BLADENBORO — There’s excitement in the air in downtown Bladenboro because of the much-anticipated event featuring documentaries composed by “Anytown, USA” students. The event will take place at 4:30 p.m., on Saturday, Jan. 17, in the Bladenboro Middle School auditorium. The previewing is free for admission to the event, which will last about two hours.

Award-winning documentary filmmakers, Randy Benson and Erika Simon, are instructors at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, who brought six students for filming for the two-part course titled, “Anytown, USA: The Beast of Bladenboro I and II.”

The 16-week class produced short documentary videos about Bladenboro, recorded mainly during BeastFest 2008. There will be six featured videos.

Adair Hill’s video is “The Beast of Bladenboro through the eyes of kids.” Hill spent time with local children to get their point of view on Bladenboro’s vampire beast.

Chak Koonapareddy features “The school: history of its closing and how the building is being used today.” Koonapareddy used techniques that capture old BHS’s past and how things have evolved since its closing almost a decade ago.

“The Beast of Bladenboro Festival – coverage of the festival itself,” is a video feature by Jon Parker. Parker has ties to Bladenboro and could be seen from beginning to end, filming the entire festival.

Hitting very close to home, historically speaking, is Laura Dunne’s video, “The Beast of Bladenboro – the folklore, the tale, the story of the events in 1954.”

Teresa Pigeon provides a lighthearted local’s video called, “A profile of Diamond Dave’s; a day in the life of Bladenboro’s downtown diner.”

“Why Bladenboro for Business?” produced by Kim Best looks at Bladenboro’s efforts to attract new businesses and thus revitalize itself. Best focuses on Birdsong Peanuts. Her video features interviews with a wide range of business promoters, including Chuck Hustess, Bladen County economic development director.

Finally, Jim Milay produced a video focused on the Southeastern Cruisers car club, a local group with a lot of gorgeous cars and equally unique members.

The “hands-on” two-course series documented the second annual Beast of Bladenboro Festival on Oct. 25. The festival aims to build community spirit, pride and economic development in Bladenboro, a small town that lost its mill in the 1960s and its school in the 1990s.

The festival theme is based on the renowned legend of a mysterious vampire beast that terrorized the town in 1954. With help from this legend, Bladenboro is regaining its pulse.