By Staff

Friday morning, just after 7am, WSFCS bus #86 was involved in an accident on Valley Road, between Reynolda Road and Yadkinville Road. On scene it appeared that a red Toyota had struck the school bus.  The car’s driver was taken to the hospital for what appeared to be non-life threatening injuries. While unconfirmed at this time, there did appear to be at least one student or other passenger on the bus in addition to the driver. EMS personnel and police officers could be seen talking to someone on the bus. The individual did not appear to have significant injuries and no additional ambulance had been dispatched to the scene as of this writing.

UPDATE:

According to the WSPD, the bus, driven by Kimberly Dawn Westmoreland, was traveling east on Valley Road toward Reynolda Road. A 1994 Toyota Corolla, driven by Linda Bristow Duncan, was traveling in the opposite direction when it drifted over the centerline and sideswiped the school bus.

There were four passengers in addition to the driver on the bus at the time of the accident. No one on the bus was injured. Ms. Duncan was transported to Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center for the treatment of minor injuries.

Neither speed or impairment appears to be a factor in this collision.

By Staff

Sunday the RiverRun International Film Festival announced the Audience and Jury Awards for their 2015 Festival. The 17th annual Festival ran April 16-26 and presented 165 films, representing 35 countries.  “Films showcased at our Festival this year reflected diverse stories from around the world, immense talent from directors, many trained in Winston-Salem, and a host of passionate projects that are jewels of the independent filmmaking community,” said Andrew Rodgers, RiverRun Executive Director.

AUDIENCE AWARDS

The Audience Award “Best of Fest” was presented to:
THE BLACK PANTHERS: VANGUARD OF THE REVOLUTION / USA (Director: Stanley Nelson)

The Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature was presented to:

ANYWHERE ELSE / Israel / Germany (Director: Ester Amrami)

The Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature was presented to:

3 ½ MINUTES / USA (Director: Marc Silver) — This gripping documentary dissects the shooting death of 17-year-old Jordan Davis, the aftermath of this systemic tragedy and contradictions within the American criminal justice system.

The Altered States Audience Award for Best Indie was presented to:

PROUD CITIZEN / USA (Director: Thomas Southerland)

NARRATIVE COMPETITION
The Best Narrative Feature Award was presented to:

MEMORIES ON STONE / Iraq / Germany (Director: Shawkat Amin Korki)

The Peter Brunette Award for Best Director was presented to:

Naomi Kawase, STILL THE WATER / Japan / Spain / France

Best Actor was presented to:

Hussein Hassan MEMORIES ON STONE / Iraq / Germany (Director: Shawkat Amin Korki)

Best Actress was presented to:

Julieta Diaz, REFUGIADO / Argentina / France / Columbia / Poland (Director: Diego Lerman)

Best Cinematography – Narrative Feature was presented to:

Yutaka Yamazuki, STILL THE WATER / Japan / Spain / France (Director: Naomi Kawase

Best Screenplay was presented to:

THE SECOND MOTHER / Brazil (Director: Anna Muylaert)

Special Jury Prize for Editing:

Ebrahim Saeedi, MEMORIES ON STONE / Iraq / Germany (Director: Shawkat Amin Korki)

Honorable Mention for Cinematography:

Sara Mishara, FELIX AND MEIRA / Canada (Director: Maxime Giroux)

Honorable Mention for Actress:

Hadas Yaron, FELIX AND MEIRA / Canada (Director: Maxime Giroux)

Honorable Mention for Actor:

James ‘Primo’ Grant, FIVE STAR / USA (Director: Keith Miller)

RiverRun’s 2015 Narrative Features jurors included: award-winning filmmaker and editor Nicolas Chaudeurge (“Fish Tank,” “Red Road,” “Wuthering Heights”), award-winning film critic Godfrey Cheshire, award-winning independent film producer and distributor Karen Chien, Austin Film Society programmer Lars Nilsen, and University of North Carolina School of the Arts student Christene Hurley.

DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
Best Documentary Feature: THE CHINESE MAYOR / China (Director: Hao Zhou)

Best Director — Documentary Feature was presented to: Joshua Oppenheimer for THE LOOK OF SILENCE / Denmark / Finland / Indonesia / Norway / UK

Special Jury Prize: WELCOME TO LEITH / USA (Co-directors: Michael Beach Nichols and Christopher Walker)

RiverRun’s 2015 Documentary Features Competition jurors included: non-fiction programmer Julie Anderson (WNET, HBO, “God is the Bigger Elvis,” “Realsports with Bryant Gumbel”), head programmer of American Film Institute documentary film festival, Andrea Passafiume, non-fiction filmmaker and writer A.J. Schnack (“Caucus,” “We Always Lie to Strangers,” “Convention” (RiverRun ’10), filmmaker and Arts Professor at NYU & Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill, Marco Williams, and Wake Forest University graduate documentary film student Josh Harris.
SHORTS COMPETITION
Best Documentary Short was presented to: CAILLEACH / UK (Director: Rosie Reed Hillman)  As the winner of the jury award for Best Documentary Short, ‘Cailleach’ is now eligible to be considered for a 2016 Academy Award®.

Honorable Mention to the documentary short: NOTES FROM LIBERIA / USA / Liberia (Co-Directors: Ryo Murakami and Judd Ehrlich)

RiverRun’s 2015 Documentary Shorts jurors included: documentary film distributor Oli Harbottle, film programmer and producer Kellin Quinn, Associate producer of POV Nicole Tsien, and Wake Forest University graduate documentary film student Brian Gersten.

Best Narrative Short was presented to:

THE KÁRMÁN LINE / UK / (Director: Oscar Sharp)

Special Jury Prize was presented to: ÁRTÚN / Iceland / Denmark / (Director: Gudmundur Arnar Gudmundsson)

Best Student Short:

ROTA / USA (Director: Jean-Jacques Martinod)

RiverRun’s 2015 Narrative Shorts jurors included: Penelope Bartlett, programmer of the Chicago International Film Festival and associate programmer of the Palm Springs International Film Festival; filmmaker Daniel Carbonne (“Hide Your Smiling Faces”-RiverRun ’14, “Americana”), Associate Director of Industry & Alumni Relations at Sundance Film Festival, and University of North Carolina School of the Arts student Evan Scott Russell.

Best Animated Short was presented to: BEAR STORY / Chile (Director: Gabriel Osorio Vargas)  As the winner of the jury award for Best Animated Short, ‘Bear Story’ is now eligible to be considered for a 2016 Academy Award®.

Best Student Animated Short: THE PRESENT / Germany (Director: Jacob Frey)

RiverRun’s 2015 Animated Shorts jurors included: animator Celia Bullwinkel (“Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” “Hair High,” “Little Bill,” “Wonder Pets”); animator and development coordinator at Nickelodeon Animation Studio, Joanna Leitch; and Tom Warburton, creator of Cartoon Network series Codename: kids next door,” TV movie “Operation Zero,” and production designer for MTV’s “Beavis and Butthead”).

PITCH FEST
In an effort to further promote the development of new filmmaking talent, RiverRun partnered with universities around the state to present the third annual Pitch Fest competition. Pre-selected student filmmakers pitched their documentary shorts projects to a panel of industry experts, received advice on how to proceed, and vied for prizes and industry recognition.

First Place: BOUT QUEENS (Co-directors: Kathryn Jeffords and Kayla Hammer of Elon University)

Runner Up: LOOKING FOR TROUBLE (Co-directors Bryan Campbell and Caroline Cuny of Wake Forest University)

By Staff
Wake Forest Law and the N.C. Center for Voter Education are co-hosting the 2014 NC Supreme Court Candidates Roundtable at 3 pm. on Tuesday, Oct. 7, in the Worrell Professional Center, Room 1312.

Moderated by Interim Dean Suzanne Reynolds, a former NC Supreme Court candidate, the event will feature NC Supreme Court candidates in a question-and-answer round robin. The event is free and open to the public.

For those who are unable to attend in person, the event will be livestreamed on TheVoterUpdate.com, HERE, the online news site of the NC Center for Voter Education.

“We hope that voters will attend this event so that they can make an informed decision when they enter the voting booth,” Reynolds said.

All candidates for the N.C. Supreme Court have been invited to participate. Candidates Mark Martin, Ola Lewis, Bob Hunter, Sam Ervin, Robin Hudson and Cheri Beasley have confirmed they will attend.

The event is designed to provide North Carolina voters with an opportunity to hear the candidates discuss their candidacies within the confines of the NC  rules of professional conduct as set out by the NC Bar Association.