R.I.P.: Film festival founder Mary Jane Coleman

Hail and farewell to Mary Jane Coleman, the gracious Southern lady who loved East Tennessee, and decided four decades ago that what the area really needed was a film festival devoted to independent cinema. In 1969, she founded the Sinking Creek Film Celebration in Greeneville, TN -- and lived long enough to see the exposition evolve and expand into the Nashville Film Festival, the oldest continuously running film festival in the South and one of the oldest in the United States. Ms. Coleman passed away Saturday, reportedly from the lingering effects of a stroke she suffered a decade ago.You can read a respectful appreciation of her life and work by Greeneville Sun editor John M. Jones Jr. here, and take a look at her enduring legacy here.