Cucalorus film fest, trolley tours put focus on Wilmington

One of the Carolinas’ biggest cinematic festivals rolls through this weekend in the Port City, and anyone headed northeast on U.S. 17 has two options for trolley tours across Wilmington’s historic district.

Dan Brawley, executive director of the 22nd annual Cucalorus Film Festival, said the 2016 edition numbers 270 screenings, from Wednesday through Sunday at various sites with easy walking distance of one another in downtown Wilmington, including home base, Thalian Hall Center for the Performing Arts, 310 Chestnut St.

Cucalorus overall, Brawley said, equates to “ a whole year’s worth of going to the movies crammed into five days.”

He said attending this festival celebrating independent productions – a 90-minute drive from Myrtle Beach – is like considering all the choices when “going to a multiplex,” but with “stories more interesting,” as well as more personal, challenging and introspective as artworks.

With an array of titles from around the world, including documentaries and shorts, Brawley said no one in any age group is left out, with such fare as “the kind of things my aunt and uncle would like to go see” and children’s appeal. For the latter, Brawley brought up an animated feature for ages 9 and older at 10:30 a.m. Saturday: “A.C.O.R.N.S: Operation Crackdown,” which he said resembles “Oceans 11” in some ways, but centers on squirrels and stolen acorns.

Standing out for “Cucalorus” this year, Brawley said, 50 percent of the films are produced or directed by women, “a big deal in the film industry,” and festival patrons are welcome to meet “some of the most talented American female filmmakers” in attendance for their respective screenings.

One such film – directed, edited and written by women – will play at 7 p.m. Saturday, “The Founders,” which Brawley said might especially engage visitors from the Grand Strand with its golf courses and lifestyle.

This documentary feature, which premiered in April at the 40th annual Atlanta Film Festival, puts the focus on a group of 13 women who overcame obstacles to start the Ladies Professional Golf Association in 1950.

“It was really heartwarming,” Brawley said. “I cried.”

Screenings start by 10:15 a.m. daily, and last all day, so “grab a cup of coffee and catch a movie,” Brawley said, also noting that the biggest host venues boast 650 and 300 seats, so tickets should be available at the door, if guests arrive 30 minutes before show times.

Besides movies, take in two trolley tours

Both ways to cruise in a trolley bring a wealth of culture and history. The Wilmington Trolley Company’s tour covers several miles and neighborhoods in just 45 minutes, and Springbrook Farms’ Horse-Drawn Tours Wilmington, covers downtown with a rescued Percheron draft horses taking turns in rotations of pairs to pull for half-hour excursions.

On a carriage ride at high noon on a Sunday last month – Jeff, dark in color and 4 years old, and Don, white and 16 – illustrated what ages does for the species: The horses lighten, from black to gray to white, said our host with reins in hand, who also rang a bell upon departure, uttering “All aboard!”

Each 1,800-pound horse in the company’s herd cared for in Leland, on the other side of the Cape Fear River, was acquired in an arrangement with an Amish farm in Ohio, an these formerly “mismatched” animals also train on carriage tours for a period in Chicago.

On either tour, count on accumulating tons of tidbits about the area, such as how the city was known as “New Liverpool” in the 1700s, a comparison to the English city made famous most of all by the Beatles in the early 1960s.

Historic preservation, like in Charleston, reigns here. Plaques mounted on homes’ exteriors designate their age, at the time of their respective research: brown for 75-100 years old, and black for more than a century. The bricks that make up various avenues also tell a story through their color, style and materials: Ones with lettering are newer.

Peer at the rippled glass of St. James Parish, an Episcopal church, and the stained glass nearby in the Temple of Israel, a Reform Jewish congregation based in North Carolina’s first synagogue, dedicated in 1876 in a Moorish Revival architectural style.

Plan of passing by the birthplace of Anna Matilda McNeill Whistler, who gained fame as the subject in a painting by her son, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, “Arrangement in Grey and Black,” better known as “Whistler’s Mother.”

Also home to EUE Screen Gem Studios, Wilmington has counted several hundred productions with scenes filmed in the area since the 1980s, such as TV series “Dawson’s Creek,” “Matlock,” “One Tree Hill” and “Swamp Loggers,” and movies “Iron Man 3,” “Muppets from Space,” “Sleeping with the Enemy,” “Weekend at Bernie’s,” and the latest two Nicholas Sparks novels adapted for the silver screen, “Safe Haven” and “The Choice.”

Take each tour for a different perspective – no reservations necessary – with the breeze blowing through your hair on a sunny, autumn day, on a relaxing bus ride, and feel the horsepower from the other, especially as the two drafts are asked to tackle a brief, slight ascent in elevation, with their two-beat, 1-2, stately trot.

Both tours also will stop to point out the lone formal “avenue” downtown, Fifth – a nod to one of New York City’s main drags – amid all the “streets” such as Front, Water and Market.

The posted address for 2014 1/2 Princess St., marks no mistake, either. That’s home to Louie’s Hot Dogs, with all its 6.5-foot-wide frontage.

This story was originally published November 9, 2016 at 5:00 PM with the headline "Cucalorus film fest, trolley tours put focus on Wilmington."