VCU’s French Film Festival turns 16

So exactly how does a festival about french films get so popular in such a random place as Richmond, VA? 

Je ne sais pas.  Don’t ask me.  But for three days each year, the Byrd Theatre is a hot place to be.

Film lovers flock from all parts of the globe to little old River City to watch brand spankin’ new french movies.  And these aren’t films that were made by some creative french VCU students, or even some creative french VCUcinema students.  These are bona-fide films from France with French screenwriters, French directors, French actors, even a French dog or two. 

Peter Kirkpatrick, executive director of the Office of International Education at VCU, co-founded the festival 16 years ago, and the campus auditorium runneth over.  The festival moved to the larger (and more majestic) Byrd Theatre in Carytown for its fourth season.  And Kirkpatrick says they fill all 1400 seats. 

So what’s next, the Coliseum?  Might be.

The festival this year was quite the success, with little room for me to move about the lobby between films, especially when lugging a very large camera and tripod.  And I was very surprised at how many French people there were.  I heard just as many speaking French as English.  It boggles the mind that people who live in France save their money to buy plane tickets to see French films in Richmond that they could see, er, in France.  Maybe they just really like Bev’s brownie sundaes, and the festival is just an afterthought.  But I don’t think so.   

How do you say “That theatre was jumpin’ ” en Francais?