FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
August 31, 2018
For More Information, please contact:
Kelly Marshall | [email protected] | 205.322.6395
SOUTHERN EXPOSURE 2018 FILMS TO PREMIERE AT ALTAMONT SCHOOL
BIRMINGHAM, AL – The Alabama Rivers Alliance is thrilled to announce the 2018 class of Southern Exposure Film Fellowship program will premiere at The Altamont School on Thursday, September 13 at 7 pm. A panel discussion with filmmakers and local experts will immediately follow.
SOUTHERN EXPOSURE is a film fellowship program that is actively raising awareness about Alabama’s incredible natural resources and important environmental issues that impact all of us. This innovative summer fellowship brings emerging filmmakers from across the country to tell authentic, engaging stories through short documentary films about Alabama’s environment — and the people who cherish it — from the mountains to the coast. In just six short weeks, the fellows live, work and play in Alabama while creating these stories that will be used for advocacy and education for years to come.
The 2018 Southern Exposure films are:
IF THEY BUILD IT, WHAT WILL COME? by David Diaz
The Cahaba River is one of the Southeast’s most iconic river systems. Urban sprawl in the state’s largest metropolitan area has already placed a great strain on this important river system and now the proposed Cahaba Beach Road threatens to destroy the area along the Little Cahaba River that is the drinking water source for hundreds of thousands of people in the area. This film exposes the risk of building a road across an important forested stretch of river and how citizens and watershed groups are fighting to protect this precious resource.
WHO’S YOUR FARMER? by Jess Lingle
Do you know where your food comes from? And you can’t say “the grocery store”.
Farming is a practice that impacts our health, our environment, our communities and our world. Knowing where our food really comes from and how safely it is grown is becoming increasingly difficult and clouded. This film explores farming in Alabama through the eyes of local farmers all across the state who care about the land, the water and the people they feed.
ASHES TO ASHES by Kaitlin McMurry
A small community in Northeast Alabama. A mayor whose town sits on the river’s banks. A businessman in the Mobile Bay. All of these communities are impacted by coal ash in Alabama.
Coal Ash, a pollution by-product of burning coal, is impacting communities across Alabama. Billions of tons of ash are stored in unlined pits alongside our rivers and stream causing harmful pollution such as mercury, arsenic, and many other heavy metal to be dumped into our rivers, lakes, and bays where we fish, swim, and drink. This film tells the grim story of coal ash in Alabama and what you can do to call on the electric utility companies to become leaders by cleaning up the pollution they have created.
THE ACCIDENTAL ENVIRONMENTALIST: CATHERINE FLOWERS by Ellen Esling
A mosquito bite decades ago leads Catherine Coleman Flowers on her life’s journey.
The second in the Southern Exposure series, this captivating film brings viewers into the world of Catherine Coleman Flowers, a Lowndes County, Alabama activist who became passionate about the environment when she found out that tropical diseases, like hookworm, were showing up in her community because of sewage treatment problems. Her journey to solve problems at the intersection of poverty, climate change, and politics has taken her from the Alabama Black Belt to Washington, D.C. to Switzerland and back. She shares her special connection to place and invites you in to a day in her life.
WATER: PLAN FOR IT by Amelia Tyson
Alabama currently has no plan for how we will ensure that future generations have enough clean, affordable water. Our rivers and streams are home to more types of fish and aquatic species than any other state in the country, yet our laws do not consider how much water they need to survive. This film describes the current effort underway to develop an Alabama Water Plan and how having an abundance of water does not mean you can take it for granted without consequences.
EVENT DETAILS:
Date and Time: Thursday, September 13 from 7 pm – 8:30 pm.
Panel discussion immediately follows.
Location Address: The Altamont School, 4801 Altamont Road South, Birminhgam AL 35222
Parking: There will be parking in the school’s parking lot and a complimentary golf cart to bring you to the school!
FREE SCREENING!
For more information about the event, please visit www.alabamarivers.org/southernexposure
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Production images and interviews with filmmakers available upon request!