Monday, April 12, 2010

University of North Carolina Wilmington faculty member Chip Hackler's short film Two Hours in the Dark was chosen as the Jury Award winner for Best Short at the 2010 Charleston International Film Festival, which was held April 8-11.

Two Hours in the Dark depicts a critical event in the life of famed director Frank Capra that triggered his transition from directing screwball comedies to creating socially conscious dramas like It's a Wonderful Life. Director Hackler, an assistant professor in UNCW's Department of Film Studies, produced the film with the assistance of the Capra family.

Filmed in Wilmington, N.C. and South Carolina using a largely local cast and crew, the 35-minute film is based on a dark period in Capra's life when the director spiraled into a deep depression after winning the Oscar for It Happened One Night.

Two Hours in the Dark previously won the 2009 Fiction Juried Screening Award at the University Film and Video Association conference in New Orleans and has screened at Wilmington's Cucalorus Film Festival and the Asheville Film Festival. In addition, the film has been accepted for screening at Utah's Red Rock Film Market, the East Carolina Film Festival and the Alabama International Film Festival.

For more information about the film, visit www.twohoursinthedark.org.

The complete list of winners is listed at: www.charlestoniff.com/awards.php

Chip Hackler is available for media interviews upon request, and media may also receive a DVD copy of the film.

Media contact:
William Davis, UNCW Marketing and Communications, 910.962.2654 or davisw@uncw.edu