synopsis of whirlygig farm

an outsider look into the myths and legend surrounding a peculiar plot of land located at the intersection of simpson road and wiggins mill road in lucama north carolina. this film is presented in varying examples of person to person myth of parties that have had interactions and experiences on or near this piece of land. these accounts are the spine and the images the body as the whirlygigs, the metal shop, the road, and the abandoned car and the abandoned house near this property are presented in experimental fashion as the audience is bombarded with spectacular images, new and old, actual and modified, of the farm and surrounding landmarks. this roadside attraction asks us are the stories true or false, if so, who or what is behind this mystery? not far from i-95, this farm, called whirlygig farm or acid park (depending on whose telling you about it) is more than meets the eye.

jm

links that didnt show

http://www.myspace.com/ruralroutefilmfestival

http://www.ruralroutefilms.com

http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org

rural route film festival

rural route film festival report.

well once i got over the wrong name written down (i heard rule route)i began my research on this very unique festival. i have been waiting for a response from my email and may eventually hear back from them. however there is no contact info except for email. i pursued one of their many venues, the anthology film archive in nyc and spoke to jed. he was very helpful but could also not supply their phone numbers. anyway here is what i found out through crazy research. jm

this is a newer festival, started in 2003 by a couple of brash young men (Alan Webber and Mike Schmidt) who wanted to create a different kind of festival. through their own experience with festivals, they found their niche, the rural route film festival

their mission statement is simple, most festivals seem to lack any real personality and tend to dwell on the name of the city, etc. rural route was created with the intent of bringing country living to nyc (its main stage)

the main fest was listed as july 28 - 30 and also july 20-22 i did not find out what venue the 20-22 dates were listed but the 28-30 dates were at the Anthology Film Archives, 32 Second Ave, NYC, NY
these are the listed main dates but this is also a traveling festival and here are a sample of some of the latest upcoming dates:

oct 27 2007 8:00 pm fifth avenue cinema portland oregon
nov 9 2007 7:00 pm rural route tour program silver city,new mexico@realwestcinema
nov 15 2007 7:00 pm festivalde todometrajes rurales-arica, chile @ arica
nov 16 2007 8:00 pm westfest @ alpine, texas

the submission period is now closed as the fest gears up for a best of 2008 tour but their criteria was simple: rural route accepts all films and videos that can lay claim to a ...rural theme. the primary setting for the work should be rural or within an ag-based city of 200,000 people or less. works can be completed in any year, in any country, at any length



some of the types of films

docs: agricultural themed, music, profiles, international
shorts: experimental (shannon silva film), doc, and animation
features: narrative and doc
historical: music, portrait
length: 3min to 35 min (this is just a sample, there are other lengths)
global: films from ukraine, lithuania, canada, and even sweden
sexuality: some but not major focus
race: not so much
gender: both are represented well here but not a major focus

all in all a very down home feel to this festival, which is their focus. i wish i could have talked to someone, but since this is a travelling fest, i imagine that i will be able to update more later as they become available.




jm

well here we go, this is the weekend of the whirlygig festival, it should be alot of fun. we have got our equipment checked off, just waiting to get it from tony. i feel a bit sad about the whole deal. if all goes well, this is the last journey for a while to acid park. the weather should be beautiful and i believe i feel a stiff cold wind in the air. the fact that it is halloween week helps add to the mood. me and my pals hope to wrap up principal photography after this weekend. i hope to capture the ambient sound of whirlygigs with the stereo mic i reserved. there are a few establishing shots i thought of as i have been reflecting all week what it is that i am missing. we hope to use the banquet as a spring board to make all final contacts. i still wish to put an ad of some kind in the paper so i can find some older photographs of vollis' work and hopefully of the car. we will have more than enough tape to cover the legend. my big hope is to get into the town of wilson and get my vox pop that is so crucial to this story. the word of folks is critical and i look forward to hear what they have to say about vollis simpson and his infamous park.

the wind, yes the wind will blow kindly upon our supject this weekend, the weather seems to have finally turned the corner into fall. i am going to make a phone call to the simpsons before i head up to make sure that the gigs arent tied down like the las time i went. i cant imagine on such a big weekend how vollis could possibly not show them babies off. i expect a lot of traffic at the park, there should be moments for vox pop there as well. i plan on a series of 3-4 questions, that should get people excited to talk about vollis' work as well as gut level reaction and hopefully some more stories to tell. so while wilmington prepares for cucalorus, me and my merry band will be swimming into the mystery which is acid park-jm

whirlygig festivalamagig

here is an overview of the whirlygig festival coming up this weekend-jm



Date: 10/26/2007
This year’s Whirligig Festival will be the largest yet with more than 120 booths including handmade arts and crafts, food and a variety of other attractions.

Music

Harold Melvin’s Blue Notes will headline the festival. The group is most widely known for the hit, “If You Don’t Know Me By Now.” They take the stage at 3:30pm on Saturday. The Embers will pick up the headliner spot on Sunday beginning at 1:30pm.

