October 24, 9:30 - midnight, University Art Museum Admission: $75 Mingle with the big fish following the opening night screening at Culbreth Theatre. Savour mouth-watering delicacies and flowing drinks at the gala party that launches the Festival each year. Enjoy the art of William Wylie and Michelle Leavitt, and catch the rare exhibition of Andy Warhol's Water. Sponsored by TNT and Adelphia. Tears: Installation by Michele Leavitt October 22-December 1 Artist's Gallery Talk October 25, 11:00 a.m. in the Museum Focusing on ecological issues, the installation Tears by Rhode Island-based artist Michele Leavitt creates a living room atmosphere with a variety of objects commenting on our culture of consumption and environmental destruction. Stillwater: Photographs by William Wylie August 24-October 27, 2002 Taken over a five-year period, 1997-2001, William Wylie's new series of photographs focus on the changing river surface. The images capture the flow patterns and light fluctuations of a specific river at specific times, yet they are ageless and placeless in their description of the experience of water Water: A Video by Andy Warhol October 24-27, 2002 This rarely screened video was shot by Andy Warhol for an exhibition on the theme of "water" Yoko Ono curated for the Everson Museum of Art in 1971. According to Steve Seid, Warhol "set up a camera at the Factory, aimed it at the water cooler and let the camera roll until the reel reached its end. The result is off-camera chatter around the water cooler, Warholian gossip, and the occasional bubble rising through the tank. …Supposedly Yoko wanted to submerge the tape in water, but Warhol refused to allow it and so the tape still exists." LIQUID LIGHT is an extraordinary summit gathering of many of the country's leading experimental media programmers and writers, who have compiled rich programs of cinematically innovative works inspired by the WET theme. Eight separate programs from October 24-27 will be devoted to short experimental films and videos, presented by programmers and guest filmmakers. The LIQUID LIGHT series will also include the rare Andy Warhol installation piece entitled Water at the University Art Museum and Jenny Gage and Tom Betterton's Elegy at the Fringe Festival. 10/24, Vinegar Hill, 7pm:  John Columbus (Black Maria Film Festival) and Abina Manning (Video Data Bank) 10/25, Vinegar Hill, 1pm:  Scott MacDonald (author, The Garden in the Machine) 10/25, Vinegar Hill, 4pm: Ralph McKay (Sixpack Film North America) and a performance by Luis Recoder 10/25, 9:30pm:  Floating Cinema at the U.Va. Aquatic and Fitness Center 10/26, Vinegar Hill, 1pm:  Patti Bruck (Robert Flaherty Film Seminar) and filmmaker Leighton Pierce 10/26, Vinegar Hill, 4pm:  Steve Seid and Kathy Geritz (Pacific Film Archive) 10/26, Vinegar Hill, 10pm:  Underground legend George Kuchar! 10/26, Midnight:  Programmers "Overflow" Late Night Screening at the Fringe Festival 10/27, Vinegar Hill, 1pm:  Mark McElhatten (New York Film Festival) and Brian Frye (Robert Beck Memorial Cinema) 10/27, Vinegar Hill, 3pm:  Panel discussion moderated by Gavin Smith (Film Comment Magazine) All screenings at Vinegar Hill Theater except where indicated. Presented with the support of the Virginia Commission for the Arts. This series of screenings, panels, and filmmaker chats is directed towards aspiring filmmakers and audiences interested in discovering Virginia's filmmaking talent. All events will take place in the South Meeting Room at Newcomb Hall (except where noted), located alongside the Emmet Street Parking Garage. Sponsored by ATO Films with the Film and Media Society and Newcomb Cinematheque. Screenings at Newcomb Hall Oct. 25, 7pm: Far From Heaven Focus Features' President of Production Glenn Williamson (U.Va. '85) will introduce Todd Haynes' latest feature, starring Julianne Moore and Dennis Quaid. Oct. 25, 10pm: The Final Solution Producer Gary Wheeler of Virginia Beach will introduce his drama of racial confrontation in South Africa, starring great South African actor John Kani. Oct. 26, 7pm: The Snowflake Crusade and Loved With Richmond filmmaker Megan Holley and Charlottesville's own, Sam Baker Panels and Workshops in Campbell 153 Oct. 26, 11am: From Film to DV Richmond filmmaker David Williams, whose films Lillian and Thirteen have garnered numerous international awards, will talk about his transition from 16mm to DV and show segments from his new work-in-progress. Oct. 26, 4pm: Screenwriters Panel: Can Software Write Your Movie? A screening of the hilarious film Zilch, produced by Richmonders Mickey Strider and Brian Fox, will anchor this year's screenwriters panel, addressing the advantages and pitfalls of working with screenwriting programs and following "hit" recipes. Chats with Filmmakers Filmmakers Megan Holley, Jeff Wadlow, and HBO executive Janet Graham Borba will join moderators Temple Fennell and Kirk Schroder in informal and informative chats on how features get made. See the Festival News, distributed throughout Charlottesville after October 15, for more information. U.Va. Aquatics and Fitness Center Bring a basic suit, grab an inner tube and float into cinematic bliss as we project classic wet movies on screen at the U.Va. swimming pool! Admission: $5 Friday, Oct. 25, 7pm: A WET MIX Come watch two hours of classic wet moments on film….Elvis in Blue Hawaii, Esther Williams in Million Dollar Mermaid, Busby Berkeley's By a Waterfall, and other surprises….plus experimental videos selected by our Liquid Light programmers. Saturday, Oct 26, 9pm: JAWS Will you dare to remain in the water while Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss battle the deadly shark in Steven Spielberg's suspenseful 1975 classic? Friday, October 