Macon Magic: Reflections on the 19th Annual Macon Film Festival

To some, Macon, Georgia, may simply be a pass-through town on their way to the coast, but, after getting to know the city during the 19^th Annual Macon Film Festival from August 15-18, 2024, I see it clearly now as the wellspring of hope it has always been for those of us who love to celebrate music, art, and creativity. What I thought would be a routine business development trip turned out to be an unforgettable and long overdue pilgrimage for this born-and-raised Georgian, entertainment attorney, southern rock fan, and film enthusiast.

The Macon Film Festival kicked off on Thursday, August 15, at the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame, hosted by Randy Davidson and Jezlan Moyet of Georgia Entertainment. The theater was brimming with local filmmakers, politicians, accountants, lawyers, and at least one notable athlete — former UGA defensive back and NFL player, Champ Bailey. Bailey and his production team — including writer Glen Owen, John Thomas of Element CPA, and Seth Ingram of the Rome International Film Festival — graced us with the premiere of the trailer to Bailey’s first film investment project entitled, Signing Day, a fictional, dramatic, and comedic homage to the college football recruitment experience. Written, produced, and funded entirely by Georgians, and featuring notable cameos from Bailey’s NFL rolodex, this film is sure to appeal to both football fans and cinephiles alike.

Thursday night capped off at the historic Douglass Theatre with a screening of the feature film, Red Fever, a documentary produced by Neil Diamond (no, not that Neil Diamond) about the widespread yet largely uncredited impact indigenous cultures have had on nearly every facet of contemporary American life, focusing intently on fashion and football. The film is equal parts funny, informative, and heartbreaking, guiding the viewer through a formidable journey through time of native identity, western colonialism, and cultural appropriation.

On Friday, August 16, with the festival in full swing, I found myself spending all day at the Museum of Arts & Sciences, a short 15-minute drive from downtown Macon. There, I got to enjoy several blocks of short films projected onto the facility’s full-dome planetarium — an unconventional but compelling way to experience audio-visual storytelling. From interstellar dystopias to the re-creation of a real-life eclipse, the films projected on the spherical screen allowed viewers to become enveloped and entranced in a way that traditional forward-viewing formats, even IMAX, cannot compete with.

In another theater within the Arts & Science Museum, I learned about the life and works of a prolific, late German artist, who called Atlanta home, through the screening of Steffen Thomas: Rock & Chisel. You can see one of Thomas’ most well-known public sculptures at the corner of Peachtree Street and 15^th Street in midtown Atlanta called “Trilon,” as well as several statues and busts at the State Capital. After his death in 1990, his family worked hard to gather and preserve a private, curated collection of his work, available for viewing at the Steffen Thomas Museum of Art near Madison, Georgia, about an hour east of Atlanta.

On the morning of Saturday, August 17, I joined my AGG colleagues, Michelle Davis and Chase Ogletree, to present a panel at Capricorn Studios on the topic of intellectual property rights and chain of title in filmmaking. We discussed 13 points of legal consideration, spanning the greenlighting process, pre-production, production, and post-production, as well as artificial intelligence as an area of growing concern among filmmakers and copyright lawyers. The panel was followed by a private tour of historic Studio A, where the Allman Brothers recorded several platinum-selling albums, preserved almost exactly as the room stood 50 years ago. Thanks to a partnership with Mercer University, Capricorn is able to operate two separate rooms within its facility as a fully functional recording studio and live performance venue at favorable rates for students and clients alike.

Returning to the screenings on Saturday afternoon, one of the most memorable documentaries of the weekend was Shari & Lamb Chop. The late Shari Lewis was a nationally known, award-winning ventriloquist, dancer, juggler, magician, and actress, performing in various programs on TV, in films, and in front of live audiences from the 1950s to ‘70s. In the early ‘90s, she returned to children’s programming to produce “Lamb Chop’s Play Along,” a show I remember fondly, featuring a charismatic yet emotionally vulnerable sock puppet named Lamb Chop, best known for her reprisal of “The Song That Doesn’t End,” featured in the closing credits of each episode. Shari Lewis’ groundbreaking career, particularly as a woman in the male-dominated field of ventriloquism, arguably paved the way for subsequent public broadcast icons like Fred Rogers of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” and Jim Henson of “The Muppets.” Her daughter, Mallory, now voices the beloved Lamb Chop and produced this compelling retrospective in memoriam of her mother.

The Macon Film Festival culminated on Saturday night with a screening of The South Got Something to Say, a documentary produced by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, in celebration of the 50^th anniversary of hip hop. Naturally, Atlanta artists were prominently featured, including Outkast, Goodie Mob, Arrested Development, Killer Mike, T.I., Dallas Austin, Jermaine Dupri, Ludacris, Lil Yachty, and countless other artists, as well as prominent political figures such as Atlanta Mayors Maynard Jackson, Keisha Lance-Bottoms, and Andre Dickens and even U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock. In the 1980s and ‘90s, while the hip hop communities in California and New York embroiled themselves in an increasingly contentious bicoastal beef, a singular acceptance speech at the 1995 Source Awards by Outkast’s Andre 3000, embodying the title of the film, changed the course of history, leading to Atlanta’s rise and eventual dominance of the hip hop charts, cementing the city’s undeniable influence on popular music that continues to this day. After the credits rolled, the screen was lifted to make way on stage for a Q&A with the directors and producers, including Leroy Chapman, Jr., the AJC’s current and first Black editor-in-chief. The panel was moderated by Justin Andrews, the festival’s director of special projects and grandson of the legendary Otis Redding, who was mentioned in the film. The documentary is available for streaming on the AJC website.

Saturday capped off late-night with an official after-party at Grant’s Lounge, a dive-bar-slash-raucus-music-venue, packed with partygoers of all ages and stripes marveling at the gritty, playful, live performance of Swamp Dogg, an 82-year-old rockstar and the patron saint of “blackgrass,” a more roots- and soul-infused version of bluegrass. Swamp Dogg also starred in a feature film at the festival, a comedic musical documentary entitled Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted, which received audience acclaim all weekend.

On Sunday, August 18, after enjoying a few short film blocks, I reluctantly hit the road back home to Atlanta, but not without a newfound respect and enthusiasm for the creative arts community of middle Georgia. This year’s Macon Film Festival showcased the best of independent film, platforming stories that celebrate sports, fashion, science, art, television, music, and other joyful endeavors that make me excited to return next year.

And clearly, after 19 years and counting, the Macon Film Festival is, to quote Lamb Chop, “the song that doesn’t end – it goes on and on, my friend.”