Month: October 2023

This year’s Virginia Film Festival features Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project, a new documentary that chronicles the life, work, and enduring legacy of the titular poet. Going to Mars has already garnered much buzz: At its Sundance premiere earlier this year, the film received the U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary award.

Produced and directed by Michèle Stephenson and Joe Brewster, the film features Giovanni’s poetry, which has enjoyed the popular spotlight for over half a century, overlaid by captivating visuals as well as archival footage. Going to Mars places Giovanni’s work in the context of historical events, social movements—from the Black Arts Movement to Black Lives Matter—and the poet’s personal life. This contextualization illustrates how Giovanni’s appeal is rooted in her ability to weave the political and personal into deeply evocative poems. Ahead of the festival, C-VILLE Weekly had the opportunity to ask Nikki Giovanni a few questions.

C-VILLE: Many folks—including myself—are so looking forward to viewing Going to Mars. Could you talk about what the filmmaking process was like for you? How much were you able to contribute to the artistic vision of the project?

Nikki Giovanni: Mostly I tried to stay out of the way. My contribution was already [there], so I wanted Michèle and Joe to create from my thoughts and creations. I must add I was thrilled at how they used the future with history, which is pretty much how I think.

You are well known for writing poems that reach across generations, chronicling family and societal histories. What impact do you hope this film might have on writers, especially Black poets, who view it now and in the future?

If I could compare this documentary to any other film I would say The Godfather. The history and the love and the acceptance of duty are, I hope, in it. 

What excites you most about where American poetry is today?

The voice of Black Americans has continually evolved. We are now at rap but another tone is coming. People all over are writing and reading poetry. There are festivals and there are classes. Wow! A lot of folk used to not even know about poetry who are now a part of its growth. 

You’ve talked elsewhere about your quest not to let the world negatively influence you. At a time when so much is happening, and news of these happenings is so readily available to us 24/7, what helps you maintain that inner sanctum? 

I avoid what I believe is called social media. I never argue to, at, or with people for whom I have no intellectual respect. I have a great belief in the strength of our ancestors who passed their wisdom along through The Spirituals. I prefer happiness.­

Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project 

October 28 | The Paramount Theater | With discussion

For many years, filmmaker and UVA film professor Kevin Jerome Everson has figured prominently in Charlottesville’s moviemaking community. His experimental films have continually bypassed cinematic conventions in favor of “formal exercises,” he explains. A regular Virginia Film Festival guest, Everson will screen nine shorts on Friday, “all shot this calendar year,” he notes, and marked by his idiosyncratic style.

Everson’s suite of films focuses on disparate subjects, including birdwatchers; a drive-in theater; and a zoologist returning an endangered Puerto Rican crested toad from the Detroit Zoo to its homeland. Conventional Hollywood fare, this is not.

Practice, Practice, Practice meditates on monuments’ removal through its subject, Richard Bradley. “They call him ‘the original monument taker-downer’ because he climbed a flagpole three times to take down a Confederate flag in San Francisco,” Everson says.

The most technically challenging film was Boyd v. Denton, shot at the Ohio State Reformatory in Everson’s hometown, Mansfield, Ohio. The title refers to the 1990 court case that got the reformatory closed for overcrowding and brutal living conditions.

To convey a sense of the prison’s environment, Everson says he shot “a maximum of four frames of 920 cells. … It’s animation—just going 24 frames per second. … It took like six-and-a-half hours to make because I had to walk into every cell,” Everson laughs.

“The Ohio State Reformatory is the highest cellblock on earth: it’s six stories high. … [Filming] it took forever.”

Although these films’ subjects vary wildly, Everson sees a theme that binds his more character-driven pieces. He says, “It’s mostly … just making the invisible visible. Because we always think that things are automatically being done but there’s somebody waking up in the morning and doing these things for the public.”

Through these shorts, Everson wants his audience to come away knowing “that there’s other ways of presenting cinema,” he explains. “There’s other ways of presenting content. It’s not just storytelling—sometimes the situations are pretty good, too. And there’s all kinds of stories being told.”

A Suite of Short Films by Kevin Jerome Everson

October 27 | Violet Crown 5 | With discussion

The Holdovers

Director Alexander Payne is a devoted cinephile who loves the style of intimate, wryly funny, character-driven films that were plentiful 50 years ago but are now nearly extinct. Payne’s films honor this bygone era of storytelling in welcome ways, including his newest work, The Holdovers. Set in 1970, the reliable Paul Giamatti stars as a miserable New England boarding school teacher who forges unlikely bonds with a student (Dominic Sessa) and the school’s chief cook (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) while they’re stuck together over Christmas break. Based on extensive positive buzz, The Holdovers looks very promising. (October 28, The Paramount Theater)

Immediate Family

Denny Tedesco’s excellent 2008 documentary The Wrecking Crew shone a spotlight on some of the 1960s pop music industry’s greatest unsung session musicians. In Immediate Family, Tedesco continues his coverage of extraordinary studio players into the 1970s singer-songwriter movement. Tedesco’s interviewees include these backing musicians, professionally nicknamed “The Immediate Family,” and many of the musical superstars whose sound they contributed (largely anonymously) to, like Stevie Nicks, Neil Young, Carole King, James Taylor, and Linda Ronstadt. (October 27, Violet Crown 3)

Maestro

Director and star Bradley Cooper’s biopic Maestro explores composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein’s (Cooper) complex relationship with his wife, actress Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan). Bernstein’s extraordinary career and his romantic life are definitely rich material to work with, and the initial consensus is that Cooper has noticeably matured as a director since his acclaimed A Star is Born. (October 25, The Paramount Theater)

Robot Dreams

Spanish animator Pablo Berger’s Robot Dreams, based on Sara Varon’s graphic novel, looks to be the kind of thoughtful, challenging animated feature that rarely gets made or released in America anymore. Sadly, ambitious productions like this usually get ground under by big studios’ animated spectacles. Grab your chance to see this film about a lonely anthropomorphic dog and his robot companion in 1980s New York while you can. (October 28, Violet Crown 1 & 2)

They Shot the Piano Player

Directors Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal filmed They Shot the Piano Player in stylized “limited” animation built on Trueba’s research into the 1976 disappearance of bossa nova pianist Francisco Tenório, Jr. Jeff Goldblum voices Trueba’s on-screen stand-in, a fictional reporter seeking closure to this gifted musician’s story. Audio from actual interviews with Tenório’s family and peers are interwoven in animated form throughout this visually and musically vibrant film. (October 27, Violet Crown 6 & 7)