News Releases

 

March 9, 2007

LINDSEY FILM FESTIVAL CONCLUDES FIRST DECADE WITH NEW WINNERS, NEW RECORDS

By Terry Pace
University Relations
 
      FLORENCE, Ala. – A UNICEF-sponsored short film that earned Academy Award accolades earlier this year was named Best of Show during the 2007 George Lindsey UNA Film Festival at the University of North Alabama.
 
      The Oscar-nominated Binta and the Great Idea, written and directed by Spanish filmmaker Javier Fesser, also won UNA’s Golden Lion Award for Professional Short Narrative during the annual festival awards show March 3.

     “We were sad for (losing) the Oscar,” Fesser remarked when he discovered that his film had won $3,200 in cash prizes and two of the festival’s Golden Lion Awards, “but now we are so happy again about this.”
 
     Binta involves a seven-year-old African girl (the title character) who tells the parallel stories of her cousin (a young woman who longs to go to school, but is forbidden by her inflexible, old-fashioned father) and Binta’s own sweet-natured, idealistic father (who has developed a grand but unorthodox “idea” that he hopes will change the world).
 
     “This is a delightful film,” concluded award-winning filmmaker and University of North Carolina at Greensboro film professor Emily Edwards, a Florence native who served with stage and screen actor Will Stutts (widely considered America’s “Master of the One-Person Play”) and filmmaker and radio personality Mark Thompson (of Mark & Brian Show fame) as final judges for this year’s Lindsey competition.
 
     “I was reminded at times of The Gods Must Be Crazy,” Edwards observed. “(The film featured) beautiful production values, but the story never took a back seat to the cinematography.”
 
     The makers of Binta and the Great Idea (who were unable to attend the festival) will receive a $3,000 cash prize for Best of Show as well as an additional $200 cash prize for the Professional Short Narrative honor.
 
     “This year’s success exceeded all of our expectations,” said festival director Dr. Garry Warren, who also serves as UNA’s Dean of Information Technologies and Special Assistant to the President. “We had more films entered than ever before, we welcomed more filmmakers than ever before, and we attracted bigger crowds than ever before.”
 
     The festival’s Clyde “Sappo” Black Sweet Home Alabama Award – which honors films shot entirely or in part anywhere in the state of Alabama – was awarded to the documentary Richard Johnston: Hill Country Troubadour. The film received a $2,000 cash award as well as an additional $200 cash prize for winning a second Golden Lion Award in the category of Professional Documentary.
 
    “There were some extremely strong entries that qualified for the Sweet Home Alabama award,” noted film and television actor David “Shark” Fralick (The Young and the Restless, Gone in 60 Seconds), who served as the final judge for that competition. “Ultimately, this film stood out because it told a compelling story about an intriguing subject and proved to be outstanding in every respect.”
 
     Tuscaloosa-based producer-director Max Shores attended the festival and accepted the awards for Hill Country Troubadour, an hour-long look at a white blues musician whose one-man-band performances mix voodoo rhythms with the traditional blues of juke joints in the Mississippi Delta.
 
      “When I first saw Richard perform, he blew me away,” Shores remarked. “He’s an amazing musician and a fascinating person, and I simply wanted to tell his unique and colorful story in a documentary format. I’m delighted that the film has been embraced by so many people.”
 
      More than two dozen filmmakers from all over the world attended the 10th annual Lindsey festival, a four-day affair that combined screenings of 99 films (selected from this year’s record total of 243 entries) with panel discussions, workshops, parties, receptions, an awards show and live music concert (headlined by Muscle Shoals singer-songwriter and veteran screen actor Donnie Fritts) and a retrospective tribute to Oscar-winning actor Ernest Borgnine (Marty, The Wild Bunch, The Poseidon Adventure).
 
      “Good, bad or indifferent, you’re contributing,” the 90-year-old Hollywood legend told this year’s filmmakers. “You’re making films. You’re accomplishing something – and that’s what it’s all about.”
 
      Borgnine joined his longtime friend – festival founder and UNA alumnus Lindsey, best known for his role as Goober on the classic sitcom The Andy Griffith Show – in honoring and encouraging a new generation of filmmakers.
 
     “My name may be on it,” Lindsey told the crowd, “but this festival belongs to you.”
 
      One of the filmmakers who attended this year’s event – north Alabama screenwriter Gena Ellis – accepted an Honorable Mention for Professional Full-Length Narrative for a film based on her original screenplay Angela’s Decision.
 
      “I wrote the script as part of my graduate thesis at the University of Oklahoma in 2003, before I moved to the Huntsville area,” Ellis told the audience during the awards show. “Mat King is an Australian director, and he contacted me through an online script site, InkTip.com. It’s still my screenplay, but he adapted it to an Australian setting and turned it into an Australian film.”
 
      Festival judge and Florence native Mark Thompson was particularly impressed with Angela’s Decision, the dramatic story of a young woman facing a series of real-life challenges that could alter her life forever. When the final judges’ scores were tallied, the film tied for second place with a feature called The Garage and earned an Honorable Mention in the highly competitive contest for the best Professional Full-Length Narrative.
 
