UVA drama's new play hits the stage at Ruth Caplin Theatre. Supplied photo
All that you can’t leave behind: What if you had to say goodbye to Earth forever? In UVA Drama’s How to Live on Earth, four contestants win the opportunity of a lifetime—a trip to Mars—with the condition that they stay there forever. Playwright MJ Kaufman drew inspiration from the Mars One project and reality TV shows like “Big Brother” when writing this touching play that explores the urge to discover new frontiers, our connections to the world we live in, and giving your life for a greater cause. UVA’s production, directed by Matt Radford Davies, utilizes the theater’s unique thrust-stage design to give audience members a fishbowl-like perspective. “They are very much like viewers of this experiment,” says Davies.
The Daughters of Zion Cemetery is among the historical sites that runners and walkers will pass during the Reparations Fun Run/Walk. Photo: Natalie Jacobsen
Running for repair
On March 3, 1865, Union army troops arrived in Charlottesville, liberating over 14,000 enslaved people—more than half of the city and Albemarle County’s population.
In celebration of Liberation and Freedom Day, the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center is hosting its second annual Reparations Fun Run/Walk from March 1 through 6. The 9.7-mile route takes runners and walkers past over a dozen local Black historical sites, including First Baptist Church, Daughters of Zion Cemetery, Washington Park, Jackson P. Burley Middle School, and the Kitty Foster Memorial. Participants are encouraged to stop by the city’s Black-owned restaurants, like Mel’s Cafe and Royalty Eats, along the way.
“There are monuments to Blackness in this town—the question is are they visible?” says Andrea Douglas, executive director of the Jefferson School. “What that course does is say to us that these spaces are not in easy view…but they’re there and we need to recognize them.”
“People need to revisit these sites over and over,” she adds.
Participants in the 9.7-mile event are encouraged to stop at Black-owned restaurants, like Mel Walker’s Mel’s Cafe. Photo: John Robinson
The Jefferson School aims to raise $45,000 to support seven local Black-led organizations: African American Teaching Fellows, the Jefferson School’s teacher training program, the Albemarle-Charlottesville NAACP’s youth council, the Public Housing Association of Residents, Vinegar Hill Magazine’s Black business advertising fund, We Code Too, and 101.3 JAMZ. Last year, the event raised $22,000.
“We are trying to address all of the areas of concern in the African American community that are being dealt with by African American-led organizations,” says Douglas.
To kick off Liberation and Freedom Day, Descendants of Enslaved Communities at UVA will lead a discussion about African American spirituals at the university’s Memorial to Enslaved Laborers. The Jefferson School will also host the first community engagement session for the Swords Into Plowshares project—which will melt down the Robert E. Lee statue, and transform it into a new public artwork—as well as an art exhibition on climate justice.
Douglas ultimately hopes the festivities will push the community to not only “focus on African American history,” but “think about what repair looks like.”
Schools brace for life without masks
Starting March 1, masks will be optional at all Virginia public schools, under Governor Glenn Youngkin’s new state law.
Charlottesville City Schools and Albemarle County Public Schools will continue to strongly recommend mask wearing, but will not be allowed to require students to mask up—that choice will be up to their parents.
“As mandated, the decision on whether a child will wear a mask in school will be made and enforced at home, not at school,” wrote ACPS Superintendent Matt Haas in an email to the school division last week. “Students will not be questioned at school about this choice.”
A used medical facemask hangs on a wood lecture chair in the empty classroom during the COVID-19 pandemic
In accordance with federal law, masks will still be mandated on school buses in both districts. Employees and visitors must also continue to mask up on school property.
Youngkin signed the new bill last week, after attempting to end school mask mandates by executive order on his first day as governor. Both local school districts immediately pushed back against the executive order, and issued statements confirming they were keeping their mask mandates in place, in compliance with Virginia Senate Bill 1303. The now-overturned law required public schools to follow the CDC’s mitigation recommendations.
Most Democratic lawmakers opposed Youngkin’s ruling, but a handful helped the anti-mask bill pass the Democratic-controlled state Senate.
