Book Launch for America’s Hometown Movie Theaters with Benita VanWinkle, a RiverRun International Film Festival Event
- Thu, Apr 23
Run Time: 90 min.
Benita VanWinkle is an award-winning artist who uses the medium of photography and bookbinding to express her creative passions. Concentrating on the documentary genre, she has photographed vintage movie theaters across America in all fifty states for over 40 years with more than 900 theaters in her collection. Her art has been exhibited in over 150 peer-juried exhibitions including 20 one-person exhibits. Her photographic artwork has been published widely in national publications and has garnered radio and television spotlights, and magazine stories. A book of the theater work is in production to be published soon.
Additionally, Benita has presented her theater documentary work internationally in Turkey and Spain. She has written a chapter in Inter- Photography and Architecture: Intersections regarding the ‘Intersection of Art and Documentary’ architectural photography and co-wrote a chapter in the Journal of Social Theory in Art Education on ‘Researching for a Civil Rights History Through Community Photographs.’ Benita has also given presentations regarding her photographic artwork, research, and teaching throughout the southern US.
In 2022, Benita was the recipient of the “Spirit of High Point University” award, a prestigious award given to one faculty member each year who has shown outstanding service within the University and the community. She is a board member of the Historical Society of High Point and has served as a juror for multiple exhibitions of art and photography exhibitions in Georgia and North Carolina.
Currently, Benita is teaching both analog and digital photography, and service-learning courses at High Point University. She has also taught documentary photography classes in Paris, and photographic history, art history, art appreciation, and bookbinding at HPU and at The Creative Circus, an accredited portfolio school in Atlanta. Serving in GA and NC as a youth director in the United Methodist church, Benita has also worked extensively with exceptional children in the public school system.
Michael Morin is a producer, writer, and festival executive with over 20 years of experience at the intersection of film, music, and live events. A graduate of the Los Angeles Film School, he began his career working with director David O. Russell as his Executive and Writing Assistant, contributing to The Fighter and Silver Linings Playbook.As a screenwriter, Michael wrote This Time Each Year (2024), Hallmark’s first Christmas movie to feature a character struggling with alcoholism—breaking new ground for the network’s holiday storytelling.
For the past seven years, he has been a driving force behind the Slamdance Film Festival, producing eight editions and leading its landmark relocation from Park City to Los Angeles. He also produced Unstoppable, Slamdance’s groundbreaking program dedicated to showcasing films by filmmakers with visible and nonvisible disabilities. Under his leadership, Slamdance achieved record-breaking ticket sales, expanded hybrid programming, and launched new revenue streams including Slamdance Channel VOD.
Beyond Slamdance, Michael has managed more than 25 productions across film, television, commercials, and music videos. His creative roots also run deep in the music industry, where he booked festivals, ran venues, and tour-managed bands including FIDLAR.
Guided by a DIY ethos, he is passionate about creating spaces where artists and audiences connect, and where film and music remain accessible, collaborative, and transformative.
