November's Crowdfunder

This week we launched a crowdfunder for two new documentaries in the works that should pop up in late spring 2025.

Big Cat of Georgia: A Fan’s Note on Johnny Mize and the Glory Days of Baseball

For baseball and history fans, this doc goes behind the scenes to look at baseball Hall-of-Famer Johnny “Big Cat” Mize (1913-1993) and his home in the Appalachian foothills of northeast Georgia. Author and baseball fan Jerry Grillo did a deep dive on Mize for his 2024 biography “Big Cat,” so we followed him around to get the inside scoop.

Jerry lives near the old Mize homestead and has his own family story to tell about taking 20 years to write the book. In the end, he discovered things about Mize that no one else knew, changing the way he saw one of the premier sluggers of the 1940s. Unlike most white southerners of his generation, Mize played with the best Black and Latin American stars of his generation years before Jackie Robinson integrated big league baseball.

While Mize was starring in all-white baseball in the late 1930s, across the color line in Atlanta the Black Crackers were attracting huge crowds at Ponce de Leon ballpark. All-star players like James “Red” Moore (1916-2016) were heroes in the community, and we were fortunate to interview him in 2008 when he was a spry 92 years old. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he lived long enough to be recognized for his playing ability by Major League Baseball and even President Obama during a 2013 White House ceremony.

More than a baseball story, “Big Cat of Georgia” looks at people who feel strong ties to their community's history, whether that be a local sports legend who put his town on the map or a Negro Leaguer who didn’t receive his full due until decades later.

Everything Elvis: Artist Joni Mabe Is More Than All That

When we started digging into the Mize family history, we soon came across his third cousin Joni Mabe in the next town over, Cornelia. Mabe is an acclaimed artist whose work spans over 40 years and and runs the gamut from religious-mosaic-like glitter portraits of country musicians to book art to "sculptural assemblages that appear both nostalgic for and critical of romantic notions of Americana” (Burnaway). Most recently she was a 2024 finalist for the $50,000 Hudgens Center for Arts & Learning Prize.

Check out her work here: https://jonimabe.net/

Another side of Mabe is her work as a devoted Elvisologist. She is the curator/proprietor of the Panoramic Encyclopedia of Everything Elvis that showcases her collection of over 30,000 Elvis-related items including a wart removed from the King’s right wrist in 1958. Yes, truly.

She houses this Elvis pilgrimage site in her great-grandparents' former three-story home that became her grandmother’s boardinghouse, then listed on the National Register of Historic Places after she and her father lovingly restored it. The house features exhibits related to the history of her family and the community, and some paranormal activity unrelated to Elvis (or is it?).

Looking Back at 2024

Thanks to individual contributions, our 2024 docs Saving the Chattahoochee (co-sponsored by Georgia Humanities and University of Georgia Special Collections) and Just Another Bombing? made over 30 rounds of theater/library/classroom screenings as well as broadcasts on public television. If you missed seeing them in public, you can now find links to them and other films at hjacobscreative.com.

Contributions from "Viewers Like You"

If you appreciate the way we tell stories (described as “lo-fi, thoughtful boutique affairs that keep it local while exploring big ideas” by Candice Dyer in the Atlanta Constitution), please consider a contribution. Our shoestring budgets mostly go towards paying others involved in the process — musicians, editors, sound designer, colorist, drone pilot, etc. — and delivering films pro bono to Georgia public television.

And if you’d like to go along on this creative journey with us, your help will be noted in the film’s credits.

We’ll also keep you updated with news about the film premiere happening in late spring 2025. We’re happy to announce that David Kirkpatrick, executive producer on Carville: Winning is Everything, Stupid!, has already signed on in a similar role for “Big Cat of Georgia.”

Who's on First?

Fall 2024 is coming — a breath of coolness in the morning air.

The early weeks of spring are great, but after another oven-baked summer with mosquitos buzzing around every time we step into our bushy underlandscaped yard, this first little snap of fall always catches me by surprise.

It’s a good time to jump into action on a new doc, too.

We’ve been prepping, researching and scheduling for the last couple of months in between screenings of our most recent docs (“Saving the Chattahoochee,” “Just Another Bombing?”).

It’s a story about a Georgian from the Appalachian foothills of Demorest who made headlines in the sports pages in the 1930s through the early 1950s.

His name, even his nicknames “Big Cat” and “Big Jawn”, have been mostly forgotten now.

