Galax, Virginia- In a remote section of the Blue Ridge Mountains once a year, this little area becomes a Mecca as thousands of people come in for the annual Old Time Fiddlers Convention in the undisputed capital of traditional and Bluegrass Music. Stars from all over the world come to meet and listen to some of the greatest musicians in the world including fiddle player Tommy Bond and banjo player Gary Bean. Only the luckiest among all musicians gets to bring home an instrument made by hometown world renowned instrument maker and musician Wayne Henderson. Most of the great musicians of the world, no matter what their kind of music, have one of his instruments. This year however, the hoopla isn’t about music. Its about film. The TOP TEN FILMS IN AMERICA FESTIVAL runs from April 19-22. According to the event’s organizers, they wanted to put on a film festival that was different from the hundreds of other film festivals in the world. It looks like that is what they are going to do. Besides the usual parties, workshops, and lunches usually found at film festivals, film makers and film goers will also have the opportunity to attend the Blue Ridge Backroads Radio Show during a live broadcast and hang out at the Shaylynn’s New River Trail Café on a Thursday night when local musicians including some of the biggest names in music have a tendency to drop in and play. Instead of running into Burt Reynolds or Jennifer Aniston or any of the Hollywood stars one usually encounters at some film festivals, one is more likely to run into Wayne Henderson, Gary Bean, or Dolly Parton. “Stars are stars”, says festival director Charles Howard Thomas. “And this is where some of them live.”
Another unique feature of the film festival is the high quality of the films shown. “We have taken the guess work out of it for the distributors and buyers”, Thomas says. The idea is that at the other festivals, distributors and buyers have to sort through hundreds of films and the hype and buzz to locate films that they might be interested in buying. In The TOP TEN FILMS IN AMERICA FESTIVAL, films have already gone through a three tiered screening process using ten reviewers at the base level and the board of the Fries Recreation Center at the top just to get into the festival. Banjo player Gary Bean and his wife actress Glenda Bean were among those on the review committee. The emphasis of the festival is on the actual story part of the film rather than its technical aspects. Two Native American feature films MORNING SONG WAY, made locally, which has won awards in film festivals around the country and RAIN IN THE MOUNTAINS, a comedy, are among the festival highlights. There will also be a world premiere of the movie SPIRIT, a coming of age story, and a very powerful documentary THE CLINTON 12 about desegregation narrated by James Earl Jones. Films in the categories of Shorts, Documentaries, Foreign Films, and Full Length Feature Films will be showcased in two historical theaters during the four day film festival.
