Still from Kevin Everson’s Erie.

One thing I look forward to during the Virginia Film Festival is the chance to view edgy, experimental pieces that usually only screen in urban centers like Chicago or New York. But this year the arty offerings are few and far between. Two exceptions are Kevin Everson’s new feature, Erie, and a group exhibition by Everson’s art students at the former C-Ville office on the Downtown Mall.

Erie contains elements familiar to Everson fans: a focus on middle-class African-American labor and leisure, an ambient soundtrack, and indications of the filmmaking process, such as scratched ends. Nevertheless, it’s a departure from the UVA art prof’s previous features. Shot in northern Ohio and Buffalo, NY, the 81-minute black and white film is a series of single takes, lasting between 10 and 11 minutes— the amount of time a film spool moves through a camera’s magazine- that are unrelated narratively.

Everson says he’s been thinking about one-take filmmaking for some time, but when he was in Europe last year he began to conceive of a piece that would string together disparate scenes, connected only by their subjects’ focus on a task at hand. Alternating between static shots and ones involving action, interiors, and exteriors, Erie is a meditative visual poem.

Opening on workers putting up a Volkswagen billboard intended to appeal to African Americans, the film cuts briefly to Niagara Falls, and then settles into a prolonged shot of a young girl in a white shirt staring at a flickering white candle. The composition is beautiful, but as the minutes tick by, with next to nothing happening, the small things— the twitch of the girl’s mouth, a drip of wax, the sound of a dog barking— become enormous.

And so it goes for the rest of the film, slow and ponderous. Which is not to say there aren’t breathtaking moments. In one memorable shot, Everson’s camera pulls back from a vocalist and pianist practicing a sentimental song on a tinny upright to follow a dancer krumping to music blasting from a CD player in another part of the warehouse-like room.

Erie screens on Thursday night, but 18 of Everson’s University of Virginia students carry the filmic art torch through the weekend with a series of video installations at 106 E. Main Street. According to fourth-year student Vashti Harrison, the eighteen pieces “are made for people to walk in and of,” and several are site-specific.

Erie, screens at 10pm on Thursday, November 5, at Regal 3 on the Downtown Mall.  For more information, call 1-800-UVA-Fest. Everson’s UVA art students’ video installations are on view Friday and Saturday, 9am-10pm, at 106 E. Main St. (former office of C-Ville). 434-242-4211.

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“I deserve health care.”
SCREEN CAPTURE

One local filmmaker (along with a pack of kids at Riverview Park) might play a key role in the health care debate if a new video keeps advancing in the Obama Health Care Reform Video Challenge. Already, the 30-second spot from Charlottesville has been chosen from over 1,000 submissions to become one of just 20 finalists.

Eric Hurt— who once shot a television show about Spudnuts— wrote, directed, and shot “I Deserve Health Care” with producer Erica Arvold. Voting for the Challenge is now open, and individuals are encouraged to watch the top videos, vote for their favorites, and help select the winning ad that will air on national television.

The whole enterprise, but particularly Hurt’s video and a graffiti video, drew the outrage of FoxNews commentator Sean Hannity, who interviewed a conservative commentator who blasted Hurt for “grooming the next generation of entitlement-seekers.”

–last updated 6:49am Friday
Spelling of Spudnuts corrected 9:20am Friday

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WordSmith and DJ Double A I K host a poetry jam, featuring poets, spoken word artists, singers, etc. Random Row Books on West Main. Wednesday, October 28, 7pm to 10pm. Open mic at 7pm, main event starts at 7:30pm. $5.

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Orzo Kitchen and Wine Bar in the Main Street Market.
PHOTO BY NED OLDHAM

An elephant is like a tree—at least that’s what the blind monk who felt its leg deduced; his five fabled brethren felt differently. If Orzo Kitchen and Wine Bar in the Main Street Market can be likened to an elephant, it might have to be one of those that famously traversed the Mediterranean areas working for Greeks, Romans, and North Africans because here owners-chefs Ken Wooten and Charles Roumeliotes have created a polished paean to Mediterranean cuisine via the Market space’s top-shelf position in Charlottesville’s foodie-fantasy, at the intersection of Local and Fine Taste.

I am not a blind monk; I am The Eater. It’s the variety of the layout that got me thinking of the elephant parable as we stopped first under sleek, dangling, swirled orange-and-blue glass lights over wooden stools and bar with coat hooks underneath. Here, a few over-40, country-club types were (more)

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On Saturday, October 17 award-winning Keswick Vineyards is having its first-ever “Lucy-style” grape stomping event, inspired by the famous “I love Lucy” episode in which Lucille Ball makes a mess of things in an Italian grape vat. In fact, the folks at Keswick are encouraging you to dress up as Lucy by offering a 5 percent discount on wines if you do. There’ll also be a “best Lucy” costume contest, with prizes for the best female and male impersonations.

Sounds like a grape stompin’ good time, with music provided by Rock River Gypsies. The cost in $25 per person, which includes a glass of wine and the chance to get your feet sloppy. You may have to join Keswick’s Wine Club for this, but hey, its free. Call 434-244-3341 for more information.

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Film fest director Jody Kielbasa details this year’s program.
PHOTO BY LISA PROVENCE

When the Virginia Film Festival unveiled this year’s line-up October 7, Annette Bening, Matthew Broderick and Cherry Jones were among the headliners, along with previously announced cult filmmaker John Waters.

By October 19, Bening had discovered a scheduling conflict and canceled her visit to Charlottesville to screen her new film, Mother and Child. That show will go (more)

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The 360 Tour crew began construction of “The Claw” at 9am Wednesday morning.
PHOTO BY ANNA HARRISON

With anticipation building, ticket prices lowering, and four days of pre-production underway, the night before the Charlottesville’s biggest rock show is far from a night off for U2’s crew.

Headed by longtime production manager Jake Berry, the day before a show is the true marathon. Despite four days already notched prepping Scott Stadium’s field, it will take twelve hours to get the stage– nicknamed “The Claw” by the crew and “The Spider” by the Hook– assembled. 150 feet tall, including the center pylon, with a circular video screen hanging just below (more)

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Nick Zammuto sets up the stage before he and cellist Paul de Jong inaugurate The Southern.
PHOTO BY STEPHANIE GARCIA

“Welcome to the maiden voyage of this venue,” guitarist Nick Zammuto whispered into his microphone to a packed house Friday night before introducing the first song— song being a relative term here— that he and his cohort, cellist Paul de Jong performed. The two constitute the New York-based guitar and cello duo, The Books, whose ambitious music was appropriately booked for the opening night of the revamped Gravity Lounge space, now known as The Southern.

The Books belong to a growing population of multimedia artists, meshing their acoustic folk with “found sounds” from film or recording clips– “collage music,” according to Zammuto. Beginning the evening with a new piece, a projector screened talking heads (more)

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The iS music venue lasted barely a year before shutting its doors Monday morning.
PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

For the little venue that could, the iS music lounge announced Monday that it iS no longer in business.

When managers Stew Hartman-Mart and Chris Dunbar announced in September 2008 the re-opening of the Starr Hill music venue as the Si restuarant/iS music lounge double whammy, the regional music scene rejoiced for the re-addition of the venerable venue back into the live music scene. But perhaps those who claim Starr Hill was cursed are right— as Sunday night, September 28, the Twitter feed of the venue’s booker, Jeyon Falsini, announced that Is was closing.

According to Falsini, Sunday night’s show featuring Tennessee-based punk rockers Black Diamond Heavies and local hard-rockers Corsair and Channel 43 was the venue’s final (more)

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