Zach McKeown's encore articles

26 encore | november 4 - 10, 2009 | www.encorepub.com

To say the group of students orchestrat-ing Vision did so on a shoe-string budget would actually be pretty generous. To be more specific, the show has been organized with no budget whatsoever and is only pos-sible due to the generous donations of time and effort on behalf of passionate film stu-dent like Joselyn McDonald.

“We have a great lineup of about an hour of short films, including animations, docu-mentary, experimental and narratives,” McDonals described. Naturally, I had to ask if these films would fall into the above mentioned “student film” horror cliché, to which Joselyn responded with assurance that not only were they all high-quality of

There seems to be a weird kind of myth floating around in the ether that when the tag “student” precedes

the word “film,” it’s inevitably going to be a cliché, overly complex, black-and-white, artsy endeavor, with a headache-inducing number of layers. Or it could as easily be something a couple of dudes made in their garage about the dangers of drug use and decided to upload to YouTube for giggles. Well, the reality of student films is that not only can they be creative and boast real depth, but many student films display real vision—hence, the creation of the 2009 UNCW Vision Film Festival.

A labor of love put together by five high-ly motivated UNCW film-studies students under the direction of Andre and Shannon Silva—two professors of film at UNCW and leaders of the Visions Directed Inde-pendent Study class‚ have put together the UNCW Vision Student Film Festival, a chance for current film studies students and alumni students to showcase their original short films in a public forum.

Screening a Vision:2009 UNCW Vision Student Film Festival takes place Friday

Vision Student Film FestivalScreening student films of all genres.Brown Coat Pub and Theater 111 Grace StreetNovember 6th, 6:30pm and 8:30pm

by: Z ach McKeown an extreme variety, but that all of the final products on show during the festival have been through an exhaustive screening process by Mc-Donald and her peers. A lot of effort has been put forth to assure that only the best and the brightest films will be shown. That the event is free only makes it all-the-better.

Bizarrely, due to the collegiate nature of the Vision Student Film Fes-tival, the group hasn’t been able to directly accept donations of money without having to jump through more hoops than the money is worth. Instead, they have been encouraging and happily accepting any donations in the form of, simply put, “stuff.” The filmmakers in attendance at the festival will all be leav-ing with a swag bag full of donated good-ies to reward their hard work, which need to be filled by anyone willing. In addition, even if would-be donators don’t have a secret cache of video iPods to hand out trick-or-treat style, simple donations of fin-ger foods, plastic plates, cups and uten-sils, along with decorations and any other weird, interesting or otherwise unique bits and pieces are greatly encouraged.

The show will be held at the Brown Coat Pub and Theater on 111 Grace St., November 6th with doors opening for two showings at 6:30pm and 8:30pm, respec-tively. As noted, it’s free and open to the general public. Each show runs around at

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around an hour, but pre-show festivities, including games, food and an interactive film experience. Following the film screen-ings, the generous hosts of Vision, the Brown Coat Pub and Theater, will host a Q&A session with the filmmakers, where the public can pick the creative minds be-hind the films shown.

To donate and/or find out what is need-ed, or to otherwise support the 2009 UNCW Vision Film Festival—open to all ages; although, libations at the adja-cent bar will be served to those of legal age—just contact Joselyn McDonald by phone at (910)330-9552 or by e-mail at jem4680@uncw.edu.

encore | october 28 - november 3, 2009 | www.encorepub.com �

There seems to be a tendency for political candidates to become in-creasingly unrealistic in their goals

in proportion to the scope of the office for which they are running. They will, at times, make claims beyond their means or range of responsibility or immediate resources. And, indeed, candidates for city council are by no means an excep-tion to the phenomenon. There are al-ways going to be individuals who envision something greater for themselves and their community than they can realisti-cally accomplish. This isn’t necessarily a dishonest trait, but at times the nuances and behind-the-scenes work required to affect real, substantial change within the system can be lost amidst hubris.

Michael DeHart does not suffer from that trait. When we met in the board room of his offices for an interview early in Oc-tober, it became quickly apparent that not only does DeHart have a firm grounding in the reality of politics but that he also has an understanding of the concerns of the people—something he alleges the current city council lacks.

Part of DeHart’s grounding may stem from his losing bid for the council in 2007. “By the time I got into it, people were already, you know, established, and the people had their candidates picked out for the most part,” Michael admitted. He went on to light-heartedly describe his family’s reaction to his last-minute deci-sion to run:

“You don’t tell you’re wife that you’re going to file, then go home and say, ‘Guess what I did today, hon?’ It may tick her off a little bit.”

