19th JRFF: Richmond Take Sundance … The Comedy and Henley
Richmond Takes Sundance
Henley (Craig Mcneill, 2011, 12 min.) with Henley screenwriter Clay McLeod Chapman, producer Almitra Corey and star Hale Lytle
and The Comedy (Rick Alverson, 2011, 96 min.) with filmmaker Rick Alverson!
The 2012 Sundance Film Festival featured two films with strong Richmond connections – The Comedy and Henley. First, meet 9-year-old Ted Henley – budding motel manager, and roadkill entrepreneur. Ted Henley lives with his father in their run down motel on a desolate stretch of road. He earns his tiny allowance by collecting the roadkill that litters the highway. But when the motel cash register starts to run dry, Ted turns his attention to collecting bigger game. Henley is based on the chapter “The Henley Road Motel” from author Clay McLeod Chapman’s acclaimed novel Miss Corpus and marks the second collaboration between Chapman and writer/director Craig Macneill. Join part of the Henley team – author Clay McLeod Chapman, producer Almitra Corey and star Hale Lytle – for a Q&A after the film.
The provocative and controversial drama The Comedy was one of the most talked about movies at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. According to Sundance Film Festival’s Trevor Groth “Rick Alverson unleashes a camouflaged assault on contemporary culture veiled in a gorgeously crafted and humorous veneer. As taboos are broken, audience members are forced to question their boundaries and whether they should be laughing with it, at it, or not at all.” The movie features Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim (of Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!), has inspired heated post-screening Q&A’s and has polarized critics and audiences alike. Join Rick Alverson for what’s sure to be a lively post-screening Q&A.
19th JRFF: Lars von Trier’s “Melancholia”
Melancholia (Lars von Trier, 2011, 136 min.) Richmond Premiere! In this beautiful movie about the end of the world, Justine (Kirsten Dunst) and Michael (Alexander Skarsgård) are celebrating their marriage at a sumptuous party in the home of her sister Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg), and brother-in-law John (Kiefer Sutherland). Despite Claire’s best efforts, the wedding is a fiasco, with family tensions mounting and relationships fraying. Meanwhile, a planet called Melancholia is heading directly towards Earth … “A spectacle impossible to turn away from. A monumentally ambitious movie.” – J. Hoberman, The Village Voice
19th JRFF: The Cambridge Turn with Scott MacDonald
The Cambridge Turn with film critic Scott MacDonald! For half a century, Cambridge, Massachusetts has been the fountainhead of American documentary filmmaking, nurturing two major genres: ethnographic film and personal documentary. This program celebrates several little known and rarely seen films from this ongoing history. Titles include: A Group of Women (Marshall, 1961, 5 min.), Riverdogs (Moss, 1981, 30 min.), Monsoon Reflections (Spray, 2007, 22 min.), Hell Roaring Creek (Taylor, 2010, 20 min.), Still Point (Guzzetti, 2009, 15 mins.). Mr. MacDonald will introduce the films and lead a Q&A session afterward.
19th JRFF: Rendered Abstract, Films by Mary Beth Reed
Rendered Abstract: Films by Mary Beth Reed with filmmaker Mary Beth Reed! Mary Beth Reed began her film education under Stan Brakhage (festival guest in 1996) and Phil Solomon, and currently teaches in the VCUarts Cinema program. Working in both film and digital media, Reed’s abstractions combine the techniques of hand painting and processing, animation and traveling mattes, creating “films of exquisite color and imagery that dance across the screen with a mesmerizing rhythmical quality that is uniquely her own” – Austin Cinemaker Coop. Her films have been exhibited in national and international festivals, including Richmond Study 1, which was recently chosen for distinction by the 2012 Black Maria Film + Video Festival. Titles to be screened – 16mm: Pink Film (2 min.), Moon Streams (6 min.), Moon Mountain (4 min.), Moose Mountain 2 (4 min.) Garden Path (7 min.), Montessori Sword Fight (7 min.), Sunday Afternoon (4 min.); Digital: Richmond Study 1 (Travel Advisory) (4.5 min.), Richmond Study 2 (3 min.), Rocky Flats (3 min.). Ms. Reed will introduce the films and lead a Q&A session afterward.
