The Maupintown Film Festival showcases works of historical, educational and social value that address the achievements and plight of the African-American community. Included in the 12-film lineup is local filmmaker (and founder of Maupintown Media) Lorenzo Dickerson’s documentary Anywhere But Here, which examines the cause and effect of mass incarceration, as well as his Color […]
For some of the graduating UVA students who will walk the Lawn this weekend, it might be difficult to see any direct connections between a major and a future career. Many will receive a degree that provides an obvious path; others have chosen English or other courses of study that are, let’s say, a bit […]
As Tom Tom Founders Festival Director Paul Beyer sits in the audience during Founders Summit talks and hears fellow entrepreneurs and creative visionaries speak about the early days of their startups, the successes they celebrated and obstacles they faced, he can’t help but draw a parallel to the festival itself. The ideas for the festival […]
On a recent Friday morning, Lifehouse’s 2005 hit “You and Me” played on WCNR 106.1 The Corner. When the song wrapped up, new midday host Kendall Stewart took to the mic, a hint of wistfulness in her cheery voice: “I’m feeling nostalgic this morning, like I want to put on a prom dress and slow [...]
A few years ago, Bob Boilen, host of NPR Music’s “All Songs Considered,” turned his work desk into a concert venue. Today, he invites musicians from all over the world to play intimate sets of songs between the desk and bookshelves in the Tiny Desk concert series. The short sessions are filmed [...]
You can’t cover a Grand Banks song. Don’t even think about it. It’s not a question of chops or instrumental know-how. It’s about the unique relationship between the two musicians in the band, the growth of their friendship over the years and their approach to making sound together. “If somebody [...]
It’s time to update your car radio presets, Charlottesville. The long-anticipated launch of a new hip-hop radio station happened on October 5 at midnight when WVAI 101.3 Jamz took to the airwaves. The launch came as the result of more than a year of work by Damani Harrison, Elijah Campos, [...]
Since Nathan Moore joined WTJU 91.1FM as general manager in 2011, the community radio station has embraced change with new energy. His influence led the station to launch WXTJ 100.1FM, featuring solely UVA students as DJs. He was also instrumental in WTJU’s expansion into Richmond as 102.9FM [...]
As features editor for Zimbabwe’s largest daily paper, The Herald, in the capital city of Harare, Roselyne Sachiti doesn’t shy away from tough stories, even if they place her in danger. The 33- year-old journalist has gone undercover to investigate the smuggling of clothes into her country, an [...]
Having spent most of the last decade punching wolves and shooting whomever in pursuit of something or other, Liam Neeson’s career resurgence has been a mixed bag. On the one hand, he’s remained relevant in a genre that usually condemns talented performers to straight-to-DVD purgatory. On the [...]
Visual artist Philip de Jong won’t content himself with creating beautiful work. In fact, he avoids contentment altogether. “At some point as a trained photographer your job is to make anything look good,” he said. “If people describe my work as pretty, I feel insulted on some level because all [...]
Shovels and Rope Swimmin’ Time/Dualtone On Swimmin’ Time, their third album, Cary Ann Hearst and Michael Trent are in top form. Whether they amble through Americana numbers like “The Devil Is All Around,” or stomp out ominous rockers like “Evil,” the duo demonstrates they have a firm handle on [...]
Cure your back-to-school blues with a little Greek life—ancient Greek, that is. The Paramount kicks off a fresh season of live streaming from London’s National Theatre with Euripedes’ classic tragedy Medea. Helen McCrory takes the title role as a wronged wife who exacts a terrible revenge in [...]
Not since Raul Julia’s puzzling appearance in the New Jersey Public Television video chroma key disaster “Overdrawn at the Memory Bank” has A-level talent looked as out of place as it does in the attempted scandal flick The Last of Robin Hood. But where “Overdrawn” can blame its production [...]
Lights, camera, education! Catch a sneak peek of local student films before they hit the national festival circuit at Light House Studio’s 13th annual Youth Film Festival. Works from past Light House students have moved on to larger audiences at the LA Film Festival and the Cine Youth Chicago [...]
Watching The November Man try its best to be an exciting Bourne-inspired actioner is like listening to someone trip over themselves, so eager to get to the punchline of a joke that they skip key parts of the setup. And just as a botched joke can be unintentionally funny, so too is The November [...]
Saying that If I Stay, adapted from Gayle Forman’s blockbuster young adult novel, is bad because it’s overwrought and pretentious is to dismiss a crucial stage of growing up when you yourself are overwrought and pretentious by no real fault of your own. The entire young adult experience is [...]
The Virginia Quarterly Review hosted its first-ever writers’ conference last week, a four-day retreat at the Boar’s Head full of workshops and public panels with a host of big names in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, including Atlantic editor Scott Stossel, journalist and short story writer [...]
Get On Up is the best possible film of an inherently mediocre genre: the biopic. Most biopics render themselves obsolete by failing to admit that when a person is famous, we almost always know the most interesting thing about them because that thing is the reason they’re famous in the first [...]
Begin Again Music from and Inspired by the Original Motion Picture/222 Records John Carney, who gave us the classic music-focused film Once, returns with another music-based film, Begin Again, and the soundtrack is predictably loaded with fun moments that will appeal to a variety of listeners. [...]
It may seem nitpicky in this era of movies about radioactive spider bites and ancient alien stud-gods to take issue with a premise that is basically an excuse for inventive set pieces, but there’s something so incredibly lazy and pointless about the way Luc Besson plays with the old (and false) [...]
Confession time: My favorite movie of all time is the original 1968 Planet of the Apes, and it breaks my heart that it doesn’t appear on more Best Of lists. Boasting a script from the eternally relevant Rod Serling, it channels the best aspects of “The Twilight Zone” into a feature-length idea. [...]
Old Crow Medicine Show Remedy/ATO Records Remedy is the latest proof that Old Crow Medicine show is incapable of doing anything poorly. Whether it’s a raucous, hoedown-style piece of country like “8 Dogs, 8 Banjos,” or whether it’s the old time bluegrass feel and R-rated sensibility of a track [...]