IMAGE Film & Video Center presents the best in cutting edge, critically-acclaimed independent films at the 24th Annual Atlanta Film & Video Festival, May 13 – 21, 2000. This year’s Atlanta Film & Video Festival (AFVF) is proud to offer Atlanta audiences premiere screenings of over 120 award-winning animated, narrative, experimental, student and documentary works by such noted filmmakers as director Jim McKay (GIRLS TOWN, OUR SONG), animator Bill Plympton and Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist and director Kevin McKiernan. Held at key locations throughout metro Atlanta, venues for the 2000 AFVF include AMC Phipps Plaza 14 Theaters, AMC Buckhead Backlot 6 Theaters, United Artists’ Tara Theater, the Carter Center, the High Museum’s Rich Auditorium and Walter C. Hill Auditorium and the Lefont Garden Hills Theater. In addition to the fascinating slate of films this year, the AFVF will also include 13 new educational panel discussions and scheduled guest appearances by filmmakers, video artists, actors and media professionals from around the world, including Liev Schreiber, star of the opening night film SPRING FORWARD. The first annual Digi-ATL, the Atlanta Film & Video Festival’s Media Showcase, will also make its debut as the Southeast’s premiere location to explore how independent filmmakers and their audiences can take advantage of the changes in film production brought about by new technology. The highlights of Digi-ATL include a series of panel discussions focusing on production and promotion through digital media, continuous screenings of independent works which have been produced digitally, internet viewing stations and exhibitions of the latest technology for media production.
This year the Atlanta Film & Video Festival received over 600 films and videos for consideration-more than any previous year. After being selected for general screening, 50 films were selected for competition screening in front of a panel of four judges from the film and video community, including: Kim Adelman, content editor for SHORT (formerly Short Cinema Journal), the acclaimed series of short film collections on DVD; Stephen Gallagher, publisher of FILMMAKER: The Magazine of Independent Film; Tony Murphy, Festival Director for the Urbanworld International Film Festival and Cauleen Smith, director of the film DRYLONGSO playing at this year’s AFVF which won the Silver Armadillo at the 1999 South by Southwest Film Festival.
For the first time, the AFVF is offering Atlanta audiences the convenience of purchasing tickets over the internet. Simply go to the IMAGE Film & Video Center website at www.imagefv.org and click on the Ticketweb icon to purchase any advance ticket with Visa or Mastercard. Ticket prices range from $4 for matinees to $20 for opening night. All tickets may be purchased beginning May 2. In addition to our convenient internet method, tickets may also be purchased at the main AFVF box office in the lobby of AMC Phipps Plaza 14 Theaters beginning May 9, or by calling (404) 352-4254.
Liev Schreiber (THE DAYTRIPPERS), Ned Beatty (DELIVERANCE) and Campbell Scott (DYING YOUNG) lead an all-star cast in the AFVF’s opening night film, SPRING FORWARD. The hit of this year’s Sundance Film Festival, the Southeastern premiere of SPRING FORWARD will be Saturday, May 13 at 8:00 p.m. at the Rich Auditorium of the High Museum of Art. Executive produced by Athens, GA native and R.E.M. lead singer Michael Stipe, SPRING FORWARD presents a character study of an unlikely friendship. Starring Liev Schreiber, Ned Beatty, Campbell Scott, Ian Hart, Peri Gilpin and Catherine Kellner, this emotionally-rich story of two very different men by director Tom Gilroy has been hailed by Variety as “intriguingly allusive and rigorously precise, very much in the manner of an exceptionally well-crafted short story.” Actor Liev Schreiber, director Tom Gilroy and producers Gill Holland and Jim McKay are all scheduled to appear at opening night. A gala reception will immediately follow the film at Center Space in the Robert W. Woodruff Arts Center. The AFVF will conclude with a screening of GEORGE WASHINGTON, one of the most talked about features at this past year’s Berlin Film Festival, on Sunday, May 21 at 8:00 p.m. at United Artists Tara Cinema.
A heist-gone-awry in the Midwest, a man and his forklift-driving wife, a found-footage fairy tale set in the year 2007, an intimate look at teen angst and a powerful documentary about a Puerto Rican family in New York are just a few of the highlights at this year’s AFVF: DEAD DOGS, a neo-noir thriller in which a drifter-turned-security guard finds out the “perfect crime” can be anything but; GOOD HOUSEKEEPING, a down-in-the-gutters drama tagged by one critic as “the white trash WAR OF THE ROSES” in which a man and wife declare war on one another, though for now they find themselves forced to live together; SPECTRES OF THE SPECTRUM, in which a telepathic young woman must save the world by bringing back the secret to survival from an ancient television broadcast; OUR SONG, which follows three teenage girls as they face the challenges of growing up in Crown Heights, Brooklyn; and lastly NUYORICAN DREAM, produced in association with actor/producer John Leguizamo and music producer Jellybean Benitez, this documentary explores the intersection between poverty, crime and lack of education in a Puerto Rican family living in New York City. Finally, don’t miss the ANIMATION EXTRAVAGANZA. Promising an annual sell-out crowd, this year’s program features 12 animated short films, including the Academy Award-nominated film WHEN THE DAY BREAKS, SURPRISE CINEMA by noted animator Bill Plympton and ATOMIC ROADKILL starring an animated Christopher Walken.
The Atlanta film community takes center stage at the 2000 Atlanta Film & Video Festival. Featuring 26 films and videos written, directed or produced by Atlantans, this year’s festival is a testament to the Southeast’s growing film industry. In addition to screenings of local narrative features THE INITIATE and SEVERED, the AFVF will also include a diverse mix of 11 homegrown short works by Atlanta filmmakers in this year’s Local Lounge.
IMAGE Film & Video Center 75 Bennett Street, Suite N-1 Atlanta, GA 30309 (404) 352-4225 (404) 352-0173 FAX ^ kelly@imagefv.org ^ [ http://www.imagefv.org ]
