In a year when racial conflict in America ignited a multitude of political debates that spilled more than once into the public square, is it possible to find clarity and understanding about our human differences in compelling stories offered through the film and television arts?

While the national conversation over race briefly put Virginia at its center with protests that turned deadly in the wake of a white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville on Aug. 12, this year’s Virginia Film Festival, celebrating its 30th year throughout those same Charlottesville streets and venues, will offer a slate of thought-provoking films designed to give audiences a fresh and hopeful perspective on American racial discord, history and reconciliation.

In a festival highlight — and to recognize the significance of the Aug. 12 events — renowned writer, producer and director Spike Lee will present 4 Little Girls, his 1997 documentary about the murder of four African-American girls in the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala. Lee will also speak before the film’s screening, scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 11.

Lee’s documentary will be immediately preceded by his two-minute video I Can’t Breathe, a piece that combines footage of the 2014 chokehold death of Eric Garner at the hands of New York City police with an eerily similar sequence from the filmmaker’s 1989 film Do The Right Thing.

The acclaimed filmmaker’s works and post-screening talk are part of a series of films and discussions titled Race in America, a centerpiece festival theme presented in collaboration with Montpelier, James Madison’s history-rich home, which recently launched an ongoing effort to come to terms with its own legacy of slavery through exhibitions and excavations on its grounds.

Though Lee had been invited to appear at the festival several months before the events of Aug. 12, his office contacted Jody Kielbasa, director of the Virginia Film Festival and University of Virginia’s vice provost for the arts, directly after the Charlottesville violence.

“A few days later we got on the phone and spoke,” Kielbasa said, “and he talked to me about his interest in bringing in 4 Little Girls because he believed that was domestic terrorism then — of course, they didn’t refer to it as such in the 1960s — but this tied in directly to the events that had just occurred here in Charlottesville as domestic terrorism now, and he wanted to bring it in and have a discussion.”

The festival will explore other aspects of African-American history with Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and Universities (Nov. 10), a documentary look at the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) that fostered the progress and accomplishments of generations of minority Americans; Birth of a Movement (Nov. 10), a look at how D.W. Griffith’s controversial 1915 feature film Birth of a Nation ignited black activism and protest; and An Outrage (Nov. 12), a documentary examining the history of lynching in the American South.

The festival will also screen the five-part Academy Award-winning documentary O.J.: Made in America over three days: Nov. 9, 10 and 11. Ezra Edelman, the film’s director-producer, will speak after the screening of part five.

Festival attendees can also catch one episode of Netflix’s true-crime documentary series The Confession Tapes (Nov. 9), which examines the fabricated 1984 prosecution of eight Washington, D.C., teenagers on gang-related charges.

Dramatic films screening under the “Race in America” banner include the big-budget feature Hidden Figures (Nov. 12), the 2016 biographical drama that follows the achievements and disappointments among a team of black female mathematicians working at NASA in the early days of the manned space program.

Margot Lee Shetterly, the U.Va. graduate who authored the novel on which the film was based, will speak after the screening.

As special testimony to the events of Aug. 12, the festival will also premiere Charlottesville: Our Streets (Nov. 12), a documentary created by multiple journalists, photographers and filmmakers who witnessed the conflict and violence in Charlottesville that day.

The film, written by Jackson Landers, directed by Brian Wimer and officially billed as a “work in progress,” compiles footage and stills from more than 30 cameramen and draws on 20 interviews with first-person witnesses to the now-infamous “Unite the Right” rally that deteriorated into chaos.

Recognizing our nation’s particular history of racial and ethnic animosity on multiple fronts, the festival will also offer Surviving Skokie (Nov. 12), a 2015 documentary by Eli Adler who explores his family’s experience in the Holocaust and the grim legacy of hate that found form in a series of neo-Nazi rallies held in and around the heavily Jewish village of Skokie, Ill., in 1977.

“If you look at programming in the festival, you’ll discover, going back a number of years, that there has always been a very strong civil rights component,” Kielbasa said.

“Sadly, in our world, it’s always two steps forward and one big step back,” he added. “So I think it’s important to keep this discussion front and center on the table, not only for our community but because it’s impacting so many communities throughout our country and around the world.”

Festivalgoers can also catch an abbreviated view of The Vietnam War (Nov. 9), Ken Burns and Lynn Novick’s masterful 18-hour history of the Southeast Asia conflict. The screening will show one of the documentary’s episodes in its entirety, as well as a post-show discussion with co-director Novick.

Those fascinated by our contemporary debate over political straight-talk and the value of responsible journalism will also want to catch the festival’s screening of The Candidate (Nov. 11), Robert Redford’s keenly drawn, if fictitious, 1972 portrait of a California idealist’s run for the U.S. Senate.

For another piercing — and lighthearted — look at the underbelly of the news business, the festival offers 1987’s Broadcast News (Nov. 12) writer-director James L. Brooks’ story of one young network TV producer’s trial-and-error efforts to maintain an office romance while keeping up with daily on-air crises.

Among the more than 100 filmmakers expected to attend the festival will be Oscar-winning producer and Virginia Film Festival advisory board chair Mark Johnson, who will present the festival’s opening-night film Downsizing (Nov. 9), starring Matt Damon and Kristin Wiig.

The comedy, directed by Alexander Payne, tells the story of two people who submit to a medical procedure that reduces them to 5-inch-tall versions of themselves.

The festival’s opening night gala, set for 9:30 p.m. Nov. 9 at Charlottesville’s Jefferson Theater, will follow the Downsizing screening. Tickets for the gala, available to festivalgoers 21 and older, are $75.

Hollywood star power will also light up the festival when award-winning actor William H. Macy, famous for his star turns in such films as Fargo and the current Showtime hit Shameless, screens his third directorial effort, Krystal (Nov. 10). It’s the story of a young introvert brought out of his shell by an enticing ex-stripper and heroin addict.

Macy and Nick Robinson, the actor who plays the lead character, will discuss the film after the screening.

Tony Farrell
Special Correspondent
Original Publication: Richmond Times Dispatch