Robert (Todd) Campbell is an Alabama filmmaker. Two of his films, “The Mourning Hills” and “Hollis Treasures” will be presented at the George Lindsey Film Festival. “The Mourning Hills” follows the story of two sisters who run away together and find themselves in the place where their father committed suicide. “Hollis Treasures” is a documentary about Tim Hollis, a Birmingham, Alabama historian and author who owns one of the most extraordinary toy collections in the world. 
How does it feel to be revisiting your hometown to show two films selected for the George Lindsey Film Festival? It’s pretty special. I shot most of The Mourning Hills in the Shoals area, so being able to show it at my hometown festival feels right. I’m equally excited about showing Hollis Treasures because the subject of the film, Tim Hollis, was a panel guest at the Lindsey Film Fest in 2010, so I suppose it’s a bit of a homecoming for him and that film too.
What made you choose Japan’s Aokigahara or “The Suicide Forest” as the inspiration for the setting of “The Mourning Hills”? With a story as simple as The Mourning Hills, I felt that the environment needed to be as much of a character as the human characters. It’s such a fascinating, terrifying, and heartbreaking place, and I thought that fictionalizing it in the American South would give the movie a unique color.
What did you think about Tim Hollis’ museum the first time you saw it? I was overwhelmed when I first saw Tim Hollis’ museum. There were some things in his collection that I completely forgot I had, as well as things that reminded me of childhood trips to places that I forgot I had visited. It’s a nice place to visit if you want to tear up a little.
What is the creative process like for you?  How to you become inspired to direct a film?  Movies inspire me, so I try to watch as many possible. Real life is inspiring, so going out and experiencing things is quite important for the process. I wouldn’t say that it’s easy for me to just sit down and start writing. I usually come up with garbage that way. So, I suppose the creative process begins with some kind of experience, or hearing about someone else’s experience, and THEN I can sit down to write. As far as the process goes when directing, I keep things collaborative with my cast and creative department. We bounce ideas off of one another, and often times it’s during a take that a new idea will pop up. It’s a little loose, and sometimes chaotic, but it seems to work for me.

-Kaitlyn Davis

"The Mourning Hills" is screening at 8pm, Thursday, March 3, and "Hollis Treasures" is screening at 5:30pm, Friday, March 4.  Both films are screening at The Mane Room.

​     Alabama’s Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women is the focus of Even Owens’ film, “Tutwiler.”  The film is based on true events and sheds light on the rampant sexual and physical abuse the female inmates of Tutwiler endured.  The prison was under federal investigation for ongoing cases of sexual misconduct among staff members.  In addition to at least thirty cases of employee-on-inmate sex crimes, the prison was understaffed and overpopulated.  Recently, Governor Robert Bentley announced the closure of the prison.  Alabama has finally taken a step in the right direction to reform our prison system.
     In August 2015, the sixteen-minute film premiered at Carver Theatre in Birmingham and since then has been shown at the Atlanta Independent Film Festival.  Owens is a Shelby County native and stars in the film herself.  We are excited to show “Tutwiler” at the Mane Room, Friday March 4th and we hope to see you there!  Come out and experience the talent that exists in our own state.    

​The Shoals own Donnie Fritts is the subject of one of this year’s Professional Documentary finalists, “Undeniably Donnie.” While the film premiered at Billy Reid’s October Shindig, we are pleased to be able to screen it for those who missed Mark Slagle’s touching tribute to Alabama’s Leaning Man.  Such an important film deserves a special venue, so the documentary will screen at the festival’s Kick-Off Party, Thursday, March 3, 6pm, 116 Mobile St. John Paul White will be on hand to introduce the film, which is narrated by Kris Kristofferson.  Catered by Odette, the party is free and open to the public.  Come join us for the fun!

​We get a lot of questions about celebrity guests for the film festival…A LOT! And don’t get us wrong, we love bringing big names from film to the festival, and they always provide lots of fun for our audiences. But some years – like this year – we are presented with so many hours of amazing films from independent filmmakers that we are face with the hard choice of cutting the screening times to make space for a celebrity guest, or cutting the celebrity time to make space to exhibit great films for our community. These kind of predicaments often lead to a “what would George want” decision for us. Since the festival founders started this event 19 years also to provide an opportunity in our area to support independent filmmaking, we think George and the other founders would be on board with our decision this year to devote our time and resources to those filmmakers and screenwriters from across the globe who submitted their work to the Lindsey Fest because they’ve heard of our tradition of good Southern Hospitality. We hope all our supporters will be on board, too, and come out to see great films and meet the artists who create them. We’re pretty sure there are future celebrities in this group!