November galleries

Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library 2450 Old Ivy Rd. “Their World As Big As They Made It: Looking Back at the Harlem Renaissance” showcases the visionary works of writers, artists, and thinkers of the Harlem Renaissance, plus other permanent exhibitions.  Artisans Studio Tour Various locations in and around Charlottesville. Over 50 artisans open […]

The Great Rotumpkin

It’s a ghoulish good time at The Great Rotumpkin, a spooky celebration that transforms the outside of the Rotunda into a massive movie screen. Multimedia artist Jeff Dobrow incorporates the iconic building’s architecture into a variety of spooky, scary pop-up projections that are sure to send shivers down your spine. Eerie music accompanies the visceral […]

Trauma Sponges

Minneapolis firefighter and EMT Jeremy Norton documents the life of an emergency responder in his new memoir, Trauma Sponges: Dispatches from the Scarred Heart of Emergency Response. Norton, who has over 20 years of experience and also holds a degree in creative writing, writes from an insider’s perspective afforded by direct encounters with trauma and […]

Party Like a Rock Star

Party Like a Rock Star at the Music Resource Center’s annual fundraiser. Put on your Gaga glitter, apply your KISS makeup, or don your Elvis cape to enjoy a selection of drinks and eats, before grooving to a curated playlist of one-hit wonders. The party also features band-e-oke sets by locals, including Harrison Keevil performing […]

Rebe Malaret in the HotSeat

By now, your Virginia Film Festival watch schedule is filled with moving documentaries, riveting dramas, and mighty shorts—but don’t overlook this year’s series of panel discussions, where industry experts discuss their careers, share stories, and more. One of those experts, Rebe Malaret, is a film and television producer, UVA cheerleading alum, and former VAFF intern. […]

Take a seat

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 […]

Iconoclastic as ever

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 […]

The good and the bad

Nobel Prize-winning author William Faulkner arrived at the University of Virginia more than 60 years ago to begin his tenure as the first writer-in-residence. During his time in Charlottesville, Faulkner visited English classes, kept office hours, worked on his novel The Mansion, and left a lasting impact on the area’s literary, and wine, scene (His […]

To Mars and back

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 […]

Now and then

Things have changed a lot since Ricardo Preve arrived at the bus station in Charlottesville in 1977 without money or a passport. There weren’t many Latinos in town then, and he found the locals welcoming, if ignorant about Latin America. “It was so easy to become a citizen in the ’80s,” recalls Preve. When he […]