Friends Sam Dirani and Matthew Mendler, both NCSU alumni, recently started Good Enough Productions. Through story development, creative filming, as well as set and prop design, Sam and Matt are able to take themselves and the viewer to some unlikely places that will certainly put a smile on your face.  Check out their videos here!

Midway Plantation, circa 1900

Raleigh native, Godfrey Cheshire, premiered his new documentary “Moving Midway” this weekend at The Rialto. Pressured by modern sprawl, the Hinton family plantation was moved in 2005 and Godfrey was inspired to film this monumental family event. He may have imagined what ghosts lied beneath but never could have foreseen the synchrony that expiates their demons.

Midway under-way, circa 2005

For me, you can hardly get more local. It was an easy stroll from my house, a short drive from my ancestral farm and a subject that continues to divide the country we live. With multi-racial presidential candidates, new books giving voice to founding mothers and a slave history married to the untenable conflict of ‘All men created equal’, I can not imagine a more timely film.

The twain shall meet

Unlike Godfrey, I am no film critic, so I will leave that to my betters but I will say, “you should see this movie!”. Regarless of your origins, yet, you seek better self-awareness through history, find the world torn by a legacy of polarization or think that it is time to call the chickens home to roost, “Moving Midway” is a movie that might rattle your skeleton’d closet.

Ron Liberti's interpretation of a film poster for DYSP

Died Young Stayed Pretty, directed by Eileen Yaghoobian, is a documentary about rock posters and their designers, some of whom are Raleigh natives, artists featured in a Designbox Rock Poster Show 5 years ago called StuckUp (Casey Burns, Ron Liberti and Dale Flattum), and one is even a Designbox alum (Dale Flattum). WOOHOO! We’re famous!

“This unique documentary examines the creative spirit that drives these indie graphic artists. They pick through the dregs of America’s schizophrenic culture and piece them back together. What you end up with is a caricature of the black and bloated heart that pulses greed through the US economy. The artists push further into the pulp to grab the attention of passersby, plastering art that’s both vulgar and intensely visceral onto the gnarled surfaces of the urban landscape.” (from the film synopsis)

The film will have it’s world premiere at the Montreal World Film Festival on August 29.

See the film site for a full description, stills and video trailer as well as more artist posters.