The Independent pairs Stockings screening with live cast Q&A

Alabama film fans got the kind of room-to-room access that usually belongs to festival circuits when The Independent turned Studio 150 into a screening-and-talkback night for Stockings. The May 30 event at Lowe Mill ARTS & Entertainment ran from 6:30 pm to 9:00 pm and, in one listing, was marked free, while another listing priced it at $10.

That live Q&A was the real value add. After the screening, star Em Genovese and filmmaker Justin Sulham stayed to talk through the movie, giving the audience a chance to hear how the film was shaped before it reached the screen. For a Huntsville venue building a durable audience for indie, art house, repertory, and cult programming, that direct exchange mattered as much as the film itself.

Stockings centers on Marissa, a pop-star sensation trying to settle into a slower life in a small rural Tennessee town, only to learn that the spotlight may not have stayed behind in the city after all. The premise gave the night a built-in conversation starter: fame, reinvention, isolation, and the pressure of trying to disappear in a place that still has eyes on you. That is the kind of character-driven setup that plays well in talkback culture, especially when the filmmakers are in the room to explain tone, pacing, and creative intent.

The production details only sharpened that appeal. IMDb lists Stockings as a horror film in pre-production, written and directed by Sulham, with a cast that includes Justin Sulham, Al Snow, Kenzie Wynne and Em Genovese. IMDb also describes it as a found-footage horror thriller, says it is Sulham’s second feature film, and lists an estimated budget of $2,500 with filming in Nashville, Tennessee. That microbudget footprint helps explain why a local Q&A can carry real weight: audiences are not just seeing a movie, they are seeing how a lean independent project tries to find its place.

Sulham’s background adds another layer to the evening. Prime Video’s biography says he was born March 28, 1981, in Boston, Massachusetts, and identifies him as a director and actor known for Stockings, Dexter: New Blood and Big Bad Betty. Slashville Studios has also promoted the project as Stockings: Songbird, suggesting the film has circulated with more than one branding angle as it moves through the indie pipeline.

For Huntsville viewers, the night at Studio 150 showed why this room matters. A screening alone is a booking; a screening followed by Em Genovese and Justin Sulham in conversation turns it into the kind of local film event that keeps Alabama’s indie scene talking long after the credits end.