     “I thought all three full-length narratives were well done, but I gave the nod to Angela’s Decision because of the impeccable performance by the actress who played Angela,” Thompson explained. “She could be working in Hollywood right now, with no one to stop her. (She) reminded me of a young Meg Ryan – simply fantastic. Her performance is what true acting is all about.”
 
     The UNA Chapter of Habitat for Humanity presented a Celebrity Silent Auction during the festival that raised $1,200. Top items included a Grease poster signed by John Travolta (top bid was $250), a Marty poster signed by Borgnine (top bid was $200) and a M*A*S*H script signed by Mike Farrell (top bid was $100).
  
     “The auction was a great success,” said UNA Habitat adviser Cynthia Burkhead, who teaches English at UNA and serves on the festival steering committee. “We hope to have another celebrity auction during the Lindsey festival next year.”  
 
     All three of this year’s final judges were raised in the Shoals, attended UNA, and are now working in the film and entertainment industries. Sheffield native Stutts attended the festival and participated in an acting workshop.

     “This is a wonderful educational opportunity for students, and it’s a wonderful way for filmmakers to come together to show and share their work,” Stutts remarked. “I was just delighted to be a part of it, and I was thrilled to have the chance to see so many fine films that were entered this year.”
 
     Winners of each 2007 George Lindsey UNA Film Festival category include:
 
     Best of Show – Binta and the Great Idea, Javier Fesser, writer-director, Manuel Garcia, producer (Madrid, Spain)
 
     Clyde 'Sappo' Black Sweet Home Alabama Award – Richard Johnston: Hill Country Troubadour, Max Shores, producer-director, Elizabeth Brock, producer (Tuscaloosa, Ala.); Honorable Mention: Iron City Blues, Scott Jackson, director, Matthew Pessoni, producer (Nashville, Tenn.)
            
     Professional Full-Length Narrative – Beautiful Dreamer, Terri Farley-Teruel, director, Jack Robinson, producer (Westminster, Calif.); Honorable Mentions: Angela’s Decision, Mat King, producer-director, Gina Ellis, writer (Madison, Ala.); The Garage, Carl Thibault, producer/director (Burbank, Calif.)
 
     Professional Short Narrative – Binta and the Great Idea, Javier Fesser, writer-director, Manuel Garcia, producer (Madrid, Spain); Honorable Mention: A.W.O.L., Jack Swanstrom, producer/director, Jessica Wethington, producer (Los Angeles, Calif.)
 
     Professional Documentary – Richard Johnston: Hill Country Troubadour, Max Shores, producer-director, Elizabeth Brock, producer (Tuscaloosa, Ala.); Honorable Mention: The Clinton 12, Keith McDaniel, producer/director (Oak Ridge, Tenn.)
 
     Professional Animation – Big Dreams, Robyn Von Arx, producer/director (Los Angeles, Calif.); Honorable Mention: Sensational City, Tarik Cherkaoui, director (New York, N.Y.)
 
     Music Video – Everything You Said, Kenny Beaumont, producer/director, Orlando, Fla.; Honorable Mention: Happiness in Milligrams, Kurt Nishimura, producer/director (Portland, Ore.)
 
     Faculty – Eric Essix: At Home, Dwight Cammeron, producer/director (Tuscaloosa, Ala.); Honorable Mention: Fire Creek, Charles Cranney, Dennis Packard, and Seth Packard, producers, Jed Wells, director (Provo, Utah)
 
     Student Narrative – Dancing Ground, Julian Robinson, Mark Walterskirchen, and Mitchell Gutman, producers, Tobin Addington, director (Brooklyn, N.Y.); Honorable Mention: Rite of Passage, Sara Gordon and Tamara Kihs, producers, Sara Gordon, director (Fullerton, Calif.)
 
     Student Documentary – Saying I Do, Carol Stanger, producer, Jennifer Uihlein, director (Hicksville, N.Y.); Honorable Mention: She’s a Lady: Memoir of a Downtown Theater, Alan Franks and Ginny Humber, directors (Warrior, Ala.)
 
     Student Animation: Mirage, Youngwoong Jang, producer/director (New York, New York); Honorable Mention: Linear Progression, producer/director, Kat Kosmala (La Habra, Calif.)
 
      Young Filmmaker, Grades 9-12: First Day at the Firm, Remington Dewan, producer/director (Austin, Texas); Honorable Mention: Rozwell, Hodges Usry, director; Hodges Usry and Rob McRae, producers (Augusta, Ga.)   
 