“Based on the strong feedback in favor of masking that we’ve received, we anticipate most students to continue masking,” wrote CCS Superintendent Royal Gurley, Jr., in an email. “Although the numbers look better today than in January, our community transmission is still classified as ‘high.’”—Brielle Entzminger
New polling offers VA temperature check
How are we feeling, everybody? With the General Assembly hashing out the future of Virginia from Richmond, voters weighed in on key policy issues in a new batch of polls from Christopher Newport University’s Wason Center for Civic Leadership.
Perceptions about the state of Virginia were somewhat pessimistic and largely divided along party lines. Forty-five percent of voters (and just 22 percent of Democrats) believe Virginia is headed in the right direction while 41 percent (80 percent of Republicans) think the opposite. Republicans overwhelmingly approve of Governor Glenn Youngkin’s performance (85 percent), whereas Democrats overwhelmingly disapprove (81 percent). Voters were particularly gloomy when asked about the direction of the country, with 67 percent saying the U.S. is headed in the wrong direction.
Support is high for Youngkin’s proposal to repeal the 2.5 percent grocery tax, with the majority favoring either a total repeal (47 percent) or giving tax credits to low-income residents (25 percent). With the current budget surplus, most voters (59 percent) want the extra money to be spent on education, public safety, and social services rather than returned in the form of tax cuts (38 percent).
But schools remain a policy battleground. While a majority of respondents agree on mandating vaccines for teachers, around 50 percent oppose mandatory vaccines for students. Youngkin’s ban on the teaching of critical race theory in public schools—implemented on his first day in office—saw minimal support (35 percent) and significant opposition (57 percent), but Republicans’ desire to station a police officer in every school was met with overwhelming support, with 70 percent of respondents in favor.—Maryann Xue
Do do do, do-do-do do dooo…
Third-year UVA classics major Megan Sullivan competed in the “Jeopardy! National College Championship” last week, testing her knowledge against other sharp undergrads from around the country. Sullivan made it to the semifinals of the event, correctly answering questions about Edgar Allan Poe and Shaquille O’Neal before being eliminated when asked about the 1928 D.H. Lawrence novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover. (It’s alright Megan, we didn’t know that one either.)
Megan Sullivan. Supplied photo
In brief
Cops still short-staffed
The Charlottesville Police Department, citing staffing shortages, says it won’t be able to respond to certain non-emergency calls, and that dispatchers will instead instruct callers to submit their comment or request through an online service portal. The department reports that 24 percent of its sworn positions are currently unfilled, and the city still has not hired a permanent police chief since RaShall Brackney’s departure in the fall.
Brackney’s next move
Brackney announced on LinkedIn last week that she is retiring from policing. She was controversially fired from her post in Charlottesville last October, and has since threatened to sue the city for the manner in which she was laid off. Brackney says she’s accepted a post as a visiting professor of practice at George Mason University, and is working on a book which will be titled The Bruising of America: When Black, White and Blue Collide.
RaShall Brackney. Photo: Eze Amos
Down with it
Local COVID cases have continued to decline since the peak of a major winter surge in the middle of January. Monday saw the seven-day rolling average of new cases in the region drop to 51, the lowest its been since November. Vaccinations and testing are available throughout the week—visit the Virginia Department of Health website for details.
Peas in a pod
Astronauts need hummus, too: On Saturday, NASA launched chickpea seeds—and a custom-made mini greenhouse—from Virginia State University’s College of Agriculture all the way to the International Space Station. The researchers hope to learn more about whether chickpeas can be cultivated in space.
Martize Tolbert says the Fountain Fund aims to reduce recidivism through favorable loans. Photo: Eze Amos
After being released from prison, Hines Washington started a moving business—Hines’s Family Movers. As his business grew, Washington needed office space, but he couldn’t afford it. And, as a recently incarcerated individual, he found it difficult to secure a loan.
Washington turned to the Fountain Fund, a local nonprofit dedicated to giving low-interest consumer, vehicle, and business loans to formerly incarcerated individuals in Charlottesville and surrounding counties.
“When I came to the Fountain Fund, their arms were open,” says Washington. “They didn’t question what I did, how long I was locked up, or anything. When people come home from being incarcerated, all we want is an opportunity.”
