Mike Reser: legend chaser, independent documentarian, ESOL teacher. The mild-mannered South Carolinian doesn’t think of himself as a filmmaker, yet when speaking with Flagpole, he has just finished showing his first feature film, Georgia Guidestones Movie, in Portland, for its second ever screening. He mildly reports that reactions are positive. And why wouldn't they be? The charm of the Guidestones is as inexplicable as their existence. 

The Guidestones are the strange residents of Elberton, GA: the self-proclaimed “Granite Capital of the World,” located just an hour northeast of Athens. Six huge slabs of granite stand back from the road in an otherwise empty field, arranged in a circle according to astrological measurements. The stones bear inscriptions in 12 languages: instructions for the rebuilding of society should society fall, reputedly commissioned from the Elberton Granite Finishing Company by an anonymous man in 1979.

The legend surrounding the birth of the Guidestones is the culmination of old-school storytelling that Reser depicts by letting Elberton natives give their accounts and opinions. Reser also focuses his coverage on the actual fabrication of the stone slabs. 

"An important part of the Guidestones' story is the monument-making process,” he says. ”It's something you don't find very often in Guidestones-related [information].” 

Naturally, questions, skepticism and distrust are part of the story as well, with some of the Southern town’s religious residents protesting the display of a non-divine set of commandments. Reser argues that the stones are inextricable from the tourism in Elberton, and so their strange placement endures, delighting and confounding.

Georgia Guidestones Movie screens at Ciné on Friday night at 7:30 p.m., followed by a reception catered by Big City Bread and a Q&A with Reser. Local musician Kyle Dawkins, who wrote the soundtrack for the movie, will perform live after the discussion. This should be a treat, as Reser calls the music “the best part of the film.”