. Three Latina girls and a seasoned drag artist host their own quinceañera, a complex and colorful rite of passage, showcasing the creative spirit of Latinx communities and their struggles to retain their roots and traditions.
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Gimme a Faith
Thousands of Chinese students arrive in the United States each year, often confronting loneliness and culture-clash upon arrival. Arriving in North Carolina to study filmmaking, Hao Zhang is surprised to find a unique community of Chinese students, connected by a newly discovered evangelical Christianity that is often at stark odds with their communist roots in China.
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Santuario
After 25 years of living in the United States, Guatemalan grandmother Juana Ortega is threatened with deportation and soon takes sanctuary in a small North Carolina church. As time passes, and state lawmakers continue to ignore the family's pleas for a stay on her deportation, Juana's spirits slowly sink. And yet, Juana is patient that in God's house, God will answer her prayers.
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Lumpkin, GA
In a fading Georgia town, a community recalls its dark past and faces a grim present. An undocumented immigrant, caught in legal limbo and facing deportation, contemplates his future. In the midst of it all, a massive, private immigration prison generates millions in profits. Where these stories meet, the hidden epicenter of America’s immigration crackdown is revealed—a place called Lumpkin, GA.
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The Well-Placed Weed
Growing up in rural South Carolina, celebrated American garden designer Ryan Gainey developed a love of plants at an early age. After moving to Atlanta in the 1970s, Ryan began designing gardens in affluent neighborhoods and around the world. A contradictory character, offensive and tender, artificial yet truly authentic, Ryan was known for his love of beauty and the ability to create it.
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Ingrid
A successful fashion designer who gave up her big-city career, Ingrid Gipson discovered a reclusive life of solitude and unhindered creativity in Arkansas’ rural Ouachita Mountains. As if through poetry, she opens up her world again to those of us willing to listen.
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Saint Cloud Hill
Captain Chris Scott rallies a colony of tent residents to defend their provisional homes against the forces of gentrification. As development encroaches on the community, the tragedies and personal experiences of a displaced community resurface among those clinging to their last remnant of stability.
