THREE RIVERS, a program of experimental film shorts about rivers in Western North Carolina and the impact of Hurricane Helene on these waters and our region

Friday October 2, 7pm, In the Mast Community Room of the Appalachian Theatre at 559 West King Street, Boone. FREE and open to the public.

On the second anniversary of Helene’s passing through our home, join us for a meditation on destruction and renewal, and what it means to live with rivers. 

The films in the THREE RIVERS program are:

BROAD RIVER (Drew Erin Adams, 2026, 18 minutes), part of an on-going cycle tracing rivers across the world. Shot on a spring-wound Bolex on Ektachrome—and shown tonight in 16mm—the work stays close to surface conditions in and around the water. Adams lives at the river’s headwaters, just past the continental divide in Black Mountain, NC, and has shot this film slowly over time. What emerges are glimpses of a life alongside the river in the aftermath of Helene.

INUNDATION (Tom Hansell, 2025, 5 minutes), a short moving-image poem that captures the filmmaker’s personal experience living on the banks of the New River and making sense of the sudden ecological shifts and the overwhelming flooding brought to the region by the storm. Hansell is an Appalachian State professor in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies.

SWANNANOAN SILT (Isaac King and Tristan Turner, 2025, 15 minutes), an experimental, two-channel (from still images from a slide projector and 16mm footage) performance piece withlive music accompaniment by Agis Shaw. The performance relies on footage that shows life along the Swannanoa River in the days following the hurricane; the footage itself was developed in waters from the contaminated Swannanoa and French Broad rivers.

The screening will be followed by a conversation with the filmmakers moderated by Jennie Carlisle, Director of the Gallery Program for the Art Department at Appalachian State University.

The event is a collaboration between the Blowing Rock Art and History Museum, Appalachian State University, and Toy Sheep Microcinema; funding for this event has been provided by BRAHM and ASU’s College of Arts and Sciences’ High Country Humanities committee.