'Carolina Stories' debut in South End

Three local production crews have created a collection of 30 videos highlighting the region's unique attributes -- from the Charlotte Roller Girls to the Carolina Thread Trail.

This week's Food Truck Friday in Historic South End will include a screening of these "Carolina Stories," designed to promote the area to convention visitors.

Scott Lazes and Kevin Beaty with Charlotte Video Project, Justin Ruckman and Matt Tyndall of CLTBlog, and Tonya Jameson and Lashawnda Becoats of Darling Media Group worked on the project. The two-minute videos show "showcase the culture of Charlotte" says Tracy Russ of the host committee.

Videos by Lazes and Beaty outline Charlotte's growing energy sector and the partnership between Charlotte Symphony Orchestra and Winterfield Elementary.

Jameson, a former Observer reporter, said she learned a lot from the project, especially about volunteers who work quietly with children. One memorable project, she said, was about the Latin American Women's Association teaching dancing in schools.

"It's an opportunity to highlight local people and individuals who are coming together outside the typical media spotlight," Jameson said.

Ruckman enjoyed doing stories on Charlotte's startup community, including an interview with Igor Jablokov of automated speech recognition developer Yap.

The Historic South End show begins at dark on a projection screen in the food truck lot. The videos also will show on a continuous loop from 7-10 p.m. on televisions inside and on the patio of The Common Market at South End.

-Celeste Smith