Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 13, 1990 TAG: 9007130120
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Chris Gladden
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Carl Plantinga of Hollins College is this end of the state's lone voice in Charlottesville. It would be hard to find a more passionate advocate for the art of film.
Plantinga is the chairman of the theater arts department at Hollins and teaches courses in film history and film criticism there. But he's taken his interest in film into the community, serving on the board of the Blue Ridge Film Society in Roanoke and on the programming committee for the film festival. He drives to Charlottesville once a month for festival board meetings, where this year's guest and movie selections will be decided.
So far, the festival is still very much in the planning stages, Plantinga says.
This year's theme is music. The Norfolk-based Virginia Symphony has been chosen to perform at the festival, kicking off the event by accompanying a classic silent film on the opening night, which hasn't been chosen yet. Skitch Henderson, the former "Tonight Show" conductor and a show business veteran, has agreed to conduct the symphony during some of its concerts at the festival.
Other composers that the festival would like to draw are Bill Lee, the father of Spike Lee ("Do the Right Thing"); Bill Horner ("Field of Dreams"); and superstar composer John Williams ("Jaws," "Star Wars").
Commitments are hard to get this far in advance because those active in the business may have jobs come festival time.
"It's one of the notorious problems in the business. Directors, composers and producers don't like to make long-term commitments," Plantinga notes.
The festival will include screenings of musicals starring such greats as Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers and Gene Kelly. But the festival isn't geared to just musicals - it will address the many uses of music in movies. There will also be new pictures that don't fall under the festival's theme.
While the festival appears to be robust heading into its third edition, the Blue Ridge Film Society is not.
"If we don't get more people interested, we may have to fold," Plantinga says. "We've suffered from attrition." The society has taken a hiatus this summer and will mount a membership drive in the fall. It hasn't selected a program for next season but a definite will be a screening and lecture in conjunction with a performance by the Kandinsky Trio.
A state grant of about $5,000 has helped the society meet its expenses.
"We'll keep having shows until the bank account runs out," Plantinga says.
The 32-year-old film scholar came to Hollins College three years ago from Madison, Wis., where he received a doctorate in film from the University of Wisconsin.
He's pleased with the strength of Hollins' film program: Richard Dillard and Klaus Phillips also teach film courses at the school and a music-in-film course to be taught by Milton Granger is planned. Dillard was originally asked to be on the film festival's programming committee but was too busy and recommended Plantinga.
"I thought it would be a good way to meet other people in the state and to meet filmmakers and interest them in coming to Roanoke," Plantinga says.
That approach paid off. He met the makers of the Academy Award-winning "Common Threads" and persuaded them to come to Roanoke for a special film society screening.
"I think film is one of the most important art forms in the world," Plantinga says. "It's a shame it hasn't been studied more as an art form and as a business."
by CNB