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JASON ROSENBURG
Indie Film
A lthough it doesn't take place in the
area, Athens is playing a big role in
turning the award-winning screenplay
for Ethan and Eli into an actual film.
The screenplay addresses "the boredom,
confusion and absurdity of small town ado
lescence." The story focuses on two friends
breaking their small town's curfew to spend
time together the night before one of them
leaves for Afghanistan.
Two recent UGA graduates, Andrew Blevins
(2013) and Nathan Albright (2012), will be
playing Ethan and Eli, respectively. People
might recognize Albright from his extensive
involvement in WUOG, where he booked the
bands and worked his way up to the position
of general manager. When he was in Athens,
he also worked with Nourish International to
put on Sidewalk Symphonies.
Albright had a pretty good connection to
help him land one of the lead roles. His sister,
Katrina Albright, is the film's writer and direc
tor. When I called her up in New York City, we
started off talking about Spike Lee movies;
how the heat in Brooklyn makes people do
crazy things; and somehow it all seemed to
remind her of Georgia. As we talked more, con
necting everything back to Georgia stopped
seeming that surprising.
The South looms large in Katrina Albright's
imagination. She's working on two projects
about the region right now. Signs Following
is a documentary about a snake-handling
preacher in Tennessee, and it's in the final
stages of post-production. Ethan and Eli
focuses on the more placid and suburban
side of the South???namely her hometown of
Peachtree City.
Katrina wrote the screenplay for Ethan
and Eli several years ago, but the New York
University film school graduate says it has
taken some time to get the momentum going.
"I wrote my first draft of Ethan and Eli
in late 2008, early 2009," she says. "I was
pretty content with the draft, but I had no
outlet for it at the time. You know, narrative
filmmaking is very expensive... I kind of on a
whim submitted it to Slamdance [Screenplay
Competition]."
The screenplay won second place in the
short form category. "It was really unexpected,
and really exciting. It was the first screenwrit
ing competition I ever entered, actually."
Encouraged by the validation, she decided
to cast her brother and his friend from college
in the title roles, because she believed that
the authenticity of their relationship will come
across on the screen. Neither of them has
done much acting, but their lack of experience
is what attracted Katrina to them.
"I'm not looking to have an acting career,"
Nathan says. "[Andrew] also hasn't done a
whole lot of acting or anything, but I think
that's what my sister was looking for... people
who were actually friends, not necessarily
people who are acting or anything."
A third of the money they've brought in
through the fundraising website Kickstarter
has come from Athens. They have raised just
over half of the $9,000 they need. (The cam
paign runs through Thursday, July 25.)
The financial support from Athens doesn't
surprise Blevins. "Athens is just a really good
community for art of any kind," he says. "It's
pretty incredible how people in the commu
nity will just jump on a project before they
even know that much about it."
Blevins also believes that his co-star has
a lot to do with it. "People in Athens really
like Nathan," he told me. "He's sort of a hero
of our class and some of the classes around
us. He was the general manager of WUOG. He's
just really well-loved."
Nathan's good will helped to lock in a col
laborator that music fans might recognize.
Trappers Cabin, a regular on the Athens scene
whom NPR listed as "One of the Top 10 Great
Unknown Artists of 2007," will be contributing
to the film. Local artist Joel Rosenburg has
created hand-drawn artwork that's being dis
tributed as one of the Kickstarter gifts.
All this Athens love for the project, and
the film is not even set here. But Athens
has served as the location for other films,
from indie to Hollywood. For example, The
Spectacular Now, directed by Athens native
James Ponsoldt and filmed here, will be widely
released Aug. 2.
The local group Film Athens is helping
independent filmmakers and also working to
bring in big studios, says director Danielle
Robarge Rusk. She has met with executives
who've worked on projects that are shot in
Georgia, like "The Walking Dead" and The Blind
Side.
"We're very optimistic that we'll be get
ting some more of the big movie productions,"
Rusk says. "We want that to happen. We want
to help the local indie scene grow. We want it
all, really."
