Charlottesville Podcasting Network
Lectures, radio shows and more available on-demand
On the second day of the 2013 Virginia Film Festival, podcaster Sean McCord spoke with director Christopher Englese about Political Bodies, his documentary look at the laws that emerged from the 2012 Virginia legislative session that attempted to control reproductive choices and the response of the women who were literally willing to lay their bodies on the line to protect those rights.
Political Bodies screens on Saturday,November 9 at 1:00PM in the Regal 2 Downtown Mall.
On the second day of the Virginia Film Festival, podcaster Sean McCord talked with Brian Wimer and Billy Hunt, both directors of CLAW, a look at the Collective of Lady Arm Wrestlers. CLAW the collective started in Charlottesville five or six years ago, and has now spread to other cities and nations. With its bustiers and burqas, is CLAW the fourth wave of feminism or the latest form of burlesque? Brian and Billy discuss the short history of CLAW, their approach as filmmakers, and Brian’s turn as a gay werewolf in Faux Paws.
On day two of the Virginia Film Festival, podcaster Sean McCord talks with Robert Griffith, a Virginia-based independent documentary filmmaker. His film Seasons with Brian and Julia documents a full year in the life of a Virginia farm and family. Griffith paints an intimate portrait of Brian and Julia Anderson of Mathews, VA. as the physical demands and endless planning over a year shines a light on the nationwide sustainable farming movement. Director Griffith has been bringing films to Charlottesville the since the first year of the Virginia Film Festival. More information about this and other of his films can be found on his website .
On February 16, 2012, seven members of the WriterHouse SFF group shared short stories or short selections of longer pieces. The readers were Louise Ball, Bonnie Redding, Jessica Glendinning, Josh Pritchett, John Tansey, Beth Stombock, and Sophia Volpi.
Filmmaker Gordon Quinn talks with Sean McCord about the history of Kartemquin Films, the Chicago-based documentary company that has made films such as Hoop Dreams. Several pieces from Kartemquin’s history are being shown at the Virginia Film Festival, including The Interrupters.
Actor and writer Broocks Willich is covering the Virginia Film Festival for Virginia Living, but she is also participating this year as a member of the film industry. She wrote and appeared in the film D.I.G.I.T.A.L. High, which screened on Friday as part of the narrative shorts program. Willich speaks with Sean McCord about why she chose to base her career in Charlottesville and what she hopes to bring to next year’s festival.
Filmmaker Derek Young talks with Sean McCord about Midnight Matinee Psycho, which screens tonight at 11:45 pm at the Regal Downtown. Here’s the write-up from the Film Festival site.
There’s a psycho on the loose. People are dying at midnight movie screenings, apparent victims of a serial killer. Detective Holt and Metro Police have no leads – chaos and paranoia ensue. Clyde Stevens, an aspiring filmmaker, marries the beautiful Sara Young. Clyde’s son senses something is not right with his new stepmother and turns to his friend Charlie for help ridding his dad of her. Featuring cameos from Lloyd Kaufman of Troma Entertainment, Paul (Madman Marz) Ehlers, Victor Miller, Ari Lehman, Eric Morse, Michelle Shields, P.J. Soles, Sal Lizard, Mike Holman, and other horror cult favorites.
Director Nathan Clarke talks with Sean McCord about Wrestling For Jesus, a documentary that screens at 1:45 pm on Saturday at the Virginia Film Festival. Here’s the write-up from the festival.
“In rural South Carolina, Timothy Blackmon felt a calling to fill a spiritual void in himself and share it with his fellow man. His chosen method was an amateur Christian wrestling league. In the ring, Blackmon transforms into the villainous “T-Money” as he dukes it out with Christians who choose to worship through sport. While a boisterous spectacle on stage, behind closed doors, Blackmon grapples with a crumbling marriage and the suicide of his father – the man who told him to never stop wrestling. Without ever judging its subject, the film explores one man’s dichotomous spiritual struggle.”
Director Nancy Buirski joins Sean McCord to talk about her documentary The Loving Story which screens tonight at Nau Auditorum at the University of Virginia. Here’s the write-up from the Film Festival:
“Using found footage from the 1960s and contemporary interviews, this film tells the story of Richard and Mildred Loving: an interracial couple who were married at a time when interracial marriage was illegal in 16 states. Arrested and forced to leave Virginia in 1958 for the felony of being married, the Lovings decided to fight back. This film follows the couple and their young lawyers as they prepare for the landmark 1967 Loving v. Virginia Supreme Court case that would lead to the legalization of interracial marriage in all states.”
Director Peter Monro and actor Erin Anderson sit with Sean McCord to discuss Days Together, a feature film that screens Saturday night at 9:00 pm at Vinegar Hill Theater.
Here’s the write-up from the Film Festival:
“Director and writer Peter Monro ditches heavy handedness and morals in this realistic and modern love tale about a beautiful, unsatisfied woman. Surrounded by friends who are settling down into adulthood, Alex (Erin Anderson) is at the end of a string of empty hook-ups when she meets Paul (Brian Soika), an equally despondent musician. When Alex decides to travel to Seattle to escape Los Angeles for a few short days, Paul convinces her to take him along for the ride. The new friends set out on the road, enjoying each other’s company and comfort until their incompatibility becomes clear. Beautifully shot and smartly paced, the film forgoes grand clichi in favor of the small, knowing moments that inform relationships.”
U.Va filmmaker Kevin Everson speaks with Sean McCord about the short films he is screening at the Virginia Film Festival. Here’s the blurb from the festival website:
“In 2011, U.Va. professor of art Kevin Everson premiered his work at the Toronto International Film Festival, had a solo exhibition of his work at the Whitney Museum of American Art, and received a fairly gushing review from New York Times art critic Holland Carter. Collected here are five of his most recent films.Chevelle is a document of a discarded vehicle’s ultimate crushing fate. Ten Five in the Grass is his take on a cowboy film. The Tombigbee Chronicles No. 2 is comprised of three short films exploring individuals from Everson’s parents’ hometown of Columbus, Mississippi: Rita Larson’s Boy, Early Riser, and Chicken.”
Filmmakers Ben Saunders and Joey Schihl talk with Sean McCord about Blank Street, their documentary which connects real people to honest examples of poverty that can seem distant to many of us, although very present in our own backyard in Virginia. The film, which screens at Vinegar Hill at 10:45 am on Saturday, suggests that anyone can fall victim to poverty but also that anyone can and should feel compelled to help.