On Screen

Adapted by Keswick Life

30th Annual Virginia Film Festival Delivers Highly-Acclaimed Program While Tackling The Issues Of Our Time And Including Special Guests Spike Lee, William H. Macy, Ezra Edelman, Trudie Styler, And Margot Lee Shetterly

Festival Featured 44 Sold Out Screenings And Over 150 Films

Richard Linklater’s Last Flag Flying Earns Audience Award For Best Narrative Feature; Roll With Me Wins As Top Documentary Feature

The 30th Annual Virginia Film Festival was a resounding success that brought together leading industry figures with up-and-coming voices and engaged audiences in a dynamic and expansive program that inspired long-resonating conversations around some of the most important issues of our time.

The Virginia Film Festival is a program of the University of Virginia and the Office of the Provost and Vice Provost for the Arts.  The 2017 Festival featured more than 150 films in all and was highlighted by a guest roster featuring top actors, filmmakers, writers, and cultural experts who served to amplify and expand upon the themes of the films presented while bringing the audiences directly into the discussions.  The Festival officials report that a cumulative 30,197 total tickets were issued, including both free and paid events, with 44 sold-out screenings and ticket sales revenue coming in at $187,178.

“Each year we set out to create a Festival program that is as deep as it is wide,” said Jody Kielbasa, Director of the Virginia Film Festival and Vice Provost for the Arts at the University of Virginia, “and that engages our remarkably committed audiences while inspiring meaningful and lasting conversations around issues that are vitally important to us all.

This year, given all that we have been through as a city, a University, and a nation surrounding  the events of August 11 and 12, we also chose to redouble our efforts by creating a program that was intentionally inclusive in a variety of ways.“

One of those ways, Kielbasa said, was through the Festival’s “Race in America” series, presented in conjunction with James Madison’s Montpelier. The centerpiece of the series came on Saturday afternoon when Academy Award-winning filmmaker Spike Lee took the stage for a dynamic and wide-ranging speech and a moderated conversation with UVA’s Maurice Wallace prior to screenings of his films I Can’t Breathe and 4 Little Girls. “We were enormously proud to bring Spike Lee to The Paramount Theater and to see so many people who were experiencing the Festival for the first time. We were additionally just as proud to share stories like Roll With Me, a triumphant tale of a paraplegic who sets out to be the first person to push an ordinary wheelchair from California to New York – which won our Audience Award as Best Documentary. Surviving Skokie and 1945 delivered impactful messages that resonate across history. Hostiles presented a powerful look at the bonds that can be forged, and the divides that can be crossed, even through years of enmity and hatred. We were also pleased to offer a fascinating series of LGBTQIA+ films, which included Trudie Styler’s directorial debut Freak Show, a poignant and timely commentary on the epidemic of teen bullying that continues to infect our country, and the highly-anticipated feature Call Me by Your Name, which played to a sold-out audience at The Paramount Theater as our Closing Night Film on Sunday evening.”

Virginia Film Festival Programmer Wesley Harris was particularly impressed with the way audiences turned out across the wide spectrum of films and experiences offered. “The degree to which we saw audiences respond to very disparate and diverse areas of the program with such a high level of enthusiasm was really impressive. From international films to films based around social issues to locally-themed fare and beyond, I think the program inspired a strong and enthusiastic turnout, and that is something I attribute directly to the appetite and intellect of our audiences.”

Once again this year the VFF shared a roster of some of the industry’s top talents with its audiences, including William H. Macy, who presented his latest directorial effort Krystal. “Bill Macy is one of the most talented actors in the business today,” Kielbasa said, “and a gifted filmmaker as well. He could not have been more entertaining and gracious with our audiences and we were thrilled to have him.” Other highlight guests included Styler, actor Noel Fisher presenting a world premiere episode of the National Geographic television series The Long Road Home; noted director John Lee Hancock, co-director of The Vietnam War Lynn Novick, and Hidden Figures author Margot Lee Shetterly.”

One of the most memorable moments of the Festival weekend, Harris said, came with the Sunday afternoon screening of Charlottesville: Our Streets at The Paramount Theater. The documentary from local filmmaker Brian Wimer and writer Jackson Landers captures the tragic events of August in Charlottesville from the perspective of filmmakers and citizen journalists who were on the ground that day. “Festivals are made up of so many unforgettable moments,” Harris said, “and the opportunity for our community to come together around this film and share in the extraordinarily difficult realities of those days, captured by our own friends and neighbors, was an extremely powerful one.”

