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Author: Susan Viebrock

"The Telluride Film Festival Cinematique at the Wilkinson Public Library" began in January with a quietly elegant film called "The Gleaners," (2000) about people who recycle the detritus of everyday life. The director is "The Mother of French New Wave," Agnes Varda, also a close friend of film scholar/critic/teacher/TFF friend Howie Movshovitz, who moderated.

In a related podcast interview on Telluride Inside...and Out, Movshovitz deferred to Varda in defining French New Wave: "Filmmakers under 30, budgets under 30 million francs  – old francs –  and no access to lighting."

The French New Wave is to film what Impressionism was to fine art: a seismic shift in the landscape caused by the movement of young filmmakers away from literary masterpieces out into the street. "It was as if someone had opened the window and let air into the room," said Movshovitz." Without the French New Wave there would be no independent film."

In many way, "Jules and Jim"  is the apotheosis of the genre.

13 March, 2009 /

[click "Play" button to hear Susan's conversation with Michael Schoenfeld]

Image Not all non-profits are created equal. Some, like Telluride local Michael Schoenfeld's Channel G stand out from the pack.

Channel G is a nonprofit's nonprofit – literally. The 501 (c) (3) organization and media company is in the business of documenting the work of others around the world engaged in environmental, social, and health-related projects. The short-form films Channel G produces get distributed through a wide variety of online outlets and viewed at film festivals such as Telluride Mountainfilm.

Channel G's first fundraiser in town, March 14, 7:30 p.m., at the Sheridan Opera House, hopes to raise the funds necessary to produce a promotional film about the San Miguel County One-To-One Mentoring Program.  Michael would like to be able to add other local/regional nonprofits into the mix.

12 March, 2009 /

[click "Play" button to hear Susan's interview with Adrian Quesada]Hey, Telluride: Get ready to shake your tail feathers to a Latin beat when 2009 Grammy-nominated   Grupo Fantasma – Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album, "Sonidos Gold" – performs twice this week...

11 March, 2009 /

[click "Play" button to hear Susan's interview with Elisabeth Gick]

Fear-emai[1] As part of Telluride's week-long "Phenomenal Woman" Celebrations" Telluride Inside...and Out honors longtime local Elisabeth Gick and her crusade for Tibet.

Elisabeth is bit like Alice of Wonderland fame: her native curiosity always gets the better of her. She falls down holes and meets amazing people in exotic places. She also tries to make a difference.

For several years now, Elisabeth has been traveling in Asia, particularly in Tibet, where she has made friends and made a difference. For example, she is doing what she can for 82 young girls, all orphans, whom she met with daughter Lesley in October 2008, while visiting the town of Ganzi in upper Kham. Thanks to her efforts and the generosity of family and friends such as the Lifton-Zolines, the girls now have two solar hot water showers and will soon have a library. A third initiative involves raising funds for traditional outfits. Elisabeth is $800 short of that goal.

10 March, 2009 /

[click "Play" button to hear susan's conversation with Michael Ebert]

28 The fact that programming for Telluride's Palm Theatre now includes some of opera's greatest hits is music to the ears of Telluride fans.The new local series is part of larger series created in 2006 by New York's Metropolitan Opera  to expand the appeal and reach of opera around the world. The Met:Live in HD! offers an unprecedented opportunity for those in and around our community with champagne taste for music performance, but little access to or budget for the bubble.

Opera at the Palm opened triumphantly with a broadcast on February 21 of Donizetti's "Lucia Di Lammermoor." It continues this coming weekend, March 13, 7 p.m., with Puccini's "Madama Butterfly." The libretto tells the story of the tragic love affair between a Japanese beauty, Cio-Cio San (Madame Butterfly), and B.F.Pinkerton, a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy.

09 March, 2009 /

[click "Play" button to hear Susan's interview with Sasha Cucciniello]

SQUIDSHOW_FINAL_big Telluride. Typist. Tiger. What links these three words beside some neat alliteration is an upcoming theatrical event produced by SquidShow Theatre, and directed by company founder Sasha Cucciniello. FREE performances, March 8 – 11, 7 p.m., begin at The Telluride Community Room, in the Old Library, right next to the Marshall's Department, 231 East Pacific Street. (Audiences will be moved to a second as yet unannounced location for part of the evening.)

"The Typists" and "The Tiger" are two one-act plays by playwright Murray Schisgal. While not exactly a household name, over a long career Schisgal accumulated a pile of awards for the words that  leaked out of his prolific pen. Do you remember the hopelessly straight starving actor in a dynamite red sequined dress? Schisgal co-wrote the 1982 hit flick "Tootsie," starring a young Dustin Hoffman.

08 March, 2009 /


Capella Telluride's GM, John Volponi, donates to online auction for Med Center's FEAST. See Susan's videocast with John at the end of this article.

It really did take a village – in this case, Telluride's sister city, The Mountain Village, to get the job done. But with two visionaries – architect/developer Robert A. Levine, and hotelier Horst Schulze, former president of Ritz-Carlton – driving the train, plus a cast of thousands willing to do the grunt work, the Telluride region's newest hotel is likely to become its crown jewel. Capella opened triumphantly on February 12, 2009.

Aptly named for the alpha star of the constellation Auriga, Capella Telluride is a tour de force. The complex of 100 hotel rooms and about 50 condominiums should transform its new address from a launch pad for intermediate skiing and hang-out for the Prada brigade into a go-to spot for food, drink and events, even for townies. The spa and the restaurants have the welcome mat out for the entire community.

07 March, 2009 /

Dirk DePagter talks to Kate Wadley about Hotel Columbia's donation to Telluride Medical Center's Feast. See the videocast at the end of this article.


Dirk DePagter remembers Telluride's wild and wooly days of the 1970s. A  master carpenter/contractor back when, he was hired to do the remodel that transformed a shed owned by the Idarado Mining Company into the building that is now the Telluride Medical Center. What remains of his handiwork is the eastern part of today's structure.

Dirk, who became a developer, is now the proud owner of his first hotel: he and his partners purchased the Hotel Columbia from close friends Jim Lincoln and Jeff Campbell in January 2008.

07 March, 2009 /