Film @ SECCA: Les Blank Film Festival
Les Blank directed over 40 films capturing the culture, music, food and people of places including Appalachia, New Orleans and Texas. He was awarded the American Film Institute’s Maya Deren Award for outstanding lifetime achievement as an independent filmmaker.
Saturday, November 14, 7pm, McChesney Scott Dunn Auditorium, SECCA $7
Screenings of two of Les Blank’s music documentaries – Blues According to Lightening Hopkins (1970), a portrait of the Texas bluesman and Sprout Wings and Fly (1983) about fiddler Tommy Jarrell from Toast, North Carolina. Co-director on the film, Alice Gerrard, who is also a musician, will be present for Q and A and will perform. The other co-director with Blank, Cece Conway, will be at the screening.
Sunday, November 15, 2pm, McChesney Scott Dunn Auditorium, SECCA $7
Screenings of two of Les Blank’s food documentaries – Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers (1980), a history of the “stinking rose” and Yum! Yum! Yum! A Taste of Cajun and Creole Cooking (1990) featuring the cuisine of South Louisiana. Chef Harrison Little of Five Loaves Catering will give a cooking demonstration following the screening.
Monday, November 16, 7pm, McChesney Scott Dunn Auditorium, SECCA $7
Harrod Blank, the filmmaker’s son and president of Les Blank Films, will screen How To Smell A Rose and Thailand Moment, Les Blank films not often available for view, and a film of his own, Les Blank on Photography. Harrod Blank will discuss his father’s career as a filmmaker and his own. This screening will also include a Q and A with Harrod Blank.
November 17, 7pm, McChesney Scott Dunn Auditorium
Screening of Les Blank’s recently released first feature-length documentary A Poem Is a Naked Person (1974), which followed Leon Russell in his Oklahoma studio and beyond over a three-year period. Leon Russell will perform following the screening. Because this screening includes the Leon Russell concert, tickets are $55 and are already 75% sold. There are a few student tickets at $45.
Saturday, October 3 at 6pm Opening Reception Point & Counterpoint: NC Arts Council Fellows 2014-2015