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Virginia Film Festival’s ‘Permanent’

Kyle Shearin | November 16, 2017

Topics: Charlottesville, film reviews, Permanent, Virginia Film Festival

The following is RVA Magazine’s continued coverage of Charlottesville’s Virginia Film Festival this past weekend. Staff writer Kyle Shearin was on the scene to highlight some of the films from the three-day event. If you missed the first in the series, you can check that review out here. 

“Permanent”, a new film, comes from Virginian writer-director Colette Burson (HBO’s “Hung”) who introduced her new film before the Saturday night screening at UVA’s Culbreth Theatre.

Starring Patricia Arquette, Rain Wilson, and Kira McLean, “Permanent” follows the antics of an absurdly awkward family “somewhere in Virginia” during the 1980s trying to find their way after moving to a new town. The film centers on young Aurelie (McLean) who decides to get a bold haircut, a perm, from a student hairdresser and disaster ensues. Living on a very tight budget, the Dixons have to navigate a new town with limited options and struggle to adapt to their new surroundings.  

The film, received well, left the audience with plenty of laughs and also a heartwarming message about being odd and embracing oneself. After previewing the film, there was a brief Q&A between the audience with Burson and actress Kira McLean.

Burson revealed that she too once was a little girl in a small town with a bad perm and drew inspiration from her own traumatic incident. “It was a total disaster,” she lamented, “but as they say, tragedy plus time equals comedy.”

Filmed completely in Virginia, “Permanent” Burson used several Richmond locations to her advantage, noting that “Richmond is a great location, because if you walk around the corner it looks like the 20s, it can look like the 1860s, it’s incredible, so there it was something all in the street that hit my memory of Abington in 1982.”  

Photo Credit: Kyle Shearin

Burson also talked about the big challenge involved with independent filmmaking. “What usually happens is that you get the funding, but you lose the actor, or you get the actor but lose the funding,” she explained.  

Burson was very forthcoming about the industry at large and what obstacles women still face today. When asked about the recent string of allegations of reported abuse and harassment industry-wide, Burson chimed in with that,

“I will tell you it’s not exaggerated. If you go to Variety and you look up nine days ago, nine to twelve, you will see that Dustin Hoffman is accused by a woman, Wendy Riss Gatsionis. Wendy Riss Gatsionis was my best friend in graduate school; she still is today and when we were 25 years old. He went to one of her readings, he saw her work, he invited her to meet with him and said ‘I want to be in you play’ and she went away and thought about it. It was so exciting, we were these young writers and she’s going to see Dustin Hoffman and I got this call from her, sobbing, a few hours later because he wasn’t interested in her work at all. So I know all of that is 100% true.”

“I’m good friends with Anne Heche and she told me exact Harvey Weinstein story. And she hasn’t even talked in the press, the exact one that everybody’s said; I mean boom, boom, boom. That was like five years ago, and you felt like you couldn’t do anything, so in terms of sexual harassment, that’s really going to change.”

Burson was also quick to point out that only 7% of female directors working in the industry are female and that it’s still “an uphill battle” for Hollywood.

“Permanent” gets a limited release in theatres nationwide next month.

 

Virginia Film Festival Review: Spike Lee’s ‘4 Little Girls’

Kyle Shearin | November 14, 2017

Topics: 4 Little Girls, Charlottesville, film review, Spike Lee, Virginia Film Festival

Based in Charlottesville at the University of Virginia, the Virginia Film Festival has celebrated the art of film for over 30 years and this past weekend, it continued its tradition of highlighting new features and documentaries, fresh takes on timeless classics, and local filmmakers. Staff writer Kyle Shearin attended the festival and in the first of a three-part series, gives his take of some of the best films from this year’s festival below:

Legendary director Spike Lee was also in town to show his Academy Award-nominated film “4 Little Girls” which celebrates it’s 20th anniversary this year. To a packed audience at the Paramount Theatre in downtown Charlottesville, Lee described the documentary to be about the “heinous act of homegrown American terrorism.”