      Young Filmmaker, K-Grade 8: Unexpected News, Keith Collins, director; John Collins and Kristi Collins, producers (Lutz, Fla.); Honorable Mention: Patrick in Progress, Mitch Collier, producer/director (Austin, Texas)  

 

GEORGE LINDSEY UNA FILM FESTIVAL NEWS...
February 28, 2007
 
10th ANNUAL LINDSEY FESTIVAL INCLUDES PROFESSIONAL PANELS, WORKSHOPS ON WIDE-RANGING ARRAY OF FILMMAKING TOPICS
 
FLORENCE, Ala. – The George Lindsey UNA Film Festival begins Thursday, March 1, with film screenings, professional panels and gatherings of professional and amateur filmmakers from across Alabama and around the world.
 
The four-day festival begins its 10th-anniversary year with free screenings of entries on the student, faculty and professional levels of competition. Films accepted for the 2007 festival will be shown on the UNA campus as well as in public venues throughout the surrounding area.
 
The initial day of the festival also includes a free afternoon panel discussion on the topic “Breaking In – Just How Do You Get Started in the Film Industry?” Screenwriters, actors, casting agents, producers, and technical experts will participate in a panel discussion that begins at 4 p.m. in Loft of the Guillot University Center of the UNA campus.
 
The festival continues Thursday night from 6:30 p.m. until 8 p.m. with an informal gathering and discussion titled “Sweet Home Alabama: Filmmaking from Mobile to Muscle Shoals.” Local officials, filmmakers, and film-industry recruiters will attend this reception and celebration of filmmaking across the state.  The event, which is free and open to the public, will take place at the Keynote Room, 310 N. Pine St., Florence.
 
Other free festival panels and workshops include:
 
Friday, March 2

“Why Film in the Tri-States?” (10 a.m.-Noon, Loft of UNA’s Guillot University Center) – Representatives from Alabama, Tennessee, and Mississippi‘s various state and city film commissions will discuss resources, benefits, and incentives for filming in the tri-state region. Panelists will include Ward Emling, Mississippi Film Office; Eva Golson, Mobile Film Office; Tonya Holly, Alabama Filmmakers Association; Les Edwards, Memphis and Shelby County Film Office; Mark Stricklin, Birmingham/Jefferson Film Office; and Linda Swann, Alabama Film Office. The moderator will be Giles McDaniel, director of the Shoals Entrepreneurial Center.

“Children’s Filmmaking Workshop” (10 a.m.-1 p.m., Children’s Museum of the Shoals, 2810 Darby Drive, Florence) – It’s never too early to teach next year’s prize filmmakers the basics of filmmaking. This workshop will be taught by Huntsville-based Don Tingle, Director of the North Alabama Film Co-op’s summer “MovieMakers, Filmmaking Workshop for Kids.” The three-hour seminar-style workshop will summarize the basics of movie making at an age appropriate level. The emphasis of the workshop is on learning practical skills, easy techniques and, most importantly, teamwork. The seminar will include demonstrations of techniques and equipment.  The workshop is currently full, but call (256) 765-0500 to be placed on a waiting list.

“Screenwriting Workshop ­­– Have an Idea for a Movie?” (1-3 p.m., 124 Communication Building, UNA) – Screenwriter, novelist and UNA alumnus Chris Halvorson will conduct an open workshop focusing on the basics of screenwriting, including developing an outline, approaching a story through characters, arcs, and the three-act breakdown. Halvorson has recently sold movie rights for his novel, The Santa Suit.  This workshop is sponsored by UNA’s Department of English and The UNA Writers’ Series.  

“Animation Workshop for Children” (2-4:30 p.m., Children’s Museum of the Shoals, 2810 Darby Drive, Florence) – Steve Richerson of Concrete Dream Pictures will teach a hands-on stop-motion workshop for young people using Boinx Istopmotion software. Istopmotion is a simple and inexpensive Macintosh-based software used to create astonishing works of animation (aka Claymation) and time-lapse recording.  Before the workshop begins, there will be a surprise visit by two special guests who have provided voiceovers for a number of popular animated works.

“Acting for Film Workshop” (3:30-5 p.m. Room 124, Communications Building, UNA) – Actors David “Shark” Fralick (The Young and the Restless, Gone in 60 Seconds), Natalie Canerday (Sling Blade, October Sky), Danny Vinson (Walk the Line, Two Soldiers), and Will Stutts (Trading Places, George Washington II: The Forging of a Nation) will introduce participants to the basics of screen acting.  
The festival’s Welcome/Information Center will be open daily through Saturday, March 3, at the Kennedy-Douglass Center for the Arts, 217 E. Tuscaloosa St., downtown Florence. Event tickets, programs, schedules, maps and official festival merchandise (including caps, T-shirts and other collectibles) will be available at the center from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. weekdays and from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. Saturday.
 
For further details, including a complete schedule of screenings and other events, visit www.lindseyfilmfest.com, email lindseyfilmfest@una.edu, or call the festival office at (256) 765-4592.
 

GEORGE LINDSEY UNA FILM FESTIVAL NEWS...
February 27, 2007
 
OSCAR WINNER ERNEST BORGNINE RETURNS TO UNA FOR RARE FILM FESTIVAL APPEARANCE, TRIBUTE TO HIS SCREEN CAREER

By Terry Pace
 
FLORENCE, Ala. – As a rule, Hollywood legend Ernest Borgnine politely declines invitations to make personal appearances at many of the biggest, best-known film festivals in the world.
 
