Arkansas PBS Short Film Honors June Dinner in Wilmar

(Arkansas PBS)

Arkansas PBS, the public media outlet based in Conway, is showcasing a documentary about small Drew County town and its long history with Juneteenth.

APBS has partnered with the city of Wilmer, the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center in Little Rock and the Central Arkansas Library System to offer free preview screenings of the documentary short, “Wilmar June Dinner.”

The documentary, filmed in the town of about 500, tells the story of one of the longest-running Juneteenth celebrations in Arkansas history. Wilmar has celebrated the June Dinner since the late 1800s. The film celebrates the history and relationships that draw people back to Wilmar for the event year after year

Arkansas PBS series “Celebrating Arkansas” produced the documentary short.

Juneteenth, formally Juneteenth National Independence Day, is a federal holiday celebrated on June 19. It commemorates the ending of slavery in the U.S., and Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger’s proclamation on June 19, 1865, that ordered final enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas.

President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act in 2021, making June 19 a federal holiday. It was the nation’s first new holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was proclaimed in 1983.

The partnership has scheduled Free screenings of “Wilmar June Dinner” as follows:

• Dee Brown Library, CALS Branch Library, Little Rock, at 6:30 p.m. Monday, June 10.
• Rooker Library, CALS Branch Library, Little Rock, at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, June 13.
• Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, Little Rock, 12:15 p.m. Saturday, June 15.
• Wilmar June Dinner, Wilmar, Sunday, June 16, (screening time to be determined)
• McMath Library, CALS Branch Library, Little Rock, 6:30 p.m. Monday, June 17.
• Brooks Library, CALS Branch Library, Wrightsville, 9:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. Tuesday, June 18.

An extended version of “Wilmar June Dinner” can be watched online at myarpbs.org/celebratingarkansas.