NC Flix

The 13th annual Nevermore Film Festival Feb. 17-19

2012-02-12T17:04:00.000-05:00

The three-day NEVERMORE Film Festival once again showcases the latest horror films from around the world, as well as revival screenings and popular short film programs.

This year, Nevermore presents ten feature film programs, including a double feature, and three short programs.

Back to back screenings of Roman Polanski’s 1968 classic Rosemary’s Baby with Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes;

and Michael Winner’s 1977 The Sentinel (below) will be the festival's first double feature. Both will be shown in 35 mm. Festival goers will see the the last surviving 35 mm print of The Sentinel in Universal Studios' vaults.

New this year is Wrath of the Foreign Invaders , a shorts program with international films from Paraguay, Switzerland, Canada, Australia, Portugal, Ireland and France.

Above, Metal Creepers, one of the shorts in the international program.

Another shorts program Pandora and that Damned Box features four long-format shorts.

Above, The Headless Lover, one of the short films in the Pandora program

The ever popular They’re Coming to Get You, Barbara! program features the best shorts from the United States.

Above, Flush with Fear, one of the shorts in the Barbara program.

Nevermore will screen two classic revivals this year:

Marathon Man (1976) starring Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier, and Roy Scheider:

And a rare 35 mm screening of the 1986 Night of the Creeps, the alien slug/zombie cult classic:

New films screening at Nevermore include:

Eaters, a brand-new, super-gory, Italian zombie movie

The Innkeepers, a new haunted-house movie from director Ti West (The House of the Devil):

Some Guy Who Kills People, a horror-comedy from executive producer John Landis that is getting a lot of buzz:

The Whisperer in Darkness, a B&W return to the Golden Age of Hollywood Horror from Director Sean Branney (Re-Animator, From Beyond):

Ashes, a killer-germ flick starring Brian Krause:

Playback:

and Absentia:

Since it began in 1999, Nevermore has grown to become one of the largest genre festivals in the southeastern United States. Films selected for screening may never otherwise receive a theatrical release in the Carolinas.

For more information on the films screening at Nevermore and schedule details, visit the Nevermore website.

The NEVERMORE Film Festival runs Friday, February 17 through Sunday, February 19, 2012 at The Carolina Theatre in downtown Durham. Single tickets are $9 per film; $7 for Star Members and go on sale on Monday, February 13 at 10:00 a.m. Ten-pass ticket bundles are on sale now for $70 in advance, $65 for Star Members and $75 at the door. Tickets are available at the box office at 309 West Morgan Street in downtown Durham. Box Office hours are weekdays from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and one-half hour prior to the first film screening. Tickets are also available online at carolinatheatre.org.

New movies filming in Wilmington

2012-02-09T16:16:00.000-05:00

A recent article in the Wilmington Star News looked at the state of the film industry in that city and found it good. According to the Wilmington Regional Film Commission, two new movies The Occult and Heart of the Country, are in pre-production, while two other major projects, The Conjuring and Caged Heat, will begin filming soon.

Caged Heat is widely believed to be the "code name" for Iron Man 3, the latest in the series starring Robert Downey Jr.

Heart of the Country, a Bayridge Films project, based on a novel by Rene Gutteridge and John Ward, is a modern retelling of the Prodigal Son story.

In addition, Writers, an independent film starring Greg Kinnear as a novelist and Jennifer Connelly as his estraged wife, will begin shooting in Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach next month.

The Star News quotes Johnny Griffin, director of the Wilmington Film Commission, as saying, "we're just continuing to see this interest in North Carolina due to the tax incentive. It's doing what it's supposed to do."

Play Wilmington Movie Madness online

2012-02-08T16:19:00.001-05:00

With 200 feature films (and counting) produced in Wilmington, the Star News recently announced a contest to determine the fan favorites and flops.

Voting an Wilmington Movie Madness takes place over the next several weeks at the Wilmington Movie Madness website.

And there will be prizes.

The Star News has a great online guide to Wilmington films and TV productions here....

Charlotte Jewish Film Festival Feb. 28-March 11, 2012

2012-02-04T15:42:00.000-05:00

Imagine living in a world where everything is decided for you, from how you wear your hair to where and what you will study to whom you will marry. It's not prison, the military, or a communist country. It's the ultra-Orthodox Jewish lifestyle. And for many, it is the only way to live.

But for some, like the five main characters in the documentary "Leaving the Fold," leaving the safety and predictability of a life ruled by rules is a tough decision. The film documents the process by which the five emerge from a strictly controlled society into a baffling secular world of endless choices.

The film is one of nearly a hundred reviewed by the Charlotte Jewish Film Festival selection committee. The festival, which runs Feb. 28-March 11, 2012, will offer 10 films in a handful of area venues and is expected to draw record crowds.

The first festival was held in the art gallery at The Light Factory. Organizers expected 30 or 40 people to come see "Bonjour Monsieur Shlomi," the first and only full-length film shown. Over 80 people showed up.

A growing list of sponsors and volunteers has helped expand the festival – last year, nearly 1900 people attended the nine films.

The Charlotte Jewish Film Festival is sponsored by the Levine JCC and the Charlotte Chapter of Hadassah, and is made possible, in part, with funding by the Arts & Science Council and the North Carolina Arts Council, an agency of the Department of Cultural Resources, and the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art.

To see the festival schedule, visit http://www.charlottejewishfilm.org

Watch the Oscars with Cucalorus

2012-02-03T15:34:00.002-05:00

Check out the full list of nominations here
Nominations were announced this morning with Hugo and the Artist leading the way

Get your tickets now!
"An Evening at the Oscars" - February 26th, 2011 at the Brooklyn Arts Center

Join industry insiders for an elegant evening of entertainment featuring a live broadcast of the Oscars, heavy hors d'oeuvres, stylish cocktails, and a curated silent auction. This year's event takes place at the cleverly renovated Brooklyn Arts Center on North Fourth Street in downtown Wilmington. Dust off your finest fashions and get ready to hit the red carpet. Tickets are $100 each and can be purchased online or at the Cucalorus office at 815 Princess Street. All proceeds support operating costs for this fall's 18th annual Cucalorus Film Festival.

Melancholia screens in Charlotte Jan. 26-29

2012-01-26T11:42:00.000-05:00

The Back Alley Film Series, a project of the Charlotte Film Society, screens provocative films on a monthly basis. Up this weekend, Melancholia, described as a "beautiful movie about the end of the world," featuring Kirsten Dunst and Kiefer Sutherland, and directed by Lars Von Trier. The special effects are reportedly magical, and her performance earned Dunst a nod at Cannes in 2011, winning the Best Actress award.
Although snubbed by the Oscar nominating committee this year, many critics thought this was one of the year's best films. It is currently available on demand. But watch the trailer, then see it on the big screen this weekend at Charlotte's Crown Point Stadium 12 on Monroe Road.

Full Frame Announces 2012 Film Festival Program News

2012-01-17T16:24:00.000-05:00

Good news from Full Frame. The 2012 festival will include Ross McElwee's latest film, plus a series of films focused on family curated by the North Carolina filmmaker.

The annual Full Frame Tribute will be presented to Stanley Nelson for his significant contribution to the documentary form.

The 2012 Thematic Program will focus on family, with a series of films curated by Ross McElwee. McElwee will also present his most recent film "Photographic Memory" at the April event.

"Exploring one's family seems deeply entwined with the desire to document and record one's surrounding world," said director of programming Sadie Tillery. "For many, the first form of documentary encountered was through family pictures, videos, albums. We consider many personal stories each year, and we wanted to bring a selection of that work to the forefront and view it as a collective."

"Documentary cameras have long courted danger," said McElwee. "Recently, they've been hauled onto the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, slipped behind the fences of polluting oil industries, and onto the streets during crackdowns by military dictatorships. But perhaps the most challenging place to try to film is within the realm of your own family. The risk in doing so is, of course, not physical, but rather emotional. In this selection of American documentaries, the filmmakers explore the delicate terrain along the fault line of family."

Ross McElwee grew up in North Carolina. He has made nine feature-length documentaries as well as several shorter films, many of which were shot in his homeland of the American South. His films include "Sherman's March," "Time Indefinite," "Six O'Clock News," and "Bright Leaves." He has screened numerous films at Full Frame and received the Festival's Career Award in 2007.

McElwee has been teaching filmmaking at Harvard University since 1986 where he is a professor in the Department of Visual and Environmental Studies.

McElwee's latest film "Photographic Memory" contemplates the filmmaker's relationship with his young adult son, Adrian. In exploring their strained bond, McElwee travels back to St. Quay-Portrieux in Brittany, where he spent time as a young man himself, and seeks out those he was close to there at a similar time of his own life. Adrian McElwee and the film's producer Marie-Emmanuelle Hartness will also be present for the screening in Durham.

The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival received a $20,000 grant from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to support the 2012 Thematic Program.

The Festival will also honor filmmaker Stanley Nelson with the annual Full Frame Tribute. Nelson's body of work includes the critically acclaimed films "A Place of Our Own," "Freedom Riders," "Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple," "Wounded Knee," "Sweet Honey in the Rock: Raise Your Voice," and "The Murder of Emmett Till," among numerous other titles.

An Emmy-winning MacArthur "genius" Fellow, Nelson is co-founder and Executive Director of Firelight Media, which provides technical education and professional support to emerging documentarians, and co-founder of the documentary production company, Firelight Films.

"Stanley Nelson is an incredible filmmaker, and it's been a privilege to showcase his films over the years," said Tillery. "We not only look forward to screening a selection of his work during the Festival, but also spotlighting the significant ways in which he supports and encourages up and coming filmmakers through Firelight Media. We're excited that he will be joining us in Durham."

"I am thrilled to be honored with the 2012 Full Frame Tribute," said Nelson. "Full Frame's past honorees include not only some of the most important documentary filmmakers working today, but some of my personal mentors and role models. I am humbled to be in their illustrious company.

"I have been working in documentary film for decades, and I believe that now, in these difficult and tumultuous times, independent documentary films are more important than ever. We need a diversity of voices and vision of independent filmmakers of all kinds, particularly from those communities that have been left out of the mainstream, to tell us who we are as a nation, and where we are – and should be – going. That is what I try to do through my work as a filmmaker and through the Firelight Media Producers' Lab, and that is what Full Frame has shown itself committed to as well.

"In providing a creative community, an exhibition showcase, and building audiences for documentaries, Full Frame is a rare and critical organization in the field. I'm grateful to be part of the Full Frame family."

Specific titles for the Thematic Program and Full Frame Tribute, along with attending guests, will be announced in March.

The 15th Annual Full Frame Documentary Film Festival will be held April 12-15, 2012, in Durham, N.C., with Duke University as the presenting sponsor. Festival passes can be purchased online at www.fullframefest.org.

Full Frame Deadline Approaches for the $25K Challenge

2011-11-16T16:23:00.000-05:00

Full Frame Documentary Film Festival / April 12 - 15, 2012

THE $25,000 CHALLENGE ENDS NOV 30: LESS THAN $2K TO GO

photo by: Jay Dillon

A few months ago, an anonymous donor stepped forward and presented us with an interesting challenge: raise $25,000 in NEW or INCREASED gifts and they'll match it. Knowing how supportive our donors, attendees, and volunteers are, only one thought came to mind...Challenge Accepted!

Now, we find ourselves just two short weeks away from our November 30 deadline with less than $2000 to go. Can you help us "Meet the Challenge" by November 30? There are two easy ways to give and no donation is too small.

#1 - Donate Online
#2 - Mail In Donation Form

Both methods will enable you to make a One-Time donation or you can make a Monthly donation in smaller amounts over the course of a year. It's that easy!

Plus, if you make a donation of $100 or more (NEW or INCREASED gifts only) you'll receive an invitation to a special celebration in February at the Carolina Theatre and a chance to win TWO passes to the 2012 Festival.

Able to make a larger gift? Donations of $1000 or more (NEW or INCREASED gifts only) will receive an invitation to a special celebration in February at the Carolina Theatre, a chance to win TWO passes to the 2012 Festival, and access to our First Team Benefits. A donation of only $84 a month for 12 months will make you eligible to join the First Team!

Not able to donate by the November 30 deadline? You can make your One-Time or Monthly gift to Full Frame before December 31 by visiting the SUPPORT page of our website.

We know with your help we can "Meet the Challenge." Thank you to everyone for your continued support over the last 15 years and throughout the $25,000 Challenge. We couldn't do it without you!

UPCOMING EVENTS

November 30 / Late Deadline for Submissions / Full Frame Website

November 30 / Last Day to Donate to the $25,000 Challenge / Full Frame Website

January 18 / Full Frame Winter Series #1 / Full Frame Website

January 25 / Full Frame Winter Series #2 / Full Frame Website

February 1 / Full Frame Winter Series #3 / Full Frame Website

April 12-15, 2012 / 15th Annual Full Frame Documentary Film Festival / Downtown Dur

New Asheville Cinema Festival debuts

2011-11-03T15:14:00.008-04:00

Since the demise of the Asheville Film Festival several years ago, we've been deprived of our favorite reason to visit this mountain city. Now that void is filled with the new Asheville Cinema Festival debuting Nov. 3-6. Some 39 films will screen at venues around the city, with many guests and filmmakers in attendance.

Visit the Asheville Cinema Festival website for details.

Bill Arnold North Carolina's first film commissioner dies

2011-08-18T15:44:00.000-04:00

North Carolina's first film commissioner, William (Bill) V. Arnold, Jr., passed away at his home in Raleigh on Sunday, August 14. He was 75.

Arnold was appointed by Governor James Hunt in 1980 to head a new office within the state whose focus was to bring movies and television productions to film in North Carolina. During his 26 years on the job, North Carolina saw cameras roll on hundreds of projects. Also during his tenure, North Carolina saw the creation of De Laurentiis Entertainment Studios, now EUE/Screen Gems Studios, in Wilmington.

Notable productions that shot in the state while Arnold was film commissioner include: The Color Purple (1985), Dirty Dancing (1987), Bull Durham (1988), Days of Thunder (1990), Sleeping with the Enemy (1991), The Last of the Mohicans (1992), The Fugitive (1993), Kiss the Girls (1997), Patch Adams (1998), Shallow Hal (2001), and A Walk to Remember (2002), as well as the start of the hit television series Dawson's Creek (1998), which led to the spinoff series One Tree Hill (2003-present).

