Word of fliers about a Christian group party caused consternation among some parents at Buford Middle School. Staff photo
When Manuel Lerdau heard from his seventh-grader a couple of weeks ago that a Christian youth organization was recruiting at Buford Middle School under the guise of a party, he became concerned.
“Representatives from WyldLife were at Buford during lunch recruiting students to attend WyldLife events, and doing it in a way that was not making it clear the religious nature of the group, while emphasizing the social nature of the event,” says Lerdau.
While his own kids participate in religious youth events, he says, “My response is this is not something that should happen on school grounds during school hours.”
Pam DeGuzman’s daughter came home in October and said she wanted to go to a WyldLife party—until her mom told her it was a religious group. “It seems like they don’t completely expose they’re a Christian organization,” says DeGuzman.
WyldLife group leaders were passing out fliers in the lunchroom, according to DeGuzman. Her concern? “You mean other than it’s against the law?” she asks. “My concern is it’s illegal and they’re doing it when parents are not involved.”
DeGuzman says she has friends who are in Young Life, a worldwide Christian youth organization dedicated to helping teens, “and they’re lovely. It’s just that they’re recruiting at school.”
Buford Principal Eric Johnson says he doesn’t know anything about the fliers. He is aware of students involved with WyldLife, the younger-brother arm of Young Life. The local chapter is a UVA-funded student group.
A couple of Young Life volunteers are mentors for Buford students and have permission to stop by and say hi to their kids, says Johnson. He believes the incident that riled some Buford parents was when a student overheard news about the party and told the Young Life volunteer he wanted to go. The volunteer wrote a phone number on a card and gave it to the student, urging the student to talk to his or her parents, says Johnson. And while he calls it “an innocent mistake,” he says, “I don’t condone any adult coming in and giving their number to a child.”
Johnson says he met with the Young Life representatives about what can and cannot happen on school grounds. And, for now, they’re stepping back.
“I do not allow organizations to come in and recruit,” he says. And if anyone wants to distribute a flier, it has to be approved through his office.
City schools spokesperson Beth Cheuk says the school division welcomes mentors from organizations such as Young Life and 100 Black Men of Central Virginia, and that Johnson screened the Young Lifers. “These students are super nice,” she says. “It seems a shame to turn away mentors.” The Young Life volunteers were not there to proselytize, says Cheuk, but to reach out to students with whom they already have a relationship.
Cheuk, too, had heard nothing about flier distribution. “If there really is a flier, we need to know about it because we have a strict policy on fliers on school property,” she says.
Heather Beam, Young Life area director, confirms that her members have passed out fliers at Buford, although in an e-mail to Johnson, she says they were given to kids who were involved in WyldLife and she apologizes for not knowing that was a no-no on school grounds.
She says in an e-mail to C-VILLE that many Buford students attend WyldLife programs, such as weekly meetings, weekend events and summer camping trips, and that Young Life volunteers are actively involved with adolescents, teen moms and students with special needs in a dozen local schools.
To parents who claim Young Life is trying to recruit kids to Christianity under the guise of social events, Beam responds, “We are a Christian organization. Our gatherings give students a chance to have fun in a safe, socially neutral space off campus and all students are welcome. Club meetings often include a simple discussion of the life of Jesus and His example.”
For now, Young Lifers will not be lunching at Buford. “They don’t want to come while people feel uncomfortable,” says Cheuk.
Civil libertarian John Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, says his organization took a case to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2001 in which the court ruled that if a public school allows other groups, it can’t practice viewpoint discrimination.
“If I were a principal, I’d be very careful about letting any group in,” says Whitehead. “I think it’s a little troublesome to have adults giving kids phone numbers.” Whitehead also advises that schools have clear, written guidelines.
“We have and always will comply with any requirements set by the school administration,” says Beam.
Lerdau says he was satisfied with the quick action Johnson took at Buford. “It was too suggestive of the government endorsing that particular religion or religious group,” he says. “I don’t think there should be any religious activity during school hours.”
Put your worries in the hands of psychedelic groove masters Papadosio and let them take your blues away at the Jefferson on Tuesday. Photo: Publicity photo
Papadosio’s fourth album, Extras in a Movie, combines orchestral, electronic, acoustic and celestial sounds. The inspiration behind some of its songs comes from archaic cave paintings, and when song titles don’t easily appear, the group invents its own words, as in “Obove.” Papadosio even has a clear mission: to create music that gives people a mental break from the constraints of life and allows them to let themselves go for at least as long as the song lasts.
Tuesday 11/10. $17 in advance, 9pm. The Jefferson Theater, 110 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. 245-4980.
Loretta Young and Warren William in Employees' Entrance Photo: Courtesy of the Virginia Film Festival
Original print: Leonard Maltin preaches the gospel of classic film
Beyond all the glitz and glam and celebrity appearances, there’s no better place to be a lover of film in its purest form than at a festival. Between the premieres and sneak peeks of future hit films before award buzz and marketing tactics dominate the conversation, the risky endeavors attempting to court distribution deals and the independent and short work that you may never have the opportunity to see projected onto a screen again, festivals are the ultimate destination for any true cinephile.
As much fun as the bright, sparkling exclusives are, film is an art form with a rich history that deserves as much acknowledgment as the newest blockbusters. It is in this spirit that the Virginia Film Festival welcomes noted critic and historian Leonard Maltin, who will serve as host, interviewer, curator and guest programmer for several special events at this year’s Virginia Film Festival. Maltin has played a significant role in the way many Americans view and discuss film, through his work on Entertainment Tonight as well as his groundbreaking annualized collection of capsule reviews, Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide. Maltin is also a passionate advocate for film history, frequently writing on the subject of classic films as well as serving asa member of the National Preservation Group.