Over the past year, Washington has also used loans from the fund to buy a new moving truck, as well as buses for his new second business, Hines’s Entertainment and Tours.
The Fountain Fund reached a milestone this year: It has distributed more than $1 million in loans to 200 formerly incarcerated individuals since 2017. Formerly incarcerated people also sit on the fund’s board, staff, and loan review committee, directly steering its programs and policies. It is currently the only nonprofit in the country that offers formerly incarcerated individuals access to capital.
The organization hopes to depress the area’s recidivism rate. Around the country, two-thirds of incarcerated people are arrested again within three years of their release. And locally, one in three people booked at the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail between 2012 and 2016 returned to custody within those four years.
“If you go anywhere else [for a loan], there’s 24 to 35 percent interest—that’s really killing people,” explains Martize Tolbert, who was one of the organization’s first loan recipients and now serves as its community engagement director. “Individuals seek out the Fountain Fund because they can’t go to traditional banks, and because of the relationship and mutuality that we have. And our 3 to 5 percent interest helps as well.”
“The money that comes in here gets recycled to somebody else,” he adds. “Our operational costs are run by funders and donors.”
The fund’s model has largely proven to be a success—85 percent of its loans are currently in good standing. Most clients have significantly improved their credit scores and their financial literacy.
“We understand that we’re going to take some losses [due to] people’s behavior and different things, but it’s not even about that with us,” says Tolbert. “We’re lending and selling hope.”
The Fountain Fund is one of a handful of organizations in Charlottesville dedicated to assisting people after they’ve been incarcerated. The Charlottesville Area Community ID Program helps recently released individuals secure photo identification, and the City of Charlottesville runs a program called Home to Hope, which connects people with clothing vouchers, hygiene necessities, and other resources.
In addition to loans, the Fountain Fund runs a peer mentorship program, which partners veteran clients with new ones, as well as an emergency assistance program for all clients. Tolbert also regularly visits local jails to teach wellness and recovery classes to incarcerated individuals. This year, the nonprofit will expand its service area to Richmond, as well as open a satellite office—in partnership with The First 72+, which offers reentry services—in New Orleans.
“We all know addiction and all these different behaviors are non-linear, so people are going to struggle going up, and they may even fall back off to go back up—but that support is crucial,” says Tolbert. “To have someone believe in you, that has been there through the things that you’ve been through, is everything.”
There’s little that disappoints us more than a well-loved, local restaurant that’s gone before its time. Mangione’s on Main, known for an inviting ambiance as well as the quality of its hearty Italian cuisine, closed its doors just shy of the restaurant’s third anniversary.
“Our lease was ending, and we knew that we did not have it in us to sign up for a long-term commitment,” says co-owner Elaina Mangione. “We are very proud and fortunate to say that we were able to stay open and serve the community in addition to keeping most of our staff fully employed during the challenges of the pandemic. We had an amazing team and we couldn’t be more proud of them.”
While patrons are going to miss everything from the bold linguini with clam sauce to the more traditional spaghetti aglio e olio, Mangione says foodies should “stay tuned!” and teases at something new on the horizon. “Something really amazing is likely taking over the space and we cannot wait to welcome them to the community,” she says.
Brew’s through
The team at Wild Wolf Brewing Company sold its last pint at the end of January after more than 10 years in business. Wild Wolf Brewery was created when entrepreneur Mary Wolf and her son Danny came into ownership of a 100-year-old Nelson County schoolhouse. The pair converted the building into a brewery and event space, and went on to produce a variety of award-winning ales and lagers. After so much success, the Wolf family decided to sell its brewing headquarters and ceased operations on January 30.
It’s like a foodie court on the mall
On the flip side of beer news, Rockfish Brewing Co. is expanding its business to a new downtown location (on one side of the former Downtown Grille). This announcement comes shortly after it won second prize at the Crozet Winter Brews Festival for its Nice Marmot Imperial Stout. Rockfish will be the first brewery to have its own storefront on the mall, and aims to open in April.
Adjacent to Rockfish’s new digs is a neighbor with a familiar menu. The Bebedero has moved its location downstairs to occupy the other part of the former Downtown Grille space, and will be serving its traditional Mexican recipes at the newly remodeled restaurant in February.
