Carrboro Film Festival co-founder has film screened at home

His films were screened all over the country. That is, except for the one place he called home.

Nic Beery, a resident of Carrboro, member of the Chapel Hill Public Arts Commission, award-winning filmmaker and co-founder of the Carrboro Film Festival, had his films submitted and screened at numerous film festivals all over the U.S. It was when Jackie Helvey,a friend from the Chapel Hill Public Arts Commission, pointed out that Beery should be able to show his highly acclaimed films to his friends in Carrboro that the storyboard for what would become the Carrboro Film Festival began to materialize.

“It sort of bothered me that they weren’t being screened anywhere (else),” Helvey said.

As members of the Carrboro Arts Committee, Helvey, with Beery’s support, proposed the idea for the film festival.

With the support of the committee, the two moved forward with the production of the festival.

“I enlisted Nic to see if he would run it because, hell, I don’t know anything about a film festival and he’d been a filmmaker who had submitted his work to many, many film festivals. He knew what it was all about,” Helvey said.

Their next step was to pitch it to the Carrboro Board of Aldermen.

“Thank God they have vision and they could see that this would be a really good thing for the town. So, they said yes,” Helvey said.

The two artists brought together a team of friends interested in helping. They had proposed the idea in April 2006, and by November, they had their festival.

Flash forward seven years and seven film festivals later, the Carrboro Film Festival introduces progressive changes in its production.

In previous years, those submitting works were required to have some connection to Carrboro, and their films could be no longer than 20 minutes in length. This year, the festival accepted films of any length from all over the world including films from South America.

With more than 200 submissions and the recognition of the festival’s success by the town, the festival was expanded to two days with an additional venue. Visitors of the festival can purchase a one-day pass for $10 or a two-day pass for $15.

The 73 films chosen will screen over the course of the two-day festival — at The ArtsCenter and the Carrboro Century Center on Saturday and just the Century Center on Sunday.

Also new to the festival this year are two free workshops and a free panel at the Century Center.

The construction of Carrboro’s first hotel, Hampton Inn & Suites, provided the tax revenue, parking and housing that the festival needed to expand. Additionally, the Town of Carrboro, the main source of the festival’s money, increased its funds for the event this year.

The festival continues to serve the local community of Carrboro even as it grows.

Jordan Imbrey, a senior communication studies major at UNC, produced the film “Alpacas and Destiny,” which is about a boy who lives on an alpaca farm and discovers an amulett that allows him to turn alpacas into humans. His film will be screened in this year’s festival. Coinciding with the original intentions of the festival, he submitted his work to the Carrboro Film Festival so that his friends and everyone involved in the production of the film could view it on the big screen.

Elisabeth Lewis Corley, a writer who collaborated with her husband Joseph Megel to produce the film “About Time,” which will be screened at this year’s festival, has been to film festivals all over the country including the Carrboro Film Festival.

“It is incredibly well attended. It fills up with enthusiastic, wonderful, smart people who are really interested in film and willing to take chances and are just excited about seeing new work in film,” Corley said.

arts@dailytarheel.com