Film historian and critic Leonard Maltin will serve as an interviewer, curator and guest programmer at this year’s Virginia Film Festival. Photo: Courtesy of Virginia Film Festival
As part of VFF’s partnership with the Library of Congress, Maltin will introduce two classic films at UVA’s Culbreth Theatre: legendary noir mystery The Maltese Falcon(Saturday) and racy pre-code milestone Employees’ Entrance (Sunday) on beautifullyrestored 35mm film. Both films are emblematic of their respective genres and resonate on three levels: as snapshots of different eras in filmmaking in both form and narrative, as the foundation on which much of what we love about films today is built and as timeless stories with lasting themes to be appreciated in their own right.
“If you’ve only seen The Maltese Falcon at home on a small screen, that’s fine,” says Maltin in a recent phone interview with C-VILLE.“But I think you will have an enhanced experience seeing it the way it was meant to be seen: on a big screen, in 35mm, in a darkened theater, surrounded by a simpatico audience, all those things together. And I hope that my introduction will put it into a context that will add to people’s appreciation as well.”
This series comes at an interesting time in film preservation, with studios seemingly throwing open their older property (the free-to-view Paramount Vault YouTube channel, 20th Century Fox offering rentals through iTunes). Through his public advisory work, Maltin is keenly aware of the delicate interplay between access to the general population and fidelity to the filmmaker’s vision. On the one hand, increased digital access is good for new students of film history and for areas without repertory theaters with the proper equipment to host films on their ideal format. Yet in artistic terms, it is only when a movie is viewed as the creators originally intended that its full impact is felt.
“There’s two levels of this,” says Maltin. “One is the actual preservation work, which is crucially important. And some people don’t understand this; they say, ‘Well, what do you mean, preservation? I have this on VHS, I have it on DVD.’ That doesn’t mean the film is properly preserved. It means there’s a copy that’s good enough to release on home video, but if the negative hasn’t been properly taken care of, the sound hasn’t been re-recorded, technical things, then as the home video media improve—like Blu-ray, let’s say—it’s not going to look so good or sound so good. Then the other level is that really, these films were always meant to be projected onto a screen. And if they aren’t projected onto a screen, something is missing. Something invaluable is missing. And that’s one of the reasons I’m so happy that I’m getting to introduce these films to an audience.”
Maltin views digital formats as “an alternative; not everybody’s interested in vintage films. Not everybody’s curious or open-minded about it, but I would say that there’s a great value. And it’s not every day you can see pristine print of these films on a theater screen with an audience. And that’s a particular value of the festival embracing this idea.”
“I could go on a rant about this—but it’s only movies that get called old. No one refers to that old Mark Twain book, Huckleberry Finn, or that old Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony or that old Verdi opera,” he laughs. “But movies, because they’re kind of the stepchild of the arts—and some people don’t think of them as art at all—get a dismissive, ‘Oh, but it’s an old movie. I don’t like old movies. I don’t like black and white.’ I think it comes from the fact that movies are—and in fact, have always been—a form of entertainment for people and a form of escape for people. Nothing wrong with that. So I think, in a way, they’re kind of taken for granted [as an art form].”
Increasingly, whether through studio pressure or financial constraints, many independent cinemas have disused or even discarded their old equipment in favor of digital projection. “It’s a real concern, because the remaining repertory theaters, or most of them, cannot survive with only 35mm. They can’t do the series, the comprehensive series that they might want to do. And some of the studios don’t have the prints. So they’ve had to adapt and use both formats.” Yet, Maltin maintains, “Access is crucial. And then we have to have the desire of the access. How many young people coming up have the curiosity to be seeking out these things? That’s another question.”
Maltin will also be hosting screenings of Bill Plympton’s animated comedy-drama-fantasy Cheatin’ (Saturday) and Maggie Greenwald’s underseen ode to turn-of-the-century Appalachian folk music Songcatcher (Sunday), as well as in-person interviews with the films’ directors. Many will be familiar with Plympton’s work (see page 21), if not his name. In addition to his own celebrated films I Married a Strange Person!, Idiots and Angels and a myriad of shorts, Plympton has created music videos and advertisements that are no doubt seared into the memories of a generation. “He’s a very buoyant kind of guy, and very enjoyable to listen to,” says Maltin. “And how many people are there in any form of filmmaking who have such an instantly recognizable style? If you look at a frame of his work, you know it’s his.”
Greenwald’s Songcatcher, released in 2000, follows a professor of musicology who studies an Appalachian community that, due to its isolation, has kept alive centuries-old traditional folk songs from England. While pursuing her work, she confronts her own prejudices while growing to see this community as more than a quaint accident of history. Along the way, Greenwald tackles issues as timeless as cultural schism, shifting attitudes regarding sexuality and—an issue close to Maltin’s heart—the preservation of historical and cultural legacy for subsequent generations. “It’s a film that not enough people saw. And I think it’s a beautiful piece of work. Having Maggie Greenwald for Songcatcher is very meaningful to me, because I think she’s a highly underrated filmmaker, whose work deserves to be better-known—demands to be better-known. I’m very excited she can be there.”
