GO AND DO

WHAT: Carrboro Film Festival

WHEN: 1 to 7 p.m. Sunday

WHERE: Carrboro Century Center, 100 N. Greensboro St., Carrboro

ADMISSION: Tickets are $5 at the door. Children ages 10 and under are free. For information, visit www.carrborofilmfestival.com.

By Cliff Bellamy

cbellamy@heraldsun.com; 419-6744

Kathleen Connally creates lush landscape portraits of the area around Durham Township in rural Pennsylvania. She also photographs equally stark images of floods and some of the less positive aspects of development in those same areas.

A native of Pennsylvania, Connally intentionally settled in Durham Township because it reminded her of the places where she grew up. She spends a lot of time exploring and photographing Durham Township, and posts some of her work on her blog, www.durhamtownship.com.

Connally and her work are the subject of the film “A Walkthru with Kathleen Connally,” by Ajit Anthony Prem. It is one of about 27 films that will be screened at the fourth Carrboro Film Festival, to be held Sunday from 1 to 7 p.m. at the Carrboro Century Center.

“Creating landscape photography is a very spiritual act for me,” Connally states in Prem’s short documentary. “It fills my spirit. It renews my spirit.” She also discusses the importance of preserving rural land, developing it responsibly, and the role her landscape work plays in that quest. A short narrative film by Prem titled “Hello Sorry Whatever” also will be screened at the festival.

Born in India, Prem later moved to New York, where he eventually took up filmmaking in school. He now lives in North Carolina. His film “Banana Bus” won the award for best short at the 2008 All American Film Festival in Durham.

Another film at this year’s festival, “Empty Space,” by Rob Underhill and Aravind Ragupathi, is a film adaptation of the work of actor Mike Wiley, who created the one-man show “Dar He: The Lynching of Emmett Till.”

“The lineup is really strong” for this year’s festival, Selena Lauterer, festival chair, said. “I’m really excited.”

Film categories include fictional films, animation, documentary, music videos and experimental works. All films obey two cardinal rules of the festival, Lauterer said. They must be 20 minutes or fewer and have some connection to Orange County — even if the filmmaker just passed through the county at one time or other.

In an area that boasts numerous film festivals, what distinguishes the Carrboro Film Festival is that emphasis on the local. “It is really local. We sometimes call it radically local,” Lauterer said. Many of the filmmakers this year have worked on each others’ projects, and the crowd is largely from the area. “Usually the people in the crowd are all from here. It’s a very familial vibe,….” Lauterer said.