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A scene from "Precious."

Asheville Film Festival to offer "Precious" in slate of independent films

By Sam Watson
Internet and Special Projects Editor
swatson@johnsoncitypress.com

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Minus the red-carpet glitz and glamor, Asheville, N.C., is ready to roll on its annual film festival this week, and though you might not see the likes of Ron Howard, Tess Harper or Jennifer Tilly milling around town this year, the event will deliver what counts: a showcase of independent films.

The seventh-annual Asheville Film Festival runs Thursday through Sunday in downtown Asheville just across the mountains from the Tri-Cities.

The festival has again managed a coup of sorts for its final screening on Sunday — "Precious," director Lee Daniels' film about an illiterate African-American teenager with a tenacious spirit in 1980s New York.

The film won both the grand jury prize and the audience award at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, and Associated Press critic David Germain called it "one very big miracle — and a glimpse of what American cinema still can be."

Showing such an acclaimed work is a closing-night tradition at the AFF — Bill Condon's "Kinsey" in 2004, George Clooney's "Good Night, and Good Luck" in 2005 and Julian Schnabel's "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" in 2007.

Last year, the festival's closing-night film was a little-known project from British director Danny Boyle ("Trainspotting," "28 Days Later") about a young man whose life unfolded in flashbacks as he competed on the Indian version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire." As the credits rolled, passersby on Biltmore Avenue could hear the cheers and applause coming from the Fine Arts Theatre.

Three months later, "Slumdog Millionaire" walked away with a much-deserved eight Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director.

That's quite a track record for a young festival in the mountain South.

Just an hour's drive from Johnson City on Interstate 26, Asheville's festival is a rare opportunity. The choices are abundant from professionally produced independent fictional works and documentaries to shorts, student projects and locally produced projects.

Without a doubt, Asheville's festival has had its occasional bumps, most notably last year when staff turnover, negligible publicity and a no-show from a major guest brought the luster down a bit.

But for year seven, organizers wisely scaled back on the pageantry to save on costs, improved publicity and stuck to what really counts. Not that I didn't enjoy conversations with Asheville's celebrity guests over the years, but what I really want from a festival is to get lost in cinema. Asheville has always scored in that regard, and I'd rather see the event grow its reputation with quality than flashbulbs.

As a judge in this year's competition for the second time, I've screened scores of shorts and student films from all over the country, as well as a few international submissions, over the past few weeks. A few notable duds aside, the entries were well worth the time. The field was so good, in fact, that fellow judge Matt Brunson, a columnist for Charlotte's "Creative Loafing," and I came out with a large slate of contenders before we whittled down to the winners.

The list of fictional and documentary features looks promising though a bit thinner than usual, and I'm particularly interested in the crop of animated films in the competition.

Other highlights:

— "An Education." The festival kicks off Thursday night at 7 at the Fine Arts with a coming-of-age piece set in 1960s England starring Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina and Emma Thompson.

— "Focus on Local. Friday at 9 p.m., the festival will showcase projects by Asheville-based filmmakers in the Diana Wortham Theatre in Pack Place.

— "New Generation Screening." Saturday at 11:30 a.m. in the Fine Arts, the AFF will feature projects from high school students who worked with University of North Carolina at Asheville mass communications students to produce short films.

— "Tearing Down the Tent." Sunday at 1 p.m., the Fine Arts will screen local filmmaker Michael Knox's documentary about America's largest traveling tent circus.

— "That Evening Sun." Sunday at 4 p.m. in the Fine Arts, the AFF will present a feature about an aging Tennessee farmer (Hal Holbrook) fighting for his land.

Tickets for the features and special screenings tend to go fast. For a full schedule of films, synopses, venues and ticket prices, visit the festival's official site at www.AshevilleFilmFestival.com. Hope to see you there.