19th JRFF: Cine-Nocturnes with Scott MacDonald
Cine-Nocturnes with film critic Scott MacDonald! The tradition of the nocturne began in music (think Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata”), incorporated painting (Whistler and Albert Blakelock), and in the 20th century, photography and cinema. The makers represented in this “cine-nocturne” show have looked to the history of the nocturne – an intimate, pensive, sometimes melancholy or dreamy lyrical piece thought to be an evocation of night – for inspiration. Titles include Glow in the Dark (Meyers, 2002, 6 min.), In Titan’s Goblet (Hutton, 1991, 10 min.), The Exquisite Hour (Solomon, 1994, 14 min.), Kristallnacht (Strand, 1979, 7 min.), Border (Waddington, 2004, 27 min.). Mr. MacDonald will introduce the films and lead a Q&A session afterward.
19th James River Film Festival Opening Reception
19th James River Film Festival Opening Reception - Sponsored by the Virginia Film Office
Meet festival guests, volunteers and fellow members of the James River Film Festival over light fare and cash bar, courtesy of the Virginia Film Office.
19th JRFF: Mark of the Damned
Mark of the Damned (Eric Miller, 2007, 90 min.) with director Eric Miller! Made by Richmonders over an 8-year span at a cost of $10,000, Mark of the Damned is a sci-fi/horror hybrid, full of ambience and shot in the stark chiaroscuro of the silent cinema years. A self-proclaimed “journey beyond truth into an amplified world,” Mark of the Damned’s cursed legacy includes a screening in Sicily where the power in the theatre inexplicably failed. Director Eric Miller will be on hand for a Q&A after the screening.
19th JRFF: Futuropolis
Futuropolis (Phil Trumbo and Steve Segal, 1984, 40 min.) with star Tom (Cosmo) Campagnoli! This is the granddaddy of Richmond independent film, the third time we’ve screened Futuroplis since the festival began in 1994. Shot over nine years on sets constructed in the basement of the Broad Street Station (now the Science Museum of Virginia), using an animation process known as pixilation, Futuropolis has the feel of a 1930’s comic strip and the warm synthesis of atomic age nostalgia. With Futuroplis actor Tom (Cosmo) Campagnoli on hand for a Q&A.
19th JRFF: Magic Trip and The Beats
Ken Kesey's bus from "Magic Trip."
Magic Trip: Ken Kesey’s Search for a Kool Place (Alex Gibney and Alison Ellwood, 2011, 107 min.) with The Beats: An Existential Comedy (Long, 1980, 38 min.). In 1964, author Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters boarded a psychedelic painted bus in California and drove to New York and the World’s Fair fueled on acid and the vibes of an era. There they met the heads of the Beat Movement, Ginsberg and Kerouac (Cassady had driven the bus), and later, Timothy Leary, the new spokesman for the counterculture. A meeting of the ‘60s zeitgeist, as documented by Tom Wolfe in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, and filmed by the Pranksters themselves. Forty years later the Kesey family gave filmmakers Alison Ellwood and Alex Gibney over 100 hours of film footage and tape and the pair spent several challenging years synching the clips – the result is Magic Trip, a documentary of a movement from the inside looking out. “A hipster’s King Tut’s tomb.” – Variety. With a special short: The Beats: An Existential Comedy (Long, 1980, 38 min.). Introduction by Michael Jones, JRFF co-director and adjunct professor in film studies at VCU and Randolph-Macon College.
19th JRFF: James River Shorts 2011 Revisited
A selection of short films from the 2011 edition of James River Shorts, the James River Film Society’s annual juried competition, originally screened at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
James River Filmmakers Forum on Feb. 25
Come celebrate local filmmaking with our quarterly James River Filmmakers Forum on Saturday, February 25, 8 p.m. at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond. This is a free event — donations encouraged!
In particular, come support these filmmakers:
Todd Raviotta, Untitled, animation photomontage, 6 minutes
Austin Journey (Lynchburg, VA), The Human Condition, 12 minutes
Hannah Sutherland Memories of Aging, Coney Island, sci-fi, 5 minutes
Evelyn Fisher, The Wanderer, experimental, 6 minutes
Joseph Weindl, clip from Antihero, comedy, 20 minutes
Carlton Kotalo, clip from Alien Face Bashers, sci-fi comedy, 10 minutes
First James River Shorts a success!
