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May 2011

Wade, mountains Wade Davis is a fixture at Mountainfilm in Telluride and that's a good thing.

Telluride Inside... and Out interviewed Davis in 1997 on his first ever visit to Mountainfilm in Telluride, the town he took by storm. His subject at the time was his then latest book, One River, a tribute to the life and work of one of his mentors, the legendary explorer/botanist Richard Evan Schultes, about the discoveries Davis and protege Tim Plowman made on their odyssey through the Amazonian jungle in the mid-1970s. Since then, there have been many other books and many miles traveled. With Davis, the sky's the limit. Well, maybe not. The man is unstoppable.

19 May, 2011 /

Ludwig_valleyFloor_web 
Drew Ludwig, Valley Floor #1

Contest Dates:  May 19 – July 15, 2011
Exhibition:  July 30 – August 28, 2011
Location:  Ah Haa School Depot Gallery, Telluride, Colorado

The Telluride Institute is proud to announce the Atlas of the San Miguel Photo Competition, a first annual juried photo exhibition celebrating the San Miguel River Watershed. Amateur and professional photographers of all ages are encouraged to submit photographically generated works of art celebrating life in the watershed—in all of its many forms.

The photo competition is part of a larger exhibition at the Ah Haa School in August. The exhibition is divided into two components--an Invitational Exhibition featuring both local and nationally known artists and the Photo Exhibition featuring photos of the watershed.

19 May, 2011 /

[click "Play" to hear David Feela and Kierstin Bridger talk about poetry and the prize]

 

Mark Fischer prize Telluride Arts (telluride council for the arts and humanities) is pleased to announce the winners of the 2011 Mark Fischer Poetry Prize. Join the poets for a special poetry reading and celebration. The event takes place Friday, May 20, 7 p.m., The Steaming Bean.

Started by former Telluride Arts director and Talking Gourds Grand Poobah Art Goodtimes in 1997 and sustained by Mark’s widow Elaine Fischer and the Fischer family, the Mark Fischer Poetry Prize is named in the memory of Telluride’s much-loved poet, lawyer, skier, and raconteur.

Mark Fischer was a daring experimenter, who combined a polyglot’s command of languages with a quirky sense of humor and a passion for obtuse words. In that spirit, prizes given in his name have been awarded to the entries whose work best exhibits the qualities found in Mark's "squibbles": originality, novelty, complex meaning, linguistic skill and wit. The wilder the better. Poet David Feela judged this year's winners from among the 70 entries submitted from the Four Corners.

18 May, 2011 /

by Jim Bedford

102409H1 Rio_angrybirdssmallposter The Nugget Theatre in beautiful downtown Telluride shows movies all year long and features three great films this week.

The brilliant, funny and colorful animation RIO (G), new from the makers of the ICE AGE movies, continues on the Nugget screen over the weekend, and FAST FIVE (PG-13), where Vin Diesel takes the whole gang to Rio de Janeiro, plays the whole week of Friday, May 20 through Thursday, May 26, 2011.

On Thursday, May 26 only, the Telluride Film Festival Presents film is WIN WIN (R), in which an attorney (Paul Giamatti) wrestles with his conscience and loses. (Please note that this schedule is accurate only if the world does not end on the afternoon of May 21.)

See the Nugget website for trailers and reviews, and below for movietimes.

18 May, 2011 /
When snow falls in Telluride in May, even the most rugged mountain souls dream of an escape. Luckily, for those of us who get to call Telluride home, there is a flipside to our paradise: road tripping over to Utah. Southeast Utah has all of the things that we lack right now—snow-free trails, electric green aspens, beautiful camping, and most importantly: warmth. Gathering Wild Flowers Chasing up a campsite on a Friday night in Moab, Utah, however, can be trickier than winning an evening plane flight with a young Robert Redford over Africa. Everyone wants in (or maybe that’s just me with that metaphor?)—Regardless, everyone wants in, and not everyone can have in. Utah residents have a joke about this Colorado infiltration that my husband, Andy, likes to tell everyone until they're nauseated: “You know how you know it’s spring in the desert? The license plates turn green.” Because of this Moab chaos, Andy and I have started heading south of Moab to camp out with our girls. On our most recent trip, we went back right back to a spot we’ve been to before: Indian Creek.
18 May, 2011 /

