Local Stories Told

Published 9:10 am Friday, June 21, 2019

Last night at ArtsRevive, members of the community gathered for a special screening of the Selma200 “mini documentaries” that accompany each of the eight photographs that can now been seen around downtown Selma.

Selma200 is a community storytelling project made possible by a collaboration between Selma residents and Blue Magnolia Films.

Blue Magnolia Films, consisting of Allison Fast, her husband Chandler Griffin and Aaron Phillips, hosted a ten-day photography work shop giving local story tellers the tools and skills needed to take excellent photos.

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“What we do in this process,” said Griffin, “Is really have people learn light, composition and decisive moment perspective and in 4 hours we take them from zero to one hundred in understanding the technology and using this technology to tell stories in their community.”

Those photos, compiled into slide shows and accompanied by a narration from the participant were all screened last night.

Preceding each screening the story teller briefly explained their process and afterwards, the audience had the chance to respond by asking questions or sharing how the film made them feel.

The Selma200 storytellers were Afriye We-kandodis, Patty Sexton and Beth Spivey, JoAnne Bland and Kimberly Smitherman, Vickey Stoudenmire, Clay Carmichael, Linda Derry, Jawana Jackson and Pride Forney and Ronnie Leet and Amy Milligan.

ArtsRevive Director Becky Youngblood was thrilled with the screening’s turnout and thank everyone in attendence for their support.

“It’s going to exceed your expectations, I promise you,” said Youngblood before the short films were shown.

The films brought forth many responses from the audience and inspired hope for the future of Selma and sparked a conversation asking what can be done to help the city thrive.