Maltin’s much-read Movie Guide published its final edition last year, but he maintains an active online presence at Leonard Maltin.com, which features his many reviews and essays on film history, and he can currently be seen discussing new releases on the ReelzChannel.
With one eye fixed on the present and one on the past, Maltin’s message of valuing films equally—as entertainment and as art—is an important one in the age of changing formats and the unsure future of digital intellectual propertyrights. But even with as much as there is to love about movies, for Maltin, it always boils down to culture and community. “I’m looking forward to meeting people [at VFF]. I love interacting with people at festivals. That’s one of the things that I enjoy about festivals. And I love preaching the gospel of classic films.”
–Kristofer Jenson
Clockingin: Behind the scenes with Jeff Wadlow’s Adrenaline Film Project
With recent credits for Kick-Ass 2, Non-Stop and “Bates Motel,” former Charlottesvillian Jeff Wadlow brings hands-on action and enthusiasm to the Virginia Film Festival through his Adrenaline Film Project. Photo: Publicity photo
Each fall, Jeff Wadlow visits his hometown to lead the72-hour filmmaking blitz that is the Adrenaline FilmProject. The annual competition enlists approximately 10 teams, each writing, casting, filming, editing and finally screening a film during the Virginia Film Festival. A filmmaker himself, Wadlow is the founder of the project, now in its 12th year.
“One thing that was really seminal for me was attending Roger Ebert’s shot-by-shot reading of Citizen Kane [at VFF] when I was in seventh grade,” says Wadlow. As a result, Wadlow felt indebted to VFF, which led him to join its advisory board in the early 2000s as he was beginning his filmmaking career. Soon after, and coinciding with the 2004 festival’s theme of “Speed,” Wadlow pitched his idea for Adrenaline to the VFF director at the time, Richard Herskowitz. “It was just supposed to be a one-off project to go with the theme, but it was a big success,” Wadlow recalls. Based on that, Herskowitz made Adrenaline an annual feature.
Reflecting on his career as a filmmaker, Wadlow says, “It all went hand in hand. I was emerging as a professional filmmaker while I was encouraging others to pursue their dream of becoming professional filmmakers.” Certainly, he has found success in the decade since his 2005 theatrical directorial debut, Cry Wolf. You might know him from Kick-Ass 2 and Never Back Down, or the buzz around his upcoming feature, The True Memoirs of an International Assassin. However, Wadlow has never allowed that to distract him from Adrenaline. And when Herskowitz later moved to Oregon, he urged Wadlow to launch Adrenaline at the University of Oregon as well.
Even with two Adrenaline competitions on opposite coasts per year, Wadlow remains committed. “I’ll never give it up,” he says. “I’m going to drop everything to do it.” He’s only missed three of the 18 Adrenalines that have taken place, and Wadlow says, “I’ve personally been involved in 180 short films.” It’s an estimate, based on the average number of teams involved in each competition. Multiply that by the individual team members and you get a sense of the project’s impact.
Adrenaline is designed to be a safe space, with Wadlow and fellow mentors supporting and guiding the process for writers, directors and actors. “I’ve never had a team not complete a film,” he says “We surround them with an incredible staff that won’t let them fail.” Wadlow is quick to admit that he also learns from Adrenaline. “It’s a chance for me to formalize my process,” he says. “When you’re forced to communicate your process, it makes you analytical about your own method.”
He also learns how to continue improving Adrenaline based on feedback from each competition. In the past, that input has led Wadlow to bring in Erica Arvold and her casting company to augment the casting process. This year brings further growth, including a database of available composers plus a workshop with a renowned acting coach. “I think the most impressive thing is that Jeff really cares about these filmmakers and about these films,” says Arvold. “His mind is so focused on Adrenaline all the way through.”
–Sarah Lawson
Screenshots: Top choices from the film festival program
With so many important, entertaining, enlightening films at this year’s Virginia Film Festival, choosing which selections to prioritize can be a fun but daunting task. While there’s no “right” itinerary to take in everything that VFF has to offer, here are some suggestions.
Carol
Image Courtesy of Virginia Film Festival
Director Todd Haynes’ winning streak continues with Cannes favorite Carol, based on Patricia Highsmith’s groundbreaking 1952 novel The Price of Salt. Rooney Mara plays Therese, an aspiring photographer who becomes enamored with an older woman, Carol. Mutual admiration blossoms into genuine love at a time when society was not accepting of same-sex attraction. Uncharacteristic for its time, the novel depicted same-sex relationships in an unabashedly positive light, and Haynes’ thoughtful and attentive direction crafts a film worthy of its source material.
Youth
Image Courtesy of Virginia Film Festival
Italian director Paolo Sorrentino, whose La grande bellezza took home the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, continues to make waves with his second English-language feature, Youth. Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel star as lifelong best friends who reflect on a life of accomplishment while on vacation in the Swiss Alps. Yet with pride in their life’s work comes the realization that their best days have already passed them by, and what comes next may only be disappointment. Youth is bitterly funny and frightfully moving with a universality that transcends its premise, and is one of VFF’s must-sees.
The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution
Image Courtesy of Virginia Film Festival
One of the most definitive organizations in modern political history, the story of the Black Panthers comes alive with Stanley Nelson Jr.’s documentary Vanguard of the Revolution. Nelson does an exemplary job of summarizing the narrative of the party, which is as sprawling and layered as the 1960s, covering the party’s origins, aspects of its platform, the Draconian COINTELPRO crackdowns and its living legacy in the world of activism. Though the full story of the Black Panthers and the members who defined it is far too large for a single film, for those seeking a primer or introduction, Nelson’s documentary is an ideal starting point.
