GFF 2013 Cult Ballot
Each year, the Global Film Festival lets the people choose films to play on the festival weekend. This year, we bring the viewer a great selection of films from both America and around the world. Check out the two trailers below, then vote for your favorites here.
“Do It Young/Film It Yourself” Youth Film Competition
In conjunction with the 2013 Global Film Festival theme, Film and Youth, we will be launching the “Do It Young/Film It Yourself” (DIY/FIY) Youth Filmmaking Competition. Students in middle and high school will film themselves and their friends doing the things they love to do.
To help with the filmmaking process, the GFF Team will be having workshop sessions to assist the youth filmmakers. The first session on November 3rd will deal with the pre-production and production parts of the project (thinking of ideas and filming them), and will take place at the Williamsburg Regional Library. The second session will be on November 17th in the Earl Gregg Swem Library Media Center. This session will deal with post-production (editing footage and putting it all together).
The winning films will be screened at the festival in February. For more information, go to the DIY/FIY Info Page. To register, fill out all areas of the DIY/FIY Registration Form. Registration and participation in the event is COMPLETELY FREE!!!
Fall Theme Launch Event
On Saturday, November 10th, the William and Mary Global Film Festival will officially kick off its 2013 theme with an event at the Kimball Theater.
The event will start at 5pm with the screening of The Hollywood Complex, a documentary about aspiring child actors. Dan Sturman, the films director, will introduce the film and have a Q&A session afterwards. To see the trailer and learn more about the film, go to the website here. After The Hollywood Complex, a reception will be held in the Kimball lobby.
Following the reception, a screening of Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom will start at 8pm. But don’t leave when the film is over. At the conclusion of the film, co-stars Kara Hayward and Jared Gilman will join us via live video feed for a Q&A session about the film. Watch the trailer below.
Don’t want the night to end? After both films, celebrate the launch of the theme at our Launch Event After-Party at The Crust, featuring music by Idiot Glee.
Tickets cost $5 and can be purchased at the event.
For more detailed information, check out the Fall Theme Launch page.
Spring Film/Music Event
In Partnership with the First Annual WCWM Music Fest and the W&M Student Hip Hop Organization (SHHO), the W&M Global Film Festival presents its first ever Spring Film/Music Event, featuring the premiere of Beats Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest:
Visit http://www.sonyclassics.com/beatsrhymesandlife/site/ for more.
The event kicks off at 9:30pm at the Kimball Theatre with pre-screening drinks provided by our sponsor Williamsburg Alewerks, followed by the screening at 10pm, and a post-screening show with live performances by Streetz and Shakespeare’s Ghozt.
Be sure to mark your calendars for Friday, April 6- admission to all events is only $5!
$5 admission includes:
9:30pm – Pre-Screening Drink Party (with FREE beverages from our sponsor, Williamsburg Alewerks)
10pm – Screening of Beats, Rhymes & Life
11:45pm: Post-Screening Show with Streetz and Shakespeare’s Ghozt (Venue TBA)
Special Guests of the Festival In the News
We were honored to host as guests of the 2012 Film and the City festival actor David Patrick Kelly and director Aurora Guerrero, both of whom have been making headlines with their work!
Kelly is starring in the Broadway adaptation of Once, the 2006 Irish musical by John Carney. The show opened March 18 to rave reviews. Read more and an interview with Kelly here.
You can also catch rising star Guerrero in a national television spot for Bing, which you can view below. She recently appeared on NPR’s All Things Considered to discuss her debut feature, Mosquita y Mari. Listen to her interview here.
The Chase, starring the Little Twamp
Watch our William & Mary tribute to the Little Tramp, Charlie Chaplin, and be sure to come see the end of our story on Saturday, February 18 at the Kimball Theatre before our screening of City Lights. There will be a Little Tramp Walk-a-Like contest, pre-screening souveniers, and post-screening ice cream for the kids.
Learn More About Our 2012 City Symphony Project
They swept aside their prejudices, their conceptions and misconceptions, and their biases about the area that engulfs the world in which they live, play, and learn. The Film Studies students in Professor Tim Barnard and Jes Therkelsen’s class last semester had one task: find out as much as they could about the “real” Williamsburg, collect hundreds of hours of film, then tell the story – in 15 minutes or less – in a style that hasn’t been seen in more than half-a-century. Barnard and Therkelsen demanded that the film be modeled after a “City Symphony,” a genre of documentary filmmaking that dates back to the silent era, grew out of avant-garde filmmaking, and was heavily influenced by the Soviet montage movement. “The City Symphony genre gets called a kind of poetic form of documentary filmmaking,” Barnard remarked. “You go out into the city – that becomes the subject or protagonist – and you gather footage. That becomes the documentary. Where the poetry comes in is in the editing – the sort of montage you create, the piecing together the different images to try to create a composite image where the relationships generated between the different clips captures a poetry or a movement or a feel for the city.”…
Read the full W&M News story here.
