Press: ArtBeat- SoAL film scramble says ‘Mobile, We Love You’

from Thomas Harrison at AL.com

To honor its host city, the South Alabama Film Festival has chosen “Mobile, We Love You” as the theme for its inaugural festival film scramble. In the last year, area filmmakers have made short films involving original music, “Sweded” movies and the festival itself.

“The premiere scramble could only be about two things: passion and the Azalea City,” the SoAL news release states. “East, west, north, south — 18 different locations in the bay area are fair game for teams who will spend 48 hours making a five-minute love story.”

Teams met Friday afternoon at the Crescent Theater to receive final instructions and are supposed to submit completed films by 5 p.m. Oct. 25. Films will be shown Nov. 6 in Cathedral Square during a free night of film to kick off the first South Alabama Film Festival, which runs through Nov. 8.

The festival will host a VIP event at the Mobile Arts Council after the screening of the scramble films and a block of locally made short films, which will be shown over the weekend. Wintzell’s will cater the affair.

“Rootsy Hip,” a documentary about Mobile’s white hip-hop scene, will have its premiere at 11 p.m. Nov. 6 at the Crescent Theater, replete with red carpet. The Alabama Music Box will have a party afterward where some of the groups will perform. The other big film, “A Genesis Found,” is having its premiere at 5 Rivers Delta Resource Center on the Causeway. The makers of that film will come down for the red-carpet treatment as well.

Hailee Kuntz is festival director; Carson Kennedy is program director and documentarian. Information, call 251-490-4356 or visit the Web site: www.southalabamafilmfestival.org.