Rik Rekowski, director of the Mary H. Weirton Public Library in Weirton, WV called me at home during lunch. He had a visiting film director, Roger Smith, from near Sharon, Pa. in town to scout locations for his film, “Crimson Rose.” Smith said that he fell in love with Welch, WV, but didn’t have the time or money to shoot his film there, preferring Weirton as a lot closer but still having the look he wanted. (more…)
Pat Aufderheide began her career in film at the same place and in the same time as I did - The University of Minnesota in the late 60s and early 70s. She became a film critic for The Minnesota Daily. ( Some of her columns from that period were compiled into a book published by The University of Minnesota Press called “The Daily Planet - A Critic on the Capitalist Culture Beat.”) On a weekly basis for several years I had to screen films for her to review for the largest campus newspaper in the country. Since then she has received her Ph.D. in Latin American studies; I continued showing the world’s most interesting films until I came to WV in fall 1978.
Jimmy Don is what he is called…He was born in Charleston but lived in Dawes until he was 7. He saw some of his earliest movies at the Wilson Movie Theater there in Dawes, remembering them with fond memories. The old movie house was remodeled and now stands empty next to an equally empty quonset hut building. Many of his aunts and uncles lived nearby, and some still do….Cabin Creek is a lost world to my friend Jimmy Don and so many others…including two presidents of the UMWA - Arnold Miller and Cecil Roberts. (more…)
Ashley Judd is sorta a local girl here in West Virginia, growing up in Ashland, Ky. I have met several people who went to high school and college with her. Her first film role as Ruby in “Ruby in Paradise” is one of my favorite indie films - and one of my favorite Appalachia films.
Les Blank, one of America’s nicest, kindest, and most influential documentary filmmakers is also an honorary West Virginian. He has been to the state several times including most recently visiting Allan Balliett’s organic farm in Shepherdstown last spring. In March 1980 he was the guest of the “Outside the Mainstream” film night that included being the best man at my wedding - at the Dunbar Public Library.
At the University Film Society in 1972 I started my career as a film exhibitor. Luckily for me two great films were released that year - and I have never seen any films as good……unfortunately. One of those films is “WR: Mysteries of the Organism” by Yugoslavian-American director Dusan Makavejev. Al Milgrom had arranged for him to come to The Bell Museum at the University of Minnesota to show his new film that had caused quite a stir at The New York Film Festival a few week earlier.
Virginia Yeager, staff librarian at Glenville State College, attended my annual “New Films from West Virginia and Appalachia” workshop that I present at the annual state library conference in Flatwoods. Unlike most attendees over the last 3 decades, she really decided to check out a wide array of the new films, including the new “Coal Hollow” kit that I brought along.
Leonardo De Caprio has become one of the best known Hollywood celebrities who is also an activist. His new film, “The 11th Hour,” premiered at the Cannes Film Fest this last weekend. Here is a long article on it from Planet Ark. (more…)
Duke Horstemeyer,a long-time member of The West Virginia Library Commission and a library activist in Weirton for decades, is the ONLY person to let me know that “The Courier,” a very nice sounding indie feature was made around Wheeling, having its world premiere on Sunday, May 20th, at the Victoria Vaudeville Theater which is also used in the film.
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