Johnny Mize.

Fortunately, author Jerry Grillo has written a book (Big Cat) that brings this “Bunyonesque slugger” back to life along with that Golden Age of New York baseball in which he often played a leading man role.

Grillo also has his own story about writing the book that we’ll be looking at.

And we’ll be looking at another all-star first baseman from Georgia who played in this same era.

James “Red” Moore was a defensive wiz for the Atlanta Black Crackers. Because of segregation and the Color Line enforced by major league baseball, he and others in the Negro Leagues never received the attention — or money — they deserved.

Fortunately, Red Moore lived long enough, age 99, to be recognized for his playing days. And we were fortunate to meet him and even interview him when he was in his mid-80s.

We’re bringing the Big Cat and Red together in a way they never experienced during their playing days.

An interesting part of the story is that both men crossed the Color Line to play barnstorming games. As a small-town white Southerner, Mize played on the same field as Black athletes and even on the same team in Puerto Rico in the early 1930s. In fact, he cites the Cuban-born Martin Dihigo as the greatest player he ever saw—and bragged that Satchel Paige never struck him out. . . although he never got a hit off him either. This from a man who saw action with Joe DiMaggio and a young Mickey Mantle.

See Jerry’s thoughts on this as well.

Filming and interviews are set for fall 2024. Editing for winter 2025. Screenings begin in late spring 2025.

p.s. Stay tuned… We’ll be doing a crowdfunder soon to underwrite this indie documentary. Drop me a line if you’d like to get involved and contribute in a bigger way — associate or executive producer level.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution Profile

I’ve been a longtime fan of Candice Dyer’s writing so to be written up by her in today's AJC is quite an honor. She writes about southern artists, eccentics, and even indie documentary filmmakers. And she rightly points out that we would not be doing these “lo-fi, thoughtful boutique affairs” if not for everyone who contributes to our work. LINK TO ARTICLE

The House Bombing

Nobody talked about it.

Donal was the Black child who was the first to integrate the neighborhood elementary school, Lackawanna, in Jacksonville, Fla. His mother, Iona, was a 24-year-old single mom working full-time as a housekeeper who decided on her own to enroll him, not part of any plan, because she thought her government would keep him safe.

I was a white child who lived four streets over in the segregated middle-class neighborhood. I attended a parochial school a few miles away that didn’t admit Black students, which is the way my adopted parents wanted it.

Placed ten feet over, the bomb might have killed Donal and his five family members. Black newpapers used the word “miracle” in the headlines to describe the close call. White newspapers duly reported another house was bombed.

I only learned about the bombing a few years ago thanks to an article by Jacksonville writer Tim Gilmore and his interview with Donal, who had self-published a memoir and was living in Ghana at the time.

In the year that followed, I met Donal while he was staying with his mother in Washington, D.C. We sat down at the kitchen table and talked about what led up to the bombing and what followed. Months later, we met in Jacksonville at the site of their former home and visited the fenced-off Lackawanna Elementary School (ironically, a white school designed by a Black architect in the 1910s).

We also stopped off for ice cream at a neighborhood institution, the Dreamette. For me it was an easy bike ride to get dipped ice cream cones or ask for 10-cent “mess-ups,” frozen-solid sundaes or banana splits that weren’t customer-worthy. For Donal it was a trip to “Klan Country,” as he wrote in his memoir, but a trip he made nonetheless because he and his mother refused to be boxed in.

Our 25-minute film, in time for the 60th anniversary of the bombing on February 16, 2024, is much more than a story about a domestic terror attack. It’s about the enduring spirit of Donal and Iona, and how the past informs the present, even if it makes people uncomfortable.

SEE TRAILER

Yesterday Was a Good Day

photo by Joe Boris

Okay. Yesterday was a good day for an indie filmmaker. Especially one who’s been at it for the last 10 years. Someone who doesn’t look back in the rearview mirror… uh… except when he’s driving on Atlanta’s interstates. (Yes, that angry restless unleashed energy from the pandemic still exists on the highway.)

It started on the Chattahoochee River downstream from Atlanta at Coweta County Riverside Park. An 8 a.m. meet up with Sally Bethea, the former Chattahoochee Riverkeeper (1994-2014), and son Henry Jacobs to paddle down to McIntosh Reserve Park and talk about the improved health of the river. The interview is among many we’ve done in the last few months for our upcoming documentary, “Keeping Watch,” a look at the women who have been protecting Atlanta’s rivers for the last 50 years.

