GERALD MILNES

2006 Filmmaker of the Year

 

Gerald Milnes of Elkins Chosen as
2006 West Virginia Filmmaker of the Year
(Charleston, October 10th , 2006)

The Seventh Annual West Virginia Filmmakers Film Festival announced on Saturday, October 7th, the selection of Elkins filmmaker Gerald Milnes as 2006 West Virginia Filmmaker of the Year. The award is sponsored by the WV Film Office. A unique sculpture created by Landmark founder Bill Hopen was given to Mr. Milnes at the ceremony on Saturday at 8 PM. 2005 West Virginia Filmmaker of the Year B.J. Gudmundsson presented Mr. Milnes with the award.

During the last three years, Milnes completed four films - ���That Old Time Sound,���(2006) ���Fiddlin��� Leo Herron,���(2005), ���One More Time- The Life and Music of Melvin Wine���(2004), and ���Music of Heaven���(to be released). These films, on the Augusta Heritage label, were produced by Milnes within his Folk Arts Coordinator position of the Augusta Heritage Center of Davis and Elkins College. He has also co-produced and edited two films with Robert C. Whetsell - ���The CC Boys - A West Virginia Legacy��� (2006) and ���The Cliff-Scaling Soldiers of West Virginia��� (2004).

Steve Fesenmaier of the West Virginia Library Commission said, ���Congratulations to Mr. Milnes for his selection as the 2006 West Virginia Filmmaker of the Year.��� Also, ���Milnes has been called one of West Virginia���s true Renaissance men. His dedication to West Virginia culture, promoting it through music, workshops, books, and most recently, films, shows that he is a living treasure in this state, just as Wine, McCumbers, and Leo Herron (his film subjects) are. He is a world-class musician and the author of several books.��� His books include - ���Play of a Fiddle: Traditional Music, Dance, and Folklore in West Virginia,��� University Press of Kentucky (1999); ���Passing It On: an Introduction to the Folk Art and Folk Life of West Virginia,��� Augusta Heritage Center, 1994, ���Granny Will Your Dog Bite and Other Mountain Rhymes��� Alfred Knopf (1990), and ���Signs, Cures and Witchery: German Appalachian Folklore,��� University of Tennessee Press, (to be released, early 2007).

Milnes has consulted on many important major film projects including Mari-Lynn Evans��� documentary ���The Appalachians,��� John Sayles ���Matewan,��� two BBC films, and ���Even the Heavens Weep��� for PBS.

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Press Release

Contact Steve Fesenmaier
Mystery12@charter.net
(304) 345-5850

or

Kevin Carpenter, Director
WV Filmmakers Film Festival
wvfff@elkhotel.us
92 South Stonewall St
Sutton WV 26601

Charleston, October 17, 2006 - The Seventh Annual West Virginia Filmmakers Film Festival has selected its winners. The festival took place in Sutton at the Landmark Studio for the Arts from Friday, October 6th and continued until Sunday evening on October 8th.

The festival began on Friday night with two new documentaries about the arts in Sutton. Ray and Judy Schmitt introduced the world premieres of their two new documentaries about artists that live and work in Sutton. The first film is about The Landmark's own theater group in "For the Love of Theater" lead by Jim Walker. The second film, "Beautiful You" is about Chinese-American poet and sculptor Ai Qiu Hopen, the wife of Bill Hopen, the founder of the Landmark Studio. Gerald Milnes of Elkins was chosen to receive the 2006 West Virginia Filmmaker of the Year Award, sponsored by the WV Film Office. The WV Filmmakers Guild held their annual meeting on Saturday morning, electing new officers and board members.

Terry Lively was elected president of the WV Filmmakers Guild. She is only the fourth president and the first woman to hold this post. Robert Gates of Charleston, John Nakashima of Morgantown, and Peter Griesinger of Buckhannon have been president since the Guild was founded in 1979. She has been the secretary-treasurer for several years.

Other offices elected were Robert Gates, president emeritus, Dennis Strom of Charleston as vice president, Jason Brown secretary, and B.J. Gudmundsson re-elected treasurer. Elected board members are Robert Gates, Daniel Boyd, Kevin Carpenter, Jude Miller and Jesse Johnson. Kevin Carpenter, director of the festival, said, "This year's festival has been a great success and we look forward to 2007."

Here are the winners chosen by the board of The Landmark Studio -

Ray Schmitt received The People's Choice Award for "For the Love of Theater," one of his two films about the arts in Sutton. Ray and Judy Schmitt also presented "Beautiful You," a film about Sutton-Shanghai sculptor Ai Qiu Hopen.

Terry Lively, the new president of the WV Filmmakers Guild, won "best documentary feature" for her film, "Crossings - Bridge Building in West Virginia." The film has already been broadcast twice on WVPBS and copies will be given to every public library and public school in the state.

Charles Kleine of WVPBS won "best documentary short" for his film on Bridgeport water dowser Art Digman, "Dowser."

