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Big News for Carrboro Film Fest
A perspective from Bradley Bethel
Six years ago, in the spring of 2018, Carrboro Film Fest’s founding director, Nic Beery, surprised me. After 13 years as director, he told me he would be stepping down at the end of the year. Then he asked whether I wanted the job.
Although I told him I had to think about it, I knew right away I was going to say yes. Under Nic’s leadership, Carrboro Film Fest already had an established reputation as a dynamic festival with an engaged audience, and I had been attending for years. As a longtime film lover and new film producer, I saw Nic’s offer as an opportunity to make meaningful contributions to both the local community and the regional film circuit.
So during the 2018 festival season, I volunteered as assistant director to learn from Nic in his final year, and I became director in 2019. Immediately, I set out to enhance Carrboro Film Fest’s programming and elevate the festival’s reputation among regional filmmakers. By focusing exclusively on Southern film and committing to Southern hospitality for visiting filmmakers, I believe my team and I accomplished those goals.
Now, after five thrilling years, I’m stepping down and welcoming a new director to lead Carrboro Film Fest to the next level.
Insightful, creative, dependable, and organized, our technical coordinator, Bryan Reklis, has been a reliable team member and an invaluable asset to the festival since 2019. That’s why I’m thrilled to name Bryan as the new director of Carrboro Film Fest! He will provide both continuity and his own vision for building on the festival’s success and reaching new heights. I’m confident that Carrboro Film Fest will only get better under Bryan’s leadership, and I look forward to seeing what he and the rest of the team accomplish.
In addition to a new director, two other big changes are coming to Carrboro Film Fest. First, the festival will have new dates. Although the festival has always taken place the weekend before Thanksgiving, we decided to move the festival to a different weekend in order to avoid competing with other North Carolina festivals we love. So mark your calendars for the next Carrboro Film Fest, January 24–26, 2025, and plan to attend the festival every year during the last weekend of January.
Second, Carrboro Film Fest will have a new venue, The 203 Project, which is currently under construction and set to open this summer. In addition to housing a new library, a new studio for WCOM, and new offices for Carrboro Recreation, Parks and Cultural Resources, The 203 Project will include a beautiful new performance space and the new home for Carrboro Film Fest.
As I look back over the past five years, I see a festival that has brought film lovers and filmmakers together for meaningful reflection on Southern life and culture. Ultimately, though, it’s about meaningful reflection on our shared humanity. For I believe we can only understand the universal human experience if we first understand our particular human experiences.
I’m no longer the festival director, but I’ll still be around. I’m still a human being, a Southern human being, who’s trying to understand what it all means. I can’t imagine a better place to figure it out than Carrboro Film Fest.
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