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Email Announcements Received Today: What is going on in your community?

1) Mighty Mountaineers Basketball Hosts Tournament Team Tryouts

Mighty Mountaineers Basketball is a gorup of tryout-based tournament teams for boys in 4th through 6th grades that runs from early November through February. The sixth grade teams will be led by Scott St. Clair, and the fourth and fifth grade teams will be led by Baker Perry. After tryouts, these teams will plan on practicing 2-3 times per week with travel to tournament games on some weekends. In addition, they will schedule some local scrimmages with other teams from the surrounding area. These tournament teams will be designed for those boys who really want to improve their basketball skills and want to compete at a higher level. Practices will start immediately after tryouts in November and will be held at local gyms. Starting in December, practices will move to ASU’s Varsity Gym. The cost will be $200 per player and includes the cost of practice jerseys, game uniforms and tournament fees. In collaboration with the Appalachian State University athletic department, we will also work to support the university basketball teams. Tryouts are scheduled for Nov. 10, 5:30-7 p.m. for sixth graders and Nov. 17, 5:30-7 p.m. for fourth and fifth graders. If your son is interested in trying out, email mightymountaineers@gmail.com.

2) Award-Winning Filmmaker Randy Benson Presents “The Searchers” Nov. 4

Documentary filmmaker Randy Benson will present his film “The Searchers” Nov. 4 at 7 p.m. in Belk Library and Information Commons Room 114 at Appalachian State University. The screening, sponsored by University Documentary Film Services, is free and open to the public. “The Searchers” is a 90-minute, documentary about researchers of the John F. Kennedy assassination. It was directed by Benson and produced by John Schoenfelt. The film tells the story of individuals dubbed “conspiracy theorists” in their struggle to reveal the truth behind what they see as the turning point of the 20th century. The film uses archival footage, photographs, documents, verite live-action footage and interviews to chronicle the past and present of these citizens, their successes and their failures. Suffering ridicule while challenging the institutions of power, these individuals have, for the last 50 years, fought, as they often proclaim, to “take back our history!” Benson is a graduate of Wake Forest University and the UNC School of the Arts’ School of Filmmaking. His film “Man and Dog” has appeared in film festivals worldwide and has garnered numerous awards, most notably a Gold Medal in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Student Academy Awards. His work has been featured on HBO, Bravo, the Independent Film Channel, public television stations, Canal Plus–France, Telewizja Polska S.A.–Poland and KBSKorea. Benson received an Eastman Kodak Excellence in Filmmaking Award at the Cannes Film Festival and a First Appearance Award at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. He is the recipient of a Winston-Salem Arts Council Grant, a South Carolina Arts Council Grant, a John G. Welch Endowment Grant, a William J. Kenan, Jr. Endowment Grant and a Semans Foundation Grant for Foreign Arts Study. In addition to filmmaking, Benson has been an instructor of film and video at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University for more than a decade. University Documentary Film Services is a unit within Appalachian’s University College.  University College consists of the university’s integrated general education curriculum, academic support services, residential learning communities, interdisciplinary degree programs and co-curricular programming—all designed to support the work of students both inside and outside of the classroom.