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In
2003, the Virginia Film Festival spread its wings. With new
offices, staff members, and programs, we are rapidly evolving
into a year-round arts organization serving both the University
and the larger region and state.
Great New Space
After years of doing our best with two small basement offices
in the Drama Building, the Festival moved to significantly
improved larger offices on West Main Street, the corridor
that connects the University with downtown Charlottesville.
We thank the Provost's Office of the University for their
generosity in supporting our relocation. In addition to offices,
our new space has a gallery and screening room; thanks to
these facilities, we are becoming a gathering place for the
region's film community.
Festival Film Society
A few blocks away, at Vinegar Hill Theater, the Festival provided
a steady stream of international film programming through
its invigorated Film Society. This year's highlights included
Cine Argentina, a weekend of new Argentine films and filmmakers,
organized as a collaboration with Latin American film scholars
at U.Va. and film producer Ricardo Preve; Kurosawa/Mifune,
a summer series of Japanese film classics; and filmmakers
Su Friedrich, Robb Moss, and Ken Burns, who presented his
Lewis and Clark film in conjunction with Monticello's commemorative
weekend.
Festival 101
Our new headquarters welcomed an ambitious new educational
program for U.Va. and local high school students. The fifteen
college students enrolled in Festival 101 had the opportunity
to engage directly with Festival participants and visit the
set of Jeff Wadlow's Living the Lie. High schoolers worked
with filmmaker Devon Damonte and Light House media center
staff for three days in advance of the Festival and produced
handmade films that premiered to a packed Vinegar Hill Theatre
on opening night.
Film Festival Panels
Two extraordinary panels, coordinated by Pat Aufderheide of
the Center for Social Media at American University, highlighted
the Festival's educational programs. One, on the state of
media arts funding, gathered the most eminent figures in the
world of media arts advocacy, including Ruby Lerner of Creative
Capital, Woody Wickham of the MacArthur Foundation, Cara Mertes
of POV, and Helen de Michiel of NAMAC. The Festival's Storming
the Media production panels, coordinated by the student Filmmakers
Studio at U.Va., featured writer Barbara Ehrenreich and a
stellar panel of Hollywood producers, including Marc Abraham,
Glenn Williamson, and Julie Lynn.
The Fringe Festival & Multiarts
Collaborations
Each
year, the Festival reaches far beyond film and video to incorporate
other art forms into its theme. This year's event precipitated
an unprecedented explosion of arts performances and exhibitions.
With the University of Virginia Art Museum, the Festival brought
Hugo Boss Prize-winning artist Pierre Huyghe from France to
display his magnificent double screen installation The Third
Memory. Our collaboration with the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art
Collection coaxed legendary actor David Gulpilil to make a
rare visit to the United States to present his new film, The
Tracker. Kluge-Ruhe presented Gulpilil's paintings in their
gallery at the Fringe Festival, where he also gave a thrilling
dance performance for 400 viewers on the Festival's closing
night. David Williams premiered his documentary, Long Art,
featuring three Richmond artists whose paintings were on display
at the Les Yeux du Monde Gallery. At Culbreth Theatre, Anne
Watts' group Boister, pianist Donald Sosin, and singer Joanna
Seaton provided live musical accompaniment to silent films,
while Joffrey Ballet dancers Suzanne Lopez and John Gluckman
spoke about their experiences making Robert Altman's dance
film The Company. The Festival even introduced a new digital
art form involving artists who hack and reshape video game
sounds and images in a program titled Game Engine, featuring
Web artist Ze Frank and critic Graham Leggat.
The
Festival's most spectacular arts venue--the Fringe Festival--was
cosponsored for the fourth year with U.Va.'s McIntire Department
of Art. The IGA Supermarket building on Ridge Street (opposite
the Omni Hotel) housed a massive display of works by students
and other artists; its adjoining building hosted
music, dance, and a theater performance by the anti-consumerist
performance artist Reverend Billy. At the closing night party,
among the 500 people who filled the space to capacity were
present and former Virginia Governors Mark Warner and Gerald
Baliles.
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The
2003 Virginia Film Festival
It appears I've neglected to mention that the Festival screened
some films, too (87 in all). Highlights among the premieres
were the future Oscar-winner The Barbarian Invasions, Michael
Winterbottom's In This World, Robert Altman's The Company,
and Michael Almereyda and Sam Shepard's This So-Called Disaster.
Hollins University film professor Jake Mahaffy premiered his
stunning debut feature, War, which traveled to Sundance in
January. The "$" theme provided an opportunity to
present some of world cinema's greatest classics, including
Citizen Kane, The Philadelphia Story, Rififi, Treasure of
the Sierra Madre, and The Grapes of Wrath.
Guests
artists this year were not, shall we say, the usual suspects.
They included a demolition car driver, Speedo, the subject
of a wonderful documentary by Jesse Moss, and a legendary
bankrobber, John S. Wojtowicz. Wojtowicz, the original Dog
Day Afternoon mastermind, took part in the unforgettable opening
night gala presentation of the Virginia Film Award (delivered
by screenwriter Ron Nyswaner) to Dog Day writer and Motion
Picture Academy President Frank Pierson. That night, Wojtowicz
and Pierson met one another for the first time and spoke movingly
on stage about their impact on each other's lives. Following
the screening, Pierre Huyghe led Pierson, Wojtowicz, and the
audience to the U.Va. Art Museum for the gala party and to
see Wojtowicz's performance in Huyghe's video installation,
The Third Memory. It was quite a night.
We
honored two renowned independent filmmakers, Charles Burnett
and Rob Nilsson, with multiple screenings of their works,
and the Festival also featured the great experimental filmmaker
Phil Solomon. We brought 95 guest speakers in all, including
22 faculty members, among them U.Va.'s Ruhi Ramazani, Abdulaziz
Sachedina, and Helena Cobban, who spoke sadly and movingly
about the situation in Iraq, following our screening of Three
Kings.
Festival
Staffing and Support
Behind the scenes a terrific community of staff, board members
and Festival supporters worked tirelessly. Working together,
Operations Manager Jenny Mays and Business Manager David Chennault
created an exceptional managerial team. This year's student
interns--Colin Whitlow, Stelios Christodolou, Lili Grabbi,
and Jarrett Conaway-were extraordinary The Festival was without
a professional development officer throughout the fall, but
supporters like Morris Everett, who coordinated a benefit
poster auction on our behalf, and publicist Cara White, who
helped us land a benefit screening of Cold Mountain, kept
our bottom line secure. I want to express my deep thanks to
our new administrative sponsor, Arts and Sciences, and our
primary sponsors-- the Virginia Film Office, Sprint, Regal
Cinemas, and Pepsi-along with the many other sponsors and
Friends who are helping us propel the Festival and its year-round
programs forward. |
