Sean McCord speaks with Mike Dion, the director of Inspired to Ride. This documentary about the ultra-endurance Trans-Am bike race was distilled down from over 2,000 hours of footage as cyclists crossed the country from Oregon to Virginia. Find out why many cyclists have shirts that read “It’s Mike Dion’s fault” The film will be released on iTunes and other digital outlets on November 13.
Sean McCord speaks with Mark Rozzo, Sam Erickson, and Matthew Amster about their film Hallowed Ground which made its film debut at the Virginia Film Festival on Friday at the Southern. The film is a documentary about the “sacred American space” that is Gettysburg. How do people who are drawn there think about the Civil War battle that defined the space and the history of the United States? That’s the topic the film explores.
Sean McCord speaks with Marcus Mizelle, the director of Actor for Hire, which screened on Friday at the Violet Crown. This was the 21st stop for the film on the festival circuit and Mizelle and actors Jesse O’Neill and Jandres Burgos talked about the challenges and excitement that comes with bringing an idea to life and sharing it with the world. The film started off as a web series that became a feature film.
This documentary combines raw, never-before-seen footage and photographs with present-day interviews with African-American students from Washington, D.C., who were heavily affected by the crack epidemic. Promised college scholarships in 1988 at age 12, these students struggled to survive in their impoverished D.C. neighborhood. Spanning two decades, their story reveals the complex challenges facing youth in underserved communities. Southeast 67 focuses on the students as they strive to reconcile the dream of college with the competing reality of daily life in a community rife with violence, poverty, and addiction.
Southeast 67 screens Saturday at 6:00 PM in the Vinegar Hill Theatre.
Virginia actor Devin Druid stars in Louder Than Bombs, a compelling story of three men brought together after the untimely death of the family matriarch. Fans of the FX series Louie may recognize Devin as teenage Louie from a memorable two-parter this last season. In this podcast, Devin talks about acting on his first feature film and also working with Louis C.K.
Louder Than Bombs screens Saturday at 1:45 PM in the Newcomb Hall Theater.
Elaine Cheng and Eric Rzeszut Speaking at the Senior Center in Charlottesville.
Individuals ranging from youthful pranksters to international cyber criminals continuously threaten our personal, organizational, and indeed, the security of our nation. This podcast addresses the current status of internet security at all levels including what you can do to better protect yourself in the digital age.
Elaine Cheng
Elaine Cheng, managing director and chief information officer at CFA Institute, oversees all aspects of information technology globally for the organization. Her primary focus is to provide and support organization-wide IT, including infrastructure and architecture, applications development, business process re-engineering, networks, and computer operations. She is also accountable for the future vision and strategy of technology and systems at CFA Institute. Prior to joining CFA Institute, Ms. Cheng worked for M&T Bank in Buffalo, New York, as Group Vice President of Technology Business Services. In this position, she led development planning for major IT investments, managed technology relationships with retail, commercial and internal business units, and overhauled the project management process. She served as vice president of retail operations at the bank prior to this position. Ms. Cheng earned her BA from Vassar College and her MBA from the University of Rochester, both in New York.
Eric Rzeszut
Eric Rzeszut is the help desk manager at UVA’s McIntire School of Commerce, and was previously an IT manager at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) with nearly two decades of information technology and information security experience. Eric is also co-author of the book 10 Don’ts on Your Digital Devices, a guide to data security and digital privacy for nontechnical users published by APress in 2014.
Ms. Cheng and Mr Rzeszut spoke at the Wednesday, October 14, 2015 meeting of the Senior Statesmen of Virginia. The meeting was held at the Senior Center in Charlottesville. Following the presentation, questions were taken from the audience. The program was moderated by SSV board member Rich DeMong.
Six Indigenous Australian writers and two Indigenous American writers read from and discussed their work in an event titled First People: Indigenous Writers from Australia and North America on September 8, 2015 at the Harrison Institute Auditorium.
Each writer spent seven minutes reading from a work of their choice. Karenne Wood (Monacan) led a discussion about Indigenous identity and writing. Questions were also taken from the audience. The speakers were introduced by Kluge-Ruhe director Margo Smith.
Writers speaking at the Harrison Institute Auditorium on September 8, 2015.
