Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers
Socks on Fire: Uncle John and the Copper Headed Water Rattlers
Screening and Q&A with Writer, Director, Producer Bo McGuire.
Free Screening available for 4 days
My name is Bo McGuire. I am the first grandchild of the late, great Evelyn Louise Blanton-Washington of Gadsden, Alabama. Now, even though I conjure her as a great historical figure, y’all don’t know her. Not yet. She is my mama’s mama, my Nanny, and I speak of her as royalty because she is—queen of my heart, my imagination. She was the savior of my young, incredibly queer life in the sometimes cruel geography of rural, working-class Alabama.
Socks on Fire is a lyrical testament to Southern women couched in the battle for my grandmother’s throne. I returned home from New York City to find that my Aunt Sharon, my favorite childhood relative, had locked her gay, drag-queen brother, my Uncle John, out of the family home. As a queer Southerner, who can be both equally protective and skeptical of the South, Aunt Sharon stoked a fire within me to document the place and the people I call home. Through a series of stylized reenactments spun in with family VHS footage, Socks on Fire documents the fluidity of identity, personality, and performance in my hometown among my Mama’s people.
