The Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art and the Center for the Documentary at the College of Charleston present “Artois the Goat” with producer Richard Reininger.

This is the third film screening in the 2010-2011 Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers, a program of South Arts. The film screening and Q & A session with the filmmaker will take place at 8 p.m. on Friday, November 5th in room 309 of the Simons Center for the Arts on 54 St. Philip Street. The event is free and open to the public.

In “Artois the Goat,” Virgil Gurdies doesn’t eat to live, he lives to eat. Unfortunately for Virgil, his passion for fine cheese doesn’t jive with his day job: manufacturing artificial flavor additives for TV dinners. When Virgil is stripped of his lab coat, he comes face-to-face with the strange inhabitants of an unfamiliar world: that of artisanal goat cheese. Discovering his passion, he buys Artois, a scrawny young buck, putting his operation in motion. Now all Virgil has to do is figure out how to explain to his girlfriend that he spent the money he was saving for her engagement ring on a goat.

Producer Richard Reininger has been enraptured with the creation of motion pictures ever since discovering his family’s video camera during his freshman year of high school. Diving into media technology classes and independent studies programs left in him a burning desire to work in pictures. Attending the University of Texas at Austin, he received a bachelor’s degree in film production. “Artois the Goat” premiered at SXSW in Narrative Competition, the first of many festivals and honors. Richard currently resides in Austin, Texas.

The Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers is a unique interactive program that brings independent filmmakers and their films into communities throughout the nine-state region served by South Arts, a not-for-profit regional arts organization making a positive difference in the arts throughout the South since 1975. South Arts is supported by funding and programming partnerships with the National Endowment for the Arts and the state arts agencies of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. Special support for Southern Circuit is provided by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. For more information on South Arts and its programs visit www.southarts.org.