Arnold also helped to form and oversee the state's film council, which was comprised of industry leaders from across the state that helped advise the governor on matters related to the film industry. Additionally, he helped create the state's first film incentive, a 15% tax credit, whose purpose was to attract feature films and curtail the then industry trend of shooting internationally. Arnold retired in 2006.

Prior to his time as film commissioner, Arnold served the State of North Carolina as director of the Department of Travel and Tourism. A veteran of the U.S. Army, Arnold served in the Army's Office of the Chief of Staff and, following his service, worked as a journalist with the Alexandria (Va.) Gazette and Richmond (Va.) News Leader.

Arnold is survived by his wife of 54 years, Dorothy Jackson Arnold; son, Stephen Arnold of Raleigh; brother, John E. Arnold of Greenville; and several nieces and nephews.

Services will be held at 2:00 p.m. Wednesday, August 17, at Brown-Wynne Funeral Home in Raleigh with a 2:00 p.m. graveside service on Thursday in Arnold's hometown of Greenville.

Memorials may be made to the SPCA of Wake County; condolences may be sent to www.brownwynne.com.

The Light Factory's ATTACK OF THE SUMMER FILM SERIES!

2011-07-22T08:40:00.000-04:00

The Light Factory' s annual "Attack of the Summer Film Series" features the "Curse of the Remake" showing the original versions of three films that Hollywood should have left alone:
THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE (1972) on Thursday July 28,
WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (1971) on Thursday Aug. 25, and
CLASH OF THE TITANS (1981) on Thursday, Sept. 22.
The films will be screened outdoor on the track field at the Levine Jewish Community Center in Shalom Park, located at 5007 Providence Road. Screenings begin at sunset, and are free and open to the public. For more information: www.summerisunderattack.com.

"I am a big fan of remakes, but they have to add something new," says Linnea Beyer, Director of Film, who curated the series and feels that great remakes are respectful of the original story but tell it in a new way. "With the films I have selected, the originals strike such a nostalgic chord; it would be hard for even the most accomplished filmmaker to do them justice. For many and I include myself in this number, these films represent a special time in their lives when they were impressionable. They are more than 'just movies.'"

Pink Sheep Film Festival at Wilmington's Jengo's Playhouse

2011-06-07T13:11:00.006-04:00

Tonight, June 10, 2011, Cucalorus hosts the Pink Sheep Film Festival at Jengo's Playhouse.

You can view trailers of the presented films on the festival's facebook page.

And for those who'd like to start their own film festival, here's a great "how-to" article.

LOCAL ANIMATION FESTIVAL

2011-04-28T20:01:00.003-04:00

The Animation Festival will take place on Friday, April 29th, 2011. It will featuring a range of works from the students in the Art and Design animation studios of North Carolina State University. The Festival will take place from 6:00- 7:00 p.m. and will be located in Burns Auditorium. Refreshments will be served. Please come out and show your local support.

For directions to the Auditorium, please visit the following site:
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=Burns%20Auditorium
For more information about other events like this, or information about other cast and crew calls, please email Dr. Sara Stein at: sstein@unity.ncsu.edu

Local Animation Festival
--Jessica

CALL FOR CAST AND CREW

2011-04-28T19:53:00.004-04:00

A local production company, Mid Carolina Media will be shooting a new instructional video in September and is looking for cast and crew. Mid Carolina Media mostly does instructional videos like this and are ideally looking for a cameraman (or woman) and an audio person for the seven day shoot.

These are paid jobs and the crew will work with Joseph Middleton, the owner, on a professionally made video. See www.familydogs.com for details. For more information about Mid Carolina Media, please feel free to visit the following website:
http://www.midcarolinamediainc.com/

Call for Cast and Crew
--Jessica

GREAT SCHOOLS SPRING FILM FESTIVAL

2011-04-27T12:15:00.003-04:00

The Great Schools Spring Film Festival is an event sponsored by WakeUp Wake County and the Great Schools in Wake Coalition. It has been hosting a film series, Lessons in History: Celebrating the Heroism of the “Average” Citizen. This includes three documentaries about significant events in US and North Carolina history, which were chosen to engage high school and college students in discussion about how these events are related to current issues facing our community.

Tickets are $5 for adults and $3 for students, and will be shown in the Galaxy Theater. Tonight is the last documentary of the series entitled, Eyes On the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Movement 1954-1985 and will be moderated by Tim Tyson. The address for the
Galaxy Theater is as follows:
Galaxy Theater
770 Cary Towne Blvd
Cary, NC 27511
(919) 463-9989
http://mygalaxycinema.com/greatschoolsinwake.php

For more information about Great Schools Spring Film Festival, please visit the following site:
http://wakeupwakecounty.com/cms/greatschools

Great Schools Spring Film Festival
--Jessica

Full Frame Opening Night Party

2011-04-15T19:59:00.006-04:00

The traditional Full Frame Film Festival Opening Night Party at the Durham Arts Council drew a stellar crowd of filmmakers and film fans.

Food was plentiful and delicious, including many vegetarian options. Plenty of beer and wine as well.

Giorgios Bakatsias, owner of the Durham's Giorgios Hospitality Group, and sponsor of the evening's festivities, worked the room hard, refilling wine glasses and food platters, and spreading his infectious good humor.

Tar Heel Shorties tonight in Pittsboro

2011-04-15T16:47:00.005-04:00

Tar Heel Shorties moderated by Cucalorus Film Festival Director Dan Brawley

Some fun films - all made in North Carolina - screening tonigiht in Pittsboro as part of the
ChathamArts Sustainable Cinema Series
Tue. April 19^th 2011: Fearrington Village Barn, Pittsboro.
7:00 PM - $5 at door

Featuring....

Notes by Marc Russo
www.marcrusso.com
Frame by frame, stop motion, and pixilation animation all happening at the same time, oh yeah - and a lot of post it notes. "Notes" won the Faculty Feature Catogory "2008 Governor's Challenge Podcast Tournament" hosted by University of Tennessee-Martin.

Daphne 2.0 by Francesca Talenti & Marc Russo
www.daphne2.com
In Greek mythology, Daphne asked her father to turn her into a tree after growing tired of being chased by an unwanted lover. In Daphne 2.0, the classic myth gets a modern update: stop motion animation reveals a world of electronic scraps where Daphne, faced with a part-human, part-electric life, considers the material possibility of becoming a tree. In this imagistic short, animators Francesca Talenti and Marc Russo use an old myth to ask new questions about nature versus technology, human versus non-human, and what kind of bodies we want to live in.

Treading Water by Russ Roe
www.Russroe.com
Treading water is a short experimental animated documentary showing the perspective of different male surfers at different points in their lives. Animator Russ Roe is a graduate of the film studies program at UNCW.

Icthyopolis by Andre Silva
www.silvacine.com
Ichthyopolis is a 10-minute psychedelic technomation, which delves into a mythical cosmology of fish and their human caretakers. What if the reality over which you thought you had some control, began to dissolve? Such is the case for the Fish Queen and the Fish Wrangler, who manage their worlds with routine precision untill a disturbance in the order leaves them helpless. Somewhere between the occult and the absurd lies Ichthyopolis, a universe consisting of two complemetary worlds that can't help but eventually merge. Andre Silva currently teaches film production classes at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington as an Assistant Professor.

Ringo by Dave Monahan
This experimental musical Western starring John Wayne and Roy Rogers tells a classic love story: Cowboy finds gunslinger, cowboy loses gunslinger; cowboy becomes gunslinger. Set to the tune of Don Robertson's 1964 hit song of the same name. Dave Monahan is the Chair of the film department at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

1. Stop 2. Jump 3. Go by S. Cagney Gentry
www.thisismediafilms.com
The story of a person obsessed with numbers, measurements, and calculation. These compulsions help one to make order out of the disorder of life. But, when even the regimented day to day becomes too much, how do we escape the counting?

First Sunrise by Kenneth Price
www.pricefilms.com
Betham is an American teaching in Japan, immersed in the work of daily life while learning a new culture. When she takes a trip to the Pacific Ocean to witness the first sunrise of the year, she begins to feel the stir of acceptance. Subtle and beautifully shot, First Sunrise captures the small breaks in routine that can take us in new directions.

Plastic Bag by Ramin Bahrani
www.raminbahrani.com
Struggling with its immortality, a discarded plastic bag ventures through the environmentally barren remains of America as it searches for its maker. In a not too distant future, a Plastic Bag goes on an epic journey in search of its lost Maker, wondering if there is any point to life without her. Hailed by many as the best film ever narrated by Werner Herzog about a plastic bag. Bahrani is a Winston-Salem native and one of a small group of North Carolina filmmakers like David Gordon Green who is making an impact on the international scene. Roger Ebert listed his feature "Chop Shop" as the 6th best film of the decade and declared Bahrani as "the filmmaker of the decade."

Pickin' and Trimmin' by Matt Morris
www.mattmorrisfilms.com
Down at The Barbershop in the small town of Drexel, North Carolina, the atmosphere is laid back and the music is a cut above the rest. For over 40 years, Lawrence Anthony and David Shirley have been cutting hair and providing a gathering place for all who yearn for the good ol' days. Every weekend, musicians gather in the back room to play bluegrass, while others come in to hang out, tell jokes, and eat with their friends. PICKIN' & TRIMMIN' captures a piece of small town America where if it wasn't broke, they didn't fix it.

Full Frame Opening Night Film: "Guilty Pleasures" rocks the house

2011-04-15T12:29:00.013-04:00

A lot of technical know-how, artistic vision, and careful planning goes into producing any documentary film.

And then sometimes you just get lucky.

That seems to be what happened to filmmaker Julie Moggan with her doc Guilty Pleasures, the opening night featured film at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham, NC, this weekend.

Moggan's prep work was superb - and time consuming. It took her a year, she said, in the Q&A session after the screening, to track down the right people to feature in her exploration of the world of romance novels and their fans.

The idea for the doc sprang from a random quote she happened to see: that a romance novel is sold somewhere in the world every 4 seconds. Moggan set out to find these some of these buyers and others involved in the genre.

With the help of Harlequin Romance execs and other sources, she found some excellent subjects and follows them as they seek the romance in their own lives. A girl from India who dreams of reuniting with her ex, a mature couple in England celebrating Valentine's Day with balloons and spicy food, a Japanese girl obsessed with fantasies of competing on the ballroom dance floor.

Two wonderful single men bracket the group. Stephen Muzzonigro, an outrageously good-looking model, appears in numerous steamy photos gracing the covers of romance novels. He's the ultimate dream fantasy lover, and footage of his scantily clad self - sunning on the beach, motoring a boat, or working out - enliven the documentary, giving more than one member of the audience a little "guilty" thrill.

Those who hung around for the Q&A after the screening had opportunity to measure Stephen's hot-factor themselves as he lounged on the stage in person.

Not as easy on the eyes, but perhaps more interesting intellectually, is Roger, the writer of numerous Harlequin best-sellers under a female pseudonym. His observations on the writing process are spot-on, even if not entirely original. His "sweating blood" analogy has been used before, but certainly describes the feeling when faced with a blank page. As for his search for romance in his own life, Roger's answer is succinct: "I prefer to be completely solitary, as much as possible." Spoken like a true writer.

But it is the saga of the Japanese ballroom dancer that lifts "Guilty Pleasures" above the ordinary run of docs and engages the audience's emotions. Hiroko, a married mother of two, pursues her dance fantasies while her husband holds down the home front. She learns the waltz, the quickstep, the bolero, while whispered lines from her favorite romance run through her mind (and across the bottom of the movie screen).

Finally, her husband takes on the task of learning to dance himself, in order to fulfill her fantasies of competition. In the final minutes of the film, they take to the floor - he in white tie and tails, she in a satin gown studded with rhinestones.

When they are announced as winners of the competition, the audience in the Carolina Theatre erupted in applause and cheers.

It's a fairy tale ending you could only get away with in a documentary.

If this was fiction no one would ever believe it.

Daniel Wallace (above), prof at UNC-Chapel Hill and author of Big Fish, a novel taken to the screen by Tim Burton, moderated the Q&A session.

NC MUSEUM OF ART

2011-04-01T15:32:00.003-04:00

This Spring, among all of the Film Festivals and other events, don't forget to check out the North Carolina Museum of Art! Each Spring and Summer various concerts and films are performed/shown outside during the evenings. Some artist are unknown, but are well worth the ticket price. One such example is the Swell Season, which performed at the NC Museum of Art. Best known for playing in the film, Once, Swell Season is a soulful duo who also play piano and guitar.

Some films worth seeing this Spring include: Summer Hours, Downtown 81, and a few classics such as Funny Face. For more information about scheduled films, concerts, and lectures; please feel free to visit the following site:
http://ncartmuseum.org/calendar/type/lectures/

NC Museum of Art
--Jessica

VISIONS FILM FESTIVAL

2011-04-01T15:19:00.002-04:00

Today is the inaugural year of the Visions Film Festival and Conference at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. VISIONS will be the first-ever international film festival and conference designed and programmed by undergraduate students. VISIONS will also bring student filmmakers and scholars from the United States, Europe and Australia to the UNCW campus. Hosted by the Department of Film Studies, the daylong celebration of undergraduate films and scholarly presentations will take place today, April 1, 2011 in Lumina Theater.

Filmmaker Isaiah "Izzy" Powers, co-director of the Student Academy Award-winning animation "Dried Up," will kick off the inaugural festival and conference with a keynote address at 9 a.m. After, conference presentations and film screenings will take place, including Powers' "Dried Up". He will speak on how he made it in this industry. The film scholars' conference will follow Powers' address with two sessions, one at 10 a.m. and one at 1:30 p.m.

For more information about this festival or the film selections, please go to the following website at:
http://appserv02.uncw.edu/news/artview.aspx?id=3101

Visions Film Festival
--Jessica

SEEING WHAT DOES NOT OFFICIALLY EXIST

2011-04-01T14:46:00.003-04:00

On April 6th, 2011 at 3pm Ken Light, a professor at the University of California-Berkeley will be one of the Alpha Kappa Delta's Distinguished Lecturers. He will be speaking in Riddick Hall of North Carolina State University.