Tucked into the CODE Building plaza is the new permanent kitchen from FARMacy Food Truck. FARMacy will continue to serve organic Mexican food to go, with a menu of fan favorites from the mobile edition, while doubling down on its commitment to organic, locally sourced ingredients. Owners Jessica and Gabino Lino’s “food is medicine, so eat good food” philosophy, along with their initial success, proves that you can take the food out of the food truck, but you can’t take the farm out of the FARMacy. Right next door is Ooey Gooey Crispy, the next-level spot for grown-up grilled cheese, soups, salads, and breakfast sammies. Try the Neo-politan, with mozz, tomato conserva, and Parmesan butter, or a buffalo chicken and blue cheese ’wich named for Scott Norwood, the infamous Buffalo Bills’ kicker.
Shreddin’ it forward: Growing up in Agadez, a desert village in rural Niger, Mdou Moctar built himself a guitar after seeing YouTube videos of Eddie Van Halen performing. Moctar combined Van Halen’s six-string techniques with traditional Taureg melodies to create a modern Saharan-rock sound, full of rhythmic drums, epic guitar shreds, and plenty of noise. Moctar gained a following in West Africa when his music was shared via mobile phone data cards, a popular form of local music distribution. His eponymous band’s 2021 record, Afrique Victime, is sung in Tamasheq and contains musings on love, women’s rights, and Western Africa’s exploitation by colonial powers. Promoting music is a cause near and dear to Moctar’s heart—when he returns home, he often gives local kids his gear from touring so they can form their own bands.
Saturday 2/26. $20-25, 8pm. The Jefferson Theater, 110 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. jeffersontheater.com
Charlottesville is getting more expensive, and fast. In the fourth quarter of 2017, the median sales price for a home in the Charlottesville area was $286,000. In the fourth quarter of 2021, the median sales price for the region was $369,000—a 29 percent increase in just four years.
Those rising prices affect everyone in the city, whether or not you’re buying or selling a home. Increased sale prices drive up the value of neighboring homes, which in turn increases the amount homeowners owe in real estate taxes. In January, the city announced that average residential property assessments rose 11.69 percent from last year to this year.
Meanwhile, seeking to generate revenue for major projects like a renovation of Buford Middle School, the City of Charlottesville is considering raising the real estate tax by as much as 10.5 percent. Currently, Charlottesville taxes real estate at 95 cents per $100 of assessed value. The city has said it could raise the rate to $1.05.
A little back-of-the-napkin math shows how the increased assessments and potential tax increase might affect an average homeowner. If you own a property that was assessed at 350,000 in 2021, you owed $3,325 in real estate taxes. If that property’s assessment increased by 12 percent, and real estate taxes increased by 10 cents, your 2022 real estate taxes would be $4,116, or $791 more than you paid the year before.
End of fourth quarter median sale price, Charlottesville area (2017-21)
Sale prices in the CAAR region, which includes Charlottesville, Albemarle, Fluvanna, Louisa, Nelson, and Greene, have risen in recent years. Source: CAAR
“There are lots of wealthier people in Charlottesville who can afford it,” says City Councilor Michael Payne, “but there’s also definitely a lot of people who it’s going to be a real hit for.”
Real estate assessments are entirely based on the real estate market, says City Assessor Jeff Davis. “We witnessed, this year, a very strong real estate market,” Davis says, and the increased assessments reflect the increased sale prices of homes in the city over the last year. From 2020 to 2021, residential property assessments rose 3.8 percent, compared to the 11.69 percent increase from 2021 to 2022.
“We have the city broken up into neighborhoods, and we look at these neighborhoods and determine from the sales where assessments need to change,” Davis says. Neighborhoods where assessments rose at particularly sharp rates include Orangedale—comprised of Orangedale Avenue and neighboring streets, on the city’s map—which saw assessments jump 24 percent. Rose Hill, the neighborhood between Burley Middle School and Preston Avenue, and University/Maury, which encompasses Jefferson Park Avenue and its smaller offshoots, each saw 18 percent increases.
