WINSTON-SALEM – When Dale Pollock made the announcement in 2002 that the RiverRun International Film Festival was coming to Winston-Salem, he saw the potential for more than the requisite film screenings for the community.  

He saw the potential for a large, regional event that would impact the state’s film industry and the economy. He saw the potential for the festival to encourage and promote regional and independent filmmaking.  

But most of all, he saw the potential for making an impact on his students.  

Dean of the School of Filmmaking at the North Carolina School of the Arts since 1999, Pollock has always worked the festival around the students. Now in its third year, RiverRun continues to have a strong educational component.  

An official event of the North Carolina School of the Arts, RiverRun serves as a living laboratory for the more than 230 students enrolled in the undergraduate and graduate programs at the School of Filmmaking. 

“You are the reason we do this festival,” Pollock wrote to students, faculty and staff of the film school earlier this month, “and I hope you enjoy and appreciate it.” 

Pollock called it “a great opportunity” for the film students “to experience a real international film festival on their own campus with visiting filmmakers, panels and discussions, and great movies.”

All students in the undergraduate film program have the opportunity to work at RiverRun and receive credit for doing so. Regardless of whether they work the festival or not, film students are encouraged to attend as many screenings as possible, and may do so for free.  

Among the works that are being screened at RiverRun are films by NCSA faculty members, alumni and students. They include IN BROAD DAYLIGHT by faculty members Daniel and Laura Hart McKinny, about the sexual reassignment journey of a local doctor; TRUCE, a film mixed by faculty member John Sisti; ROCK AND ROLL EULOGY by School of Filmmaking alumnus Zach Clark; Will Clegg’s THE REST OF YOUR LIFE, which involved School of Filmmaking alumni Christopher Jones (director of photography), Matthew Cloud (chief editor) and Nicole Thompson (key grip/gaffer) and film student Monica Vega (1^st Assistant Camera); WHAT HAPPENED TO “THE WHAT” by film student Joey Vigour; THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JIMMY KATZ by film student Brett Haley; and student shorts SECONDS and THE TRAGEDY OF GLADY. They are among two dozen films with various North Carolina connections being screened at the festival.  

In addition, NCSA film students have many opportunities to meet and hear from guest artists in workshops and panel discussions. Among the filmmakers who are visiting RiverRun with their films and providing master classes are: writer/directors Rodrigo Garcia, Jared Rappaport and Rob Spera of FATHERS AND SONS; writer/director Tim Kirkman of LOGGERHEADS; Canadian director Peter Rowe of POPCORN WITH MAPLE SYRUP; writer/director Jon Ward of GOING THROUGH SPLAT: THE LIFE AND WORK OF STEWART STERN, and screenwriter Stewart Stern of REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE.  

Workshops for film students and the public include “Making the Low Budget Feature,” moderated by faculty member Nicole LaLoggia, with producer Michael Wasserman (AMERICA 101), writer/director Georgina Garcia Riedel (HOW THE GARCIA GIRLS SPENT THEIR SUMMER), writer/director Tim Kirkman (LOGGERHEADS), and film alumnus Zach Clark; “Critics: Do They Matter?” moderated by Dean Pollock, with critic Godfrey Cheshire of The Independent in Raleigh, critic Duane Byrge of the Hollywood Reporter, and critic Mark Burger of the Winston-Salem Journal; “Getting the Rights to Reality,” moderated by Assistant Dean Daniel McKinny, with Jon Ward of GOING THROUGH SPLAT; Jan Kravitz (BIG ENOUGH) of Stanford University’s documentary program, Erica McCarthy (DAMN GOOD DOG), David Gaynes (KEEPER OF THE KOHN) and L.A. entertainment attorney Kim Swartz; and “Getting into the Business – Then and Now,” moderated by School of Drama Dean Gerald Freedman, with actors Cindy Pickett (FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF), Buck Taylor (TRUCE), Megan Blake (THE OPPOSITE OF SEX) and Lauren Schneider (THE REST OF YOUR LIFE).