James River Film Festival

On Friday, April 17th, I had the pleasure of attending the juried competition for the finalist of the James River Film Festival. Of the ten films shown there was a great variety of work and I truly enjoyed the majority of them. The film from Japan, titled Monster, was a bit too abstract and repetitive for my taste. For me the best part of attending the festival was getting to see the work of three of my instructors. Jake Dodd and Bryant Dameron's film, Tide, was a beautifully shot story of a man stranded on a deserted island and how his attempt to be rescued affected the life of a little girl. I was very impressed with the cinematography and loved the song of the little girl singing played at the beginning and the end. It was ethereal and added to the feeling of the piece. My other professor that had a piece in the competition was Dan Currier, whose film Labeled, was a documentary style look at the serialization that went on in North Carolina from the 30's to the 60's. Until hearing about the topic of his piece I had never heard that sterilization had gone on in America, and was appalled. This film was creatively edited, seamlessly moving between the woman's story and her current job as a painter. It allowed me to truly feel the pain of the woman sharing her story and I feel enlightened as a viewer.