Why Falls Church? And, why a Film Festival? Both are good questions, and fortunately for us, both are easy answers. Falls Church is a unique place. Its roots are distinctly small town, yet in recent years it has adopted many cosmopolitan aspects that had always been associated with ‘Big City’ life. One byproduct of this transition has been the renaissance of the local arts scene. Painters, sculptors, photographers, filmmakers, musicians, and artists of all stripes feel at home in Falls Church creating and presenting their works.

This leads us to the second question: Why a film festival? Well, it is our belief that every community has a story to tell. Make that many stories to tell. The narrative qualities of filmmaking bring these tales to life through vibrant, touching, shocking, and inspirational characters and storylines. Filmmaking is yet another form of art that now has an outlet in this City.

The creation of a film is no longer financially prohibitive and distribution has been revolutionized through the internet and the proliferation of local film festivals. In the democratized landscape of the digital age, filmmaking has become attainable and great stories have bounded forth. Not only is Falls Church home to many people and businesses involved in filmmaking and video production, but just like any town, it is full of film lovers. It is the purpose of the Falls Church Film Festival to tap into this trove of weekend auteurs to educate, humor, spellbind and, ultimately, bring together our community.

As it happens, Falls Church is also home to a great venue for a film festival: The State Theatre. Built in 1936, The State is one of the few remaining original film houses in the area. Beautifully restored to its original grandeur in the late 1990s, the State is now one of the region’s premier venues for live music, and, of course, movies. We’re glad that we can play a part in bringing the State and Falls Church’s art and entertainment scene back to its roots.

The main event of the Falls Church Film Festival is the Finalist Screenings & Awards Ceremony at the State Theatre on November 13th. The six submissions that won their catgories in the festival's open competition will be screened in their entirety. After the presentation of each film, the director will be invited on stage to receive the "Lois" award. This year's proceedings are emceed by regional funnyman Brian Demory and the pit band for the night is Mind Traffic, a three piece jazz-fusion band from D.C.

Tickets can be bought at the State Theatre box office or pre-purchased at TheStateTheatre.com.

History

The first Falls Church Film Festival was launched in 2006 by longtime Falls Church citizen/activist/visionary Dave Eckert. He had been producing environmental documentaries and showing them around the DC area for quite some time, when it occurred to him that there might be a fair amount of local interest in putting on a film fest. His idea came to life in April of ’06 when six area filmmakers showed their works at the Inaugural Falls Church Film Fest held at the historic State Theatre. The night was a success as the crowd was entertained and edified by the diverse showings. Each participant took home the Lois Crane award (designed by Klara Sever), which will be presented again in 2007 to each of the category winners.

Dave and his wife Annette have since moved out to Oregon and are, no doubt, helping to make their new community an ever better one. Thanks for getting us started Dave & Annette, we miss you guys.

The Falls Church Film Festival's dedicated band of volunteers include: Chris Andersen, Joanne Burke, Mark Byrne, Gina Caceci, Barbara Cram, Christine Daniels, Elizbeth Day, Phil Dixon, Julia Fischer, Edna Frady, Michael Giberson, Tom Gittens, Tony Kuzak, Renise Leresche, Robert Matthews, Lisa McQuail, Kevin Mellema, Mary O'Donnell, Jeff Smith, Joan van Steyn, Shaun van Steyn, Ruby Venafra