Richard Fauss at work in the basement of the WV Cultural Center

Richard Fauss is the film archivist at The West Virginia State Archives, housed at the West Virginia Cultural Center in Charleston. For 25 years, he has been collecting any and all footage relate to the state. He has been making VHS copies of these materials, giving them to the West Virginia Library Commission for use by the public.

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Press release from agency -

The West Virginia Division of Culture and History will celebrate the bicentennial of the birth of Abraham Lincoln with two movies on the big screen on consecutive Wednesdays in the Norman L. Fagan West Virginia State Theater of the Cultural Center, State Capitol Complex in Charleston. The movies will begin at 6:30 p.m. and are free. The public is invited to attend. (more…)

Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2009 12:59 PM

Subject: Greetings labor film festival organizers 

 This is shaping up to be a banner year for labor-themed film festivals, with a half-dozen - including Paden City, WV, Rochester, NY, Santa Cruz, CA, Missoula, MT, Toronto, Canada, and Washington, DC — already setting dates, and Dublin very close to finalizing 2009 dates. Special congrats to Frank Saptel in Canada and Paul Bell in Ireland, who have been working for over a year to get labor film festivals going. Also of interest is the Norwegian Labour Film Festival now being planned for 2010. Click here to see the latest festival listings we have, and please let us know if you have more current info so we can keep this up to date. (more…)

2006 West Virginia Filmmaker of the Year Gerald Milnes has released two new films. “Water-Powered Mills of Pendleton County, West Virginia” is about the 40+ mills that once existed in the county. He interviews many people who grew up with the local water mills. The DVD that is being sold by the Fort Seybert Heritage Educational Association includes an interactive database so people can search out information on particular mills. The other film is “Bernard Cyrus - Ancient Sounds & Wild Orchids.” This film is one of several documenting WV’s many old-time musicians. Cyrus is unusual in that he is also a leading regional botanist who has made discoveries and photographed them.  Full descriptions are below. Milnes told me that he has a third film coming out soon…..You can now purchase a DVD of his mindblowing film, “Signs, Cures and Witchery - German Appalachian Folklore” which is the single most amazing film I have EVER seen about West Virginia folklore. ( The University of Tennessee Press published his book with the same title several years ago. Reading stories about German hex magic is really impressive. The X-Files even did a story once on the subject. ) (more…)

 Jesco, Jacob Young, Jesco’s former wife - at Jesco Fest several years ago

Jacob Young, one of WV’s finest filmmakers, was invited to attend the 2008 Sundance Film Festival to introduce his landmark documentary called “Dancing Outlaw.” He had a great time and finally got to see the film based on Jesco White, “White Lightnin’.” Hopefully, I will be able to see the film soon….and I hope that the 2009 WV Intl. Film Festival and other groups in WV will be able to screen the film for the people of the state.

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Captain Bela Berty on his Ohio River flatboat. West Virginia was mainly settled by pioneers who traveled down the Ohio River on similar boats.

See note from director of film “Troop 214″ at bottom of this log.

Captain Bela Berty was born in Hungary but grew up in the Kanawha Valley. I have known him since my first days in West Virginia. He was a guest on my cable TV show, “Film Festival,” talking about his plans to make a film about his flatboat which he took up and down the Kanawha and Ohio Rivers. Recently he contacted me about a new documentary film about Hungarian boy scouts in which he appears. The film, “Troop 214,” is a new film about the amazing world of boy scouts, both in Hungary and in the United States. I found the film to be fascinating since it presents a history of people who were devoted to the ideals of the world-wide scouting movement that began in England. The Hungarians have used the group to keep their collective identity alive as the Communists who took over Hungary in 1947 banned the movement.

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Zeitgeist Films, one of my very favorite film distributors, has done it again. They are releasing a new film on philosophy, “Examined Life,” which is the best film I have ever seen on the subject. In less than two hours, the film interviews a group of the leading philosophers living today, but not in their offices or lecture halls but on the streets of the world. The philosophers talk about what “doing philosophy” means, and in fact, show while walking, riding in a cab, or shopping what serious thinking in our age really means. I found the film truly exhilirating, touching, funny, and profound. I can’t imagine a better way to introduce people what a great field of study philosophy has become.

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Karen Vuranch, known as “Mother Jones” and the woman who presents the performance piece called “Coal Camp Memories,” is teaching a class in Beckley for Concord University and the Coal Heritage Highway Authority called ” Coal Culture in West Virginia.” The class is going to be held at the Higher Education Center in Beckley on Mondays, 7 PM to 9:30 PM.

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In 1981, I made myself go see, “My Bloody Valentine,” a new horror film because I knew the plot involved coal miners. I found the film to be terrifying and somewhat well made for a horror film. This last weekend, a remake called “My Bloody Valentine 3D” was released using 3- D. I haven’t seen it, and might not ever see it, but I read that this version at least is based on a fictional mine disaster set in West Virginia. As usual, the film was actually filmed around Pittsburgh. This is very common because a modern film crew needs the services of a large city - airport, hotels, crew, etc. to make a film.

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Drawing by Darren Husband, WV Division of Culture & History Touring Exhibits Designer/CoordinatorDrawing of new exhibit that will include audio description of exhibit + slide show of workers

South Charleston Museum to present history of