Southern Circuit
Film Tour
The Southern Circuit has worked with Screening Partners to connect independent filmmakers with community audiences throughout the South for screenings and conversations around compelling stories, important topics, and the art of filmmaking.
September 25, 2024
FRee event
Bulls & Saints
REception: 6 p.m. Screening: 7 p.m.
After 20 years of living in the United States, an undocumented family decides 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.
October 22, 2024
free event
LIFT
Reception: 6 p.m. Screening: 7 p.m.
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.
November 20, 2024
free event
Family tree
Reception: 6 p.m. Screening: 7 p.m.
This documentary 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.
february 18, 2025
FRee event
home is a hotel
REception: 6 p.m. Screening: 7 p.m.
Filmed over 5 years, this feature-length documentary 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.
April 3, 2025
free event
THIS world is not my own
Reception: 6 p.m. Screening: 7 p.m.
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.
April 16, 2025
free event
North Putnam
Reception: 6 p.m. Screening: 7 p.m.
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.
About the Southern Circuit Film Tour
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.
About South Arts
Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, South Arts is a nonprofit regional arts organization empowering artists, organizations, and communities, and increasing access to arts and culture. Our mission: advancing Southern vitality through the arts. In partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the State Arts Agencies of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee — with additional funding from other public and private donors such as the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation — South Arts supports artists and organizations through a rich and responsive portfolio of grants, fellowships, and programs. South Arts believes that the arts elevate the region, increasing connectedness and inspiring meaningful change in the process. For more information, visit www.southarts.org.
