Two Film Festivals

The Southern Appalachian International Film Festival (SOAPIFF), which began in 2006 as Executive Director/Founder Mark Compton's graduate thesis in tourism at ETSU, will celebrate our 7th anniversary this fall in Kingsport, Tennessee, with a retrospective past award winning films and film makers. As the director of education for SOAPIFF, I feel that our award winning films and film makers are our greatest treasure and that we should treasure them in return. 

Also ARTLightenment is coming up here in Nashville November 14, 15, & 16th. Details are on the websites - www.soapiff.com and www.artlightenment.com 

Discover acting at: 

The Actors Reading Room

270 Tampa Drive

Studio G9

Nashville.Tennessee 

Jaz Dorsey, 

Dramaturg

Adam Leipzig to speak at SOAPIFF Nov 12, 13th (Knoxville)

Adam Leipzig, publisher of Cultural Weekly will speak at this year's Southern Appalachian International Film Festival. Leipzig's career includes producing such films as DEAD POETS SOCIETY and HONEY I SHRUNK THE KIDS for Disney. Leipzig also served as the first president of National Geographic Films and was responsible for the highly successful Oscar winning documentary MARCH OF THE PENGUINS. All SOAPIFF events are free to the public and sponsored by the Knoxville Museum of Art, Pellissippi State Community College, and the Tennessee Consortium for International Studies.

Jaz Dorsey,
Director of Education SOAPIFF 2012
www.soapiff.com

The Southern Appalachian International Film Festival (Nashville)

Four years ago, my friend Mark Compton launched The Southern Appalachian International Film Festival as his graduate thesis in Tourism. The festival, which takes place in Johnson City, Tennessee, took root and is now going in to it's fourth year. I asked Mark to share with us some information on this year's festival. For more info, please click the post's title. SOAPIFF is accepting film submissions through the end of July.
Jaz

I just have one question: Why should people get excited by SOAPIFF and what's up this year?

SOAPIFF has expanded to ten days and has added new, interesting, and fun events. One of the consistent complaints from years past was- we really would have loved to seen this film but we had to decide. We're hoping that by expanding the number of days and the number of times we show films we'll solve this issue.

This year we're conducting our student film festival on i-Tunes U and offering an Audience Choice Award. So students, get your films to us and find international exposure amongst your peers. We're the first festival to do so and we're real excited about that!

This year we're offering Around theWorld in Eight Days, international foreign language screenings that will take our audiences into various world cultures and into lives and stories that will elevate our insight into our universal humanity. We already have a number of US premieres coming out of China.

SOAPIFF's cultural minorities and gender issues screen will expand from just two days to four days and move to larger venues.This year we are showing the silent film classic Stark Love at theParamount Theater in Bristol. The Paramount is a fully restored ArtDeco theater with a Wurlitzer that will play to accompany the silent classic. This is a rare screening; the film was thought to be lost for decades. There are only a few copies and we're lucky to have MoMA's copy for the event. This is then followed by a world premiere of a documentary on Stark Love. Stark Love was considered one of the top ten films of 1927 and was shot in Appalachia with Appalachians in starring roles.

There is one more event I'm working on and we'll know if it's a go in just a few days. I'm truly excited about this year's festival. All of you filmmakers out there get your films into us, our deadline is August 1st. We're on Withoutabox.

Award-winning AAPEX Filmmakers get Spellman U screenings 3/1 (Atlanta)

Thanks to Carly Hurt, AAPEX member and artistic director of IKAM PRODUCTIONS in Atlanta, Ga. , two AAPEX film makers will enjoy a screening of their films at Spellman University on March 1st.

The films both won awards at last year's Southern Appalachian International Film Festival (www.soapiff.com) . DRAMA MAMAS, Passion's documentary about African American female stage directors, won special recognition in the documentary category, and Nathan Ross Freeman's MR. BONES won best drama and a couple of more.

Passion and Nathan are also hooked up on another project, as we are planning a New York reading of Nathan's stunning and evocative new play, HANNAH ELIAS, under Passion's direction.

Scroll down for more information on MR. BONES and check out the trailer for DRAMA MAMAS at www.dramamamasthefilm.com

Southern Appalachian International Film Festival/The African American Screen gets Front Page Story

The Southern Appalachian International Film Festival made the front page of The Johnson City Press today. Check it out at http://www.johnsoncitypress.com/ Click on "Reel Delight."

One aspect of the festival which is given special mention - The African American Screen. So thanks to all of you film makers who brought us that distinction.

Jaz Dorsey

Gala Film Fest Premiere Tixs Available (Tenn)

The African American Screen at the

Southern Appalachia International Film Festival

(SOAPIFF)

has Gala Premiere tickets on sale ($75.00).

RSVP to Jaz Dorsey at 423-743-7904

jazmn47@aol.com.

Among a number of African American films being screened is “Blind Tom: The Last Legal Slave in America” which is a true story of a slave born in 1849. He captivated audiences around the world – including a command performance at the White House – with his “dazzling skills at the piano,” but he remained a slave until 1908.

Another African American family-friendly film -- “The Life Project” -- spreads the message “each one can teach one.” Noting that everyone “must be willing to learn from the people we encounter, regardless of what package they come in,” the film asserts that “color, gender, age, or social economic status should never be an issue” when we’re “blessed with the opportunity to learn and listen to someone’s life or story.”

The documentary “Drama Mamas!” highlights the work of black women theater directors. It’s been featured in the Reel Sisters Film Festival at Long Island University and the National Black Theater Festival in Winston-Salem, N.C., and was presented the Storyteller Award at the 1st Urban Theater & Entertainment Awards at Florida Memorial University.

Yet another film in the same genre is “Cooking the Books: A Recipe for Murder!” a “hilarious musical mystery” concerning Harold Johnson and Associates – indicted “by the Feds” for stock fraud and embezzlement – who would rather “murder than go to jail!” The creator of the Hip Hop Musical Mysteries series is to attend the Opening Gala.