Jim McKay Film Festival Begins This Week, Get Advance Tickets Now

According to a Willson Center Website post:

Tickets are now on sale for “Everyday People: The Film, Television, and Video Work of Jim McKay,” a festival to be presented November 15-18 by the Willson Center in partnership with Whatever It Takes Athens as part of the University of Georgia’s 2013 Spotlight on the Arts.

The opening event, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov.15 at Ciné, 234 W. Hancock Ave. in downtown Athens, will be a gala reception and screening of Tourfilm, McKay’s feature-length concert film documenting R.E.M.’s 1989 world tour for the album Green. The event is a fundraising benefit for Whatever It Takes, an initiative of the local nonprofit Family Connection – Communities in Schools whose mission is to fight poverty in Athens through support for public education and families.

Availability of tickets for the opening reception and screening is limited. The screening will be co-hosted by David Daley, Editor-in Chief of Salon.com.

Festival guests including McKay, various UGA faculty and Athens community members, and Daley, will introduce screenings and participate in post-film question-and-answer sessions as well as in a panel discussion on the UGA campus.

McKay is a director, writer, and producer who lived and worked in Athens during the late 1980s and early 1990s. C-Hundred Film Corp., the production company that McKay formed with R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe during that time, remains an active partnership to this day.

McKay has directed numerous feature films and music videos and more than 40 episodes of broadcast and cable television shows including "The Wire," "Big Love," "Law and Order," "Treme" and "Breaking Bad." He has served as a producer on numerous films including American Movie (1999), directed by Chris Smith and Sarah Price. He is currently directing a dramatic series pilot for Amazon Instant Video.

Festival co-sponsors include the UGA College of Education and the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, Department of Telecommunications. 

The full festival schedule is available here.