Strike up the band for Virginia Film Festival opener

The Cavalier Marching Band is accustomed to hearing the roar of the crowd during spirited football contests. Hearing a Virginia Film Festival audience cheer its performance in a new documentary Thursday night will be a whole new ballgame.

The North American premiere of “Marching Band,” a new documentary by French filmmaker Claude Miller, will open the 22nd annual festival at Culbreth Theatre. The film focuses on marching band members at the University of Virginia and Virginia State University, capturing their music and motivation while taking the pulse of some of America’s college students in the final months leading up to the 2008 presidential election.

Band director William Pease has seen the film; his students haven’t yet.

“I did watch the film about two weeks ago, and I was blown away with the cinematography,” Pease said. “I was really impressed by how our students came across. Very mature. I was so proud of how they came across as individuals.”

And he can’t wait to see how the musicians he’s fond of — students who handled autograph requests with grace during a May tour to Brazil — will react to seeing their faces on the big screen.

For Pease, the experience of watching his students in the finished film felt in many ways like watching home movies.

“When you see them talk and interact with each other, you remember those times,” Pease said. “For me, watching it was really something like watching your own kids.”

The film crew logged plenty of hours filming rehearsals and candid moments between August and November 2008.

“At first it was a little awkward when you have a camera in your face all the time,” Pease said.

“After a while, it was no big deal.”

Pease said that filmgoers will be treated to plenty of Hoo-centric scenery.

“The university really came off as a beautiful place to be,” he said.

Although Pease liked the film, he said he and the band members hadn’t realized at the outset how much of the focus would be on the students’ political opinions and how they viewed the themes of change in the presidential election.

He said he would have preferred to have the film’s focus stay squarely on the students and their dedication to performing well while juggling challenging academic loads and embracing all the demands of college life.

It’s a phenomenon that he said could be captured on film anywhere across the country where students make time to keep the band tradition going strong.

And Pease wouldn’t mind if another documentary crew decided to dig into that side of the story in more depth, looking at the sacrifices the students make and their determination to make it all work.

“That’s probably why I’m a band director and not a filmmaker,” Pease said with a chuckle. “I think that story’s still out there. It’s real. You don’t have to script it.”

In the meantime, Pease said, the band students’ enthusiasm keeps his own levels high.

‘“These kids work really hard,” Pease said. “The positive energy you get from the students when you see [the film] — I get that every day. It’s like vitamins.”

There’s no telling whether other films are in the Cavalier Marching Band’s future, but it already is clear that the program has come a long way in a short six years.

“We still don’t even have a band room,” Pease said.

The festival, which has a “Funny Business” theme, will pack in screenings, talks and other events through Nov. 8.

To check the full schedule, get tickets and plan your attendance strategy to catch all the events you’re interested in, visit http://www.vafilm.com.

AT A GLANCE

Screening of “Marching Band”

Virginia Film Festival

7 p.m. Thursday

Culbreth Theatre

$15 to $12.50

982-5277

http://www.vafilm.com