The inaugural James River Shorts film festival was a resounding success. A special thanks to guest juror and experimental filmmaker Roger Beebe for making James River Shorts one of the stops on his Fall 2011 ONE to EIGHT REDUX tour.
James River Shorts got underway on Thursday, November 10, with an eclectic program of shorts. Special thanks to Bob Kaputof, Joseph Caldwell, Christopher Harris, Fred Styles & Katherine Barnier, Mark Strandquist and H. Paul Moon for participating in our opening night’s screening. As a bonus, audience members were treated to a special tribute screening of the late George Kuchar‘s classic film, Hold Me While I’m Naked (read his NY Times obituary). We were all dazzled by the brilliant color and condition of the 16mm print provided by Canyon Cinema, one of the principal distribution sources for independent, experimental and avant-garde film today. Thanks to Dominic Angerame and the rest of the Canyon staff!
Our main event was the Friday, Nov. 11 screening of James River Shorts finalists’ films at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. More than 250 people attended a fabulous evening featuring 14 films from around the country.
Congrats to all the filmmakers selected by the James River Shorts jury as finalists. Again, they are:
The Treezilla!, 6 min., Shawn Hambright & Joey Tran (VA)
A Brief Vacation, 10 min., Ben Rinehardt (VA)
Eyeliner, 4 min., Joanna Priestley, (OR)
Mijo (My Son), 9 min. Chithra Jeyaram (MD)
Phosphena, 4 min., Maya Ederlyi (CA)
The Pervert, 4 min., Adam Rosenberg (VA)
Watercolors, 13 min., Ann Deborah Levy (NY)
Faces, 2 min., Duy Nguyen (VA)
The Good River, 18 min., Shannon Lynch (18 mins.) (CA)
Solo Piano NYC, 5 min., Anthony Sherin (NY)
Another Dress, Another Button, 3 min., Lyn Elliot (MO)
The Leaf Woman and the Centaur, 3 min., Jordan Bruner (NY )
Monarda, 8 min., Walter Ungerer (ME)
Dolls vs. Dictators, 11 min., Martha Colburn (NY)
And the winners were …
1st prize ($600):  Solo Piano NYC by Anthony Sherin (NY)
2nd Prize ($400):  Mijo (My Son) by Chithra Jeyaram (MD)
3rd Prize (tie, $250 each): Â Another Dress, Another Button by Lyn Elliot (MO) and Phosphena by Maya Ederlyi (CA)
VA Filmmaker Award (tie, $250 each):  The Treezilla! by Shawn Hambright & Joey Tran and Faces by Duy Nguyen
People’s Choice Award (voted on by the audience): Solo Piano NYC by Anthony Sherin (NY)
We closed out James River Shorts with Roger Beebe’s amazing “expanded cinema” performance of FILMS for ONE to EIGHT PROJECTORS and a beautiful music+film event featuring Jonathan Vassar & The Speckled Bird performing live with films by Matt Flowers and Kevin Gallagher.
Thanks again to all the filmmakers, all of you who came out to watch and experience, and to the Virginia Film Office, TVJerry/Jerry Williams, VMFA, Linden Row Inn and the Visual Arts Center of Richmond for helping make James River Shorts possible.
James River Filmmakers Forum on Nov. 17
Come out and support local filmmakers at James River Film Society’s quarterly James River Filmmakers Forum on Thursday, November 17 at 8:00 p.m. at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond. After the screening JRF Forum organizer Jeff Roll will moderate a panel discussion/Q&A with the filmmakers and audience.
The lineup for the November 2011 James River Filmmakers Forum is:
Ken Hopson – Lo-Fi Soundtracks – Music Videos- 6 minutes
Jasce Burrow – Samsara – dark sci-fi – 15 minutes
Kevin Haraldo, Randy West, & Bryce McCormick - Adventures of S-Team - Comic adventure – 9 minutes
Belinda Haikes – Finch/Crow/Cardinal – experimental animation – 6 minutes
John Hendershot - Press Play – experimental animation – 8 minutes
Dr. Shawn Utsey – Until the Wells Run Dry: Medicine and the Exploitation of Black Bodies (excerpt) documentary – 15 minutes
James River Shorts, Nov. 11-12, 2011
James River Shorts is pleased to announce its 2011 line up:
THURSDAY, NOV. 10, 8:00 p.m. (VisArts)
Bob Kaputof shorts
Hold Me While I’m Naked (1966): A tribute to George Kuchar (1942-2011)
James River Shorts: Films on the Bubble
Boots, 7 min., Joseph Caldwell (VA)
Descending Figures, 3 min., Christopher Harris (FL)
Bluegrass Skyline, 30 min., Fred Styles & Katherine Barnier (VA)
Convention, 5 min., Mark Strandquist (VA)
Time Crunch, 5 min., H. Paul Moon (VA)
Tickets are $7 and may be purchased online or at the door.
