Excitement! BookBalloon would like to announce another new Forum feature: Focus on Film, led by David Webb. David is a movie fiend with many years of experience studying film, reviewing movies, and working with top names in Hollywood.

If you’re already a registered member of BookBalloon, click this link to go straight to the discussion. If you’re not already a BookBalloon member (and why not? It’s free!), click here to begin.

Here’s David’s introduction to Focus on Film:

I am excited to be leading the new Focus on Film discussion here at BookBalloon, despite the fact that this is almost certainly an act of retribution on the part of one of the site moderators, who accompanied me to a couple hundred movies while I was writing reviews between 1981 and 1983. When you recall that these were the years of Mommie Dearest, Heaven’s Gate, and Porky’s, you can probably sympathize with her need to avenge herself upon me.

Our hope is to have a focused conversation about a selected film over the course of approximately two weeks. We will announce each selection well in advance of the scheduled discussion. Whenever possible, we will choose movies for the forum that are available on DVD, Netflix streaming, and Amazon Instant so that the everyone can join in the discussion. Selected films will run the gamut from foreign films and timeless classics to commercial blockbusters and lesser-known gems. Although Focus on Film will stay focused on one subject so we can examine it in depth, feel free to make comparisons to other works, especially those from the canon of the director, writers, and performers. There are no requirements as to participation. You are welcome to be present for each discussion, as it suits your taste and availability.

During this season of film festivals, we’re first going to look back at one of the most celebrated films of the 2008 Toronto and New York Film Festivals. SUMMER HOURS (L’heure d’été) is directed by Olivier Assayas and superbly acted by some of France’s finest performers, including Oscar-winner Juliette Binoche.

In this film, the divergent paths of three forty-something siblings collide when their mother, heiress to her uncle’s exceptional 19th-century art collection, dies suddenly. Left to come to terms with themselves and their differences, successful New York designer Adrienne (Binoche), economist and university professor Frédéric (Charles Berling), and international businessman Jérémie (Jérémie Rénier) confront the end of childhood, their shared memories, and their visions of the future. With this incisively written meditation on art and eternal life, Assayas earned multiple comparisons to French master Jean Renoir.

Summer Hours was a critical triumph, receiving 93% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, and was one of the most highly-decorated foreign-language films in the United States in 2009.

Join us beginning Thursday, October 20. If you are not already a member of the Forum, registration is free.

2nd Annual VCU Southern Film Festival February 24 – 26

The Grace Street Theater at 934 West Grace Street in the heart of VCU’s Monroe Park campus is the site of the VCU Southern Film Festival.

Lovers of classic films and great works of southern literature are in for a super treat.

The series starts at 6PM on Thursday, February 24th, with a book reading and signing by Charles Shields of “Mockingbird: An Intimate Portrait of Harper Lee.”  This event takes place at one of Richmond’s favorite independent bookstores, Fountain Book Store at 1312 East Cary Street in Richmond’s Historic Shockoe Slip.

On Saturday, February 26th, between 4:30 PM and 5:30 PM, Shields will again sign his book  “Mockingbird: An Intimate Portrait of Harper Lee” but this time at VCU Barnes and Noble at 1111 West Broad, just around the block from the Grace Street Theater.

At 7 PM, the 1962 film “To Kill a Mockingbird” will conclude the festival. Shields will discuss how the screenplay evolved from the novel. Mary Badham, the actress who played Scout, will discuss her experience on the set of the film.

Image via Wikipedia

Coming to New Dominion Bookshop:

Ellen F. Brown and John Wiley, Jr. will discuss and

present selections from their new work

Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind: A Bestseller’s Odyssey from Atlanta to Hollywood

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

12:15 PM

New Dominion Bookshop

Selected by Publishers Weekly as one of ten highlighted books for spring 2011 in the field of performing arts.

In the seventy-five years since Gone With the Wind’s publication, millions of people the world over have speculated about what happened after Rhett Butler told Scarlett O’Hara he didn’t give a damn. Whether author Margaret Mitchell envisioned a reconciliation for her famous lovers is one of many intriguing questions surrounding the legendary novel and its enigmatic creator.

