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2018 Virginia Film Festival Preview: “West Main Street” and “Seats at the Table”
Author: WTJU
Filmmaker and former WTJU DJ Chris Farina sat down with Lewis Reining to talk about his two films Virginia Film Festival: West Main Street and Seats at the Table.
For more on West Main Street, including ticket information, visit: VirginiaFilmFestival.org
West Main Street in Charlottesville, Virginia, serves as a cultural hub that brings together the community enveloping a short stretch of the city. Captured in the late 80s and early 90s, two local filmmakers examine the community’s past and present by combining archival footage and personal memories. Interviews with people whose lives revolve around this uniquely American setting form the basis of an honest reflection on the effects of a century of modernization on a small town. Despite their differing backgrounds, the residents of West Main Street discover how their lives are linked to the road that physically connects them.
For more on Seats at the Table, including ticket information, visit: VirginiaFilmFestival.org
At the University of Virginia, Andrew Kaufman has taught the acclaimed class Books Behind Bars: Life, Literature, and Leadership since 2010. Each week, students travel to a maximum-security juvenile correctional center to study Russian literature with incarcerated young people. Using the literature of Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky as a prism through which to share the stories of their lives, classmates—both UVA students and correctional center residents—convey their most intimate human experiences. As students break down their preconceptions about one another, they establish meaningful relationships, and are transformed by their discovery of shared humanity in such an unexpected place.