Areas such as Sociologists, anthropologists, journalists, and others often produce evidence of inequality that those in power would prefer to keep hidden. Their goals is to show the world what does not officially exist. While these areas tend to use words to describe these inequalities, photographs describe these instances in a way that words will never be able to--with full emotion.

Ken Light is one of America's foremost social documentary photographers and will discuss the value of documentary photography for understanding the nature and consequences of inequality in the United States and around the world. Professor Light is the author of With These Hands, To the Promised Land, Delta Time, Texas Death Row, Coal Hollow, and Witness in Our Time: Working Lives of Documentary Photographers. His book on California's San Joaquin region, Valley of Shadow and Dreams, will be published in 2012. For more information about Ken Light's work, see http://www.kenlight.com/.

Professor Light's lecture is sponsored by the North Carolina State University Department of Sociology & Anthropology. For more information about the event, call (919) 515-9017 or e-mail michael_schwalbe@ncsu.edu.

Seeing What Does Not Officially Exist
--Jessica

BERNHARD SCHLINK AT DUKE LAW

2011-04-01T14:25:00.002-04:00

Bernhard Schlink, author of the best-selling novel, The Reader, will be coming to Duke Law School on April 4-5, 2011. The Reader is a moving story about a teenage boy who starts an affair with a former SS Guard at Auschwitz. It is short lived, and the boy grows up to attend law school. In law school, his class is observing the trial of SS Guards in charge of a women's quarter in Auschwitz that caught fire. He finds that his former lover is one of them. At heart, this book tackles the question of how does the new generation come to terms with the past.

His book was very well received in both Germany and the United States, among others. The Reader was later turned into an Academy Award nominated film under the same name. This film will be viewed before his visit, followed by a discussion with Professor Schlink on April 4th at 5:30pm.

For more information about this event, please feel free to email Erin Daniel at:
daniel@law.duke.edu

Bernhard Schlink at Duke Law
--Jessica

WINDFALL AT FULL FRAME

2011-04-01T13:11:00.004-04:00

This year at the Full Frame Film Festival, make sure to check out Laura Israel's documentary, Windfall. Her film will be screened on April 14th, 2011 at 4:20pm.

Windfall is a documentary concerning the dark side of wind energy development and the potential for highly profitable financial scams. Wind development in the U.S. is growing annually to 39%, making Windfall an eye-opener for anyone concerned about the future of renewable energy.

The Director, Laura Israel will be in attendance of the festival. For more information about this film, including some Q &A by the Director, please visit the following website at:
https://docs.google.com/a/ncsu.edu/viewer?a=v&pid=gmail&attid=0.1&thid=12eee18cd7d0cb66&mt=application/pdf&url=https://mail.google.com/a/ncsu.edu/?ui%3D2%26ik%3D93d50c413d%26view%3Datt%26th%3D12eee18cd7d0cb66%26attid%3D0.1%26disp%3Dattd%26realattid%3Df_glo92rlh0%26zw&sig=AHIEtbSuT9h4hnJR6GaXiw5ljc4K9fnXVQ

For more information about the Full Frame Film Festival or other important documentaries, please visit their website at:
http://www.fullframefest.org/

Windfall at Full Frame
--Jessica

NC Film incentives yield results

2011-03-25T12:06:00.004-04:00

EUE/ Screen Gems Studios in Wilmington are some of the largest movie and TV production facilities on the East Coast.

North Carolina's "smart" film incentives bill went into effect in January and is already boosting the state's film industry.
N.C. Film Office Director Aaron Syrett, speaking in March at In Focus: Film Industry in the Carolinas, a joint growth summit between North Carolina and South Carolina film offices, said that had already received 382 inquiries from filmmakers in 2011, up from 251 for the entire year of 2010. Productions have already committed to spending over $200 million in the state this year, up from $80 million last year.
The NC Film Office took its outreach on the road recently, hosting the fimmakers' lounge at the huge SXSW festival in Austin, Texas. Filmmakers relaxed in rocking director's chairs while enjoying NC treats and learning about the new incentives.

Go here for a story on the In Focus conference.
Visit the NC Film Office website for more info on incentives.

ONE FOOT IN THE ARCHIVES

2011-03-25T11:36:00.005-04:00

This year at the Full Frame Festival check out the program lineup entitled, One Foot in the Archives. It is a selection of 10 movies by Rick Prelinger, an Archivist and Filmmaker. He has curated several series, including this one, that showcase the role of archival footage in the construction of documentaries.

Screenings will take place over all four days of the Full Frames Film Festival, which will take place April 14-17th, 2011. Movies will include: America Lost and Found, Blockade, Brother Can You Spare A Dime, and News of the Day among others. For more information about this event, please visit the following website
http://www.fullframefest.org/releases/2011/110315.pdf
For more information about Full Frame, please visit the following site:
http://www.fullframefest.org/

One Foot in the Archives
--Jessica

UPTONE PICTURES

2011-03-25T11:27:00.003-04:00

For those who are interested in a cast and crew calling, this is for you. A new production company based out of Wake Forest has put out a call for cast and crew members. The project that they are working on is called "Destiny Road" and they will be shooting from mid-April through about late May. For those interested, the link for resume uploads is as follows:
http://www.uptonepictures.com/node/10

Uptone Pictures specializes in the creation, production, and distribution of content, as well as develops and produces a number of Entertainment Products. Some of which include: National Television shows, Docu-dramas, Music Videos, Feature Films. For more information about Uptone Pictures, please visit their site at:
http://www.uptonepictures.com/

Uptone Pictures
--Jessica

MIDDLE EAST FILM SERIES

2011-03-25T11:06:00.003-04:00

North Carolina State University is presenting its 7th annual Middle East Film Series. This year the focus is on films from North Africa, which pushes the geographic boundaries of the Middle East. The last film shown in this series was Viva Ladjerie, a film that focuses on three women living in today's Algeria between Islamic fundamentalism and modern society.

The next showing will be of Ali Zaoua: Prince of the Street at 7pm on March 30th. A story of young boys with dreams living on the street in fear of the gang they abandoned. The last in this series will be Secrets of the Grain, also at 7pm on April 5th.

Each film will be shown in the Erdahl Cloyd Theater Hall in D. H. Hill library and is free to the public. Please come out and show your support of such film festivals. This festival is brought to you by the Middle East Studies of the NCSU History Department. For more information, please visit the following website at:
http://ids.chass.ncsu.edu/mestudies/news_events.php

Middle East Film Series
--Jessica

RIVERRUN PANELS

2011-03-25T10:15:00.002-04:00

This year at the RiverRun International Film Festival, don't just watch the movies...go to the panels. Each panel will have either attending jurors, directors, and other industry professionals. They are free and open to the public, providing a great opportunity to learn more about the films as well as film making. The following is a list of some of the panels that will be held at this years festival, from April 8th-17th, 2011.

CAREERS IN FILM

April 14 / 3:30 pm / Dillard Auditorium, WSSU

Panelists from varying careers related to filmmaking (from directors to writers) will discuss their career journeys and the opportunities available in the industry

SCREENWRITING: FROM THE PAGE TO THE SCREEN

April 13 / 6 pm / Hanesbrands Theatre

In partnership with BOOKMARKS, we've brought a group of veteran writers, including novelist Michael Connelly (The Lincoln Lawyer) and screenwriter Angus MacLachlan (Junebug) , together to discuss the process of creating stories for the page and screen.

DIY FILMMAKING

April 16 / 2 pm / RiverRun HQ

With the technology available to filmmakers today, it's a bit easier to make a film on a shoestring budget. Our panel of independent filmmakers will discuss how to make that great indie film.

NORTH CAROLINA FILMMAKING April 9 / 2 pm / RiverRun HQ

From indies to big budgets, North Carolina is a filmmaker haven. This panel will give an inside look at the business of making films in our own state.

For more information about the festival or showings, please visit the following website at:

http://2011.riverrunfilm.com/

RiverRun Panels
--Jessica

TALKING TO DR. WARREN

2011-03-18T15:14:00.002-04:00

North Carolina State University is one of the local Universities that has a Film Studies Program, while others may be more geared to production. From Duke University, Dr. Shilyh Warren is now an adjunct professor at North Carolina State University. This semester she is teaching a class on Women and Film. In this class, the ideas of Women and Film are thought of separately and how they fit together. A great example of this would be the film shown on the first day of her class, The Hurt Locker. For those who have not seen it, it is a film that follows one member of a bomb squad overseas and at home. It was directed by Kathryn Bigelow, who was the first woman to win an Oscar for best directed film--she even beat out ex-husband James Cameron.

She will be teaching at Duke this summer, where she recently completed her Ph. D. in Literature. She has a B.A. in Woman's Studies as well as a Masters in Comparative Literature, both from Dartmouth College. Her Women and Film class stems from her research topic for her Ph. D. and when asked about her experiences at Duke University, she explained how they were both satisfying, but in different ways.

"At Duke University, there are smaller classes and more discussion--more akin to a seminar. However, there is no Film Studies program per say, so I taught on either the topic of Film or the topic of Women. " I also went on to ask more background information among other things. But one of the more fascinating questions to me was what topic would you choose to teach on next time? Some options given were Nature Documentaries and Feminist Revenge/Angst in which a movie like Heathers might be screened and discussed.

It is hard to say whether she will love the outcome of her class here at NCSU, as the semester is not over yet. But it is safe to say that she is an easy going professor who would want to hear a student's thoughts and opinions on movies, classes, etc. For more information about Dr. Warren, including her email address, please visit the following site:
http://www.ncsu.edu/chass/film/faculty/faculty.html

Talking to Dr. Warren
--Jessica

ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW

2011-03-18T13:07:00.003-04:00

Tonight at the Rialto Theater in Raleigh, NC The Rocky Horror Picture Show will once again be shown. The Rialto has been showing this film every Friday night for the past 20 years and it is definitely an experience you shouldn't miss.

Last week I attended for the very first time. In all fairness, if you want to watch a movie in peace, this is not the event for you. People start lining up at the door around quarter after 11pm for tickets, some dress up, others do not. As my charming companion and I bought our tickets and found our seats, we watched as characters set up props and staff sell throw bags--a bag of assorted items to throw during the movie. Before the movie began, staff introduced the characters and went through all of the rules...as well as made all of the Rocky Horror Picture Show virgins dance at the front of the theater.

As the lights dimmed and the movie started, I could not help but soak up the atmosphere--teens wanting to be different, parents wanting to share an experience with their children, or people who just love the movie and have seen it a hundred times. One of the most fun things to watch was the underwear run, which was a little more risque than expected, due to the nature of teenagers. Another favorite was the dance entitled, The Time Warp.

After the movie was over, I asked my companion his thoughts--as this was his first time attending. He said that he wished he had watched the movie before coming to see it, as it was load, but that he enjoyed and would do it again. He even went on to say he may dress up. As for myself, I am not a fan of dressing up, but would love to do attend again and do the Time Warp.

For more information about other venues, rules, or how to do the Time Warp, please visit the following sites:
http://www.rockyhorror.com/participation/
http://ambassadorcinemas.com/joomla/
Rocky Horror Picture Show
--Jessica

DR. STEIN, PROFESSOR AT NCSU

2011-03-18T12:28:00.002-04:00

Dr. Stein is an associate professor in the Department of Communication at North Carolina State University. She is working on a film and needs some help. The said help would not be paid, but it would be a great opportunity for one to see what goes into making a film, as well as make new connections. Below is the content of the email that was sent to me.

To all,
I have started shooting some interviews for a film somewhat about the myth of Demeter & Persephone (a mother-daughter myth), and somewhat more about a certain kind of spiritual movement among women--not sure what it's going to be yet.

BUT--I'm in great need of help since I'm doing this on my own without funding (Robert & Seth Mulliken have been helping me shoot, and Michael Bugaev helped with some shooting as well).

SO--I'm looking for a couple of people who would be willing to digitize the footage for me. I've been shooting on the JVC HD camera, on mini DVs. I'm thinking if I can get people to help digitize the footage and maybe also get it organized into different bins, it would go a long way to getting me started on thinking about what I've got, and what I need to do from here.
Anyway--if any of you have some time and could help out, I'd be most grateful.
Thanks,
Dr. Stein
sstein@unity.ncsu.edu

Dr. Stein, Professor at NCSU
--Jessica

THE LOVING STORY

2011-03-18T12:12:00.004-04:00

This year the Full Frame Film Festival will present the world premire of the movie, The Loving Story. Nancy Buirski is the Director and Producer of the film--for those who are unfamiliar with Full Frame, Mrs. Buirski was the founder of Full Frames and helmed the festival from 1998 to 2007.

The film follows the civil rights battle of Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple arrested in 1958 for their marriage. Buirski employs the use of archival footage found, as well as interviews with those involved, to chronicle their pursuit to live together in their Virginia home. This went all the way to the Supreme Court.

This inspiring story will be featured as a Center Frame program and as such will not be in competition. For more information about Mrs. Buirski or the Full Frame Festival, please feel free to visit the following site at:
http://www.fullframefest.org/

The Loving Story
--Jessica

RIVERRUN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

2011-03-17T14:37:00.004-04:00

Winston-Salem's 13th Annual RiverRun International Film Festival will be held again this year from April 8th-17th, 2011. Tickets went on sale March 9th, and venues for this festival include: Reynold's Place, Hanesbrands Theater, a/perture Cinema.

This year, their International Spotlight will be on Contemporary French Masters, and will include films such as: The Class, 8 Women, Summer Hours, and Read My Lips among others. For more information about these films and what other films will be shown, feel free to visit their website at:
http://2011.riverrunfilm.com/2011/films

Some of these Spotlighted features will be shown the Opening Night at the Hanesbrands Theater. Other events during this festival include the Fido Frolic & Film. This event is free and will be screening the movie, Best in Show at the One Park Vista Lawn on April 10th, 2011. My companion Gizmo and I hope to see you at this event!

RiverRun International Film Festival
--Jessica

SCHOOLING THE SIXTIES

2011-03-04T10:53:00.003-05:00

Starting March 15th, 2011 the North Carolina State University Film Series, Schooling the Sixties will kick off. This film series will take place at the campus cinema and will include the following four films:
To Sir, With Love
High School
If...
A Serious Man

The first in this series will be To Sir, With Love, which is a film concerning an Engineer-trainee and his experiences teaching students from the slums of London's East End. This will be shown on the 15th at 7pm and will be introduced by Clitha Mason.

