Join filmmakers and other festival personalities to kickoff the 2011 George Lindsey UNA Film Festival at On The Rocks, Downtown Florence. Party begins at 4:00 pm with light hors d'oeuvres. Guests will be responsible for their own beverages. The party will resume after Thursday evening screenings with live entertainment by Matt Roy and John Ezell. Come and join the fun!

Director: Spencer Lenzie
Student Short Narrative
Fifteen years from now hamburgers are illegal. Two cops plan an undercover sting on a major burger lord known as Trace.

Director; Producer: Melanie Jeffcoat
Professional Documentary
Open Secret is a short film based entirely on the transcripts of the 1901 Alabama Constitutional Convention where the delegates set out to unabashedly 'Establish White Supremacy!' This Constitution of 1901 was a catalyst for the decades of struggle in the south and why the state of Alabama became the epicenter of a civil rights movement that transformed a nation. Open Secret is the first reenactment of these transcripts and was written using exact quotes from the proceedings. The 30 minute film, shot and produced in Alabama, brings to life eight of these men and one brave suffragist. We are guided through the conversations by an on-screen narrator, the only fictional character, who puts the words of these delegates into the context of American history.

Director; Producer: Adam Schwartz, R. Todd Campbell, Robert Clay
Professional Documentary
For 53 years, Birmingham, Alabama was home to one of the strangest oddities in the world: A 56 foot high, cast iron statue of a Roman god holding a light that would turn red in the event of a traffic death. 'Torch' tells the story of this unique landmark, and the impact it had on the people of Birmingham.

Director; Producer: Christopher Holmes
Professional Documentary
This documentary explores the transition of the Sloss Furnaces site in Birmingham, AL, from its former industrial function to its current role as a focal point for the contemporary Cast Iron Art movement. From pig iron plant that helped establish the city of Birmingham to neglected industrial hulk saved by a legion of concerned citizens to centerpiece of the modern Cast Iron Art movement, this is the story of what one place can mean to a community and the world.

Director; Producer: Barr Weissman
Feature Film
This is a film about the redemptive power of rock-and-roll, told through the music and bawdy history of the Drive-By Truckers. It's a film about the American South, where rock was born, and about one band's daily struggle to make art, make love, and make a living. With unparalleled access, the film documents three critical years of touring and recording as the Truckers struggle to overcome the trauma of divorce and survive a near breakup in their persistent quest for 'The Secret to a Happy Ending'.
(hard language)

Director; Producer: Champ Williams
I stopped for a turtle this morning . . .(adult themes)

Director; Producer: Mark Kendall
A watchmaker in Grand Central deconstructs his process and muses about the nature of time.

Eric, a 20 something pedicab driver in a rural college party town, approaches his customers with wisdom and calmness beyond his age. Eric gives rides for tips as low as $1 per ride. If it isn't for the money, what is the thrill Eric gets from his humble chauffeuring?(hard language)

Director: Grzegorz Krawiec
Co-Producers: Grzegorz Krawiec, Andrzej Bednarek
History of a man who has just been released from prison after 7 years of punishment. (hard language, adult themes)

Filmmakers and screenwriters representing this year's festival selections will be on hand to talk to guests about their work. Please come by and show your appreciation to these talented filmmakers and writers.

Producer: Alexandr Litvinovz
A story about loss of illusionist and his assistant during a performance in a circus. Assistant`s husband and illusionist`s daughter try to find their relatives, but it is useless. Gradually all people forgot about this story, and around this mysterious loss have appeared some new relations.

Director; Producer: Spencer Reed
Executive Producer: Mark Reed
Zoe Jacobs, a lonely young girl who has just moved to a new town, finds a friend in the aspiring author, Charlie Cordell. Charlie just happens to be the monster living in her closet.

Director & Executive Producer: Luke Broyles
Eleven year old director, Luke Broyles, and Michael became friends in second grade. Luke wanted to make this documentary to show other kids that Michael, despite his unique challenges, is a kid just like them. It's a personal glimpse of Michael ...a special needs kiddo who is bubbling with hope and joy. Michael loves life. Especially singing and his dream of Broadway. This touching view of Michael, from another child's perspective, opens all our eyes.

Director: Russell Carter
Producer: Mingjue Hu
“Everything that Dies” traces a love story from its beginning magical moments to the testing of its strength by the realities of adult life.

Director: Derek Carter
Co-Producers: Derek Carter, Thomas Webb III
Preston Morstead is a recluse living a solitary life away from conformity and convention. His solitude becomes threatened when his estranged son, Josiah appears on his doorstep battered and bruised, seeking absolution from tragedy. To clear the family name and reconcile his relationship, Preston must conceal his sonʼs transgressions, protecting him from his own fate. Will he protect a son he has never known – atoning him for alienating his family – or will he honor justice?