Lucifer/Victoria
Image Courtesy of Virginia Film Festival
Wherever one’s personal tastes may fall, consider stepping out of your cinematic comfort zone with a pair of technically innovative films from abroad: Gust Van Den Berghe’s “tondoscope” debut, Lucifer (Belgium/Mexico), and Sebastian Schipper’s single-shot, Victoria (Germany). Lucifer tells the story of a fallen angel and his impact on a small Mexican village, while making use of a brand new lens built specifically for the film that gives a circular, appropriately otherworldly feel to this supernatural tale. Victoria follows a young woman and her friends in Berlin who go from partying to robbing a bank in real time. Shown in a single, unbroken shot, Victoria’s conceit avoids coming off as a gimmick, effectively conveying how quickly everything can change with no warning at all.
Taxi
Image Courtesy of Virginia Film Festival
For an artist who has been banned from leaving his home country or even making movies, Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi has made three excellent films in secret since this sentence was handed down in 2010 and shows no sign of slowing down. With Golden Bear winner Taxi, Panahi continues the ground laid by his fascinating documentary of his house arrest, This Is Not a Film,and covertly produced Closed Curtain, offering a unique and eye-opening depiction of life in Tehran. The film follows Panahi, posing as a taxi driver, who engages in stunningly candid conversations with his passengers, sometimes affirming the regime’s poor record yet shattering the image of a population cowering in terror.
Son of Saul
Image Courtesy of Virginia Film Festival
As the remaining Nazi war criminals die from old age, the narrative of World War II and the Holocaust has shifted from the top-level cabal of bigoted fanatics at its center to the lives of regular people forever affected by their atrocities. Son of Saul, the feature film debut of Hungarian director László Nemes and winner of the Grand Prix at Cannes, follows Saul, a Hungarian-Jewish prisoner at Auschwitz who is a member of the Sonderkommando, a unit of Jewish prisoners who were forced by threat of death to dispose of the remains of Jews murdered by the Nazis. There, Saul sees the body of a boy he believes is his son, and attempts to save the body and ensure a proper, though clandestine, burial. Sober in both tone and mission, Son of Saul is an unflinching, gripping depiction of courage and defiance in the face of unthinkable horror.
Family Day
Though “family film” has come to mean 90 minutes of distraction for kids, VFF has set aside Saturday as Family Day at the Betsy and John Casteen Arts Grounds, an entire day to celebrate all that can be great about entertainment that both kids and adults can enjoy. With the event featuring a selection of Pixar’s short films from 2007 to 2012, a screening of touching family classic Babe, the return of the Young Filmmakers Academy and interactive workshops for kids interested in a future of film work, anyone wanting to instill a love of all that movies can do in their children should stop by.
–Kristofer Jenson
Writer and a fighter: Larry Kramer’s normal heart
Playwright and LGBTQ rights activist Larry Kramer appears twice at the Virginia Film Festival on November 8 to discuss his life’s work. Photo: Courtesy of Virginia Film Festival
Larry Kramer has had his finger on the pulse of what it is to be a gay man for the past 50 years. His 1978 novel, Faggots, and its depiction of the partying, promiscuous ’70s made him a pariah on Fire Island. His play, The Normal Heart, captured the fear, anger and heartbreak as a mysterious fatal disease decimated the gay community in the 1980s.
However, it’s his work as a gay rights activist that may be the first thing that pops into people’s mind. Kramer is the founder of the Gay Men’s Health Crisis. He also founded the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power—ACT UP—a group that used civil disobedience to protest the lack of funding, research and treatment for people with AIDS in the ’80s. Its first demonstration blocked rush hour traffic in New York in front of the Food and Drug Administration, the agency Kramer believed was dragging its feet in coming up with treatment for the HIV positive.
“I have no idea how many times I’ve been in jail,” Kramer told C-VILLE via e-mail because of difficulties hearing on the phone. “Less time than I’ve been in hospitals, I’m afraid.”
In 1988, Kramer discovered that he had hepatitis B, was HIV positive and in dire need of a new liver. Mount Sinai Hospital refused to put him on its organ transplant list because people who were HIV positive were considered poor candidates for transplants due to their projected short life spans. Kramer became the poster boy for AIDS/homosexual discrimination, and after news reports that he was dying, he received a new liver in 2001.
It’s “still in good shape, I’m told,” he says.
He says his writing and his activism feed each other. “AIDS gave me my subject matter that set my creativity on fire,” says Kramer.
Growing up Jewish in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Kramer has been an atheist since he was a teen. “But being Jewish has made me fascinated in how we have been eliminated during so much of history, just as gays have,” he says. “I write about this to a huge degree in my new book.”
That book, The American People: Volume I, isn’t the first time he’s observed parallels between Jews and gays. During the AIDS epidemic, he wrote 1989’s Reports from the Holocaust: The Story of an AIDS Activist.
It’s been more than 30 years since acquired immune deficiency syndrome was first observed, and a diagnosis of human immunodeficiency virus infection is no longer a death knell—Kramer has been HIV positive for 27 years. Last year the U.S. Supreme Court ruled states cannot discriminate against gays who want to marry, but assessing the changes he’s seen in his lifetime is not a question Kramer likes to answer.