For more information about this movie or the film series in general, please feel free to visit the campus cinema page of the North Carolina State University at:
http://www.ncsu.edu/cinema/

Schooling the Sixties
--Jessica

ANIMATING DOCUMENTARY

2011-03-04T10:37:00.002-05:00

On Monday, March 14, 2011 Dr. Bella Honess Roe will be speaking at North Carolina State University in Caldwell G107 at 4:30pm. Dr. Roe is a lecturer in Film Studies at the University of Surrey, UK. Her research encompasses animation, documentary, and the media industries. She has published on the British Filmmaking collective and is currently working on a book project on animated documentary.

The title of her talk is Animating Documentary: From Substitution to Evocation and will examine how animation shifts and broadens the limits of what we know through documentary.

For more information about this talk, or about the lecturer herself, please feel free to visit the North Carolina State University website at:
http://www.ncsu.edu

Animating Documentary
--Jessica

GUILTY PLEASURES

2011-03-03T11:55:00.005-05:00

The 14th Annual Full Frame Film Festival will be held in Durham April 14th-17th, 2011. Each year this festival is put on to educate the public on what is being done both locally and abroad. It is a good chance to not only watch good movies, but to talk with directors, cinematographers, etc. The venues will include the Carolina Theater, The Durham Convention Center, Durham Arts Council, and the Durham Central Park.

This year, the opening movie will be Guilty Pleasures, by Director Julie Moggan. Mrs. Moggan has previously directed two other documentaries, and this will be the United States premiere of Guilty Pleasures. This film follows five individuals from around the globe, each having a particular connection to Mill & Boon romance novels. For more information about this film, please visit the following site:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1753881/

For more information about this film, director, or more information about the Full Frame Film Festival, please visit the following website:
http://www.fullframefest.org/

Guilty Pleasures
--Jessica

WHEN THE STARS BEGIN TO FALL

2011-02-27T20:16:00.003-05:00

When the Stars Begin to Fall is a collection of short films with the following titles:
Scarecrow at Midnight
Written By
Last Seen on Dolores St.
Murderabilia
Davis
See the Dead
The Devil's Toy

Scarecrow at Midnight was pretty good but left me feeling that there could have been a little more information about the main character. The main character is clearly mentally unstable, as she remembers her grandmother killing her grandfather. This is expected to be released soon with other short films by the director. Written By was very cute—it was about two writers who locked themselves in a room together in order to write a script in two days. They are both "inspired" by a doll who is talking to each individually. They kill each other and the doll finishes the script. According to the directors, they are looking into expanding this into a feature length film. Last seen on Dolores St. was also very cute and began with a women walking alone in a dark alley, followed by a shady character. As she is cornered, we see her shaking before she turns into a werewolf. It is at this point that we realize she turns her victims into dogs. Murderabilia was different for me, as I was unaware that people actually did this. It was about a man obsessed with a specific murder and his pursuit of memorabilia in regards to this. The director has a script written for a feature length version of this and will hopefully start shooting in New Orleans this year. As an aside, all of the referenced murder cases, with the exception of the main murder, were real.

Davis was a zombie movie that had sort of a The office feel to it...it was great if you like this show. See the Dead was one of my favorites; as we think it is a zombie flick for the first half but quickly realize that it is a deeper story about the loss of a child and how it can affect a parent. The director said in the Q & A session that the hardest shot to shoot was the child being hit by a car. Last but not least, the short The Devil's Toy is about a handful of soldiers find a jack-in-the-box that the Nazi's used to harness all of the evil they could. It ends with the curious children being killed once it is opened.

After all of the movies were screened, most of the directors were available for Q & A. Some went on to describe their inspirations, their shooting locations, hopes, etc. This is a great opportunity for aspiring filmmakers.
For more information about these films, please visit the Nevermore Film Festival website at:
http://www.festivals.carolinatheatre.org/nevermore/shorts.php

When the Stars Begin to Fall
--Jessica

ALL ABOUT EVIL

2011-02-25T22:19:00.004-05:00

Perhaps my favorite movie of the NEVERMORE FILM FESTIVAL was All About Evil. The film begins with a mousy librarian, Deborah inheriting her father's beloved movie theater in part with her mother. Her mother wants nothing to do with the theater and tries to bully her into selling it. They have a scuffle and Deborah ends up killing her mother. Unaware that she was caught on film, she goes on to start the movie and somehow manages to show this footage to the crowd.

Mr. Twigs spins this disaster as Deborah showing her first short film. As it would happen, the crowd loves it and wants more. From here she forms a film crew, becomes a diva, and continues to kill people in order to make her films. The use of literary themes in her short films is quite clever. Her biggest fan becomes aware of her actions and eventually brings her down. All About Evil was great in that it was over the top and at times quite intentionally hilarious.

Movies like this, ones with very little mainstream advertisement, are one of the great treats of film festivals like NEVERMORE. I would sincerely encourage those who have never attended a film festival to do so at least one in their lifetime.

All About Evil
--Jessica

DARK SOULS

2011-02-25T21:20:00.004-05:00

Dark Souls was another great movie in the lineup at the NEVERMORE FILM FESTIVAL. This was an interesting film in that it was not clearly definable.

The movie begins with a jogger named Johanna, who is attacked and presumed dead. Other victims start to pile up in Norway and the serial killings are compared to Jack the Ripper, with the exception that he leaves his victims alive as rotten vegetables. Johanna's father starts to look for the killer himself as the police have no real leads. We get some exposition about what the black substance he sees is, but the explanation leaves something to be desired. By this I mean that this substance is described simply as darkness, an evil. The killer drills into the victim's skull and adds this darkness. Believing he has found the killer, Johanna’s father follows him into a factory, only to find out that there are multiple killers. The movie ends in a zombie flick sort of way, which leaves something to be desired, as it started out as more of a family drama/suspense thriller.

I found this movie was interesting in that it was not easily definable, as well as chalk full of comic relief. One such instance would be the killers comparing the size of their murder weapons, the drill. Overall however, it was not a horror film in the sense that one would crave. If I am seeing a zombie flick, I want know how the zombies came to be.

Dark Souls
--Jessica

BLACK DEATH

2011-02-25T20:38:00.004-05:00

This past weekend the 12th annual NEVERMORE FILM FESTIVAL was held at the Carolina Theater in Durham, NC. For those who are unaware, this is a horror film festival. The Carolina Theater itself was filled with numerous movie posters, memorabilia, and the main cinema is reminiscent of the Phantom of the Opera.

During this weekend, I attended four movies--one of which was entitled Black Death, a movie about a monk-in-training named Osmond who prays for a sign in the midst of the death and suffering caused by the plague. In so doing he meets Ulrich, a man on a mission to a remote village rumored to be untouched by the plague. Osmond volunteers to be Ulrich’s guide to this village with the motive of meeting up with his love. Along the way to this village, he sneaks away to meet his love. Once he is at the agreed upon location, he finds remnants of blood and her cloak. They press on to the village where they find the so called necromancer, who claims she can bring Osmond’s love back to life.

(SPOILER ALERT)

This is where I find this movie surprisingly refreshing--nothing is exactly as it seems. The witch is not actually able to bring the dead back to life and their village is not immune to the plague, simply remote. I found this to be more of a commentary about the human psyche, in that people need something to believe in—sometimes it needs to be real and tangible, like the witch. My charming movie companion made a note of the witch's last words to Osmond, "People need to see a miracle to believe..." as he cries "Bring her back!" as she disappears into the mist, she whispers, "I can't...ask your God to bring her back." This is one of my favorite movies from this festival as it has some of all the great elements of a horror film--mystery, a villain, a forever changed hero/heroine, and some death sprinkled in.

Black Death
--Jessica

FREE MOVIE TUESDAYS

2011-02-18T20:41:00.003-05:00

The owners of Galaxy Cinema present their new restaurant, Bombay Beijing--a great combination of Indo-Chinese cuisine. Each customer that purchases a full price buffet on Tuesday nights after 5:30pm will receive a free movie voucher for the Galaxy Theater.

I have personally been to this restaurant and can say that if you like either Chinese food or Indian food that you will love this place! My favorite is their butter chicken with garlic naan. The service is good and the food is outstanding--not to mention fair pricing for the portions you receive. This is a great option for a casual date night, especially considering the wide variety of movies that the Galaxy theater carries.

For more information about this deal or about the Galaxy Theater in general, please feel free to visit their website at:
http://www.mygalaxycinema.com/

Free Movie Tuesdays
--Jessica

NCSU CAMPUS MOVIE FEST

2011-02-18T20:30:00.002-05:00

This Wednesday, North Carolina State University's Campus Movie Fest began. Each year, students are provided with the opportunity to create a five minute long piece on the topic of their choosing. The equipment is provided by the library and staff give tutorials on how to use the equipment as well as assist in the editing process. This is a great creative outlet for students, not to mention a great way for them to learn more about what D. H. Hill Library can offer. The staff is very friendly and love chatting with patrons.

These short films will be submitted by February 22 and the winners will be announced on February 27th at Witherspoon Student Center. This is one of the many great things at NCSU that one should look into, others including their annual pinwheel film festival, which is along the same lines and the Craft Center's classes.

For more information about sponsors, how to get involved, or what time the winners will be announced, please feel free to visit the North Carolina State University website at:
http://www.ncsu.edu

NCSU Campus Movie Fest
--Jessica

Charlotte Jewish Film Festival

2011-02-16T20:43:00.003-05:00

This upcoming March, the 7th annual Charlotte Jewish Film Festival will be coming to different locations near you. This festival shows the best in Jewish cinema, and the locations include: Levine Jewish Community Center, Temple Israel, and Ballantyne Village Theater Stadium 5.

The festival will Kick off March 3rd and end on March 13th, 2011. One movie that I feel everyone should see is The Golem, a classic film that was made in the 1920's about Jewish mysticism. Tickets for this particular movie will be $8 and will be screened at 3pm in the Levine Jewish Community Center.

Each movie is priced according to venue, so for more information about ticket prices and venue locations, please visit their site at:
www.charlottejewishfilm .com

Charlotte Jewish Film Festival
--Jessica

NEVERMORE FILM FESTIVAL

2011-02-16T20:09:00.003-05:00

Once again the Nevermore Film Festival is fast approaching and this year, one should pay attention to the shorts that will be there. The list includes: The Cow who Wanted to be a Hamburger, Cornerboys, Alice Jacobs is Dead, and When the Stars Begin to Fall. The last of these is actually a collection of seven short films that will be shown both on Saturday and Sunday at 12pm and 2:10pm respectively.

For those of you who are avid movie watchers, short films are an easily digestible way to expose one's self to different genres and different filming styles. This weekend would be the perfect opportunity to not only watch some classical horror films like Silence of the Lambs, Friday the 13th, and Darkman. Along with the classics and the shorts, other off the wall horror movies that probably will not make it to theaters nationwide. This Festival, as always, delivers shrieks, gasps, and screams.

The 12th Annual Nevermore Film Festival will kick off this Friday February 18th, and end Sunday the 20th. Individual tickets are $8 apiece and for $6.25 for Star Members. For more information about the festival or show times, please visit their website at:
http://www.festivals.carolinatheatre.org/nevermore/index.php

Nevermore Film Festival
--Jessica

KOOLHASS HOUSELIFE

2011-02-16T15:16:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow night, and tomorrow night only the movie Koolhass Houselife will be presented at the Galaxy theater by Triangle Modernist Houses and Nowell's Furniture store. This is one of the first in their lineup of films for their Architecture Film Series--a series of handpicked movies on the topic of Modern Architecture.

Koolhass Houselife focuses on one of the masterpieces of contemporary architecture in recent years, the house in Bordeaux designed by Rem Koolhass. This film has been described as a new experiment by looking at an icon in the most intimate way--day to day life and all the chaos and changes that ensue. It is meant to show that icons are not necessarily immortal.

Nowell's Furniture is a mix of modern and contemporary furniture that can be visited at the following website:
http://nowellsfurniture.com
Triangle Modernist Houses can also be visited at their website:
http://trianglemodernisthouses.com
The Galaxy theater is located in Cary, NC and will be screening this film on Thursday, February 17th at 7pm. It is worth noting that this movie is in French, but will have English subtitles. Tickets in advance are $7.95 and the day of are $9. For more information about this series, movie, or the Galaxy theater, please visit their site at:
http://mygalaxycinema.com/index.php

Koolhass Houselife
--Jessica

Strange Beauty Film Festival

2011-02-10T14:13:00.003-05:00

February 17th-19th The Manbites Dog Theater of Durham will be hosting the Strange Beauty Film Festival. This is the second installment of this festival, which will have movies, live music, audio art, and documentaries.

Some of the highlights of this festival include: the world premiere of the documentary, Sound Between Lines: Triangle Soundpainting Orchestra by Performer Jason Middleton as well as a photography installation by M. J. Sharp. Thursday night will be full of short films like: Old Gowns, Daphne 2.0, Sandpiper, and Greenland Shark. There will be a party opening night at the Fullstream Brewery after the show.

Tickets are $12 for individual screening blocks and a $5 student price for indivdual screening blocks. Tickets are going fast, so purchase them while you can! For more information about films to be screened or screening times, please visit the following website:
http://strangebeauty.org/index.html

Strange Beauty Film Festival
--Jessica

The Screen/Society presents: Roger Deutsch

2011-02-10T13:52:00.009-05:00

Tonight at 7pm, Duke University's Screen/Society will have a one hour program with Experimental Filmmaker Roger Deutsch regarding his short works.

Roger Deutsch has been making documentary, experimental, and narrative films for over 30 years and currently lives in Pittsburgh. According to Barbra Kruger of Artforum, Deutsch's illuminating picturings push close to film's ability to reactivate the feel of that which has disappeared; but rather than lolling in the shelter of the simulative, these films subtly questions their characters' relation to history and to their own deaths. They are portraits that remind us these characters are done, through with, no more: yet at the same time they bring them "to life." They question cinema's ability to formalize, to resuscitate and to re-represent the past."

