Aug/Sept 09 | 

Below the Line, August and September 2009

Goings-on in the South & Beyond

Alabama
Picture Show
With close to forty feature-length films and some 125 shorts, Birmingham’s Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival (September 25–27) draws movie buffs from far and wide. But fans and filmmakers alike will tell you it’s the little details—a wealth of good grub, live music, and parties in storied locales such as the Speakeasy—that make it one of the most fun film festivals around. Screenings take place in nine venues all within the city’s historic Theatre District, providing excellent walkability (hence the festival’s name). As you meander from spot to spot, keep your eyes peeled for Birmingham native Louise Fletcher, better known as the inimitable Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. sidewalkfest.com

Arkansas
Who You Calling a Hillbilly?
Dubbed the “apex of moronia” in 1931 by H. L. Mencken, Arkansas has been taking it on the chin for decades. So it’s about time someone did a thorough inquest into the state’s—let’s not dance around it, shall we?—hillbilly reputation. Out in September, Arkansas/Arkansaw (University of Arkansas Press), by Natural State native and professor of Ozark Studies Brooks Blevins, offers a historical, and often hysterical, look at the evolution of this backwoods stereotype. As Blevins writes, “Perhaps by the time we make it through almost two hundred years of caricatures, besmirches, ridicules, and condescensions, we’ll at least have a start toward answering the question so many of us have asked through the years: Why Arkansas?”

Florida
Get Cracking
The lobster doesn’t get any fresher than at the Schooners Lobster Festival & Tournament in Panama City Beach (September 18–20). Here, divers plunge into the Gulf of Mexico to scoop up both the shovelnose and spiny varieties of the crustacean. Competing for biggest bug, the divers then weigh in their catches, which can go as heavy as fifteen pounds and be as long as a baseball bat. Onlookers can savor a buffet-style lobster dinner on the beach or snag one of the winners at an auction after the tournament. But be advised, the champs don’t come cheap. They can fetch as much as five hundred dollars apiece. schooners.com

Georgia
Southern Lens
For more than forty summers, William Christenberry returned to Hale County, Alabama, to document the changing face of his native region in bold, stark photographs that have since become iconic of the South’s gradual transformation. Inspired by James Agee and Walker Evans’s Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, Christenberry began shooting with an old Kodak Brownie camera, often capturing the same spots each year. He has since made a technological upgrade, but the essence of his work remains the same. To view a collection of these photographs, including some never-before-seen images, head to the Morris Museum of Art in Augusta beginning September 12 for the exhibition William Christenberry: Photographs, 1961–2005. And don’t miss the opening-night reception, featuring a talk from the artist himself. themorris.org

Kentucky
Meet and Drink
The Kentucky Bourbon Festival started seventeen years ago as a black-tie affair with a little bourbon tasting. But, as commonly happens when there’s good liquor involved, the party got a tad bigger—and rowdier. Last year, it drew fifty-five thousand thirsty guests to Bardstown, in the heart of bourbon country. The festival (September 15–20) celebrates all things bourbon with distillery tours, demonstrations, a bourbon auction, and, of course, lots of samples. These folks have been known to get pretty creative with their whiskey, too. Bourbon-spiked pancakes and coffee, anyone? Now, that’s a power breakfast. kybourbonfestival.com