“I don’t like the tendency some people have to try to overanalyze things,” the Oscar-winning actor maintains. “To me, that takes a lot of the joy and beauty out of the whole experience. If a picture is good, it doesn’t need explanation. All that matters is that the audience enjoys your work.”
 
Out of love and loyalty for a longtime friend, however, Borgnine – the star of movie classics ranging from From Here to Eternity and Marty to The Wild Bunch and The Poseidon Adventure – made a startling exception eight years ago, when he visited the University of North Alabama campus as the featured guest for the second annual George Lindsey UNA Film Festival.
 
“It was love at first sight,” recalls Lindsey, a 1952 UNA graduate who went on to show-business immortality playing the role of good-natured, dim-witted gas-station attendant Goober Pyle on television’s classic 1960s sitcom, The Andy Griffith Show.
 
“Ernie and I have been pals for years, and he wanted to help us get the festival off the ground,” Lindsey explained. “He enjoyed being here, he fell in love with the school, the town and the people, and they fell in love with him, too. I think he liked the whole flavor and feel of what we were doing.”
 
Borgnine returned to UNA later that year to deliver the school’s fall 1999 commencement address and – as an unexpected surprise – donate his entire leather-bound collection of film and television scripts to the university’s Collier Library archives. He returned to the Lindsey festival for a second appearance in 2004, and he’s making his fourth visit to UNA this week as the festival celebrates its milestone 10th anniversary.
 
“We couldn’t be happier to have a chance to welcome world-renowned actor, loyal actor and wonderful friend back to our campus,” says festival director Dr. Garry Warren, UNA’s Dean of Information Technologies and Special Assistant to the President. “Ernest Borgnine has been extremely generous to us with his time and talents over the years, and we want to honor him this year in some very special ways.”
 
The 2007 Lindsey festival takes place from Thursday, March 1, through Sunday, March 4, with activities ranging from film screenings, panels, workshops and discussions to parties, live music performances and a star-studded awards show. One of the centerpieces of the festival will be a special tribute, From Marty and McHale to Mermaidman: An Evening with Ernest Borgnine, set for 7 p.m. Friday, March 2, at the Keynote Room, 310 N. Pine St., downtown Florence.
 
“Gary Cooper was one of my role models – I worked with him on a picture called Vera Cruz,” Borgnine recalls. “Just watch him when he’s on screen. You can actually see him listening – and this is what makes an actor. You listen and act accordingly to another actor’s words. Acting is nothing more than the response and accord between two people. Otherwise, it’s not acting – it’s just saying words.”
 
The tribute evening ­– in which Borgnine will discuss highlights of his career and answer questions from the audience – will feature classic scenes from many of the actor’s most memorable film and television appearances. The retrospective covers his career from early roles in From Here to Eternity and Bad Day at Black Rock and his Academy Award-winning performance in the title role of Marty to his television success in the ’60s sitcom McHale’s Navy and his later work in The Dirty Dozen, The Wild Bunch, The Poseidon Adventure, The Devil’s Rain, Jesus of Nazareth, All Quiet on the Western Front and Escape from New York, plus his more recent recurring role as the voice of retired superhero Mermaidman on the animated children’s series SpongeBob SquarePants.      
 
“Shakespeare said it best in Hamlet, with his Advice to the Players,” Borgnine believes. “When I’m handed a script, the character is already created. I go in and do the work and let the character take care of itself. It’s that simple. If I can find just the right key, I’ve got it made.”
 
Borgnine – who turned 90 on Jan. 24 – arrives at UNA after completing his latest starring role, playing a grandfather and old-time movie star in an upcoming Hallmark Hall of Fame television drama called Bert & Becca. Needless to say, screen retirement isn’t on the actor’s list of professional priorities.
 
“Through it all, I’ve worked for one thing ­– to make people happy,” Borgnine concluded. “My mother told me, ‘If you can make one person happy in the span of a day, you’ve achieved a great deal.’ Somewhere, somehow, my pictures have made people happy – and that makes me very happy.”
 
Admission to From Marty and McHale to Mermaidman: An Evening with Ernest Borgnine is $15 for the general public and $10 for students. Tickets are available in advance at the UNA Bookstore on campus, Pegasus Records, Tapes and CDs in downtown Florence, and ColdWater Books in downtown Tuscumbia. Seating is limited, and tickets are expected to sell out in advance.
 
For further festival details, including daily updates and a complete schedule of events, visit the festival’s website, www.lindseyfilmfest.com, call the festival office at (256) 765-4592, or e-mail lindseyfilmfest@una.edu.
 

