May 13th, 2008 by steve fesenmaier
Below are some of the photos taken at the recent Widen Film Project - Mother Jones Film event co-sponsored by the South Charleston Museum and the WV Labor History Assoc. on May 10th. Today’s Gazette already has been writing in about where they can see the fine films. Hopefully Widen will be shown in various community locations in Clay County soon - and Mother Jones will be shown all over WV and the world - given that you can purchase a copy for $10 from the Mother Jones Museum.
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May 11th, 2008 by steve fesenmaier
More than 200 people attended the world premiere of THE WIDEN FILM PROJECT.
Frani and I had a great dinner with Dr. Joel Levien, his wife Felicia, Kelley and his family and friends including long-time WVLC employee Pat Love, and Clay County people at the Main Tin, our “unofficial” local restaurant and sponsor. We finally made it to the theater at 6:45 PM…and the Buffalo Girls were going to it - lots of stuff, two cakes, hats, front page stores of local newspapers. They deserve I am sure most of the credit for getting most people there include two buses. Read the rest of this entry »
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May 9th, 2008 by steve fesenmaier
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. Read the rest of this entry »
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May 6th, 2008 by steve fesenmaier
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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May 6th, 2008 by steve fesenmaier
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? Read the rest of this entry »
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May 3rd, 2008 by steve fesenmaier
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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May 2nd, 2008 by steve fesenmaier
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.
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April 27th, 2008 by steve fesenmaier
Back to the Bottle
Directed By Francesca Karle Huntington-based filmmaker/activist Francesca Karle has produced a second film on one of society’s major problems, alcoholism, “Back to the Bottle.”Several years ago she created “On the Rivers Edge,” an outstanding documentary on the homeless in Huntington, getting widespread national attention. Years latter she has returned to filmmaking, producing a film that again helps people realize their humanity. Read the rest of this entry »
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April 26th, 2008 by steve fesenmaier
Outside of automobile driven by Charles Frame, murdered during 1952 Widen Strike
Saturday, April 26, 2007 12:40 PM
Kelley Thompson, one of West Virginia’s outstanding new filmmakers, made a unique visit. He brought over the just completed film, “The Widen Film Project,” to my home, giving me a scene by scene explanation of his amazing film about Widen, a little town in Clay County, West Virginia. We sat down together since I am recovering from serious health problems and truly enjoyed a personal screening of the best researched, most wide-ranging but still friendly film about Appalachia I have ever seen. Read the rest of this entry »
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April 25th, 2008 by steve fesenmaier
Update -
Local filmmaker Bill Richardson won awards in two different film festivals recently. His movie Crash Gordon won a Gold Award in the Comedy Feature category at the Worldfest International Film Festival. This festival is older than Sundance,
Toronto or Tribeca and is one of the oldest film festivals in the world. It also helped launch the careers of such filmmakers as Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and David Lynch.
Crash Gordon also took away an award at the Appalachian Film Festival. This festival focuses on filmmakers in the 13 state Appalachian region – which includes
New York. It won 2nd place in the Feature Film category.
http://www.appyfilmfest.com/pages/winners.htm
Bill Richardson, the award-winning filmmaker from Williamson, will have three showings of his feature film “Crash Gordon.” It will be shown in Huntington, April 19th, 3 PM next Saturday as part of the Appalachian Film Festival. It was just shown at the First Take Film Festival in Augusta, Georgia. Finally, it is a finalist for an award in the Worldfest International Film Festival in Houston. This festival is older than either Sundance or Toronto and bills itself as the oldest independent film and video festival in the world. It also touts itself as discovering luminaries such as Spielberg, George Lucas and others.
The film had its world premiere a few years ago at The WV Intl. Film Festival.
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