Matt Shedd
FLEA LOVE
ROAD TRIP: If you take 1-85 out of Athens
to Atlanta on a semi-regular basis, you've
probably thought to yourself a bunch of
times, "I really should stop and check out the
Pendergrass Flea Market" (5641 U.S. Highway
129 N), as you see the billboards featuring a
large black-and-white cow. I know I have. But
I've always been in a hurry to get somewhere
else, and despite my love of digging through
trash to find treasure (my family brakes for
anything that might even appear to be a yard
sale), I never bothered to turn off the main
drag and investigate.
Until, that is, I got two emails in the space
of a few weeks touting the food options there.
One was from Jay Braver, the market's Internet
presence manager, but the other was just a
happy and enthusiastic tip. They were both
right. The Pend Flea is well worth the amount
of gas to get there, a great place to take your
kids, a fun excursion and a source for some
quality grub.
It's the rare flea market that doesn't tout
itself as the state's biggest in some aspect or
another, but this one is indeed impressively
large, not to mention both indoors and air-
conditioned, which gives it a big boost. Aisles
are labeled with street names (4th Avenue,
Main Street, etc.), lest you lose your way, and
areas outside the big building retail produce
right track. The lengua is chopped in chunks
rather than shredded, and the three sauces are
nothing to write home about. I should have
followed the crowd to Altamar, directly across
from Pura Enchilada, which seems to focus on
goat and had major lines.
Panda Place/Asian Panda does not have a
promising name and indeed offers the kind of
mall Chinese food that shames a proud culi
nary tradition, but it also makes really tasty
and fresh pho ($6.41 including tax) and an
array of bubble teas. Pupuseria El Salvador,
right next door, should not be overlooked. Its
pupusas may be priced at $2 (a touch above
average), but the griddled corn cakes stuffed
with beans, cheese, pork, loroco and more are
awesome, with bits of the filling leaking out
at the edges and caramelized by high heat.
Warning: both the green sauce and the cortido
(pickled cabbage) are extremely spicy.
Outside, down 5th Avenue East, you'll
find more produce; Ramiro's Coconut Stand,
with fresh coconuts and macaroons; and a
fellow with a grill making elote, the Mexican
street snack that consists of grilled corn on a
stick, rolled in mayonnaise and cheese then
dosed heavily with chili powder. It's hotter
temperature-wise than in terms of spice, and
I prefer it when the corn is a bit charred, but
it's a tasty option. Don't miss the coffee shop/
Pendergrass Flea Market food court
for ridiculously low prices ($6 for a large box
of bananas, $1 for 10 limes). The comprehen
sive website (www.pendflea.com) lists ameni
ties, including many of the food vendors, so
you can try to plan out your trip in advance.
The largest concentration of food options
is on the food court, a cavernous space with
a large mural on one wall and a small arcade
at the other end that includes a slide (free
entertainment!). Head down Main Street until
you see the signs directing you to the right.
Jugos del Rio does fresh juices as well as
grilled Mexican food, and although I didn't try
the latter, a jugo rojo made with fresh beets
and carrots was refreshing, if maybe a little
expensive at $4.
Braver's email had particularly piqued my
interest with his focus on a taco de cabeza,
made with head and cheek meat, offered at
the Pura Enchilada Taqueria. The idea was
exciting, and the meat was appropriately
gelatinous and interesting, but the tacos
themselves were a little blah. When the high
light is the onions and cilantro you offer at
your fixin's station, you're not entirely on the
bakery about halfway down Main Street that
doesn't appear to have a name. A sandwich
cookie with two chocolate chip rounds con
tained fresh whipped cream in the middle, and
the cookies themselves were crisp and buttery.
Other things you can get at the Pend
Flea include: roasted nuts (both sugared and
spicy), a Confederate flag bikini, designer
jeans, Mexican pastries, large appliances,
framed artwork, multipacks of underwear fea
turing Dora the Explorer, both Mexican (tama
rind, spicy) and American candy, haircuts,
waxing of various kinds and lots of plastic
junk. In addition to the arcade, there are car
nival games, a bounce house where you get
10 minutes for $1, a cow-milking game, large
inflatable balls that float on water and can
contain a small human, live music, paintball
and, although I didn't find it, a petting zoo.
The Pendergrass Flea Market is open
Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Parking is copious, and most vendors take
cash only, although a few accept credit cards.
Hillary Brown food@flagpole.com
10 FLAGP0LE.COM-JULY 17, 2013
HILLARY BROWN