The program was intended to inspire writers at U.Va. and in the community by introducing them to emerging and established Indigenous authors, while also creating a visible platform for Indigenous voices to be shared and heard in our community, where these voices are often considered invisible and are sometimes intentionally silenced. “As always, we are excited to provide the opportunity for public dialogue about the politics of Indigenous identities and how these inform the study of human culture. Usually visual art is the platform for this conversation at Kluge-Ruhe, but we are committed to supporting all kinds of Indigenous creativity, and are grateful for the chance to showcase the compelling and relevant works of these writers ,” said Education and Program Coordinator Lauren Maupin.
Indigenous Australian writers Bruce Pascoe, Jared Thomas, Dub Leffler, Jeanine Leane, Ellen Van Neervan, and Cathy Craigie are members of the First Nations Australian Writers Network, an organization that acts as an advocacy and resources service for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers and storytellers. Already in the United States for the 2015 National Book Festival in Washington, D.C., the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection invited them to Charlottesville to participate in the panel reading and discussion.
Kluge-Ruhe reached out to the Mary and David Harrison Institute as a partnering host for this program, as well as Karenne Wood (Monacan) of the Virginia Indian Program at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. Wood, being a published poet herself, agreed to participate and moderate the panel. Poet Deborah Miranda (Ohlone-Costanoan Esselen), who has won numerous writing awards and teaches at Washington and Lee, also participated.
“This is an unprecedented opportunity to hear from Indigenous writers on both sides of the globe, to compare our historical and contemporary experiences, and to talk about how we use writing to challenge people’s perceptions,” said Karenne Wood.
Karenne Wood is an enrolled member of the Monacan Indian Nation and serves on the Monacan Tribal Council. She is currently a PhD candidate in anthropology at the University of Virginia, working to reclaim indigenous languages and revitalize cultural practices. She recently edited The Virginia Indian Heritage Trail, published by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, led the “Beyond Jamestown” Teachers’ Institute, and curated the “Beyond Jamestown: Virginia Indians Past and Present” exhibition at the Virginia Museum of Natural History. She was previously the Repatriation Director for the Association on American Indian Affairs, coordinating the return of sacred objects to Native communities. She has also worked at the National Museum of the American Indian as a researcher, and she directed a tribal history project with the Monacan Nation for six years. Wood held a gubernatorial appointment as Chair of the Virginia Council on Indians for four years, and she has served on the National Congress of American Indians’ Repatriation Commission.
Bruce Pascoe is of Bunurong, Yuin, Tasmanian heritage. His books include Shark, Ruby-eyed Coucal, Ocean, Earth and Nightjar. His novel, Bloke, was published by Penguin in 2009. The children’s novel, The Chainsaw File, was published by Oxford University Press in 2011. Fog a Dox was published in 2012 by Magabala and won the Prime Minister’s Award for Young Adult Literature in 2013. Dark Emu was published by Magabala in 2014 and was shortlisted in the Western Australia and Queensland Literary Awards. In 2014 he attended the Australian New Zealand Literary Festival in London and in 2015 will visit festivals in Scotland, Mongolia and the USA.
Jared Thomas is a Nukunu man of the Southern Flinders Ranges and an author of young adult fiction. His debut novel Sweet Guy was short listed for three major Australian literature awards and his children’s novel Dallas Davis, the Scientist and the City Kids is published in the Oxford University Press Yarning Strong series. Calypso Summer won the 2013 State Library of Queensland black&write! Fellowship and was included in iTunes best books of April 2014. Leading Indigenous publisher Magabala Books will release Songs that Sound like Blood in 2015.
Dub Leffler is descended from the Bigambul people who survived the fourteen year Bigambul war of the 1840s in Australia. He is an accomplished author and illustrator with over eighteen feature titles to his name and has collaborated with such luminaries as Colin Thompson, Shaun Tan and Banksy. He is Australia’s premiere Indigenous illustrator of children’s literature. Dub’s book, Once There Was a Boy, which he both wrote and illustrated, was one of the biggest children’s books of 2011 in Australia.
