The USC Sumter Summer Film Festival returned to the theme of Southern films this year, focusing on independent, alternative, and documentary films.

"In past years, we have had great success in featuring films from this region, and I wanted to continue exploring the themes raised in past series," said USC Sumter English Professor Andrew Kunka, series founder. "The films this year were not only made in the South by Southern filmmakers, but they also take a critical look at Southern culture and popular stereotypes of the South."

Each event begins at 7 p.m. Monday nights in June in the Anderson Library, Room 122, on the USC Sumter campus. Kunka introduces the night's film, the film is shown, and an open discussion follows.

The screenings are free and open to the public.

Two films remain in the festival's line-up. They are:

• June 19, Daughters of the Dust (1991)
  

  Julie Dash

  Produced, written, and directed by Julie Dash, this independent film explores the tensions between tradition and change for a Gullah family at the turn of the century as they plan to move north from the Sea Islands off of the Georgia coast. This film makes a return engagement to the film series because it has been a very popular film screened in past years.
• June 26, The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till (2005)
  

  Keith Beauchamp

  Directed by Keith A. Beauchamp, this film demonstrates the power of film to inspire change. Beauchamp's film, more than 10 years in the making, helped re-open the unsolved 1955 murder case of 14-year-old Emmett Till, a case that was a catalyst for the American Civil Rights Movement.
  

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