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Media arts professor Susan Hogue and her student film crew will watch the fruits of their labor during the Fifth-annual African-American International Film Festival Feb. 3-7 at Nickelodeon Theater.
Hogue's documentary, Promises Made, explores the commitments and the fight to honor a promise in rural South Carolina.
"About 70 years ago, as part of the 1930s rural electrification project, Lake Marion and a dam were created in rural South Carolina to facilitate electric power in the area," Hogue said. "Rimini and Lone Star were among the many towns that developed as a result of this project, which provided electricity to the 93 percent of the state that did not have it at the time. When the lake was filled, Rimini and Lone Star were separated but many people claim a promise was made to reconnect them and, in fact, a bill was signed into law but never put into action.
"The towns are still separated," she said. "Some people say that an $80-million bridge reconnecting these tiny communities is frivolous, wasteful, and environmentally destructive. Others call it a classic story of racism and a case of the 'haves' taking from the 'have-nots.' The purpose of this documentary is to give the issues a fair hearing."
Production-crew members are undergraduate media arts students, including Lauren Waring, an Honors College senior who was associate producer.
"The project took about two years," she said. "With a documentary, you can do all the research you want to and you still don't know how the story will end up. It's very different from a film with a script.
"We aired Promises Made as a work-in-progress in several places, including Hawaii and Chicago," she said. "Last fall we showed it in Lone Star. They were our toughest audience, but they loved it. They realized that we didn't misrepresent them."
Among other honors and invitations, Promises Made has been accepted to air on the Emmy-winning ETV program, Southern Lens, this fall.
For more information about Promises Made, go to www.cas.sc.edu/art/promisesmade.htm.
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Kim Emswiler, a 2004 media arts graduate, was chief cinematographer on the project, above. Promises Made was shown as a work-in-progress in several venues, including Hawaii, where Emswiler, left; media arts professor Susan Hogue, center; and media arts senior and associate producer Lauren Waring, right, posed for this photograph, below.
