One music
The concert begins with a thunderous gong and booming timpani. As the intro song progresses, a guttural drone pulses, seemingly from beneath the audience’s feet, while the breathy undulation of […]
Identity and magic
It feels like Carnival time at Second Street Gallery. Megan Marlatt’s vibrant paintings and eye-popping big head sculptures are on view and the space sings with boisterous energy. Festival themes […]
Pill perspective
With a prime-time Virginia film fest screening at the Paramount Theater, the movie Stay Awake has made longtime Charlottesville resident Jamie Sisley an indie-festival darling again. Sisley first produced Stay […]
‘Bloody Lowndes’
The first use of a black panther in the Black power movement didn’t start in Oakland, California. The symbol came from one of the poorest counties in Alabama, where 80 […]
A force in her field
Joyce Chopra, known for her documentary, television, and filmmaking career, recounts her experiences in a new no-holds-barred memoir,Lady Director: Adventures in Hollywood, Television and Beyond. But it wasn’t until she […]
Five documentaries that will stay with you
Descendant The United States outlawed international slave trade in 1808, but more than a half century later a ship called the Cotilda smuggled a group of enslaved Africans into Mobile, […]
‘Damaged but special’
Justin Black grew up on the James River and didn’t realize some people thought it was “disgusting,” including two friends he met at the University of Virginia. Years later, the […]
Evoking the vision
You don’t forget Eugenio Caballero’s production designs. There’s the otherworldly Pan’s Labyrinth, for which he won an Academy Award. There’s the black-and-white Mexico City in Roma, for which he was […]
Building bridges
Writer/director/producer Dustin Lance Black’s films and television work—including his Academy Award-winning Milk script—are frequently outspoken about LGBTQ+ issues. The Mormon Church also resurfaces throughout his work, as in the hit […]
Pick: Sunflower Bean
Sunflower Bean’s third album, Headful of Sugar, is a psychedelic head rush made to be played loud with the windows down. Laden with catchy basslines, punk energy, and vocals that […]