This year’s festival features 11 bands on three different stages playing a wide variety of music. Performances include: The Wallers, performing a variety of 70s-90s favorite dance tunes; Bombadil, mixing mainstream with an indie sound; Healing Force, an African-tribal performance band, Spare Change, mixing rock, country, soul and beach; The Winstons bring jazz and dance; Sajaso plays Latin dance, Russ Varnell and His Too Country band bring bluegrass and Grand Ole Opry style country; The Ramonas, a tribute band to the Ramones; wrapping up the lineup is MoJoe, a soulful hip-hop band.

“We are so proud of the lineup the Entertainment Committee has put together,” says Judi Thurston, festival coordinator. “All three stages will have music all day. People can stroll up and down Nash Street and hear a wide variety of music.”

The music continues Sunday afternoon from 1-5 pm with community church choirs and school chorus groups. Fike, Hunt and Beddingfield High Schools’ award winning choral groups will perform on the courthouse steps, along with Sallie B. Howard and the Barton College Gospel Choir and Sign Choir. Church choirs will be on the middle stage in at various intervals to allow attendees to hear all the music. Church groups include Wilson Community Church, 1st Free Will Baptist Church Youth Choir, Jackson Chapel First Baptist Church and the Wilson Praise and Worship choir.

Food

The area’s favorite food vendors have returned. The Elks Club will hold its big BBQ cook off again this year. Competitors drive in (from several hours away in some cases) and set up camp for the night on Friday. They’ll cook all night, then make the succulent pork BBQ available for sale to the crowd. Judging begins Saturday morning for the best BBQ prize and bragging rights.

Olde Time Concessions will impress festival goers again this year with their "Cruzin’ Diner". This 50’s style diner offers sirloin burgers and milkshakes; perfect food for a NC autumn afternoon. You could also try a sample of their gator bites.

This year’s festival also includes corn on the cob, funnel cakes, hamburgers, hot dogs and loads of other choices.

Children

The Arts Council is sponsoring the Whirli-Kids area again this year – historically one of the most popular places at the festival. Free children’s activities including inflatable bounce houses, bungee jump, and arts & crafts will be available in the Barnes Street parking lot. The Arts Council is also sponsoring the Whirli-Kids Choir and concert. After weeks of practicing, the children will perform a community concert at 3 pm. The Arts Council outdoor stage will also feature local talent performance groups including Megan’s Academy of Dance, East Coast Country Hoedowners, Unique Steppers, Real Dance Studio and Sallie B. Howard’s Hip Hop and Mime groups. You’ll even see some swashbuckling pirates dueling it out for the crowd. Want a sneak peak at them? Go to http://www.shadowcombat.com/.

International

The popular Around the World in Wilson tent will be at the center of the action with a new approach to cultural awareness. Ambassadors from 20 nations will lead 30-minute interactive sessions ranging from story sharing, to sports, arts, music and even dance lessons. The newest addition to the committee’s cultural celebration is a children’s Parade of Nations. Classrooms from around the county are adopting a country, creating flags and preparing to march in a parade from the heart of the festival to the main stage leading to up to an international presentation by the committee at 12 noon. Children, teachers and classes are encouraged to sign up to participate in the Parade of Nations through the City of Wilson’s Human Relations Office at 399.2308.

Bike Ride

Festivities will begin very early for the participants in the Cyclist of Wilson’s annual bike ride. The bike ride begins at 8 am on the library lawn and will weave through city streets and county roads. Participants can select from a 10 mile ride or the longest stretch – 60 mile ride.
“With all this activity going on, the community can see we need many volunteers,” says Thurston. Any citizen that would like to get involved with the festival or volunteer to help on Saturday or Sunday can contact the Volunteer Action Center at 237-7411. More information about the festival can be found on the festival website at: www.wilsonnc.org/whirligig.

loves of a whirlygig part II

well it is the next day which is the tuesday of fall break, me and my friend kasey, head down to peruse the continental breakfast spread out at the hotel lobby, i wanted eggs and instead frozen pancakes, oh well that's why its complimentary, i get a cup of coffee and head back to make some phone calls. when trying to call the arts center in wilson, i am informed via automated messaage that they don't open until 10 am, well i got to get some stuff together anyway. so i practice with light meters and load the bolex and get it light safe. we pack up the car and start the journey to the other part of wilson, nc.

i got to say the iphone is pretty cool, we had used it the night before to find food and a hotel room (which are way too expensive for such a small town, i guess it had a nice view of a car dealership) so we have full confidence in our device and get lost as hell. it turns out we were looking for a street which has multiple listings in different towns, and the iphone guided us directly to the wrong town. we checked the hotel address on our receipt and it turns out that that is a billing address and not the actual address of the hotel. go figure. we finally get on the right track and head to downtown wilson. we went through downtown wilson the night before and it was kind of dark and scary, like on the wrong side of the tracks kind of thing. but during the day, it was so different and i was impressed and it actually kind of reminded me of wilmington and how its downtown has remnants of the past scattered throughtout while it tries to merge with the present. we find a parking place nearby the arts center and make our appearance known.

