NewsRelease
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Festival Brings Independent Films to Greensboro, Feb.
19-22
A still from "Hannah Can't Swim," by Randall Good, is pictured above. The independent film is one of about 30 films that will be screened during the Carolina Film and Video Festival, Feb. 19-22. |
GREENSBORO — Local cinema lovers can experience the thought-provoking and the unusual when the 26th annual Carolina Film and Video Festival returns to The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Wednesday through Saturday, Feb. 19-22.
In addition to film screenings, the festival will include lectures by well-known media professionals. Speakers will include Brenda Lilly, UNCG alumna and co-creator of television’s “State of Grace;” Leslie Hill, Emmy-winning producer, and Marian Keane, writer and cinema scholar.
The speakers also will serve as judges for the best of the approximately 150 film submissions received by the university from independent and student filmmakers.
The event is presented by the UNCG Department of Broadcasting and Cinema in association this year with the Ashby Dialogues and the Department of Art. Festival director is Chad Phillips.
“This is a rare opportunity for people in the region to view new and imaginative films. They are often delightfully comic, provocative and ironic, and they aren’t watered down for television audiences,” said John Lee Jellicorse, UNCG professor and executive producer of the festival. “They give us a chance to see a vital part of filmmaking; they are a young person’s pure vision before it is influenced by commercialization.”
In addition to bringing fresh perspectives to the screen, the festival will focus on the convergence of visual artists and filmmakers in the medium of the Internet. Interactive software engineer Zachary Booth Simpson will open the festival with a keynote speech, Wednesday, Feb. 19, at 7 p.m. in the Elliott University Center (EUC) Auditorium.
Friday at 7 p.m., Kurt Ralske, Lukasz Lysakowski, and Keiko Uenshi will present a free performance of live improvised audio-visual electronic narratives in the EUC Auditorium as part of the Ashby Dialogues. Honoring the late professor Warren Ashby, the Ashby Dialogues Fund and Forum supports interdisciplinary study and discourse. This year’s production will allow audiences and the trio of performers to interact with moving images and sound on a screen.
Ralske and Lysakowski, as part of 242.pilots, have performed at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Montreal, Tranmediale.02 Festival in Berlin, Impakt Festival in Utrecht (NL), Steim in Amsterdam, and Kunstlerhaus Dortmund. They have also performed at other museums, galleries, and theaters in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Canada, and the United States, including New York City. Sound artist and composer Uenshi has toured throughout Europe for concerts, projects, gallery installations, and festivals.
Films will be shown at 8 p.m. Wednesday through Friday night for $4
at the EUC Auditorium. A total of about 30 films will be presented. The
following is a sampling of what viewers can expect:
In an effort to move the festival’s events to Carolina Theatre,
Winners’ Night will be held at the historic venue for the first time. The
Winners’ Night screening begins at 7 p.m. and will be followed by a reception.
Seating is reserved and tickets are $9 adults and $4 students. They are
available through the Carolina Theatre box office, (336) 333-2605.
The Carolina Theatre adds a $1 renovation fee to each ticket price.
This year’s winning screenplay will have a staged reading at 10 a.m. on Saturday at the EUC Auditorium. Michael Hunter Lilly, UNCG graduate and former director for The Act Co., will direct.
Filmmaker forums will also be held throughout the week in Cone Ballroom. The forums offer filmmakers an opportunity to screen their work outside the competition and answer questions in a panel discussion with audience members and other filmmakers. These forums are free.
The Carolina Film and Video Festival is the oldest continuously operating film festival in the Carolinas. Growing from a one-day event in February 1978, the festival has recognized more than 300 films and videos as festival winners. Its mission is to encourage and promote excellence among student, independent and commercial film and video artists in the state, region, and internationally.
For more information, call the Department of Broadcasting and Cinema at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro at (336) 334-4197 or visit www.carolinafilmandvideofestival.org.
The Judges:
Brenda Lilly, a UNCG graduate, has had a distinguished career as an actress, writer, and producer. Among her writing credits are episodes of television series such as “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids,” “L. A. Law,” “Parker Lewis,” and “Second Noah” and the last Christy TV movie, “Christy: Choices of the Heart.” Currently she was also the co-creator, co-writer, and executive producer of the “State of Grace” on the Fox Family Channel. “State of Grace” received two nominations in 2002 for the Humanitas Prize, which rewards writers of TV programs and motion pictures that do the most to communicate human values to their viewers. Lilly is now working on a mystery series with the same 1960s nostalgia found in “State of Grace.”
Marian Keane received a Ph.D. in Cinema Studies from New York University and is co-author, with William Rothman, of "Reading Cavell's 'The World Viewed': A Philosophical Perspective on Film" (Wayne State, 2000), as well as numerous essays on Hitchcock, film theory, film acting. She is presently writing about films by Robert Altman and films by Frederick Wiseman. She has recorded commentaries for the Criterion Collection DVDs of Hitchcock's "The 39 Steps," "Notorious," and "Spellbound." She has taught film at UC-Boulder, M.I.T., Harvard, Wells College and, on a Fulbright Award, the University of Stockholm.
Leslie Hill brings over 20 years of award-winning producing, writing and directing experience from Los Angeles to North Carolina. She has received a producing Emmy for a 26-part PBS psychology series, and six other Emmy nominations for producing and directing network dramas and documentary specials. She has also been nominated for a Television Directing Award by the Directors Guild of America, in addition to receiving national and international awards and recognition for her work. Leslie has directed the primetime shows “L.A. Law” and “Rescue 911” as well as other television series and pilots. She has written and produced over 100 docudrama and reality television segments for network, syndication and cable venues. As a writer, she has had various projects optioned and developed with networks and producers, including a feature screenplay selected for Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute.
Keynote Speaker:
Zachary Booth Simpson, interactive installation artist. A programmer since the age of 10, Zack has only an eleventh grade education. Since 1987 he has been a software engineer and researcher mostly in the computer game industry. He was the Director of Technology and Research Fellow for Origin/Electronic Arts and Titanic Entertainment working on games such as Wing Commander, Ultima, Ultima Online, and NetStorm. He has also conducted research on topics as diverse as economics and electrical engineering. In 1999, he turned his knowledge of games, psychology, physics, math, and graphics to interactive installation artwork and theatre. His pieces feature highly interactive real-time simulations usually with organic themes.
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