2005 West Virginia Filmmaker of the Year   B.J. Sharp-Gudmundsson, of Lewisburg, WV, is a native of Pocahontas County.  In 1999 she founded the local non-profit filmmaking group, PATCHWORK FILMS.  Working with fellow filmmaker, Doug Chadwick, her production of Out of the Storm: The Galford Lumber Documentary Project, was awarded “Best Event Documentary, 2002” at the West Virginia Filmmakers Film Festival.
In 2002, Gudmundsson co-wrote and directed the one-man play, An Evening with Cal Price, which she and Chadwick produced into a film as an introduction to the subject of her newest feature documentary, “30” Cal Price and The Pocahontas Times.   The 90-minute film on the Sage Editor of America’s last hand-set weekly newspaper was awarded  “Best Feature Documentary in 2005” at the West Virginia Filmmakers Film Festival.

 

Gudmundsson’s other works include two local documentaries with collaborator, Joan C. Browning.  “He Went About Doing Good,” a profile of Rev. Carl W. Renick, Sr., and “Standing on Holy Ground,” a tribute to the life and ministry of the Rev. Dr. Patricia A. Jarvis, were produced in 2005.  She and Browning are currently working on documentaries about two Greenbrier Countians, Mayor Charles Mundy of Rupert, and world renowned artist, Max Hayslett, also a Rupert native.

 

B. J. volunteers as Project Director of the Pocahontas County Free Libraries’ Oral History Video Project and has begun research for a future documentary on the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. Gudmundsson is an officer of the West Virginia Filmmakers Guild and judged the 2003 Student Film Competition at the West Virginia International Film Festival. She was named West Virginia Filmmaker of the Year in October, 2005.

 

Retired National Geographic photographer, Volkmar Wentzel, is interviewed by B.J. Gudmundsson

Filming with Editor, Bill McNeel,  at The Pocahontas Times

 

            Patchwork Films          Cal Price and The Pocahontas Times

 

  “Out of the Storm”

The Galford Lumber Documentary Project

 

To Contact B.J. Gudmundsson

Email:  bj@patchworkfilms.com

Phone:  304-645-4998