The Bennington Museum’s third annual Vermont Film Series continues in January with the fourth of six programs - a screening of Morgan Faust’s The Treasure of Thomas Beale, which will be shown on Friday, January 4th at 7 p.m. in the Ada Paresky Education Center.

Faust’s 2003 documentary is about the legendary $25 million treasure buried in 1821 in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The story begins with a Virginia gentleman who found gold deposits in Colorado. Upon his return back east, he buried his fortune under a rock somewhere in his native Virginia town. He set off on one more trip west, but was never heard from again. Beale reportedly left behind a code that many treasure hunters have tried to decipher in the ensuing 184 years. This documentary explores the lure of Beale’s treasure through the words of treasure hunters, skeptics, housewives, and historians. Join filmmaker Morgan Faust as she seeks to discover the truth about Beale. With a rousing bluegrass soundtrack, this film is sure to bring out the gold seeker in all of us. Faust’s detective work on Thomas Beale won her a Best Director of a Documentary Award at the 2003 Blue Ridge Vision Film Festival in Virginia. The Treasure of Thomas Beale was Faust’s first film and has played in festivals from Virginia Beach to Boston, and has aired on South Korean television.

Her cinematic career began almost a decade ago. At age 19, Faust spent time working for an animation company in her hometown of Cambridge, Mass. “From this point I never looked back,” she says. A graduate of Dartmouth College, Faust was named filmaker-in-residence at WGBH in Boston, where she spent 2005 working on her feature-length documentary “Till Death Do Us Part”. Faust is co-founder of the Brattleboro Film Society, which brings classic, foreign, and independent films to southern Vermont. She is also founder of Faust Films in Brattleboro. In addition to her feature film, her film and television credits include Errol Morris’ First Person (2001), Funny Ha Ha (2003), They Made America (2004), and Mutual Appreciation (2005). She served as adjunct professor at Marlboro College in 2006. Faust’s most recent project was the production of the feature film adaptation of “The Voices Project” directed by Bess O’Brien. This film brings to the big screen the Vermont musical “The Voices Project” which toured the state in 2005, starring teens from all over the Vermont and featuring original music written by Vermont high school and college students. It will be touring the state later in 2008.

In addition to the viewing of The Treasure of Thomas Beale, Faust will also preview a trailer to one of her most current projects entitled “Til Death Do Us Part”, a documentary that explores love and marriage on death row.

Admission to each program in the series is $5 per person. Students with valid school ID will be admitted free. Refreshments are available before, during, and after the program.