The Carrboro Film Festival took place Friday through Sunday in the Carrboro Century Center. The festival was bookended by two feature films, with over 30 short films in between, aiming to serve Southern filmmakers and interrogate Southern culture.
“In my opinion, people that live in the South and do anything, that culture that they’re creating is Southern culture”, Bryan Reklis, director of the festival, said.
The festival opened on Friday night with "A Song For Imogene," the first feature film by Erika Arlee, a UNC graduate and co-founder of the film studio, Honey Head Films. It is an authentic, woman-led film about the hardships of rural life, abuse and generational female relationships.
“There was a sense of pride I had from being from the South, and a knowledge of what the real fabric of the South looks like, and really wanting to do that justice on screen," Arlee said.
The festival was broken into blocks which fit the films into themes. For example, the Saturday block titled "Out on a Limb" honored the risks taken by Southerners to create a better world. It included "The Queen Vs. Texas," which showcased a drag queen's fight against the state of Texas trying to take away freedom of artistic expression in drag.
"Luther," created by UNC alum and lifelong filmmaker Denver Dan, told the story of a member of the Chapel Hill community. Luther, the protagonist, was once a severe alcoholic. After turning his life around, he now lives at the UNC Farm at Penny Lane and makes beautiful wooden birds from scratch, working about eight hours on each one. The filmmaker and subject partnered to depict the resiliency it takes to remain sober long term.
"Systems Failing, Community Rising" was a group of documentaries, including "The Mutual Aid Garage," a portrait of an Alabama car repair shop that operates on a pay what you can system to counterbalance the costs of car ownership. Another short film in the category, "Cashing Out" is a story of the life insurance policy market that developed during the AIDS crisis which allowed many gay men to receive quick cash to pay medical bills or enjoy the last moments of life.
Saturday night brought "Southern Oddities," a hodgepodge of films. "Hunger Pang," a lighthearted film, depicted a starving zombie woman who develops an unlikely bond with a human baby, while "Benediction," a darker film, showed a woman’s search for solace at a Black baptist church in Mississippi.
Group feelings characterized the film festival– the murmurs after a really good film and the conversations that started once a film block ended. The silence when the film brings such a new perspective that the audience doesn’t yet know how to react, like during "How to Carry Water," a film about a fat, queer and disabled photographer that liberates marginalized bodies on screen.