FRIDAY, NOV. 11, 6:30 p.m. (VMFA)
Screening of James River Shorts Finalists
The Treezilla!, 6 min., Shawn Hambright & Joey Tran (VA)
A Brief Vacation, 10 min., Ben Rinehardt (VA)
Eyeliner, 4 min., Joanna Priestley, (OR)
Mijo (My Son), 9 min. Chithra Jeyaram (MD)
Phosphena, 4 min., Maya Ederlyi (CA)
The Pervert, 4 min., Adam Rosenberg (VA)
Watercolors, 13 min., Ann Deborah Levy (NY)
Intermission
Faces, 2 min., Duy Nguyen (VA)
The Good River, 18 min., Shannon Lynch (18 mins.) (CA)
Solo Piano NYC, 5 min., Anthony Sherin (NY)
Another Dress, Another Button, 3 min., Lyn Elliot (MO)
The Leaf Woman and the Centaur, 3 min., Jordan Bruner (NY )
Monarda, 8 min., Walter Ungerer (ME)
Dolls vs. Dictators, 11 min., Martha Colburn (NY)
James River Shorts awards presentation (up to $2,000!) with guest juror and experimental filmmaker Roger Warren Beebe.
Tickets are $8 and may be purchased at the VMFA.
SATURDAY, NOV. 12, VisArts
CANCELLED 10:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. Super 8mm Filmmaking/Hand Processing Workshop (films processed between 4-6 p.m.). $90. Visit the VisArts Calendar page to register (scroll down page). Will be rescheduled during our 19th James River Film Festival, April 12-18, 2012.
CANCELLED 11:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Direct Filmmaking Workshop (painting, scratching, collage, masking on 16mm film). $60. Visit the VisArts Calendar page to register (scroll down page). Will be rescheduled during our 19th James River Film Festival, April 12-18, 2012.
7:30 p.m. FILMS for ONE to EIGHT PROJECTORS with experimental filmmaker Roger Warren Beebe. Tickets are $7 and may be purchased online or at the door.
9:00 p.m. Live music + film performances courtesy of Jonathan Vassar & The Speckled Bird, including the premiere of the brand new music video (directed by Kevin Gallagher) for their single “Turn to Face the Wind.” Â + James River Shorts after party. FREE.
James River Shorts: “Direct Filmmaking” Workshop
MONO NO AWARE direct filmmaking workshop.
Due to low enrollment and the Richmond Marathon (what were we thinking?!), we’ve decided to cancel and reschedule this and the Super 8/Hand Processing workshop during our 19th James River Film Festival, April 12-18, 2012. Stay tuned!
HAND PAINTING ON FILM “DIRECT FILMMAKING” WORKSHOP @ VisArts
Saturday, Nov. 12, 11:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Direct Filmmaking Workshop
Instructor : Steve Cossman of MONO NO AWARE
In this workshop students will learn to manipulate the surface of the film using a variety of direct film-making techniques; painting, scratching, collage, and masking in order to create an experimental film on 16mm. This intensive workshop is designed to introduce, explore and master (on some level) the ability to articulate movement through the tactile gesturings of this beautiful cinematic language. The course will meet for 5 hours beginning with a brief history of filmmakers using these methods along with their contemporaries. After instruction students will get their hands dirty almost immediately. The goal is to have each participant create a short, well developed direct film work, that we will screen at the end of the session. Students will walk away with hands on experience of direct filmmaking, a finished film work, the knowledge to continue to work in this practice at home and a list of venues to pursue for exhibition. All materials will be provided for. Workshop limited to 12 participants; will run with 8.
Visit the VisArts Calendar page to register (scroll down page).
