17th Annual Carrboro Film Fest Nov 18-20

Tableau: Opening Night Film
Friday, November 18, 2022
7:30 to 9:30 p.m.

Carrboro Film Fest is proud to present Tableau, a feature film by Chapel Hill native Stuart Howes. After a middle-aged woman has an affair, she tries to win back the respect of her oldest daughter while keeping the truth a secret from her youngest. Family bonds are put to the test in this thought-provoking drama set and filmed in Chapel Hill and Carrboro. We invite you to join us for the local premier of Tableau and a special Q&A with the director, cast, and crew after the screening.

The screening will open with “Steps,” a narrative short in which a recently separated couple attempts to get closure during a long overdue swimming lesson. Directed by Blake Rice.

Southern Bodies: Short Films
Saturday, November 19, 2022
11:15 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Audre Lorde once said, “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” In this collection of six short films, we see marginalized Southern bodies transformed from objects of oppression into powerful sites of resistance and rebirth. Among the individuals featured in these films are a Black mother who must protect the genetic integrity of her unborn child, a fat woman who confronts her well-meaning bandmates during a sexy album shoot, and an Alabama activist who works tirelessly to provide accessible COVID-19 vaccination to her small town community. We hope you will leave this block invigorated and empowered to use your own body as an agent of change.

Films in this block:

• The Panola Project (16:39)
• Myles Berrio (7:49)
• Rebyrth (5:14)
• Post-Citrus (10:53)
• Suga Brown (17:49)
• Dawn: A Charleston Legend (34:00)

Stories We (Should) Tell: Short Films
Saturday, November 19, 2022
1:15 PM 3:15 PM

Did you hear the story about the Holocaust survivor who inspired clowns? What about the Vietnamese immigrant who bonds with her daughter while paying bills over the phone? Have you heard about the trailblazing civil rights leader George H. White? Neither had we, which is why this block of shorts is devoted to the stories we haven’t told enough. Sometimes painful, sometimes celebratory, these films explore universal questions of family, identity, privilege, loss, and the human search for happiness. We hope you leave this block with a new perspective on the small things in life and, of course, some new stories to tell.

Films in this block:

• Smile Little Ladybug (16:39)
• Ma’s Kitchen (12:19)
• Craven Gap (4:10)
• Ebbs and Flows (9:20)
• In These Times (3:12)
• I’m the Girl (16:18)
• Pickup (12:34)
• George H. White: Searching for Freedom (26:00)

I Know the Truth: Short Films
Saturday, November 19, 2022
3:30 to 5:15 p.m.

When the curtains rise for this block, we’re prescribing our audience the red pill and showing you just how deep the rabbit hole goes. In this collection of seven short films, you will see the world through new eyes. Travel the city with a homeless man seeking justice. Step into the arena with a former sniper recovering from PTSD. Encounter a mysterious backyard hole with an anxious young boy. We can’t promise you’ll be able to bend spoons after these films, but you will know the truth.

Films in this block:

• Soldier (22:00)
• Dead Fair (3:03)
• Pulled Over / Pulled Under (17:08)
• To Live and Die in the Shadows (5:29)
• God Bless (8:21)
• Hell and Back Again (5:00)
• The Devil Will Run (10:24)
• Act of God (21:54)

Returning To The Source: Documentary Shorts
Saturday, November 19, 2022
5:30 to 7:15 p.m.

In this collection of documentary shorts, we are returning to origins: an abandoned childhood home, a raging river, a farm in the mountains, and the very dust from which we came. The subjects at the heart of these films are reckoning with their place in history and nature and, along the way, developing deeper connections to others, to their communities, and to their world. Our hope is that you leave this block feeling more rooted in yourself and more ready to enrich the people, places, and things that give you life.

Films in this block:

• First Final Ride (11:19)
• Freedom Hill (29:43)
• Wintering Grounds (20:37)
• Fog Likely Farm (27:35)

Magnetism: Short Films
Saturday, November 19, 2022
7:30 to 9:15 p.m.

With this block of nine short films, we’re inviting you to explore the mysterious forces that shape human behavior. Among the alluring characters in this collection, we meet a tantalizing demon who coaxes the darkest truths from a group of friends , a jazz musician who is instinctively drawn to a woman possessing a secret, and a group of climbers who refuse to give up on a challenging boulder. We hope you leave this block with a newfound appreciation for the things that propel us forward and pull us backward, the things that push us together and drive us apart.

Films in this block:

• Birds (13:50)
• To The Bone (5:36)
• The Sax Man (3:00)
• OTIS (10:26)
• How We Found Our Sound (11:11)
• Don’t You Go Nowhere (8:00)
• Tides (8:00)
• May We Know Our Strength (5:45)
• Inner Mounting Flame (24:18)

Looking Back, Moving Forward: Short Films
Sunday, November 20, 2022
12:15 to 2:00 p.m.

Progress is rarely perfect or easy, which is why this collection of shorts seeks to honor the journey itself in all its complexity. In these stories you will find triumph, hardship, and doubt – but never complacency. The individuals at the heart of these films have one thing in common: they are moving forward, and we are happy to be along for the ride.

Films in this block:

• CANS Can’t Stand (18:33)
• Letter From a Refugee (2:30)
• The Last Last Hike (19:54)
• Becoming (10:45)
• Gay Haircut (7:30)
• Bright Morning Stars (16:58)
• More Than I Want to Remember (14:00)

Our Strange New Land: Short Films and Presentation
Sunday, November 20, 2022
2:15 to 4:00 p.m.

Carrboro Film Fest is proud to present a fascinating block of narrative shorts along with a presentation and discussion with acclaimed photographers Alex Harris and Margaret Sartor about their new book, Our Strange New Land: Narrative Movie Sets in the American South. Blurring the lines between documentary and fiction, Harris and Sartor have created an immersive book, using still imagery to evoke their own cinematic-like narrative. Harris’s photographs, made on more than 40 film sets from across the South, reveal a new generation of Southern filmmakers coming to terms with matters of race, class, and sexuality. Together, Harris’s photographs and the accompanying films ask us to consider how much our setting shapes our behavior, and, more importantly, what power we have to resist our prescribed plotlines if they no longer serve us. We hope you leave the theater enriched by a look behind the camera and equipped with a renewed sense of agency in the story of your own life.

Included in this block:

• Our Strange New Land (30:00)
• Future Boys (11:43)
• This Is Our Home (13:32)
• Far West (9:25)
• How to Behave At a Party (1:57)
• Free Noir Papillion (11:09)
• Everythingeater (15:56)

The Smell of Money: Closing Night Film
Sunday, November 20, 2022
4:15 to 6:00 p.m.

Carrboro Film Fest is proud to present The Smell of Money, a compelling documentary that brings to life a social justice issue especially poignant for North Carolinians: the true cost of the world’s cheap pork. A century after her grandfather claimed his freedom from slavery, Elsie Herring and her rural North Carolina community fight the world’s largest pork corporation for their freedom to enjoy fresh air, clean water, and a life without the stench of manure. We invite you to join us for the screening and a special Q&A with producer and North Carolina native Jamie Berger after the screening.