Covey Film Festival presents 11 indie titles at 12th annual fundraiser in Thomasville

The Covey Film Festival marks 12 years as the signature fundraising event for the Thomasville Community Resource Center, and organizers and volunteers are prepping for the 2024 event with a slate of films and pop-up events to benefit underserved children in southwest Georgia.

From Jan. 20 through Jan. 29, Covey Film Festival will present a slate of 11 meaningful and impactful independent films designed to be more than just a movie and popcorn. The mission is to entertain attendees, but also to educate and engage them, and, in many cases, discussions follow the screenings, linking a panel of experts with audience members.

Covey kicks off Jan. 20 with a screening of “Gaining Ground: The Fight for Black Land,” followed by “Utama: Life in Bolivia” and “Wildlife: A Story of Preservation” on Jan. 21 and “The Miracle Club: An Irish Tradition Story” Jan. 22. In partnership with Tall Timbers, Jan. 23 brings the combination of short film “Longleaf Forever” and full-length “Common Ground: Regenerative Farmers.”

“Scrapper: Magic Turns Into Reality” continues the line-up on Jan. 25, followed by “Move When the Spirit Says Move: Legacy of Dorothy Foreman Cotton” on Jan. 27 and “Living: The Search for Meaning” and “The Quiet Girl: The Story of Discovery” on Jan. 28. Covey’s 2024 regular screenings close out with “All the Beauty and Bloodshed,” in partnership with Archbold Memorial, on Jan. 29.

Film screenings are $10 each, with the exception of “Wildlife,” which is free and open to the public, and “Longleaf Forever,” which will be shown in conjunction with “Common Ground.” More information and tickets are available at coveyfilmfestival.org.

Additional pop-up events are slated in the coming weeks, including a unique partnership with 1861 Distillery for a tasting and screening event of “Neat: The Story of Bourbon,” on Feb. 1, and a screening of short films from the FSU Film School on Feb. 10. Details on those separately ticked events will be announced later this month.

Since its inception, Covey Film Festival has raised well over $100,000 to help fund educational and enrichment programs at TCRC, which now serves more than 500 children, their families and the community in multiple locations in Thomas, Brooks, Grady and Mitchell counties. The Thomasville Community Resource Center seeks to empower youth and families through alternative community based programs, built on a foundation of prevention, education and preparation.

As a nonprofit, independent film festival, Covey is always adapting and changing as the film industry and its rules and guiding principles evolve. Those changes sometimes result in an advertised film being pulled by its distributor at the last minute or another sought-after film becoming unexpectedly available.

One such evolution involves the location of Covey events. Past festivals saw screening locations across the community and area, but more recently films are shown at The Covey Nest, a unique downtown venue and event space located at 210 W. Jackson Street and adapted specifically with the Covey Film Festival in mind. The one exception is the two-film environment- and conservation-focused evening set at Tall Timbers research station in northern Leon County.

For details and tickets, visit coveyfilmfestival.org

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Covey Film Festival kicks off with 'Gaining Ground' in Thomasville