The Plaza Arts Center got a huge congratulations recently when the The Plaza was selected as an ‘Official Screening Partner’ of the Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers for the 2024-2025 Season.

What even is the Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers? We are SO glad you asked! The Southern Circuit is a program through South Arts, a non-profit regional arts organization that partners with the National Endowment for the Arts.

According to the South Arts website, for nearly fifty years, the Southern Circuit has connected independent filmmakers with communities throughout the South for screenings and conversations around compelling stories, important topics, and the art of filmmaking.

The program is nationally lauded as an innovative alternative model for film distribution and impact that bucks the trends of media consolidation and individualized streaming in favor of celebrating the community-building potential of the film screening experience. Screening Partners thoughtfully connect filmmakers and their work with local audiences, thought leaders, educational spaces, and organizational partners, using film as a conduit for community-level conversations.

There are only 21 venues in the Southeast that got selected as screening partners, so The Plaza is thrilled to be a part of that elite group. In fact, The Plaza is the only theater that people can see these films in the Middle Georgia region.

The Plaza will show a series of 6 films throughout the fall of 2024 and spring of 2025. These six films are: Bulls & Saints on Sept. 25, 2024; LIFT on Oct. 22, 2024; Family Tree on Nov. 20, 2024; Home is a Hotel on Feb. 18, 2025; This World Is Not My Own on April 3, 2025 and North Putnam on April 16, 2025.

Bulls and Saints is a film about an undocumented family deciding 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.

LIFT shines a spotlight on the invisible story of homelessness in America through the eyes of a group of young homeless and home-insecure ballet dancers in New York City. After performing all over the world, ballet dancer Steven Melendez returns to the Bronx shelter where he grew up to give back to his community, offering a New York Theatre Ballet workshop to children.

Family Tree tells the story of two Black family forest owners in North Carolina. It tracks their triumphs and struggles historically and in the present day. The Jefferies sisters, Nikki and Natalie, struggle with their estranged father, Sidney, to clear the overgrown thicket of underbrush on their property. Meanwhile, the Williams family cultivates an award-winning tree farm at their aptly named Fourtee Acres.

Home is a Hotel is a feature-length documentary that looks at inequality in San Francisco through the lens of five residents as they fight to stay housed. The film features a mosaic of strangers bound together by their reliance on this system of Single Room Occupancy hotels to keep a roof over their heads and homelessness at bay.

This World Is Not My Own is the story of artist, Nellie Mae Rowe. Nellie Mae Rowe’s life spanned the 20th century. For most of her life, Nellie made art in obscurity, propelled by a force she viewed as a God-given gift. As the daughter of a sharecropper and former slave, she made art from whatever she could find. As an adult, she transformed her home into her “Playhouse,” an imaginative oasis filled with vibrant drawings, handmade sculptures and dolls, and collected objects.

North Putnam is a special initiative of The Castle, a nonprofit organization in Putnam County, Indiana that partners with local schools to provide learning experiences for students where they feel seen, heard, valued and empowered, and to support teachers in their ability to create environments that spill over with joy, creativity, relevance, rigor and authenticity. As such, it’s a quiet film, meant to provide an extended glimpse into a world and set of concerns that so many share but are often overlooked.

Because of the partnership between The Plaza, South Arts, The National Endowment for the Arts and Visit Eatonton, the film screenings will be completely free to the public. Screenings of each film will take place at 7 p.m. on each respective night. At 6 p.m., before the film plays, there will be Q&As with direcors, actors or creatives within each film’s space. While the tickets are free, The Plaza is asking for patrons to sign up online to attend the event.

These films shine a light on aspects of life that are sometimes covered up. The way that films can tell a story the way other art forms can’t is the same way that The Plaza is trying to bridge the arts and the community together. Most of the films have an educational component to them, so The Plaza will be working with area schools to provide a unique expeience for students as well.

For more information on South Arts or the Southern Circuit of Independent Filmmakers, visit southarts.org. For more information on Visit Eatonton, visit visiteatonton.com. For more information on The Plaza Arts Center, visit plazacenter.org.