Welcome to the Beaufort Regional Chamber

Sheryl Young, freelance writer, reviewed Beaufort for the website Associated Content:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/630469/diary_of_a_sightseer_beaufort_south.html

SEARCHING FOR HEROIC FAMILIES

The producers of ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition  are ready to drive that famous bus into the Beaufort region.

What does it take to be picked for an Extreme Makeover? Real Heroes - people that have amazing strength and who have put their own needs aside to help someone else. In addition to Heroics, the producers are looking for families whose homes are in dire need of help… houses that look like they might fall down on their own!To be eligible: A family must own their own single family home and be able to show producers how a makeover will make a huge difference in their lives.

Send your contact information for more details: tourism@beaufortsc.org

The Beaufort Kaleidoscope: Film, Food and Fine Art concluded yesterday with smashing success! The film festival portion of the event saw dramatic increases in attendance in comparison to the previous year. Over the two days of screenings, 19 films in four categories of feature, documentary, student and short were shown. Over 1100 people attended the screenings at Lady’s Island Cinema, more than doubling the attendance of last year’s festival. The animation screenings also were  a huge hit at the Arts Council of Beaufort County Performance Center on Boundary Street. This festival has a bright future with the opportunity to grow and evolve into something spectacular! Congratulations to all of the finalists and the winners of each category! For complete info see www.BeaufortFilmFestival.com.

The Beaufort Kaleidoscope: Film, Food & Fine Art celebrated its second successful year with award presentations on March 8, 2008.  The closing event is a free concert in Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park in Beaufort today. Special thanks to Grayco for their prompt and generous contribution of a generator to keep the film running during a major power outage yesterday. Special thanks to the filmmakers, artists, restaurateurs and caterers for their participation in the festival. Habersham Land Company and many additional sponsors, volunteers and staff made the exciting event possible. Watch the web site for a complete listing of sponsors, awards and plans for the future. www.BeaufortKaleidoscope.com.

Beaufort Kaleidoscope enlightens and entertains audience despite power outage. The Beaufort Kaleidoscope weathered the storm Saturday, and the second day of film screenings went on even after high winds toppled a power pole and disabled a SCE&G transformer. The show continued despite the power outage as festival organizers rallied and set up a generator. The Marine mantra, “improvise, adapt and overcome,” was cited as the order of the day, and the uplifting documentary “The Good Mother of Abangoh” began playing an hour after scheduled. The film tells the story of a nun in Cameroon who started a home for children orphaned by the AIDS crisis in Africa. The director, Nadine Lacostie, was on hand to discuss the film with the audience while the technical difficulties were brought under control. To learn more about the film and the nun’s work visit www.abangoh.org Next up was a slate of five student films from the North Carolina School of the Arts School of Filmmaking in Winston-Salem.The school’s entries swept the student category for the second year in a row. Two of this year’s offerings were live action shorts in the style of comic books or graphic novels — “The Great Detective,” directed by Andrew Young, and “The Henchman,” directed by Taylor Nida. Both films employed masks, makeup and mayhem to put inventive new spins on the old Saturday afternoon serial. 

Two other student entries tackled more serious subjects. In “The Golf War,” directed by Scott Kyger, a young man recalls his childhood confusion at his father’s call to service in the Middle East.

“B is for Beekeeper,” directed by Thomas O’Keefe, profiles Reidsville, N.C.-resident Bill Waddell, whose near-death experience led him to a closer relationship with nature.  The school’s most superb student film, “Nest of Spiders,” was screened last to allow director Jessika Pilkes and the film’s producer Setu Raval, to discuss their work with the audience.The movie is a phantasmagoric take on the circus world in which one child’s dream is another child’s nightmare. A young ballerina is held hostage to play a music box dancer come to life.The film gave students in every aspect of the collaborative effort of filmmaking a chance to shine, including costuming, acting, music, and set design and decoration.Pilkes confessed to having “a strange obsession with the circus.” “I just thought cinematically that would be colorful,” she said of the film’s subject matter. The audience gasped when told that the richly detailed work had been made on a budget of $1,500. The film’s award winning score was created by a graduate student from Germany.

“Witnessing the orchestral session was my favorite part of making the film,” she said.  Two of the afternoon’s slate of documentaries were tailor-made for a Beaufort audience.In “Beyond the Call,” directed by Oscar winner Adrian Bellic, a trio of can-do veterans takes on humanitarian missions, transporting food and medicines to refugees from conflicts around the world.   In “Celebration of Flight,” directed by Lara Juliette Sanders, a stubborn senior refuses to give up on his dreams of building and piloting his own airplane and reconnecting with his son. Daniel Rundstroem, the 78-year-old Swedish pilot profiled in “Celebration of Flight,” may be the most unforgettable character seen in the Kaleidoscope’s films. He battles loneliness, a balking body and a tropical jungle to get his plane built and transported to Florida to realize his dream.   Ironically, the festival concluded with the pseudo-documentary, “Who’s Got the Power?” a strident and shrill infomercial for solar power technology. The film was funded by www.globalpossibilities.org, a fact difficult to escape because it was imprinted on every frame.Filmmaker Casey Coates Danson enlists a number of experts and observers to make the case against fossil fuels, hydro-electric and nuclear power, while extolling the virtues of solar and wind alternatives.The film droned on growing louder for 58 minutes but could have easily hammered home its point — “power the world one roof at a time” — in 30.Still, the questions raised by the film resonate. With solar panel technology readily available, why hasn’t America made the switch?

Blogger Ruth Ragland is a freelance writer living in the South Carolina Lowcountry. She can be reached at rmragland@aol.com

See www.BeaufortFilmFestival.com for information about festival winners.

The late deadline is Jan. 21 for the April 10-17, 2008, festival. A film financing production conference is free to any filmmaker who submits to the festival. For more information, please call (561)362-0003 or visit www.pbifilmfest.org. 

Beaufort was named in the Top 10 Walks in the USA for 2006 by the clubs of the American Volkssport Association which host more than 1700 self-guided trails. The list was announced in October 2007 in “Your Guide to Walking” by about.com. Registration for the walk is offered daily at the Beaufort Regional Chamber of Commerce Visitor Center.

Hilton Head Island was named in the Very Best Beach category in the Pathfinders Travel magazine’s 2007 list  of Best Places. Savannah was named in the list of best places to take an African American tour.

Welcome to the Beaufort Regional Chamber of Commerce blog which is for and about chamber members, residents, visitors and interested guests.