Charlottesville, Virginia: The Virginia Film Festival will be inaugurating a sidebar series of film production panels designed for aspiring filmmakers and others interested in the "nuts and bolts" of how films get made. The free forum will run from October 31 to November 2 and is entitled "Storming the Media." The events will all be held in the University of Virginia's Newcomb Hall Theater, and are cosponsored with the Virginia Film Office and the Film & Media Society at UVA.

The initiation of this program, which is expected to become an annual feature of the Festival, was sparked by the interest of student and local filmmakers. Sam Eder, an undergraduate student at the University of Virginia, developed "Storming the Media" with the permission and help of Virginia Film Festival director Richard Herskowitz. According to Eder, "In past years, student filmmakers have missed opportunities to learn from the filmmakers who come to the festival. We felt that a program should be created especially for students and beginning filmmakers to exchange ideas with these accomplished directors, screenwriters and actors."

A highlight of "Storming the Media" will be an October 31 workshop on the creative use of confined locations, an event specially planned to build on the Virginia Film Festival's theme of "Caged." Artist/filmmaker Beth B will be joined by filmmakers Susan Winter and Joe Brewster, all of whom have new films in the Festival program. The artists will discuss how an independent filmmaker can turn a budgetary limitation--the need to reduce location costs--into a creative cinematic opportunity. The moderator is Jane Gaines, director of the film program at Duke University.

"Storming the Media" attendees can also attend a high-powered producers' panel on November 1 including Mark Johnson (producer of Speed and Donnie Brasco), Lewis Allen (Swimming to Cambodia, Never Cry Wolf), and Marshall Persinger, whose latest film Still Breathing, an offbeat romance starring Brendan Fraser, is premiering at the Festival. Aspiring filmmakers will be able to ask questions about how these producers achieved their great successes--and how to avoid their mistakes.

On the same day, veteran screenwriters Frank Pierson and Richard Tuggle will appear on a screenwriters' panel. Pierson is best known for Dog Day Afternoon and Cool Hand Luke, while Tuggle's credits include Escape from Alcatraz and Tightrope. During this panel, the short film Chekhov's Gun, which explores screenwriting's most basic conventions, will be shown.

Festivalgoers will not want to miss November 2's presentation on the making of Windhorse, the controversial new film by Virginia filmmaker Paul Wagner. Wagner will talk about his transition from documentary to narrative filmmaking, and screen Ellen Bruno's Satya: A Prayer for the Enemy, a documentary that inspired his new film. Windhorse depicts the political awakening of a young Tibetan pop singer and an American tourist, played by Charlottesville-based actress Taije Silverman.

"Storming the Media" will culminate with a student film showcase on November 2, showing the very best of new student films from around the country, with a special emphasis on student filmmakers from Virginia. Short films from Regent University, Virginia Commonwealth University, and the University of Virginia (among others) will be shown. Also at that showcase, filmmakers Todd Norwood and Peter Bieligus will present their 35 mm feature Fallen Angels and discuss their project and the sacrifices they made to complete it. Their film is astonishingly professional for a debut and the filmmakers are in negotiations for its distribution.

The inception of "Storming the Media" as a feature of the Virginia Film Festival is a huge boon to aspiring filmmakers, who will have the chance to screen their work alongside undisputed film classics. Established directors and producers, however, also stand to gain from "Storming the Media" by getting acquainted with the freshest new talent in the student film world.

A complete schedule of the "Storming the Media" forum is appended to this release. For more information on "Storming the Media," visit http://www.student.virginia.edu/~fms-uva/. For more information on the Virginia Film Festival, call 1-800-UVA-FEST.