[click "Play" to hear Ian Cheney's conversation with Susan]

 

Ian Cheney Wicked Delicate is one helluva compliment paid to a good blueberry pie in the state of Maine, one of the two addresses (the other is Massachusetts)  where Ian Cheney grew up. It is also the name of the documentary film advocacy project founded in 2006 by Ian and Curt Ellis.

Under the auspices of Wicked Delicate, Ian and Curt, fellow graduates of Yale, co-created, co-produced and co-starred in the feature documentary "King Corn," granted a George Foster Peabody Award in 2009. "King Corn" follows Ian and Curt as they discover where America's food comes from when they plant a single acre of corn and follow it from seed to dinner plate.

18 May, 2011 /
[click "Play", Jagged Edge's Erik Dalton speaks with Susan]

 

Kayak swap Friday, May 20, 7 p.m., Telluride's Jagged Edge hosts a movie night. The featured film is Young Gun Production's "Source."  Saturday, May 21, 9 a.m. to close, the store hosts a river gear and kayak swap. Both events are fundraisers for the San Miguel Whitewater Association, Telluride's local paddling/whitewater club.

"Source" provides unique insight into the lives of some of the biggest names in kayaking, their appreciation for diverse and challenging rivers and what keeps them up at night. We follow them on their global journey to experience new cultures from Vietnam to the high Sierras, meet new people, and, of course, push their limits in spectacular whitewater. Experience global first descents, explore new heights in freestyle, and witness the descent of the tallest waterfall ever paddled. “Source” captures stunning action in impossible locations.

18 May, 2011 /
 Rick Silverman, the former director of Mountainfilm in Telluride – the 33rd annual event starts next week, May 27 – really started something, when, in the mid-1990s, he showed a film by Adrian and Roko Belic. "Genghis Blue" is the heart-warming story of a Tuvan throat-singer Kongar-ol-Ondar and a blind San Franciscan bluesman, Paul Pena, who taught himself to throat sing, a popular form of entertainment in southern Siberia. In 2009, Mountainfilm's current director, David Holbrooke, asked the brothers and the "Elvis of Tuva" to return to town for a program encore.

Tuvan throat singing and the people who create the unique sound became a popular form of entertainment around these parts. Now it's the Sheridan Arts Foundation's inning.

 

On Thursday, May 19, 6 p.m., the Sheridan Opera House welcomes Alash, a quartet of Tuvan throat singers.

17 May, 2011 /

Andrea, Tunnel to Towers Mud season in Telluride ends with Memorial Weekend, May 27 – May 30, with the coming together of the tribe for the celebration that opens the summer festival season: Mountainfilm in Telluride. What began as a homespun gathering of outdoor enthusiasts...

16 May, 2011 /
[click "Play", Susan speaks with Andrea Garbarini and Beth Gage]

 

Andrea in Rwanda
Andrea Garbarini in Rwanda

The events of 9/11 marked a turning point in the history of our country: America lost its innocence. Even in Telluride we no longer lived in splendid isolation from the violence that  impacts lives across the globe every single day. Suddenly, violently, our corner of the Big Blue Marble acquired a discernible crack. We became vulnerable. 

For the families who lost loved ones, the implications of the tragedy of 9/11 go way beyond the geopolitical to profoundly personal. And the recent execution of Osama Bin Laden does not change much. Terrorism with a capital "T" has entered our vocabulary and there is still no turning back.

A new documentary by Telluride locals George & Beth Gage, "From the Ground Up," is a tribute to those people, telling the story of five widows of  FDNY firefighters, men who lost their lives trying to save others. In just a half hour, the film gives depth and breadth to Mountainfilm's motto: "Celebrating Indomitable Spirit."

16 May, 2011 /