Reel South Documentary Series

May 4, 2020 - In 1979, a fatal shooting ignites a maelstrom of hostilities against Vietnamese refugee fishermen along the Gulf Coast. Set during the early days of Vietnamese refugee...

In picturesque Hot Springs, Arkansas, a one-winged American black vulture named Adonis captivates a small town. The bird is lovingly cared for by two devoted women: Jayne, a down-on-her-luck Arkansas...

Madame Pipi follows the lives of Haitian bathroom attendants working in Miami’s hottest nightclubs. Often invisible, underpaid, and underappreciated, their stories showcase a custodial world built on the backs of...

When the media gets wind of Mary Thorn’s alligator story, she’s characterized as just another crazy “Florida Man.” Florida Woman peels back the curtain on the media’s portrayal of a...

Quaranteened follows the lives of four sisters from a blended family in Durham, North Carolina, as they cope with the anxiety of their disrupted lives and stolen dreams with humor...

After spending 15 years working in the conventional funeral industry, a passionate mortician is paving uncharted territory to help create the first natural burial ground of its kind in Tennessee...

Little Satchmo is an intimate exploration of the iconic Louis Armstrong's life and legacy through his relationship with the daughter that the public never knew existed. Based on a revealing...

Indonesian-American artist Cita Sadeli, a.k.a. MISS CHELOVE, begins work on a mural in a soon-to-open Indonesian coffeehouse in Washington, D.C. As she paints, Cita talks about her life in the...

After two solo transcendental experiences in the Ozark National Forest near his home, a naturalist and bowhunter reflects on the Cycle of Life in the aftermath of an animal harvest...

After experiencing neglect and traumatic loss while pregnant in prison, Pamela Winn becomes an activist, leading hundreds of thousands to support the Dignity Bill to end the shackling of pregnant...

Capturing her wife’s journey of high-risk pregnancy, birth, and early motherhood, a North Carolina filmmaker confronts her own fear and insecurity surrounding the adventures of parenthood—all while completing the adoption...

Dallas-area native Kash Culberson (@its_Kashmiere) entertains and engages thousands of her online followers with her confidence and energy. Born without arms, Kash's charisma in a world not built...

The Mardi Gras Baby Dolls' masking tradition fearlessly explore themes of identity, sexual liberation, and the freedom that Carnival lends in New Orleans amongst Black women. The group pulls a...

A University of Mississippi step team vies to defend its title at the annual Black Greek Step Show. Embodying Black southern culture, brotherhood, creativity, and determination, the Eta Beta chapter...

In the disorienting wake of loss, an artist begins to question his identity and beliefs. Strange experiences – windows that open themselves, phantom dogs on the highway, and all of...

Outside Washington, DC in the suburbs of Northern Virginia, Waleed Malik, a middle aged Pakistani immigrant becomes fascinated by a mysterious glowing orb outside his 12th floor apartment window. Meanwhile...

El Paso is part of a border intersecting three states and two countries. It is considered the “Ellis Island of the South” with over 81% Hispanic population. This is a...

As of 2019, the San Antonio Metro Region in Texas leads the US in poverty, with one-in-four children experiencing hunger. The mentoring program “City Kids Adventures” provides San Antonio underserved...

BUG FARM uses the premise of an unusual livestock to focus on new economic opportunities in agriculture, the future of our food industry, and most importantly, the individuals that will...

Brandi Jarrow, a 27-year old trans woman of color from New Orleans, takes the personal and professional success she has achieved as a hairstylist, and works to open an inclusive...

In 1965, Francois Poupart and his wife immigrated from Bordeaux, France to Lafayette, Louisiana in search of a better life. They settled there finding themselves feeling at home because of...

In a buttoned-up city like DC, what happens when drag queens go rogue? LIPSTICK AND LEATHER explores the “alt-drag” community in the nation’s capital, and across the east coast.

Drag...

Some people collect baseball cards or coins. For Kent Westbrook, he actively collects tools, bowls, pots, and more made in Arkansas. His simple hobby spans over 65 years and slowly...