“We still are not a unified united population, so I don’t think that enough has changed to congratulate ourselves,” he writes. “There is still much work to do. That AIDS is still a plague after 35 years proves how powerless we are.”
The 80-year-old makes his first trip to Charlottesville for the Virginia Film Festival screening of the documentary, Larry Kramer in Love and Anger, and for An Evening with Larry Kramer, both November 8.
Kramer says his husband, David Webster, was “heartbroken” he was turned down to study at the University of Virginia, and went to Columbia instead. Webster, an architect, has been here often and is very knowledgeable about the area’s history, says Kramer. “He knows all about Charlottesville and Jefferson, etc.,” he says.
During the inevitable Q&As with Kramer, here’s a tip about a question he hates: How would you like to be remembered? (C-VILLE asked anyway so you won’t have to.)
“I would like my writing to be recognized for its excellence, rather than its controversy,” he says. “I am usually reviewed as a loud-mouthed activist, not as a good writer.”
Fans of his 1969 Oscar-nominated screenplay for D.H. Lawrence’s Women in Love would disagree.
–Lisa Provence
Drawn to distraction: Bill Plympton’s rebellion with a colored pencil
Bill Plympton will be interviewed onstage following a screening of Cheatin’ on Saturday at Newcomb Hall Theater. Plympton will also display some of his original artwork at the festival. Image: Courtesy of Virginia Film Festival
If the Disney Corporation is the safe superego of American animation, then Bill Plympton’s films are its id. As animation conglomerates strive for non-threatening family fare, Plympton’s work remains rye and utterly adult, with berserk sexuality, ridiculous violence and amorphous physiology as his trademarks. Plympton’s iconoclastic films, including The Cow Who Wanted to Be a Hamburger and Santa, the Fascist Years, mark him as a true independent in an increasingly corporate medium.
Film critic Leonard Maltin, who will moderate a Q&A with Plympton at a screening of Plympton’s 2013 film Cheatin’ at this year’s Virginia Film Festival, says “I’ve been a Bill Plympton fan for decades, since he first dipped his toe into animation. I appreciate the fact that his films are so distinctively his. I can’t think of another animator whose work represents a unique style of cartooning the way his do. One look and you know whose film you’re watching. Add to that a wild and crazy sense of the absurd and you have an irresistible mix of ingredients.”
While major studios employ armies of technocrats to craft slick, “realistic” mega-budget CG spectacles, Plympton, 69, eschews computers, and hand-draws approximately 40,000 individual frames for each of his stylized feature films. His cartoons’ sublime, raw, crafted feel adds a human dimension that computers can seldom equal, and although they’re labor-intensive, Plympton’s films cost a tiny fraction of the majors’.
“The film Cheatin’ cost about $400,000 and that’s the budget times one thousand of a Pixar film—$200 million, $300 million,” says Plympton. So, it really is one-one-thousandth of the cost of a big-studio film.” And creating that massive outpouring of artwork for his cartoons “is a pleasure,” Plympton says. “It is so relaxing, so fulfilling, so amusing to draw these characters every day—that they can do really nasty things, bizarre things and dreamy things, and it’s like playing God. And if you can play God for a day, it’s very entertaining.”
As with many successful artists, life can sometimes get in the way. “My problem is, I’ve got to stop drawing and take care of business and do contracts and watch my studio and deal with boring stuff…I almost wish I’d get arrested and thrown in jail because then I wouldn’t be distracted by my drawings,” says Plympton. “I’d be able to get so much more work done.”
Thirty years ago, when Plympton abandoned his illustration career to focus on animation, he was warned that he was entering into a dying medium. Instead, he created an extraordinary niche: His meticulous animation has been lauded since his Academy Award-nominated debut, Your Face (1987). Plympton’s output has been prolific, garnering him two Academy Award nominations, two Palme d’Or nominations at Cannes for Best Short Film and countless other animation awards. He also became a fixture on MTV and animated a Kanye West video, “Hear ’Em Say.” All within a dying medium.
Despite the long list of achievements, Plympton’s sophisticated, acidly funny work has generally been more welcome in Europe. “In America, anyway, animation is strictly a children’s medium,” he says. “And that really offends me—I mean, why can’t America watch cartoons for adults? I’m talking about in movie theaters, not ‘South Park’ or ‘Family Guy.’”
Plympton sees his latest work as an opportunity to change domestic attitudes. “So my goal in making Cheatin’ is to change America’s mindset that animation is just a children’s medium. Not only that, but also the idea that computer animation is the only kind of animation that people want to see. That really bugs the hell out of me, too.”
Ironically, despite how wildly his work differs from major studios’, Plympton doesn’t slip into predictable indie versus corporate diatribes. “I think that How to Train Your Dragon is a masterpiece,” he says. “And Toy Story 3, I was so emotionally involved in that film.” And though some call Plympton “The Anti-Disney,” it’s a misnomer: Plympton adores Walt Disney’s films. “Although Disney wasn’t an animator,” Plympton says, “I wouldn’t be here today without Disney. He was such a genius.”
Plympton’s Cheatin’ cleaves closer to work that he cites as inspirational, such as Bob Clampett and Tex Avery’s films and Yellow Submarine (1968). The film’s plot sprang from an askew romance Plympton once had. “About fifteen years ago, I was dating this girl and it was true love, I thought this would be the love of the century,” he says. “We moved in together, and after about two months, we were ready to strangle each other. And yet I still wanted to have sex with her. I thought that was a very curious relationship to have these two opposite emotions coexist in the same relationship. So I thought I would make a film about this couple who loved each other so much but yet [are] still trying to kill each other. I thought that would be a very entertaining movie.”
