Mount Vernon Gazette, VA

Love and War at the Film Fest

By Greg Wyshynski
September 20, 2007

When Patti North-Rudin began developing what would
become the first Alexandria International Film
Festival, she both reached out to those in the
community she knew had a passion for cinema and
sounded a call for other interested parties to get
involved.
"People started calling me and telling me what their
story was," said North-Rudin, International Film
Festival Coordinator with the City of Alexandria
Department of Recreation, Parks and Cultural
Activities.
Pamela Hochschartner Viola was one of those solicited
callers – and one whose tale certainly had a Hollywood
ending.
Along with being an Alexandria-based photographic
artist, Viola worked in the film industry for 15 years
on productions such as "Hannibal," "Natural Born
Killers and "Six Degrees of Separation." In 2000,
Viola went on location to Morocco to help supervise an
international cast and crew of 1,500 people during the
filming of "Black Hawk Down."
Then-Secretary of Defense William Cohen sent a series
of U.S. government supervisors to make sure Ridley
Scott wasn’t "maligning the military" in the
director’s gritty take on the Battle of Mogadishu. One
of those military advisors was Jim Viola, who (cue the
crescendo of string music) is now Pamela’s husband.
Jim and Pamela Viola will present a screening of
"Black Hawk Down" at 6 p.m. on the Alexandria
International Film Festival’s opening night on Friday,
Sept. 28, at the Madison Building, 600 Dulany Street.
In will be followed by a talk with the couple at 8:30
p.m., as they discuss falling in love during the
filming of one of the most brutally realistic war
pictures ever made.

Indie Spirit Haunts 1st Film Fest
Selection committee brings together local directors
and film-lovers.
<1b>By Greg Wyshynski
<2b>Gazette Packet

Jim and Jane McCabe have owned Video Vault on 113 S.
Columbus Street in Alexandria for 23 years. It’s a
store that offers classic titles and studio
blockbusters; but for local cinephiles, it’s also the
place to find those hidden screen gems and cult
favorites that exist outside the box office rankings.
That same sort of independent spirit can be found
throughout the first Alexandria International Film
Festival, scheduled for Sept. 27 – 30 at the U.S.
Patent and Trademark Office Madison Building. "That’s
probably the most exciting thing about the festival,"
said Jane McCabe, who along with Jim assisted an
illustrious selection committee in shaping the
inaugural event. "The most exciting filmmaking is in
independent films today."
The festival was created for several reasons,
according to Patti North-Rudin, International Film
Festival Coordinator with the City of Alexandria
Department of Recreation, Parks and Cultural
Activities. The event, which is free to the public,
provides a platform for local filmmakers to have their
work seen by a wide-ranging audience; in turn, local
film-lovers have the opportunity to view movies that
challenge perceptions and broaden the viewer’s
cultural and educational horizons – all while
providing popcorn entertainment.
Since the film festival was to be international in
construction, North-Rudin sought out members of the
community that help bring a worldly flavor to
Alexandria’s festival scene. The list included Ken
Hill, chair of the Alexandria-Gyumri Sister City
Committee that cosponsors the Annual Armenian
Festival; Dana Padgett, Vice President of the American
Indian Inter Tribal Cultural Organization that
cosponsors the annual American Indian Festival; and
Boran Tum, Chairman of the Cambodian Community Day
Committee.
"It was gratifying, because they were all pretty
active in it," she said.
Then there were people she knew were involved in the
film industry, including local film buffs like former
City Manager Vola Lawson and locals in the film
industry like Pamela Hochschartner Viola, a 15-year
veteran of Hollywood productions like "Natural Born
Killers" and "Hannibal."

THE COMMITTEE’S selections will play over a three-day
period at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. "It’s
being held at a wonderful facility," said Laura
Overstreet, VP of communications for ACVA.
Thursday night kicks off at 7 p.m. at Market Square
with an official welcome and with a performance by the
Alexandria Singers, who will perform songs from films.
Following that, "Alexandria: My Hometown," a series of
short film created by students of the Mt. Vernon
Community and Samuel Tucker Elementary schools, will
be screened at Market Square. Those movies precede
other short films by local and regional filmmakers, as
well as coming attractions for the festival’s other
productions.

ON FRIDAY NIGHT at the PTO at 6 p.m., there is a
special screening of director Ridley Scott’s "Black
Hawk Down," followed by a discussion with two locals
who met during the production and eventually married.
On Saturday and Sunday, beginning at 1 p.m., the
festival screens several high-impact documentaries and
indie films. Jim McCabe said he’s looking forward to
seeing Sunday night’s screening of T.C. Williams
graduate Christopher Quinn’s documentary "God Grew
Tired of Us," which won the Grand Jury Prize and the
Audience Award at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. He
said he’d also like to see "War/Dance" by director
Sean Fine, son of award-winning news producers Paul
and Holly Fine, which screens on Saturday night.
North-Rudin said the variety of subjects, genres and
films screening during the four-day festival speaks to
the committee’s effort to keep things unpredictable.
"You can’t please everybody, so we tired to do a
little of this and a little of that," she said.
Visit for more
information and for times and schedules.