Part of the 2024 James River Film Festival, Michele Poulos’ documentary “Wild Creation: Mardi Gras Women” screens at The Byrd Theatre April 20. (Image courtesy James River Film Festival)
Richmond’s homegrown, all-volunteer-run James River Film Festival celebrates its 30th anniversary with screenings April 11-14 and April 20.
“I think we’ve lasted because we’re so inexpensive,” Mike Jones, the event’s director, says with a weary laugh. “Our budget is mite-sized compared to some others. And it’s done really for the love of film.”
The festival began from absence and want. With the closing of the beloved Biograph repertory art house and the ending of The Byrd Theatre’s “Art in the Afternoon” series, Jones and other cineastes sought to fill the void. The festival presented 12 films in its inaugural year, and one of the hosting venues was an effort by Jerome Legions Jr. to revive the Biograph as the Grace Street Cinema.
At the start, Virginia Commonwealth University provided some funding and use of facilities. Jones, a VCU professor of film, recalled one of the hurdles involved understanding the Fellini-like madness of paperwork. He chuckles about that now, saying, “The distributors wanted their money right away. But we had to submit to state protocols.”
During the three decades since, there have been dizzying numbers of changes in the screen world — from the technology of making movies to the means of distribution — and for an event like the JRFF, increasing challenges in finding places to show films, persuading audience members to drop their remotes and come see films that aren’t part of blockbuster franchises, and raising money to make it happen. The constant in this flux is the passion for those flickering images by Jones and the film society members.
The latest installment of the series lights up screens and stages with its unusual range of movies, silent films and talkies, experimental and traditional, plus music both live and recorded, with events ticketed and free at various local venues. And this year, it presents works by three women directors who are right here in the River City.
Sasha Waters’ “Bruce Conner and a Soul-Stirring Work-in-Progress” (7:30 p.m. April 11, Grace Street Theater) takes up from where the late artist filmmaker Conner left off. Before his 2008 death, Conner lensed more than 40 hours of footage about the Soul Stirrers, the groundbreaking gospel group out of which came, among others, Sam Cooke (“A Change Is Gonna Come”).
“Her Truth” (12:30 p.m. April 14, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts’ Reynolds Hall) showcases three short films by Yossera Bouchtia about the crossroads between Eastern and Western cultures.
Michele Poulos’ documentary “Wild Creation: Mardis Gras Women” (2 p.m. April 20, The Byrd Theatre) follows three different female participants in the New Orleans tradition.
Another Richmond woman represented at the festival is Edith Lindeman Calisch (1898-1984). She wrote for three decades about film and entertainment for the Richmond Times-Dispatch. She interviewed stellar personalities such as Gary Cooper and Judy Garland. Her grandson Nelson Calisch brings her observations into public view with selections from her journal in “A Line a Day: Private Thoughts of a Public Woman.” He’ll be at the downtown branch of the Richmond Public Library on April 12.
“We never thought it would last this long,” Jones says. He credits part of the endurance to acknowledgement by indie filmmaker Kelly Reichardt. During a past presentation, Jones noted that if the festival had made it that far, maybe it could get to 30. Reichardt saluted that thought with a fist bump.
“Maybe some of her magic rubbed off,” Jones says.
For a full schedule, visit jamesriverfilm.org and the James River Film Society on Facebook.
