1992 Theme: The Reel South and Other Worlds

A special Tribute: Actor Robert Duvall participated in the 20th anniversary screening of Tomorrow in tribute to the skill and talent of writer Horton Foote.

East Coast Premieres:

- Tiana Alexandra, nŽe Thi Thanh Nga, discussed and answered questions on her film/documentary depicting her return to her native country, From Hollywood to Hanoi: A True Story.

- Writer-Director-Producer Robert Mugge discusses the documentary he made relating the story of Alligator Records, an independant record label that has dominated the international blues recording scene. The discussion followed the screening of Pride and Joy: The story of Alligator Records.

Workshop related screening: Following the screening of Citizen Kane on the first day of the Festival, the film critic Roger Ebert directed a three-part, six-hour workshop focusing on a shot-by-shot analysis of the film. This was an opportunity for participants to broaden their understanding of the choices, techniques and strategies that made of Citizen Kane a towering achievement.

A visit with...:

- the screenwriter: Here was a chance to see a movie with the man who wrote it. Preceding the screening of Rich in Love, Oscar-winning screenwriter Alfred Uhry answered questions and shared an insider's view of what it takes to translate a written vision into a succesful and rewarding motion picture.

- the producer: Michael Fitzerald answered questions regarding the making of John Huston's remarkable film Wise Blood.

- the director: Director Michael Roemer answered questions following the screening of Nothing But a Man, critically acclaimed at both the New-York and Venice Festivals in 1992.

- the filmmaker: Filmmaker Ross McElwee came to comment on his work, after the screening of Sherman's March.

Work-in-Progress: Director Philip Haas and editor Belinda Haas co-authored the screenplay for The Music of Chance. They presented 40 minutes of film in interlock format (the sound mix had not yet been transferred).

Featured Artist: Participants in the Festival were given the opportunity to meet with folk artist Howard Finster who spoke about the Southern character of the image in his paintings and prints.

Featured Exhibition: The Bayly Art Museum of the University of Virginia complemented the Festival with an outstanding exhibition celebrating American Film. Festival guests were invited to view The romantic Camera: Karl Struss and Early Hollywood Photography.

Experimental Films: Two experimental films were featured: Blue, by professional anthropologist Robert Ascher, a visual poem made without camera; and Bullets for Breakfast, by well-known filmmaker Holly Fisher, a feminist-Western hybrid. Both filmmakers were present to discuss their films.

Documenting the Depression: In tribute to Pare Lorentz, "FDR's moviemaker", who had died a few months before, the Festival presented three priceless examples of early documentary: The River (Dir: Pare Lorentz), The Land (Dir.: Robert Flaherty), and Movies of Local People (Dir.:H. Lee Waters).

The Documentary Process: Filmmaker Ross Spears and other special guests participated in an open discussion about To Render a Life: "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men".

Open discussions:

- The American South: Myth and Mirror

"The South" is a powerful concept in our culture -conjuring an image that has become a national, even international, fascination. The Southern film, like the Western is a genre unto itself. Jon Amiel (Director of Sommersby), Rita Mae Brown (a prolific and best-selling Southern author), Dr. William Ferris (Director of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the U. of Mississipi) led the discussion revolving around the complex interplay of mythology, stereotype, and reality characterizing the Southern film.

- Worldmaking: The Southern Screenplay

Screenwriters translate written images into film images, employing the visual as well as the verbal - whether adapting literature or drama, their own or another's original material. Alfred Uhry, Calder Willingham and Jay Presson Allen shared their views about bringing the American South to the screen.

- Recasting the Past:How Artists interpret History

Filmakers, like other artists, are susceptible to social pressures; the problematic depiction of history in film is heightened by new and conroversial pressure. Historian and Civil Rights activist Julian Bond, scholar Rodney Smolla, and novelist William Styron offered their indsights on how popular mores and consumer demands shape our art. - Impersonation

Following the screening of Bruce Bereford's Tender Mercies, scholars Louis Gallo, Gerald MacDonald and Bernard Timberg moderated and animated a discussion focusing on the actors' influence on their characters and on the making of the films they play in.

Classic films featured (among others)

• Our Hospitality (Dir.: Buster Keaton, Jack Blystone, 1923)
• Hallelujah(Dir.: King Vidor, 1929)
• I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (Dir.: Mervyn LeRoy, 1932)
• The Southerner (Dir.:Jean Renoir, 1945)
• Baby Doll (Dir.: Elia Kazan, 1956)
• Boxcar Bertha (Dir.: Martin Scorsese, 1972)
• To Sleep with Anger (Dir.: Charles Burnett, 1990)