The one-hour documentary The World of Julia Peterkin: Cheating the Stillness will make its premiere in South Carolina in April 2010. The film will be shown on statewide SCETV and screened at two public venues, Converse College in Spartanburg and the Charleston County Public Library. Produced, directed, and written by Gayla Jamison, the program is presented by South Carolina ETV and distributed nationally by NETA in Columbia, SC. SC Humanities supported this film project though several Major Grants.
The World of Julia Peterkin: Cheating the Stillness chronicles the controversial life of South Carolina author Julia Peterkin, the white wife of a plantation owner who won a 1929 Pulitzer Prize for her book Scarlet Sister Mary, a sensitive portrayal of the lives of rural African Americans in the early 20th century. African-American scholar and activities W.E.B. DuBois said that Peterkin had “the eye and the ear to see beauty and to know truth.”
The film will make its world premiere on SCETV on Thursday, April 15, 2010 at 9:00 p.m. An additional showing will be on Sunday, April 18 at 6:00 p.m. The World of Julia Peterkin will also have two public screenings in South Carolina. On Thursday, April 22 at 8:00 p.m., there will be a screening at Converse College in Spartanburg. The event is open to the public, but tickets must be reserved by calling the Twichell Auditorium Box Office at 864-596-9725. On Wednesday, April 28 at 6:00 p.m., there will be a free public screening at the Charleston County Public Library followed by a discussion with the producer Gayla Jamison and the editor Deana Nowell.
For more information about The World of Julia Peterkin: Cheating the Stillness, please see the SCETV website at: http://www.scetv.org/index.php/press/release/cheating_the_stillness_premieres_on_public_television_in_spring_2010/.
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