11.05.08
Reflections from the 2008 Virginia Film Festival
In our previous show we previewed this year’s Virginia Film Festival, hosted by the University of Virginia. In today’s show, we will relive and reflect on the events of this year’s Virginia film festival.
This year’s Virginia Film Festival, hosted by the University of Virginia, kicked off Thursday Evening, Oct. 30, and featured some80 films and 100 guests exploring images of immigrants, outsiders and extraterrestrials.
As in years past, the Festival included Stars and events that will be remembered for years to come. Thursday’s Opening of Lake City was no exception. The featured guests included the film’s writer/directors Perry Moore and Hunter Hill, producers Mark Johnson and Weiman Seid, Sissy Spacek, Lake City’s male lead Troy Garity and his mother, Jane Fonda.
When asked about someone else portraying Troy’s mother, Fonda, with the UVa Pep band playing in the background, remarked, “I’ve seen it now a number of times so I’m use to it now, but I didn’t like it at the beginning… except that I love Sissy so it helped that I love and admire her so much.”Lake City is the touching story of a family’s struggle to cope with tragedy. Garity described the movie as “a wonderful southern story about a troubled family that has lost the ability to speak to each other (who) bridge that gap finally…”
After the Film, festival director, Richard Herskowitz, led the actors, writer/directors, and producers in a discussion about the film which included many funny, as well as introspective moments concerning the making of Lake City. The story is based on a family that writer/director Hunter Hill knew as a child. Hill said that in spite of the tragedy “the whole point of the movie is that there is hope and… healing.”
(Lake City Expanded Article)
On Friday evening, UVa grad, Julie Lynn, along actor David Morse and director Rodrigo García, introduced Passengers, an exploration of romance and intrigue under the shadow of death. When asked about how he came to be part of the film project Garcia said, “I was looking to do something with hopefully a little bit more of a popular entertainment appeal and something that I hadn’t written…I read the story and I thought it was a good story. I liked the character of Claire (Ann Hathaway).”
When asked about his involvement with Passengers, David Morse (St. Elsewhere, Disturbia, ) said, “the two things about this first of all was the script… and I watched Nine Lives which I thought was just brilliant. Just the quality of everything… about the daring… and the story telling… and the performances, I just thought it was great. So I thought this is just an experience that you want to be a part of… Rodrigo I thought, ‘I’m completely impressed with him.’”
The Garcia-Lynn team is already working on their next project and is set to include Passengers’ actor David Morse, who, when asked if he knew about this, joked, “I just found this out.”
(Passengers Article)
Saturday evening, producer and UVa alum, Glen Williamson and writer Megan Holley, introduced their film, Sunshine Cleaning. Based on the script that won Holley the Virginia Governor’s Screenwriting Award in 2003, Sunshine Cleaning was first premiered at Sundance and will be released by Overture Films this winter. This wonderful, quirky, heart-felt story leads us through the lives of two sisters, Rose (Amy Adams) and Norah (Emily Blunt) who start a biohazard removal/crime scene clean-up service. As the story unfolds we find out about the strained and yet loving dynamic that these sister’s share, balanced by their father Joe (Alan Arkin).
Asked where the idea for the film came from, Holley said, “the kernel of the story really came from an NPR story that I heard about two women who started a crime scene cleaning business, and I was really struck by the interview… just how important they thought their job was… they were helping somebody… The more I researched this business, the more I realized how important it is to honor what they are doing.”
(Sunshine Cleaning Article)
And for the fifth year, one of the most popular events at the Virginia Film Festival, the Adrenaline Film Project, came to its culmination Saturday night. The Culbreth Theater was filled to capacity as 13 imaginative teams vied for the accolades of the Judges and Audience. The winners entries included:
Hail Mary - Audience Award Honorable Mention
Girl Powered - Audience Award
Roommate from Hell - Jury Award Honorable Mention
They will come for You - Jury Award
(Adrenaline Film Project Expanded Story)
For links to expanded articles and movie trailers, for these and other Film Festival Events, please visit The Oscar show podcast-Blog site by visiting www.wtju.net and click on blogs & pods. And select The Oscar Show.
You’ve been listening to the Oscar Show, I’m Jacob Canon. Join us next week when we will discuss The Response. This special film examines the turmoil that is the plight of the Guantanamo Detainees.