It’s a great paddle. A little haze in the sky. But nice river flow. Quiet except for that Georgia Power plant. Lush greenery on both sides. Majestic sycamores. A few blue herons. Rock formations and shoals. It’s still an urban river that is downstream from about 5 million people and probably 10 million drains and toilets. But a place that has been restored and more fit for life than it has been in over 50 years.

So it’s a great interview on an almost perfect morning on the river. And that night, two of our most recent films are screening in different locations across Atlanta. A community group is watching and discussing “Common Good Atlanta” in Sandy Springs. Meanwhile in Tucker, there’s a gathering of music lovers to watch “Northside Tavern” in a backyard transformed into a performance space with an overturned trampoline as outdoor film screen.

One day. Three films.

And already getting ideas and gathering steam for the 2024 doc.

An Embarrassment of Riches (Northside Documentary)

An embarrassment of riches. It seems so obvious now, but it wasn’t in summer 2021 when we started the Northside Tavern documentary project.

What did we know?

We knew that we wanted to tell the story of how Ellyn Webb took her family’s little neighborhood tavern/pool hall and turned it into a renowned and infamous blues dive.

How a young white musician named Mudcat became the de facto concierge of the Atlanta blues scene at the Northside.

How she resisted the siren call of developers who came tearing down the road and erecting fancy high-rises, furniture stores and restaurants.

How the place abides to this day after her death in 2017 thanks to her brother, Tommy Webb.

(But one still can’t help but wonder, for how long?)

What we didn’t expect was just how big a role this little dive played in Atlanta’s music community — and in Atlanta’s rich music history of blues and r&b.

Interview after interview (lost count after 50) revealed the extent of the Northside’s reach. The connections that the older musicians like Frank Edwards and Eddie Tigner had with their elders. The connections that younger musicians like Oliver Wood and Sean Costello had with them and 1970s southern rock star legend Donnie McCormick. And on and on.

All because Ellyn gave them a stage and they gave her their love, appreciation and loyalty.

We thought we were making a 45-50 minute documentary.

Now it seems 94 minutes isn’t long enough.

There’s still so much to say.

Feedback from "Common Good Atlanta" Screenings

We’ve been receiving a good bit of meaningful feedback after three public screenings — and three private screenings — of the Common Good Atlanta documentary that we premiered in February 2022.

We hoped that the film would be a conversation starter, perhaps even a game changer in the way that people with no experience of mass incarceration see how it plays out in real life. And how a program like Common Good Atlanta can help people regain their footing in the community. How one person can make a difference in the community as Sarah Higinbotham did when she started a program that invited fellow academics to join her in prison education centers.

The talkbacks with alumni from the program have energized the audiences. The conversations with alumni have chipped away at the stereotypes of incarcerated people that the mass media and politicians have pumped out over the years.

The feedback below comes mostly from young college students who attended screenings at Emory’s Oxford College and the University of Georgia.

* * *

It is inspiring to hear that there are people who care about reforming the system (and that those people are not far away). The most inspiring thing I heard tonight came from Janine. She said: “When you leave prison you don’t know what you want to do, but you do know who you need to be.” I think she makes a point that every college student needs to hear: I especially.

* * *

The topic of higher education in prison has been a controversial topic in politics for many years now.  This documentary and the insight from the panel help to form more of a firm view on how I view the idea. I think higher education can only have positive outcomes, and I think it is truly transformative, life-changing, and life-saving for incarcerated individuals.

* * *

Common Good Atlanta was a beautiful reminder of the humanity reflected in everyone, even in those who are preconceived to lack it. I loved the revelations it brought about those who were incarcerated and its emphasis on their individuality: their beliefs, goals, desires, character, and so much more.

* * *

Not only is this program providing them with the chance to cultivate their minds, but to also cultivate their identities – both of which I personally find very important. 

* * *

The documentary was very light-hearted, which I thought was a very interesting take on the topic of incarceration and education. Obviously, everyone was very excited and happy to share their experiences and how Common Good Atlanta positively impacted them. 

* * *

As I watched the documentary, I felt drawn to the energy that Dr. Higinbotham and the rest of the Common Good Atlanta professors brought their students. The enthusiasm and positivity that they radiated enticed me and made me leave feeling lighter and happier. 