As festival-goers approach his films, Plympton says, “I think the most important thing is that I’m an independent animator and I am surviving as an independent and it’s possible these days to make your own film without going to big corporations or big studios. And that’s what I want to talk about.”
–Justin Humphreys
Virginia connections
Doeville
Image Courtesy of Virginia Film Festival
Doeville, directed by Kathyrn Pasternak, kicks off the Virginia-connected lineup by telling the story of eccentric deer farmer Gail Rose, who calls the Shenandoah Valley home. The film offers “insights into the lives of all small farmers, their joy and struggles, and their passion for their work,” says Pasternak. The uplifting tale hones in on the personality of Rose, who carries on the unpredictable life of a deer farmer as a promise to her late husband.
Rappahannock
Image Courtesy of Virginia Film Festival
On the environmental bill for Virginia films is Rappahannock. Directed by Oscar-nominated Bayley Silleck, it captures the history and cultural significance of the Rappahannock River watershed, dating back to pre-colonial society, and examines the environmental issues it faces in the 21st century. “We have seen firsthand the way films like Rappahannock inspire audiences to get involved with environmental issues,” says conservationist Woodie Walker, who will lead a discussion following the screening.
Coming Through the Rye, Elemental
Coming Through the Rye Image: Courtesy of Virginia Film Festival
What do a coming-of-age story to hunt down J.D. Salinger and an 11-minute short on matters of the heart have in common? Virginia filmmaker Eric Hurt, who acts as director of photography for Coming Through the Rye and is the director of the short film Elemental, which screens before The Lady in the Van. Hurt compares the two working roles in terms of stress, creativity and emotional connectedness.
Working as head of visuals for Coming Through the Rye, a tale of a 16-year-old in 1969 struggling to fit in at boarding school, “offered a lot of creative freedom without some of the stress that comes with directing,” Hurt says. “My focus can be narrow and I have instant feedback on how the scene will look and feel since it’s lit right in front of me.”
Elemental Image: Courtesy of Virginia Film Festival
Directing both the cast and photography for Elemental, which delivers a simple message while employing the use of magical realism, differed greatly from writing.“I’ve never been able to separate the visuals from the story,” explains Hurt on why he shoots films that he writes and directs. This proves especially true in his cinema short, which was inspired by a family situation. “As a director you definitely take your work home,” he says. “It’s all you think about and you’re much more emotionally invested.”
Southeast 67
Image Courtesy of Virginia Film Festival
Personal stories define the documentary Southeast 67, directed by local filmmaker Betsy Cox. The movie combines raw footage and photographs with present-day interviews of African-American students who were heavily affected by the crack cocaine epidemic in Washington, D.C. Cox was drawn to the story “not only for the amazing resiliency demonstrated by the kids in the face of overwhelming odds, but for the wisdom they bring to those experiences now as adults.” The narrative spans two decades to reveal the struggle of attempting to realize the dream of a college education while coping with the reality of an environment riddled with violence, poverty and addiction.
Return to Cuba
Image Courtesy of Virginia Film Festival
Ross McDermott’s documentary Return to Cuba is a visually dynamic film sponsored by LOOK3 that began as coverage of a group of world-renowned photographers following in the footsteps of Walker Evans, who shot a documentary in Cuba in 1933. The project developed into an intricate film that offers a unique perspective on the complexity of the cultural landscape in Cuba. “We certainly live in a more visually inundated culture with the bombardment of photographs, TV and movies,” says McDermott. “It’s interesting that Evans’ work from Cuba remains relevant in the 21st century, while the book he was sent to illustrate has faded from history.”
Daydreaming
Image Courtesy of Virginia Film Festival
Charlottesville’s Sister Cities Commission partners with VFF for the episodic piece Daydreaming, set in Prato, Tuscany. Terri Anne Di Cintio, co-chair of CSCC, explains that the film is “made by filmmakers from our Italian sister city of Poggio a Caiano,” and that “Sogni di gloria [the film’s Italian name] celebrates the region.” The Italian work tells a tale of friendship and faith through the lives of two men named Giulio and is followed by a discussion with director Patrizio Gioffredi, screenwriter Lorenzo Orlandini and director of photography Duccio Burberi.
Incumbent Albemarle Commonwealth’s Attorney Denise Lunsford lost to Republican challenger Robert Tracci by 515 votes in a closely watched race, while other county Democratic candidates sailed to victory. Lunsford received nearly 49 percent of the vote to Tracci’s 51 percent.
Another constitutional officer, incumbent Clerk of Court Debbie Shipp, running as an independent, lost by an even bigger margin. Shipp took 26 percent of the vote in a four-way race, with Dem Jon Zug claiming 50 percent of the ballots cast.
In the Albemarle Board of Supervisors Rivanna District race, Norman Dill narrowly defeated Richard Lloyd. Democrat Dill took 48 percent of the vote to Republican Lloyd’s nearly 46 percent, and independent Lawrence Gaughan received 6 percent.
In the Scottsville District, Dem Rick Randolph bested Republican Earl Smith with 57 percent of the vote.
In the Charlottesville City Council race, unsurprisingly the Democratic ticket with Wes Bellamy, Kathy Galvin and Mike Signer swept to victory.
