“Southern Landscapes” will focus on independent, alternative, and documentary films that have been made in the American South and examine different representations of Southern life.

Each film will be presented by Andrew Kunka, an assistant professor of English at USC Sumter who teaches courses in literature, composition, and film. His publications and research on film include work on war movies and film noir. The film screenings will be followed by a discussion.

“I’m very excited to be presenting this series,” Kunka said. “Last year’s series on Southern filmmakers was a great success, and I wanted to continue exploring the themes raised in that series. The films this year were not only made in the South by Southern filmmakers—they also take a critical look at Southern culture and popular stereotypes of the South.”

The schedule is:

• June 9, Stranger with a Camera (2000), produced and directed by Elizabeth Barret. In 1967 Canadian filmmaker Hugh O'Connor visited the mountains of Central Appalachia to document poverty. Hubert Ison, a local landlord who resented the presence of filmmakers on his property shot and killed O'Connor, in part because of his anger over the media images of Appalachia that had become icons in the nation's War on Poverty. Filmmaker Elizabeth Barret, a native of Appalachia, uses O'Connor's death as a lens to explore the complex relationship between those who make films to promote social change and the people whose lives are represented.
  
• June 16, Daughters of the Dust (1991), produced, written, and directed by Julie Dash. This landmark independent film explores the tensions between tradition and change in a Gullah family at the turn of the century as they plan to move North from the Sea Islands off the Georgia coast. This modern American classic has been described by Filmmaker magazine as “one of the most important independent films ever made.”
  
• June 23, Sherman’s March (1986), directed by Ross McElwee. McElwee’s innovative and groundbreaking film begins as a documentary the effects of Sherman’s march through the South on Southern culture, but it quickly goes astray as the filmmaker’s romantic problems dominate his life. This humorous autobiographical exploration of McElwee’s own relationships with women sets in motion a trend in first-person documentaries that has lasted over the past eighteen years. McElwee’s journey took him through Columbia, Hartsville, and Sumter, all of which are featured prominently in this film.
  
• June 30, All the Real Girls (2003), written and directed by David Gordon Green. Green’s first two films, George Washington (2000) and All the Real Girls, garnered considerable critical acclaim and established him as one of the freshest young filmmakers working today. All the Real Girls tells a story of young love in a small North Carolina town. Green resists the vacuity of contemporary teen romance movies. This film received a Special Jury Prize at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival for “Emotional Truth.”