James River Film Festival

The notice below came in from the Richmond Moving Image Coop’s James Parrish, about the 14th annual James River Film Festival, which will take place at various locations in Richmond throughout the upcoming week (April 9-15).

“We’ve got another great lineup this year featuring Chuck Statler, the godfather of the music video, with two jam-packed programs featuring ground-breaking music videos for Devo, Elvis Costello, Pere Ubu, Tiny Tim and many others; Jeff Krulik, filmmaker and lover of all things wacky, strange, quirky, and eccentric with a double feature screening of his cult classic "Heavy Metal Parking Lot" and his latest, "The Legend of Merv Conn" about the D.C.-based accordionist extraordinaire Merv Conn; Toronto-based King of Super 8 John Porter, our 2007 JRFF filmmaker-in-residence, will present a screening of his work, do some film-busking on the street and lead a filmmaking workshop; locally-based but internationally renowned filmmaker David Williams with a work-in-progress screening of his latest film project, Kawashima's Curve; and VCU professor Laura Browder screening her first film (as writer/producer) Gone to Texas: The Lives of Forrest Carter.

“Plus, we’ve got a program dedicated to remembering the lives of artists/friends who passed away recently -- Richmonders Dika Newlin and Bryan Harvey and past RMIC-featured filmmakers Diane Bonder and Helen Hill; John Porter’s workshop Fifty Dollars: The Super 8 Budget; the Virginia Production Alliance’s panel discussion on low-budget independent filmmaking; a screening of films by the finalists in our annual juried competition for short films; a screening of American Hardcore, with a bonus slide show presentation by Richmond-based photographer Thurston Howes featuring his photos of the Richmond punk scene of that decade; a screening of past JRFF guest Charles Burnett's newly remastered (and for the first time distributed) independent classic Killer of Sheep; a program of short films by students at the Maggie L. Walker Governor's School for the Arts and much, much more!

“[Click here to] visit RMIC for a complete schedule, including show dates/times, locations, and descriptions. Many of events are free -- all are a deal, especially considering the filmmakers themselves will be on hand to introduce their programs and answer questions afterward.”