This year’s RiverRun International Film Festival, April 11-19, will present 177 films from 34 countries, narrowed down from nearly 2,000 submissions. But this Triad tradition didn’t start in Winston-Salem.
In conversation with The Thread, Interim Co-Executive Directors Mary Dossinger and Tiffany Jones walked through the festival’s history and impact on the region.
The festival was originally held in Brevard, North Carolina, beginning in 1998. Then in 2003, Dale Pollock, the film producer and former dean of UNCSA’s School of Filmmaking, moved the festival to Winston-Salem.
While most of the screenings will be at Winston-Salem theaters, Greensboro’s got its own hub at RED Cinemas where 10 films will be shown.
The theater on Battleground Avenue is unmistakable. Its walls are covered in murals featuring Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, and comic and actor Ken Jeong, who was raised in Greensboro.
RED Cinemas owner Marty Kotis has been showing RiverRun films at the theater since 2016, which he considers part of making the theater and the midtown area surrounding it an “arts hub.”
“Not only for the independent films and the blockbusters and foreign films, but then it’s a canvas effectively for various artists from around the world,” Kotis said.
Going to a movie theater is something so much more and so different from watching something on a screen at home, he said.
“There’s a social element to it—being in a theater with a lot of other people—that I think just kind of nourishes that need for belonging or being part of a group,” Kotis said. “You’re feeling the same thing. You’re experiencing these emotions all at the same time, together. And I think it’s a very powerful place to be.”
But as President Donald Trump’s administration slashes spending and pushes back on diversity, equity, and inclusion, the festival is feeling the effects.
Jones, who is currently writing grants, said that she’d already applied for part of a National Endowment for the Arts grant when everything changed and the federal agency “redid all of the grant guidelines.”
That put “terror” into the arts organizations, Jones said.
“What does this mean for arts programming?” she said, “Are we going to be able to do programs that highlight Black and Indigenous work?”
For instance, Jones said, they had a filmmaker fellowship that was specifically for those who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color.
“As it stands now, we wouldn’t be able to get any funding for that because it focuses on a set group of people and excludes white people,” she said. “So we can’t do any programming that excludes a certain segment of people. Like, I couldn’t do a program on LGBTQ film because that excludes straight people. So that’s the conundrum.”
The trickle-down effect of budget cuts is also a concern, Dossinge said. “The NEA thus far is still safe, but I mean, we’re constantly worried.”
“What does this mean for arts programming?Are we going to be able to do programs that highlight Black and Indigenous work?”
Tiffany Jones, co-executive director
But their programming is standing in the face of these changing times.
“We didn’t want to depress people, because we could see this coming,” Jones said. While they tried to select “uplifting” films, they’ve also chosen the ones that are true to their mission.
“My outlook of watching films in September changed pretty drastically to then watching them in December,” Dossinger said.
That’s why they’re showing many films where people are “overcoming obstacles” and “eliminating barriers,” said Jones.
RiverRun hosts events all year round, including its Indie Lens Pop-Up screenings, and works hand in hand with local nonprofits and organizations. That includes the Piedmont Triad Film Commission, which aims to promote filmmaking in the area and recruit film business.
“I think a lot of people just think of filmmaking as people coming from Hollywood and taking advantage of the area, which is the furthest thing from reality,” said Executive Director Rebecca Clark.
RiverRun is an attraction that brings people into the area and boosts the economy, Clark said, offering creatives the opportunity to showcase their work, both onscreen and off.
Film can provide hundreds of jobs on each project to locals, she said. Plus, it’s an industry that’s “clean and green” because there’s no infrastructure needed. North Carolina offers a special place to film because of its “beautiful and diverse locations,” she said, from the beaches of Wilmington to the mountains of Asheville.
“I’ve seen it benefit the region for many, many years now,” Clark said. “I’ve seen it when we’ve had lots of filming in the area.”
But she’s also seen it go away.
In the early 2000s film productions like The Hunger Games and Iron Man 3 flocked to North Carolina, attracted by a 25 percent tax credit for productions over a certain size. Then, in 2014, state lawmakers replaced the tax credit with a tax rebate and lowered the cap on what productions could receive. Some major TV and film productions left the state for Georgia and South Carolina.
Then, in 2016, some remaining TV and film productions boycotted North Carolina due to House Bill 2, which required people to use restrooms corresponding to the sex listed on their birth certificates. It has since been repealed, but a recently filed bill, Senate Bill 516, called the “Women’s Safety and Protection Act,” could enforce similar rules.
Winston-Salem-based artist Christian Arnder is the hand behind the posters advertising the festival. Last year his artwork for the festival centered around bright bouncy colors, with a hand lifting up a ball of light. This year, he took a starker and more introspective tone, a dark background interspersed with color and peering eyes atop planets.
RiverRun’s screenings offer a “larger perspective,” Arnder said.
“You get this glimpse into things that you otherwise wouldn’t even know existed.”
That’s what inspired this year’s artwork, he said.
“Looking at the world, looking at each other, and then the world looking back.”
