The Virginia Film Festival

Virginia Film Festival is recruiting box office staff.

August 25th, 2008 —

Virginia Film Festival seeks outgoing and committed individuals to work Box Office.

Goodbye, Stan

June 17th, 2008 —

The Virginia Film Festival pays tribute to special effects genius and Festival Board member Stan Winston

Is There Anybody Out There?

May 23rd, 2008 —

Virginia Film Festival 2008: Film Submission Guidelines

Aliens! Will Land on October 30

April 2nd, 2008 —

We have chosen a theme for the 21st Virginia Film Festival, taking place October 30 – November 2 and it is Aliens!, exploring “cinema’s fearful and alluring images of immigrants, outsiders, and extra-terrestrials” (you can read the full press release here). Sci-fi aliens will certainly be landing in our theaters, but the primary focus will be on the otherness of immigrants in countries, including ours, conflicted about their role as “host.”

A film like The Brother From Another Planet by last year’s VFF guest John Sayles makes the alien/immigrant connection clear and would be a perfect selection (although I’m also open to less explicit sci-fi allegories!).

I’m very interested in the kind of films our visiting Festival Fellow Hamid Naficy calls “accented” in that their filmmakers’ styles and subjects reflect a double consciousness of their native and host societies (among Naficy’s examples are Atom Egoyan, Mira Nair, and Luis Bunuel). And films about immigrants and outsiders will be welcome…including new work on the illegal immigrant debate, such as the work-in-progress by the Virginia-based filmmakers at the YouTube channel 9500 Liberty.

What other titles, guests, and events should I consider? Post your suggestions by sending a reply here, and help me program a great and timely festival.