Went To Rome

Rome, Georgia that is. About an hour and a half north of Atlanta for the Rome International Film Festival. Found indie filmakers roaming loose in the streets:

While in Rome, I saw a lefty documentary, a grownup ham, enjoyed good company, delicious appetizers, and a coupla really nice cosmos. The doc viewed was Sacco and Vinzetti, a film co-produced and (online) edited by friend Tom Roche. It was very nicely put together, given Tom's long, hard work on cleaning-up the historical footage. The film hit the audience over the head with the obvious (contemporary political implications) only briefly. Chiefly, Sacco and Vinzetti was made compelling via (likely) never-before-seen historical footage of huge rallys across the U.S. (other than the South of course) in support of the doomed immigrant duo.

The ham was the woman who played the beloved Scout in To Kill A Mockingbird. (She always enters my mind as the ham rescued by Boo Radley/Robert Duvall.)

Mary Badham (her real name unfortunately) is all grown-up now with kids of her own, and making a career of fielding questions at film festivals it seems. After a screening of her classic movie Saturday night, Ms. Badham answered all the earnest Q's with tidy stories and southernesque anecdotes I suspect were well-rehearsed.

Below, Cheryl Roche, Tom's wife and my choice for Queen Mum of the Roadtrip, consults a guide to where we shall follow, the local BBQ joint being a typical first stop.

Below, Jay Edwards, creator of Stomp, Shout, Scream!, the first in his SkunkApe trilogy, gets direction from Tom on where to stand for his GPB podcast interview.

Less than 24 hours later, it was right back to the ATL, where a host of interesting offerings are on tap for the coming week, including Cat Power, Judith Owen and a theatrical offering about a true Southern frump, Celestine Sibley.