15th
ANNUAL
JAMES RIVER
FILM FESTIVAL
Virginia’s Festival for the Independent-Minded |
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 MOMMA’S MAN (2007, 95 min.) with Azazel, Ken and Flo Jacobs
Print courtesy of THINKFilm
10:00 a.m.
The Byrd Theatre
Admission $5
Azazel Jacob’s third feature, Momma’s Man, created quite a buzz among general audiences and critics alike at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, walking away with a healthy dose of critical praise and a distribution deal with THINKFilm. Entertainment Weekly’s Owen Gleiberman singled out the film as a work that does “nothing less than re-invent, and purify, that Sundance staple – the quirky, angst ridden family drama.” His film tells the story of a 30-something man named Mikey (Matt Boren) who travels home over the holidays to visit his parents, then finds himself incapable of leaving and returning to his wife and newborn baby. What makes Azazel’s unique is that he cast his parents – painter Flo and legendary avant-garde filmmaker Ken Jacobs – as “Mom” and “Dad” and shot it in their TriBeCa loft. Come see here first, before its theatrical release this summer, with the film’s director and his/ its parents. |
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 SOUTHLAND TALES (2006, 145 min.) with Richard Kelly
Co-sponsored by Virginia Film Office & Velocity Comics
12:00 noon, The Byrd Theatre
Admission $5
Guest Richard Kelly’s follow-up to Donnie Darko is an apocalyptic sci-fi war story that challenges an audience’s narrative expectations. Naysayed at Cannes, Southland Tales was re-edited and released and championed by critic Amy Taubin as a new form of cinema along with David Lynch’s Inland Empire, a form employing the associative editing and continuity breaking conventions of dreams. Kelly readily acknowledges the multiple pop cultural influences – comics, music videos, movies, internet – in his films but still manages to somehow twist them in his own image. A Richmond premiere! |
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 BEST OF WHOLPHIN with Emily Doe (Approx. 90 min.)
Sponsored by Chop Suey Books
3:00 p.m., The Firehouse Theatre
Admission $5
Assistant editor Emily Doe will screen a selection of films from Wholphin, a quarterly DVD magazine from McSweeney’s that features short films, documentaries, animation, and instructional videos that have not, for whatever reason, found wide release. Come see the world’s most illegal game of border volleyball; a band of Scottish nine-year-olds singing “Satan Rocks” at their county fair; a Wizard of Oz story reinterpreted in a world of evangelical mysticism; a documentary about a thirteen-year-old Yemeni girl who refuses to wear her veil; an Academy Award nominated short; squid birth and more!
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BAD GIRLS (2000-2005, 85 min.)
with David Williams
5:00 p.m., The Firehouse Theatre
Admission $5
Another in a series of works into artists’ personalities and processes, Richmond filmmaker David Williams offers a work-in-progress on the local art duo known as “Bad Girl Art.” Keithley Pierce and Georgia Terry make art with an unflinching honesty and a humorous tongue-in-cheek quality derived from their own relationships with men and family. After cultivating a loyal patronage, they’re finally able to quit their day jobs and pursue their one true calling. Stay for a Q&A after the film with Mr. Williams. |
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 WHY HAS BODHI-DHARMA LEFT FOR THE EAST? (1989, 135 min., Korean with subtitles)
7:30 p.m., The Firehouse Theatre
Admission $5
The first major Korean film to be released in the U.S., director Bae Yong-kyun’s Zen saga relates the last days of an elderly Buddhist monk, and his two charges, a disciple and an orphan. As he prepares for his death, he wisely prepares them for their own life paths. Stunning cinematography in a restored print from Milestone Films. In Korean with subtitles. |
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