See how art transforms community in ArtsXchange film program

ArtsXchange Executive Director Alice Lovelace knew she wanted to stage a film festival this season, but she didn’t quite know how to proceed with it. So she did the next best thing — reached out to her friends and colleagues at South Fulton Arts (SFA) and BronzeLens Film Festival to help her present Art in Action, a night of free films and conversation on June 20.

Four documentary films commissioned by SFA in 2023 and 2024 as part of its annual Filmer series — which began in 2017 as a producer of documentary shorts and untold stories, pairing up artists with up-and-coming filmmakers — are part of the evening’s offerings. Those include Ethan Payne’s Rhyme Travelers, which revolves around the Soul Food Cypher, a safe space for emcees to practice their craft, and Will Feagins Jr.’s City of Kings, a chronicle of Atlanta’s graffiti writing culture and how it has grown. Art in Action also features two works from filmmaker Jonathan Banks — Just People, about The Reentry Arts Connection, Inc., established to use art to bring down recidivism, and Say Yes to Destiny, a portrait of how Lovelace founded ArtsXchange and her cultural and community impact.

Banks and Feagins will be present for a post-screening talk back alongside Alex Acosta of Soul Food Cypher and Dr. Curtis A. King and Garry Yates of Reentry.

Lovelace thinks the evening is about transforming community. The four films share connective tissue. “All of these celebrate people who are using their art to empower others, uplift the community, save lives and to help people re-invent themselves through the arts,” she says. “Often when we engage in this work, we are not doing it to create more artists but to help people understand the power of the processes artists use that can help re-invent your own life and see where your destiny lies.”

Located in East Point, ArtsXChange — a cultural facility founded in the Black arts tradition and founded by and run by working artists — turns 41 years old this year. Its mission is to allow artists and social justice activists to engage with the community through the transformative power of the arts. The current facility includes 16 studios for artists, a theater, gallery, community room, library, community gardens and an upcoming permaculture garden in the front. Throughout the year, the organization hosts visual arts exhibits and 65 literary programs a year, as well as digital art classes, dance, film, concerts and jazz. “It’s an all-purpose, all-around community arts center,” says Lovelace.

Founded in 2009, the BronzeLens Film Festival is dedicated to calling attention to Atlanta as a film hub for people of color, while South Fulton offers free arts programming for South Fulton County and Metro Atlanta residents and communities. ArtsXchange has worked with both organizations before.

While Lovelace wants audiences to enjoy the films and learn more about the organizations and artists involved, part of the June 20 Art in Action conversation will be about arts funding, its importance and its future.

As soon as Banks found out that he and Lovelance were serendipitously paired with each other via the South Fulton Arts Filmer program, he had mixed emotions. He was honored — and a bit nervous. “I knew how much of a cornerstone she is in the Atlanta arts community,” Banks says. “However, I soon learned that there’s so much more to her story. I discovered that she’s not only a creative force to be reckoned with but a teacher and a fierce advocate for the community’s access to much-needed resources. Getting to know about Alice’s journey gave me a greater respect and admiration for her purpose-filled life while inspiring me to take a deeper look at my own.”

For Just People, Banks dove into learning more about Reentry Arts. “It’s an amazing organization that helps people impacted by the justice system re-enter society through education around arts,” he says. “They really empower the folks re-entering with a skill that can financially empower them as well.”

The director’s filmYoung Kings, about Atlanta’s bike life community, won the Georgia Short Award from the Atlanta Film Festival in 2023 and later aired on PBS. South Fulton partnered with him as an artist on the project and allowed him to put his subjects on the big screen and create an art exhibit around them.

His work with SFA has given his career a kick-start. Banks lives up the street from ArtsXchange and always welcomes these types of events. “The more opportunities there are for independent films to be consumed, the better. An idea can transform someone’s whole view of life and what they do with it.”

Where & When

Art in Action. 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday, June 20, at ArtsXchange, 2148 Newnan St., East Point. artsxchange.org.

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Jim Farmer is the recipient of the 2022 National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Award for Best Theatre Feature and a nominee for Online Journalist of the Year. A member of five national critics’ organizations, he covers theater and film for ArtsATL. A graduate of the University of Georgia, he has written about the arts for 30-plus years. Jim is the festival director of Out on Film, Atlanta’s LGBTQ film festival, and lives in Avondale Estates with his husband, Craig.