George Lindsey UNA Film Festival News...
February 26, 2007

FESTIVAL AWARDS SHOW SALUTES FINE FILMS, FUNKY MUSCLE SHOALS MUSIC
By Terry Pace

 The Oscar-nominated short film Binta and the Great Idea is among
 99 titles being screened across the Muscle Shoals area during this
 week’s 10th annual George Lindsey UNA Film Festival.  (CREDIT:
 GEORGE LINDSEY UNA FILM
 FESTIVAL)

FLORENCE, Ala. – The George Lindsey UNA Film Festival is commemorating its 10th anniversary with a four-day schedule of film screenings, panels, workshops, discussions, parties, and a star-studded awards show featuring the funky flavor of the world-famous “Muscle Shoals sound.”

This year’s festival – set for Thursday, March 1, through Sunday, March 4 – will showcase 99 high-quality professional, student and faculty films from all over the world. Top prizes include a $3,000 cash prize for the festival’s Best of Show Award and a $2,000 cash prize for the Clyde “Sappo” Black Sweet Home Alabama Award.

“We’re only showing the best of the best,” noted festival director Dr. Garry Warren, UNA’s Dean of Information Technologies and Special Assistant to the President. “Once the films came in, our teams of preliminary judges narrowed the field down to 99 films that we accepted for screening. Then our prestigious panel of final judges were very selective in picking the winners in each of our competitive categories.”

Winners of the festival’s Golden Lion Awards will be announced during the annual awards show starting at 8 p.m. Saturday, March 4, at the Keynote Room, 310 N. Pine St., downtown Florence.

“The Best of Show Award honors a film from any category that receives the highest total number of votes from our final judges,” Warren explained. “The Clyde ‘Sappo’ Black Sweet Home Alabama Award will be awarded to the best film shot either entirely or in part somewhere in the state of Alabama. Plus we have awards for student and professional narratives, documentaries, faculty films, music videos and animated works.”

This year’s accepted entries – which will be screened throughout the festival at venues on the UNA campus and across the surrounding community – range from the Oscar-nominated live-action short film Binta and the Great Idea and films featuring familiar actors like Martin Donovan (Weeds, Saved!), James Denton (Desperate Housewives), Colin Egglesfield (All My Children) and David Morse (The Green Mile, Contact) to the locally shot Iron City Blues, a documentary in which Alabama blues-rock guitarist and motorcycle enthusiast Mike Griffin (a perennial favorite at Florence’s annual W.C. Handy Music Festival) explores the notorious lawless legacy of a tiny Tennessee town located just across the state line from the Shoals.

“As far as the films go, we have an extremely diverse lineup this year,” Warren remarked. “In addition to Iron City Blues, we have documentaries featuring two other musicians who are well-known in this region for their appearances at the Handy Festival – blues artist Richard Johnston and jazz guitarist Eric Essix. You’ll also see everything from films shot on familiar Alabama locations to films that were made all over the world.”
   
After the Saturday-night awards ceremony, filmmakers and fans can enjoy a live hour-long performance by legendary Muscle Shoals singer-songwriter and frequent screen actor Donnie Fritts, who will be backed by members of the Muscle Shoals rock-and-soul band The Decoys and other special guests.

“This night is going to be one of my favorite gigs,” says Fritts, who wrote the classic hits We Had It All for Ray Charles, Breakfast in Bed for Dusty Springfield, Choo-Choo Train for The Box Tops and A Damn Good Country Song for Jerry Lee Lewis. His big-screen credits include acting roles in Sam Peckinpah’s Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid and Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, Cockfighter, A Star is Born, Songwriter, The Last Ride of Frank and Jesse James and the recent music-industry “mockumentary,” The Life and Hard Times of Guy Terrifico.

“This is just a great way to celebrate the success of the UNA film festival as well as the great musical tradition we have here in Muscle Shoals,” Fritts added. “The Decoys feature some of the best players in the world – great Muscle Shoals guys like Scott Boyer and Kelvin Holly on guitar, David Hood on bass and N.C. Thurman on keyboards – plus we’ve got Delbert McClinton’s drummer, Lynn Williams, coming down from Nashville to play with us.”

In addition to live music, the Saturday-night awards show will feature appearances by festival founder and UNA alumnus George Lindsey (best-known for his classic role as goofy, sweet-natured garage-mechanic Goober Pyle on The Andy Griffith Show), Academy Award winner Ernest Borgnine (making his fourth visit to the UNA campus) and festival award-presenters ranging from veteran movie character actor and UNA alumnus Danny Vinson (Two Soldiers, Walk the Line) and screen favorite Natalie Canerday (Sling Blade, October Sky) to award-winning bluegrass musician, actor and storyteller Bill Foster (who teaches English at UNA) and Emmy-winning stage and screen actor and UNA alumnus Will Stutts (widely regarded as the “Master of the One-Person Play” for his characterizations of Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe, Noel Coward, Walt Whitman and many others).

“We try to make the awards show lively and laid-back – with great food, great music and Southern hospitality – plus we show a generous sampling of clips from the winning films in order to introduce those films to a wider audience,” said Jayne Jackson, a member of the festival’s steering committee and one of the organizers of the awards show.

