It seems there's no time like the present to learn a thing or two about what's going on in the Town of Florence.
While New Times writers Monica Alonzo and Stephen Lemons are working on a three-part series, "Florence Exposed," we heard from a filmmaker who's directing a documentary on life in the prison town.
See also:
-Injustice for All: The Florence PD Compromised Public Safety
Director Andrea Scott tells New Times that the film, Good Men, Bad Men, and a Few Rowdy Ladies, attempts to "examin[e] this place as a relic of the old west, but also this very modern place of mass incarceration."
"It's a humorous and humanizing portrayal of the prison-industrial complex," she says.
The film, which is currently in the editing process, follows a few people who call Florence home, including the candidates in the town's 2012 mayoral election -- including eventual winner, Tom Rankin.
(Rankin's a central figure in the New Times story, as the town's former police chief, who still involves himself in the PD's affairs.)
Other people followed in Scott's movie include a few corrections officers, a town barber who's lived in Florence his whole life, and a kid who's growing up in Florence as his parents live in the prison system there.
Scott says the film is three years in the making so far, and they're looking to finish the film in the next couple of months.
(The filmmakers, however, are looking for some help funding through Kickstarter, to pay for some professional film processing.)
Scott hopes to have the film showing in festivals by early next year.
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