Lydia Mong, who is also the webmaster for the WVFFF, stars in two of the award-winning films - "For the Love of Theater" and "Lot Lizards.

For the first time, WVFFF sponsored a two-minute horror film competition, won by K.C. Bragg for his film, "Deadline."

More than a dozen films were shown including several films that dealt with West Virginia's environmental crises caused by mountaintop removal mining - "Bringing Down the Mountains," "Black Diamonds" and "Mountain Mourning."

The WVFFF wishes to recognize the following for their special assistance preparing for the festival -Thomas Allen, Doreen Carpenter, Steve Fesenmaier, and webmaster Lydia Mong.

For more information, visit the website at - http://www.landmarkstudio.org/wvfff/index.html

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Press Release

September 13, 2005

Contact Steve Fesenmaier
Mystery12@charter.net
(304) 345-5850

or

Kevin Carpenter, Director
WV Filmmakers Film Festival
wvfff@elkhotel.us
92 South Stonewall St
Sutton WV 26601

2006 Festival to open with two world premieres of films about Sutton Artists

Charleston, September 20, 2006

This year���s festival will open on Friday, October 6th and continue until Sunday evening on October 8th.

Ray and Judy Schmitt will open the 2006 festival at 7 PM at The Landmark Studio with the world premiere of their two new documentaries about artists that live and work in Sutton. The first film is about The Landmark���s own theater group in ���For the Love of Theater��� lead by Jim Walker. The second film, ���Beautiful You ���is about Chinese-American poet and sculptor Ai Qiu Hopen, the wife of Bill Hopen, the founder of the Landmark Studio. Ray Schmitt was chosen to be the 2004 WV Filmmaker of the Year. More than a dozen WV films will be shown during the three day event.

On Saturday, after the annual official meeting of the WV Filmmakers Guild at 10:30 and lunch, WVSU film professor David Brock will give a workshop at 1 PM on how to adapt a literary work to film. His MFA film at Ohio University, ���Stephen King���s The Road Virus Heads North��� was nominated for a student Oscar. The films that will be shown during the rest of Saturday focus on traditional life in West Virginia. At 2 PM Terry Lively��� will introduce her film, ���Crossings ��� Bridge Building in West Virginia.��� Ms. Lively is the secretary of the WV Filmmakers Guild. She recently received her MA in communications and film from WVSU, the state���s only film program. She has worked on many WV indie films including ���Correct Change.��� She also has produced a cable TV series for the WV Dept. of Transportation. At 3:00 PM B.J. Gudmundsson will introduce her film on Rupert mayor Charles W. Mundy, ���A Sense of Values.��� At 3:30 PM Gerald Milnes, Augusta Heritage folk arts coordinator and frequent guest at WVFFF, will show his film on pioneering central West Virginia musicians, Lester and Linda McCumbers, ���That Old Time Sound��� which also includes music by Homer Sampson and many others.

After dinner at the Caf�� Cimino, the films will start again with a presentation of Jacob Young���s 2004 documentary, ���Clogging in the New Millennium.��� Young is best known for his 1991 film about Jesco White, ���Dancing Outlaw,��� that was recently celebrated at JescoFest in Hinton. At 8:00 PM the 2006 West Virginia Filmmaker of the Year will be announced. The award is funded by the WV Film Office. Each year Sutton artist Bill Hopen designs a unique work of art given to the recepient. After this program, various shorts will be showing including ���Lot Lizards��� starring Landmark Players member Lydia Mong in ���Lot Lizards, ��� Charles Cline���s new film,��� XXXX,��� ���The Passenger,��� ���Tempus Fugit,��� and films by Richie Sherman, Kevin Scarborough, Chi Slankard, and Jack Wright. Also, the winners of the ���Two-Minute Horror Film Competition��� will be shown.

Starting at 12:30 PM on Sunday, ���Dowser��� by WVPBS filmmaker Chuck Kleine about Bridgeport water dowser Art Digman will be shown after the filmmaker and Mr. Digman introduce the film.

At 1 PM the short film made by three Pennsylvania high school students, ���Bringing Down the Mountain��� will be shown before Catherine Pancake���s new feature film,��� Black Diamonds��� is shown. Ms. Pancake and her sister Ann Pancake, a well-known WV writer, spent years working on a film that has bee called ���The Harlan County, USA of the 21st century.��� The film focuses on the effects mountaintop removal mining has on the citizens of West Virginia. At 3:15 PM the festival will conclude with a new film by Allen Johnson, a leader of the Christians for the Mountains, and B.J. Gudmundsson, ���Mountain Mourning.��� Mr. Johnson is an award-winning library director from Pocahontas County, a Christian Peacekeeper who has spent time the last two years working in Palestine, and a subject of Bill Moyer���s coming PBS program, ���Bill Moyers on America ��� Is God Green?��� that will be aired October 11th.

For more information on the festival - http://www.landmarkstudio.org/wvfff/index.html