Some of the films to be featured are as follows:

Mario Makes a Movie (2004, 12 min, Color)
First Love (2007, 2 min, B&W)
Prelude (2011, 8 min, Color)
Some Call it Home (2006, 4-1/2 min, B&W)
here and there (2008, 15 min, Color)
Dead People (1983/2005, 18-1/2 min, B&W)

For more information about the filmmaker or the films, please visit the following website:
http://www.ottofilms.org/

The Screen Society Presents: Roger Deutsch
--Jessica

THE LIGHT FACTORY

2011-02-08T13:18:00.003-05:00

The Light Factory, a museum of contemporary photography and film, will be hosting its annual Filmaker's Showcase. This is an opportunity for emerging filmmakers and film students to show off their abilities in the form of the short film. This year the films that are chosen will be screened in the Knight Gallery at 7:30pm on Friday, May 13th. Cash prizes will be given for such categories as: Best Student Film, Best Local Film, Best Documentary, etc.

This is a great opportunity to see the creativity people possess. It is also a great place to cultivate one's own creativity, as the Light Factory, located in Charlotte, NC, offers several classes for film and photography. They also show films on a regular basis. This month, the next film that will be screened is Guy and Madeline On A Park Bench. This is part of the First Run Films, and will be at the Light Factory from February 17-19th. Show times will be at 7:30 each night.

For more information about what's going on at the Light Factory, please feel free to visit their website at:
http://www.lightfactory.org/home

The Light Factory
--Jessica

Cape Fear Independent Film Festival

2011-02-08T12:57:00.003-05:00

As of now, the Cape Fear Independent Film Festival will be accepting film entries. Their annual festival is slated to start April 28th and last till May 1st. Last year they had a record attendance, as well as had two celebrity hosts, and held the world premiere of two horror films that were shot all in North Carolina. Oh, and did I mention that there will be two grand prizes of $1000 for the winners of the film contest?

This festival is put on each year by the Cape Fear Independent Film Network, a non-profit organization trying to get the word out about their local artists and bring interest to the Wilmington area's film industry. Wilmington has been the location for such films as, A Walk to Remember, The Jackal, 28 Days, and I Know What You Did Last Summer. Not to mention, Blue Velvet, and the hit shows One Tree Hill, and Dawson's Creek. Wilmington is a beautiful beach town that I personally love. I would highly recommend checking this festival out--not only will you have the chance to watch some fun movies, but you and your friends could walk some of Wilmington's great beach areas.

For more information about the festival, please visit their site at:
http://www.cfifn.org/index.html
or for more information about filming in Wilmington, visit their website at:
http://www.wilmingtonfilm.com/Home/tabid/36/Default.aspx

Cape Fear Independent Film Festival
--Jessica Earls

Retrofantasma Film Festival

2011-02-05T15:39:00.003-05:00

The Retrofantasma Film Festival is a monthly double feature of some of the best classical scary movies. This festival is special in that these films are all 35mm--the way one should see them. Some of the movies slated to show are: The Fog, The Changeling, and Pet Cemetery. I personally love the original The Fog, which was directed by John Carpenter. It was his second feature film after Halloween, also starring Jamie Lee Curtis.

This is a very good deal, as each double feature is only $8.00 at the Carolina Theater. The next double feature will be on February 25th with an Invasion of the Insects theme--The Fly first followed by Bug. The Fly will start at 7pm and the following film will start at 9:30pm.

For more information about the Retrofantasma Film Festival, please feel free to visit their website at:
http://festivals.carolinatheatre.org/retrofantasma/

Retrofantasma Film Festival
--Jessica

AVA GARDNER MAKES TOP 10

2011-02-03T10:10:00.004-05:00

Livibility.com is a website for those who are moving or just moved and highlights the best places to work, live, eat, explore, shop, etc. This site has many Top 10 lists in which the Ava Gardner Museum was recently named #2 on one of them. Located in Smithfield, NC the Ava Gardner Museum made the Top 10 Fun and Unusual Museums list. Som of the others included the Natioal Museum of Roller Skating and the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame.

Ava Gardner was born just outside of Smithfield, NC and was one of the most prominent actresses of the classical movie era. She led a fascinating life, as she was married to the likes of Frank Sinatra and Micky Rooney. I personally think that Smithfield would be a great trip for the family. There is great shopping, both outlet and downtown shops. This museum would be the perfect ending to such a trip, as she was one of Hollywood's iconic beauties that should not be forgotten. I am also a big fan of the clothing style of this time--the sweetheart cut was huge at this time. See this and more when you visit.

For more information about the Ava Gardner Museum, please visit their website at:
http://www.avagardner.org/

Ava Gardner Makes Top 10
--Jessica

The Tillman Story

2011-02-02T15:43:00.004-05:00

Next week the Bay 7 Cinema at American Tobacco will screen the documentary/biography entitled The Tillman Story. For those who are unaware of where the Bay 7 cinema is, it is located in Durham, NC. The exact date it is to be shown is February the 9th at 7pm and is free.

The Tillman Story was directed by Amir Bar-Lev, who also directed such documentaries as My Kid Could Paint That and Trouble in the Water. This documentary has around 8 nominations in several film festivals, icluding the Sundance Film Festival.

For those who are unaware of what this movie pertains to, Pat Tillman was a Professional Athlete who left a wife, family, and prospering career behind to join the Arm Rangers. During this time, he was killed overseas. At this point, it was unclear who was to blame, as fratercide was a possibility--he may have been killed by fellow Rangers, as the platoon he was assigned to was spit in two. The movie follows his families inquiry about what actually happened, and how information was withheld.

For more information about the Tillman story or Pat Tillman, please visit the following website at:

http://tillmanstory.com/site/timeline/

The Tillman Story

--Jessica

EXPOSURE FILM SOCIETY

2011-02-01T14:02:00.004-05:00

North Carolina State University's Exposure Film Society will screen the movie Afterschool this Thursday, February the 3rd in Tompkins G126. The Exposure Film Society is not just one of the many clubs at NCSU, it is an open club that's tries to expose as many students as possible to classic and contemporary films. As often as possible, they try to engage not only NCSU professors, but as many willing film professors and professionals as possible. Activities are not limited to selecting and screening films--they do try to get the students involved in local festivals.

As for the film, Afterschool, it is essentially a story of an internet obsessed teen who captures footage of two girls in his prep-school overdose. It was directed by Antonio Campos and is an in-depth look at how this generation uses and sometimes exploits certain technologies. In this case, it is aimed at the likes of youtube--this is almost a predisessor of the movie, The Social Network, which came out this past year. If you recall, it focused on the creator of Facebook and how it affected him and those around him.

This would be a great movie to watch, as it will definitely "expose" you to a type of movie that you would not typically go out to see. For more information about this movie's screening, please feel free to visit the North Carolina State website at:
www.ncsu.edu

Exposure Film Society

--Jessica Earls

NEVERMORE FILM FESTIVAL

2011-01-31T13:01:00.003-05:00

This February, the Carolina Theater will once again present the Nevermore Film Festival. It was started in 1999, and has had a strong presence ever since. The Festival will start February 18th and continue till that Sunday, February the 20th.

Many of these film enteries are independent films and therefore, will most likely not find its way into theaters nationwide. Some are imports, along with some fan favorites such as Silence of the Lambs, which is slated to show at different times each day of the festival. Other favorites include Friday the 13th and Darkman.

Some of the filmmakers will be there, but presently information is not available as to whether or not there will be commentary. Ticket prices vary depending on how many films you intend to see. Individual film tickets are $8 a piece or $6.25 for Star Members. These tickets will go on sale February the 11th. The 10-pass is goes on sale today and costs $65 in advance or $70 at the door. For Star Members, it is $60.

For more information about movies to be shown at this festival, sponsors, or the vendor, please feel free to visit the Carolina Theater's website at :
http://festivals.carolinatheatre.org/nevermore/tickets.php

Nevermore Film Festival
--Jessica

CAST & CREW CALL

2011-01-29T15:19:00.002-05:00

Silo 12 productions is currently calling for cast and crew. The cast call is for male actors between the ages of 20-30, with opportunities for both speaking and non-speaking roles.

The shooting location is in Raleigh and is planned for Wednesday, February the 16th and Thursday, February the 17th. The gist of the story is that it is a drama/action centered around a freedom fighter who is resistant to a totalitarian government in an alterate/futuristic history.

Email your information/headshots to the director, Nicholas Sailer, at nvsailer@ncsu.edu for more information. For more information about Silo 12 productions, please visit their website at: http://silo12.com/
Other opportunities will be posted as information is available.

Cast & Crew Call
--Jessica

SCREENING ON THE LAWN

2011-01-26T15:41:00.004-05:00

Friday, January the 28th the movie Blue Velvet will be screened outdoors at the North Carolina Museum of Art. The Art Museum typically shows different movies, as well as hosts small concerts in their outdoor ampitheater during the Spring and Summer months.

Blue Velvet was directed by David Lynch. The New York Times described Lynch as "sort of a psychopathic Norman Rockwell"--which is dripping with irony as the Art Museum is just now wrapping up the Norman Rockwell exhibit . The movie was completely shot in and around the Wilmington, North Carolina area. For its 25th Anniversary screening, Dr. Devin Orgeron of North Carolina State University's Film Program will introduce the film. I would highly recommend attending just to hear Dr. Orgeron speak--he is very animated and of strong opinions. Dr. Orgeron is currently teaching a Science Fiction class this Spring at NCSU and his wife, also Dr. Orgeron, is teaching a course on Cinema Stylists: Sam Fuller, Nicholas Ray, Douglas Sirk, respectively. They are both very receptive people and would be happy to talk to you, but please remember to allow them the opportunity to also watch the film.

Tickets are $5 per person, but there are discounts for students, NCMA members, Cinema Inc., and Galaxy Cinema members of $3.50 per person. For more information about the film or other films that the North Carolina Museum of Art will show, please visit the following website:
http://ncartmuseum.org/calendar/event/2011/o1/28/blue_velvet/

Screening on the Lawn
--Jessica

Hassan and Morqos

2011-01-26T13:05:00.003-05:00

Tonight in the Griffith Film Theater of Duke University, the film Hassan and Morqos (Hassan and Mark). This is part of their Modern Cinemas of the Middle East series for this Spring. It is presented by the Screen/Society in 35mm format with English subtitles and will be free and open to the general public.

The film was directed by Rami Imam, and includes actors such as Omar Sharif and Adel Imam. For those who are unaware of these names, Sharif has been described as the Arab world's greatest film star ever, and Imam as the Arab world's biggest box office draw respectively.

Hassan and Morqos is a satire of religious bigotry in Egypt that revolves around a Muslim preacher and a Christian priest. On the run from assassination attempts they run into each other and disgues themselves as the other essentially. It has promise of some comedy while tackling bigger issues, which makes this a great alternative to staying home in the rain.

For more information about Sponsors, the movie itself, the Duke film series, or anything else that is remotely related, please feel free to visit the following website:

http://ami.duke.edu/news-events

Hassan and Morqos

--Jessica Earls

African Diaspora Film Festival

2011-01-25T21:43:00.003-05:00

North Carolina State University's African Studies Program once again presents their African Diaspora Film Festival. It started January 19th, 2011 and will end February16th, 2011. The movie Silent Choices will be screened at Witherspoon on February 1st.

Silent Choices is Faith Pinnick's first feature length film in which the topics of birth control and abortion in the African American Community. Other films to be screened during this Festival Include:

The Neo-African Americans
Shungu: The Resilience of a People
Motherland

As well as a few short films on February 16th. For more information about this festival, please see the following pdf file:
http://ids.chass.ncsu.edu/afs/documents/FilmFest_2011_8.5X14Flye_1.pdf

--Jessica

North Carolina State Univeristy

2011-01-24T13:27:00.004-05:00

North Carolina State University is known for its strength of programs such as: Engineering, Biological Sciences, Design, and Textiles. A little known fact is that they do in fact have a Film Studies program. Though it is very small, the professors are great and with a little more interest, could become great.

While this film program is small, Professors such as Dr. Stein try to encourage students to experiment with film and to have fun with it. A great opportunity to see what some students of hers have already done at the NCSU Student Film Showcase on Thursday, February 3rd at 7pm.

Other upcoming events from the Film Studies program include their Spring Film Series that will begin on March 15th, and will continue on til April 5th. On March the 14th, Dr. Bella Honess Roe of the University of Surrey, UK, will speak on the use of animation in documentary films. More information can be found at their website:
http://www.ncsu.edu/chass/film/

--Jessica

FULL FRAME DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL

2011-01-22T20:04:00.003-05:00

This April Durham will once again host the international Film Festival, Full Frames. It will go from April 14-17, 2011 from morning to midnight each day. The purpose of the festival is to enhance the audience's knowledge of the hard work that goes into the art form that is Film-making.

Full Frames provides an opportunity for both established and rising filmmakers to not only showcase their work, but to interact with the audience through discussions and panels. There will be over 100 non-fiction works shown during this time in a four block radius in and around the Carolina Theater.

This festival is put on each year in a non-profit fashion, so please consider donations. For more information on how to give a donation, buy tickets, or any other information, please visit their website at:
http://www.fullframefest.org/about.php

Hope to see you there!
--Jessica

Rocky Horror Picture Show

2011-01-20T22:33:00.003-05:00

Every Friday night, the Rialto shows the cult classic, The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Originally released in 1975, its content was shocking and taboo. Now, the same movie has had a 20 year run, making the Rialto one of the places to go to see this film.

It is truly a unique experience, as movie-goers leave their inhibitions at the door. Some simply throw popcorn and scream at the screen, others however dress up. Most locations like the Rialto have performers who may pull people from the audience, especially if it is your first time.

Each showing is at midnight. I would advise that if it is your first time, at least go with someone else that hasn't gone before either. Just remember, take everything in stride.

--Jessica

Cinema, Inc.

2011-01-19T15:33:00.004-05:00

Cinema, Inc. is one of the oldest film series in the country, founded in 1966. It is a Raleigh based, non-profit organization that shows classic films. These films are shown at the Rialto in Downtown Raleigh every second Sunday of the month at 7pm. While individual tickets are not available, season tickets cost $20--which means that you are only paying $1.67 per movie (if you go to all 12).

