Culture

"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.

[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.

[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...

[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.

[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.

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.


Gritty, soulful guitar slinger/songwriter Tony Rosario is the opening act for the KOTO concert at Telluride's Sheridan Opera House, featuring The John Cowan Band. His hard-hitting acoustic band is Trutone & The Pour Boyz.Tony’s claim to fame includes stints with seminal rock group Firefall,...

[click "Play" button to hear Susan's conversation with John Cowan]John Cowan was only 21 when he joined Telluride Bluegrass Festival sensation, New Grass Revival, which  also featured the redoubtable talents of Sam Bush, Bela Fleck and Pat Flynn. For...