The Virginia Film Festival, which just announced its program for Oct. 30-Nov. 2, will be looking at "aliens" in a variety of ways, from extraterrestrials to illegal aliens.

Skype will be pitching in at the Virginia Film Festival, as it did earlier this year at Cannes.

Skype will enable Ghazel, a noted Iranian-French video and performance artist, to appear at the festival after she was unable to get permission to enter the United States.

The Festival reports: "Ghazel became even more relevant to the (alien) theme when she encountered what she deemed to be humiliating and unreasonable visa roadblocks from U.S. immigration personnel due to her Iranian heritage and canceled her Festival visit."

Bad Jens, a newsletter for Iranian women, talks to Ghazel about her art.