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The falling of the leaves is the sign of many things, but the onslaught of autumn also marks the coming of the next Virginia Film Festival. Here’s a very brief preview of the 35th annual event, which will take place November 2 through November 6.
This piece was originally part of the October 12, 2022 edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement. You can read the item here.
Will there be more podcasts from the Virginia Film Festival? Stay tuned!
On May 19, 2022, a crowd assembled at the intersection of East Market Street and 3rd Street NW in downtown Charlottesville to watch the unveiling of a historic marker to commemorate an important moment in the desegregation of education in Virginia. In 1950, Gregory Swanson applied to attend the University of Virginia School of Law, but he was denied a space because he was Black. He sued in federal court citing 14th Amendment rights to equal protection, and a three-panel judge heard arguments on September 5 that year. Our recording begins with David Plunkett, the director of the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library.
Timeline for podcast:
The Reverend Alex Joyner is the pastor of Charlottesville First United Methodist Church, and he wants to ask questions about what it takes to make a place more whole. One thread in his questioning is the future of Market Street Park in downtown Charlottesville.
In late February of 2022, Reverend Joyner spoke with Elizabeth Catte about her new book Pure America: Eugenics and the Making of Modern Virginia.
You can also watch this interview on YouTube.
What does candy-making have in common with decoy-carving? What does hot-rod car building have to do with baking baklava? All of those activities, and dozens of others, are considered to be aspects of Virginia culture as curated by the Virginia Folklife Program.
This weekend at Highland, Virginia Humanities will put on a show that celebrates all of these activities and more. Producer James Walsh recently spoke with the person behind the festivities.
Student filmmakers from George Mason University stopped to to talk about the collection of their short films, The Best of Film at Mason, Sunday at 11:15 AM at the Violet Crown C. These young filmmakers are all students working on a variety of genres, from documentary to fiction to music videos.
Filmmaker Doug Bari joins Sean McCord to talk about his film Scenes With Ivan. In this highly personal film, Doug and his wife Judy document the life of their son Ivan from before he was born to a 32 year old adult with children of his own. More information about this and Doug and Judy’s many other films can be found on Doug’s website. The documentary will be shown at the Dickinson Theater at Piedmont Virginia Community on Friday, November 10 at 5:30 p.m.
In addition to helping out the Virginia Film Festival with public relations, John Kelly also serves as a publicist for shows such as The Long Road Home, which will screen an episode at 5:30 pm on Friday at the Culbreth Theatre at the University of Virginia. The eight episode mini-series is being produced by the National Geographic Channel. Kelly talks about the making of the show.
The series, based on The New York Times best-selling book by Martha Raddatz, relives a heroic fight for survival during the Iraq War when the 1st Cavalry Division from Fort Hood was ferociously ambushed on April 4, 2004, in Sadr City, Baghdad — a day that came to be known as “Black Sunday.”
Jason Robinson is in the Virginia Film Festival for the fourth time, this time to support his short film Walkalong which will be shown before the film Shadowman on Thursday, November 9 at the Violet Crown. Robinson, a former project manager at Light House Studio, talks with Sean McCord about how the short piece came to be made.
Barry Sisson of the syndicated radio program Indie Film Minute joins Sean McCord to talk about the history of show and how he began it to increase the audience for independent films.
Sisson and the rest of the Indie Film Minute are also screening independent films in collaboration with Light House Studio.
Aaron Wolf of Howling Wolf Productions talks about his documentary Restoring Tomorrow. The film tells the story of his personal journey of rediscovery by telling the story of a Los Angeles treasure, Wilshire Boulevard Temple. Built by the original Hollywood moguls, the temple came near demise, but became determined to achieve the impossible–raise $150 million to restore its majesty and vibrancy, rebuilding the Jewish community, the greater Los Angeles community–and on a personal level, Wolf himself.
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.
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.