The Virginia Film Festival :: Virginia Festival Film Society

January 27-39: THREE NIGHTS WITH JONATHAN NOSSITER
January 27: Losing the Thread
This irreverent art documentary is a personal portrait of Nossiter's friend Lorenzo, who has been obsessively repeating the same work for twenty years: a "Filo" (thread) in blue-yellow-red acrylic colors.
January 28: Sunday
Nossiter won the Grand Jury Prize and the screenwriting award at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival for this film, a social psychological drama about two middle-aged lonely people who have lost everything they've ever had.
January 29: Signs and Wonders
Nossiter's latest feature is an innovative digital video production starring Stellan Skarsgard and Charlotte Rampling in a tale of Americans abroad.

February 26: DONNIE DARKO with Richard Kelly
Virginia native Richard Kelly earned a Sundance Grand Jury Prize nomination for this satiric and supernatural film about a disturbed adolescent from a semi-functional upper-middle class family. After escaping from near death because he hears the voice of a six-foot tall bunny, Donnie Darko is led by the bunny to create havoc that is both destructive and creative. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Noah Wyle and Drew Barrymore.

March 20: BLACK MARIA FILM FESTIVAL with John Columbus
The Thomas Edison Black Maria Film and Video Festival returned to Charlottesville for its seventh annual visit with director John Columbus. Luminous new experimental, documentary and animated works made up the crop of films in the juried, touring Festival program.

April 10: IN THE BATHTUB OF THE WORLD with Caveh Zahedi
Caveh Zahedi is an Iranian-American filmmaker whose films are often autobiographical. Bathtub is a video diary in which he tapes one minute of every day leading up to the millennium. The filmmaker's partner, Mandy, resists being his subject, and the film develops into a profound inquiry into the filmmaker's relationship and profession.

July 29 CHELSEA WALLS with Ethan Hawke
Ethan Hawke's directorial debut drifts through the lives of four guests staying in New York City's famed Chelsea Hotel and stars Uma Thurman and Kris Kristofferson.

Sept. 18 FACING THE MUSIC with Peggy Baggett (Executive Director, Va. Commission for the Arts) and composer Judith Shatin
Australian ethnographic filmmakers Robin Connolly and Bob Anderson observe distinguished composer and University professor Ann Boyd becoming radicalized by the harmful effects of state budget cuts on her students and educational ideals.

Oct. 9 LUCKY BUM FILM TOUR with Bill Daniel and Vanessa Renwick
Portland-based filmmakers Vanessa Renwick and Bill Daniels are touring the country with this program of "lo-fi" films, including Daniel's The Girl on the Train in the Moon, a video and sound installation and Renwick's Richart, on a former mental patient turned obsessive junk sculptor.

Nov. 13 SCOTTSBORO: AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY with Barak Goodman
In March 1931, two white women in Alabama accused nine young black men of gang-raping them aboard a freight. Barely escaping the lynch mob, they were put on trial and sentenced to the electric chair. The film brings to life the many characters involved and the almost unbelievable drama of real-life events.