The 16th annual George Lindsey Film Festival will commemorate deceased actor and festival co-founder George Lindsey Feb. 27 through March 1. This festival will be the first in which Lindsey has not held an active role in its planning and development.

“On a surface level, it might not appear that we are (honoring Lindsey), but this year at the awards show and after-party, we will be recognizing his passing and honoring his memory,” said Jason Flynn, co-chair of the festival and assistant professor of film and digital media production.

Together with former UNA director of communications Bill Jarnigan and professor of communications Bobby Hurt, Lindsey, a UNA alumnus, began the George Lindsey Film Festival in 1997. The festival serves as a competitive film festival for aspiring and professional filmmakers at the local, national and international level. UNA is the only university within the U.S. to offer a film competition of this kind.

“All these people, particularly George and Bobby had these ideas that overlapped each other,” Flynn said. “George wanted to do something for his home school and Bobby wanted to do something for her students.”

The efforts of all those involved on the early planning committee helped Lindsey to achieve his goal of providing film education to the Shoals community, said Cynthia Burkhead, festival co-chair and UNA assistant professor of English.

Flynn agreed and said Lindsey’s stardom helped to launch the festival in its early years.

“It’s always been about education and the community,” he said. “What George brought to the table was his celebrity; he was going places and doing things and he could make contacts.”

This year’s festival will not have a special guest speaker. Instead, Flynn said the festival will feature a screening of the “Muscle Shoals” documentary March 1 at 7 p.m. in Norton Auditorium.

The film will be introduced by musician and UNA alumnus John Paul White.

The film, which was a big hit at the Sundance Film Festival, follows the history of music within the Shoals area. The 102-minute film features some of the biggest names in music discussing the pivotal role Muscle Shoals has played in the history of rock ‘n’ roll.

“This is about as big of a film for the local audience as we could get for the local audiences,” Flynn said. “We’re doing this for the people, which, in part, honors (Lindsey)’s memory because this is why the festival got started.”

After the screening of “Muscle Shoals,” a panel consisting of White, record producer Rick Hall, musician David Hood, Jimmy Johnson and cinematographer Anthony Arendt will lead discussion about the film.

Flynn said the Q-and-A discussions following each of the screenings during the three-day festival are one of the most important elements of the festival.

“We’re looking for that engagement with the audience,” he said. “(The filmmakers) get to interact with the audience about their work.”

That engagement provides an extra dose of encouragement for some UNA film students.

“For me, meeting the filmmakers is a good reassurance and reminder that they are real people like us and they were once in our shoes,” said Ashley Ridgeway, a senior film student.

Despite the absence of Lindsey, the festival will still remain focused on its original purpose: providing entertainment and learning opportunities to the Shoals communities. In that sense, the legacy of Lindsey will remain intact.

“It’s not all about a person this year; it’s about an era,” Flynn said. “It’s about where we’ve been and where we’re going. We’re in our 16th year, which is at a point where we have established ourselves and could become lazy and complacent, but we’re not. As a committee, we’re going to continue to try to put on the best festival that we can.”

For a complete line-up and event schedule, visit the festival’s homepage at www.lindseyfilmfest.com or check out their Facebook page.