VFF audiences also played a key role in the Festival this year by casting ballots for their favorite films. Officials announced today that the winners of this year’s VFF Audience Awards are:

Narrative Feature: Last Flag Flying

Narrative Short: An Act of Terror

Documentary Feature: Roll With Me

Documentary Short: The Ruination of Lovell Coleman

Also announced were the winners of the 2017 Programmer’s Awards:

Narrative Feature: November

Narrative Short: The Real Thing

Documentary Feature: Serenade for Haiti

Documentary Short: Edith+Eddie

Once again this year, the VFF had a significant impact on the community through a variety of programs including its annual Family Day on Saturday, November 11. This year’s free events recorded more than 2,800 attendances from local kids and families on the Betsy and John Casteen Arts Grounds at free film screenings, arts workshops, an interactive arts fair, and more. Also, as part of the VFF’s Young Filmmakers Academy, over 500 local students from eleven participating schools screened their original films in Campbell Hall during Family Day. The VFF offered additional free programming throughout the Festival weekend, including a Virtual Reality Lab featuring the latest 3D film technology, a free sensory-friendly screening of The Aristocats in collaboration with the UVA student group Autism Theatre Project, a Composer Symposium, a Science of Pixar workshop, a screening of Light House Studio shorts, and feature film screenings of Harold and Maude and O.J.: Made In America Parts 1 – 4.

By Colin Dougherty

When players of the card game bridge play as if they know how the entire hand has been dealt, it is referred to as a double dummy. This American pastime comes to life in this documentary as it combines the game’s cherished history with its hopeful present and future. For a long time, bridge has been perceived as a game exclusively for an older generation, but in recent years there has been a spike of young bridge players, featured especially in the 2012 World Youth Team Championships. This competition unfolds excitingly as highly talented players compete and make lasting relationships through the esteemed card game.

Double Dummy, the first film by Keswickian, John McAllister (producer), a long-time bridge enthusiast, offers an extraordinary look at the competitive world of youth bridge and the relationships forged by the game around the world. The film premiered at the 30th Annual Virginia Film Festival on Saturday, November 11, 2017, at 2 pm, in the theater at St. Anne’s Belfield. A discussion followed the screening with producer John McAllister and former New York Times bridge columnist Phillip Alder.

The film is narrated by McAllister and features Warren Buffet and the two 2012, USA1 and USA2, American World Youth Bridge Teams among many others. The film is directed by Lucas Krost and edited by Aashish Edakadampil. The Virginia Commission for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts supported the production of the film.

We last interviewed John for the December 2014 Issue of Keswick Life after his love for the game of bridge leads him to the ‘Bridge World Series’ in China. The 14th Red Bull World Series held in Sanya, Hainan, China that October where John was a participant on the world stage for the very first time.

We caught up with John shortly after the screening of Double Dummy at The Commonhouse in Charlottesville.

KL: Why Bridge?
JM: Bridge brings people from different backgrounds, countries, generations, and orientations together in an incredibly stimulating and rich playing environment.

KL: I overheard a guest at your VaFF premiere party say [on seeing the film], “I have to say that was way better than I thought possible!”
JM: [big genuine laugh].

KL: So, where have you played bridge?
JM: Well, not in any particular order [we later referenced a list], Charlottesville, Chicago, Delhi, Sanya, Montecatini Terme, Tromsø, Lyon, London, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Phoenix, Kansas City, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Stara Zagora, Varna, Dallas, Orlando, Naperville, Toronto, Virginia Beach, Atlanta, New Orleans, Memphis, Cambridge, Washington, Denver, Providence, St. Louis, Palm Beach Gardens, Richmond, Monterey, Santa Clara, Chattanooga, Palmetto, Waynesboro, Taicang, Naples, Bethesda, Williamsburg, Wilkes-Barre, Buena Vista, Hunt Valley, Baltimore, Hartes Club, Lexington, Harrisonburg, Alexandria, Biarritz and Copenhagen.

KL: Wow, your frequent flyer miles balance must be off the charts!
JM: Yes, they are something, I am thinking of going a bit nomadic, pack my stuff up and put it all in storage and travel around.

KL: Sounds like you have already been all around, where to?
JM: Thinking Costa Rica for a little r&r. Then back to work on the game.

KL: So, what did Warren Buffet have to say?
JM: He was open to the idea of being interviewed for the movie. He said, “Bridge is such a sensational game that I wouldn’t mind being in jail if I had three cellmates who were decent players.”

