For 24 years, Black Mountain College occupied the leading edge of American education. From its founding in the teeth of the Great Depression to its latter days as a refuge for artists and writers from the square 1950s, the tiny school (1,200 attended) has had an influence well out of proportion to its size.
Now, a pair of young filmmakers has trained its lens on the experimental school and produced an hour-long documentary about it. Fully Awake premieres at 7 p.m. this Thursday at Asheville’s Fine Arts Theatre.
Cathryn Zommer Davis and Neeley House are both from right here in WNC, and they’ll be on hand at the function to meet and greet attendees and talk about their film. A reception will follow at Blue Spiral Gallery and will feature several Black Mountain College alumni.
Cost for the film screening and reception is $25; funds raised will go to the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center, also located in Asheville. For more information or to purchase tickets, call BMCM + AC at 350-8484.
You may have missed your chance to attend Black Mountain College, but you can witness it through the words of alumni and the sight of archival photographs (not to mention a wistful soundtrack of music by composer Erik Satie, performed by a local pianist) at the Fully Awake debut showing. You can also read about it — and learn about how the movie came to be — in the forthcoming issue of Mountain Xpress.
— Kent Priestley, staff writer
And you can read Ken Hanke’s review of the movie as well!