The Circuit

by Matt Dentler
North Carolina may be known for tobacco, college basketball, and NASCAR, but it's also a strong regional film location. And, in the month of April, the state has turned into a popular destination for festivals. April began with the annual Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham, and the month concludes with the RiverRun International Film Festival, which wrapped this weekend in Winston-Salem.

Founded 10 years ago in nearby Brevard, the festival moved to Winston-Salem in 2003 and took advantage of the vibrant student population that permeates this otherwise sleepy locale. The festival makes great use of venue space at the revered North Carolina School of the Arts (alma mater of David Gordon Green and Aaron Katz, among others) and collaborates with students and professors from local Wake Forest University and Winston-Salem State University. In fact, each of the festival's juries included at least one area college student.

Academia was a big focus during a Saturday afternoon "Conversation with Pam Grier," where the actress (pictured above) discussed the long road of earning tuition money while acting for the likes of Roger Corman and Samuel Z. Arkoff. Raised in a strict military family, she was very serious and determined when signing on to star in B-movie fare like Black Mama, White Mama (1972), Coffy (1973), and Foxy Brown (1974). Born in Winston-Salem, Grier was honored at RiverRun with the "Master of Cinema" award.

"It's very frightening to play some of the roles I played," she remarked during her on-stage interview with film producer and local professor Dale Pollock. "That's part of the reason you have research and honesty."

Despite the involvement of the local colleges, audiences at RiverRun skew older. To service that, the programming highlights more international works from the festival circuit, such as RiverRun 2008 award-winners The Edge of Heaven, Up The Yangtze, and California Dreamin' (Endless). 

"We don't have much of an arthouse community here," comments RiverRun Executive Director Andrew Rodgers (pictured right) noting the lack of specialty cinemas in Winston-Salem. "So, our mission is to push international films, as well as showcase ideas and cultures that just aren't shown here otherwise."

Occasionally, the festival will attempt to showcase some of the increasingly relevant work either made in North Carolina or produced by local alumni. Though, because Winston-Salem is such a small theatrical market, Rodgers and his team have a difficult time convincing agents and distributors to roll the dice. Locally made success stories such as Junebug and The Foot Fist Way were forced to bypass RiverRun in years past. However, at the 2008 festival, Winston-Salem native Ramin Bahrani's Chop Shop was part of the program. Its presence was proof that RiverRun continues to close the gap between North Carolina and the rest of the film world.