Film Screening: Socks on Fire

On Friday, May 7, 2021, the Coleman Center for the Arts hosted our first in-person event in 15 months – a free outdoor screening of Gadsden-based filmmaker Bo McGuire’s Socks on Fire. The documentary/narrative film puts McGuire in between a rich cast of characters as they wage war over their mother’s estate in Hokes Bluff, Alabama.

When the matriarch of a large Southern family passes without a will, things can get a little heated. As her children battle over the estate, long-hidden resentments and unpleasant personal convictions come to the surface and ignite new skirmishes that rip apart relationships. Going beyond conventual non-fiction storytelling, Socks on Fire employs a series of stylized reenactments, family home videos, and colorful interviews to document the fluidity of identity, personality, and performance in the filmmaker’s family.

The event opened with performances from West Alabama royalty “Alabama’s Queen” Genesis, LaVeesha TaRajae of Demopolis, and Elektra Stryker of Tuscaloosa. They were “as tenacious and brave as they are beautiful” nimbly traversing the Coleman Center’s gravel lot and neighboring grease trap to work the Sumter County crowd.

The evening closed with drinks at Rooster Art Gallery and Cafe’s newly opened Station space.

This event is made possible through the Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers, a South Arts program. Since its inception in 1975, Southern Circuit has brought some of the best independent filmmakers and their films from around the country to communities throughout the South. The program is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.