Poe & the Avant-garde: The Fall of the House of Usher
(Epstein, 1928, 50 min., silent) (Watson and Webber, 1928, 13 min., silent)
2:00 pm
Richmond Public Library, Main Branch, Basement Auditorium
Free

Edgar Allen Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher was the source of two experimental film adaptations in 1928, in France and in the U.S. The best known is by French director Jean Epstein, who also cited as a source Poe’s The Oval Portrait – surreal, atmospheric, very avant. The American version, by James Sibley Watson and Melville Webber, is an attempt to capture the mood of Poe’s tale through optical distortions, prismatic refractions, shadows and multiple exposures. Introduced by Michael Jones.

Virginia Film Office Reception
5:00-6:30 pm
Plant Zero Art Center
Free admission (Cash bar)

Meet and mingle with festival guests and volunteers, area filmmakers, professionals and film enthusiasts over hors d’oeuvres and beverages courtesy of the Virginia Film Office. Open to the public.

JRFF Juried Competition Finalists
(Approx. 90 min.)
Co-sponsored by the Virginia Film Office and Virginia Production Alliance
6:30 pm
Plant Zero Art Center
Free

Every year the James River Film Festival, the Virginia Film Office and the Virginia Production Alliance co-sponsor a national juried competition of short films in any genre – animation, narrative, experimental, documentary. And every year we screen the jurors’ selections and award $2,000 in prizes, including the Virginia Filmmaker Award and People’s Choice Award. Our jury of film professionals and academics in the Richmond area screens each entry at least twice. This years jurors are Jim Collier, professor of media at Radford University; Robert Ellis, JRFF critic-at-large; Megan Holley, screenwriter/filmmaker; Trent Nicholas, adjunct professor of film studies, Virginia Commonwealth University; Janet Scagnelli, animator/filmmaker. After the screening of the finalists, the awards will be announced, including the Virginia Filmmaker Award and populist People’s Choice Award, so come and be heard! Since 1994 the JRFF has awarded more than $28,000 to independent filmmakers in Virginia and states nationwide.

This year's finalists and winners are:

• Richard Martin (Apart, 8 min.), 1st place, $700
• Karen Aqua (Twist of Fate, 9 min.), 2nd place $500, and People's Choice Award $200
• Jeffrey Jon Smith (The Miracle, 29 min.), 3rd place tie $200
• Erik Gernand (Non-Love Song, 8 min.), 3rd place tie $200
• J. Darin Wales (Plink, 9 min.), Virginia Filmmaker Award $200
• David Ellsworth (Surface Kinetic, 14 min.)
• Dennis Iannuzzi (Vitruvius’ Toybox, 6 min.),
• Barton Landsman (Banana Bread, 9 min.),
• Hans Montelius (Mannen med kulorna, 15 min.),

Georges Méliès meets Hotel X Live!
8:30 pm
Plant Zero Art Center
Admission $5

The French father of special effects meets Richmond’s most versatile ensemble – only the highflying Hotel X can match the daring feats of illusionary agility achieved by one of the greatest artists of the primitive film era – Georges Méliès, magician and pioneer filmmaker. Méliès made more than 400 films in his career, almost all in the fantasy realm, and is best known for the first international blockbuster, A Trip to the Moon (1902). Tonight’s program features these less often seen, magical Méliès masterpieces: The Impossible Voyage, The Black Imp, The Wonderful Living Fan and The Mermaid.

Fugazi: Instrument
(Jem Cohen, 1999, 105 min.) with director Jem Cohen
10:30 pm
Plant Zero Art Center
Admission $5

Filmed between 1988-1997, Cohen’s slice-of-Fugazi-life is comprised of interviews, early benefits and concerts, news bites and dreamy, associative images of road life. A true collaboration between Cohen and the activist hardcore band from DC, Instrument has an organic feel, as if formed by the band and the music as much as by the filmmaker. Highlights include the band at Lorton Correctional Institute, Ian swinging and singing from a basketball goal during a high school show and hypnotic sequences of Fugazi fans in close-up. Jem Cohen will be on hand to introduce the film and to answer questions afterward.