Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival 2008

'Chickamauga' is inspired by the events at Tri-State Crematory in Noble, GA, where in the winter of 2002 over 300 bodies were discovered rotting in the woods, piled in tool sheds and stacked in burial vaults. This discovery launched a local scandal that made international news, as families of the deceased learned that they were given concrete powder and dirt instead of the cremains of their loved ones. This short film is an effort to give people in the community a platform to express their grief, anger and confusion over the event. Through working with youth group leaders at churches, drama teachers from area high schools and the Chattanooga community theatre, I cast all locals, none of whom had any experience in front of the camera and many of whom had a direct connection to the crematory scandal, a process that resulted in a variety of connections from the mundane to the profound. For instance, Charles Patterson, who plays the crematory operator in the film, worked out at the gym with Brent Marsh, the actual crematory operator. Sharon Huey, who plays the mother, had her own mother sent to Tri-State only to learn that the body was never cremated. With the participation of the victim’s families and the county officials who worked on the “clean-up,” I have written a feature on which 'Chickamauga' is based, entitled 'Dirty South', to explore the line between fiction and nonfiction, performance and experience.