Clayton Center for the Arts is proud to present the South Arts Film Series. Throughout the year, we will bring you six films telling compelling stories on important topics. Each film screening is only $10.00 or purchase the entire series for $45.00.
The first in our six film series, Family Tree explores sustainable forestry in North Carolina through the stories of two Black families fighting to preserve their land and legacy.
Sustainability is a multi-generational narrative seen and felt most acutely through family stories. While all family forest owners face trials and travails, the most dramatic stories unfolding today are amongst Black family foresters in the South. They face many challenges: lack of credit and capital, barriers to accessing forestry services, and threats to their land ownership from predatory developers using legal loopholes.
This cinema vérité style documentary tells the moving story of two Black family forest owners in North Carolina. It tracks their triumphs and struggles historically and in the present day. The Jefferies sisters, Nikki and Natalie, struggle with their estranged father, Sidney, to clear the overgrown thicket of underbrush on their property. Meanwhile, the Williams family cultivates an award-winning tree farm at their aptly named Fourtee Acres.
Our families work with the Sustainable Forestry and African American Land Retention Project (SFLR). This network passionately champions Black forest landowners and promotes sustainable forestry. Some of their advocates are skilled lawyers trained in inheritance issues and property law. Others are practicing foresters who guide families through the complexities of sustainable harvesting, conservation, and silviculture.
Return visits over the span of North Carolina’s four seasons track the life cycle of the forests — birth, life, death, rebirth — and act as a metaphor for our protagonists’ progress and their family lives. Healthy families equals healthy forests.
Our family foresters strive for an ecologically and economically sound future through sustainable forestry. Via intimate family portraits, we tell an inspiring story of climate action, advocate for economic and social justice, and make a compelling case for forests to be forests for generations to come.
As a gathering place for the community and its visitors and as the home of the Maryville College fine and performing arts program, the Clayton Center for the Arts provides opportunities for the lifelong expression and appreciation of the arts.
The Center plays a vital role in enhancing the quality of life, bolstering cultural and economic vitality, strengthening tourism, and expanding the educational offerings for our community and region. The diversity of our community is to be reflected on our stages, in our galleries and in our audiences. Through its relationship to Maryville College, the Center will provide educational opportunities designed to attract and nurture artists of all ages. The programming is of the highest caliber and features the arts from around the world.
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