Richmond’s French Film Festival Returns and Spotlights Recent Documentaries

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The 19^th Annual French Film Festival opened last night at the Byrd Theatre and continues until Sunday. The event attracted 21 thousand people last year and is a joint effort by Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Richmond. It is a production of the married duo Dr. Peter Kirkpatrick of VCU and Dr. Francoise Ravaux-Kirkpatrick of U of R, who personally select the films from the roughly 170 released from France each year.

Ravaux-Kirkpatrick said that the goal of the festival is to present to Richmond the French community and culture through cinema.

“Every year what we do is we are trying to present to Richmonders and people from Virginia, but also from very far away states a sample, a sampling of last year or this year’s cinematographic productions,” she said.

According to Ravaux-Kirkpatrick, this year’s festival is presenting multiple environmentalist documentaries, because there have been so many that have been released in the past year.

Ravaux-Kirkpatrick said that when she and her husband started the festival, it was very small, but has gotten bigger every year. The festival was initially on campus, but as it grew larger, more and more screenings became necessary.

“Pretty soon, we had to have two or three screenings of the same film and so on,” she said. “And then little by little we came to the Byrd like our fifth year, I think we came to the Byrd, and since then this event has been in the Byrd and it’s grown and grown and grown.”

At last year’s festival, Myriam Guedjahi worked as an intern for college credit, and decided to come back this year because of how much she enjoyed the experience.

“I’m back because last year was for me one of my best experiences as a student, because I learned a lot of things and we want to work in event management, you know like, to organize events,” she said. “I really want to work in this field, so for me that was the best experience ever.”

Guedjahi said that in France, the city of Richmond and the French Film Festival has become well-known, and renowned.

“In France, people know Richmond, thanks to the French Film Festival,” she said. “Because we have a lot of French people who know that, thanks to the students, every year French students are more and more likely to work for the festival.”

Yesterday the festival opened with the documentary “Food Beware, Our Children Will Accuse Us.” In “Food Beware,” director Jean-Paul Jaud deftly illustrates not only the catastrophic results of using pesticides and chemically treating food, but how a small village in France has started eating only organic and local foods.

Nancy Nock, a U of R employee at the Jefferson School for Leadership Studies, has gone to the festival every year since it started. She said she was very impressed with Jaud’s documentary,

and how he presented the issue.

“I think where the director was able to capture this experiment and in this very small village form its inception all the way through to the end of a year or so, and to see how people’s attitudes were changing towards favoring the organic and sustainable way of agriculture and eating, it was amazing,” she said.

Today the festival will showcase more documentaries, including another screening of “Food Beware” at 9:15. Jaud will also present “Severn,” which is about an activist’s campaign to promote biodiversity at 3:30. On Saturday and Sunday, short films and features will be presented, along with “Oceans,” the 2011 Cesar winner for Best Documentary. “Oceans” will be presented on Saturday at 3:00.

According to Nock, documentaries are not common at the French Film Festival, but are a welcome addition.

“Usually, there are more dramatic kinds of films, comedies and dramas, and so forth. Not too many documentaries,” she said. “So I think it’s a really interesting and important departure.”

To Nock and many participants at the French Film Festival, this and other multicultural efforts are becoming more and more important.

“The world is getting smaller, and the more we get to know each other, and know about each other and our cultural perspectives, I think people will find it interesting and learn about each other,” she said.

Nathaniel James Klentzman

Richmond Zinefest and The Flying Brick Library

A community of independent writers, artists, and thinkers gathered at the 4^th annual Richmond Zinefest on Saturday, October 16^th. It was the largest Zinefest since its inception in 2007, with more than 300 people in attendance. Organized by a handful of passionate individuals with help from local radical and anarchist groups, and held at the Gay Community Center of Richmond, the event went off with out a hitch.

Zines are self-published magazines, often associated with radical or independent movements and ideas, though Nicole Harris, one of the event’s organizers, explained they had a broader audience.

“Basically, it can be about anything. We have literary zines, comic zines, personal zines; all sorts of things. Usually put together by staples, photo copier, and some paper!”

Harris sat at the registration table with Liz Canfield and Kat Ennis-Sears fellow organizers. They had worked tirelessly to make sure the day went smoothly, and their hard work paid off.

