REEL SOUTH

Series / 7 Seasons

REEL SOUTH is a PBS documentary series that showcases authentic stories which unearth the spirit of the South today. The series explores layers of Southern life across themes of social justice, cultural experience, environmental challenges, and more. REEL SOUTH aims to leverage our region’s rich storytelling tradition as a catalyst for positive change — in the American South and beyond.

8m 54s

It's in the Voices | Official Trailer

10s

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.

Fallout | Official Trailer

9s

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.

Finding Us | Official Trailer

11s

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.

Veritas | Official Trailer

30s / TV-PG

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.

The Day That Shook Georgia | Official Trailer

29s

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.

The Volunteer | Official Trailer

37s

After being mistaken for the enemy by fellow U.S. forces during the Vietnam War, a Japanese-American veteran struggles to overcome his feelings of guilt and anger, find a sense of belonging, and reunite with the soldier from Alabama who saved his life.

Season 9 | Official Trailer

1m 30s

Season 9 adds new depth to the records America keeps and who gets to define and shape our collective posterity. 10 films offer new perspectives on our shared military, health, and spiritual histories and bring forward voices and stories culled in the name of prosperity. Above all, each film showcases the power of human connection and the communities created in any aftermath.

Frankie Visits the Texas Capitol

2m 56s

Trans Lobby Day is here for the state of Texas and Frankie Gonzalez-Wolfe, a trans woman running for San Antonio city council, shares what she as a trans woman took from her experience there as a politician.

A Run for More | Official Trailer

30s

Growing up, Frankie Gonzales-Wolfe learned to be a fighter but never imagined having a chance to make history as the first openly elected transgender official in Texas. Unfolding amidst an onslaught of legal attacks against the trans community, ‘A Run for More’ immerses viewers in Frankie’s journey as she finds her voice, questions her relationship with the community, and tries to win an election.

The Space Between You & Me | Official Trailer

1m 5s

A Korean-American filmmaker from Alabama explores the complexities of international adoption through the stories of her birth mother and another adoptee in New York. ‘The Space Between You and Me’ is an effort to reclaim a stolen identity while searching for belonging between the worlds of the Jewish South, the Korean-American diaspora, and a fraught legacy of Korean adoption programs.

Ten by Ten | Official Trailer

1m 5s

After living in Asia for over a decade and longing for a taste of home, Jessica opens a Tennessee-style diner out of her home in Jeju, South Korea. But after appearing on one of the country’s most popular television programs, she and her husband Dongseop must adjust to the shock of newfound TV fame, the crowds of curious new customers it brings, and the growing uncertainty of a global pandemic.

Supported by