* * *

My favorite parts of the documentary were the ones where the students were expressing themselves; whether it was through acting out different scenes in their plays, making books, or creating music, it connected the audience to the film. 

* * *

The book Just Mercy made me want to go out and change the world. That was how I felt tonight while watching the documentary on Common Good Atlanta. 

The film talkback with Sacad Nour, Sarah Higinbotham, Janine Solursh, Katrina Butler and Bill Taft [photos by Joe Boris]

Very gratifying to hold our private in-person premiere of the film to the Common Good Atlanta community, friends and families.

The next day we received this note from someone at the screening:

"I found myself thinking about something Toni Morrison wrote in "Rootedness." Discussing the goals of her own creative work within novels, Morrison wrote:

'It should be beautiful, and powerful, but it should also work. It should have something in it that enlightens; something in it that opens the door and points the way. Something in it that suggests what the conflicts are, what the problems are.'

I loved the documentary because it was beautiful and because it was powerful, but I also really appreciated how it does the delicate work of opening the door and pointing the way forward."

The film is now being submitted to film festivals and is available for private screenings by groups and organizations.

https://www.commongoodatldoc.com/

GSU Magazine Features Recent Film Projects

We appreciate Georgia State University for featuring our projects with Common Good Atlanta and artist Michael Murrell in its online magazine. Writer Ray Glier did a great job of expressing the sense of community that we all share, as well as the connections we share with GSU.

For the record, I received an M.S. in communications from GSU, with a focus on screenwriting, filmmaking and journalism, after being talked out of joining the Creative Writing program by a wise professor. The craft of journalism was far more suited to my abilities than the literary arts.

Re filmmaking… we filmed our student projects on beat-up Super-8 cameras, using black and white film that was processed locally by someone who handled film for high school football games. I’ve heard the film school has come a long way since then.

Atlanta's Greatest Blues Dive Bar Abides

If those walls could talk.

In 1972 the Webb family came into possession of a little neighborhood bar where steel mill workers and adventurous Georgia Tech students could hang out, shoot pool, plug quarters into the juke box, and find a jar of pickled pig knuckles at the bar.

The Northside Tavern.

In 1993, Ellyn Webb took over running the bar after her father’s death. According to legend, she debated to either sell it, or turn it into a blues club or strip joint.

With the help of the Atlanta blues community, she chose the crossroads.

Blues, funk, southern rock.

Older black musicians who had connections to Atlanta’s founding fathers of the blues shared the stage with white musicians, both established and up-and-coming.

Frank Edwards. Beverly Watkins. Eddie Tigner. Albert White. Donnie McCormick. Danny “Mudcat” Dudeck. Sean Costello. Carlos Capote. Oliver Wood. Coy Bowles. Stoney Brooks. Bill Sheffield. Lil Joe Burton. Lola Gulley. Many many others.

The place became a haven for music lovers who didn’t mind — maybe even relished — the crowded sweaty dance floor a few feet away from the stage, the dense fumes of PBR and cigarettes, the bathrooms that required waders, the bartenders with attitude, the pool players, the well-heeled Buckheaders who wandered into the scrum around midnight.

For 25 years, until her death in 2017, Ellyn was The Blues Matriarch of Atlanta. She nurtured young musicians and looked after the older crowd. She created a space where everyone felt safe.

When commercial real estate developers came roaring down the block of the old industrial neighborhood, cranes looming overhead, turning everything into high-rise glass and steel, she held out.

The Northside Tavern abides.

Northside fans since the late 1990s, we (HJacobsCreative team with consulting producer Terri Capote) look forward to telling Ellyn’s story in our upcoming documentary by talking to the people who knew her best and the musicians who loved her.