25, 1pm, Clemons Library 201 LECTURE: Pandora's Bots and Reproductive Rights in an Age of Digital and Human Sampling Lynn Hershman, a multi-media artist, will discuss her Web design for her new feature Teknolust and her new "bot," Agent Ruby, who lives on the site. Hershman is renowned for her experimentations with identity and performance, having created and lived the character named "Roberta" for an extended period in the 1980s. Hershman will discuss the theoretical and political issues that have informed her latest film and digital artworks. Friday, October 25, 7pm, Regal Cinema (repeats Sunday at 4pm at Regal) FILM: Teknolust Hershman's latest film (her previous feature, Conceiving Ada, was a popular favorite at the 1999 VFF) stars actress extraordinaire Tilda Swinton as three cyber-creatures in search of body fluids. The film is full of provocative insights about cyberculture, the elusiveness of human contact in the hi-tech era, and the inevitable mingling of humankind with artificial intelligence. Friday, October 25, 10pm, Vinegar Hill VIDEO: The Great Mojado (Wetback) Invasion and Borderline Fractures Gomez-Pena, born in Mexico City and a U.S. resident since 1978, creates performance art, video, cultural theory, and much more exploring cross-cultural issues, immigration, the politics of language, and new technologies in the era of globalization. Gomez-Pena will present his latest video, a "masterpiece of border camp and reverse anthropology," accompanied by Lynn Hershman, who will premiere her documentary film about Gomez-Pena's artmaking. Saturday, October 26, 8pm, Fringe Festival at the Frank Ix Building (Free) PERFORMANCE: Mexterminator: A Living Diorama! Come see Gomez-Pena and performance artist Juan Ybarra in this performance/installation, an ethnographic tableau vivant, or Freak Show…The ethnographic speciments will be highly exotic, we promise, possibly members of an endangered tribe (from Tijuana, East L.A. or Manhattan). They may turn out to be multicultural Frankenstein, even "ethno-cyborgs." Enter their ceremonial space at your own risk! Sunday, October 27 * 1PM * Campbell Hall 158 (Free) LECTURE: Ethno-Techno Art (The University Art Museum's 2002 Gladys Blizzard Lecture) Gomez-Pena will present an audio-visual chronicle of his performance projects of the past five years. He uses this material as point of departure from which to discuss the cultural side effects of globalization, the digital divide, corporate multiculturalism, xenophobia and the culture of "the mainstream bizarre" and how these developments impact the Chicano/ Latino community. Cosponsored with the University Art Museum, Brown College, Latin American Studies Program, and the University Lecture Series. Wednesday, October 23* 12 PM * South Meeting Room, Newcomb Hall Janet Graham-Borba: Women in the Hollywood Landscape Vice President of Production for HBO Janet Graham, a UVA alumna, is a vocal advocate of the remarkable opportunities emerging in cable and broadcast TV film production today. Her Jill T. Rinehart Leadership Lecture series talk will focus on the changing role of women in the entertainment industry of Hollywood. Students are encouraged to attend; space is limited, please call 982-2361 for reservations. Sponsored by the Women's Center. Monday, October 28* 7 PM * Clark Hall Auditorium Julie Lynn: Wit and the Challenge of Independent Cinema The head of independent production company Mockingbird Films, UVA alumna Julie Lynn has helped shepherd a wealth of different material, including the independent thriller Twin Falls Idaho (1999), the acclaimed drama Wit (2001) with Emma Thompson, and the docudrama Joe and Max (2002). Ms. Lynn's screening of Wit and subsequent presentation will address how creating and marketing of films outside the Hollywood system. Sponsored by the Women's Center. Saturday, October 26, 1pm, Darden School Auditorium The second annual Darden Producers Forum welcomes Glenn Williamson, President of Production of Focus Features, the new company born out of Universal Pictures' acquisition and merging of USA Films and Good Machine International. Prior to this, Williamson worked for four years as a senior production executive at DreamWorks. During that time, he brought to the company Alan Ball's spec script for "American Beauty" and oversaw production on the film. He also supervised the production of Cameron Crowe's "Almost Famous," Sam Mendes' "Road to Perdition," and Bronwen Hughes' "Forces of Nature," which was based on Williamson's own story idea. His first film industry job was at Castle Rock Entertainment, following a two-year stint working in advertising in New York City after his graduation from the University of Virginia. Williamson will discuss the role of the production executive, with particular attention to Focus Features' upcoming release, Far From Heaven, which he will introduce at a special screening at Newcomb Hall Theater on Friday, October 25, at 7pm. Do you think you could make images float on water? You bet! Come and try it out at the Discovery Museum's "Wet Workshop" with resident artist, Jenny Keeling! Date: Saturday, October 26th Time: 10:30 - 11:45 Ages: 4 - 7 Cost: $5 members, $7 nonmembers, includes admission into the museum Friday, Oct. 25, 4-6pm; Saturday-Sunday, Oct. 26-27, 10am-12pm Admission: $50 Roger Ebert returns to the Festival to analyze, with the help of a couple hundred viewers, the great Roman Polanski film starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway, on the history of water and power in L.A. The workshop will run for three days, and is an unforgettably entertaining and educational experience. Ebert provides astute observations and conducts the class as a collective exercise in film analysis.