For a long time this organization was one of the only ways to see certain films on the big screen. Some of these included the genres of art films, original foreign films, and in general vintage films. In past season, this would include titles like, Modern Times Citizen Kane, Annie Hall, and Dr. Strangelove.

The most recent showing was of Ivan's Childhood, which I regretfully missed. It was directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, who also directed such movies as The Sacrifice and Solaris. The next showing will be of the movie Charade, by Stanley Donen on February 13th. I would highly recommend looking into buying seasonal tickets, as this is a great opportunity to see some of these movies.

For more information about tickets or Cinema, Inc. please visit their website at:
www.cinema-inc.org

--Jessica

COLONY THEATER

2011-01-18T20:02:00.005-05:00

The Rialto Theater is one of Raleigh's better known theaters that host events, but the Colony Theater is currently the home of such events as Cinema Overdrive.

The guys from Cinema Overdrive present a movie each month that is either ridiculous, a cult classic, or whatever theme they choose at the time. They specialize in 35mm movies that include some of the original previews. This past October their Halloween series included such movies as Demon, a movie by Dario Argento about movie-goers trapped in a theater with demons. It is a great time with good company, good alcohol, and the chance to talk to these guys. (Picture provided by the Cinema Overdrive Website.)

Their next showing is the movie, The Telephone Book, on February 19th at 8pm. For more information about Cinema Overdrive, please feel free to visit their website at:
http://www.cinemaoverdrive.net/

Other events to take place at the Colony Theater include:
James Bond Originals, which shows every last Thursday of the month at 8pm, as well as the Cool Classics, which shows every Wednesday of the month at 8pm. The next showing of the Cool Classics will be of The Dark Crystal on January 19th. As for the Bond Originals, the next showing will be of Diamonds are Forever on January 27th. I personally am a huge fan of the Bond series and hopefully see you all there!

Tickets for all of these events cost $5.5o. For more information about the Colony Theater and its showings, please visit their website at:
http://ambassadorcinemas.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=68

--Jessica

RIVERKEEPER FILM FESTIVAL

2011-01-17T21:20:00.004-05:00

For those who are unfamiliar with the Riverkeeper Foundation, it is an organization that protects water quality and aquatic life in bodies of water such as the Neuse River and Falls Lake. For more information about this organization, please visit there site at
http://www.neuseriver.org/

This organization presents short films each year at this festival to raise awarness of its cause and to promote active decisions in the community. This year the festival was hosted by the Upper Neuse Riverkeeper. Some of the short films included:

Rain Down From Above, by Ivan Maximov
Environmental Heroes, by Tom Linden and Mark Oniffrey
Shikashika, by Stephen Hyde
Goldfish, by Joe Wein

While these short films were great, my favorites included the short made in association with Exploris Middle School which taught kids to conserve by turning the faucet off when one brushes their teeth and to shower instead of taking a bath. Other favorites include Still Life Aquatic, by Zac Assemakis and Clam Pie, by Dan Boylan. In the film by Assemakis, sculptors done by Jason Taylor are shown. He uses materials that can be used underwater to create more surface area for corral reaf to form. One such sculptor is a ring of children to show how children can adapt to their surroundings. In Boylan's short, a woman overindulges in her love of clam pie and has a life altering dream about heaven.

Lastly, one of the most interesting short films of this festival was In the Wake of Giants, by Lou Douros and Akua Films. This film shows the effort volunteers, in Hawaii make to free Humpback whales from entanglement. It is at their own risk that they try to rescue a 40 ton animal that can travel around 8 knots. Ironically, the best technique to date is to use the same method whalers used to slow down the animal enough to free them. To fund this effort, it takes the help of not only the volunteers, but the tourist industry and some private industry.

This festival held at the Rialto Theater is a great cause that should be kept in mind. Also, it is worth noting that the Rialto is a wonderful Theater that holds other events.

--Jessica

Riverkeeper Film Fest

2011-01-13T16:41:00.003-05:00

This Thursday, January 13, 2011 will kick off the Riverkeeper Film Fest.

Riverkeeper Film Festival Locations and Dates:
• Raleigh – Thurs., Jan. 13 – The Rialto (films) and The Third Place (reception)
• Durham - Fri., Jan. 14 – Durham Arts Center
• Oriental - Fri., Jan. 21 – The Old Theater
• New Bern - Sat., Jan. 22 – Christ Episcopal Ministry Center

For the Raleigh location, a wine and cheese reception will take place at 6:30pm at the Third Place Coffee Shop, Five Points. Shortly after, movies will be screened at the Rialto starting at 7:30pm.

The Riverkeeper Film Festival will consist of a series of short, independent films related to water. Movies will include: Rain Down From Above, Still Life Aquatic, Clam pie cropped

Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for children or students with a school ID.
To purchase your tickets online. http://neuseriver.org/events/filmfestival.html

Film Festival Sponsors and Supporters:
Sweetwater, cabot 2, WFM Raleigh, The Third Place: A Coffee House, The Rialto Theater, Holley Johnson Event Management

The Neuse RIVERKEEPER® Foundation protects, restores and preserves the Neuse River basin through education, advocacy and enforcement, in order to provide clean water for drinking, recreation and enjoyment to the communities that it serves.

For more information about these films and other events, please come out and show your support. Otherwise, stay tuned.
--Jessica

Free films focus on teens at Charlotte's Light Factory

2011-01-12T12:12:00.004-05:00

On Saturday, Jan. 15, the Light Factory in partnership with Southeast Psych and ImaginOn, presents a program, "Breaking Down Barriers," featuring two films INCLUDING SAMUEL directed by Dan Habib (1:00 p.m.) and BEN X directed by Nic Balthazar (3:00 p.m.). Each film screening will be followed by a discussion led by professional counselors from Southeast Psych.

"Breaking Down Barriers" is designed to be an ongoing film series screening films about issues that affect teens and young adults.

"Film speaks to everyone, but specifically to young people who are steeped in visual culture on a daily basis," says Linnea Beyer, the Light Factory's Director of Film. "My hope is that every film we present through Breaking Down Barriers will allow a meaningful shared experience and candid dialogue around sensitive issues that affect teens."

The program is free and open to the public, but the presentations are intended for an audience ages thirteen and up.

The event will be held in the Wachovia Playhouse, located inside ImaginOn, the Joe and Joan Martin Center.

For more information visit http://www.lightfactory.org/film

Ava Gardner Museum launches online store

2010-10-29T13:35:00.004-04:00

Ava Gardner fans can now buy souvenirs of the North Carolina native who went on to stardom through the website of the Ava Gardner Museum in Smithfield, NC.

Items available include t-shirts, hats, cookbooks, DVDs, books, posters, photographs, jellies/jams, and other Museum souvenirs, plus advance tickets to the musuem.

Through Dec. 31, 2010 use the coupon code LAUNCH2010 for a one-time 15% discount on items purchased through the online gift shop.

To view all available items go to:
http://www.avagardner.org/

Cucalorus named among top 10 film festivals in U.S.

2010-10-08T10:50:00.010-04:00

It's heady company for the quirky indie film fest based in Wilmington, NC.

Cucalorus, which defies the film festival rules - offering no awards, no voting, just lots of original films and fun for filmmakers, was recently ranked among the Top 10 film festivals in the U.S. by the Brooks Institute.

Brooks is a well regarded visual arts school in Santa Barbara, CA, with a reputation for turning out award-winning cinematographers.

Sundance (of course) tops the list of film festivals, followed by Seattle, New York, Tribeca, Nashville, San Francisco, Chicago, and the L.A. Comedy Shorts festival. Cucalorus comes in ninth - just before San Diego.

Read the complete list, with whys, wherefors, and links, here.

Cucalorus was also named among the Top 25 Coolest film festivals in 2009 by Movie Maker Magazine. Time magazine called it "a film festival for the rest of us."

photo shows a cucalorus in action.

Asheville Film Festival on hiatus in 2010

2010-10-07T09:57:00.005-04:00

The Asheville Film Festival, long a popular stop for film makers and film buffs every November, is on hiatus this year as local filmmaker and New Orleans transplant Tom Anton and his wife, screenwriter Sandi Russell, seek to take the floundering festival private.

Asheville's Parks, Recreation and Cultural Arts department ran the AFF for its first seven seasons, but lost money every year but one, and the city is ready to cut its financial ties.

Anton is the writer/producer/director of the films, At Last and The Pardon.

Some of the changes that Anton plans are moving the festival to September and expanding it from 4 to 10 days. The event will be renamed the Asheville International Film Festival.

Read the Mountain Xpress stories on the status of the AFF here. Also here.

NCFlix on Facebook!

2010-04-05T18:15:00.002-04:00

Still under minor construction, but NCFlix is now officially on Facebook! Become a fan of our page, help keep us and other NC cinephiles updated on the latest and greatest concerning any local news/events/activities. The RSS feed from the NCFlix blog is linked to our page, and we will also have a calendar of events up soon to keep everyone posted on the spring festival season!

And, don't forget about FULL FRAME DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL this weekend. Starting Thursday, April 8th, Durham will host one of the largest and most diverse documentary festivals in the country. You don't want to miss it.

Virginia Film Festival Preview: Nov. 2010

2010-03-29T17:35:00.002-04:00

The 23rd Annual Virginia Film Festival will return to Charlottesville from Nov. 4-7, a celebration of cinema and its unique power to inspire, enlighten and entertain. The festival is giving film enthusiasts from the southeast a sneak preview of its new and improved format for the 2010 year.

Festival director Jody Kielbasa said, "This year we have decided to begin a new tradition in that the festival will not feature an overarching theme," he said. "I am particularly excited about this new format. It allows us to do something that is central to my vision for the festival moving forward – that is, it allows us to look at film through a contemporary lens, and continually engage our audiences in contemporary issues and topics.

"The more I learn about the rich talent here in the Virginia film scene and the more I see all that the region has to offer as a tourism destination, the more I realize that this is a festival that can and should take its place among some of the industry's highest profile annual events," he said. "When you add to this the treasure trove of cultural and intellectual resources afforded us by the University, and by this extraordinary community, there are virtually no limits to the festival's artistic possibilities."

Kielbasa is also quick to point out that while the festival will always pack a powerful intellectual and cultural punch, it will also always treat the community to plenty of good old-fashioned entertainment.

More information will be posted online in September at vafilm.com.

Triangle Film Society

2010-03-23T23:12:00.003-04:00

The Triangle Film Society is a newly developed organization from the momentum of the triangle's previous filmSPARK events and screenings. The group will host screenings and networking events for filmmakers and enthusiasts in the Triangle region.

The inaugural screening for the Triangle film society will take place on April 13th at Artspace in Downtown Raleigh.

*Call for Submissions!*

The first screening will feature films 15 minutes or under, submitted by April 2nd. All genres are accepted, but only 5 entries will be screened. 2 copies of DVD entries must be submitted to:

Triangle Film Society

P.O. Box 499
Morrisville, NC 27560

Light Factory screens early Scorsese classic

2010-03-23T14:43:00.004-04:00

Charlotte's Light Factory will screen the 1972 Mean Streets, one of Martin Scorsese's earliest films, on March 31 as part of its new Dinner and a Movie series.

Jonathan Taplin, producer of Mean Streets and video-on-demand pioneer, will attend the event, for a Q&A with MarketWatch columnist Jon Friedman after the screening.

The film is considered a watershed moment in the careers of both Scorsese, who had attended seminary school up to this point, and Taplin, best known until then as the road manager for The Band. Mean Streets stars Harvey Keitel as a small time hood in New York's Little Italy and a young Robert De Niro, playing his childhood friend. De Niro won the National Society of Film Critics award for Best Supporting Actor for this role.

Dinner begins at 6 pm, movie at 7, at the Reelworks Soundstage, 817 Hamilton St., Charlotte, NC 28206. The dinner is catered by Perfect Plate Catering (Mama Ricotta's). Tickets are $50 for non-members,$45 for members. They can be purchased here.

Taplin, who went on to produce The Last Waltz, Until The End of the World, Under Fire and To Die For, will also be interviewed by Jon Friedman about the digital revolution in filmmaking at a free event in the Student Lounge of the Art Institute of Charlotte, March 31, at 2 pm. Free and open to the public.

For more information, visit the Light Factory website.

TriFilm Networking Event

2010-03-22T15:26:00.002-04:00

Tomorrow, March 23rd, TriFilm (Triangle Film Special Interest Group of North Carolina (TFSIGNC)) will be hosting a free networking event for those interested in film making, support, press, or just interested in the going-ons of the North Carolina film industry.

When: Tuesday, March 23rd from 6-8pm
Where: RallyPoint Sport Grill (1837 North Harrison Avenue Cary, NC)

Who: Hosted by Jim McQuaid of TriFilm, this event is free and open to the public, and is a great way to network if you have any interest in the film industry. The group started meet and greet events so that film makers, writers, producers, etc. can network and continue the growth of NC film production. Especially with Film Festival season quickly approaching, these types of events are a great way to get a foot in the door and connect with local cinephiles. Register online here, or just show up to this free event!

Spring 2010 Film Festival Preview

2010-03-14T23:43:00.000-04:00

Here is a lineup of the spring film festivals in North Carolina, so mark your calendar and be prepared for an fully stocked spring season.

Reynolda Festival: March 24th - 27th

Hosted by Wake Forest University, this festival will feature writer/director/producer Spike Lee, among an array of student film finalists, and feature-length screenings from around the country.
check out more details here.

Full Frame Documentary Film Festival: April 8th - 11th

Full Frame is coming up in Durham, and promises to be a major highlight in the NC film fest circuit once again this year. Many Full Frame alum have gone on to Oscar nominations and international fame. As well as a wide array of new and exploitative documentaries, a thematic thread of docs will be shown; and this year's theme is presented with emphasis on labor and the working soul in today's desperate economic climate. The weekend will kick off with an opening celebration, discussion panels and 4 screening theaters. Full frame is not to be missed, so check it out here and request tickets to some of the events.

RiverRun International Film Festival: April 15th - 25th

RiverRun takes place in Winston Salem over 10 days, kicking off with an opening gala event and screening perhaps the widest variety of films of any event in North Carolina. RiverRun started in 1998 and is one of the fastest growing festivals in the nation. The festival prides itself in honoring the top films from Cannes, Toronto, and Sundance, while also featuring new productions from around the world. This year's categories are narrative films, documentaries, student productions, and shorts - and two sidebar themes are Mexican films, and Money & Power. The longest festival of the season, there are plenty of events to check out and entertainment on a spectrum that would satisfy any crowd.

