Filmmaker and author provide different accounts of a paddle to the ocean

Inspired after reading John Lane’s 2007 book Circling Home, filmmaker and UGA's Lamar Dodd School of Art faculty member Chris Cogan decided he wanted to make a film about this author, who writes about a sense of place with keen attention to both history and natural landscapes.

After Cogan went to Spartanburg to meet Lane and discuss his idea, he learned about Lane’s plans for his next book, to be called MY PADDLE TO THE SEA. Lane wanted to put in his boat in the creek near his back yard just outside Spartanburg and follow the path of the water to the Atlantic Ocean, a 300 mile trip.

Over the course of his long career as a writer, Lane has explored many rivers and recounted his adventures in the outdoors. At the same time, he has also explored questions about his own stake in South Carolina and the south. My Paddle to the Sea, which just released from the University of Georgia Press, combines both aspects of Lane’s work as he uses his trip from creek to lake to river to coast to meditate on the history and personalities that also share his connection to this waterway.

Cogan and fellow filmmaker Tom Byars were able to capture much of this journey on film, and their completed work, River Time, provides a surprisingly different counterpart to the story of the trip as told by Lane, full of stunning visual depictions of the river and an outside perspective of Lane and his thinking about the relationship of humans to the environment.

On Wednesday, November 16, both filmmaker and author will participate in the Athens premiere of “River Time,” to be held at Cine at 7 pm. Lane will read from his newly released book, Cogan will screen the thirty minute film, and the two together will discuss the outcomes of their parallel projects. The event is free and open to the public, and copies of Lane’s book will be available for purchase and signing.


Event details
Wednesday, November 16, 7 pm
Cine, 234 West Hancock Ave., Athens


Additional screenings with author and filmmakers:
Monday, November 28, 7 pm – Spartanburg, SC
The Showroom, 149 S. Daniel Morgan Ave.

Tuesday, December 6, 7 pm—Columbia, SC
Nickelodeon Theater, 937 Main Street