Orangedale, Rose Hill, and University/Maury are three neighborhoods that saw particularly sharp increases in residential real estate assessments this year. Photos: Eze Amos
“It’s like any other product,” says Pam Dent, president of the Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors. “Supply and demand is going to result in rising prices…The market has been really strong, and we’ve had extremely low inventory.”
It’s not just a Charlottesville phenomenon. Assessments jumped in Albemarle County, too. The county, which taxes real estate at 85.4 cents per $100 of assessed value, saw residential real estate assessments rise by 8.4 percent this year. Around the country, the median home sale price has risen 21 percent since the end of 2017.
The tight market “hasn’t happened overnight,” says Dent. The 2008 recession slowed new construction, just as Charlottesville was becoming an even more popular place to live, she says. Rising interest rates encouraged people to stay put, and the onset of the pandemic “put it all on steroids,” as supply chain issues disrupted construction further.
“You’ve got the same dynamics that have been creating the affordable housing crisis just accelerating,” says Payne.
CAAR’s fourth quarter report for 2021 provides more detailed data on the lack of new homes for sale. “In the CAAR footprint, there were 436 active listings in the region at the end of the fourth quarter, which is 213 fewer active listings than a year ago, a decline of 33%,” the report states. “The Charlottesville region remains one of the tightest housing markets in the state. Inventory is now just a third of what it was four years ago.”
The average time a house spends on the market has fallen significantly over the last few years as well. In the fourth quarter of 2017, houses stayed on the market an average of 79 days. In the fourth quarter of 2021, the average time was just 31 days.
A few days after the year’s new assessment data was published, City Council took the first steps toward raising the real estate tax. The councilors have not yet decided how much to raise the rate, if at all, but in order to meet their ambitious capital improvement goals, council will need new sources of income. A public hearing is scheduled for March 21 to discuss the potential tax rate increase further.
Payne says improving the city’s real estate tax relief program is one crucial way to ease the pressure caused by increased assessments and potential new taxes.
“We don’t have any plan to make our real estate tax relief programs robust enough to prevent harm to those who can’t afford this,” he says.
Currently, those with homes assessed at $375,000 or below can qualify for real estate tax relief. Expanding that program requires an amendment to pass through the Virginia General Assembly.
Dent says CAAR does not take a position on real estate tax increases either way, but posits that a tax rate increase will have knock-on effects. “Renters will see increases in their leases based on tax increases, and consumers will see increased costs for services and labor from increased overhead.”
Payne also says it’s important that the city consider creating other forms of revenue beyond raising taxes, and thinks looking to the general assembly and UVA could be crucial. With so much turnover in the city’s management, long-range planning has been difficult.
Creating revenue “without putting the squeeze on working class people in the city” is “not an easy task, and it’s not going to happen in one budget cycle,” says Payne, “but one of the realities we have to confront is we haven’t done nearly enough long-range strategic planning.”
For the moment, “it’s the strongest seller’s market that I’ve ever seen,” Dent says.
Updated 2/23 to correct an error in reporting the real estate tax rate in Albemarle County.
Smooth sax: Tenor saxophonist Charles Owens has been performing, composing, and teaching music for over 25 years. Owens got his start in New York, where he attended The New School. He’s released nine albums and regularly performs at venues in Charlottesville and Richmond, bringing listeners peace and happiness through the rich, mellow sounds of his saxophone. The intimate evening performance also features Brian Caputo on drums, Daniel Clarke on piano, and Andrew Randazzo on upright bass.
Friday 2/25. $15, 8pm. The Front Porch, 221 E. Water St., frontporchcville.org
Visitors to The Fralin are greeted by “Structures and Open Window: Emilio Sanchez on Paper.” Supplied photo
By Matt Dhillon
Since The Fralin Museum of Art at UVA was built in 1935, it’s had to close its doors a few times—once during World War II and again in the ’60s when the space was requisitioned for classrooms. In 2020, the growing pandemic shut the museum down for a third time.
“There’s certainly nothing in anyone’s living memory that could have prepared us or given us a guidebook on how to deal with a global pandemic, as a museum or any kind of institution,” says Matthew McLendon, the museum’s director and chief curator.