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Venmo … @HJacobsCreative

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or email us (haljacobs@gmail.com) for other worthy options

Interviewees
Algernon Blue
Coy Bowles
Mico Bowles
Nelson Brackin
Stoney Brooks
Joe Burton
Brenda Bynum
Terri, Josephine & Carmen Capote
Randy Chapman
Rommel Chatman
Mark D’Alessio
Danny “Mudcat” Dudeck
Kathryn Dudeck
Joel Edwards
Tony Erice
Chris Faussemagne
David Fisch
Cory Gillen
Scott Glazer
Grant Green Jr.
Larry Griffith
Lola Gulley
Matt Harper
Jamie Hemphill
Taylor Knox
Jon Liebman
Heather Luttrell
Ira Malkin
Cody Matlock
Josh “Blonju” McCormick
Joe McGuinness
Nate Nelson
Ross Pead
”Magic Fred” Pittman
Jim Ransone
Glynda Ray
JJ Reichert
David Roth
Bill Sheffield
Carlin ‘C-Note’ Smith
Debbie & Glenn Smith (Sean Costello’s parents)
Mandi Strachota
Swami
Stephen Talkovich
Unknown Vincent (Tseng)
Jesse Vogel
Hank Walton
David Webb
Tommy Webb
Albert White
Oliver Wood
Charlie Wooton
Jon Wyatt

Ellyn Webb

1954-2017

More Catawampus, Please!

Our sold-out screening of “Michael Murrell: Art, Nature and Catawampus” at the historic Plaza Theater (June 10, 2021) brought out a lot of friends, colleagues and former Georgia State Univ. art students of Murrell. After the talkback, we also shared a remastered version of the 2017 short film “Mary Hambidge: Whistler, Wanderer, Weaver.”

Whether it was Michael himself or the first time that people felt comfortable being inside a theater again (after 15 months of the pandemic)—or both, it was unforgettable.

“Catawampus” also appeared at the online 2021 Fine Arts Film Festival, presented by the Venice Institute of Contemporary Art, and “dedicated to showing the finest films in the world about art, the art world, and artists of all mediums - in and out of their studios, galleries, museums, and public private spaces.”

In 2021, the festival selected 100 films from every continent - a total of 48 countries. Over half of the films were produced or directed by women, and over 30 percent by people of color.

CATAWAMPUS SCREENINGS

March 2022 | South Georgia Film Festival

October 5- 10 | Chagrin Documentary Film Festival (Chagrin Falls, Ohio)

June 25 | Cochran Gallery (LaGrange)

June 8-14 | Fine Arts Film Festival (Venice, Cal./virtual)

June 10 | Plaza Theater (Atlanta)

The producing team: Joe Boris, Michael Murrell, Alicia Macbeth Jacobs, Hal Jacobs

Looking forward to ur spring 2021 festival that will be held May 11-13. It's free and virtual, with a filmmakers' talkback on May 13th at 7 p.m. As soon as it’s available, we’ll post a rsvp link here https://decaturshortdocs.com/.

How do we find our films?

Some are submitted through filmfreeway.com, where filmmakers have thousands of festivals to choose from… and I’m a little surprised when they find ours.

Some of the films we come across at other film festivals, and when we do, we contact the filmmakers and ask if they’d like to share their work with our audience. For the upcoming May festival, we have four submissions and three invitees, two of which have won multiple awards.

We really want to share films and viewpoints that we know our community will appreciate. And we want to encourage emerging filmmakers as much as support established professionals.

Thanks to Georgia Center for the Book, Georgia Humanities and HJacobsCreative for co-sponsoring.

Art and Catawampus

When choosing the title for our newest short documentary, we were drawn to one word that artist Michael Murrell said towards the end of our interview. And it should be noted that we (Joe Boris and I) filmed Michael on an open-air porch in the north Georgia mountains on the morning after one of those 8-inch-in-places snowfalls that occurs once in a blue moon. During the hour-long interview Michael worked with fresh clay on a new raku piece. And our hands on the cameras were freezing off.

So… catawampus….

Michael wants his work to reveal the hands of the maker. So things are by nature a little off. A little crooked. Hence, catawampus.

And while we worked through our footage of him at work and his work on display, we saw it everywhere. Not just the catawampus. But his hands. His mastery over clay, wood, stone, steel, synthetics, you name it. His love for the process. And wanting to share the process… and the work — most of which he’s retained over the years and will soon be on display in the former cotton mill he’s turned into a gallery space.

RSVP HERE TO SEE “CATAWAMPUS” ON JUNE 10, 2021, AT THE PLAZA THEATER

2021 Atlanta Music Festival Videos

We were happy to get the call in early fall 2021 to produce a series of videos for the virtual Atlanta Music Festival. The focus was on the confluence of the arts and environment, which was our sweet spot.

On top of that, the videos would look at West Atlanta and the Proctor Creek watershed, an area rich in Black culture and history.

