REEL SOUTH

Women from Louisville, Kentucky, discuss the mystery behind a famous photograph and whether they could be the girl from the iconic image.

In 1951, a little girl became mesmerized by a Christmas display window in downtown Louisville. A photo of her has remained iconic for over seventy years. To this day, the identity of this wide-eyed child remains unconfirmed, except among the dozens of women who claim to be her. 'I'm the Girl' investigates the power of a single image, what it means to be seen, and the magic of the Holiday season.

In a small Texas Panhandle town, a few things have remained constant– cowboys, high school football, conservative voters, and the family-owned weekly newspaper, The Canadian Record. Publisher and editor Laurie Ezzell Brown strives to keep the town’s paper of record and her family’s legacy alive despite an oil bust, a global pandemic, and a growing mistrust for all media and her own liberal column.

Laurie Ezzell Brown, publisher and editor of the Canadian Record, covers the groundbreaking of a new nursing home and discusses the importance of keeping the weekly newspaper alive.

There is only one doctor in rural Clay County, Georgia, one of the state’s poorest and unhealthiest counties. After several years of working without pay, she can no longer volunteer full-time and faces the possibility of closing her clinic. Committed to her community, she seeks to continue serving her patients amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, dwindling support, and broken promises.

Dr. Kinsell, the only doctor in Clay County, Georgia, meets with a patient struggling to quit smoking.

Dr. Kinsell runs a COVID vaccine clinic for elderly residents of Clay County.

In Springdale, Arkansas, migrants from the Marshall Islands gather to commemorate the 1946 bombing of Bikini Atoll and ask the questions: Why did the United States choose their islands and what are the ongoing impacts on their indigenous Pacific Island community? “In Exile” explores the nuclear legacy of the US in the Pacific and the lingering catastrophe in its wake.

A Marshallese Nuclear Justice Event in Springdale, Arkansas commemorates 76 years of exile for former residents of Bikini Atoll, which was used for nuclear testing by the US government.

Clinton Bagley revisits his first interview from Mississippi’s Washington County Oral History Program. Amongst the files, one piece of material sticks out, the catalyst for the whole program. In a conversation he recorded in 1975 with Daisy Greene, a retired school teacher from his hometown, we learn about a devastating flood, cruel systems of oppression, and the voices that define the Delta.

Clinton Bagley listens to an interview with Daisy Greene where she recalls a devastating flood that damaged Greenville, Mississippi in 1927.

Three community members in a rural Appalachian town experience illness after exposure to contamination from a nearby US Army Ammunition Plant. Due to the open burning of waste, the facility is considered the largest polluter in Virginia, releasing millions of pounds of toxic pollutants into the air, soil, and water each year. The film incorporates contaminants from the facility into 16mm film.

A young woman hosts an outdoor potluck and describes how her life has been impacted by thyroid disease caused by pollution in her hometown in rural Appalachia.

Georgetown University sold hundreds of enslaved people to stave off bankruptcy, scattering families across the South, never to see each other again. With the help of DNA databases, their descendants are reconnecting six generations later. “Finding Us” is a portrait of four descendants who are using their unique talents to regrow the family trees felled nearly two centuries ago.

Kevin and Negest, descendants of enslaved people who were sold by Georgetown University, explain the dark history behind the renowned institution.

Surviving Cuban-American dissidents describe the harrowing battles of the Bay of Pigs invasion, including the “Highway of Death”.

Surviving Cuban-American dissidents recall the early plans for the Bay of Pigs invasion, and how last minute changes made by the US government foreshadowed its failure.

63 years after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, the surviving Cuban-American dissidents tell the fuller story. In detailed interviews with the men who fled Cuba only to return alongside US military forces, they narrate the calamity of the US siege and the trauma they faced as prisoners. By reliving the horrors of war and the fragility of service, these men fill a gap in the military record.

In 1971, one of the worst industrial tragedies in U.S. history shook rural Southeast Georgia. The victims were predominantly Black women, manufacturing trip flares for the Vietnam War. Over 50 years later, survivors and first responders shed new light on the bravery and sacrifice of that day, and a grassroots campaign seeks to award the victims with the Congressional Gold Medal.

Survivors and witnesses of the 1971 explosion at the Thiokol plant in rural Southeast Georgia recall the day that changed their lives forever.