DATE: February 19, 2009

CONTACT: Aga Skrodzka-Bates, 864-656-1871
askrodz@clemson.edu

WRITER: Ross Norton, 864-656-4810
rnorton@clemson.edu

Independent filmmakers tour comes to Clemson University

CLEMSON — The director of a film exploring race relations in the South will bring to Clemson University her documentary on a debutante groomed to be a New Orleans Mardi Gras queen.

“Member of the Club: A New Orleans Cinderella Story” is the first of three films on this year’s Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers. The screening is 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 25, at the McKissick Theater in the Hendrix Student Center.

A discussion with filmmaker Phoebe Ferguson will follow the screening.

“Member of the Club” uses the story of Marisa Mitchell and her quest to become a Mardi Gras queen. The documentary looks at Southern black social clubs as well as issues of race, class and the desire of an American family to belong.  

“Member of the Club: A New Orleans Cinderella Story” is the first of three films brought to Clemson this year by the Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers.

“All About Us,” with director Christine Swanson and producer Michael Swanson, tells the story of Ed and Stacey Brown, two young African-American filmmakers struggling to make it in Hollywood. The “All About Us” screening is at 7:30 p.m. April 1 in the McKissick Theater.

Producer-director Scott Galloway brings “A Man Named Pearl” to the McKissick Theater at 7:30 p.m. on April 22. His documentary is about self-taught topiary artist Pearl Fryar of Bishopville.

All of the screenings are open to the public and free.

The 2008-2009 Southern Circuit is a program of the Southern Arts Federation. Southern Circuit screenings are funded in part by a grant from the Southern Arts Federation in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts. Local partners are the Clemson University English Department and the English Majors Organization.

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