Alabama Public Television debuts Blaze, spotlighting statewide trail networks

Alabama Public Television gave Longleaf Studios at Jacksonville State University another statewide showcase with Blaze: The Trails of Alabama, a locally made documentary that aired April 23 on APT and the free PBS App and was still being promoted through APT’s April 24 programming push. The film landed as part of the official Year of Alabama Trails, which gave the project a built-in statewide hook and a clear audience beyond the film crowd.

What makes Blaze matter to Alabama independent film is not just the subject, but the machine behind it. Longleaf Studios is housed in Jax State’s College of Arts, Humanities, and Sciences and serves as an experiential-learning space for the university’s Film B.A., which requires 120 semester hours and hands-on production coursework. This is not a campus exercise destined to vanish after class wraps; it is a working production pipeline that keeps turning out broadcast-ready nonfiction with statewide reach.

APT’s preview framed the documentary around a simple but useful idea: trails are “more than pathways.” They are “lifelines that connect communities, fuel local economies, and invite exploration.” Blaze follows that idea across Alabama’s trail systems, from rugged backcountry and rail-to-trail corridors to mountain bike routes, equestrian paths, and blueways. The preview specifically spotlights the Pinhoti Trail, the Chief Ladiga Trail, Coldwater Mountain, and Oak Mountain State Park, along with blueways that flow through some of the most biodiverse rivers in North America.

That mix of scenery and civic utility is exactly why the film reads as more than a tourism piece. It ties outdoor recreation to community identity and to the daily economics of places that depend on visitors, weekend traffic, and regional pride. For Alabama filmmakers, the model is obvious: pick a subject rooted in the state, partner with a public broadcaster that can actually distribute it, and make something that plays in Anniston, Birmingham, and beyond without losing its local voice.

Longleaf Studios has spent the past six years producing hour-long documentaries for APT, and the studio says that work has earned five Southeast Emmy Awards. Blaze follows a run that already includes Defending Freedom, which premiered statewide on APT on February 15, 2024, and A Legacy of Progress: The Jim Folsom Jr. Story, which premiered on February 27, 2025 and aired statewide on APT on March 27, 2025. That track record turns Jax State into one of the clearest public-media pipelines in the state, and Blaze showed how a university studio can move an Alabama subject from campus production to statewide broadcast without losing the local texture that makes it worth watching.