East Carolina Film Festival: April 24th - 30th

East Carolina University will host its 2nd film festival this year, and is currently judging submissions from students around the state and in the Greenville, NC area. The festival is a youngster compared to the likes of our state's Full Frame or Cucalorus, but it is sure to be bigger and better this year and in years to come. The lowest of the low budget and yet-to-be recognized student submissions are sometimes the coolest and most avant-garde, so be sure to check out this event.

Cape Fear Independent Film Festival: April 29th - May 2nd

CFI Film Festival is still accepting film submissions, and any category film over 40 minutes in length is considered a feature - eligible for $1000 grand prize. The short film competetion is themed GREEN, and has an ecological, "go green" emphasis. Wilmington is one of the most active film locations in NC, and this festival of film and arts honors the area's contribution to films and film making.

Reynolda Film Festival 2010: Spike Lee!

2010-03-14T23:10:00.005-04:00

Wake Forest University is hosting its annual Reynolda Film Festival from March 24-27 in Winston Salem. Reynolda started in 2007 and has grown into one of the biggest and best festivals in the Carolina's. Featuring panels, influential speakers, and student productions as well as a superb selection of screenings - Reynolda 2010 promises to be a highlight on the film events calendar this year.

The major draw for the weekend is keynote speaker Spike Lee. The world-renowned director, producer, and writer will be speaking on March 26th at 7:00pm. Tickets are $5.00 in advance and can be purchased at the festival's website.

Screenings include The Messenger, starring Woody Harrelson and nominated for 2 Academy Awards, Beeswax, and Any Given Friday.

Also, there are 3 categories of student films to be screened, and each category has 3 finalists. The categories are Narrative film, Documentary, and Animation / Experimental film. Check out the complete schedule and event speakers here.

NC Native Makes Film Debut

2010-03-08T15:02:00.001-05:00

Sports Illustrated cover-model Brooklyn Decker, a Matthews, NC native will make her film debut alongside Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston. The film, Just Go With It, is being shot in Los Angeles, and apparantly the up-and-coming star can't stop tweeting about it, according to the Charlotte Observer.
Originally called "The Pretend Wife", this film sounds like another STELLAR Sandler comedy. Ok, Ok, maybe I'm being pessimistic here, but I doubt I'm the only one who thinks he should have taken a hiatus after Happy Gilmore. I am seriously questioning, though, that Decker was chosen for her exquisite acting skills alone and her bikini bod had no persuasive effect.

Fun Facts: Films made in NC

2010-03-05T16:41:00.001-05:00

It's pretty neat to look back on some blockbusters from the last few decades and realize that they were actually shot in North Carolina. Actually, NC ranks 3rd in the country for film production and revenues for film, behind the big boys, of course (New York and California).

I bet you didn't know some of these were filmed right here in the good ol' Tarheel State ...

From the redneck Ballad of Ricky Bobby, filmed at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte/Concord to the tear-jerking Patch Adams, NC's proximity to some of the most breath-taking coastal, peidmont, and mountain landscapes have made it a hotspot for film and TV.

Remember that lush, beautifully hilly countryside where Baby and Johnny danced the night away? Combination of Lake Lure, NC and Pembroke, VA (the story was supposedly set at a resort in upstate NY - I guess they preferred a Blue Ridge backdrop). The front of the music shop in Empire Records was converted from a building in downtown Wilmington, and I Know What You Did Last Summer was filmed just outside of Wilmington in Southport. Another huge cult classic, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, was shot primarily in Wilmington and surrounding areas - directors even recreated NYC rooftops on a back lot.

Of course, we all know Bull Durham, which opened the door for the nostalgic "baseball" movies recognizable today, and has a 98% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The Last of the Mohicans was shot at the Biltmore Estate and surrounding areas of Asheville. Parts of Forrest Gump and The Green Mile, Hank's most notable roles (arguably) were also shot along the Bule Ridge Parkway. The Color Purple, which has recieved tremendous critical acclaim, also takes advantage of NC's landscape.

Brandon Lee, star of The Crow, which was shot at Wilmington's Screen Gems Studios died tragically from accidental fire of a prop gun during the last week of production.

Governor Calls for Incentives on NC Film

2010-03-04T14:29:00.001-05:00

New incentives for film-making in NC were implemented on January 1st of 2010, but Governor Bev Perdue announced on March 1st that she's not about to let competition from Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia get in the way of NC's high-ranking film industry. The new incentives passed at the end of last year gave film makers' a 25% tax break, but with a fiscal cap. Georgia is now offering 30% tax breaks, and with that kind of competition, as well as places like Savannah, Atlanta, and historic college campuses and towns, Perdue says lawmakers should re-think the boosted incentives. She's even going to Hollywood at the end of March to try and lure some productions here.

"Our workers are in Georgia or South Carolina right now on other productions. We've got the skill set and the stage and we just need to do it in North Carolina. It's not just good for the film industry, it's good for the state because you're branding North Carolina around the world every time you show a movie that's made in North Carolina." Says Perdue, according to a statement by Wilmington's WHQR Public Radio.

(EUE/Screen Gems Studios in Wilmington)

"The incentive that we passed is good, but evidently there is some kind of million-dollar cap on it that provides an ultimate disincentive for the big productions," Perdue said. "I'm going to Hollywood the end of March to recruit films and to talk to all the directors and find out what we must do." said Perdue, at a conference where mayors from across the region spoke about economic issues, quote from WWAY Wilmington TV.

3rd Annual Film Feastival celebrates National Nutrition Month

2010-03-04T13:48:00.000-05:00

Here's an event that combines two of our favorite pastimes: food and film.

The Durham-Chapel Hill and Raleigh District Dietetic Associations, Meredith College's Master of Science in Nutrition Program and Slow Food Triangle team up to present FRESH, The Movie followed by a panel discussion with guest speaker Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms.

FRESH, produced and directed by Ana Sofia Joanes, focuses on farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system, forging healthier, sustainable alternatives for the future to combat the rapid industrialization of our agriculture.

Salatin plays a major role in the documentary. His farm is a family owned, multi-generational, pasture-based, beyond organic, and local-market. It serves as an informational outreach center for sustainable agriculture in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley.

The Feastival takes place at Meredith College, Jones Hall Auditorium
Tuesday, March 9th from 7-9pm.

Tickets are $7 and can be purchased at:
www.filmfeastival.blogspot.com

Proceeds benefit the Interfaith Food Shuttle.

Arts of the Moving Image Screenings

2010-03-03T14:46:00.005-05:00

Arts of the Moving Image Screen Society will continue its spring series through March in Durahm. Some of the upcoming films to be screened are:

Lines of Attack Series
Theses screenings coincide with the Lines of Attack: Conflicts in Caricature exhibition, comparing the 19th century origins of journalistic caricature with its transformation in the digital age. Running at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University from Feb. 4 through May 16, 2010. Both films are documentary style exposures of how the journalistic world is evolving, and how current events can cause the journalism industry (which includes film) to be self-reflexive.

This Film is Not Yet Rated
(Kirby Dick, 2006, 97 min, USA, in English)
Thursday, March 4, 7:00pm at Nasher Museum
Academy Award nominated director Kirby Dick won the 2007 Austin Film Critics award for Best Documentary with this expose of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). Whether you realize it or not, this powerful institution has final discrepancy over the life of a film - its rating, ability to screen at your local cineplex, and the livelihood of its director.

Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing
(Barbara Kopple & Cecilia Peck, 2006, 93 min, USA, in English)
Thursday, March 18, 7pm at Nasher Museum

Especially as members of the southern community, many remember the fuss caused by the Chick's lead singer Natalie Maines when she denounced George W. Bush and regretted hailing from his home state of Texas. This film follows the group from 2003 to 2006 - Maines made her "blasphemous" statement on a London stage (on the eve of the Iraqi conflict) in 2003. When we southern, red-blooded Americans caught wind, the group members found themselves in the middle of a heated controversy over feminism, freedom of speech, patriotism, and anti-war debate.

All screenings are free of charge at Nasher museum. Check back for updates on future screenings of Arts of the Moving Image.

Driving directions / parking here.

American Tobacco Campus Screens FOOD, INC.

2010-03-02T12:55:00.002-05:00

FOOD, INC.

Wednesday, March 10, 7:00pm

American Tobacco Campus - Bay 7
Durham, NC

Tickets are FREE!

"Looking beyond the pastoral images gracing grocery store shelves, director Robert Kenner serves up a revealing look at the way food is produced in America. From factory farms to cornfields to patented seeds, this film skillfully untangles the twisted knot of farm policy, lobbying, engineering, and corporate greed that has drastically altered the landscape of American farming since the 1950s."

FOOD, INC. originally screened at the 2009 Full Frame Documentary Festival in Durham, and is now up for an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature, along with 2 other Full Frame alumni (The Cove, Beaches of Agnes). If you haven't heard of the film, or at least the "slow food" movement, I suggest you get out from under your rock already. The film exposes the corruption of the American food industry - one of the largest, and most expensive - from the local farmer all the way up to federal government involvement. Watch out, it's very likely that you will never browse through your neighborhood grocery again without thinking of this film.

Featuring authors Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma) and Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Food, Inc. is a film with an activist edge.

Celebrate the Oscars with Full Frame

2010-03-01T13:36:00.004-05:00

The 13th Annual Full Frame Documentary Festival is quickly approaching, and to benefit this spectacular event, the organizers will be hosting a cocktail on March 7th in downtown Durham.

EVENT DETAILS
Date: March 7, 2010
Time: 7:30pm to 11:30pm
Location: Rigsbee Hall, 208 Rigsbee Avenue, Downtown Durham
Tickets: $100 per person / $75 Full Frame Members and students

Tickets are limited, RSVP deadline is March 3rd.

Tickets
919.433.9800
or Email reservations@fullframefest.org

This annual benefit will include heavy hors' d oeuvres, complimentary wine and beer, cash bar, and a silent auction. From 7:30 - 11:30pm the Academy Awards will be screened in Rigsbee Hall, a beautiful venue located in the heart of Durham. There will also be a silent auction,

All proceeds contribute to the Full Frame Documentary Festiva l, which takes place in Durham April 8th - 11th, 2010.

Blood Done Sign My Name

2010-02-25T18:25:00.009-05:00

The local story and autobiographical text by Timothy B. Tyson, Blood Done Sign My Name, was originally published in 2004, but began as part of a master's thesis while Tyson attended Duke University in 1990. As many local NC cinephiles and book enthusiast know, the story was recently adapted to film and released in February.

Although I'd heard of the reincarnation of this legend into film and its resurgence in the news, my interest wasn't quite as sparked until last weekend when I spotted some of the cast at a restaurant in Raleigh. Too bad I had to be bitten by the "celebrity" bug to investigate further. Nonetheless, I uncovered some interesting background on this story in order to satisfy my inner-sleuth, and pass it along for your reading pleasure. Spoiler Alert: It's juicy, so if you're waiting to read the book and/or watch the film, you may want to come back after you've done so.

On the story...
The story is set in Oxford, NC, and surrounds the death of Henry Marrow in May of 1970. Marrow was the victim of a hate crime in Oxford during the still segregated 70's. Raised in Oxford by his mother's parents, Marrow attended an all-black high school, and one year of college. At 19, Marrow served in the Army and was stationed at Fort Bragg. By the time of his murder 4 years later, was married with 2 daughters and a 3rd on the way, still living in Oxford.

Timothy B. Tyson, Author

In the days after Marrow's murder, backlash from the black community in Oxford was manifest - several marches and speeches taking place, as well as fire-bombings of some white-owned businesses. Perhaps more startling was the swift establishment of funding and defense on behalf of the offenders by the white population of the town, as well as increased Ku Klux Klan activity in the community. The dichotomy between peaceful and violent protest, innocent bysta nder and active participant, even right and wrong was thrown to the wind as the small town of Oxford spiraled into race-rioting chaos. Part of Tyson's main message and theme in his work centers on this turmoil; not all the riots and protests were as pacified as MLK might have hoped (and we remember looking back), and perhaps not all of the white business owners and families of the south were KKK supporting supremacists. The lines were blurred as Tyson saw the events unfold through his 10-year-old eyes, and his family was directly thrown into the pit of pr ejudice for holding interracial memorial services at the church where his father preached in town.

The trial turns out as the pessimist might expect given details from the town's history and state of affairs: an all-white jury found 3 offenders not guilty of murder despite several eye-witnesses. So, we're left to wonder, is some sort of justice served by the town's integration after this crime? Yet, why would something so heinous be required to integrate a community and calm race-relations in North Carolina as late as 1970? Tyson offers some vantage points with historical data, exposing some truths from the surrounding events, then allows his au

dience to derive very personal reactions to the evidence.

Also thoroughly important is a tangent to the plot involving Marrow and the perpetrators of the crime. During Marrow's childhood in Oxford, he lived for a time with the Chavis family - including Benjamin Chavis, the now famously recognized civil rights advocate. After Marrow's death, Chavis organized boycotts in Oxford and Granville County, prompting the first major civil rights tensions (of any affect, at least) in eastern North Carolina. The town of Oxford was completely integrated by the end of 1970 as a result. Chavis moved from Granville and surrounding counties to attempt integration of Wilmington Public Schools, and was imprisoned with 9 other activists for 10 years, now known as the "Wilmington Ten". When the case was overturned and Chavis was released in 1980, he went on to lead the NAACP, father major environmental movements in relation to race discrimination, and continues to advocate civil rights today.

Back to the film...
The film adaptation was shot during 2009 in the North Carolina communities of Gastonia, Shelby, and Monroe, and released in February of 2010. Directed by Jeb Stuart (The Fugitive, Die Hard), Tim Tyson was a major contributor to the screenplay. The film stars sveral NC natives, including Lee Norris, Cullen Moss, Rhoda Griffis, and Nick Searcy.
Many of the cast was also involved with the TV series One Tree Hill, filmed in Wilmington since 2003, now in its seventh season. Cullen Moss also plays a supporting role in Dear John, adapted from NC native Nicholas Spark's novel.

