That Teowonna!

Columbia Style Exhibition & Indie Grits Film Festival

Photo by Tony Farr

Last weekend, perhaps two of the best events you’ve never heard of, went down last week in Columbia. The 10-day Indie Grits Film Festival and Columbia Style Exhibition.

In its fifth year, Style Exhibition, a Columbia-based fashion and style show, had its best year yet. People who have attended the previous events said that it has grown leaps and bounds over the previous events.

This year, the event featured 3 days of networking, fashion, style and fun. Day One was a Trendsetter fashion show at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center. While some of the lines displayed the expected amateurish of young designers, others really got my attention, like the lingerie and bathing suit lines. They were so impressive that I would have walked away with several of those designs on the spot if I could have.

The following day was a networking party at Jullian’s in which the party-goers all were so sharply dressed, they could have been models themselves. I need to step up my game.

The finale event was on Saturday. Even though I didn’t attend, I’ve heard nothing but great things about it.

Major congrats go out to the 3 Jay Productions team for a job well done. I can’t wait until next year!

Who knew Columbia had an independent film festival! In its sixth year, Indie Grits is an all-encompassing festival that celebrates everything independent and local. This year it spanned 11 days and showcased everything from music, crafts, film, and of course, GRITS!

Last week I attended the opening party at 701 Whaley and within an hour of my arrival, the place was full of the coolest people in Columbia. Where were you? It featured great music, games, and grits! The complimentary fancy grits bar offered yellow grits and the most unusual fixings, which encouraged you to try odd, yet rewarding, combinations.

A few days later, I attended the student short films. Now, lemme say this… with student shorts, you can never be sure what you will get. I sat through (or maybe I slept through) a number of films, all with varying degrees of horribleness. One film was about concrete. Yes, concrete! It was ridiculously abstract… I needed an interpreter to explain to me what the hell I was watching. As baffled as I was left by the concrete movie, I figured the movies had to get better. But I was wrong. They were all as crazy as the first.

Even though the student shorts left my pockets $10 lighter and my mind 10 degrees more confused, the experience was very nice. It was my first time visiting the historic Nickelodean, and I truly felt honored to be there.

Indie Grits was more than 1o days long this year, so clearly I could not attend it all. But without a doubt, the best part of the festival was Slow Food Columbia. Slow Food Columbia featured Columbia’s top chefs and some of the best food you’d ever taste. Each chef that participated had to feature at least one locally, sustainably produced major ingredient. There was Adluh grits, used to make Rosso’s Ragu’ di Funghi (mushroom grits), local eggs from Doko Farm to make Baan Sawan’s deviled eggs, and even strawberry soda created by Chef Tim Peters from the Motor Supply. But the most understated, yet best offering was Chef Carlos Brown’s (MoMo’s Bistro) mango and cucumber chutney roll. It didn’t look like much of nothing, but it tasted like heaven.

Great Music at Slow Food Columbia

By the time I left Slow Food, I had added at least 5 new Columbiarestaurants to my dining list.

Indie Grits consisted of far more that I could possibly experience in a week and a half. I encourage you to find the facets of the event that you are most interested in and make it your business to check it out next year.

Fabulous things are going on right here in your own back yard. Don’t let them pass you by!