Fully Awake, the first feature documentary film on Black Mountain College, returns to Fine Arts Theatre
August 15, 2007: With the Fine Art Theater’s April premiere of Fully Awake: Black Mountain College sold out hours before the screening, we are pleased to bring back this highly regarded full-length documentary film on Black Mountain College. North Carolina natives and filmmakers Cathryn Davis Zommer and Neeley House utilized community funding and volunteer efforts to make this important new documentary about the legendary experimental college based in Black Mountain, North Carolina. The college, founded in 1933 and closed in 1957, shaped the direction of modern art, music and dance in America and embodies one of the most fascinating stories in 20th century education.
Fully Awake: Black Mountain College Screening
Wed + Thursday, September 12 + 13* @ 7pm
Saturday, September 15 @ 1pm
Fine Arts Theater, 36 Biltmore Avenue
COST: $10
*Q & A with the filmmakers will follow the Wed & Thursday night screenings.
Fully Awake (60 minutes) is a documentary film about Black Mountain College and covers important events at the college, including Buckminster Fuller's geodesic dome in 1948 and John Cage's multimedia happening in 1952. However, the documentary’s primary exploration is the unique educational style of Black Mountain College and how that influenced collaboration, exploration, and ultimately, contributed to the school’s current fame. Fully Awake weaves interviews with students, teachers, and historians with black and white archival photography to tell the inspired story of a school that existed only 24 years, but whose spirit lives on. More information on the film is available at www.bmcfullyawake.org.
The college has achieved its mythic status in part because of the famous names associated with it (Cage, Cunningham, Rauschenberg, de Kooning, Kline, Motherwell, Fuller, and many more), but it is important to remember that those individuals were not famous at the time. They were talented; they were experimental; they were courageous; but they were virtually unknown outside of a small circle of likeminded mavericks. Black Mountain College provided a place where all individuals felt free to experiment, to collaborate, and to risk failure. Some of them found fame, and others did not, but everyone present was fundamentally changed.
To arrange interviews with the filmmakers Cathryn Davis Zommer and Neeley House, please email: cathrynzommer@earthlink.net
Photography and logos are available upon request.