Tag: Virginia Film Festival 2013

On the second day of the 2013 Virginia Film Festival, podcaster Sean McCord sat down with special festival guests.

Along with childhood friends Andy Samberg and Akiva Schaffer, Taccone is one-third of the sketch comedy troupe The Lonely Island which has produced many of the SNL Digital Shorts. In 2010, he co-wrote and directed MacGruber, a parody of 80s action films in which Will Forte revived and expanded one of his enduring SNL characters. The two comedians talk about making the life journey from independent creative artists to Saturday Night Live and beyond.

On the second day of the 2013 Virginia Film Festival, podcaster Sean McCordspoke with documentary filmmaker Farihah Zaman who, along with her partner Jeff Reichert, directed Remote Area Medical, a look at the non-profit volunteer organization dedicated to providing free health care in remote areas. Originally formed in the 1980s to service third world countries, RAM has evolved to now offer much needed care to impoverished people within our own national borders.

Remote Area Medical screens Saturday November 9 at 3:00 PM in UVA’s Newcomb Hall Theater

On day two of the Virginia Film Festival, podcaster Sean McCord spoke with Ben Nabors, director of William and the Windmill, his documentary about Willliam Kamkwamba, who as a 14 year old boy on his Malawi village, built a windmill to generate electricity for his family. Five years later, following a talk he gave at an African TED conference, William has become a media star and has to deal with the very modern problems of fame, isolation, and stress.

William and the Windmill screened on Saturday November 9 at 2:00 PM in UVA’s Culbreth Theater.

On day two of the Virginia Film Festival, podcaster Sean McCord talked with director Fredrik Bond and producer Ron Yerxa about their film, Charlie Countryman. Shia Lebouf plays the eponymous hero who finds himself abruptly orphaned and and traveling through Romania, guided by the spirit of his recently-passed mother, where he falls in love with a mysterious woman and is absorbed into the twisted maze of a criminal underground.

Charlie Countryman screened Friday November 8, at 8:30 PM in UVA’s Culbreth Theater.

At the 2013 Virginia Film Festival, podcaster Sean McCord spoke with Sean Gaston, director of Misa’s Fugue, a look at the tragic youth and artistic life of Holocaust survivor Frank (Misa) Grunwald, and how his story interweaves with the teenage artists who helped commit his story to film.

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 .

At the 2013 Virginia Film Festival, podcaster Sean McCord talks with Matt Jones, novelist and screenwriter of A Single Shot, a rural thriller and character study about a deer poacher whose errant bullet pulls him into a nightmare of crime and death. Matthew F. Jones is the author of six critically acclaimed novels as well as a number of screenplays; he now lives and writes in Charlottesville.

On the first day of the Virginia Film Festival, podcaster Sean McCord talks with filmmaker Kori Feener about her film Hard Way Home. For her thesis project at Emory University, Kori Feener hiked the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine, filming her experience and the people she met along the way. The film is both about her six-month hike and the journey that she makes as a young woman.

Hard Way Home screens Friday November 8 at 4:15 PM on the Regal 1 Downtown Mall.

On the first day of the 2013 Virginia Film Festival, podcaster Sean McCord talks with Charlottesville filmmaker Doug Bari about his film Faux Paws. This is the fifth time Doug has brought a film to the Virginia Film Festival, and the third in three years. Faux Paws is a feature length buddy road family comedy gay werewolf guerrilla film about two werewolves outwitting federal authorities as they make there way to the safe haven of Maine. The film stars Doug Bari, Brian Wimer, Ike Eichling, and a host of outstanding actors familiar to those plugged into the local arts and film scene.