Director: Eric J. Huber
Producers: Eric J. Huber, Casey Dwyer
A comedy about two children who, after learning the sun is expanding every day, seek to find a way to protect themselves from what they believe to be an inevitable apocalypse. (adult themes)

Director: David Gwaltney
Producer: Amanda Rohlke
When two 30-something women go on an internet double blind date, one finds an unlikely match: an armless, legless mannequin. (adult themes)

Director: Michael Felker
Set in 1999 at the Cobb High School cafeteria, Clarke Averbush, a movie geek, attempts to ask Becky Lauderdale, a popular cheerleader, to the Star Wars: Phantom Menace premiere during their lunch period. But first, Clarke has to overcome the adversity of the intimidating football jock, Brad Stokes, and a cafeteria food fight started by held-back giant bearded punk rock student. Will the movie geek get the girl of his dreams before lunch is over? (hard language)

Director: Justyna Nowak
A few love plots that meet each other in two places: local church and a house of a rich man. Love story from a little town. (hard language, adult themes)

Director; Producer: Dan Van Wert
When Olivia Browning's husband, Hugh, is ravaged by Alzheimer's Disease, she must make a decisive choice regarding his right to die.(hard language, sexual nudity, adult themes)

Director; Producer: Giorgia Farina
Achille, a cranky retired high diver is threatened to end his life in a retirement home. (hard language, other nudity)

Join Birmingham author Tim Hollis, UNA alum and actor Danny Vinson, Media Studies Scholar Dr. Jacob J. Podber, and “The Andy Griffith Show” expert Allan Newsome for a discussion of Southern Rural Humor in Television and Film. Hollis’s many books include “Ain’t That a Knee Slapper: Rural Comedy in the 20th Century.” Danny Vinson's work has included rural southern comedy in such films as "The Trail" and "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby." Podber, associate professor of media studies in the College of Mass Communication and Media Arts at Southern Illinois University, is the author of “The Electronic Front Porch: An Oral History of the Arrival of Modern Media in Rural Appalachia and the Melungeon Community.” Newsome runs the iMayberry.com website for The Andy Griffith Show Rerun Watchers Club and performs as “Floyd the Barber” at events throughout the south.

Director: Owen Smith
A music video with animation added from the animated film 'Elf Sparkle Meets Christmas The Horse.

Director: Owen Smith
Producer: Beth Roose
The song in this music video is from the animated feature, “Elf Sparkle Meets Christmas The Horse.”

Director; Producer: Christopher Jarvis
Frustrated attempts to bear children overwhelm the lives of an aristocratic, avian couple in the early nineteenth century. (adult themes)

Director: Banks Helfrich
Producer: Aviva Christie
In a world where time is vertical, mathematician Nigel Kline, stumbles upon himself which lays the foundation for acceptance of his own mortality. (adult themes)

Director; Producer: Charlotte Madsen
This film is a coming of age story that deals with guilt and forgiveness. In the small village of Baekmarksbro, ten-year-old Rasmus has a tragedy on his conscience. Accidentally he shot his sister a 5-year old. It happened while their mother had sex with the local police officer Laust from who Rasmus stole the gun. A terrible tragedy which has displaced the entire village. (hard language, adult themes)


Director: Jane Lanier
Executive Producer: Justin Bowler
Producer: Patricia Steffy
Touch tells the emotional account of two distressed souls who come together and experience, through human contact, how healing begins.

Director: Jeffrey P. Nesker
Producers: Michael Dawson, Mike Masters
Not long after the end of the world, a chance meeting in the wasteland. Two adolescents. A pragmatic Nomad, Claire has spent the better part of her life alone, simply surviving. Andrew hides away in a re purposed Store-All. Surrounded by foodstuffs and collected relics he only half understands, gone almost feral from solitude. The encounter draws surprising new emotions, and powerful, animal urges they’ve never experienced, but unconsciously suppress, to their own confusion. People are people, most of all those who are still figuring out who and what they are. No matter the circumstances.

Director; Producer: Ben Hur Sepehr
On a rainy night in a concentration camp a fearsome Nazi general is forced to plead with a condemned Jewish doctor to save his dying only son. (adult themes)

Director: Matt Irvine
Producer: David Miller
Estranged brothers from a dysfunctional family are forced to reunite in 'Scott's Dead,' a gritty tale of addiction, betrayal and metamorphosis. (hard language, adult themes)

Director: Darren Bolton
A quiet, sensitive and poignant film, Scent aims to explore themes of love, death and denial through a delicate observation of heart breaking, yet intriguing situations.(adult themes, other nudity)

Don’t miss this year’s celebration of the festival’s best films and screenplays.
Tickets on sale at the following locations at the following times:
The Wine Seller – until 3:00 pm on Saturday
Coffee-ol-ogy – until 3:00 pm on Saturday
Follett UNA Bookstore – until 3:30 pm on Friday and at First Fridays Festival Table
Ticket Price: $15.00 - student $5
After Party entertainment includes Melissa Bain, Heath Bain, and Chris Roach