Screen scene: Local film news

Weaverville resident Kira Bursky's film "Tree Hugger" has been selected for the 2015 Cannes Film Festival’s Short Film Corner. The 18-year-old has launched a GoFundMe campaign to help pay for the trip.

The World Made Straight is available for Netflix subscribers to stream via the company’s Watch Instantly service. Directed by David Burris and written by Shane Danielsen, the adaptation of Ron Rash’s novel was filmed in Buncombe, Madison and Henderson counties. netflix.com

The East Asheville Library’s free documentary series resumes on Thursday, April 23, at 6:15 p.m. with a screening of Art and Craft. The acclaimed 2014 film centers on Mark Landis, a gifted art forger who’s had his work featured in museums and galleries across the nation without the institutions knowing that the paintings are fake. avl.mx/0v7

Wedge Brewing Co.’s free outdoor movie series gets underway May 9 with Guy Ritchie’s British gangster comedy Snatch. Other films to be projected on the side of the courtyard truck are Casablanca (June 13); Big Fish (July 11); the locally filmed Thunder Road (July 18); Amelie (Aug. 18); and The Royal Tenenbaums (Sept. 12). Weather permitting, films begin 15 minutes after sundown. wedgebrewing.com

• In honor of its 20th anniversary, Asheville Pizza & Brewing Co. is having a monthly film series featuring films from 1995. Upcoming are Babe (May 14); Friday (June 11); Trainspotting (July 9); Casino (Aug. 13); Apollo 13 (Sept. 10); Seven (Oct. 8); Clueless (Nov. 12) and that year’s Academy Award Winner for Best Picture, Braveheart (Dec. 10). Screenings are held at 7 and 10 p.m. and cost $1. ashevillebrewing.com

• The Organic Growers School will host an Earth Day screening of Growing Cities, a documentary about urban farming in America, on Wednesday, April 22, at the Lenoir-Rhyne University Center for Graduate Studies of Asheville. Doors to the second-floor boardroom open at 6:30 p.m., and the film starts at 7 p.m. A panel discussion will follow the 90-minute movie, donations accepted. organicgrowersschool.org

A Walk in the Woods, starring Robert Redford and Nick Nolte, will be released nationwide on Friday, Sept. 2. Based on Bill Bryson’s memoir of hiking the Appalachian Trail, the film debuted this year at the Sundance Film Festival, is directed by Ken Kwapis (Big Miracle) and stars Emma Thompson, Mary Steenburgen, Nick Offerman and Kristen Schaal. John Bailey, the film’s director of photography, reports on his American Society of Cinematographers blog that part of the film’s second unit work was shot at Clingmans Dome and Fontana Dam. avl.mx/0v8

• Weaverville resident Kira Bursky’s film Tree Hugger has been selected for the 2015 Cannes Film Festival’s Short Film Corner. To help pay for the trip to the esteemed festival, which will be take place May 13-24 on the French Riviera, the 18-year-old filmmaker has launched a GoFundMe campaign.

According to the fundraising website, Tree Hugger “is a short fantasy drama that tells the story of Clara, a high school freshman who is in search of magic in her life. Clara becomes involved with Leo, a senior boy at the school, but the fantasy world in her head darkens when Leo takes advantage of her.” The film was shot on location in Asheville and Weaverville as well as Greenville, S.C.

Bursky was a student of Asheville High School’s SILSA program and Evergreen Community Charter School. A 2014 graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy’s Motion Picture Arts program in Michigan, she has been working as an intern at Warrior Poets, the New York-based film production company of documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me). gofundme.com/kiracannestrip

Send your local film news to ae@mountainx.com.

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About Edwin Arnaudin
Edwin Arnaudin is a staff writer for Mountain Xpress. He also reviews films for ashevillemovies.com and is a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association (SEFCA) and North Carolina Film Critics Association (NCFCA). Follow me @EdwinArnaudin

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2 thoughts on “Screen scene: Local film news

  1. Me

    Don’t forget Echtzeit Kino Presents: An Improvised Soundtrack to Metropolis at the Mothlight April 26.

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