KL: Did you encounter any naysayers?
JM: Yes! I was not even deterred by a phone call following the dinner with my new friend, professional bridge player, Gavin Wolpert. I had called Gavin to ask him if there had ever been a documentary movie on bridge before. He was incredulous. “You’re serious,” Gavin said, “You must be joking,” he continued. We went back and forth like this for a good five minutes before he shared with me that a documentary film team had followed him and his fellow rising star partner Vince Demuy around for two years(!) before eventually broadcasting ‘In the Cards’ on Canadian television.

KL: We are sitting here in Commonhouse, a club co-founded by one of your partners in the film. Tell me about you and Derek Sieg.
JM: In 1980 our family moved to a farm in Louisa County, Virginia. That fall I started pre-school at St. Anne’s Belfield. My older sister and I rode a bus that the Kavanaugh family from Louisa hired to take students to school and home each day. It was St. Anne’s that I met one of my closest childhood friends, Derek Sieg. While Derek and I never managed to be in the same class, we very much enjoyed each other’s friendship.

KL: There must be lots of stories, any childhood favorites?
JM: One day I went over to Derek’s house on Twenty One Curves. He told me that he had bad news. “John, I am moving to Florida.” It turns out he had misheard his parents. In fact, they were moving to Flordon the suburb where his mother still lives today. Derek’s father, Terry took me to my first Virginia basketball games. In my childhood, he was the ultimate dad. I can remember throwing the football with him and Derek in their front yard on fall days just like today.

The Sieg’s took me in as part of their family. Terry was our soccer coach, and I sometimes got to spend the night over at their house on school nights as a member of the Killer Bees soccer team. Spending the night on school nights was quite the treat.

KL: What lead you guys to Double Dummy?
JM: The genesis for Double Dummy happened organically in a dinner with Derek and his writing partner Jeremy Goldstein many years later. I had just returned from my first full North American Bridge Championships, and D&J took me to dinner as a thank you for contributing to their Kickstarter campaign for their movie ‘Hot Air.’ Jeremy started the conversation by saying, “We think you are the only person we know that plays bridge.”

KL: [laughing]
JM: I then proceeded to tell them about a brainstorming session I attended; where I found out that the average member of the American Contract Bridge League was 67 years old and going up by two years every year. No sooner had I said that did Jeremy remark, perhaps now infamously, “that sounds like an idea for a documentary movie.” And the three of us were off to the races!

KL: What an incredible story!
JM: It has come full circle with Derek, and now a week after premiering my first feature film [at St. Anne’s-Befield]. The school where I learned to read, play piano and made a lifelong friend.

KL: How do I get a copy of the movie?
JM: We are planning to make it available online for rent or purchase on March 1st, 2018. That is one week before the start date for the Spring 2018 North American Bridge Championships. There is a multi-city North American tour to come before that for which we are currently fleshing out the details.

JM: Are you interested in helping to host a screening in Keswick?
KL: Sure, screening, why not! I am sure we can a group together, are you willing to come and do a discussion?
JM: I am up for anything that puts the spotlight on the game of bridge and gets more young people interested in learning bridge. This question was posed at a brainstorming session at the Spring 2012 North American Bridge Championships in Memphis, TN. The tradition and game needs to be passed down from the older generations to the younger; the young blood will ensure the game survives. That is part of what the movie is about at the end of the day.

KL: Tell me more about next steps for the film and sharing it with the world.
JM: We are seeking anyone who would like to see Double Dummy in their town.We ask them, do you think we can get a crowd? They may have an excellent idea of a place we can partner with or perhaps they represent an organization or venue and would like to host a Double Dummy screening. Possible screening venues don’t necessarily need A/V equipment; it’s not a deal-breaker. In some cases, we can bring in all the required gear. We try and ask prospects to tell us a little bit about their town, organization and the screening idea.

To say that you played a hand ‘double dummy’ is the highest compliment that you can pay a bridge player. It means to play the hand as if you know where all the cards are. This film is a ‘double dummy,’ they nailed it, and it is thorough enough to learn a few things about the game along the way. It made me laugh out loud, agonize over making the opening bid on the big stage and understand the motivation for the game through the multi-generational stories featured. This film is a celebration of the card game. The filmmakers show that bridge is not just a game for my Grandmother, it is a vibrant game played and loved by people of all ages and a global pastime. Anyone who has any desire to gain some knowledge about bridge should watch this. The stories of each of the characters are deep and emotional. If you enjoy competitive play of any kind, you will enjoy this film.

Be sure to follow John’s travels at http://doubledummymovie.com and shuffle the deck for a good game of Bridge with a group of friends!