ATLFF Review: "Old South" (***)

"Old South" screened at the 39th annual Atlanta Film Festival

Set against the backdrop of a divided Athens community, "Old South" explores the neighborhood struggle between two communities and their desire to preserve their historical legacies. On one side, there is Kappa Alpha (KA), a white fraternity known to fly the Confederate flag and stage antebellum-style parades. They move into a predominantly black neighborhood, whose citizens are still very much aware of the treatment their ancestors endured from the Civil War era. Through candid interviews with its residents, the documentary does an appropriate job of providing perspectives from two racially different communities. However, the documentary itself is decent at best and I would not consider it a "must-see" from the Atlanta Film Festival.

First Ten Features from 2015 Atlanta Film Festival All Directed by Women

Although the 2015 Atlanta Film Festival (ATLFF) is still nearly four months away, the organization has released the first ten feature films selected for the 39th annual festival lineup. This announcement is different from typical festival releases in that the diverse slate of films have one thing in common—all ten films are directed by women.

“Films from female directors composed nearly half of last year’s feature film program. This first glimpse at the Festival’s 2015 lineup showcases the outstanding quality of work found in submissions from female filmmakers,” said ATLFF Director of Programming Kristy Breneman. Of the ten features in this first wave, six are narrative (fiction) and four are documentaries.