When the Cotton Blooms: The World As We Witness It
A La Renardé Film Exhibition
What Does It Mean to Be Seen?
“The cotton is often talked about when the work is done.”
— Mikyla Jackson Jordan, When the Cotton Blooms
Black life is not a single story. It is a world of private thoughts, inherited memories, complicated relationships, quiet rituals, imagined futures, contradictions, tenderness, and transformation.
Yet so often, Black stories are encountered through what the world expects to see.
La Procession invites us to look again.
Presented by La Renardé Publishing & Creative, When the Cotton Blooms: The World As We Witness It is a proposed curated film exhibition centered on Black interior life and the many ways we experience, interpret, remember, and imagine the world.
Inspired by the questions at the heart of a poem written by the founder, this exhibition considers what happens before recognition, beyond expectation, and outside the narratives already familiar to an audience.
We are interested in the worlds that filmmakers create and the perspectives only they can bring into view.
What We’re Looking For
We invite independent filmmakers to submit work that reflects the complexity of Black life, expands our understanding of the human experience, or offers a distinctive perspective on the world around us.
We welcome films that explore:
- Black interior life: Identity, intimacy, memory, solitude, family, desire, belonging, contradiction, and becoming.
- The world as we witness it: Personal realities, overlooked experiences, unconventional perspectives, and stories that challenge familiar ways of seeing.
- The South as a creative landscape: Contemporary Southern life, regional imagination, cultural expression, and the worlds being created here and beyond.
- The possibilities of moving images: Experimental forms, visual poetry, nonlinear narratives, documentary inquiry, and storytelling that resists easy categorization.
We welcome narrative shorts, documentaries, experimental films, and other forms of moving-image storytelling.
A film does not need to be about cotton, agriculture, or the American South to be considered. We are interested in the perspective, artistic intention, and world a film makes visible.
We particularly encourage submissions from Arkansas and the broader South while welcoming work that resonates with the exhibition’s artistic vision.
Who Should Submit?
Independent filmmakers with work that aligns with the exhibition’s curatorial vision are encouraged to submit. We are especially interested in creating opportunities for Black filmmakers and expanding the visibility of artists working in Arkansas and across the South.
Films may engage difficult, mature, or complex subject matter. All submissions remain subject to review and programming decisions.
Submission Details
- Submission deadline: December 31, 2026
- Submission fee: Free
- Proposed exhibition locations: Fayetteville and Little Rock, Arkansas
- Proposed exhibition window: February–March 2027
- Format: Short films across narrative, documentary, experimental, and related moving-image forms
Submitting a film does not guarantee selection. Selected filmmakers will be contacted regarding programming, screening permissions, and exhibition arrangements.
La Procession is currently in development. Proposed dates, venues, programming, and final exhibition arrangements remain subject to funding, venue availability, screening rights, and partner commitments.
Beyond the Screening
La Renardé believes that creative work deserves more than a moment of visibility. Artists need opportunities for their work to be encountered, discussed, connected to new audiences, and considered within a broader creative ecosystem.
La Procession is part of that larger vision: building meaningful platforms for independent artists and strengthening the cultural infrastructure available to Black and Southern creatives.
Our ambition is not to tell filmmakers what their stories should mean. It is to create space for those stories to be experienced on their own terms.
Submit Your Film
If your work offers a world worth witnessing, we invite you to submit it for consideration.
The cotton blooms. The world looks. What will we choose to see?
Submission deadline: December 31, 2026
Submission fee: Free
Target event window: February–March 2027
Date and venue: To be announced
Presented by: La Renardé Publishing & Creative