Granted unprecedented access to GWTW records and correspondence, Ellen F. Brown and John Wiley, Jr., examine the biggest mystery of them all: how a disorganized and incomplete manuscript by an unknown Southern writer was discovered by a major New York publisher and became one of the most popular, profitable, and controversial novels in literary history. Various Mitchell biographies and several compilations of her letters tell part of the story, but until now no single source has delved into the full saga.

This entertaining and informative account traces Gone With the Wind from its origins in the Civil War-era experiences of Mitchell’s relatives through its status today as a pop culture icon that still generates impressive profits for her estate. At the core of the story is Mitchell’s struggle to capture on paper the sights, sounds and smells of antebellum Georgia and how she dealt with her book’s stunning success. Mitchell had no affinity for the celebrity status or legal complexities associated with being a bestselling author but accepted them with resignation and went on to build an international publishing empire amidst the Great Depression and World War II. Brown and Wiley answer the question once posed by the author’s husband, “How in the hell did she do it?”

Along the way, rumors are debunked and mysteries are solved—from who really deserves credit for unearthing and editing the manuscript to, at long last, Mitchell’s answer to the burning question of whether Scarlett gets Rhett back.

Critics have warmly received Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind: A Bestseller’s Odyssey. Publishers Weekly editor Dick Donahue wrote of his decision to include it in PW’s list of spring highlights: “History . . . plays a leading role—in real life and reel life—in Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind. How has this iconic film, released in 1939, captured the public’s imagination for nearly three-quarters of a century? (Frankly, my dear, I do give a damn.)” Library Journal deemed it a “detailed and well-documented account of the creation, publication, and ongoing product management of Margaret Mitchell’s famous novel of the Civil War South” that will “appeal to all fans of the book or the film, as well as popular literary history buffs and writers.”

About the authors:

Ellen F. Brown is a bibliophile. After a childhood spent with her nose in a book, Brown went to law school on the theory that she would be paid to read dusty old tomes with fancy leather bindings. After a decade of practicing environmental law, a field in which few of the case books are leatherbound, she decided to follow her dream via another route. In 2007, she opened an antiquarian bookselling business and became a freelance writer with a bent for all things bookish.

Today, Brown focuses her energies on the writing side of her career. She writes a regular column for Fine Books & Collections magazine and is now working on her second book.

Ellen lives in Richmond, Virginia’s historic Fan District with her husband, their two sons, and a Bassett hound named Leo. She is a member of Virginia Press Women and sits on the boards of the Library of Virginia Foundation

John Wiley, Jr., is an expert on Gone With the Wind and the life of its author, Margaret Mitchell. Over the past 40 years, he has assembled a collection of over 10,000 items of GWTW and Mitchell memorabilia—including every American edition of the novel and more than 700 foreign editions. His collection is featured in the Complete Gone With the Wind Sourcebook.

Wiley has published numerous articles on Mitchell and Gone With the Wind and has been interviewed by Entertainment Weekly, USA Today, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and The London Times. In 1997, he served as artistic adviser for the U.S. Postal Service’s 32-cent Gone With the Wind postage stamp in its 1930s Celebrate the Century series. For more than 20 years, he has published a quarterly newsletter, now called The Scarlett Letter, for GWTW fans and collectors.

Primeval Times by Russell U. Richards

Artist, author, and filmmaker Russell Richards talks about how chronic illness and a recent accident have affected his approach to life and art. Richards is currently at work on a short horror film, Sins of the Fly, which will feature a pink Cadillac, a performing dog, and loads of local talent.

Listen to the podcast

Richards can be found in his studio at the McGuffey Art Center surrounded by his colorful lithographs and etchings. He is the author of The Art and Innards of Russell U. Richards! A wide selection of his work can be seen at his website.

