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LIFE
Plenty of film festivals and area movie events going on this winter
Award-winning filmmaker Kim Spurlock, a 1987 Huntington High School graduate, has been making a splash with her latest film, “Down in Number 5.”
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As we’re still in the maw of winter, it’s a great time to catch up with a great flick whether it’s a hilarious short on YouTube, a unique theater experience or finishing up a film project of your own.
Here’s a roundup of movie happenings and news from the area.
The MET Live
The new Cinemark Theater at the Huntington Mall kicks the class up a notch as the Friends of West Virginia Public Broadcasting announce the Metropolitan Opera’s HD Simultaneous Live production of Bizet’s “Carmen” at Cinemark Theater in the Huntington Mall at Barboursville at 1 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 16.
The encore presentation for the 3-hour and 30-minute-long opera is 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 3.
From the Appy Film Fest
The deadline to enter the annual Appalachian Film Festival here in Huntington is approaching.
The deadline is March 1. The Appalachian Film Festival is accepting scripts and films (features, shorts, documentaries, micros and screenplays) for its April 23 and 24 festival at the Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center in downtown Huntington. Top prizes are $1,000 for first place (documentary, screenplay and feature).
For submission form, guidelines and other info, visit www.appyfilmfest.com.
Also, as they did last year, the Huntington Regional Film Commission will be spreading the early rounds of the Appy out in the weeks before the final event that last weekend of April.
The Huntngton Museum of Art, for the first time, will host a night of short films on Friday, April 16, with a wine and cheese reception and guest emcees from Clear Channel Radio and The Herald-Dispatch.
Down on the Way Up
New York City-based filmmaker, Kim Spurlock, a 1987 Huntington High School graduate, has been making a splash with her latest film on the film festival circuit.
Spurlock, who won first place in 2006 with her short film, “UTA,” won top prizes for filmmaking and directing at NYU’s annual First Run Film Festival for her film “Down in Number 5.”
In November, the film was screened at the Miami Short Film Festival where it won Best Narrative and Best of Fest, and in December we won the Cine Golden Eagle Award.
The film has three screenings in February: the Dam Short Film Festival in Nevada, the Sedona Film Festival in Arizona and the Next Reel Festival in Singapore, and they have a submission into the Appy as well.
Go online at www.kimspurlock.com and click onto the film to see a short clip of it.
WV Jewish Film Festival
The annual Jewish Film Festival sponsored by the Federated Jewish Charities of Charleston has a double-feature matinee at 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 24, at Park Place Stadium Theaters, 600 Washington St. E., Charleston.
The new hit Jewish documentary, “Yoo, Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg” will be followed by the new hit French comedy, “Hello, Goodbye.” Admission is free and open to the public.
The first film (released in 2009) is from Aviva Kempner (“The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg”). The second film is a new French comedy, “Hello, Goodbye” starring Gerard Depardieu and Fanny Ardant who play a French couple making a new life in Israel.
The rental cost of the films is paid by the Federated Jewish Charities of Charleston and the theater plus projection is donated by Park Place Stadium Theater owner Derek Hyman.
A Super Bowl appetizer
Nothing is bigger than the Super Bowl, well, at least nothing bigger than a Super Bowl commercial.
This is the fourth year for the Doritos’ Crash the Super Bowl challenge to create a self-made Doritos commercial that airs during the Super Bowl XLIV broadcast.
More than 4,000 commercials were entered, and now it’s down to six. “Casket” by Erwin McManus of Whittier, Calif., “House Rules” Joelle De Jesus of Hollywood, Calif., “Kids These Days” by Nick Dimondi of Cary, N.C., “The Smackout” by Brendan Hayward of Santa Monica, Calif., “Snack Attack Samurai” by Ben Krueger of Minneapolis, Minn., and “Underdog” by Joshua Svoboda of Raleigh, N.C.
Through Jan. 31, you can go on the Web (www.crashthesuperbowl.com) and vote for you favorite (once a day). Doritos is also giving online voters a chance to get in on the action by giving away a pair of Super Bowl tickets every day of the voting period.
Mountain Stage: Darrell Scott, Solas and Dirty Dozen Brass Band 
Advanced Auto Parts Monster Jam 
"Snapshot" 
Blake Shelton - Well Lit and Amplified Tour 2012 
First United Methodist Church Dinner Theater: "Bitsy and Boots in the Tropics" 
ARTS presents "Love Letters" 
BASKETBALL: Marshall vs. East Carolina 
Someone to Watch Over Me 
Mountain Stage: Fountains of Wayne 
Keller Williams 