“After the awards are handed out, audiences still have a chance to see those particular titles the following day, when we spend the final Sunday afternoon of the festival screening all of our winning films starting at 1 p.m. at the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library,” Jackson explained. “That gives people one last opportunity to see all of the films that our final judges selected, all in one continuous afternoon lineup.”

This year’s final category judges include Sheffield native Stutts as well as two Florence natives who are also former UNA students – award-winning filmmaker and educator Emily Edwards (who teaches film at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and won a 2006 Golden Lion Award for her faculty film Root Doctor) and nationally known broadcaster and screenwriter/director Mark Thompson (half of the Los Angeles-based Mark and Brian morning show), whose critically acclaimed feature film Mother Ghost was screened at the 2004 Lindsey festival.

Finalists for the Clyde “Sappo” Black Sweet Home Alabama Award were judged by veteran character actor and former Alabamian David “Shark” Fralick, who plays a recurring character on the CBS daytime drama The Young and the Restless. Fralick (who will also participate in a festival acting workshop with Stutts, Canerday and Vinson) has appeared in the big-screen features Gone in 60 Seconds, Desert Heat, Lockdown and Chill Factor as well as well as Shoals filmmaker Tonya Holly’s locally made When I Find the Ocean, which premiered at the 2006 festival.

“I think the caliber of our judges reflects well on the quality of this festival and the quality of the filmmaking talent that comes out of UNA and the rest of the Shoals,” Warren observed. “All four of these judges are at the top of the profession and have impeccable credentials, and all four of them are closely connected with this university and this area. They’re qualified to judge any film festival in the world.”

Other 2007 festival events include panel discussions on “Breaking In: Just How Do You Get Started in the Film Industry?.” “Sweet Home Alabama : Filmmaking from Mobile to Muscle Shoals” and “Why Film in the Tri-States?” Workshops cover topics ranging from children’s filmmaking (taught by guest filmmakers from the Huntsville-based North Alabama Film Co-op) and screenwriting (taught by UNA alumnus Chris Halvorson) to computer animation (taught by Shoals filmmaker Steve Richerson) and the acting workshop featuring Fralick, Stutts, Canerday and Vinson.

“Training and education has been the goal of this festival all along,” says Lindsey, who most recently hosted the Emmy Award-winning Liars & Legends series on Turner South and played a Southern preacher in When I Find the Ocean. “Filmmakers can come together at UNA and screen their work in a festival setting, but they can also learn from industry professionals who are willing to share their experience and expertise. This kind of opportunity simply wasn’t available when I was in school.”

All festival film screenings, panels and workshops are free and open to the public. Admission to the 10th annual George Lindsey UNA Film Festival Awards Show is $15 for the general public and $10 for students.

The only other ticketed event presented during the four days of the festival will be From Marty and McHale to Mermaidman: an Evening with Ernest Borgnine.  The Oscar-winning actor will be honored with a retrospective salute to his career at 7 p.m. Friday, March 2, at the Keynote Room, 310 N. Pine St., downtown Florence. An after-party at Cypress Moon Studios at Muscle Shoals Sound, 1000 Alabama Ave., Sheffield, will feature live music by Tupelo, Miss.-singer-songwriter Paul Thorn.

Tickets for the awards show and the Borgnine tribute (which includes the party) are available in advance at the UNA Bookstore on campus, Pegasus Records Tapes and CDs in downtown Florence, and ColdWater Books in downtown Tuscumbia.

The festival will also host a Welcome/Information Center daily from Wednesday, Feb. 28, through Saturday, March 3, at the Kennedy-Douglass Center for the Arts, 217 E. Tuscaloosa St., downtown Florence. Event tickets, programs, schedules, maps and official festival merchandise (including caps, T-shirts and other collectibles) will be available at the center from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. Saturday.

For further details, including a complete schedule of screenings and other events, visit www.lindseyfilmfest.com, email lindseyfilmfest@una.edu, or call the festival office at (256) 765-4592.

Additional photos of performers, judges, panelists and other festival films are available upon request.


 

 

GEORGE LINDSEY UNA FILM FESTIVAL NEWS...
February 19, 2006

PRE-SCREENING OF ERNEST BORGNINE IN MARTY AT FLORENCE LIBRARY
FLORENCE, Ala. – The Florence-Lauderdale Public Library sets the stage for the 2007 George Lindsey UNA Film Festival with a special pre-festival screening of a cherished Hollywood classic.

The library will celebrate the stellar career of this year’s featured festival guest – stage, screen and television legend Ernest Borgnine – with a free showing of the actor’s Oscar-winning performance in the tender, touching 1955 movie drama Marty.

The film will be screened at 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 23, in the conference room of the library, 218 N. Wood Ave., downtown Florence.

Movie historian Terry Pace, who teaches English at UNA, will introduce the 91-minute feature with a 15-minute pre-show program, “Oscar and Marty: A Star is Born.”

“This event is an example of the positive partnerships the film festival is building in the surrounding community,” said festival director Dr. Garry Warren, who also serves as UNA’s Dean of Information Technologies and Special Assistant to the President.

