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Film

[Click the "play" button and listen to Telluride Film Fest's education coordinator/local liaison Erika Gordon discussing the importance of "The Real Dirt"]

Farmer.john11x17 The image on the cover of his cookbook, "The Real Dirt on Vegetables," says it all: Farmer John Peterson is posed with a pitchfork like the man in Grant Wood's signature portrait "American Gothic" –  only Farmer John is also wearing a bright red boa.

Farmer John, who, by his own admission, is also Farmer " Elton" John, is a wise and wacky human being working to change the world one seed at a time with Angelic Organics, his Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm in rural Illinois.

Filmmaker Taggert Siegel's award-winning docudrama (over 30 festival honors), "The Real Dirt on Farmer John,"  spans 55 years, beginning with Farmer John's childhood, and then covering the failure of his conventional farming operation, the dark period that followed, and finally the farm's – and farmer's – rebirth.

27 March, 2009 /

Watchmen_200810241502 This week at Telluride's  Nugget Theatre, the new movie is "Watchmen." In an alternate universe 1985 America, with the Cold War still a reality, Superheroes are very much a part of everyday experience. But there appears to be a plot to kill and discredit this band of stalwarts, and one of their number, Rorschach must rally his fellows to thwart the plot.

To read more and to view a preview, see apple.com/trailers.

"Watchmen" plays Friday, March 27 through Thursday, April 2. Movie times are:


26 March, 2009 /

The Nugget Theatre in Telluride will be showing Pierre Morel's "Taken",  Friday, March 20, at 8:30 pm. Saturday through Wednesday, March 25, showtimes are 6;00 and 8:00 pm each night. Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) is a recently retired government "dark arts" specialist whose mission now...

19 March, 2009 /

"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 /

Telluride's Nugget Theatre will be showing three films this week, March 6-12. See below for showtimes, and the Nugget website for more information.

Pink Panther 2 is a remake of the wonderful Pink Panther comedy series of years ago, with Steve Martin in the role of Peter Sellers' Inspector Clouseau. Sight gags and silly humor are the order of the day. To see a trailer go to apple.com/trailers.

Revolutioary Road, set in the 1950s, illuminates the suburban angst of Frank (Leonardo DiCaprio) and April (Kate Winslet). Richard Yates' 1962 critically reviewed novel was intended as an indictment of '50s American conformity at all costs. The trailer can be viewed at apple.com/trailers.

Frost/Nixon reprises David Frost's 1977 television interviews with Richard Nixon. The film stars Michael Sheen as Frost, and Frank Langella as the disgraced former president. Sheen and Langella played those roles in the theatre productions of this work in West End, London, and on Broadway. To see the trailer of this powerful portrayal of a significant peice of American history: apple.com/trailers.


07 March, 2009 /

The Nugget Theatre in Telluride is screening three movies in the coming week. The romantic comedy, "He's Just Not That Into You", with a first line cast including Ben Affleck, Jennifer Anniston and Drew Barrymore, starts Friday at 8:30 pm and runs through  Thursday, March...

26 February, 2009 /

In writing about the 2008 Telluride Film Festival, TIO's Susan Viebrock (full disclosure: we've been married nearly 20 years) gave raves to "Slumdog", which premiered in Telluride. The article was written Sept 3, 2008, so it didn't come as a big surprise to us that...

22 February, 2009 /

Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino" at Telluride's Nugget Theatre this weekDirty Harry is back. In Clint Eastwood's new movie, he is Walt Kowalski, a grumpy, unhappy Korean War vet. When neighborhood youths try to steal Kowalski's prized possession, a '72 Ford Gran Torino, he gets involved...

21 February, 2009 /

Telluride's Nugget Theatre is screening four films this week, including the animated feature, "The Tale of Despereaux" and the World War II drama, "Defiance."

"Despereaux" is the story of a mouse who would be the hero who rescues the Princess. As travel writers know, you have no story unless something goes wrong. "The Tale of Despereaux" illustrates this dictum. Among the famous voices behind this animation are those of Matthew Broderick, Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson. To see a trailer, go to apple.com/trailers.

Edward Zwick's "Defiance" is set in Eastern Europe in World War II. At a time when Jewish people were being massacred by the millions, the Bielski brothers were fighting the Nazis with a makeshift army of the people they had rescued. The movie stars Daniel Craig (the latest James Bond) and Liev Schreiber as two of the four Bielski brothers. The trailer can be found at apple.com/trailers. In the interest of full-disclosure, the editor of "Defiance" is Susan's and my brother-in-law, Steven Rosenblum, so this one is personal.

The Nugget's schedule for the coming week:

11 February, 2009 /