St Augustine reconciles troubled past

Historic City News readers are invited to attend the Second Annual St Augustine Film Festival; when a documentary revisiting the local events of the landmark civil rights movement is screened by its director and producer Mark Huelsbeck.

The film festival, a visiting extravaganza of film and media sponsored by the renowned Ft. Lauderdale Film Festival takes place January 19 – 22 at Flagler College and offers entertaining features, documentaries and shorts from around the globe.

Tickets for the January showing can be purchased online at www.fliff.com, at the box office prior to the show or by calling (904) 826-8522.

The first showing, during the St Augustine Film Festival, will be at 2:00 p.m. on January 19th. A second showing of the film has been announced for February 9th at 7:00 p.m. in honor of Black History Month.

The February screening will be presented by Flagler College and is free and open to the public.

Both showings will take place in the Gamache-Koger Theater in the Ringhaver Student Center at the corner of Sevilla Street and King Street.

The film records special events organized by the City of St. Augustine, the St. Augustine Foot Soldiers Remembrance Project and the St. Augustine 40th Accord last summer to acknowledge St Augustine’s conflicted past.

The efforts of Andrew Young, the foot soldiers, and beach protestors are chronicled in the film titled, “Unfinished Journey: A City in Transition” — which Flagler’s public information office says was produced “to acknowledge history and foster reconciliation”.

Huelsbeck, an assistant professor of communication at Flagler College, enlisted the participation of his students in the production of the documentary; along with Swarnavel Eswaran Pillai, assistant professor of communications at Michigan State University.

“The students’ involvement was one of the most important aspects of making the film,” Huelsbeck said. “Their initial shyness turned to pride and wonder as they became involved and later saw their names in the credits.”

Huelsbeck earned an M.F.A. from The University of Iowa with a focus on film and video production. He earned a B.A. in Religious Studies from The University of Iowa. His areas of special interest and expertise include digital cinema production, documentary film and post-production techniques. Pillai is a graduate from the Film and Television Institute of India. He received his Ph.D.in Film Studies from the University of Iowa.

If you are a person with a disability and need reasonable accommodations, please contact Lynn Francisco at 904-819-6460. Sign Language Interpreters are available upon request with a minimum of three days’ notice.

Photo credits: © 2012 Historic City News staff photographer