after about 15 min. mr. barry page, the executive director of the wilson arts council came out to greet us, mr. page was quite helpful with his interview and gave us many suggestions of other folks around town to talk to and also gave us some more locations around town to find more of vollis simpsons work. he also invited us to the banquet/gala event scheduled to kick off the whirlygig festival nov 2-4. he told us of how vollis's daughter carole commissioned an artist to sculpt his hands and asked me if i had ever seen his hands, i of course had. mr. page then led us up to miss sandra holmes' office in the same building. miss holmes heads up the wilson visitors bureau and told us she was leaving for lunch but to let her know if there was anything she could do for us. i told her i needed old photographs of the whirlygig farm and told her we were heading back out to meet mr. simpson later that day, she told us she might stop by since she needed to speak with him also.

after cruising for shots of wilson whirlygigs and having lunch we arrived back at the whirlygig farm to no wind again, except for short bursts, nothing was really happening. me and kasey instead did some road shots, abandoned car shots, haunted house shots, and kept filming until mr. simpson arrived...at 6 pm! i guess his doctor appt. took a little longer. kasey and i interviewed a visitor to the farm and i then called mrs. simpson and let her know we were locking the gate and heading back to wilmington. i explained to her what we had and that we would be back especially for the festival, and i let her know how nothing was blowing or moving and how i still would need to shoot some more. i thanked her and him and she told me to drive safely back to wilmington. i said i would. getting in the car and driving away i was very happy for the things i had accomplished the past two days, but also disappointed that it would take more filming. i hope very much and please say prayer that we get a weather change soon, b/c the whirly gigs must turn, without that i have only a half movie at best

jm

loves of a whirlygig

well it has been a while since my last post but i have been busy, there was no fall break for the whirlygig kids. the friday of the break brought damian, ryan and stephen rogers out to the farm. it was rainy so they had to wait for the rain to subside. what resulted was some very dark, cloud filled images. it gave quite a stark look and will add to the spooky side of this story. rain and curious onlookers spooked these kids so much that they bagged it in instead of staying through on saturday. but the results were spectacular, they shot about 2+ hrs of video and plenty of 35 mm digital shots before calling it a night. ryan confided in me that to stay overnight would be an insane thought, since at that time i thought that i would stay through since i was coming up mon and tuesday. i met damian on saturday afternoon and picked up the equipment since my stage was set for mon and tues.

mon morning came early and i called my friend hannah to let her know we were ready to go. she came and picked me up with the gear and we stopped by some stores to pick up supplies (batteries, tapes, etc). well nothing was open until 10 am so we had to wait for an hour. i noticed hannah was wearing flip flops and i advised her on bringing shoes since this was the country. so we went back to her house and since she was a photography major i asked her what kind of cameras was she bringing. she told me and then she said, " hey i got a fisheye lens camera for my birthday, should we get that?" i was stoked, i said hell yeah so even though we had to wait to leave wilmington, it turned out to be worth it.

so we finally get on the road and 2.5 hrs later we arrive to the farm. vollis is in his shop and just getting ready to start working. i took the hint and decided to go show hannah the farm and let vollis get started. we decided to start w/35 mm film slr since that was why she was there. we spent about 2 hrs taking pictures and shooting some video and super8 mm. it was about 3:30 and i decided to go see how vollis was getting along. i arrived at his shop and saw that unfortunately he was packing in for the day. i thought crap, how am i going to get shots of him working. i asked him what his schedule was for tuesday, and he said he had a doctor appt. but he should be back after 2pm. so about that time, hannah had let the bugs and heat get the best of her and she was heading back to wilmington. we unpacked all of the gear out of her car, and i said thanks and she left. i was completely alone at acid park.

i had made arrangements for a buddy of mine to come and help me shoot camera and the interview i had scheduled for tuesday. he didnt get to acid park until about 6 or 7pm. we were losing daylight fast. i had not stopped shooting footage and film since about 12:30 pm. i decided to call it a day and me and kasey (my friend) started packing up. vollis came by and checked on us, and to lock up the gate. he showed us his arsenal of lights he had rigged up with a car battery in the bed of his truck. they were no joke and lit up quite a bit. he started to feel comfortable around us and started telling us stories of people stealing signs and general mayhem. i was tired and kind of out of it when he told us about the night he actually did shoot somebody, that was on his land. he was shooting a warning shot and actually shot a guy with his shotgun. the crazy old man aspect of the story where he will shoot you...that's completely true. he carries the gun around to defend himself and his land. and if you're messing around with his stuff he has a right to shoot you. i found out the next day that the law and the county is completely on his side and support him. it was pitch black so there would be no filming this story since we were busy filming the sun set on the farm. we did a lot of drive by night shots and filmed the old abandoned house that is part of one legend and some of the abandoned car and left the whirlygig farm to seek a hotel room and food. tomorrow was another day.