14th
ANNUAL
JAMES RIVER
FILM FESTIVAL
Virginia’s Festival for the Independent-Minded |
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Virginia Production Alliance Workshop:
Low-budget, McD's-budget, or No budget?
Noon
Firehouse Theatre
Free Admission
Join local director/producer Kevin Hershberger and fellow members of the VPA in a panel discussion on budgeting the low-cost, low-risk indie – they'll tell you how to get the most for your budget dollar with an emphasis on overcoming the sound recording and mixing problems which most often identify the "low-cost" product.
See Virginia Production Alliance |
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 Gone to Texas: The Lives of Forrest Carter (2007)
1:30 pm
Firehouse Theatre
Admission $7
Forrest Carter, author of The Outlaw Josey Wales and the national best-seller, The Education of Little Tree, a semi-autobiographical account of a young Cherokee's youth, was known in the seventies as a leader in the Native American revival, touching thousands of readers with his gentle tales. However, upon his death, a hidden past emerged – Forrest Carter was none other than Asa Carter, speechwriter for Alabama Governor George Wallace and fiery KKK spokesman. It was Carter who was responsible for Wallace's 1963 inaugural address, "Segregation Now! Segregation Tomorrow! Segregation Forever!" Join writer/producer Laura Browder (VCU, Department of English) and producer/director Douglas Newman for a Q & A session after the screening.
Approximate running time 60 minutes. |
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 Killer of Sheep (1977)
3:30 pm
Firehouse Theatre
Admission $7
At last, one of the most important films of the independent and African-American cinemas has found a distributor. This underground gem by Los Angeles director Charles Burnett (JRFF guest in 1998) was declared a national treasure and placed among the first 50 films entered in the National Film Registry for its historical significance. In 2002, the National Society of Film Critics selected the film as one of the 100 Essential Films of all time. Due to music licensing legalities, the film was screened only rarely and then on worn 16mm prints. Now fully restored on its 30th anniversary, witness its frank, neo-realistic depiction of black life in L.A.’s Watts neighborhood (remember 2004 JRFF guest Mel Stuart’s film Wattstax?) in the mid-70s and follow Stan from his job at the slaughterhouse to a life at home. Consistently frustrated by money problems, he manages to find solace in simple pleasures – slow dancing with his wife in the kitchen, holding his daughter, trying to get a working car together. Armond White in Film Comment called it “ … the highest example of contemporary black life put on cinema.”
Approximate running time 95 minutes.
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 Kawashima's Curve (work-in-progress)
5:30 pm
Firehouse Theatre
Admission $7
Richmond filmmaker David Williams (Lillian, Thirteen, Long Art) screens his most recent work, a documentary on Japanese bamboo sculptor Shigeo Kawashima. Shot on location over three weeks last spring during the Tokyo-based artist’s tenure as an artist-in- residence at the Visual Arts Center in Richmond, the film follows the process from selecting the bamboo, harvesting and working it, to the exhibition – Kawashima’s first large indoor piece, which was on exhibition at the Visual Arts Center, June 2-July 23, 2006 – and is a continuation of Williams’ on-going inquiry into the discipline and craft of the artist. Join Mr. Williams (VCU Department of Photography and Film) for a Q&A after the screening.
Approximate running time 90 minutes. |
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 Bound for Glory (1976)
8 pm
Firehouse Theatre
Admission $7
The late Hal Ashby was hands down one of the most important directors of the '70s Hollywood Renaissance with Harold and Maude, Last Detail (which actually shot in Richmond at the Broad Street train station), Shampoo, Being There and Bound for Glory all released that decade. Starring David Carradine (Kung Fu, Kill Bill, Death Race 2000) as folk singer hero Woody Guthrie, the film won Academy Awards for cinematography (Haskell Wexler), score (Leonard Rosenman), and a nomination for costume design. As beautiful as the picture is, and as remarkably true-to-life the production design to the years 1934-38, it's Carradine's natural performance as the drifting, budding singer-songwriter Guthrie that is the heart and soul of the film. Carradine recalls: "I felt that I didn't need to do anything to prepare for the part, since I'd been practicing for that role all my life." Carradine successfully exudes Woody's positive energy and homespun philosophy, and plays and sings all the classic songs himself. When he sings "This Land is Your Land" you can almost believe it!
Approximate running time 145 minutes. |
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