Pro Re Nata Brewery will celebrate its four-day grand opening November 4 with six beers on tap, including the Old Trail Pale Ale and the Beans Deep Coffee Stout. Photo: Tom McGovern
Pro Re Nata Farm Brewery makes its debut in Crozet
Local dentist John Schoeb wanted to open a business that makes people smile more than cringe. So, naturally, he opened a brewery. Schoeb filled us in on his plans for the former Moose Lodge space back in the spring, and we checked back just in time for Pro Re Nata Farm Brewery’s four-day grand opening starting Wednesday, November 4.
Schoeb joined the industry because he loves beer and the local scene, but he doesn’t pretend to be a brewer himself. He brought on Brad Hulewicz, formerly of Mad Fox Brewing Company, as brewmaster, plus American Brewers Guild graduate and operations manager Brian Combs plans to be involved with the beer-making process soon. Aside from requesting that the menu include at least three “easy-drinking” beers, Schoeb takes a hands-off approach and lets the experts do their thing.
“I’ve got the right people doing it. I don’t even touch it,” he says of the brewing process. “I’m hands-off with almost the whole business. I just stop in and have a beer and let them run it.”
Pro Re Nata (Latin for “as needed”) has been quietly serving up four brews during its soft opening the last few weeks, and by the time it’s open, it will have six on the menu. The Claudius Crozet Cream Ale definitely falls into the easy-drinking category, as does the Doctor’s Orders German Lager. Also available are the Old Trail Pale Ale and Hop Drone IPA for all the hopheads, plus the Beans Deep Coffee Stout featuring Trager Brothers coffee and a holiday-spiced ale.
The brewery is divided into three rooms of sorts: an outdoor patio with tables, chairs and a fire pit, a family-style room with booths and a stack of board games and kids’ books in the corner and, of course, the bar, with high-top pub tables, TVs for the sports fans and an up-close-and-personal view of the seven-barrel brewing system right next to the L-shaped bar.
“We intentionally left it open,” Combs says. “We wanted to let customers witness the beer-brewing process.”
Zoning regulations prevent farm breweries from serving meals, so Schoeb also came up with Over The Counter (OTC), a 49′ food truck parked outside Pro Re Nata. OTC’s menu will rotate seasonally, so in addition to the classic black bean burger, Philly cheesesteak and juicy, tender grilled chicken sandwich (which chef Kenneth Taylor will dress up with bacon, pepper jack cheese, jalapenos and aioli upon request), expect to see soups and hearty stews in the coming months.
Check out the Pro Re Nata Brewery Facebook page (www.facebook.com/prorenatabrewery) for more information and updates about the grand opening and happy hour specials.
King (of the) crabs
Seafood-lovers have been stopping Ted Anderson everywhere—in the grocery store, on the soccer field, at restaurants—for months, desperately asking how they can get their hands on his family’s famous she-crab soup and crab-and-shrimp cheeseballs. The family launched Anderson’s Catering after Anderson’s Carriage Food House closed last year, but with catering slowing down in the winter, Anderson says he wanted to offer another option to his loyal customers.
On Fridays (11am-5pm) and Saturdays (11am-2pm), Anderson is stationed under a tent in the parking lot at 450 Greenbrier Drive, selling fresh seafood, smoked fish and prepared items with a cult following such as his crab cakes and deviled crabs. Stay tuned for more updates from the Andersons, and in the meantime, check out www.andersons cateringcharlottesville.com for updates and information about preordering.
The Mira early-music sing-in led by Raven Hunter (center) takes place on Saturday at The Haven. Photo: Publicity photo
The term early music mostly refers to Medieval and Renaissance compositions, and it’s easy to imagine it as haunting choral melodies echoing off the vaulted ceilings of a stone cathedral in the 15th century. Other-worldly? Yes. Imposing? Pretty much. But this week, one of Charlottesville’s early-music ensembles, Mira, is taking a different approach to the tradition by staging a Saturday afternoon sing-in.
Though early music continues to attract fans, it has never quite garnered the mainstream following of Romantic or other classical traditions. Locally, however, there is a rich tradition of early-music ensembles. “I called some of the singers that I knew [who] wanted more early music, and they brought in a few others, and the word got out,” says Mira founder Raven Hunter. That was 10 years ago, and, according to Hunter, “The core of the group has been together the whole time. We have a huge repertoire, so when a new member comes on board, there needs to be a deep commitment.”
As a group, Mira performs compositions that are polyphonic—featuring two or more independent vocal melodies—and unaccompanied by instruments. Like past Mira concerts, the sing-in event will feature a performance by the ensemble, with one major change: Attendees of all ages and levels of experience will be invited to join in the singing.
In fact, embracing the amateur as part of the performance is a fitting homage to the roots of early music. For centuries, inclusivity was an integral part of the form, until a move to professionalize it began in the mid-1900s. Since then, the collective, participatory nature of early music is often lost in modern performances that feature trained choral singers.
Although “it can seem fairly difficult to singers who are not used to singing unaccompanied, or who are used to many singing vertical harmonies,” according to Hunter, there will be a variety of ways to enjoy the sing-in. “There will be places for confident singers on the stage, and people who want to sing from the audience or just listen, [they] can do that, too,” she says. Either way, the performance will be immersive and unlike most that you’ve attended in the past.
The ensemble’s members are known as Mirans, a term that, like the group’s name, plays off the Latin word miraculis—or, as we write it, miraculous. Hunter herself is also heavily involved in the local music community, ranging from her roles as a performing musician to those of music director at a local church and a certified therapeutic music practitioner. The other singers in the ensemble number somewhere between 10 and 20 at any given time.
