Virginia Film Festival: Andy Edmunds of the Virginia Film Office

Andy Edmunds of the Virginia Film Office
Andy Edmunds of the Virginia Film Office

Andy Edmunds is the director of the Virginia Film Office. He joins Sean McCord at the Virginia Film Festival to talk about how the film office’s mission is to help increase economic development through attracting more filmmakers to the Old Dominion. The idea dates back to the administration of Governor Gerald Baliles. Edmunds gives examples of the kind of troubleshooting his office does for those who choose to film in Virginia.

Virginia Film Festival 2016: Sienna Burning

Sean McCord and Andrea Shreeman on November 4, 2016 at the Virginia Film Festival.
Sean McCord and Andrea Shreeman on November 4, 2016 at the Virginia Film Festival.

Director Andrea Shreeman speaks with Sean McCord about the world premiere of her short film Sienna Burning which was shot in her home town of Roanoke, Virginia. She describes how the project came together and how it involved help from the Roanoke Rescue Mission and how she’s currently preparing to shoot a feature in Charlottesville.

Sienna Burning will screen at Newcomb Hall Theater before The Sweet Life.

Virginia Film Festival 2016: Lydia Moyer

Lydia Moyer, Associate Professor in the McIntire Department of Art at the University of Virginia.
Lydia Moyer, Associate Professor in the McIntire Department of Art at the University of Virginia.

Lydia Moyer, an associate professor in the University of Virginia McIntire Department of Art, speaks with Sean McCord about her experimental films that are appearing at the 2016 Virginia Festival of Film. They will be screened Saturday at 11:00 am at the Vinegar Hill Theater.

From the Virginia Film Festival: “Drawing equally on the natural and socially constructed worlds, these experimental videos play with form and format while focusing on the U.S. as a contemporary and historical site. They cover ground from recent uprisings in response to police violence to climate change to historical relationships between natives and settlers on U.S. ground.”



Virginia Film Festival 2016: Adrian’s Story

Filmmakers Lance Warren and Hannah Ayers at the Virginia Film Festival, November 3, 2016
Filmmakers Lance Warren and Hannah Ayers at the Virginia Film Festival, November 3, 2016

Richmond-based filmmakers Hannah Ayers and Lance Warren join Sean McCord to talk about their short film Adrian’s Story.

The film tells the story of a barber-in-training who is slowly moving forward after years of incarceration. The piece is part of the Richmond Justice project.

Adrian’s Story has previously appeared at the Skyline Indie Film Fest, the Film Festival at Little Washington and Washington West.

Ayers and Warren run Field Studio and previously directed a film about Vinegar Hill called That World is Gone.



Virginia Film Festival 2016: Darnell Lamont Walker

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Filmmaker Darnell Lamont Walker at the Virginia Film Festival, November 3, 2016

Sean McCord speaks with filmmaker Darnell Lamont Walker whose documentary Seeking Asylum will be shown at the Virginia Film Festival on Sunday, November 6.

Walker’s film documents his experience leaving the U.S. in search of a safe space, traveling through other countries in the wake of injustice and tyranny against African-American citizens. He is now a resident of South Africa.

Seeking Asylum will be shown alongside Anywhere But Here by Lorenzo Dickerson.



Virginia Film Festival 2016: John Harris on Bernie and Rebecca

2016-11-03-bernie-and-rebeccaWriter John Harris joins Sean McCord to discuss the short film Bernie and Rebecca. This is his second film and he speaks with Sean about how he decided to take up screenwriting after a career in finance. Bernie and Rebecca will be shown at 2:30 at the Culbreth Theater before the film Lost in Paris.

Harris is also a member of the Virginia Film Festival advisory board.

Virginia Film Festival 2016: Lorenzo Dickerson on Anywhere But Here

Lorenzo Dickerson on November 3, 2016 at the Virginia Film Festival.
Lorenzo Dickerson on November 3, 2016 at the Virginia Film Festival.

Charlottesville filmmaker Lorenzo Dickerson joins Sean McCord to talk about his film Anywhere But Here. Dickerson is the founder of Maupintown Media.

The documentary features interviews from 13 African-American men incarcerated at the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail. Dickerson’s other films include Maupintown and Color Line of Scrimmage.

Anywhere But Here will be shown alongside the documentary Seeking Asylum at 2:00 pm on Sunday, November 6 at the Violet Crown.



Virginia Film Festival 2016: Liberty & Slavery: The Paradox of America’s Founding Fathers

2016-11-03-liberty-slaverySean McCord chats with director Troy Thomas and editor Christopher Marshall of Inertia Films about their documentary on the ultimate paradox of Revolutionary America: slavery.

Delving into the hypocrisies of the Founding Fathers’ position as slaveholders, Liberty & Slavery: The Paradox of America’s Founding Fathers attempts to better understand how the authors of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution could have owned slaves, and why those who didn’t failed to insist on the abolishment of slavery. Investigating the well-known phrase “all men are created equal,” the film studies the essential contradiction of America’s Founding Fathers being champions of liberty, and yet simultaneously champions of slavery.

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Director Troy Thomas and Editor Christopher Marshall of Inertia Films

The film will screen at the Violet Crown on Thursday, November 3, 2016 at 4:00 p.m. and will be feature a panel discussion moderated by Giles Morris of Montpelier.

Virginia Film Festival 2015: Gary Springer

GarySpringerPublicist Gary Springer talks about four films that he brought to this years Virginia Film Festival: Lady in the Van, with the great Maggie Smith; Reconquest of the Useless, a documentary following up on Werner Herzog’s 1982 Peruvian film adventure Fitzcarraldo; The Looking Glass, with esteemed British actress Dorothy Tristan; and Price of Love, a hard-hitting look at life on the streets in Ethiopia.