Sweet Briar College is working harder than ever to extend education beyond the classroom. Sometimes that simply means keeping a good thing going.

For more than a decade, the Southern Circuit Film Series has made a stop at Sweet Briar College. A program of the South Carolina Arts Commission, the series brings in-the-flesh independent filmmakers to seven campuses and arts centers from Virginia to Mississippi to screen their work. The lineup returns to Sweet Briar for its first showing of the 2005-06 academic year on Tuesday, Sept. 20.

This year Randolph-Macon Woman’s College is co-sponsoring the series with SBC. Each school will host three of the six screenings, with bus transportation provided so students at both schools can attend.

The lineup will open with “Desire,” director Julie Gustafson’s documentary of group of young women in New Orleans. Under her guidance, the subjects — two teenagers from the Desire housing projects, a single mother from a working-class suburb, and two girls from a prestigious private high school — made their own short films revealing the desires, challenges and dramas of their changing lives.

For SBC students minoring in film studies the Southern Circuit offers a plum assignment. For those who appreciate an artfully made movie, it’s a cool opportunity to go behind the scenes of a craft that excites their curiosity — to mix learning with pleasure. And it’s not just for students. The showings and discussions with the artists that follow are free and open to the public. In fact, viewers can make an evening of it by arriving early for dinner with the filmmaker at the host college’s dining facility.

Eleanor Salotto, associate professor of English and film studies director, represents SBC on the series’ selection committee. “The filmmakers that we choose are all highly regarded in the industry and the films are very, very high quality,” she said. Most are emerging artists — not household names, but people who boast appearances and awards at Sundance and other respected film festivals. The committee tries to include features and documentaries.

The post-screening discussions are “your chance to ask why they filmed in black and white, or chose certain music, camera angles or actors,” Salotto said.

Admission to the films is free. All showings are 7 p.m. At Sweet Briar, films will be shown in Benedict Room 100 (Tyson Auditorium) and at R-MWC in Leggett Hall Room 537.

Dinner with the filmmaker at SBC will be at 5:30 p.m. in Burnett Dining Room B. The cost is $6.75 for the public, $5.50 for SBC faculty and staff. Dinner at Randolph-Macon starts around 5:30 p.m. in Cheatham Dining Hall. The cost is $8, $5.50 for those with a Sweet Briar ID.

For more information, please contact Eleanor Salotto at esalotto@sbc.edu or (434) 381-6159, or Jennifer Gauthier at jgauthier@rmwc.edu or (434) 947-8501.

The SBC online calendar provides a complete schedule of films with descriptions. Please visit the Southern Circuit Film Series web site for more information.