Kevin Carpenter is the owner of the famous Elk Hotel in Sutton, WV. He made a film himself on its many ghosts called “Elk Hotel” and on Halloween Day , WOWK TV did a nice story on its morning news show about how real the ghost really are…..
Ken Hechler wrote one of the chapters in a just released book about one of America’s greatest political leaders since WWII. Ken was the director of research and a speech writer for him, helping him all over the country during his two attempts to become president. (more…)
Variety magazine reports that English producers are going to make a film based on the life of WV legend Jesco White called “White Lightning.” The film will be shot in West Virginia and Croatia with a Brit director, Dominic Murphy. Carrie Fisher will be one of the stars. Now the question is - how much are they paying Jesco himself for rights to his own life?
Jason Brown is a West Virginia-raised filmmaker now living in Greensboro, teaching at UNC Greensboro. He has produced a great short film about a contemporary stripper who faces her life head on. Apparently, like Mike Lilly’s “gritty” film, “Correct Change,” (which is about a street prostitute in Charleston, WV) not too many people want to see it. That is unfortunate. It won an award at The West Virginia Filmmakers Film Festival and has great acting, music, cinematography, and a believable story. Visit the website of director Brandon Johnson and learn more about a very nice film about a tragic subject - like many great films, e.g., “Gone, Baby, Gone.”
Governor Manchin’s Office has approved a resolution to proclaim November 10, 2007 as Greek West Virginia Day. Originally the mayor of Montgomery, WV hoped to have a day proclaimed “Christopher Janus Day” but she passed away last spring. When people contacted the Governor’s Office about having November 10th named in his honor for his return home to introduce the theatrical premiere of his film, “Goodbye, Miss Fourth of July,” Emily Castleberry informed them that days cannot be designated in honor of a living person.
On Sunday, October 28th, at The La Belle Theater in South Charleston at 7 PM John Lilly presented his newest CD, “Haunted Honky Tonk.” Other musicians that played with him include Ginny Hawker, Robert Shafer, Buddy Griffin and Rebekah Long. About 60 people including myself and Frani attended and truly enjoyed his new music.
Ken Farmeris one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. He drove 2 hours from Radford, Virginia to The South Charleston Museum last Saturday to patiently evaluate hundreds of items brought by more than 100 people. As usual, he sold out. A large number of people stayed to watch The Maestro as he talked about the “treasures” each person brought for him to appraise. Some people were there at 8 AM or earlier. Others drove up around 1 PM, long after all of the slots were gone. I myself took part, setting up tables, taping off the front section of chairs, and even providing camera work from 10 AM- 1 PM.
Ken Hechler Day proclaimed in North Little Rock, Ark.
Ken Hechler toured Arkansas, the home state of the subject of his new book, “Super Marine! The Sgt. Orland D. “Buddy” Jones Story” last week. Thanks to Buddy’s niece, Margaret Powell, he had a busy schedule - see below. Ken was telling me, ” Most histories about WWII are about the officers but the people who did the real work were the enlisted men like Buddy Jones.” Ken loaned me the first part of Ken Burns’ “The War” and one character says the same - 99 % of the hard work done in WWII was by privates.
Chip Hitchcock has spent a lot of time lately on his three part documentary on WV troops flying from “Bridgeport to Baghdad.” Here is a Huntington Herald Dispatch story on the series which starts tonight on WVPBS TV statewide. Hopefully Chip will make the three programs available on a DVD at some point. (more…)
Professor Karl-Otto Apel
Pawel Kuczynski is one of the most interesting documentary/hybrid filmmakers in the world. Several years ago he made a film called “Philosophers Paradise” that I discovered on the Intl. Documentary Assn. website.
As a person who studied philosophy for 10 years, receiving an undergrad magna cum laude in the subject and studying as a graduate student at the University of Minnesota, and working in film exhibition since 1972, I have always been very interested in films about philosophy. I e-mailed Pawel and he not only sent me “Philosophers Paradise” but asked me if I would work with him on a film on Nietzsche. Since I had portrayed Nietzsche in a 1991 “Living Philosophers” course at The Univesity of Charleston, I was interested.
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