West Virginia Filmmakers Guild Presentation
June 12, 2010

I arrived 30 minutes before the session I was attending. I snuck into the back row to listen to the presentor. It turned out to be Mary-Lynn Evans, the filmmaker who made the film “Appalachians” [and "Coal Country" last summer] that was on PBS earlier in the year. I wondered what I got myself into.

For the first part of the hour-long session, I was on stage with a moderator who had a set of prepared questions and then there was a question-and-answer period. There were 15 filmmakers and most of them were between 20 and 35 years old. There were Marshall and University of Kentucky graduates.

In general terms, I told them how libraries, particularly small libraries, would welcome a film program if they had something that would interest a library audience. I emphasized that you must make the contacts to see if they want a program and follow up. The onus is on you, the filmmaker, to get the word out.

In terms of how the filmmakers could work with KCPL, I told them we would consider them for a West Virginia film program. I explained the situation being the largest library in the state. I made sure they understood our programming timetable, the need for flexibility in terms time and dates and the possibility of doing a program at more than one location. I also told them about the general demographics for our audiences.

I told them that if they had a program that they felt might be interesting to library patrons, send me a copy of the item and I can look it over. Our programming committee could view the film to see if it would make a good program. We would also view it as a possible addition to the collection.

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