Reel South Documentary Series

Japanese bluegrass band Bluegrass 45 finds cultural unity through their music in the South.

In a quiet West Virginia town, a radio telescope searches for signs of life beyond Earth.

Dr. Albert “Doc” Jones leads the charge to preserve history through scuba diving.

A young woman is tapped to become the next chief of her tribe in southern Louisiana.

After escaping Japan, an elderly man finds peace as a bamboo farmer in North Carolina.

Five Black women take on the Klan in a landmark 1982 civil case for justice.

Between 1947 and 1967, Birmingham, Alabama, witnessed over 50 bombings targeting Black-owned homes. This film follows three individuals who, as children, lived through the terror and stayed in the city...

A Muslim-American family fights for justice after their loved ones are murdered in NC.

After her mother’s passing, a daughter searches through archival footage to understand who she was.

"Free Play" is a documentary highlighting how a mother’s perseverance in the face of adversity led to the creation of Middle Tennessee’s largest all inclusive playground.

Atlanta teen Hayun dreams of becoming an Olympic archer, but she struggles to find a coach. Determined to support their daughter, dad Jaemin steps in to become her coach and mom Jinmi, takes a brave step in her own life.

RUBIO uses art to share folklore, remember friends, and celebrate the Westside community.

From pulling clutches to pushing pedals, poppin' wheelies through the concrete jungle is an authentic, unapologetic form of Black expression in the heart of Atlanta. It is art, culture. It...

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...

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 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...

In Dallas, a young Black woman without arms shares her story with thousands online.

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...

A mentoring program provides San Antonio underserved youth the opportunity to hunt and harvest wildlife for their families living in poverty.

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...

With eyes toward space, Texas restricts access to an otherworldly beach.

Indigenous and Mexican ancestors explore the history and disappearance of the Rio Grande.

How the Eastern Band of Cherokee reclaimed their land.

A Black scientist in Arkansas guides farmers through agricultural challenges.

A Black farmer in Virginia wrestles with tradition and the changing needs of the economy.

Out of time and money, a newspaper editor fights to keep her paper alive in rural Texas.

In 1951, a Christmas window astonished a little girl in Louisville, KY. Who is she?

The only doctor in Clay County Georgia must confront the possibility of losing her clinic.

Marshallese migrants in Arkansas explore the US nuclear legacy.

A historian revisits the oral history of a 1920s school teacher in the Mississippi Delta.

Members of a rural Virginia town are exposed to contamination from a nearby Army plant.

Families torn apart by Georgetown’s sale of enslaved people reunite six generations later.

63 years after the Bay of Pigs invasion, the surviving dissidents tell the fuller story.

In 1971, one of the worst industrial tragedies in U.S. history shook rural Georgia.

An Asian-American veteran of the Vietnam War searches for the soldier who saved his life.

Season 9 adds new depth to the records America keeps and who gets to define and shape our collective posterity. 10 films offer new perspectives on our shared military, health...