The Cucalorus Film Festival will celebrate its 20th birthday in November 2014. To celebrate the festival’s longevity in the community, Scottish film curator Shona Thomson will create an event for this year’s festival that examines the impact of Cucalorus on the people and culture of Wilmington.
Thomson spent two weeks immersing herself in every aspect of the city’s film culture as a Cucalorus artist in residence by meeting with the Wilmington Film Commission, the University of North Carolina Wilmington film department, the Wilmington Dance Cooperative and leaders of venues that will host films during the festival. She also delved into the film archives in the North Carolina room of the New Hanover Public Library.
Aug. 11, she gathered Wilmington movie-goers and veteran attendees of Cucalorus at the downtown New Hanover County Public Library for an open forum discussion, “Going to the Movies: From Scotland to Wilmington.”
“I’m not a filmmaker, I’m a film curator,” Thomson said during an Aug. 11 interview. “I want to learn about the cinema experiences of the people in Wilmington and piece together a live event at the Cucalorus festival that looks at what impact it has had on the community in a creative way, using archive film, songs, photographs and dance for the 20th anniversary. That’s a long time for a film festival to be running and maintain its identity.”
Participants at “Going to the Movies” remembered the five drive-in theaters that operated in Wilmington simultaneously in the early 1960s, the old Cinema 6 theater on Oleander Drive and the Bailey Theater on Front Street.
Wilmington preservationist Beverly Tetterton wrote about the Bailey Theater in her book “Wilmington: Lost But Not Forgotten,” which was passed around during the discussion for participants to read.
“You can still see the Bailey’s front façade, but now there’s a parking lot where the theater used to stand,” Tetterton told Thomson during the discussion.
Cucalorus uses the façade as a canvas to project its logo during the festival.
“This is what I’m interested in,” Thomson said. “When I juxtapose a 1920s film to a 1950s film of the same country, you can see a difference in the style of filmmaking and in how the people and places have changed on the screen. Then people can slot themselves in at the current time of 2014 and see how life has developed. It is a great way to chat about cinema and connect with the past, which really informs the now.”
“Going to the Movies: From Scotland to Wilmington” wraps up Thomson’s research of the city. When she returns to Scotland, she will begin assembling her material into a live exhibit that will run at the 2014 Cucalorus Film Festival.
“Now it’s figuring out how these wee bits are going to fit together, which is such a big part of the residency,” Thomson said. “Somebody likened it to a quilt with everything intertwining.”
Thomson learned of Cucalorus in Scotland when she met festival director Dan Brawley 12 years ago during the Edinburgh International Film Festival. Since then she has become friends with current Cucalorus board member Hope Dixon Leech, based in Glasgow, and Ruth Paxton, a Scottish filmmaker and visual artist who will be a fall 2014 Cucalorus artist-in-residence.
“I don’t think Shona has stopped working since she’s gotten here,” James Martin, Cucalorus operations manager, said during an Aug. 11 phone interview. “We have had a lot of short-term residencies, but Shona has definitely been one of the most proactive with her time in engaging the local community.”
Cucalorus residents are given free housing in one of the festival’s three residency buildings, administrative support from Cucalorus staff and access to the micro-cinema at Jengo’s Playhouse for events.
“It really helps artists to come and work on projects that are based around or influenced by the city of Wilmington,” Martin said. “And Shona’s will definitely be special.”
Thomson says she wants to ask the question: Where did all the cinemas go?
“I want to start this conversation within the community through my event,” she said. “Having a conversation with people who are passionate is good for their wellbeing and the wellbeing of Wilmington.”
Cucalorus will be held Nov. 12-16 in various venues throughout downtown Wilmington. For more information, visit www.cucalorus.org
