Revolve Film and Music Festival

The Power of Creativity
A Carolina musician founded the Revolve Film and Music Festival to promote and unify a wealth of talent in the Tar Heel State.

By Nick Patterson; photograph by Robbie Caponetto

With her auburn hair and roomful of guitars, it's not hard to believe that Shalini Chatterjee took inspiration from another famous auburn-tressed singer—Josie (of Josie and the Pussycats), whom she loved as a young girl.

It's one thing to have her interest in music sparked by a cartoon singer. But Shalini—who lives and works just outside Kernersville with her gold record-winning husband, Mitch Easter—also pursues another interest from her youth: film. That fondness for movies led her to create the Revolve Film and Music Festival.

Working in the film-festival business convinced Shalini to start her own last year. Revolve expresses Shalini's belief in the power of a good movie. "It's a reliable way to get people to think about other things and to distract people from the things they're generally worried about," she says. "Movies transport you into another frame of mind, and I think that's important."

Creating positive connections—even more than building an indie film scene—is what Revolve is all about. "We are more focused on building a community because our perspective is cooperative, not competitive," Shalini says.

She wants to have more input from Carolina's small filmmakers and even encourages the development of other festivals. "We are always on the lookout to promote North Carolina," she says. "We hope to elevate the whole film community so that festivals, filmmakers, and filmgoers all know what is happening. We like to screen in different cities to boost unification, and we have introduced many film people to one another."

In the 1990s, Shalini enjoyed college radio success with her band Vinyl Devotion. In 1996, Shalini's song "Digital Noise" placed first in a songwriting contest sponsored by Rockrgrl magazine and judged by Joey Ramone of the famed punk band the Ramones.

Shalini still plays every chance she gets. She and Mitch tour to support their releases, such as Shalini's The Surface and Shine and Mitch's Dynamico, both released in 2007.

"I have my own innate talent," Shalini says. "But my playing has improved from being in North Carolina." She's lived and worked in San Francisco but says the city by the bay has nothing on Carolina—if you're a musician. "I loved living there, but the South is the real thing in terms of being around genuine music. This is where it came from."

For information on upcoming film screenings, visit www.revolvefestival.com. For more on Shalini's music, visit www.interbridge.com/shalini.