Doughman got into filming music videos because he had to. The area music producer was handing out beats to rappers left and right, but they wanted more than just music. They wanted a visual component to match the aural experience created in the recording booth. They wanted music videos. This was back in 2012 or […]
Doughman got into filming music videos because he had to. The area music producer was handing out beats to rappers left and right, but they wanted more than just music. They wanted a visual component to match the aural experience created in the recording booth. They wanted music videos. This was back in 2012 or […]
Ghost writing: When Shirley Jackson decided to write a ghost story, she took inspiration from a real-life 19th-century scientific investigation, and created The Haunting of Hill House. Jackson said it was important to believe in ghosts in order to write the novel, and the result was a definitive horror classic, a finalist for the National […]
Every year, the Virginia Film Festival brings the best in films past, present, and future. Critics and writers appearing at VAFF include Jamelle Bouie of The New York Times and CBS, Soraya McDonald of The Undefeated, Alonso Duralde of “The Wrap,” and “Linoleum Knife,” and Alissa Wilkinson of Vox, Rolling Stone, RogerEbert.com, and others. Put […]
In his 50-plus year career, actor Dennis Christopher has defied typecasting. His wildly varied characters include an Olympic runner in Chariots of Fire (1981); tormented Eddie Kaspbrak in It (1990); and Mr. Candie’s lawyer in Django Unchained (2012). Christopher, 64, describes himself as “very hands-on in every role I take…I make what my characters look […]
Kevin Everson is known to be prolific, but it’s still startling when he says “I made 17 films this year.” Asked which shorts he’ll be showing at the Virginia Film Festival, the UVA professor and internationally respected filmmaker has to consult a list before answering. That’s an occupational hazard, perhaps, of creativity that never sleeps. […]
Making hay: On their website, The Avett Brothers claim humble beginnings: They grew up on a small hobby farm, grumbling often over the fact that they had never seen the likes of Hall & Oates, David Lee Roth, or El DeBarge anywhere near a pasture or a chicken house. But things are looking up. The […]
Adding up: Mason Ramsey has always been a precocious child—his family says he was crooning and harmonizing before he could talk. By age 4, Ramsey was singing at the Kentucky Opry, and he got on stage with country music legend Kenny Rogers at age 7. So in 2018, when a video of the 11-year-old yodeling […]
New trad: Explorations in indie, jazz, pop, and bluegrass turn the bilingual songs of Rosier into sophisticated, emotional journeys. It’s not surprising that the Montreal-based band has a facility with reinterpreting age-old folk songs. The group takes its new name (it was formerly known as Les Poules à Colin) from a traditional song, and its […]
What do we really see when hues are subdued, diminished, or deleted outright? Tough question. If you’re like me—colorblind—that’s kind of how you go through life. Art’s power when deprived of its full spectrum of possibility is difficult to gauge, since most of us who live the difference are simply born this way and have […]
Monster smash: When it was released in 1987, The Monster Squad was deemed a monster dud. But during a series of anniversary screenings and Q&As 30 years later, the cast and crew were shocked and delighted to learn that the horror film had become a cult classic. That realization inspired Andre Gower, one of the […]