The film chronicles the life and deaths of four young black girls who were killed in the 1963 bombings that occurred in Birmingham, Alabama by white Klansmen. The film’s impact was felt almost immediately back in July of 1997; as the FBI reopened the case the day after the film’s premier citing new evidence that leads to a string of incarcerations for the perpetrators. The film is a great example of the power of film that it can enlighten, teach, and change the world around us. 

Lee also mentioned his roots within the south, and how both of his parents were both southern, “Like a lot of parents, whose grandparents were in the south, when summer came, they ship your black ass down south”.

Touching on a few different current events, Lee also spoke about moving forward as a nation, “We must get rid of these false narratives bs, the truth is The United States of America was built upon the genocide of the Native Americans and slavery.”

“Your boy Thomas Jefferson was a slave owner … this isn’t Spike Lee making shit up. This is history. Robert E. Lee was not a hero,” he added. Lee’s comments were met with applause and laughter despite the dark subject matter and frankness.

Prior to “4 Little Girls”, also shown was Lee’s newer documentary, “I Can’t Breathe” about the 2014 death of Eric Garner’s in police custody. In the film, Lee interviews a witness of Garner’s death just a week after the incident. The witness talks about the incident and the following backlash and harassment from authorities he received after posting the video of the incident he captured with his cellphone.

Lee was quick to point out the similarities to Garner’s death to one of his characters in his 1989 Academy Award-winning film, “Do The Right Thing” in where the character Radio Raheem is choked to death by a police officer. Lee stated that his film was really about a very difficult period in New York City where there was tremendous racial strife between the NYPD and the Black and Puerto Rican community, which plays similar to “I Can’t Breathe” and it’s context.

Despite the heaviness of the topics and films at hand, Lee was in good spirits while also being characteristically thoughtful. Lee was also quick to clarify that his timing was not a reaction to the recent White Nationalist rally back in August, as he had accepted to speak at the VFF prior to the August 12th event. He elaborated, “So let’s not get it twisted, it’s not one of those things where a northern rabble-rouser come down south to stir the niggers up. This ain’t this, this ain’t that,” he joked.

Lee is not unacquainted to Charlottesville or UVA as he mentioned that he had spoken here in April of 1993 while also his wife graduated from UVA’s law school.

Lee briefly talked about his next project called “Black Klansman”, which recently announced the casting of Adam Driver. Lee’s 1986 film “She’s Gotta Have It” has also been made into a 10 episode series that will debut this month on Netflix.

Catch Werner Herzog’s new film ‘Into the Inferno’ on Netflix ahead of his Virginia Film Festival appearance 11/4

Brad Kutner | October 17, 2016

Topics: Into the Inferno, Netflix, Virginia Film Festival, Werner Herzog

The Virginia Film Festival‘s lineup is pretty impressive this year with German Filmmaker Werner Herzog topping the bill. And while he’ll be screening his newest documentary, ‘Into the Inferno’ at the festival, you can catch it ahead of time on Netflix towards the end of this month.
[Read more…] about Catch Werner Herzog’s new film ‘Into the Inferno’ on Netflix ahead of his Virginia Film Festival appearance 11/4

2015 Virginia Film Festival puts out call for entries

Brad Kutner | March 30, 2015

Topics: film festivals in Virginia, Virginia Film Festival, Virginia film makers

We just got this in our inbox and thought we’d pass it along to our audience – the 2015 Virginia Film Festival is looking for entries and we’d love to see RVA represented.

[Read more…] about 2015 Virginia Film Festival puts out call for entries

125 films in four days, Celebrities, and Virginia-grown films – the Virginia Film Festival starts in Charlottesville this Thursday

Brad Kutner | November 4, 2014

Topics: Big Stone Gap, Charlottesville, Frank Langella, Hal Holbrook, Katie Couric, University Of Virginia, Virginia Film Festival, Virginia filmmaking

For years, the Virginia Film Festival has been a celebration of the film industry, with a special focus on films made right here in the Commonwealth of Virginia. This year promises to be one of the biggest yet, in every way imaginable, and it all starts this Thursday, November 6th in Charlottesville, VA, continuing until Sunday the 9th.

[Read more…] about 125 films in four days, Celebrities, and Virginia-grown films – the Virginia Film Festival starts in Charlottesville this Thursday

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