The 2007 festival – which offers film screenings, panels, workshops and a star-studded awards show – is scheduled for Thursday, March 1, through Sunday, March 4.

“A number of screenings and other special events take place at locations off-campus, including the library,” Warren added. “This special screening of Marty allows us to preview this year’s festival and salute our honored guest, Mr. Ernest Borgnine, by reviving the film that earned him an Academy Award for Best Actor 51 years ago.”

Based on the critically acclaimed television play by Paddy Chayefsky, the film version of Marty cast Borgnine (best-known at the time for playing brutal villains in From Here to Eternity and Bad Day at Black Rock) in the sympathetic role of a love-starved Bronx butcher – a frustrated, self-described “fat, ugly man” – who falls for an equally lonely schoolteacher (Betsy Blair).

In his original New York Times review of Marty, film critic Bosley Crowther called Borgnine’s performance “a beautiful blend of the crude and the strangely gentle and sensitive in a monosyllabic man,” adding, “It is amazing to see such a performance from the actor who played the stockade sadist in From Here to Eternity.”

After Marty, Borgnine (who recently turned 90) went on to star in the screen classics The Catered Affair, The Vikings, Barabbas, The Flight of the Phoenix, The Dirty Dozen, Ice Station Zebra, The Wild Bunch, Willard, The Poseidon Adventure, Emperor of the North, Jesus of Nazareth, All Quiet on the Western Front and Escape from New York as well as the wacky ’60s sitcom McHale’s Navy. Yet the sweet, sympathetic title role of Marty still holds a special place in his heart.  “A fine-looking guy can be a louse, and a hard-looking man can be a real person,” Borgnine told a newspaper reporter in 1955. “I was glad to make the switch for a change. Anybody can play a rowdy role, but it takes something on the ball to play a good guy.”

The 10th annual Lindsey festival marks Borgnine’s fourth visit to UNA. The actor – a longtime friend of festival founder and UNA alumnus Lindsey – was the special guest at the second annual Lindsey festival in 1999. He returned later that year to deliver UNA’s commencement address and donate his career collection of film and television scripts to the school’s archives. He last visited the Shoals for the 2004 Lindsey festival.

This year, Borgnine will participate in a special tribute, From Marty to Mermaidman: An Evening with Ernest Borgnine, at 7 p.m. Friday, March 2, at the Keynote Room, 310 N. Pine St., downtown Florence. The evening will include a wide-ranging collection of classic scenes from Borgnine’s movie career as well as on-stage recollections from the actor and questions-and-answers with the audience.

Admission to From Marty to Mermaidman: An Evening with Ernest Borgnine is $15 for the general public and $10 for students. Tickets are available in advance at the UNA Bookstore on-campus, Pegasus Records, Tapes and CDs in downtown Florence, and Cold Water Books in downtown Tuscumbia. Those who attend the Marty screening at the Florence library on Feb. 23 can purchase tickets at a discounted price of $10 for the general public and $5 for students.

For complete festival information, including a schedule of events, visit the website at www.lindseyfilmfest.com, or call the festival office at (256) 765-4592.
 

January 25, 2007

FLORENCE, Alabama – The 2007 George Lindsey UNA Film Festival will salute Alabama’s rapidly expanding film industry with a special award named after one of the festival’s earliest and most loyal supporters.

Beginning this year, the festival will present one of its top two filmmaking awards – the annual Sweet Home Alabama Award – in honor of the late Clyde “Sappo” Black, a lifelong friend of the festival’s founder, veteran actor, comedian, and UNA alumnus George Lindsey.  The winner of the award will receive a cash prize of $2,000 as well as one of the festival’s coveted Golden Lion Awards for filmmaking excellence. 

“The Clyde ‘Sappo’ Black Sweet Home Alabama Award celebrates and honors the extraordinary talents and achievements of our homegrown film industry,” said festival director Dr. Garry Warren, who serves as UNA’s Dean of Information Technologies and Special Assistant to the President.  “The award will be presented to a 2007 entry – from any of our professional, student, or faculty categories – that was filmed, entirely or in part, anywhere in the state of Alabama.”  

UNA’s 2007 film festival begins Thursday, March 1, and continues through Sunday, March 4. Screenings, panels, workshops, a star-studded awards show, a tribute to Oscar-winning actor Ernest Borgnine and other festivities will take place on the UNA campus and throughout the surrounding Muscle Shoals area of north Alabama.   

“We have a record number of 253 entries this year, and more than 30 of those qualify for the Clyde ‘Sappo’ Black Sweet Home Alabama Award,” Warren noted.  “This year’s festival marks our 10^th anniversary, and I think it’s wonderfully fitting that we’re able to present this award in memory of a man who helped inspire, encourage and support this festival from the very beginning.  Now his family is continuing that high level of support through the establishment of this prestigious award.” 