When The Fralin reopened its physical galleries on August 28, 2021, it was a changed world, and the museum found itself changed within it. “What we take from art depends on where we are in our own lives and what we need from it,” McLendon says. Art can be a source of change, a source of defiance, a source of beauty, or a source of renewal.
For 17 months, the physical space had been closed as the world sat in quarantine, and as the building underwent renovations. During that time, The Fralin continued in virtual space, working to develop online programming, lectures, and video tours to adapt to the new environment.
That transition was eye-opening in its own way, particularly in the matter of improving accessibility. “Immediately, on social media, we got reactions from the disabled community and people with physical disabilities saying, ‘For the first time ever, this museum is accessible to me in a much more meaningful, easier way,’ and ‘Please don’t stop this programming once open again,’” says McLendon.
That period also marked a shift in how the museum thought about its responsibilities, he says. After the murder of George Floyd and the rise of the social justice movement around the world, the museum put work into the changes it wanted to make as an institution, including a greater focus on its diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion work, and centering traditionally marginalized voices, not only on its walls, but also in the way the institution operates.
One responsibility is thinking critically about holding objects in public trust, and how to engage the cultures these objects belong to. “One of the things we’ve already talked about is we have these incredible objects of history from what is today Afghanistan and Pakistan, and we have communities in Charlottesville from Afghanistan and Pakistan—so how do we bring them in to talk about this [Gandharan] show or react to this show,” McLendon says.
Curators Laura Minton, Adriana Greci Green, and Hannah Cattarin worked with McLendon to offer a strong comeback for the museum as it emerged from its pandemic lockdown. A new round of exhibitions were installed on February 6, giving five of the museum’s seven galleries fresh shows.
On the first floor, visitors are greeted with the geometries of the built environment, and invited to consider how the things around us are constructed in “Structures and Open Window: Emilio Sanchez on Paper.” Some of the constructs the exhibition asks us to think about are race, social and institutional power, and, more abstractly, the duality of design and nature.
Immediately behind that, the visitor is confronted with the nude human body in “Focus On: Laura Aguilar.”
“These are so powerful to me in how they speak to the new femme throughout history and moving into photography,” says Cattarin. “There’s a way that all of the myriad implications that she embodies, a fat, queer, Chicana, nuero-divergent, individual, was, in these spaces, pushing back against this history of the new femme in the landscape.”
Upstairs, in the main gallery, “Alternative Futures” plays on loop, a video-based social critique spanning four works visualizing a more equitable world with the understanding that imagination leads to creation.
Adjoining the main gallery, visitors can meander through a variety of themes. “Gandharan Sculpture” reflects on the Gandharan region of what is now northwest Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan, which was famed for its artistic achievement; “Beyond Pictorialism” frames the history of photography in its transition from a documentary tool to an artistic medium; “Nostalgia U.S.A.,” curated by the university’s students, examines how we remember the past and sometimes construct the past.
Under McLendon’s leadership, The Fralin has also strengthened its ties to UVA’s Kluge-Ruhe collection. Kluge-Ruhe curator Henry Skerritt gives credit to McLendon for his commitment to diversity in what The Fralin presents.
“It’s been an amazing experience working with an institution that recognizes that contemporary art today is global, and that artists in remote parts of Australia have as much right to be shown in museums as any artist,” Skerritt said.
The Kluge-Ruhe collection begins a national tour on September 4 at the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College with “Madayin,” an exhibition that includes some of Australia’s most iconic works of art.
“What makes this exhibition really special is that it has been curated by Yolngu Aboriginal people from the community, so rather than seeing this history from the perspective of a white art historian, you’re going to see it from the perspective of the people who made it,” Skerritt says. “For a white art historian, like myself, that’s really exciting, to be able to see how another culture understands their art.”
Art has always had a place in connecting cultures and rediscovering history, but recent social isolation and unrest make it more crucial than ever as a key to learning from each other.
“Right now, because of the last few years of the pandemic, people are looking for a space of beauty, a space of fun, a place where they can be restored,” says McLendon. “I worked with an artist years ago who, I will never forget, just said so simply, ‘We ask so much of art,’ and it’s true, we ask so much of art, and art gives us so much.”