“Many of us enjoy the variety of music that Raven chooses,” says one of the original Mirans, David Slezak. “There are beautiful four-, six-, and eight-part pieces with roots in church music. But one can always expect some lighter English country dance pieces, even drinking songs.”
Though ensemble members are especially interested in English and Flemish compositions from the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, they have been known to perform works by more contemporary composers, such as Benjamin Britten. “Programming is and always has been very exciting for me,” says Hunter. “We do some secular music, of course…a madrigal here and there.”
Selections for the sing-in will be taken from The Oxford Book of Tudor Anthems. Originally published in 1978, the songbook is an essential resource on early music and includes a variety of compositions. Songs will include “Ave Maria,” “Justorum Animae” and “Sing Joyfully.” “There is something about the music of this period that is so very spirit-centered. The world was still focused on what, to my mind, is more real—a mystical approach to music,” says Hunter.
Though Mira has performed in the Washington National Cathedral, the group is committed to offering local performances for the Charlottesville community as well, and is hopeful the sing-in might become an annual tradition. “We’re hoping that this might bring the music of this period to a wider range of singers,” Hunter says.
Copies of The Oxford Book of Tudor Anthems will be available to borrow at the event on a first-come, first-served basis. The songbook is also widely available by special order through your local bookseller, or occasionally found in used bookstores. Free choral and vocal scores of select compositions are also available on the Choral Public Domain Library.
The most hotly contested county race between Dem incumbent Commonwealth's Attorney Denise Lunsford and Republican Robert Tracci got hotter over the weekend.
The week before the election, the Albemarle County commonwealth’s attorney race exploded with lawsuits, threats of suits and last-minute retorts in ads between the campaigns of incumbent Denise Lunsford and challenger Robert Tracci.
“The good news is that we have some excitement in local races,” says Richmond Sunlight creator and longtime local political observer Waldo Jaquith.
First was the Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by a Richmond attorney October 29.
On October 30, the Schilling Show reports that a Lunsford television ad uses images of Albemarle police officers, including Colonel Steve Sellers, without their consent and implying their endorsement. That ad is edited to include the text “no endorsement implied or intended.”
That same day, Lunsford’s campaign manager, Thomas Cross, writes Tracci to demand that a television ad be pulled for a “false and defamatory statement” that Lunsford “intentionally” withheld evidence that exonerated Mark Weiner, who spent two and a half years in jail before his conviction for abduction was set aside. The letter also notes that Lunsford has retained powerhouse law firm McGuireWoods in the event Tracci does not edit or remove the ad.
Undeterred, Tracci campaign manager John Darden fires back October 31 with a missive pointing to widespread media coverage of the Weiner case, including excerpts from Slate and C-VILLE, which detail how Lunsford successfully kept out testimony about cell towers that Weiner supporters believe would have demonstrated the woman who accused him of abduction was likely at her mother’s home rather than in the abandoned house where she claimed Weiner had taken her. Darden says Lunsford’s claims are without legal merit and an attempt to stifle public debate.
By November 1, Lunsford releases another ad that accuses Tracci of basing his campaign on a single case—presumably Weiner—and running a “false and defamatory” ad that disregards a court record that affirms her actions in the case. And she points out that Tracci has never been lead counsel in a felony trial.
“It’s not just one case, Ms. Lunsford” declares the November 2 press release from Camp Tracci, which says although it might just be one case for Lunsford, it was much more to Weiner, who lost his freedom, home, savings and time with his family.
Jaquith says he’s not seen the threat of a defamation suit in local elections in the past 20 years. “What’s unusual in the commonwealth’s attorney race is that they’re both attorneys,” he says. “I wonder if the threats of legal action bolster one’s credibility as an attorney.” But to many voters, he says, “I have to imagine at this point it seems like a silly spat.”
If Tracci’s point is to raise concerns about Lunsford, says Jaquith, he’s been successful. “If you want to run for reelection as the steady hand, having all this chaos thrown in the final days of the campaign” is not helpful, he says.
Tracci says he had nothing to do with the FOIA lawsuit, the timing of which looks suspect, says Jaquith, who predicts that the lawsuit will disappear after the election.
Will the last-minute attack ads sway voters? “With a local, low turnout election,” says Jaquith, “the actual number who can be influenced is quite small.”
C-VILLE goes to press November 3 before election results will be in.
The prep work to hang the Blade at the Paramount is underway. Staff photo
Signs and sandwich boards on the historic Downtown Mall may soon be outshone by the reinstallation of a much anticipated, 33-foot sign at the Paramount Theater.
As the theater celebrates its 10th anniversary of reopening, construction crews prepare to bring back the Blade—a $175,000 project to put the Paramount’s iconic blade sign back in its place. This vertical symbol hung above the marquee from 1931, when the theater was built, until the 1960s.
While companies Nielsen, Schickel and Hightech Signs are overseeing the installment, they aren’t quite ready to hang the Blade.
“I don’t think they have raised enough money,” says Pete Foster from Hightech Signs. He says the crews currently are working on pre-installation, so when the sign is ready, they won’t have to waste any time putting it up. The Paramount is aiming to hang the sign by December, he adds.
Rosemary Miller, the Paramount’s assistant director of development, says through Bring Back the Blade button sales and individual contributions, they have raised $103,556. She adds that the campaign ends on December 15 at an illumination celebration, in which the blade will be lit for the first time.
