Barton Weiss, once president of the Assoc. of Independent Film & Video Makers, founder of the Dallas Video Festival, and many other events, began his college teaching career at West Virginia State College, Communications Dept., after studing with Milos Forman at Columbia University. Weiss was one of the several WV filmmakers who founded the WV Filmmakers Guild in 1983. (more…)

 Ken celebrating world premiere of film version of The Bridge at Remagen in Huntington.

Ken Hechler will introduce the new feature film about him, Ken Hechler: In Pursuit of Justice on his 94th birthday, September 20th, 2008, at 7 PM The program is co-sponsored by the South Charleston Museum and WV Labor History Association. No admission will be charged.

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Ken Hechler on Friday will give a keynote address to Legislators from Turkey, the US and others about his relationship with MLK and civil rights. He has been invited to speak at a conference sponsored by Former Members of Congress on Turkey and Civil Rights. He will be presenting with Rep. Conyers of Michigan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. Once again he will be on the world stage, talking this time about one of the great issue of our time - don’t minorities have rights now, even in Turkey, as our African-American workers did 60 years ago in the Deep South? (more…)

The World of Christopher Xenopoulos Janus is the tenth book by one of West Virginia’s most amazing native sons. Janus was born in Charleston in 1911, spent his early years in Montgomery, WV where he lost his father and sister to the world-wide flu pandemic in 1918. Since then he has traveled to Harvard, Oxford, the NY Times, helped the millions suffering in Greece after WWII, and in general promoted Greek-American culture as much or more than anyone.

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Update -Memorial Service,  West Side Methodist Church, 401 Roane St., Charleston, WV on 5/13/2008, from 1-4 p.m.  there will be a jam session following.

Iris Bell was one of WV’s great singers, right up there with the Amazing Delores. I came to know Iris for a while during her return to the stage. She would come to Film Services to borrow 16 mm movies to project on-stage during her act. She was one of a handful of local musicians who understood mixing sight and sound long before MTV and everything else. Here is a nice Gazette story about her life.