Two films are coming to Columbus next week both hoping to get residents to reflect as part of America250 celebrations.

Friendly City Books is showing “Possum Town” at 6 p.m. Monday at Malco Theater. Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science and Mississippi University for Women will be showing “Citizens Revival” at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Nissan Auditorium.

“I’m in love with Columbus,” said Berkley Hudson, executive producer of “Possum Town.” “And I would say in some way it’s a love song, it’s a documentary love song. But it has tragedy in it. It has pathos in it. It has surprise in it and it has affection.”

Hudson, a Columbus native and former professor at the Missouri School of Journalism, produced a book on the O.N. Pruitt photography collection that inspired the movie. Hudson has been studying the collection for decades, ever since he and his childhood friends Jim Carnes, David Gooch, Mark Gooch and former Dispatch publisher Birney Imes III acquired the collection to preserve it in 1987.

Pruitt’s photography is the jumping off point for the documentary. Hudson’s former student Dan Christian, who directed the film, was inspired to make the it after seeing a display of the photographs in 2022 at the Rosenzweig Arts Center.

Monday will be the first time “Possum Town” is shown in the city that inspired it. The movie has been on the movie festival circuit since its 2025 premiere at New/Next Film Festival in Baltimore.

Emily Liner, owner of Friendly City Books, has been tracking the film since it began production. When her foundation received a grant designed to help support local America250 events from an anonymous organization, she knew she wanted to bring “Possum Town” to Columbus.

“This is what I wanted the bookstore to do for an America250-related event because it’s based on a book,” Liner said. “Because it’s based on the real history of Columbus and because the film features current Columbus residents who we know from the book store.”

Liner said there has been lots of excitement in the film screening, with free tickets moving fast and seats almost gone. She is planning on adding a wait list for the event and possibly a few future showings funded by the remaining grant money. Prior to the showing, the filmmakers will make opening remarks to set the scene, Liner said.

Hudson believes audiences may find elements for the film “unsettling,” but he does not want to tell people what to think about it ahead of the viewing.

“I have this slogan of ‘look, slow down and discover,’” Hudson said. “… I am not in the business of telling anybody what to think. I am saying you might think about these things whether it’s the photographs or the things people are saying in the documentary. But it’s up to every individual to be open enough to listen and see where they may enter into the histories or stories that’s reflected in the documentary.”

Becca Finley, director of “Citizens Revival,” similarly hopes her film will inspire curiosity and engagement.

Leading into the 2024 Presidential Election, Finley was tired of hearing answers from pundits and social media to why young people were apathetic to politics. She wanted to try and get to the root of it herself.

So, Finley asked 120 people of various political affiliations across the country what they thought was going on. She believes it is particularly important for people under 35 to watch the film.

“What I would like is for people when they leave, that three days after they’ve watched the movie there is something in it, one thing, whatever that is, that resonated with them,” Finley said.

Chanley Rainey, associate professor of political science at The W and one of the organizers, told The Dispatch she hopes that people will leave the screening with new insights into the importance of civic engagement.

Rainey said some of the students she has spoken with are excited about the opportunity to meet Finley, who will attend a Q&A session following the screening.

This screening is being hosted as part of a series of events hosted by MSMS, Columbus-Lowndes Public Library and The W throughout the year in honor of America250.

“I think that (this screening) is a really nice way to close the loop,” Rainey said. “The film is very much open-ended. That the (American) experiment continues, this is what people are thinking right now.”