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RiverRun International Film Festival Begins

City of Winston-Salem
The RiverRun International Film Festival will take place at various venues throughout Winston-Salem from April 12-21.

The 15th annual RiverRun Film Festival begins Friday in Winston-Salem.

The RiverRun International Film Festival in Winston-Salem showcases movies and films at various locations throughout the city. This year's festival runs from April 12-21 and features more than 140 films, from 35 different countries.

The event draws movie buffs and big Hollywood names to the Triad each year.

Actress Madeleine Martin is best known for her role as Becca Moody in the Showtime series Californication featuring David Duchovny. She also stars in The Discoverers, a family comedy that will be screened by audiences at River Run.

The Discoverers is about a family whose grandfather goes AWOL and we all have to follow him on a Lewis and Clark re-enactment trek and each of the characters embarks on a journey of self-discovery in the course of the film,” says Martin.

The Discoverers has a Triad connection. Bob Gosse, a faculty member at UNCSA's School of Filmmaking, is the executive producer.

Martin is one of three promising artists who will be presented with a Spark Award at the festival for her work in the motion picture world.

She says she is looking forward to visiting the city for the first time.

“I'm very excited to go to the festival because I haven't really seen the movie at all and to see wit with an audience will be a really fun experience. I'm really proud to be a part of it and I'm looking forward to meeting the other two people who won the Spark Award,” says Martin.

This year's festival has a budget of more than $500,000, which comes mostly through donations. Organizers estimate that River Run has an economic impact of around $2 million on the Winston-Salem area.

More than 16,000 people attended the festival in 2012.

Keri Brown is a multi-award winning reporter and host at 88.5 WFDD. She has been honored with two regional Edward R. Murrow awards for her stories about coal ash, and was named the 2015 radio reporter of the year by the Radio Television Digital News Association of the Carolinas (RTDNAC).Although she covers a variety of topics, her beats are environmental and education reporting.Keri comes to the Triad from West Virginia Public Broadcasting, where she served as the Chief Bureau Reporter for the Northern Panhandle. She produced stories for the state's Public Television and Radio programs and was honored by the West Virginia Associated Press Broadcasters Association for her feature and enterprise reporting.She also served as an adjunct instructor at Wheeling Jesuit University and Bethany College in West Virginia. She worked with the Center for Educational Technologies in Wheeling, WV, and other NASA centers across the country to develop several stories about the use of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) concepts in the classroom.Keri's journalism career began at WTRF-TV 7 in Wheeling. She worked in several roles at the station, including the head assignment editor. She also was a field producer and assignment manager at WPGH-TV Fox 53 in Pittsburgh.Keri is a graduate of Ohio University. When she's not in the studio or working on a story, she enjoys watching college football with her family, cooking, and traveling.Keri is always looking for another great story idea, so please share them with her. You can follow her on Twitter @kerib_news.

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