Contributed/ETSU

For history and film lovers alike, the ETSU community will be offered something one of a kind!

On next Thursday, April 30th, The Bud Frank Cinema is set to host a screening of the documentary Old Times in Tennessee, offering a unique visual exploration of a pivotal and often overlooked chapter in the state’s history. Directed by filmmaker Rory Fraser, the film investigates the late summer of 1830, when President Andrew Jackson met with Chickasaw leaders in Franklin, Tennessee. This meeting occurred just months after the signing of the Indian Removal Act and served as a critical negotiation point regarding the removal of the Chickasaw people from ancestral homelands they had inhabited for thousands of years.

Rather than utilizing traditional historical tropes, the film takes an experimental approach to its subject matter. According to the event description on the ETSU website, the documentary “returns to this overlooked encounter [of these groups] not through reenactment or exposition, but through a layering of landscapes, architectural imagery, and archival text.” Described on the official website of the documentary itself as something that “moves slowly along the Natchez Trace and its surrounding terrain…intercut with fragments of 19th-century correspondence and press clippings,” the film aims to connect the modern Tennessee landscape to the historical trauma and displacement of its original inhabitants. Through an interesting blend of artistic expression and breaking norms, the community will see an experience unlike many documentaries today!

The event, which runs from 6:00 PM to 7:15 PM, is sponsored by the ETSU School of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Department of Literature and Language. The event is open to the public, not just ETSU students! Following the screening, filmmaker Rory Fraser will be in attendance to participate in a live Q&A session. This provides an opportunity for students and community members to engage directly with the creator about the archival research and aesthetic choices involved in bringing this 19th-century history to the screen.

For more information regarding the screening and upcoming events at the venue, students can visit the Bud Frank Cinema website or reach out to Dr. Chelsea Wessels at wessels@etsu.edu.

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