It's that time of year; so, I wanted to quickly post some news about the Carolina Film & Video Festival. CFVF is the festival I work with here in Greensboro, NC, Feb. 21-24. It's a great fest and lots of fun.

The judges this year are Jim Haverkamp (a great local filmmaker), Wendy Fishman (who programs films at the Light Factory in Charlotte, NC), and Ramin Bahrani (his movie Man Push Cart is nominated for three Indie Spirit Awards). Each of them will be presenting great free workshops for the public during the festival.

We've got three nights of screenings - with the features at the Carousel Cinemas and the shorts at the UNCG Elliott University Center Auditorium. If you can make it down, Wednesday night we're kicking things off with a night of North Carolina filmmakers. I'm a big fan of films like 'One Man's Trash,' 'Taking a Sip,' 'Sadie Turns Seven,' 'The Ballad of Ray Wilson,' 'Bottle Tree,' and 'Metacarpus.' The following nights have such great films as 'Way,' 'The Wine Bar,' 'The Toll,' 'Alive and Well,' and 'Pluck.' That doesn't even include the five features - which are all great: 'The Last Stop for Paul,' 'Spirit of Sacajewea,' 'Improbable Collapse,' 'Future by Design,' and the world premiere of the powerful 'The Town That Was.' Tickets are cheap, and there's a nice festival pass for only $25.

Last year, I used this space to pimp the festival like crazy and push these films. I'm hoping to hold that to a minimum this year. Please check out the films and I hope to see you at the festival.

j.brown


'The Town That Was'