Watch interviews with Barnard, Therkelsen, and students who produced the symphonies:
Lead Actress of “Mosquita y Mari”, Fenessa Pineda, Attending Festival
Along with director Aurora Guerrero, one of the film’s lead actresses will be joining us in Williamsburg for the Virginia premiere of their film:
2012 “Film and the City” Official Trailer Released
Catch a preview of our 2012 lineup on our YouTube channel, and be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss upcoming videos:
Official Press Release: Global Film Festival Focuses on “Film and the City”
NEWS FROM WILLIAM & MARY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Feb. 7, 2012
MEDIA INFORMATION:
Jim Ducibella, University Relations
(757) 221-7624 jpducibella@wm.edu
FOR ADDITIONAL FILM INFORMATION:
Timothy Barnard, Festival Director
(757) 221-1274, tlbarn@wm.edu
GLOBAL FILM FESTIVAL FOCUSES ON “FILM AND THE CITY”
Highlights include student-produced “Williamsburg City Symphony,” China’s Urban filmmaking, and an appearance by Chicana filmmaker Aurora Guerrero
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – The College of William and Mary’s fifth annual Global Film Festival will feature films, musical performances, and guest filmmakers from around the world from Feb. 16-19. Most of the events will be held at Colonial Williamsburg’s historic Kimball Theatre (see attachment and link at bottom for full schedule of times, venues).
Among the festival’s many highlights will be an appearance Sunday of award-winning Chicana filmmaker Aurora Guerrero presenting the Virginia premiere of her film “Mosquita y Mari” (2011), and two animated features, “A Cat in Paris” (2011) and “Chico & Rita” (2011). Both were recently nominated for Oscars.
On Saturday night, the festival is partnering with the William & Mary’s Confucius Institute to screen a pair of Chinese films that showcase both mainland China’s “Urban Generation” film movement and the Hong Kong crime film.
“Beijing Bicycle” (1998) will feature a live video feed Q&A with director Xiaoshuai Wang. The later film, “Infernal Affairs” (2002), is the Hong Kong crime film that inspired Martin Scorsese’s “Departed” (2006).
In addition, on Thursday, the College’s film studies class will present a “Williamsburg City Symphony,” part of a showcase of short “city symphony” documentaries. The City Symphony is a genre of documentary filmmaking that dates back to the silent era, grew out of avant-garde filmmaking, and was heavily influenced by the Soviet montage movement.
(See link at bottom for an example of a City Symphony)
“What excites me about the ‘Williamsburg City Symphony’ is that it is a special documentary project that we organized as one of the ways to program the Film Festival,” said festival director Timothy Barnard. “Built into the festival are opportunities to showcase student filmmaking.”
W&M film students spent the fall, 2011, semester exploring and examining Williamsburg, in the process shooting hundreds of hours of film. What they discovered was boiled down to about 15 minutes.
In addition, the four-day event explores the relationships among cities, films, and filmmaking with a program of films from Cuba, France, India, Ireland, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
The festival includes late-night “City Cult” film screenings on Thursday and Friday programmed by popular demand. Thursday’s film, “The Warriors” (1979), will be introduced by actor David Patrick Kelly, while Friday’s feature will be “Once” (2006) from Ireland.
The Festival is again hosting two special events for families and children of all ages. These include a pre-festival screening on Saturday, Feb. 11 of “The Red Balloon” (1956) and “A Cat in Paris,” and a Saturday morning screening of Charlie Chaplin’s classic “City Lights” (1931). Both screenings will feature complimentary ice cream and special souvenirs for all kids.
Special Guest Aurora Guerrero, director of "Mosquita y Mari" (2011)
Sunday’s program will honor Chicana director Aurora Guerrero who will introduce “Mosquita y Mari,” her feature film debut about two Latina youths coming of age in East Los Angeles that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival last month.
The festival will close on Sunday night with a cinematic concert at the Commonwealth Auditorium that will feature city film clips accompanied by the W&M Wind Symphony.
About the festival
The Global Film Festival is an annual event in conjunction with the Reves Center for International Studies and the Charles Center at William & Mary. In the last five years, the Festival has rapidly expanded, and last year’s festival brought in over 4,500 patrons.
The majority of the festival’s events, as in previous years, are free and open to the public (all events do require a ticket). A modest admission for one special off-site event and select marquee film screenings will be charged.
The festival is again offering VIP passes, and this year has expanded the program in a partnership with restaurants in Merchant’s Square offering special deals over the festival weekend. Passes cost $30 for the general public and $25 for students and grant access to all screenings, receptions, and exclusive events, and come with special festival swag bag. Passes and tickets can be purchased at the Kimball box office or by calling 1-800-HISTORY.
For more information and a complete schedule of events, please visit http://filmfestival.wm.edu/.
For an example of a City Symphony, here is 1921’s “Manhatta,” which will be shown on Feb. 16 at 5:30: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5ml4Ob1s3o&feature=related