For the last three months we’ve been touring around with “Stalking the Big Cat,” from Savannah to Demorest to Panama City to Decatur to Macon (photo above at the historic Douglass Theatre) to the UGA campus to Springfield Missionary Church and Saute-Nacochee. Two public TV broadcasts, GPB and WABE. It’s fair to say that 100s of people who had no earthly idea who Johnny “Big Cat” Mize or James “Red” Moore were, now know a little more about them and about the era in which they played baseball.
Now we’re starting to look ahead. Again.
What’s in the pipeline?
A short about rivercane, a native plant that once flourished in the Southeast and now barely has a toehold left. But it’s making a slow comeback because of people like Thomas Peters and Native American communities that understand both its ecological and cultural importance.
A full-length documentary about Athens artist Joni Mabe, aka the Elvis Babe, who once toured the country with her exhibits related to southern culture and the King. Now she’s hunkered down in her great-grandparents’s boarding house in tiny Cornelia, Georgia. But her creative productivity hasn’t slowed down in the 40+ years she’s been making art and celebrating Elvis in all his earthly and otherworldly manifestations.
And then a new film on artist (and friend) Michael Murrell, picking up where we left off with a 2022 short film (“Catawampus”). Michael continues to pour his heart and soul into work that reflects his connection with nature, music, whimsy, even fashion. He’s hard to categorize. We’re not going to try. We’re just going to show.