Ty Cooper’s Indie Short Film Series will feature films from different genres at Vinegar Hill Theatre on February 26. More info can be found at indieshortfilmseries.com. Supplied photo
Since 2019, local filmmaker Ty Cooper’ Indie Short Film Series has given aspiring Charlottesville filmmakers a valuable opportunity to showcase their work. “It’s a way for you to enter the business without having to spend a lot of money,” Cooper says.
Shorts are traditionally novice directors’ best way of making a name for themselves, but getting those shorts seen and spotlighted—especially theatrically—can be more grueling than making them.
Theater rentals are expensive, and patrons may shy away from paying 20 bucks to see just one short, so a series of screenings like Cooper’s gives hopeful directors an otherwise unaffordable venue. “They’re able to be seen without paying a whole bunch of money like I pay—I rent the theater for them,” Cooper says.
Cooper’s programs generally include six to eight titles, followed by panel discussions with several featured filmmakers, and his February 26 screenings will encompass many genres, including international shorts. “I don’t want the same type of film to show up within this block,” says Cooper. “It’s really based on what I feel is going to be different—what’s going to make the patron’s experience really good. I choose various genres—horror, drama, romance, whatever.”
Since 2015, Cooper has volunteered at the Sundance Film Festival, and he cherry-picks some of his material from it. This allows his audience to “truly see how good these local and regional filmmakers are, by comparison,” he says. And, as a promotion and outreach consultant for the Virginia Film Festival, he says he is always looking at films.
Many of the submissions come to Cooper through his website, indieshortfilmseries.com. He carefully curates his series, studying the content and technical qualities of the submitted films. “I’m looking at everything I possibly can, to say, ‘This will be an enjoyable experience for the patron,’” says Cooper, who observes both sides of the viewing experience to balance the patrons’ and filmmakers’ appreciation of the series.
Experiencing films in a real theater is also fundamental for Cooper. With streaming dominating the market, he elected not to go online, with either the series or his newest film, Amanda. And it paid off. The series opened in 2019 to “an amazing turnout,” and a February 29, 2020, screening of shorts was almost sold out. He says it was catching momentum and about to go monthly before the pandemic closed it down until late last year.
“I just don’t like the whole online festival type of experience,” he says. The communal theater setting was too critical, so he waited until things opened back up.
The Indie Short Film Series’ December 2021 revival was met with a packed house, and the series is scheduled to run monthly or bimonthly until 2023.
Cooper also aims to push Charlottesville as a key destination spot for filmmakers to visit, saying “It’s about building consistency and exposure for the town.” Some of the filmmakers Cooper brought in early on only knew of the city from the infamous August 12, 2017, incident. “They actually didn’t know where UVA was! Now, they know,” says Cooper.
On his post-screening panels, the gleam in the filmmakers’ eyes has been enormously satisfying for Cooper, and he shares their pride: “I see it in their eyes and I love it, because I provided the opportunity, that sense of empowerment for another creator. And I know where that creator is at, mentally: They want to get their stuff seen . . . They want people to judge it—get feedback.
“I know—I’ve been there, and I’m still there.”
Indie Short Film Series at Vinegar Hill Theatre
• The Accidental Grandson, director Paul Terzano
• Jack, the Town, and I, director Kendra Copeland
• Mappatura. AKA: the city as a musealized taxonomy of human disappointments, director Niccolò Buttigliero Junior
• Apocalypse Notes (Music is in danger!), director Pierre Gaffié
• Elemental, director Eric Hurt
• Tongxiang (people from the same hometown), director Anna Ma
Tracing steps: In honor of Black History Month, archeologists are leading a Walking Tour of Monticello’s Vanished Plantation. The excursion focuses on the experiences of the enslaved people who lived and worked at Monticello, and examines how archeology informs our understanding of their lives. The walk makes stops at various hidden sites along the Fourth Roundabout before ending at a recently excavated 19th-century domestic site where enslaved agricultural laborers once lived.
Friday 2/18 & Saturday 2/19. Various times, included in the price of admission. Monticello, 1050 Monticello Loop. monticello.org