Black’s widow, Missy Black, and the rest of his family have established the Clyde “Sappo” Black Sweet Home Alabama Award in honor of the Alabama businessman’s once-in-a-lifetime friendship with the festival’s founder.  Black grew up with Lindsey – who went on to achieve pop-culture immortality as lovable, dimwitted gas-station attendant Goober Pyle on the classic sitcom The Andy Griffith Show – in the rural north Alabama town of Jasper.   

“Sappo has been a big part of my entire life,” Lindsey wrote in his 1995 autobiography, Goober in a Nutshell.  “We played together before grade school, and went to grade school, junior high, high school and college together.  He has given me a great source of material and great comfort being with me on the road.” 

After Lindsey went on to show-business success, a colorful series of jokes and anecdotes about “Sappo” gradually worked their way into the entertainer’s stand-up comedy routine.  Some tales were based on actual Sappo Black memories, encounters and misadventures, while others simply lent themselves to the audience’s own vivid image of Lindsey’s boyhood pal.  

“I use the word ‘Sappo’ because anybody can conjure up what they think a ‘Sappo’ is,”  explained Lindsey, whose career also covers Broadway shows, feature films, and character roles on classic television shows ranging from The Twilight Zone and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour to Gunsmoke and M*A*S*H.   “As I travel, a lot of times I hear people say, ‘Tell some Sappo stories.’ I hear stories, and I immediately convert them into Sappo stories.”  

When Lindsey decided to establish a film festival at his college alma mater, Black remained his staunchest supporter and closest confidant.   

“Sappo was the Rock of Gilbraltar in my life,” Lindsey recalled.  “He was a great father and husband, and he was a financial wizard.  He was a humanitarian who worked tirelessly for education and charitable causes, and most of all he was my pal.  I can think of no better way to honor Sappo’s memory than with an award honoring the finest films being made in the state that he and I loved so much.”

For details on this year’s George Lindsey UNA Film Festival, visit the festival’s website at www.lindseyfilmfest.com, call the festival office at (256) 765-4592, or e-mail lindseyfilmfest@una.edu.

 

8/31/06

ENTRIES NOW BEING ACCEPTED

FLORENCE, Alabama – Entries are now being accepted in all competitive categories for the University of North Alabama’s 10^th annual George Lindsey UNA Film Festival. 

The 2007 festivities are scheduled for Thursday, March 1, through Sunday, March 4, at venues on the UNA campus and throughout the surrounding Muscle Shoals area of northwest Alabama.

Last year’s festival broke all previous attendance and entry records, attracting a wide variety of feature films, documentaries, short films and music videos created by more than 200 student and professional filmmakers from all over the world.

“With two months left to go until the final deadline, we already have 100 entries,” noted festival director Dr. Garry Warren, UNA’s Special Assistant to the President and Dean of Information Technologies.  “We could be well on our way to topping last year’s total number of entries.”

The winner of the Lindsey festival’s 2007 Best of Show Award will receive a $3,000 cash prize. The festival also awards a $2,000 cash prize for its Sweet Home Alabama Award, honoring the best film made (entirely or in part) in the state of Alabama. Golden Lion Awards are presented in each professional, faculty and student category. The festival’s Lion Cub Award recognizes the film world’s next generation in a category for students in kindergarten through eighth grade.

“We’ll be celebrating the festival’s 10^th anniversary in 2007 by showcasing and honoring some of the finest films by today’s most impressive and promising talent,” Warren added.  “Oscar winner Ernest Borgnine is scheduled to appear (making his third appearance at the UNA festival), and we hope to be able to announce other special guests in the coming months.”

Deadline for entries in the George Lindsey UNA Film Festival is September 15, with the standard entry fee at $20 ($10 for students). The late deadline is October 15, when the standard entry fee increases to $30 ($20 for students). An extended deadline is November 15, with a standard entry fee of $35 ($25 for students).

“In addition to having far more films last year, we also had more filmmakers actually attend the festival than ever before,” Warren noted. “The presence of so many filmmakers adds even more of an exciting atmosphere and dynamic to the festival. They all come together to share and discuss their work, learn from each other and hopefully become better filmmakers.”

The university-based festival was co-founded in 1997 by veteran stage and screen entertainer Lindsey, a Jasper, Alabama, native and UNA alumnus who envisioned a Southeastern showcase for independent filmmakers as well as educational opportunities for film students and up-and-coming screen artists. In addition to daily screenings, the festival features workshops, panel discussions and an annual awards show honoring winners in each competitive category.

“If something like this festival had existed when I was in college, I wouldn’t have had to go to New York to learn my craft,” says Lindsey, whose screen credits range from his classic comedic role as Goober on television’s long-running Andy Griffith Show to Broadway plays, feature films and memorable guest roles on The Twilight Zone, The Rifleman, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Gunsmoke and M*A*S*H.

For complete details and updates on the 2007 George Lindsey UNA Film Festival, visit the festival’s website at www.lindseyfilmfest.com , or call (256) 765-4592.

 

Archived News Releases (2006 Festival)