Jeanine Leane is a Wiradjuri woman from southwest New South Wales with a Ph.D. in Literature and Aboriginal representation. She currently holds a post-doctoral fellowship at the Australian National University. In 2010, Jeanine’s first volume of poetry, Dark Secrets After Dreaming: AD 1887-1961 won the Scanlon Prize for Indigenous Poetry from the Australian Poets’ Union and her manuscript, Purple Threads won the David Unaipon Award at the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards. Jeanine is the recipient of an Australian Research Council Discovery grant (2011) for her project Reading the Nation: A critical study of Aboriginal/Settler representation in the contemporary Australian Literary Landscape and a Discovery Indigenous Award (2013) for her new project The David Unaipon Award: Shaping the literary and cultural history of Aboriginal writing in Australia.
Ellen Van Neervan is a Yugambeh woman from South-East Queensland, Australia. She is the author of the award-winning Heat and Light (UQP, 2014). Divided into three sections, it is inspired by the intersection of familial history, location and identity. Ellen has been awarded a Queensland Writers Fellowship to pursue her next project in 2015, a novel about Aboriginal relationships with mega fauna. She lives in Brisbane where she works as the senior editor of the black&write! project at the State Library of Queensland, which aims to support and promote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers and editors.
Cathy Craigie is a Gamilaroi and Anaiwon woman from northern New South Wales. She has worked in Aboriginal Affairs for over thirty years. She was one of the original founders of Koori Radio/Gadigal Information Service and has worked in senior positions with the Australia Council and the New South Wales Department of Aboriginal Affairs. Cathy has held a variety of key positions in other Aboriginal arts, health and housing organizations at national and international levels. She is also an aspiring writer and has written several plays and stories. Cathy was Festival Curator, Guwanyi (to tell) the National Aboriginal Writers’ Festival held at the New South Wales Writers Centre.
Deborah Miranda is a Ohlone-Costanoan Esselen woman of California. She was born in Los Angeles to an Esselen/Chumash father and a mother of French ancestry. She grew up in Washington State, earning a BS in teaching moderate special-needs children from Wheelock College in 1983 and an MA and PhD in English from the University of Washington. Miranda is a poet and her collections of poetry include Indian Cartography: Poems (1999), winner of the Diane Decorah Memorial First Book Award from the Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas; and The Zen of La Llorona (2005), nominated for a Lambda Literary Award. Miranda also received the 2000 Writer of the Year Award for Poetry from the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers. Her mixed-genre collection Bad Indians: A Tribal Memoir (2013) won a Gold Medal from the Independent Publisher’s Association and was shortlisted for the William Saroyan Award.
Candidates for the contested Virginia Senate District 17, (Ned Gallaway (D)) House District 25, (Angela Lynn (D)) and the Albemarle County Commonwealth’s Attorney (Denise Lunsford (D), Tobert Tracci (R)) participated in a forum sponsored by the Senior Statesmen of Virginia.
Delegate Steve Landes (R) and Senator Bryce Reeves (R) both responded that they have scheduling conflicts due to prior commitments and will be unable to attend the forum.
Candidates Speaking at the Senior Center in Charlottesville
Candidates for the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors and Charlottesville City Council gave their views on many of the issues and priorities for the County and City.
City of Charlottesville candidates speaking at the Senior Center in Charlottesville. The event was moderated by WINA’s Chris Callahan.
Albemarle County candidates speaking at the Senior Center in Charlottesville.
The candidates spoke at the Wednesday, August 12, 2015 meeting of the Senior Statesmen of Virginia. The meeting was held at the Senior Center in Charlottesville. Following the presentation, questions were taken from the audience. The program was moderated by senior reporter for 1070 WINA News Radio Chris Callahan. Chris has been with the station for 41 years and was honored in 2014 by the Associated Press Broadcasters for the Best News Operation of the Year.
At a public forum held in Charlottesville, Virginia, Gareth Porter spoke on the significance of the Iran deal as proposed by the Obama administration.
Gareth Porter, is an independent investigative journalist and historian who specializes in U.S. national security policy. He is the author of Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare, and the winner of the Gellhorn Prize for journalism in 2012 for exposing lies and propaganda about the Afghanistan War. Porter spent two weeks in Vienna covering the final round of negotiations and is now writing the definitive account of how the U.S. and Iran finally reached agreement.
Mr. Porter spoke on August 5, 2015 at The Haven on Market Street in Charlottesville. David Swanson introduced the event.