QUOTE
Festival showcases independent films
By Dave Lavender - The Herald-Dispatch
HUNTINGTON -- Everybody has his reasons for making a movie. For Bob Gray, it only took one really sharp jab from a friend who told him to either make his "Bigfoot" movie or shut up about it.
Gray, who moved back to the Cleveland area after 14 years of working as a television director in L.A., took that medicine, made that movie and has the 7-foot-tall Bigfoot costume to prove it.
This weekend (in between working on an NBA game in Indianapolis and a Major League Baseball game in Cleveland), Gray is racing down to Huntington to share "Bigfoot."
The horror flick is just one of 20 independent films being featured at the third annual Appalachian Film Festival, which rolls Thursday through Saturday at Cinema Theatre, 1023 4th Ave.
Film passes to see all 20 films (plus three music videos) are only $15. Individual tickets are $2 each for competition films.
Spliced together by the Huntington Regional Film Commission, the Appalachian Film Festival is looking at its strongest field of entries and guest stars, said film festival chairman George Snider.
"We received entries from all of the 13 states in the Appalachian region, and seven of the 13 states will be represented in the festival," Snider said. "For entries, we were up over 20 percent from last year, so we keep getting bigger and bigger."
The Film Commission moved the festival up to April from June to be able to share the festival with area college students, especially the Herd hanging out just a few blocks away from the Cinema at Marshall.
New this year is the category of music videos, which includes an entry from the Huntington band Hydrogyn. The band just released its first national recording project that was produced and engineered by metal legend Michael Wagener.
Snider said a thread that runs through this year's film fest is a stellar batch of documentary films that tackle a wide range of subjects.
Layne Amerikaner's "Stonewall City" lets a range of gay people in Huntington tell their stories of living in Appalachia, "Crossings" documents the history of bridge building in West Virginia, "River Voices" tells the story of the 1937 Flood (the actual flood and not the Huntington string band), and "American Chain Gang" tells the story of the resurgence of chain gangs in the American South.
"Our strength this year is definitely documentaries, and it goes hand in hand with our guest star Roger Sherman, who is one of the premier documentary filmmakers in the United States," Snider said.
At 6 p.m. Saturday, April 29, at Cinema Theatre, 1023 4th Ave., Sherman shares the world premiere of his one-hour documentary, "The Rhythm of My Soul: Kentucky Roots Music." The movie seamlessly quilts together the beautiful hills of Eastern Kentucky with the contemporary story of bluegrass, gospel, country and mountain music streaming out of those hills.
Sherman, whose documentaries have been honored with a Peabody Award, an Emmy Award, two Academy Award nominations and other prizes, will also be conducting a workshop called "Anatomy of a Perfect Documentary" at 10:30 a.m. Friday, April 28, as part of the festival. Cost for the workshop is $20.
Hank Cohen, former president of MGM Television, will give a workshop at 2:30 p.m. Thursday on "Making Movies for Television," and Huntington native actor and screenwriter Darrell Fetty will give a workshop on "Selling Your Idea to Hollywood" at 10 a.m. Saturday.
There will also be a free Apple workshop at 1:30 p.m. Friday demonstrating "Final Cut Studio: Apple's Pro Video Production."
"The workshops are unique opportunities, so we're hoping that filmmakers and aspiring filmmakers will take advantage of them," Snider said.
By Dave Lavender - The Herald-Dispatch
HUNTINGTON -- Everybody has his reasons for making a movie. For Bob Gray, it only took one really sharp jab from a friend who told him to either make his "Bigfoot" movie or shut up about it.
Gray, who moved back to the Cleveland area after 14 years of working as a television director in L.A., took that medicine, made that movie and has the 7-foot-tall Bigfoot costume to prove it.
This weekend (in between working on an NBA game in Indianapolis and a Major League Baseball game in Cleveland), Gray is racing down to Huntington to share "Bigfoot."
The horror flick is just one of 20 independent films being featured at the third annual Appalachian Film Festival, which rolls Thursday through Saturday at Cinema Theatre, 1023 4th Ave.
Film passes to see all 20 films (plus three music videos) are only $15. Individual tickets are $2 each for competition films.
Spliced together by the Huntington Regional Film Commission, the Appalachian Film Festival is looking at its strongest field of entries and guest stars, said film festival chairman George Snider.
"We received entries from all of the 13 states in the Appalachian region, and seven of the 13 states will be represented in the festival," Snider said. "For entries, we were up over 20 percent from last year, so we keep getting bigger and bigger."
The Film Commission moved the festival up to April from June to be able to share the festival with area college students, especially the Herd hanging out just a few blocks away from the Cinema at Marshall.
New this year is the category of music videos, which includes an entry from the Huntington band Hydrogyn. The band just released its first national recording project that was produced and engineered by metal legend Michael Wagener.
Snider said a thread that runs through this year's film fest is a stellar batch of documentary films that tackle a wide range of subjects.
Layne Amerikaner's "Stonewall City" lets a range of gay people in Huntington tell their stories of living in Appalachia, "Crossings" documents the history of bridge building in West Virginia, "River Voices" tells the story of the 1937 Flood (the actual flood and not the Huntington string band), and "American Chain Gang" tells the story of the resurgence of chain gangs in the American South.
"Our strength this year is definitely documentaries, and it goes hand in hand with our guest star Roger Sherman, who is one of the premier documentary filmmakers in the United States," Snider said.
At 6 p.m. Saturday, April 29, at Cinema Theatre, 1023 4th Ave., Sherman shares the world premiere of his one-hour documentary, "The Rhythm of My Soul: Kentucky Roots Music." The movie seamlessly quilts together the beautiful hills of Eastern Kentucky with the contemporary story of bluegrass, gospel, country and mountain music streaming out of those hills.
Sherman, whose documentaries have been honored with a Peabody Award, an Emmy Award, two Academy Award nominations and other prizes, will also be conducting a workshop called "Anatomy of a Perfect Documentary" at 10:30 a.m. Friday, April 28, as part of the festival. Cost for the workshop is $20.
Hank Cohen, former president of MGM Television, will give a workshop at 2:30 p.m. Thursday on "Making Movies for Television," and Huntington native actor and screenwriter Darrell Fetty will give a workshop on "Selling Your Idea to Hollywood" at 10 a.m. Saturday.
There will also be a free Apple workshop at 1:30 p.m. Friday demonstrating "Final Cut Studio: Apple's Pro Video Production."
"The workshops are unique opportunities, so we're hoping that filmmakers and aspiring filmmakers will take advantage of them," Snider said.
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