A Christmas Story sings out at Four County Players

Whether you fell in love with the leg lamp, the pink bunny suit or the double-dog-dare to lick a frozen flagpole, you can’t help but wait in excited anticipation for A Christmas Story to hit the holiday airwaves. The story of Ralphie, an eager schoolboy on a desperate quest to get the most magical Christmas […]

Susan Munson is one of the area’s most prolific musicians

When Susan Munson was a kid growing up in Charlottesville, any time she had something to tell somebody, she’d write them a poem. She’d give it to them too, either hand-delivering the written verse or reading it to them herself. It was the earliest manifestation of Munson’s songwriting impulse, which has her writing more songs […]

Virginia Film Festival At-A-Glance

Festival At-A-Glance sponsored by Wells Fargo Tickets At-A-Glance Where Can I Get Tickets During the Four Days of the Festival? UVA Arts Box Office at 109 Culbreth Road Nov 9: Noon–5:00 PM, 5:30–6:30 PM, 8:00–9:00 PM Nov 10: Noon–6:00 PM, 7:30–8:30 PM Nov 11: Noon–5:00 PM, 5:30–6:30 PM, 8:30–9:30 PM Nov 12: 10:45 AM–6:00 PM, […]

Spotlight on the Virginia Film Festival

The Virginia Film Festival, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year from November 9-12, chose a topic at the forefront of many people’s minds—both locally and nationally—with its Race in America series. A collaboration with James Madison’s Montpelier, the series features notable filmmaker Spike Lee, who will screen his documentary 4 Little Girls. And from […]

VFF films with Virginia ties

VFF films with Virginia ties The Ruination of Lovell Coleman Director Ross McDermott met Lovell Coleman in Charlottesville 10 years ago when he saw the then octogenarian putting a new roof on his house by himself. Coleman, now on the cusp of 94, has been playing the fiddle since at least age 14, when he […]

More fabulous: Trudie Styler’s Freak Show champions LGBTQ youth

In The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde writes: “The truth is rarely pure and never simple.” It’s one of many mantras employed by self-prescribed “trans-visionary gender obliviator” Billy Bloom, the vibrant protagonist at the heart of Freak Show, an adaptation of James St. James’ 2007 YA novel of the same name, and the directorial […]

American truths: Looking back to move forward with Spike Lee

As events that transpired in Charlottesville inform the national conversation on the politics of race and resistance, the Virginia Film Festival has placed the subject at the center of this year’s programming. And the Race in America series features some of the best filmmaking on the subject. Attending this year’s festival will be veteran filmmaker […]

Doing shots with Harold and Maude’s producer

Harold and Maude producer Chuck Mulvehill and director Hal Ashby met during post-production work on The Landlord (1970), and eventually became partners in the company DF Films (Dumb Fuck). Mulvehill says when the story of Harold and Maude came his way, “My first reaction to the script was ‘It’s weird.’ Hal’s take was that there […]

Visual gems: Black and white film is silver screen gold

In a world where digital theaters project billions of colors in subtle gradations that mimic all the hues of real life, choosing to watch—or produce—a black and white film may be taken as a small act of defiance. For movies shot after the advent of color film, the choice of black and white is often […]