The movie is showing in theaters around the state, and times are available online (location can be changed to view show times nearest you).

You can't help but identify with some of the "southern-fried" stereotypes exploited in this work by Tyson - no matter your age or generation. If you grew up anywhere in the south, I dare you to try and not be moved by Blood Done Sign My Name.

NC State Hosts Regional Campus MovieFest

2010-02-23T18:29:00.014-05:00

Campus MovieFest is an annual event comparable to, for lack of a better example at the front of my mind, American Idol for film students. The best student film submissions are screened at Universities around the country, in regional competitions until they reach the final Northern and Southern semi-finals, then the grand finale of the competition at an international gala.

Students from participating schools have an opportunity to register for the event a few months in advance, and are loaned an Macbook (with Final Cut Studio) and camcorder for one week to put a production together. The only basic requirement for each film produced: 5 minutes maximum in length. Films are submitted and judged by a panel of faculty and non-participating students at the representative regional school - NC State in Raleigh this year for all of North Carolina - and screened at the campus cinema. Screenings of the best films from students around NC took place Sunday on NCSU's campus.

The films chosen as this year's cream of the crop will move on to the Southern Regional fest in Atlanta on March 27th. North Carolina's selected students will compete against student short films from Florida, Georgia, and Alabama. The Northern Regional fest will be held in New York and will feature the work of students from the Midwest and the Northeast.

Wishphone, NCSU's 2010 Best Picture

So, the moment we've all been waiting for ... NC's best student short films!

2010 Best Picture: Wishphone

AT&T is the major corporate sponsor of CMF on a national scale, and loaned students some of the hottest new phones and products during their week of filming. If they included the products in their productions, prizes were awarded. The Best Picture of this year features a new AT&T phone and still manages to pull off a clever whim of a story in short film format. Josh Fairhurst and Robert Prince, seniors in computer science, are the minds behind the masterpiece.

Best Drama: Bones of Iraq, Best Comedy: When Ants Strike Back

There will be one "wildcard" short selected to move on to the Southern Regional competition and have a chance to compete for the national spotlight. Viewers can text to vote for a certain film - instructions and details are available on the Campus MovieFest website.

Not to mention the thousands of dollars worth in prizes and goods awarded to the winners in each regional fest, the events give a great deal of recognition to students, especially as their films move up through the rankings. The winners from NCSU will go on to Atlanta to show their productions and share their talents amongst some quickly arising stars; their peers in the world of student film. At last years Southern Regional fest, Emma Stone and Woody Harrelson were the guests of honor.

Congrats to the winners from North Carolina this year, we will be following up in March when the event move to Atlanta, and with the finale fest in New York. Hopefully we'll see some NC students make it to the top!

Horror Movies RULE!

2010-02-22T17:16:00.005-05:00

More shorts on Saturday at Nevermore introduced a range of up-and-coming talent. One of my personal favorites (I am partial to animation, I'll admit) couldn't necessarily be classified in the horror genre - but it was still a crowd pleaser. I think we should applaud films we've enjoyed more often in the theatre. Why don't we?

Anyhow, here's a teaser of Pigeon: Impossible. The entire short can be viewed here.

Other memorable shorts from this particular selection were The Ugly File, Monstrous Nature, and Dead Walkers. Check out the trailer for Dead Walkers. Classic Western + Zombies = one thoroughly entertaining short film.

80's Throwbacks @ Nevermore

2010-02-22T14:37:00.015-05:00

Night of the Demons (1988), Re-Animator (1985), and Witchboard (1986) created a mini-theme of 1980's era horror films at the fest. The golden age of horror, arguably the 70's, resulted in an 80's boom of horror sequels and established a permanent place for the genre in box offices everywhere.

When you think of over-the-top teen slasher films, Night of the Demons could have written the guide book. An abandoned/haunted funeral parlor full of high school kids, holding séances and unleashing hell for an entire night? I think the general plot here may have been replicated a time or two... which makes it even more of a glorious kitsch classic. Re-animator follows a classic horror plot line as well, centering around the mad-scientist and university professor who brings corpses back to life with his potions and mixtures - but of course, not without consequences (gasp!). Witchboard, another classic in the world of occult cinema exploits the "ouija" board phenomena - and is proclaimed by the organizers of Nevermore as "one of the most underrated horror films of the 1980's". Once again, this whirlwind of a story follows suit with the whole 80's horror premise: mess with the dead and/or the spirit world, and you better watch your back.

The great thing about these films is really their presentation. It really is awesome to watch a horror film in 2010 that the 1980's produced. Remnants of the decade that now seem silly contribute even more than was perhaps originally intended, and the special effects from these films are wonderfully gaudy. They perpetuate the conventions of the genre from a thriving period for horror cinema: hints of comedy, extreme gore, and plots with supernatural consequences. Most of the films from this era, including all 3 mentioned above, spawned at least one sequel.

Also very cool was the screening of Scare Zone (2009), a throwback to the 1980's style horror flick. A strip-mall's Haunted Halloween attraction is set up for a night of booming business, but as the lights fade out and the employees take their positions, something goes terribly wrong. The film is laced with the same garish humor we now get from classic 70's and 80's slashers, while the suspense and gore match up to today's horror standards.

(thought this was funny since we are in the throws of the winter games... muah ha ha)

Zombies Walk at Nevermore

2010-02-22T14:29:00.003-05:00

They're Coming to Get You, Allan!

2010-02-22T14:10:00.004-05:00

We head into Durham's Carolina Theatre for the Nevermore festival...

But is someone - or something - following?

Evil Angel: Film Review from Nevermore

2010-02-21T21:00:00.008-05:00

EVIL ANGEL is the kind of film you're always hoping you'll see at festivals or even just at the movies and so seldom do. Refreshing, entertaining and original. We saw it last night at the Nevermore Film Festival at the Carolina Theatre in Durham.

Nevermore has a long history of showing the best indie horror films ahead of general release. EVIL ANGEL is easily one of the most satisfying.

Why did we like this one so much? First, it is not a rehash of other horror film ideas. All horror plots share certain predictable formulas and EVIL ANGEL is not different there. But its take on the Lilith myth refreshes the whole idea of the femme fatale.

According to myth, Lilith was Adam's first wife. He disliked her because she wasn't submissive. She wanted to be on top in more ways than one. So God expelled her from the Garden of Eden.In EVIL ANGEL, she is still taking her revenge on man...and women.

The fast-moving opening is superficially similar to Carpenter's "They Live," and some other treatments of hidden horrors masquerading as human. But it is treated originally here.

Here's the plot in one-minute version: Lilith comes back, again and again, the same evil bitch every time. Sounds simple and in a way it is, but we were caught from the opening nudity to the silver bullet fired at the poolside climax.

We decided to put this film on our festival schedule after reading its impressive credits. Star Vint Rhames (Pulp Fiction, Dawn of the Dead), and Director of Photography, Bill Butler, who lensed Jaws and Rocky films, were on board for the production, among other indications of its being of Major Motion Picture quality.

Stuff like that can disappoint you sometimes, but not this time. The cinematography provides the visual pleasures you want from movie images - rich color, effective lighting of interiors and exteriors - but seamlessly within the story. Except when Writer-Director Richard Dutcher wants to poke you in the eye - and does.

Rhames was, as always, very good. But so were newcomers Kristopher Shepherd and Ave Gaudet. Dutcher said after the showing that Rhames has the same agent as he does and read the script and wanted to do the film. You can see why. His character is a strong middle-aged man with fatherly motives that makes the character easy to identify with and admire. Too bad, what happens, too bad...

Evil Angel

I thought the acting effective throughout, with, perhaps, a single exception near the end. I'm not sure the hero would have been so complacent about the way things turn out. Not necessarily the actor's fault, that.

The director mentioned the opening scene several times in his comments and I won't ruin it for you, but it does reward close attention.

One of the things I liked best about EVIL ANGEL is that it stays true to its mythic roots, sticking to the mytho-poetic premise of its story first to last. It's predictable, but the pleasure is in how well this telling of the story fulfils your expectations.

A few years ago, in an appearance in North Carolina, Sandman author Neil Gaimen told us, "Stay true to myth." That means sticking true to your own myth as a storyteller or filmmaker, not just slavishly retelling ancient myth. And that's what Dutcher does here.

Director-writer Dutcher adds his own inspiration and creative twists to the myth in EVIL ANGEL, but the spirit of it is true not just to some single Judaeo Christian reading, but harks back to the Greek Furies.

Here, we also see the myth of the eternal return, she who cannot be killed, as she snatches existence from others at the instant of their deaths? Why keeping coming back? She'll tell you, at the end. But in the middle, she'll show you what she likes doing.

Mythic structures are satisfying in their shape. Seeing your expectations fulfilled nevertheless makes you jump with shocked horror and laugh to relieve the tension in scene after scene, just the cathartic fear-release we want from a good horror film.

Dutcher delivers shocks both expected and unexpected. His suddenly wicked, snarling, devouring women creatures raise the hair on your neck every time they appear, and for the most part, he uses the effect judiciously.

Dutcher, who has made a number of other well-received films, was present for the Saturday screening of EVIL ANGEL, talking about the details of its production and plans for its upcoming theatrical release by the Main Street Movie Company. He hopes to see this one in theatrical release, and so do we.

Writer/Director Richard Dutcher

Weird pix from Nevermore

2010-02-21T11:39:00.002-05:00

Have a look at these strange pictures we took at the 2005 Nevermore. Any thoughts on what could have caused these effects? We haven't a clue, used no filters, did not edit, and the camera never captured anything like this again.

http://bit.ly/ck6ZRY

Friday Night Shorts at Nevermore

2010-02-20T08:17:00.005-05:00

Sinkhole (13 minutes)

I used to drive through Centralia, Pennsylvania, the town with the underground mine fires that the government eventually bought out, to go to our sister's house.

It was scary, because you were always hearing stories of sink holes gobbling up cars and you could literally see the ground smoking here and there along the highway.

Sinkhole, directed by Eric Scherbarth, captures the spookiness of that burning town on film. The production values were excellent. I recognized that erased chalkboard Pennsylvania sky right away.

My Charming Movie Companion kept insisting that the film was in black and white, but I told her, "That's just PA."

It opens classically, with a messenger's walk through this hellish, apocalyptic landscape. It reminds me of Renfield's first trip to Dracula's castle.

It works through a not particularly logical plot to an ending that sat me back in my chair. "Well, scared the hell out of me," I said to my CMC.

Shrove Tuesday (23 minutes)

The second film dazzled you with images. They went on forever. Some of them were good. I left to get another beer.

[Note from the CMC: I stayed the course, and found most of the special effects impressive and well done, interspersed with some cheesy dismemberment moments. I wasn't surprised to discover that this film comes out of Great Britain - there's some sort of Tolkien Black Rider chases Little Red Riding Hood (here in a cape the color of dried blood) vibe to the whole thing. Not much plot or dialogue. It could be a final exam in a special effects course where the student tries to demonstrate everything s/he's learned. Allan is right, however. It went on forever.]

AM1200 (42 minutes)

Another quite classically lensed thriller with a slow but tension filled build to a perfectly realized climax.

A man alone in his car hears a plea from a scratchy AM radio station. AM1200.

He goes down a dark, lonely road and his car radiator overheats. He sees a light in the woods.

He finds his way to the radio station.

At one point, I asked my charming movie companion, "Why does this guy always walk toward trouble?"

"You have to have that," she said. "Stupidity is essential to the plot."

[Note from the CMC: This film has some nice performances by actors familiar from other work, including Ray Wise who gets a great cameo at the beginning of AM1200. The special effects are mostly accomplished with a flashlight, right up until the end, when some impressive cgi kicks in to illustrate the radio station's very unusual power source.]

-- by Allan Maurer

Nevermore Festivities

2010-02-18T15:12:00.005-05:00

The Nevermore Film Fest begins tomorrow - Friday, February 19th at Carolina Theatre in Durham. The event promises a weekend stocked with horror and suspense, and laced with streaks of paranormally outlandish entertainment.

The full schedule can be reviewed at Carolina Theatre's Nevermore page.

Some of the certain screening highlights:

Strigoi (Friday 7:00pm, Sunday 8:45pm)
(UK/Romania, NR, 105 min, 2009)

Whether you're an open supporter of the vampire-fad or a closet lover of the current craze, this Romanian mythological tale is sure to impress.

AM1200 and other shorts (Friday 9:10pm, Sunday 5:00pm)

40 minute horror-thriller that is slated to be one of the top films at Nevermore this year.

Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein (Saturday 12:50pm, Sunday 2:50pm)
(US, G, 83 min, 1948)

Classic comedy troupe meets Hollywood horror archetype, one of the first films of its kind that started a trend still alive in Hollywood cinema today.

Tickets are $8.00, can be purchased at Carolina Theatre online or at the door.

One of Quentin Tarantino's favorite films at Nevermore

2010-02-16T14:24:00.004-05:00

The Nevermore Film Festival at Durham's historic Carolina Theatre this weekend is one of our favorite events period and one of the liveliest, most entertaining film festivals anywhere.

We particularly enjoy seeing classic horror films on the big screen. This year they're showing ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN. Quentin Tarantino, who scripted FROM DUSK TO DAWN, about Mexican vampires and a couple of crazed killers, in addition to writing and directing PULP FICTION, cited A&C Meet Frankenstein as one his top ten favorite films a few years ago.

Tarantino said it manages to be both funny and scary. I remember that Lugosi's final performance as Dracula in the film sure gave me the creeps when I saw it on TV as a kid. I had nightmares for weeks.

Lon Chaney Jr. reprises his role as THE WOLFMAN and as always brings both pathos and animal ferrosity to the role.

We'll be doing more posts on the Nevermore festival throughout the week and from the event. We also highly recommend the shorts programs, which, like A&C Meet Frankenstein, often combine clever comedy with more gruesome fare.

Film Matters

2010-02-11T12:40:00.000-05:00

Film Matters magazine is a 2010 launched publication dedicated to showcasing undergraduate film student works, ideas, and events. The journal was founded and is based out of UNC-Wilmington, and the first issue can be explored at no cost online.

One of very few in its class, the magazine will feature work composed by students, such as feature articles and a review section, and will be completely run and edited by students.