“It’s been a great turn out. People have come on bikes, people have carpooled. We’ve had a steady flow of folks from all over the city all day long, so it’s been a really positive event. People bringing their kids.”

With vegan and non-vegan food options provided by Lamplighter Coffee Company, and fund raising help from the Wing-Nut Anarchist Collective and the Flying Brick Zine library, folks came from around the country to share their home made print.

Matt Dabinksi publishes independent comics with a group out of Washington D.C. aptly named “the DC Conspiracy.” He said interest in zines has faded from our nations capital.

“Now its kind of scattered. A good thing about a zine fest like this, it kind of pulls it all together. If you don’t have a shop in your city, there is this one spot this time of year where you can see what everyone else is doing, and that is lacking in DC. One of the reasons we come down to Richmond is to see what’s going on down here.”

Dabinski has made it every year to Richmond’s Zinefest, and he considers it to be a kind of personal muse.

“Its always been very fun. Very inspiring to see the other stuff going on here in terms of comics and screen printing and lit in general, its just a good time.”

Cheyenne Neckmonster made it from Louisville, Kentucky, to take part in the festivities. She said Louisville’s zine culture wasn’t exactly booming.

“Its not really a Mecca for things of that ilk.”

Her feminism zine, Neckmonster, and her zine distribution outfit called “Copy That Distro” had a nearly empty table by the time I spoke with her.

“I came here with 2 crates of zines and I think I’ll have a scant one at the end, so that’s good.”

Though money was accepted at all the tables, a fair barter system was also used, with zine-for-zine trades often use. Neckmonster said most folks involved in zine production don’t do it for the money, but for the message and the movement.

“Running a zine distro and doing a zine, you’re gonna run it at a loss. Its kind of a privilege to be able to do zines and that’s why I try to make it as cheap as I can for the people who want to have them.”

Local zines were represented, but I went to Richmond’s zine source for interviews on the subject.

The Flying Brick Library has been running its free, all volunteer, radical book renting service for almost 11 years. Located at 506 S Pine St., it’s an outlet for alternative thought and conversation in the Richmond community. With over 2500 zines and another 2000 hard-to-find books, it’s a unique space in our quiet river town.

Volunteer Librarian, Salem Acuna:

“That’s one of the things that we try to let everyone know. It’s a library, but it’s also a space, a place for people to hang out, organize, have meetings.”

Acuna has been involved at the Flying Brick for almost 2 years. He said he still had more zines to stack, but took time to sit down with WRIR.

“Since I’ve been working here, ive had people, after just being in Richmond for a bit, find a way to get

here, drop off a zine, and move off to were ever they have to go.”

The freedom of the semi-public space can have its downsides though.

“There are all sorts of people from different backgrounds and different stories, so it can be easy to say the wrong thing without knowing your saying the wrong thing. But, for the most part, everyone is really respectful and there is an understanding of what the brick is and the people here and its and open environment were people can share ideas and stuff like that.”

Nathan Stickle, a fellow volunteer, who actually lives in the Oregan Hill row house were the Flying Brick resides, said the library had become a valuable resource to local VCU students as well.

“We’ve had several students coming in looking for books for research papers and stuff like that, they had to do something on a more obscure political topic, and they couldn’t find it at their local library or the VCU library.”

Though books aren’t the only things held at the location.

“We do all kinds of stuff, discussions, film showings, workshops, pot lucks, acoustic shows”

Stickle remembered one particular discussion group, held a wile back, dealing with gun control. He said it was one of the largest attended discussions he had ever seen at the Brick, and the folks involved included Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, Unitarians, and even students who had been victims of the VA Tech shootings. The Tech students were working to reform VA gun laws, and had attended a number of similar events in the hopes of getting their point across.

“One of the students who was shot at VA tech who’s been working to close these loops holes, said that of all the politicians, public debates hes had, that that was the most civilized, honest and good natured discussion he ever sat through.”

Back at Zinefest, Annie Brown, creator of “Lips,” a feminine-sexuality zine, had advice for folks considering starting a zine.

“If you see a problem in your community and you wanna make a difference I think putting your ideas on paper and distributing that will create a ripple effect that even you don’t know how far it will go and who will see your words.”

/Brad Kutner