By Pam Creech
Contributing Writer
A nonprofit event in its fourth year, the Cape Fear Environmental Film Forum will create a dialogue between between filmmakers, panels of local environmental advocates and audience members. The goal is to bring local action to global environmental issues. Film enthusiasts and environmentalists joined forces to bring the series of four documentaries to King Hall Auditorium at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.
The event will kick off at 7 p.m. March 20 with a screening of “A Will for the Woods,” a film about eco-friendly burials.
“The whole idea of green burials is kind of a new concept,” said Grace Sullivan, a UNCW film student who helped plan the forum. “The film takes place in Durham — it’s cool that it was shot just a couple hours from here. There’s an emphasis on music and folk dances in the film.”
Each film screening will be followed by a 30-minute panel discussion. The line-up of panelists includes filmmakers, UNCW professors and other environmental activists.
“It’s a unique opportunity for the community to get together to see these environmental issues,” Sullivan said.
The second film will be shown March 21 at 10 a.m.
“Students at the Cape Fear Center for Inquiry are making a short documentary,” said André Silva, the forum’s chair. “We make a block just for them.”
An associate professor in UNCW’s film studies department, each year Silva selects at least two UNCW students to help him plan the forum.
“They follow me from choosing the films to planning and hosting the event,” he said.
The third screening, “Project Wild Thing,” will take place at 12:30 p.m. The film emphasizes the importance of getting children away from the constant glare of technology and into nature.
The forum’s finale, a screening of “When Two Worlds Collide,” a work-in-progress about the deforestation of the Amazon Forest, will be shown at 3:30 p.m.
One of Silva’s goals is to top the attendance numbers from last year’s forum.
“For each screening, on average, we had about 50 people. This year, we’re hoping to get about 70 people per screening,” he said. “We tried to get films that vary in subject matter.”
Sullivan and Jen Withrow have helped Silva plan the forum since August.
“We went through 20 or so documentaries and picked the three we’re going to show,” Sullivan said. “Most of this is volunteer-run.”
The Cape Fear Environmental Film Forum will take place March 20-21 at King Hall Auditorium. Each screening is free and open to the public. For more information, call Andre Silva at 910-962-2229 or send an email to
[email protected]
North Carolina Black Film Festival
The North Carolina Black Film Festival will showcase independent films — features, short films, animated films and documentaries — made by African-American filmmakers. The four-day event is sponsored by the Black Arts Alliance. Films will be screened at the Cameron Art Museum on March 26 and 29; the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s King Hall on March 27; and the Hannah Block Historic USO Community Arts Center on March 28. For more information, visit
www.blackartsalliance.org
Wilmington Jewish Film Festival
The Second Annual Wilmington Jewish Film Festival will include six feature films and a series of short films that portray Jewish identity, customs and history. The screenings will take place at the Main Stage in Thalian Hall April 19-26. To purchase tickets, visit www.wilmingtonjff.org
