Last Tuesday night, the first of three evenings of film screenings took place at the Atlantic Ale House in downtown Johnson City as part of Tennessee Film Nights. This series of screenings were put on by ETSU’s Radio, TV and Film department, which showcased projects made in East Tennessee, mostly by past and present students but also by local filmmakers.
“I think it is a great way to show more locally made films to help cultivate an audience for local film, kind of like farmer’s markets providing locally grown food,” Shara Lange, head of the ETSU’s RTVF department, said. “There is a lot of value for filmmakers and audiences to watch local films. These are the ideas and values of people who live in our community. There is a specificity to the work that doesn’t exist in most of the media we consume.”
The theme for the opening night was “Mountain South Re-imagined.” The nine films shown had a variety of scenery and cinematography painting the East Tennessee area in different ways.
“The theme refers to how fresh, new voices are re-imagining the place they live through their films,” Lange said. “Johnson City is in the mountain south and is going through a lot of changes, and this is a great time to think about how we see ourselves and how we can create new images of ourselves.”
Two of the filmmakers were in attendance to see their films screened and check out the crowd response.
“The Dharma Brumby,” starring Angus Baldwin, had a unique take on reconnecting with the nature of the area while depicting an unusual scene, thick snow in the southern mountains.
“Snow doesn’t last long in East Tennessee, so the morning of, we had a really short window to get what we needed,” Johnny Hayes, director of “The Dharma Brumby,” said. “Having an Australian who is not used to the cold, naked in the snow, made me feel like I was torturing him a little, but he knew we had a job to do.”
“My film is an art film,” Hayes added. “It’s going to offend some people as some people are going to think a naked Australian in the snow is super funny, which it was, and some people will see the true meaning about reconnecting with nature.”
“Slip,” starring Misty Castro, was a unique film as the perspective of the film is shown mostly through television screens using colors and lighting to paint a saturated picture of the outdoors when the main character goes through the woods.
“It’s a color study and a bit of an editing project,” Briar Worley, director of “Slip,” said. “‘Slip’ was a project for an independent study class, and I had to think of the best way to combine this idea of using sound and color as narrative elements, which was interesting.”
Worley and Hayes left with some advice for other aspiring filmmakers.
“It’s cliché, but whatever it is, just go shoot it, make it, write it or whatever,” Hayes said. “You can always wait for the perfect time, but that won’t ever come. Just send it.”
“Go for it, even if you aren’t sure what you’re really doing,” Worley said. “Make things for the sake of making them and eventually something sticks, because before long, you’re just going with the flow.”
The event was attended by many students and instructors in the RTVF program, some of whom worked on the projects shown.
“The first night went great,” Lange said. “The audience was a mix of our students, people who came for the screenings and people who were just out having a beer, who watched some of the films. Unlike in a movie theater, the experience at the Atlantic Alehouse is more casual, so people can come or go without it being disruptive.”
The next event in the series, “Sacred Moments,” will also be at the Atlantic Ale House on Sept. 17 at 8 p.m.
