The Third Annual Blue Ridge-Southwest Virginia Vision Film Festival was
held in Roanoke, Virginia from April 14 to 17, 2005. Sandstorm, a feature
film from the New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV), stood out among many contestants.
[1] It was nominated for four categories of awards including Best Editing, Best
Cinematography, Best Director, Best Drama and Best Feature Film, and won Best
Feature Film and Best Drama.
Sandstorm deeply touched the audience. During
the fifteen minutes of Q&A session following the screening of the film on Friday,
April 15, the audience was very enthusiastic in asking the screenwriter/director/producer
of the film, Michael Mahonen, about Falun Gong. They wanted to know what Falun
Gong is, Falun Gong’s popularity worldwide, and why the Chinese Communist Party
decided to persecute Falun Gong. They also asked Mr. Mahonen a lot of technical
details in the film. Mr. Mahonen tried to address each and every question from
the audience and the organizer had to end the Q&A session eventually due to the
time constraint. However, many members of the audience followed Mr. Mahonen and
kept on talking to him about Falun Gong outside Consolidated Theatre’s Valley
View Grande 16 theater.
One thing worth mentioning is that, after having heard
that Sandstorm, a film in the Chinese language would be featured in this
year’s Blue Ridge Vision Film Festival, Ms. Pearl Fu, the Roanoke Valley's
ambassador of Goodwill and International Connections, took the initiative to contact
NTDTV and volunteered to promote the film among the local Chinese community. On
the evening of April 16, Ms. Fu invited one of her Chinese friends to the screening
of Sandstorm.
References:
[1] 2005 Blue Ridge-Southwest Virginia Vision
Film Festival: http://www.blueridgeswvafilm.org/filmfest012005.htm
[2]
Poster for the Third Annual Blue Ridge-Southwest Virginia Vision Film Festival:
http://www.blueridgeswvafilm.org/filmfestposter2005.htm
[3]
Sandstorm official website: http://www.sandstormmovie.com/