Via Charlottesville Podcasting Network

Greetings friends,

As some of you know, I’ve been involved with the Kay’s Kitchen project for almost two years. Kay’s is part of the larger day haven project for our area’s homeless and underserved community slated to open in November, called the Haven at First & Market. This community kitchen will be serving a free, healthy breakfast to anyone who either wants it or needs it. The idea is to meld all community members under one roof around the ideas of food and nutrition as we collaborate on wholesome meals made with as much local food as possible and find common ground in our shared need for nourishment of body-mind-spirit.

We will also be using the kitchen for job training in the culinary arts and for other food-related programs that link rural and urban residents, farmers and non-farmers, advantaged with disadvantaged, and so on.

Please consider attending the Wednesday, July 29^th screening of the film, Fresh, the Movie 7PM at the Vinegar Hill Theatre in Charlottesville. Proceeds from the screening will benefit Kay’s Kitchen and will help make manifest this vision. Also on hand will be a panel of some of our region’s greatest local food heroes (including Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms, Judy Berger of JABA, UVA food systems professor Tanya Denckla Cobb and Ramona Huff of Gryffon’s Aerie), as well as volunteers from Kay’s Kitchen who will speak on behalf of the project itself.

In addition to the screening, Joel Salatin will be signing books at New Dominion Bookstore on the Downtown Mall prior to the screening (starting at 5PM) and the soon-to-open El Camino Restaurant (next door to Vinegar Hill) will be hosting both a pre- and post-screening reception.

Full disclosure: I’m on the board of directors at WriterHouse. But I’m also a (would-be) writer, and I have taken classes from Andrew and Kristen-Paige, both of whom are excellent instructors. In both classes, the discussion was stimulating and the atmosphere for sharing our writing could not have been more supportive. As for the teen class, my son had Carey as an English teacher for two years at Tandem Friends School, and I can’t say enough good things about her as a teacher and a person.

Adult classes run 8 weeks and cost $200, with a discount for WriterHouse members. The cost of the teen class is $100 for four weeks.

So, are you ready to write? See you this week!

A sleazy but smart pulp novel makes for a sleazy but smart noir film.

The story

At a seedy traveling carnival in Depression-era rural America, amateur magician Stan Carlisle is making a name for himself. But he’s not content fleecing the rubes for nickels and dimes. He wants more. When he gets hold of a number code he sets himself up as a mentalist; he hooks up with the carnival’s Electric Girl Molly and the two of them start working in vaudeville. But that’s still not enough for Stan and his grudge against anyone who has more respect and money than he does. He joins forces with Lilith, a coldhearted psychiatrist. Using the information that Lilith gives him, Stan reinvents himself as a  spiritualist with the power to help people contact their dead loved ones. And when an industry magnate offers Stan a fortune to put him in touch with his dead lover, Stan leaps at the chance…and at his downfall.

The book

In terms of its basic story arc, William Lindsay Gresham’s novel Nightmare Alley doesn’t have much to set it apart — cynical protagonist with a chip on his shoulder tries to better his lot in life by breaking society’s rules, only to get a comeuppance and end up worse off than he was. It’s the book’s carnival setting that gives the story its unique flavor: Gresham’s protagonist starts as an ambitious small-time magician and ends up the lowest form of carnival life — the geek. And though Stanton Carlisle soon shakes the carny dust off his feet to become first a vaudevillian and then a spiritualist minister, he never stops being a flim-flam man — all that has changed are the monetary stakes and the penalty for failure. It’s significant that the Tarot card illustrations that open each chapter start with The Fool and end with The Hanged Man.

via Books into Celluloid: Nightmare Alley.

The Road trailers and video clips on Yahoo! Movies.

The University of Virginia’s College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences has announced that the upcoming 22nd annual Virginia Film Festival will be all about getting down to “Funny Business.” The Festival is set for November 5 – 8 at venues throughout Charlottesville.“There are no better times than these to appreciate and experience the healing power of laughter,” a Festival spokesperson said. “Films have a unique ability to allow us all to turn the world off for a couple of hours and lose ourselves in comic characters, situations and stories. Of course, in typical VFF fashion, we’ll take our exploration far beyond giggles and guffaws and explore a full range of issues surrounding merrymaking in the movies, from the serious business of making people laugh to the historical and social contexts of some of our greatest comedies and more.”