Cancelled: The Paula Deen Story, directed by Billy Corben, dives headfirst into the spectacular rise and fall of the Southern culinary icon whose career was upended almost overnight by an accusation of racism amid the intensifying glare of “cancel culture”. With Deen and her sons seated for frank, at times emotional interviews, Corben’s film unspools more than a tabloid headline—it’s a layered reexamination of celebrity, shame, and the volatile politics of redemption in twenty-first-century America.

Mixing archival material with new voices—including critics, confidantes, and historian Michael Twitty—the documentary asks tough questions about accountability and forgiveness, probing the media’s power to both elevate and destroy. At its heart is a family forced to reckon with the cost of honesty, the complexities of Southern culture, and what it means to be “canceled” in a society that demands perfect answers to uncomfortable truths.

Screening followed by audience talkback with director Billy Corben.