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Film festival features documentary about Ill. town

By the Associated Press

Posted: Feb 14, 2012 7:35 AM CST

CARBONDALE, Ill. (AP) - A film festival in southern Illinois next week features a documentary about the Illinois town of Cairo.

The Big Muddy Film Festival runs Feb. 21-26 at locations in Carbondale and Murphysboro.

The documentary "Between Two Rivers" will be screened Friday at 1 p.m. at the University Museum in Carbondale. The film compares Cairo's troubled past with the challenges the town faced during the record-breaking 2011 floods.

Sylvia Dadian is the annual film festival's director. She says the Big Muddy Film Festival celebrates independent filmmaking and helps Southern Illinois University students learn about organizing events. SIU students also are able to attend workshops with professional filmmakers.

Online: http://bigmuddyfilm.com/

Between Two Rivers

Jacob Cartwright and Nick Jordan

http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuV9_sYmw3U

Between Two Rivers is a film about Cairo, Illinois, a historic town with a dark and troubled past, located at the confluence of the Ohio & Mississippi rivers, where the North meets the South in the heartland of America. With lyrical and striking contrasts between the past and present, the documentary presents a dramatic and moving picture of this unique place and its people, struggling to survive in the face of severe economic, social and environmental pressures. Between Two Rivers sets Cairo’s tumultuous past against the backdrop of the latest crisis to afflict the community: the record-breaking floods of spring 2011, when the rising Ohio & Mississippi rivers threatened to engulf the town, forcing an emergency evacuation.

Longbranch Coffeehouse (100 East Jackson Street, Carbondale, IL 62901)
Sun 2/19 - 7pm - Sneak Preview: Between Two Rivers (Free)

University Museum (SIUC, 1000 Faner Drive, Carbondale, IL 62901)
Fri 2/24 - 1pm - Documentary Feature ($4)