The result is six videos that will pop up HERE from January 25-January 30, 2021, and remain there afterwards. Performances by musicians, poets, dancers, and visual artists as well as interviews and lectures by scientists, environmentalists, educators, students, historians, and activists are designed to contribute to a deeper understanding of Atlanta’s racial and environmental history. The week culminates with a concert featuring opera stars Morris Robinson, tenor Timothy Miller, and the Meridian Chorale, performing the concert music and poetry of African Americans focused on the natural world. Molly Samuel and the Reverend Thee Smith will narrate. [More info here]

We learned a lot from the experience and hope others will too.

Meridian Chorale Christmas Caroling

Filming during the pandemic took a new twist when we were asked to film carolers four days before Christmas. But everything quickly fell into place. Mostly because the vocalists were pros led by an experienced conductor. And especially the audio part (by a separate crew) on an Atlanta street with a surprising amount of traffic… and leaf blowers… one block over. It’s always amazing to me what two guys (myself and colleague Joe Boris) can produce when you have four cameras going (his Canon and my Panasonic GH5 & GH4 and gopro7). And then spend about 15 hours on editing — on an extremely limited budget — so everything rolls out on Christmas Eve.

Step Ahead Scholars with Kon Kon

Here’s a project we started before the Covid19 shutdown in March as part of a Georgia Seminar workshop with the support of Georgia Humanities and Emory's Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry.

Workshop participants helped with the interview and editing process. We planned to interview more of the Clarkston students, high school and college, but then went into shutdown.

Fortunately, we were able to meet with Kon Kon (then an Emory junior) and observe some classroom interactions at Clarkston High School led by the dynamic Mrs. Debra Nealy.

from https://www.stepaheadscholars.org:

Step Ahead Scholars began organically, as a college prep workshop in response to inequality that black and brown students face in under-resourced schools. It quickly became a go-to college access initiative as students and families realized it provided access to information, resources, skill sets and strategies needed for successful college transitions. In 2010, Kamal Carter, an Atlanta public school teacher, in response to students facing educational disparity and unequal opportunities, created Lunch With a Mentor, a volunteer mentoring program that offered students real world life experiences. Debra Nealy, a college access and equity advocate, volunteered. When one senior asked for help, she successfully guided them through the process and began developing the Step Ahead Scholars To and Through College model. Together, Kamal and Debra with the help of volunteers, are bridging the equity divide.

Documentary on Common Good Atlanta Goes into Post-Production & Crowdfunding

UPDATED DECEMBER 31, 2020: Thanks to 69 donors, we raised $8,727 (total goal - $18,500), which will go a long way towards paying musicians and other artists involved in producing a full-length documentary.

from our GoFundMe crowdfunder (Nov. 19, 2020)

https://www.gofundme.com/f/common-good-atlanta-documentary

Hi there… My name is Hal Jacobs and I wanted to tell you about our new documentary project on Common Good Atlanta.

It’s a program that connects incarcerated students with liberal arts professors in the Atlanta area.

Sarah Higinbotham founded it 12 years ago in 2008. Two years after that she was joined by local indie musician phenom Bill Taft, while they were both students (PhD & MFA, respectively) at Georgia State University.

It started with a simple idea. Bring books into the prison and teach the same kind of class you would teach at Georgia State, Georgia Tech, UGA, or Emory. Don’t hold anything back. Bring in writing tutors. Bring in students from area colleges to discuss books and ideas with the incarcerated students. Write poetry. Read primary sources. Discuss critically. Write. Write. Write some more.

The program has grown to over 100 faculty from area universities with a waiting list. Hundreds of students have participated in classes. A growing number of these alumni are back in their communities seeing the world through different eyes, spreading the word.

One of the alumni, Janine Solursh, is a co-writer with me on her first documentary project.

We want to tell the story of this innovative program because it deserves a wider audience.

Here we have two very different communities — the academics connecting with the incarcerated — listening to each other and learning from each other — creating a stronger community together.

Of course, it's also hard work. Sarah and Bill go hard at it every day. It’s hard for these students in prison. It’s still hard after they get released.

Last year Common Good Atlanta received the Governor’s Award in Georgia. And they were finalists in the Civvies, a national contest recognizing social-justice community groups.

Last year my son and I produced and directed the documentary on Lillian Smith, “Breaking the Silence.” In our crowdfunding, a lot of people helped us with contributions, large and small, and without them we couldn’t have made the kind of film we wanted.

