Arts of the Pamlico (formerly the Beaufort County Arts Council) is doing an admirable job bringing affordable and interesting programming to the Turnage Theatre.

From live shows — concerts and plays — to movies, the public has plenty of entertainment choices when it comes to what’s available at the Turnage Theatre. This month, science-fiction films have been playing on the theater’s screen — from “Tremors” to the cult classic “Plan 9 From Outer Space.” Saturday night, that screen will be filled with “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” another cult classic. If you’ve never witnessed the spectacle that is people viewing “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” treat yourself to an experience you won’t forget.

Perhaps the decision-makers at Arts of the Pamlico should consider a weeklong film festival that showcases movies filmed in North Carolina and movies starring North Carolina natives such as Andy Griffith, Eva Gardner, Julianne Moore and Washington’s own Murray Hamilton, who is buried at Oakdale Cemetery. For those who don’t know, Griffith and Hamilton starred in “No Time For Sergeants,” released in 1958. Hamilton also made his mark in “The Graduate,” “The FBI Story” with Jimmy Stewart, “Jaws” and “Jaws 2.”

Gardner, once married to Frank Sinatra, is known for her roles in “Show Boat” (the musical based on Edna Ferber’s novel that was inspired by a floating theater in Bath), “The Barefoot Contessa” and “The Night of the Iguana.” She was born in Smithfield, where she was buried in 1990.

One of the movies filmed in North Carolina and that should be shown if Arts of the Pamlico does present a film festival featuring North Carolina actors, actresses and movies made in the state is “The Last American Hero,” a movie based on the life of NASCAR legend Junior Johnson. Among the films that could be shown, other than those mentioned previously, are “Nights in Rodanthe,” based on New Bern-based author Nicholas Sparks’ novel of the same name, “Cold Mountain” and “The Days of Thunder.”

More than 800 feature films have been filmed in North Carolina since 1980, so there are plenty of movies with Old North State ties that could be featured at a film festival that highlights those movies. As for North Carolina the natives who appear in movies, who would not want to see Griffith and Hamilton together on the same screen or see Gardner hold her own with Richard Burton in “The Night of the Iguana?”

Such an annual film festival could serve as a fundraising project for Arts of the Pamlico, perhaps with some of the money raised used to help send North Carolina natives to Hollywood or Broadway to find careers in show business. Who knows, the next Andy Griffith, Eva Gardner or Murray Hamilton may be out there in Aurora, Belhaven, Bath, Chocowinity or Pinetown.

Roll film!