THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 26, 1995 TAG: 9510260126
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Mal Vincent
LENGTH: Short : 44 lines
IN ADDITION to Fay Wray's appearance at screenings of ``King Kong'' and ``The Wedding March'' tonight, some 200 films will be unreeled at the Virginia Festival of American Film, which runs through Sunday in Charlottesville.
The theme of the eighth annual festival is ``U.S. and Them: The Cross Cultural Politics of American Film.''
Individual tickets for most screenings are $6 up until one hour before screenings and $7 at the theater, if tickets remain available.
The Saturday night gala (10 p.m. to 2 a.m.) is $90 and features dancing to calypso music and Latino rhythms and a feast of foods from around the world.
For information on tickets, call 1-800-UVA-FEST.
Among the festival events is a six-hour course on ``The Third Man,'' taught by critic Roger Ebert ($40). It stars Virginia's own Joseph Cotten with Orson Welles.
On Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. there will be a family celebration, with an afternoon of films at the Jefferson Theater and a Halloween costume parade, storytellers, mimes and dancers along Charlottesville's Downtown Mall.
Friday at 7 p.m. is the world premiere of ``Once Upon a Time. . . When We Were Colored,'' directed by Norfolk's own Tim Reid. The cast includes Al Freeman Jr., Phylicia Rashad, Bernie Casey and Richard Roundtree (who will attend). It is the bittersweet story about a world that vanished in the wake of integration, the world of ``colored town,'' a totally black environment in which, in the words of the creator, ``the people nurtured, protected each other, and celebrated life together.''
``The Little Richard Story'' will be screened Friday at 10 p.m.
Film classics to be shown include ``The Manchurian Candidate,'' ``Giant,'' ``A Foreign Affair,'' ``The Wild Bunch,'' ``Once Upon a Time in the West,'' ``Saboteur,'' ``Dr. Strangelove'' and ``Touch of Evil.''
Many screenings will be followed by panel discussions involving top film historians and scholars from around the country. Screenings are at Vinegar Hill Theater, Culbreth Theater and other locations. by CNB