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Three distinguished contemporary filmmakers will discuss the films in the Southern Arts Federation’s third annual Short Circuit Traveling Film Festival following the film screenings at The Clayton Center on Saturday, Feb. 6.
The Short Circuit film festival spotlights films created by filmmakers living and working in the Southeast and presents a dozen short films selected for their artistic merit by a panel of media arts professionals. The festival, which begins at 1 p.m., is co-sponsored by The Clayton Center and the Ava Gardner Museum in Smithfield.
Filmmakers K. James Peterson, Todd Tinkham and Camden Watts are the panelists for the post film discussion.
Peterson has more than 25 years experience in award-winning, professional film and video production. He fell in love with cinema as a high school student working as an usher in a large New York movie theater. He later worked on the television series Miami Vice and Unsolved Mysteries. More recently, he was involved in the independent feature film, Southland of the Heart. Peterson speaks both English and Spanish and has taught basic and advanced courses in film and video production at workshops, colleges and universities in the U.S. and Latin America.
Peterson said, “Transforming words into images is more than technique, the images have to connect on an emotional level for a film to be truly successful.”
Tinkham, who lives and works in central North Carolina, worked with at-risk teens for 15 years before making his first short film in 2005. Since then, his films have screened at close to 300 film festivals on five continents, including SLAMDANCE, the Palm Springs International Film Festival, Rhode Island International Film Festival, Sedona Film Festival, Vienna International Film Festival, and the Mumbai International Children’s Film Festival. He is the recipient of a 2009 Indy Arts Award from the Independent Weekly. His first feature film, Southland of the Heart, is presently in production, with a completion date set for June 2010.
A North Carolina native, Watts has had a lifelong obsession with the arts. She is producer/director of Abandoned Allies, a documentary to be released in 2010 about the Montagnard people who served as American allies in the Vietnam War. Watts has written, directed, marketed and performed in a variety of shows and ensembles, including live improvisational comedy at ComedyWorx. She earned a bachelor of arts degree from Meredith College where she studied writing, design, photography and professional communications. In addition to her film credits, Watts created Honey Scroll in 2009, a consulting company that helps marketing, communications and creative companies and their clients work better together.
The 2009-10 Short Circuit Film Festival spotlights fiction, animation, narrative, experimental and documentary films by filmmakers from Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Tennessee.
A discussion by the panelists will take place immediately following the screening of the films. Panel members will take questions from the audience.
Tickets for film festival are $2.50, plus service fees. Tickets may be purchased at The Clayton Center Box Office (theclaytoncenter.com) located at 111 E. Second Street in downtown Clayton, by calling 919-553-1737 x2, or online.
Southern Arts Federation (SAF) is a non-profit regional arts organization founded in 1975. SAF (southarts.org) creates partnerships and collaborations; assists in the development of artists, arts professionals and arts organizations; presents, promotes and produces Southern arts and cultural programming; and advocates for the arts and arts education. The organization works in partnership with the state arts agencies of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. For more information on the Southern Arts Federation and its programs visit the website.
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