A free online event.
Tommy Nichols, founder of the Charlotte Black Film Festival, leads a discussion with director, George King and the artist, Lonnie Holley immediately following the screening of the film.
A Black History Month Event
SYNOPSIS
Thumbs Up for Mother Universe: Stories from the Life of Lonnie Holley is a 95-minute documentary film about the life and work of Alabama visual artist and musician Lonnie Holley. This story of survival, endurance and triumph has much to say about race and social class in the American South. Lonnie Holley’s remarkable life and the improbability of his success are an inspiration. But the pain of the memory of many of these stories remain with him to this day. As he says in the film, “My art was the salve for a lot of those memories.”
Over the 22-year course of filming Lonnie Holley, we have shot and acquired an archive of interviews, still photographs, scenes with Holley’s family, and footage of Holley collecting materials, and making art and music. It is a unique record of an artist’s life and work. The feature length film, Thumbs Up for Mother Universe: Stories from the Life of Lonnie Holley is really, the tip of the iceberg. We see the film as an introduction to a cornucopia of materials on this website. Here viewers can go deeper–reviewing uncut interviews, photo galleries of Holley’s art, unreleased cuts of music recorded at live performances, short films created for the website, and stories that we simply could not get into the film.
Lonnie Holley is particularly interested in encouraging the creativity of young people. Beyond the possibilities of festivals, TV, and streaming video, we intend to screen the film—with accompanying workshops with Holley, in community venues to reach this audience.
FROM THE FILMMAKER
This story of survival, endurance, and triumph has much to say about race and social class in the American South. Lonnie Holley’s remarkable life and the improbability of his success are a true inspiration. Holley is particularly interested in encouraging the creativity of young people of color. Beyond the possibilities of TV and streaming video, to reach this audience, we intend to screen the film in community venues, with accompanying workshops with Holley.
After 21 years of filming Holley’s life, we have shot and acquired a unique record of an artist’s life and work. This archive of interviews, still photographs, scenes with Holley’s family, Holley collecting materials and making art and music will be made available to an institution where fans, students, and researchers can view and listen to unedited source materials.
And last, the feature length film, Thumbs Up for Mother Universe is really, the tip of the iceberg. We see the film as an introduction to a cornucopia of materials on the upcoming film’s website. Here viewers can go deeper, reviewing uncut interviews, photo galleries of Holley’s art, unreleased cuts of music recorded at Holley’s live performances, and short films created for the website of other important events and stories that we could not include in the film.
These events are made possible through the Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers, a South Arts program. The program is made possible through a partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.
TO READ THE NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE CLICK HERE
