Film Series: The Neutral Ground

The Western Illinois Museum announces the screening of the documentary film, The Neutral Ground. The film is part of the monthly Not So Easy Film Series that brings people together to view and engage in conversation on challenging topics.  The film will be screened on Friday, August 4th at 7:00 pm and Sunday, June 6th at 2:00 pm at the Museum. Bar service will be available for the Friday night screening. There is a suggested $5 donation at the door. 

The Neutral Ground documents New Orleans’ fight over monuments and America’s troubled romance with the Lost Cause. In 2015, director CJ Hunt was filming the New Orleans City Council’s vote to remove four Confederate monuments. But when that removal is halted by death threats, CJ sets out to understand why a losing army from 1865 still holds so much power in America. The film runtime is 90 minutes and is not rated.

The Not So Easy Film Series has been created for those who have questions that don’t have easy answers.  Through the power of cinema, the selected films share another point of view and offer insights about issues that are challenging to understand, elude solutions, or sometimes even to imagine. The films in the series hold the potential to move us toward a more nuanced understanding of the world around us -even if we still don’t know the answer to those hard questions.

This program is funded in part by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council and the Two Rivers Arts Council. Additional funding was provided by a grant from the Illinois Humanities, with funds from the State of Illinois American Rescue Plan Act.

The Western Illinois Museum is located at 201 S. Lafayette Street, one block south of Macomb’s Courthouse Square. For more information, call the Museum at 309.837.2750, text 309.837.2613, or email info@wimuseum.org. More details and updates can be found on the Museum’s social media channels.

About CJ Hunt
CJ Hunt is a comedian and filmmaker living in New York City.

He is the Emmy-nominated director of The Neutral Ground, a documentary about memory, monuments, and breaking up with the Confederacy. The Neutral Ground has been awarded “Best Documentary” at The American Black Film Festival, “Best Southern Documentary” at Hot Springs Film Fest, nominated by The IDA Awards and Critics Choice Awards, and was nominated for “Outstanding Historical Documentary” in the News and Documentary Emmys.

CJ has served as a field producer for Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Trevor Noah and the BET’s The Rundown with Robin Thede. He was also a staff writer for A&E’s Black and White and a cast member on MTV’s Vidiots.

CJ is a fellow with New America and Firelight Media Documentary Lab. He is recognized as one of Doc NYC’s 40-Under-40. And his work is supported by: ITVS, The Center for Asian American Media, SFFILM, The Southern Documentary Fund, and The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation.

When he is not making films, CJ host The Moth and runs the monthly standup show Good Delivery with co-hosts Natasha Vaynblat (Comedy Central) and James Hamilton (Vice News).

A graduate of Brown University in Africana Studies, CJ is endlessly fascinated by race and comedy’s ability to say what we can’t.