That film has won several festival awards, it’s being shown in a lot of classrooms, libraries and social-justice groups.

We think this new film project has the same potential. And we’re asking for support to cover some of the help that’s needed (see below), while we volunteer our time and equipment to do everything else.

I hope you’ll check out the rough cut of our trailer to learn more. We’d love to recognize your contribution in the film’s credits — and look forward to sharing the final film with you in fall 2021.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Your contribution helps with:

-- Co-writing
-- Soundtrack by area musicians
-- Final editing
-- Final color & audio correction
-- Graphics
-- Festivals

See trailer: https://vimeo.com/481336885

"Vote YES on 1" (Ballot Amendment 1 Videos)

A few months ago we were asked to produce a series of videos informing the public about the importance of voting for the Trust Fund Honesty Amendment. So we reached out to several leaders in the community who’ve been involved with cleaning up the environment — Jacqueline Echols (South River), Mark Wilson (Yellow River), and Hattie Portis-Jones (Fairburn Councilmember) — and met up with them at some locations in need of a cleanup.

We also drafted some friends (and a friendly wife) to add their voices to a 30-second overview (see above).

You can find all the videos here: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7704208

And more info here: http://trustfundhonesty.org/resources/

Awards for "Breaking the Silence" Documentary

It was a great honor to have our documentary “Lillian Smith: Breaking the Silence” receive the best full-length documentary award at the 2020 Morehouse College Human Rights Film Festival. One of our first interviewees for the film was Lonnie King, a Morehouse alum and Atlanta Student Movement leader. We talked to him in fall 2017 (he died in spring 2019 before the film was finished), and he spoke very movingly about how important Lillian Smith’s voice was to him in the early 1960s. His interview gave us a much deeper understanding of her role in the struggle for human rights and social justice in the South — and the role that whites have in that struggle.

In August, “Breaking the Silence” was awarded “Best Georgia Made” at the Macon Film Festival. The film was also selected earlier in the year by the South Georgia Film Festival — and has been screened publicly or virtually by nearly 50 public libraries, and college, church and social justice groups.

Just as important are the talk-backs. The number-one question being: Why haven’t we heard about her before? Why are the voices of those white demagogues so familiar, but hers isn’t? She felt that she was being silenced in the South by the powers-that-be, but we discovered how many people she inspired behind the scenes, from the girls at her camp to openminded college students in the 1950s and ‘60s, Freedom Riders, and men like Lonnie King, John Lewis, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

It’s been quite an honor to share her words and vision with others. To bring her back into the conversation that we should all be having with others and ourselves.

Hambidge Artist Residency

Will be breathing that mountain air in August thanks to an artist residency offered by the Hambidge Center for Creative Arts and Sciences.

This creative sanctuary of 600 acres in the mountains of north Georgia began in the mid-1930s thanks to one enterprising and relentless woman, Mary Crovatt Hambidge, who lived the bohemian life of NYC in the 1920s and ten years later was ready to settle down to the life of a mountain weaver. She ended up being recognized internationally for the excellence of her weaving, and with the help of nearby women, started a cottage industry (The Weavers of Rabun) that sold its high-quality weaving at Rabun Studios in Manhattan.

If you want to know more about her story, check out my short film (Mary Crovatt Hambidge: Whistler, Wanderer, Weaver, Utopian; 2016).

During this artist residency I’ll be working on two new projects. One looks at Georgia artist Michael Murrell, who I first met while researching the Hambidge film. Murrell has created a fantastic body of work over the last 30 years that is hard to describe because it crosses so many boundaries and materials. You have to see it to believe it. (See a short video here I did a few years ago featuring his homage to the chestnut tree.)

The other project involves Common Good Atlanta, a boundary-crossing program in itself that brings together Georgia professors with incarcerated students to do a deep dive in the liberal arts. The program was started 12 years by Sarah Higinbotham, who was working on her PhD at Georgia State Univ. at the time (she’s now at Emory’s Oxford College) and was soon joined by Bill Taft, who was in the GSU creative writing program (he’s also a well-known Atlanta musician). Since then, they’ve created a nationally recognized program that has a waiting list of faculty wanting to teach in prison classrooms as well as a new program for released inmates. You see the true power of the liberal arts in liberating minds, both students and instructors, in this program.

So… lots of video editing ahead… along with that mountain air and gravel roads.

Thanks, Hambidge Center.