A project of the Athens Historical Society that began during the early days of the pandemic, the Athens Film Project’s goal is to create films on Athens history for local 11th grade U.S. History and 8th grade Georgia History classes. 

Executive producer Cindy Hahamovitch says the idea was to make history meaningful by making it local. “We started with the standards–the facts and concepts Georgia teachers have to teach–and looked for local stories to illuminate them. So, teachers teaching about the Industrial Revolution are supposed to teach about Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and other distant figures and events. Now they can say to their students, ‘Did you know that Athens was an early and important industrial town, and there are still signs of it all over the city?’ They could then pop in our 6-minute film, and–boom–there’s the industrial revolution right there in Athens with local landmarks to prove it.”  

To date, the Athens Film Project has completed five films:

• The Knox Institute
• Emancipation in Athens
• Industrial Athens: Part 1
• Industrial Athens: Part 2
• The Founding of Athens and the Struggle for the Oconee River

Funded by small grants, the UGA History Department, and generous local donors large and small, the project has completed four films thus far: “Emancipation” was written by History PhD student Bryant Barnes and directed by Grady School graduate Emani Saucier.  “The Knox Institute,” a film about Athens’ famous Freedmen’s Bureau School, was written and directed by local filmmaker Jesse Freeman. “Industrial Athens: Part 1,” also written by Barnes, was directed by Georgia Film Academy instructor Phil Bergquist. Bergquist also directed, “The Founding of Athens and the Struggle for the Oconee River,” which was written by history PhD student Cole Wicker. That last film is about the struggle between Indigenous people and newly arrived settlers over the area that would become Athens. Our latest film, “Industrial Athens: Part 2,” discusses child labor at mills in Athens.

As Jane McPherson, a UGA Social Work professor and one of three Film Committee founders, says, “the Film Project has been a true town and gown collaboration.” Three members of the Film Committee are UGA faculty, but it also includes community members, local high school teachers, the Social Studies Coordinator for the ACC school system, and the Archives and Special Collections Coordinator for the Athens Regional Library System. Peggy Galis, who came up with the idea of making short films on Athens history for local classrooms, has raised over $150,000 from local supporters, including the Langdale Foundation, Margaret Smith, Grady Thrasher, and Kathy Prescott. Grants from Georgia Humanities and the National Society of The Colonial Dames of America in the State of Georgia helped jumpstart the project. UGA’s History Department helps fund the graduate student fellows who research and write the treatments and who secure images and permissions to use them. 

Local high school students have helped vet the scripts. After watching the film on Emancipation, the first word out of one Cedar Shoals student’s mouth was “amazing.” “There was general agreement that the film was excellent,” recalled teacher and Film Committee consultant Montu Williams. Students particularly liked the images, and “the…local stories…they hadn’t heard of before….” 

Researcher and script writer Bryant Barnes, said, “I loved history when I was growing up, but it always seemed like it was happening somewhere else, somewhere more exciting or important. As I researched the stories for these films, Athens came to life. Street names, old buildings, and scenic views took on new meaning and significance.”

Projects currently in development include films on Integration in Athens.

The Athens Film Project was a 2025 Preservation Award recipient