Al Gore Presents the Reel Current Award to Michael O'Connell's MOUNTAIN TOP REMOVAL at Nashville Film Festival

Plus: LGBT Award splits; Trace Adkins to attend "Terror;" Dennis Lambert adds a showcase; Patricia Neal to sign books; and more of the latest happenings at the Nashville Film Festival

NASHVILLE, Tennesee -- April 19, 2008 -- Al Gore, former Vice-President, Nobel Peace Prize Winner and the subject of the Academy Award winning documentary AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, presented the 2008 REEL CURRENT AWARD yesterday to MOUNTAIN TOP REMOVAL, Michael O'Connell's revealing look at mountaintop removal mining in West Virginia. The presentation took place at the Regal Green Hills Cinemas in the Green Hills section of the city where the Festival is taking place.

"It's a story of personal determination and courage," he told an assembled audience of festival goers and members of the media. "It's also a story about the terrible impact on families in the communities that are victimized by the way in which the coal is being removed from the tops of mountains in Appalachia. This film really brings out the human dimensions of this because you see it through the eyes of a family that's greatly affected and you feel it in the emotions of a small town that has really been hurt a lot."

Gore was particularly taken with two of the subjects of the film, Ed Wiley and his granddaughter Kayla Taylor, who joined O'Connell and the film's producers Gill Holland and Augusta Brown Holland at the presentation.

"(Mountain top removal mining) kills the prospect for Kayla and her generation to have the same kind of beautiful place to live and the same healthy place to live, and all for what?" he asked. "Because the amount of money being made by this, it goes up to the top of the income ladder. Now, there are a lot of jobs associated with it, but when it's gone, those jobs are gone, too. It's mostly done by these big machines now anyway, and the people are not benefiting economically, and they're certainly being hurt in terms of their health and their whole outlook, and the one thing different I like about this particular film is that it really does allow the audience to connect with the emotions of these different families as they go through this."

Gore added that Wiley's struggle in the film to get a new school for his granddaughter "is really part and parcel of the same type of struggle that I and many others have been involved in trying to get solutions to the climate crisis. 

"It's the same fight really, because today, all around the world, we will collectively put another 70 million tons of CO2 in the earth's atmosphere, and the majority of it comes from burning coal without any thought to the consequences for future generations, or any thought of the consequences for us now."

MOUNTAIN TOP REMOVAL screens at the Festival on Wednesday, April 23 at 6:45 and again on Thursday, April 24 at 4:00 p.m. The film is also screening as part of an Earth Day celebration at Lincoln Center in New York City on Sunday, April 20.

The REEL CURRENT Award winner is chosen and presented each year by Al Gore to a documentary at NaFF that provides extraordinary insight into a contemporary global issue. Last year's winner was Jennifer Baichwal's MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES.

Opening Night / Macy gets the Governor's Award

William H. Macy and director Steven Schachter joined country stars Emerson Drive, Nashville mayor Karl Dean, Rob Bironas of the Tennessee Titans, singer-songwriter Jessi Alexander, up-and-coming country act Carter's Chord, Nina and Dr. Matthew Kennedy, film fans and festival representatives for the opening night red carpet arrival and screening of THE DEAL on Thursday, April 17. Macy was later presented with the The Governor's Award by Tennessee Film Commissioner Perry Gibson. Hundreds of guests and film fans then convened at the Music Row headquarters of BMI. Select photos, suitable for web and print, are up at http://www.flickr.com/photos/nashvillefilmfestival.

WERE THE WORLD MINE and the short THE MANUAL share the inaugural Best LGBT Film Award, Sponsored by LOGO

WERE THE WORLD MINE, director Tom Gustafson's hilarious story about a gay teenager whose spirit soars when his eccentric teacher casts him as Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Sophie Gregg's short film THE MANUAL, which tells the story of Sonny, who after twenty-four years of treatment and psychiatric institutions, returns home and attempts to save his seven-year-old niece from experiencing a similar fate, will share the inaugural Best LGBT Film Award, sponsored by Logo TV and presented to the best film with lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender content.

Dennis Lambert adds a showcase at the Bluebird Cafe following Monday 4/21 screening of OF ALL THE THINGS

Songwriter and producer Dennis Lambert, responsible for hits including "Rhinestone Cowboy" and "Aint No Woman (Like the One I Got) and the subject of the documentary OF ALL THE THINGS, will play a showcase at 9:30 p.m. at the Bluebird Cafe on Monday, April 21 following the screening of the film. OF ALL THE THINGS recently won the AUDIENCE AWARD FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY at both the Sarasota Film Fest and Palm BeachInt'l Film Fest.

Trace Adkins to attend 4/23 screening of TRAILER PARK OF TERROR

Trace Adkins, country megastar, runner-up on the recent Celebrity Apprentice and now actor, will be in attendance for the Wednesday April 23, 9:00 p.m. screening of TRAILER PARK OF TERROR, in which he playssatan. He'll join director Steve Goldman for the post-screening Q & A.

Patricia Neal to sign autobiography

Film icon Patricia Neal, here to receive the Nashville Film Festival Lifetime Achievement Award on Tuesday, April 22, will also be selling and signing copies of her 1988 book As I Am: An Autobiography. Prior to the award presentation and "A Conversation with Patricia Neal"  panel, and subsequent screening of HUD, she'll be at the theatre to sell and sign books and meet with festival goers. The signing will start at 5:00 p.m.

Photos of the opening night red carpet, party and Al Gore Presentation are up on Flickr.

Select photos are up at http://www.flickr.com/photos/nashvillefilmfestival.

Screenings sold out; Screenings Added

First it was opening and closing night, and now well over a dozen films in the next couple of days have sold out, including several panels. Please check the website at nashvillefilmfestival.org for updates.



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