Catching up with Georgia filmmaker James Ponsoldt, whose latest feature just conquered Sundance

• Wilford Harewood
• Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley star in GA lensed adaption of the YA novel The Spectacular Now

This past summer, Georgia filmmaker James Ponsoldt helmed his third feature, an adaption of the popular young adult novel “The Spectacular Now” by Tim Tharp. This is the first feature that Ponsoldt didn’t write himself (the script was written by 500 Days of Summer scribes Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber). It’s also the first film he shot in his adopted hometown of Athens, Ga.

Ponsoldt just got back from the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, where the film premiered to much fanfare matched by terrific reviews.

He took some time to answer some questions about the experience of shooting in Georgia, and share his thoughts on representations of the South on screen.

Whereas Southern literature is defined by William Faulkner, Robert Penn Warren, Eudora Welty, or Flannery O’Connor, is there such a thing as “Southern” cinema?

When I was younger I very much wanted to be a “Southern” filmmaker, and I’m definitely obsessed with regional cinema, but I think in this day and age it’s tougher to be defined by region. Trends in music and film don’t seem to be confined by locale. With the Internet, a kid in rural Georgia can listen to music from Mali and get into African polyrhythms, etc. Conversely, a kid across the world can watch YouTube clip of the Drive-By Truckers performing at the 40 Watt Club.

Information is fairly democratic.

That being said, I think people like John Sayles, Victor Nunez, David Gordon Green, and Julie Dash made some pretty iconic “Southern” films. There’s some amazing documentaries I think really capture the spirit of the South - films like Benjamin Smoke, Southern Comfort, and Sherman’s March. But ironically, one of my absolute favorite films that’s set in the South - The Southerner - was made by a Frenchman (Jean Renoir). Is it any less “Southern” because the director is European? I don’t know. Regionalism is a funny thing.

My worldview was certainly shaped by growing up in Athens, Ga., but my parents are from northern New Jersey, and they obviously had a profound effect on me. I’m acutely aware of where I grew up - and Athens wasn’t a huge city, but it wasn’t the boondocks, either. It was - and is - a really cultural, youthful, friendly small city/large town in the deep south. A blue city in a red state, if you will. And I love everything about Athens, Ga.

But my first two features (Off the Black and Smashed) were made in New York state (in towns along the Hudson River) and Los Angeles, respectively. And while The Spectacular Now was filmed 100 percent in Athens, and I think it feels very authentic to the experience of being a teenager growing up there, I believe the film transcends regionalism.

The novel from which it is adapted is set in the Midwest. Why was it important for you to shoot The Spectacular Now in Georgia?