WCPL has long been connected to the academic community. Partner events with WKU’s campus library and other departments have long played a role in the public library’s history. Now, with its management of the Capitol, the public library is getting to work with Western University’s Potter College of Arts and Letters (PCAL) to show independent films via the Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers film series for free to local film goers. The screenings, co-sponsored by the PCAL Cultural Enhancement Series, are shown with support from South Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. The Southern Circuit has worked with screening partners for more than five decades to connect independent filmmakers with community audiences throughout the South. Films with compelling stories are accompanied by conversations with filmmakers, bringing important topics and the art of filmmaking to the forefront of community conversation.
Dr. Anthony Harkins, chair of the PCAL Cultural Enhancement Series Chair, shares his thoughts: “The Cultural Enhancement Series of PCAL is delighted to continue our partnership with the Capitol and the Warren County Public Library in bringing Southern Circuit documentary films and filmmakers to our community. Our goals at CES are to expose Bowling Green audiences to new ideas that provide new perspectives on our world and to offer events that connect the WKU campus and the broader community. The Southern Circuit series is a perfect opportunity to do both of these. Our first showing, Family Tree, was a great success and we look forward to collaborating throughout the coming year as we bring five more films and film teams to the Capitol, WKU, and Bowling Green.”
This month’s documentary, Santos – Skin to Skin, will be shown Thursday, October 17, at 6:30pm. This portrait of community activist and seven-time Grammy nominee John Santos (aka “keeper of the Afro-Caribbean flame”) is musically rich and links the rhythms of his ancestors to contemporary struggles of identity and social justice. Upcoming films in the series include the following:
•Thursday, November 14, 6:30pm – City of a Million Dreams Writer A videographer leaves “hard-hearted Hollywood” for New Orleans and becomes a chronicler of the parading club culture spawned by the legacy of funerals with music.
•Tuesday, February 11, 6:30pm – O Pioneer This documentary follows three West Virginians – a blacksmith, a seamstress, and a hospital chaplain – as they navigate hardship and call us to champion the pioneer within.
•Thursday, March 13, 2025 – This World is Not My Own A claymation film reimagines the story of Nellie Mae Rowe, a self-taught artist, and her life that spans the 20th century.
•Thursday, April 10, 2025 – Where The Butterflies Go In a desperate attempt to host his own children’s nature show, a fumbling filmmaker travels 3,000 miles asking North Americans how to save the endangered Monarch butterfly, and ourselves, from extinction.
On another note, for the first time since 2019, an electrifying, interactive cult classic will be shown at the Capitol on Halloween night (Thursday, October 31) at 9pm. The movie will be accompanied by a live shadowcast performance brought to you by members of WKU’s student chapter of Alpha Psi Omega, a national theatre honor society. Faculty advisor Chris Gilly-Forrer comments, “The wait is over – lace up your corsets and touch up your lipstick, because the Mu Lambda cast of Alpha Psi Omega is thrilled to partner with the Capitol to bring a Halloween Rocky Horror Picture Show shadowcast back to the historic theatre. The restoration of this annual event after a four-year hiatus honors the legacy of Capitol/campus collaboration and provides another opportunity for spooky season fun. Let’s do the Time Warp – again!”
The performance is free and recommended for ages 18 and up; costumes are encouraged! The first 150 guests to arrive will also get a free prop bag, but NO rice or outside items will be allowed to be thrown in the theater because of safety concerns. Reserve your ticket at capitolbg.org/get-tickets.
If you’d like to participate in a more intimate showing of a shadowcast production of the movie, Rocky Horror BG will be hosting additional shows at alternate times (the first at 7pm, the second at 11pm). Ticket sales from those shows will benefit Xclaim! Inc.
If you’d like to keep up with all the events taking place at the Capitol, sign up for our newsletter via the link on our website (capitolbg.org), or follow us on social media (@capitolbg on X, Instagram, or Facebook). Catch you downtown soon!
-by Ashley Fowlkes
Digital Content Manager, WCPL
