Culture

[click "Play", Susan speaks with James Anaquad-Kleinert and Dr. Susannah Smith]

 

 

kicker: filmmaker James Anaquad-Kleinert in Telluride for the event

Horse-bigger “I adopted a wild horse named Voodoo, who had been rounded up by the Bureau of Land Management and adopted out to a killer buyer. The man like many or most killer buyers, played a cruel game of acquiring horses and betting that he could sell them to slaughter before he has to feed them. But the problem did not begin with the killer buyer. It began with the Bureau of Land Management,” said Willie Nelson, now part of the production team for "Wild Horses & Renegades."

The American mustang crisis makes headlines around the world. On Tuesday, February 22, award-winning filmmaker James Anaquad-Kleinert brings his star-studded environmental documentary, "Wild Horses & Renegades," to Telluride's Wilkinson Public Library. A reception with the filmmaker starts at 5:30 p.m. The screening follows, including a sneak peak of the call-to-action music video, cut to U2's hit song "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses."

Poster Fired. Dumped. Homeless. And – worse – without ski passes. Things don't look good for two longtime Telluride ski bums when they first meet a mysterious figure from the future who sends them on an epic adventure.

"Dude & Bro's Epic Adventure," a bromantic comedy, is the latest production  from Telluride's SquidShow Theatre. Performances are at the Sheridan Opera House, February 24 - 26. Doors open at 8 p.m.

The Squids' founder, Sasha Cucciniello conceived of "Dude & Bro's Epic Adventure" after scouring theatrical archives for a fast-paced winter adventure. The eureka moment came when Sasha realized "Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure" was as much about ski bums as surfer dudes.

[click "Play", Erika Gordon talks about Sunday at the Palm]   On February 20, 4 p.m., the Telluride Film Festival's Sunday at the Palm presents Hayao Miyazaki's animated masterpiece "Castle in the Sky" (1986, 124 min., rated PG).The fantasy/adventure tale, "Castle in the Sky," ...

by Jim Bedford

Thekingsspeech_smallposter True-grit-poster-coen-brothers The Nugget Theatre in beautiful downtown Telluride has two movies on the bill for the week of Friday, February 18 through Thursday, February 24, 2011. And there's more snow on the way!

Yes, it premiered last September at the Telluride Film Festival, and yes, it's going to get a bunch of Oscars on Feb 27, so we bring you the brilliant THE KING'S SPEECH to the Nugget on Friday.

TRUE GRIT (PG13), starring Jeff Bridges, continues through Wednesday this week. Nominated for a fistfull of Oscars as well, the Coen brothers do a brilliant re-make of the John Wayne classic.

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

[click "Play", Jeremy Lurgio talks about his and Tony Rizzuto's aproaches to photographing people]

 

Lurgio_RedShedFlyShop Tony rizzuto Friday – Sunday, March 11 – March 13, Jeremy Lurgio and Tony Rizzuto are scheduled to lead a photography intensive at Telluride's Ah Haa School for the Arts. The subject matter: "The Photography of People."

Portrait photography like portrait painting raises any number of provocative questions. To what extend does or should a portrait function like a literary biography? What distinguishes a fine art photography portrait from the digitals you snap of your family to email to relatives? Does the answer have something to do with the extent to which the person doing the shooting manages to reveal his sitter's inner landscape. Irving Penn's spare, frank compositions shot in the natural light of his studio with rudimentary props helped define define the look of Vogue magazine in the 1940s. Penn's images, like those of Avedon later, produced intense engagement with his subject that made viewers feel like voyeurs.

Prince-beta-062-300x233 Esperanza Spalding's first Telluride appearance was 2007 for Winter Jazz. Those of us who know Telluride Jazz Celebration's impresario Paul Machado know the man has an eye for the ladies. His special gift is to catch rising stars before they have reached their zenith: violinist Regina Carter, guitarist Badi Assad, chanteuses Diana Krall, Jane Monheit, and Lizz Wright to name a few of Machado’s picks early in their careers.

The story of Esperanza Spalding is a rags-to-riches-tale, an American dream come true, because a smart single mom recognized she had  a gifted daughter who thought – and played – out of the box. Years later, the jazz bassist/singer has clearly earned the respect of her peers. And one of her major fans happens to be President Obama. Last night, Sunday, February 13, Esperanza took the Grammys by storm, winning Best Artist, trumping popsters Justin Bieber and Drake, plus bands Mumford & Sons (Telluride Bluegrass Festival, 2010) and Florence & The Machine.

by Tracy Shaffer

Medium worm It was a brainstorm marketing session seven years ago that launched Curious Theatre Company’s  Girls Night Out, as a way to reach out to a broader audience and a niche market. Both have grown a lot since then. Seems a gal can find some thing to do any night of the week with her BFFs, as the girl’s night out concept has spread faster than a hot rumor. Most of these evenings involve a bar, a mani/pedi or a gabfest, and if there’s a bit of theatre involved it’s a fem-centric musical, an inside joke. The wave of “Chick-Plays” has crashed, save for Eve Ensler’s “The Good Body," leaving us to find our commonality solely within our humanity, thank god. This year’s Curious offering breaks from their usual provocative premiere productions and promises a “transformational” evening as Denver femmes cultivées gather to mix, mingle, and enjoy a performance of the hit show Circle Mirror Transformation.