Darrouzett, Texas is a tiny, 100-year-old homesteaded community that represents an often overlooked population: elderly Americans living in rural places. It also represents a phenomenon happening all over the United...

Coup d'Etat Math is an animated short that depicts four stories that speak to the complex equation of each immigrant’s journey. Purposely ambiguous in place and time, each story builds...

Nearly 30,000 quilters descend upon Paducah, Kentucky, every year for its huge quilt competition, doubling the town’s population. “The Academy Awards of quilting” is a week-long spectacle in which quilters...

Tre Singleton spends an average of thirty hours a week mentoring a group of young Black men in Savannah, Georgia where he exposes them to other mentors and new skill...

This is the story of a superstar athlete and why the sports industry hasn't put her on your radar. AJ Andrews is the first woman to win a Rawlings Gold...

Set atop Sand Mountain, Alabama, SOME MILLION MILES presents a meditation on loss and the search for redemption amid a rural landscape of abundant beauty and deep poverty. Through a...

In the wake of a community tragedy, Sidney Brodie begins the Durham Homicide and Memorial Quilt. Every time someone is killed in Durham, he adds their name. But as Sidney...

Uniontown weaves together the unheard individual narratives of grassroots organizers in Uniontown, Alabama, as they fight to take back the town from the hands of industrial polluters and complacent politicians...

Following the haves and the have-nots during Kentucky Derby weekend, The Derby explores unseen sides of Kentucky’s biggest sporting event. From an anonymous reveler on Millionaires Row, to Guatemalan equine...

Cotton Plant, Arkansas grapples with steep and steady decline. Drowning in debt and immense population loss, the town faces a harsh reality: grow, or die. Mayor Willard C. Ryland, a...

A short documentary about the continued vandalism of the signs commemorating Emmett Till’s death after they were put up in 2007. These signs, erected by the Emmett Till Memorial Commission...

Decades of oil and gas infrastructure projects in Louisiana’s Atchafalaya Basin have recklessly altered the flow of water across the wetland, forcing crawfishermen working in the Basin to ask hard...

Father Roy Snipes has lived in Texas his whole life and seen it all, especially along the Mexico border. He has dedicated his life to the oblates and keeping religion...

Illustrated scenes and archival footage of 1970's pop-culture animate Arthur Bremer’s diary entry planning the assassination of former Alabama governor George Wallace during his 1972 presidential campaign.

On seven Saturdays each fall, a tranquil South Carolina town, becomes a college football metropolis. Its heart is Howard’s Rock. Players rub it for luck before entering Clemson Memorial Stadium...

High school student and poet, Chasity Hunter, experienced intense flooding in her New Orleans neighborhood during both Hurricane Katrina and recent summer rainstorms. Inspired to find out how safe her...

In the uphill battle against fishing regulations, a changing climate, and their own geographical isolation, multiple generations of the residents of Atlantic, NC tell stories about their home and its...

The first time LaBrelah was on a horse she was eight months old. Today, she is an accomplished barrel racer in Southern rodeo circuits. With her family’s unending support, this...

This Body explores the fraught relationship between African Americans and the medical industry. As Sydney Hall participates in an experimental coronavirus vaccine trial in hopes of protecting her beloved New...

Comida pa' los Pobres follows Giovanni, a young Puerto Rican activist, as he confronts the island’s persistent crisis of food insecurity. Motivated by his childhood struggle with hunger, he seeks...

Udaan (Soar) follows a young Pakistani woman as she immigrates from Karachi, Pakistan to a small town in Arkansas to begin her first year of college. Due to COVID-19 restrictions...

We Stay In the House provides an intimate portrait of four mothers in New Orleans as they struggle to care for their families and themselves throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Between...

As uprisings spread across the country, a young poet in Birmingham, Alabama becomes involved in local protests against decades of police brutality. As he tries to reconcile the city’s modern...

An interfaith, interracial choir in Durham, North Carolina is forced to take a new direction during the COVID-19 pandemic. Members of the choir, which is dedicated to racial unity, must...