Contact: Adam Popp (804) 923-0976
OffScreen Brings Alternative Films to Charlottesville
A new student-run organization at the University of Virginia will be devoted to bringing the best in independent film to the University and Charlottesville communities. Sponsored by funds from the Student Council and receiving logistical support from the Virginia Film Festival, OffScreen's goal is to expand the area's film exhibition offerings to include more challenging foreign, experimental, classic and other non-commercial works. Visiting filmmakers will also be featured. Personal appearances by actor/musician John Lurie (The Last Temptation of Christ, Wild at Heart) as well as filmmaker Spencer Nakasako (AKA: Don Bonus) highlight the fall schedule.
All screenings will be held in Newcomb Theater, conveniently located alongside the Emmet Street Parking Garage at U.Va. An informational meeting on OffScreen and other film organizations at U.Va. (including the Film Festival and the Film and Media Society) will be held on Saturday, September 7 at 7pm in Newcomb Hall's South Meeting Room.
"Many of the most exciting works of independent and foreign filmmakers are not making it to Charlottesville, and, at U.Va., we deserve the same wide range of film culture that students at big-city campuses take for granted," says Adam Popp, the president and founder of OffScreen. OffScreen will collaborate with the Virginia Festival Film Society by alternating films with the Film Society schedule, producing together a weekly alternative film offering for area film buffs. Aside from the Virginia Film Festival, University Union's Cinematheque will also be a cosponsor.
OffScreen's Fall '98 series begins on September 15 at 9pm with Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 Contempt, starring Brigitte Bardot and Jack Palance, which was rereleased nationally last year. The next film (Sept. 22) will be the 1996 Godard-influenced French film Irma Vep, by Olivier Assayas, starring, as herself, Hong Kong film icon Maggie Cheung. Happy Together, Wong Kar-wai's Hong Kong film on two estranged gay lovers, for which he won Best Direction at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival, will screen on September 28.
October will begin with an exciting event cosponsored with the Virginia Film Festival on October 6. JOHN LURIE, an actor and musician who embodies for many the essence of hipster cool, will present the influential indie film in which he had a starring role, Jim Jarmusch's classic Stranger Than Paradise, along with an episode of his new Independent Feature Channel series, Fishing With John. NINA FONOROFF, an acclaimed experimental filmmaker and current Guggenheim Fellow, will screen a program of her films at Clemons Library on October 14. Also on the slate is Carlos Marcovich's Mexican sensation Who the Hell is Juliette? (October 20), and a Virginia Film Festival event, Kelly Loves Tony, with filmmaker SPENCER NAKASAKO in person to introduce the film.
November's schedule begins with BBC reporter Nick Broomfield's controversial Kurt and Courtney (Nov. 9). a documentary which paints a dark picture of Courtney Love's role in her relationship with Kurt Cobain, and was reportedly blocked by Love's attorneys from screening at last year's Sundance Film Festival. Also in November, OffScreen will cosponsor a special series of classic films titled New American: Cinematic Images of Immigrants.
For Immediate Release