The Circuit

by Rachel Goslins
 Atlanta is a strange beast.  A sprawling southern metropolis, it evokes Los Angeles in its car-centric culture and lack of a true city center.  That is, if Los Angeles had residential areas full of old mansions described as “the Driving Miss Daisy neighborhood” and sixty-year old restaurants that pride themselves on their sweet tea and “meat + three” meals (a meat dish plus three sides, for the uninitiated).  Half modern city, half small town throwback, the city of Atlanta seems to be still in the process of figuring itself out.

In a way, that makes it the perfect place for the Atlanta Film Festival, an intimate festival with a small-town vibe in the center of a dynamic city.  Primarily located in the Landmark Art Theaters and tucked away in an outdoor mall in Midtown, it’s the only festival I’ve been to where you can walk to the Trader Joes next door for a quick cashew pick-me-up between screenings.  Except for the opening and closing night festivities there aren’t a lot of planned parties, but there’s always a group of festival goers and film makers hanging out at the delicious courtyard restaurant in front of the theater, Apres Diem, or in the Independent upstairs, a bar that doubles as the official film makers lounge during the day.

While you’re waiting for the films to start, there’s a lot to do in the metro Atlanta area.  But good luck getting around Midtown – just to make things interesting for the out-of-towner they’ve helpfully named almost every street “Peachtree.”

Evening and weekend audiences at the festival are large and enthusiastic.  However, the daytime screenings tended to be sparsely attended and it’s a problem for the un-promoted films scheduled to show at 12:30 pm on a Wednesday in a city where everyone’s working.  With great feature and shorts programming, and a roster of interesting choices like "Teen Screen" and "Rapid i Movement," I suppose it is just hard to fit it all in during primetime.

Home to a large, active black population, a lively arts community and Turner Broadcasting (as well as it’s high profile subsidiary CNN) one might think the Atlanta Film Festival would have little more octane to it.  And a little more glitz and glamour would not be a bad thing.  But for now, AFF is still a perfectly pleasant way to pass a few days in a haze of film watching.


Rachel Goslins is the director of the doc "'Bama Girl."  Check out the film's website here.