The Light Factory's 2nd Annual Project Lovelight Movie Lover's Weekend and Film Competition will be held February 3-6 at various Charlotte venues. The event kicks off at 6pm Thursday, February 3, with an opening gala reception at the J. Richards Gallery at Phillips Place, followed by a 7:30pm screening at Phillips Place Cinemas. The featured film is the gritty 1967 drama The Incident, starring Martin Sheen (in his film debut) and Tony Musante as two street thugs who terrorize the passengers of an NYC subway car (including ones played by Beau Bridges and Ed McMahon). The screening will be followed by a Q&A session with the film's director, Larry Peerce (Goodbye, Columbus; Two-Minute Warning). Tickets for the reception and screening are $20.
Friday, February 4, will witness a special event surrounding the local premiere of Twin Towers, which earned the 2003 Academy Award for Best Documentary Short. Rob Port, who directed this 35-minute film centering on two brothers (a policeman and a firefighter) killed on 9/11, will be present at the screening, which will be held at 7pm in the McGlohon Theatre at Spirit Square. Admission is $10.
Port will also lead a day-long seminar on Saturday, February 5, at Phillips Place Cinemas. Port's subject is "From Pen to Script: Writing for Hollywood," and the seminar will include a showing of Twin Towers. Cost for the event, held from 10am until 4pm, is $100.
The festivities will wind down with the Project Lovelight Wrap Party and Awards Bash, beginning at 8pm Saturday night at Time Lounge on College Street. The shindig will include the announcement of the winners of the Light Factory's recent Project Lovelight Film Competition. Tickets are $15 at the door.
Finally, the winning entries will be screened from 3 to 5pm Sunday, February 6, at The Light Factory at Spirit Square. Admission is free.
An All Access Weekend Pass is available for $110. For further details, call 704-333-9755, or go online to www.lightfactory.org.
Film-A-Thon, a fund-raising event for the Charlotte NC Black Gay Pride organization, will be held from 7-10pm this Saturday, January 29, at the Lesbian & Gay Community Center, 1401 Central Avenue. The evening will feature a showing of Parts One and Two of The Closet, which is being promoted as "the world's first black gay DVD series." Created by Atlanta filmmakers Maurice Townes and Kevin F. Allen, the show focuses on a group of African-American gay males struggling to maintain their identities in a heterosexual world. Admission to the local event is $7 ($10 for couples). For further details, call 704-333-0144. Ongoing DVD installments of The Closet are available by subscription through the mail; go to www.thecloset.tv for more info.
Charlotte filmgoers would be forgiven for assuming that because of the phenomenal success the Manor Theatre has experienced with their exclusive run of the indie hit Sideways, they decided to cancel the Charlotte Film Society series outright. In truth, Eastern Federal (which owns the Manor) and the CFS are repeating the pattern established last winter, when the glut of year-end films and the general madness of the holidays helped them decide to take off the winter months of December through February and return in the spring. So expect the next season to kick off in early March; some titles have yet to be confirmed, but among those making the cut are the backstage period piece Stage Beauty, the documentary Guerilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst and the French thriller Red Lights.
The Main Library is gearing up to present two consecutive film series over the next couple of months. First, February brings the Black History Month Film Series, with the lineup consisting of The Line King: The Al Hirschsfeld Story, included since the Library will be showcasing Hirschfeld's Harlem-based drawings (February 7); the musical Carmen Jones (February 14); Hughes' Dream Harlem, about writer Langston Hughes (February 21); and 1939's Moon Over Harlem, an early all-black film (February 28).
Then in March, the Library will offer A Short Burst of Brando, featuring four diverse titles showcasing the late actor: the notorious 70s offering The Missouri Breaks (March 7); the musical Guys and Dolls (March 14); the classic On the Waterfront (March 21); and the blockbuster Superman (with Brando as Jor-El), still the best superhero flick ever made (March 28).
