This year’s Virginia Film Festival promises to be bigger than ever with an extra day and more than 150 movies on the schedule.
This year’s festival begins with a film called Just Mercy – the true story of Brian Stevenson, a lawyer who’s dedicated his life to helping poor people done wrong by the criminal justice system. Festival director Jody Kielbasa says it will also include a film co-directed by Bruce Springsteen.
“In honor of Bruce Springsteen’s 70th birthday we’re having a gala screening on Thursday evening of Western Stars – his new concert documentary that’s just out. We’ll be one of the only festivals in the United States that’s screening, and we’ll be bringing in the director Tom Zimney for a discussion immediately following.”
Actor Ethan Hawke will also be on stage following one of his films to discuss his long and impressive career, and the festival will mark the 40th anniversary of Breaking Away – a heart-warming film about family, romance and coming of age in Bloomington, Indiana where town/gown conflicts are a fact of life.
"It stars Dennis Christopher, and we’re bringing him in," Kielbasa says. "And just to remind everyone, this is a film that launched some significant careers – Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern, Jackie Early Haley have all gone on to forge significant careers."
Programmer Andrew Rogers promises new films by big name directors: Terrence Malick's Hidden Life and Werner Herzog's Family Romance, LLC.
And lots of smaller indy films like the Irish documentary When All Is Ruined Once Again.
"Nominally this is about people on the border of Galway and Claire in the west of Ireland," Rogers says, "but really it’s about poetry and urban planning and neighbors and global warming."
There are films about race, including a Harriet Tubman biopic shot here in Virginia and documentaries about politics including one narrated by actress Ann Dowd, who won an Emmy for her performance in the Handmaid’s Tale. This year’s Family Day is devoted to the best of Sesame Street on the show’s fiftieth anniversary, and assistant programmer Chandler Ferrebee names some of the stand-outs in a collection of horror films.
"First we’ll be screening Swallow, which is about an upper class woman who has little to no control over her life, and when she becomes pregnant she develops pica – the compulsion to eat random objects like glass and dirt," she explains. "Deerskin is about a man who falls so in love with his deerskin-fringed leather jacket that he aims to eliminate all other jackets at any cost, and In Fabric, which is about a dress that kills the people who wear it."
On the 25th anniversary of The Client, hometown hero and master of legal thrillers, John Grisham, will be on stage, and closing night features a critically acclaimed film called The Two Popes. Anthony Hopkins plays Benedict on the eve of his unprecedented retirement. The Virginia Film Festivall calls it a surprisingly light-hearted look at the Catholic Church grappling with a rapidly changing world.
The fest runs from October 23rd to the 27th, the schedule is online at virginiafilmfestival.org and tickets go on sale Monday at noon.