Like the majority of city-council can-didates, DeHart has spent a great deal of his life in Wilmington, which he be-lieves to be a major asset in under-standing the concerns of the people. Since moving to Wilmington with his family in 1964, Michael graduated from Hoggard High School, spent time in the Navy and studied at a number of North-Carolina universities before returning to New Hanover County.

Early on in our conversation, DeHart diagnosed what he feels to be one of the major problems within the current city council: a growing lack of concern and willingness to listen to the voices of the people. “The people don’t think that they have representation on the city council. There’s a lot of big business involved; of course, that’s true of any politics, but perception is reality.”

As one of many examples, DeHart cited the relatively recent decision to move public commentary to the end of city-council meetings, which is often well after a particular topic has been ad-dressed. Such situations are of extreme importance to DeHart, and top his list of improvements the council should make within its own structure.

“That’s why I’m saying that people feel there’s no representation on the city coun-cil,” a clearly frustrated DeHart empha-sized. “It’s not rhetoric; they don’t listen to what people want to do.”

This concern for the often-ignored voic-es within the community carries over to many of today’s most controversial local issues, the least of which isn’t annexation. As a victim of annexation twice over, De-Hart sees forced annexation as little more than a move to increase taxes.

“It makes elected officials less respon-sible in spending the city citizens’ money,” he said, “because they know they have something else they can fall back on.”

On the topic of potentially waste-ful spending, DeHart and I spoke briefly about the new convention center being constructed. He admitted that for years he strongly opposed using tax-payer money to construct the center, and even now he remains disappointed that more consider-ation wasn’t taken in the construction proj-ect in terms of including a full-service hotel or other outlet for revenue. Regardless of his personal disappointment, DeHart ex-plained in his characteristically grounded style that “the convention center at this point in time is going to be reality, and we need to do whatever we can to make it successful.” More importantly, he stands by the assertion of how shameful it would be to have the monies for its completion “fall on the backs of the citizens.”

Arguably the most controversial issue facing New Hanover County and the sur-rounding area is the future presence of Titan America cement plant. Though the Titan plant is not an issue that is directly addressed by the city council, DeHart ad-mitted to being personally torn. “As a citi-zen I’m not real keen on a smoke stack in-dustry here. One of the biggest industries here is tourism, and you’ve got retired people who are living and moving here be-cause of the clean environment, because of the quality of life. You get a plant like

that, and the potential for environmental damage is there.

“On the other hand, this company has to jump through hoops to pass all the reg-ulations, and if they do, I believe in prop-erty rights, and I strongly believe that with the zoning for that type of business, and if

Down to Earth: City-council candidate Michael DeHart is grounded in reality

by: Zach McKeown they get through the process, then they have the right to build there.”

In response to environmental con-cerns, DeHart pointed out that, in his personal life, he is not only a supporter of the green movement, but he has taken steps personally toward being environ-mentally friendly throughout his life, in-cluding utilizing solar panels to power one of his first homes, as well as cur-rently proposing a number of alternative

uses for problematic run off.As a governing philosophy, Michael DeHart’s persistent

sense of realistic, practical treatments to what he con-siders our city’s ailments may lack a degree of flash, but he seems confident that not only is he the man for the job, but that the people will feel the same way. “I look at it as you re-ally only have two choices: You’ve got those running for city council that are on city council and those [that are] like the city council that

will continue to run the city the way it’s been run.

“Then you’ve got those of us who want to take more control of the way our taxes are spent, get government interference out of some of what’s going on and take politics out of a lot of the decision-mak-ing. I’m one of those people. I’m passion-ate about what I do, and I just honestly want to listen to the citizens and listen to their needs.”

PERSISTANCE AND REALISM: They are two characteristics DeHart brings to his campaign for city council, where he wants the people’s voices to be

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Japanese animation or “anime,” as it is more commonly described. is a bit of a phenomenon in the United States. Shows

like “Dragon Ball Z,” “Pokemon,” “Naruto” and a plethora of others have enjoyed massive success thanks to Cartoon Network and oth-er cable channels. But said shows are really only the mainstream tip of a huge iceberg. According to Michal Wisniowski, creator and driving force behind Wilmington’s Aniwave Anime Film Festival, it’s time for people to dive in deep and discover some true works of art hidden just beneath the surface, of which many are already familiar.

