Contact: Victoria Joyce (804)-361-1259 Hipster Actor/Musician John Lurie Arrives in Charlottesville for a Pre-Film Festival Cool Event John Lurie The Virginia Film Festival and U.Va.'s OFFScreen film series are joining forces to bring actor/director/musician John Lurie to Charlottesville for a special pre-Festival Cool event. Lurie will introduce and discuss two episodes of his new Independent Film Channel series, Fishing With John, plus his starring performance in Jim Jarmusch's great independent feature Stranger Than Paradise. The screenings take place on Tuesday, October 6 at 9:00pm in Newcomb Hall Theatre. Admission is $5 public/$2.50 students and Virginia Film Society members. Part parody, part Zen-like nature and outdoor-adventure show, Fishing with John was produced by John Lurie as a six-part series for the Independent Film Channel. Lurie knows absolutely nothing about fishing, but that didn't stop him from undertaking the adventure of a lifetime on Fishing With John. Traveling with his special guests to the most exotic and dangerous places on earth, Lurie battles sharks with Jim Jarmusch off the tip of Long Island, goes ice fishing with William Dafoe at Maine's northernmost point, braves the Costa Rican jungle with Matt Dillon, takes Tom Waits to Jamaica, and searches for the elusive giant squid with Dennis Hopper in Thailand. In continuing the journey begun by the legendary Marlin Perkins and Jacques Cousteau, John Lurie joins the ranks of America's great television outdoorsmen (even though Cousteau was French). "Marlin Perkins shouldn't be the only one who can tell you what the animals are thinking," says John Lurie. Leader of the musical group The Lounge Lizards, John Lurie is best known for his work with Jim Jarmusch in "Stranger Than Paradise" and "Down By Law," Lurie's acting resume reads like a greatest hits of indie film: Paris, Texas, Desperately Seeking Susan, The Last Temptation of Christ, and Wild at Heart. But Lurie mostly calls himself a musician. Brought up in Worcester, Massachusetts -- "a terrible place, there was like one Eric Dolphy record in the whole city and I somehow got a hold of it" -- Lurie's first instrument was the harmonica, which he learned to play at age 15. Later he talked himself on stage with such music legends as Canned Heat and John Lee Hooker. In the late '70s, Lurie formed The Lounge Lizards. "We started out as this punk jazz band," Lurie says, but today the band has taken on a more spiritual aspect. "It's religious music played by wise guys." The band's 9th album, "Queen of All Ears," was recently released.

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