CityView Magazine - Fayetteville, NC
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Discover CityViewNC.com's fresh updated look! | 31 although it was our first full three-day festival," Wright said. "We had dozens of filmmakers and hundreds of peo- ple come in for it. We showed more than 40 films in four venues. It was just a great festival and I think everyone was really happy with it." Last year's opening night film was "Hondros," a docu- mentary about award-winning war photographer Chris Hondros, a Fayetteville native killed while on assignment in Libya in 2011. e film was produced by Greg Campbell, Hondros's childhood best friend in Fayetteville. e movie had its N.C. premiere at Indigo Moon and has since aired on Netflix. "Several North Carolina filmmakers drove in and other filmmakers flew in from across the country last year – it was really fun to hear them talk about their films and docu- mentaries," Johnson said. Question and answer sessions with filmmakers are held aer many of the films. "An inside pleasure of a film festival is to ask the film- maker why they made certain decisions about their films," Wright said. During these conversations, friendships are oen formed by audience members and the filmmakers. Due to Hurricane Matthew in 2016, the first annual festival was shortened, but not before a great opening night. e Maya Angelou film "And Still I Rise" was shown to a sold-out audience. Filmmakers came in during the rainy second day. Electricity went out around noon or 1 p.m. that Saturday. About 30 people were in a theater watching a film when the power went out. Aer that, "we stayed in the Rainbow Room with candles on, sharing stories," Johnson said. Wright, Johnson and volunteers helped the filmmakers and fans get safely back to their hotels and back home. So it's fitting that a festival umbrella is now sold, with proceeds going towards a grant to a selected filmmaker to help him or her in "weathering the storm to get their films from script to screen." Fans can also purchase other mer- chandise that assists with the operations of the festival. Looking towards the future, the organizers want to at- tract more people each year and are excited about the new downtown hotel and baseball stadium, and are hopeful that a new performing arts center comes, so films can be shown at those venues. VIP passes for the 2018 festival went on sale Aug. 31 and tickets became available Sept. 7. To purchase passes and tickets, and learn more about the event, visit indigomoonfilmfestival.com.