1995 Festival Highlights
The 1995 Virginia Festival of American Film was an overwhelming success as the comments of some selected participants attest. Here are just some of the highlights.
Director Tim Reid's directorial debut, Once Upon a Time...When We Were Colored received a huge ovation from a sell-out crowd, and acquired as its champion critic Roger Ebert, who devoted his next syndicated column to the film and its reception in Virginia.
Actor Richard Roundtree, who also accompanied Reid for the presentation of Once Upon a Time ... When We Were Colored, was bowled over by the response of a young audience to his performance in Shaft in Africa. Roundtree told Festival organizers that this was the first time he had witnessed, and could truly believe, the renewed popularity of '70s black action films.
A packed house in Charlottesville's downtown library witnessed a cross-section of Hollywood screenwriting history-including '30s Academy Award nominee Paul Jarrico (Tom, Dick, and Harry), '70s Academy Award winner Frank Pierson (Dog Day Afternoon), and rising screenwriters Desmond Nakano (White Man's Burden, Last Exit to Brooklyn), and Kayo and Mari Hatta (Picture Bride) -- engaging in a fascinating discussion on the opportunities and dangers of screenwriting across ethnic boundaries.
Festival guest star Fay Wray enchanted the audience with memories of her audition for Erich von Stroheim in 1928 and of '30s Hollywood during her interview by critic Roger Ebert, who joined her onstage following the screening of King Kong.
Civil Rights activist and UVa faculty member Julian Bond, who had been considered for a cameo role in the new John Travolta - Harry Belafonte film White Man's Burden, joined the film's director, Desmond Nakano, and UVa professors Paul Gaston and Deborah McDowell, in a lively post-film discussion following the Festival's premiere screening.
Longtime Festival goers agreed that this year's Festival parties were more creative and memorable than ever. University President Casteen's backyard was turned into a jungle in honor of Festival guest Fay Wray. Opening night festivities at the Bayly Museum featured servings of Mrs. Scorsese's spaghetti sauce recipe, accompanied by TV monitors screening her son Martin's documentary, Italianamerican. And the closing night gala at the Charlottesville airport was regaled by a salsa band which was joined late in the night by Festival featured guest Ruben Blades, singing "Guantanamera" in the wee hours of Sunday morning.
After a year off in which its presence was sorely missed, the Vinegar Hill Theater rejoined the Film Festival, bringing along its ace projectionist, Reid Oeschslin. The environment was ideally suited to the mostly independent films which screened there to packed, appreciative audiences. Vinegar Hill's neighboring theater in the County Office Building was much less impressive in its final appearance as a Festival venue.
One of the Festival's most talked-about films was Joseph Nobile's independent feature, Closer to Home. The director was joined by actors John Michael Bolger and Edward Lane for an intense discussion with the enthusiastic audience which lasted until 1:30am on Friday morning.
Poet and producer Bob Holman presented a preview of the new Independent Television Service series, the United States of Poetry, to an audience of poetry enthusiasts who engaged in a spirited debate on poetry vs. TV and then demanded the screening of an additional 30 minute episode beyond the hour-long preview.
Festival guests took advantage of the Festival's university location to address students in special forums. Six major film producers-Mark Johnson, David Brown, Doro Bachrach, Lewis Allen, Lester Persky, and Lee Caplin-participated in an unannounced forum attended by Drama Department students and visiting independent filmmakers. Festival guest actor Ruben Blades, who drew 18% of the vote in last year's Panamanian presidential election, discussed Latin American politics in a forum with Latin American Studies faculty and students.
Although a cancelled flight kept director Michael Moore from attending the Saturday screening, producer David Brown presented Canadian Bacon to a sold out house, which, in Brown's words, "could not have been more euphoric."
Actor Treat Williams flew into Charlottesville on his private airplane for the premiere of director Wayne Powers new short film, The Taming Power of the Small. Williams remained to introduce a screening of Hair!, joined by the film's producer, Lester Persky.
Silent movie fans were bowled over by the brilliant performance of Philip Carli, the Rochester-based piano accompanist who performed with the screening of The Italian. The participation of renowned silent film historians and archivists Paolo Cherchi Usai and Patrick Usai also made this a particularly memorable event for film aficionados.
A sell-out crowd welcomed back Mari Hatta, who received her MFA at the University of Virginia in 1987, with Picture Bride, the film she co-wrote and presented with her sister, Kayo Hatta. Another UVa alum and football player, Edgar Davis, returned to the University as an acclaimed new independent filmmaker with his award-winning short, A Jury of Her Peers.
Former Festival director Bob Gazzale discussed the nuts and bolts of film preservation with Robert Osborne, host of Turner Classic Movies, and Pat Murphy, of Turner Entertainment and Distribution Services, following the presentation of the first Virginia Film Award to the Turner Broadcasting System for its distinguished work in the preservation of classic films, and the showing of a dazzling restored print of An American in Paris on the big screen at Culbreth.