Three years ago Michal Wisniowski came to the conclusion that there was a serious void in the Wilmington area, wherein there were large groups of anime fans hungry to get together, and discover new films and series to feed their addiction to the medium. Yet, no actual festivals or conventions catered to them outside of Ani-mazement, a yearly convention held in Raleigh. As it turns out, not only does nature abhor a vacuum, but so does Wisniowski, and so Ani-wave, the first and only anime film festival in the Cape Fear, was born.

“The whole purpose of Aniwave, really, is to

Art with Depth:Aniwave reaches an eager audience

showcase artistic Japanese animation rather than mainstream Cartoon-Network-type stuff,” Wisniowski described. He went on to explain that the difference between mainstream and serious Japanese animation is like night and day—the former, though it has its merits, is more about flash over substance. The latter styles of anime sport a very real depth of plot and represent a much more cultural style of art in the same way that one of the original, hand-drawn Disney movies represents a unique, artis-tic American style of animation.

Taking place October 24th and 25th, day one of the Aniwave festival will be held at the Cam-eron Art Museum in the courtyard or café, de-pending on the weather. The first event will be a unique anime cosplay picnic, starting at 11am, wherein fans are encouraged to dress up as

their favorite characters. A professional photog-rapher will be on hand to take plenty of pictures of all of the weird and wild costumes on display during the event, as well as during an official photo shoot starting at 1pm. According to Wis-niowski, the turnout for the cosplay event and the festival in general has more than doubled each successive year. Thus, 2009 promises to have a really significant amount of costumed fans. Even so, costumes aren’t strictly required, and people are encouraged to come along even if they’d just prefer to observe from afar.

Following the cosplay picnic and photo shoot, the films will begin showing at 2pm. The first day is geared specifically more toward a younger au-dience, though Wisniowski made sure to point out that all of the films, regardless of the age group they are inherently illustrated to, are high-quality and enjoyable to people of all ages.

The Cameron Art Museum had become a regular host for Aniwave and an extremely important element to the festival, according to Wisniowski. “Parents bring kids and feel a lot safer dropping them off at Cameron for an afternoon versus, you know, dropping them downtown.”

Day two of Aniwave will be held at the downtown Soapbox Laundro Lounge, which is geared more toward an adult audience. Two of the three films to be shown do have an “R” rating, though Wisniowski pointed out that the films are, “not necessarily [risqué] for violence or nudity so much as thematically and conceptu-ally.” Minors will be allowed to attend, but there is an open bar available and, once again, some content may not be appropriate.

The films at the Soapbox will begin at 1pm, running throughout the day. Following the show-ings, the festival will end with a first for Aniwave: an anime/techno dance finale. It will feature a full-length anime that was made to sync with a Daft-Punk album, wherein each track of the album comprises a chapter of the film. “It

Aniwave Anime Film FestivalFreeOct. 24: Cameron Art Museum, 2pmOct. 25: Soapbox Laundro Lounge, 1pmwww.aniwave.com

by: Zach McKeown

should be really cool, if it works,” Wisniowski remarked.

The dance finale is a new element to the festival, something Wisniowski added after drawing inspiration from anime conventions abroad. In regards to transforming Aniwave into Wilmington’s first full-fledged convention, he stated, “I’m never planning on turning this into an anime con because it’s more of an art-geared thing, but there’s a lot of con elements I would like to add. I would love to add ven-dors, you know? That would definitely generate more revenue.”

Regardless to changes of venue and addi-tions to the festival made over the past three years, one principle of Aniwave remains con-stant: keeping it free. The festival at its core is made for local anime fans of all ages, rich or poor or otherwise, and Wisniowski believes that keeping admission completely free not only saves people a few dollars, but also sig-nificantly boosts attendance and keeps the fes-tival from running into licensing problems with the films they show.

On a slightly sad note, Wisniowski mentioned that it is becoming markedly more difficult with the economy being what it is to secure spon-sors. He is, after all, not being paid to organize this yearly event, and the larger it becomes, the more time and effort it takes on his behalf to keep things in order. This, in combination with his personal employment problems, leaves the future of Aniwave in questionable territory.

Still, this year’s festivities are certain to be a great success due in no small part to the generous support and facilities of the Cameron Art Museum and Soapbox Laundro Lounge, as well as sponsorship from local companies Kathleen Shannon Glancy, P.A., digieffects and AnimEigo.

For parents interested in researching the films that will be shown during Aniwave this year, titles, ratings and synopses, as well as addresses, event descriptions and contact information, are available at the Aniwave site, www.aniwave.com.

FREE FUN: Aniwave maintains its vision of cost-free creative entertainment.