"...In the heart of America’s Bible Belt, "Welcome to Shelbyville" focuses on a small Southern rural town (State of Tennessee) with rapid demographic change. This documentary takes an intimate look at this town as its residents - whites and African Americans, Latinos and Somalis grapple with their beliefs, their histories, and their evolving ways of life... It is also a subtle account of of the ways in which communities face up to the challenges of change...".
Welcome to Shelbyville - Trailer from Smartley-Dunn on Vimeo.
"...This documentary is a melting-pot movie, asimmer with social issues: immigration, racism, unemployment, intolerance. Its examination of the clash between Somali Muslims and rural Tennesseeans does not sugarcoat the kinds of conflicts that have bedeviled the country for centuries; it questions, in its way, what America means...". By JOHN ANDERSON Published: January 14, 2011. The New York Times.
