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Festivals

Brakes On the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, about the time the Gulf oil spill was about to capped, Drew Ludwig decided to take a walk. A long walk. In August 2010, he traveled by foot 120 miles from the Ninth Ward of New Orleans to the Gulf of Mexico.

"I went to help. I went to work. I held lofty goals of an activist, and I wanted to use my hands."

And so he did, his hands and his unerring eye, recording images with his camera of people and places encountered along the way. Drew's motivation: break down the idea of "The Other," a complex concept lifted from the social sciences that defines the process by which individuals and groups create distance between themselves and those who do not seem to fit easily and comfortably into their cloistered worlds.

25 May, 2011 /
[click "Play" to hear Susan's conversation with Judith and Richard]

 

kicker: trash to treasure

MickysMonkeyWeb October 5, 2010, the Town of Telluride passed an ordinance against single-use plastic shopping bags, making Telluride the first community in the state of Colorado to pass such a ban. 

The ordinance followed the popularity of the film "Bag It," made by Telluride local Suzan Beraza. "Bag It," which screened on National Public Television in April and garnered awards  at film festivals across the country, became as much a call-to-action as a documentary, not just locally, but nationally.

"Bag It" is  just one of a number of populist responses to another film, the Sixties pop phenomenon "The Graduate," a movie that predicted a future of plastics. Artists Judith Selby Lang and Richard Lang's work represents another kind of response. They make "found art."

25 May, 2011 /
[click "Play" to hear Susan's conversation with Tosh and Oscar]

 

Shakespeare Like the Telluride Film Festival, Mountainfilm in Telluride vets hundreds of movies submitted by hopeful directors from across the globe to select the best of the best to screen at its annual event. This year, festival director David Holbrooke whittled down the number of picks to about 60 features, including "Shakespeare High."

"Shakespeare High" is a feature-length documentary that tells the story of a socio-economic cross-section of teens in Southern California who study Shakespeare to compete in a drama festival run by the many thousand-strong volunteer teacher organization, DTASC (Drama Teachers Association of Southern California). The Festival, now 90 years old, counts among its alumnae Val Kilmer, Richard Dreyfuss, Mare Winningham, Sally Field, Nicolas Cage and Kevin Spacey. Spacey is also an executive producer (through Trigger Street) of the film.

24 May, 2011 /

Closing picnic, 2010 The Mountainfilm in Telluride festival is 33 years old this year but there is no resting on laurels as it rolls out a variety of new initiatives. Here is a look at changes to expect this year, and why:

Base Camp Theater – A new outdoor theater in Telluride Town Park, free and open to the public. Screenings will be Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday starting at 9 PM.

Why: We’re all about the outdoors and films so why wouldn’t we? And we love to be able to make our programming available to anyone and everyone.

24 May, 2011 /
[click "Play" to listen to Tim DeChristopher's conversation with Susan]

 

 

Tim DeChristopher Tim DeChristopher could be the poster boy for the 33rd annual Mountainfilm in Telluride. Not only does he embody Mountainfilm's motto, "Celebrating the Indomitable Spirit," Tim is the exclamation point on the theme of the 33rd annual event: Awareness Into Action!

Tim DeChristopher was born in West Virginia, but spent most of his childhood in Pittsburgh, PA. He began his college education at Arizona State, but dropped out and moved to Utah to to work in a wilderness training program for at-risk youth. He then attended and graduated from the University of Utah.

Tim was moved to activism after attending the Stegner Symposium in 2008 and then speaking with Terry Root, PhD, one of the lead scientists on the International Panel on Climate Change and winner (with Al Gore) of a Nobel Peace Prize. Months after meeting Dr. Root, a little over three years ago, in December 2008, in the waning days of the Bush administration, a then 27-year-old Tim DeChristopher put it all on the line.

23 May, 2011 /
[click "Play", Susan speaks with Laura Antrim Caskey]

 

 

Antrim_lightstalkers Laura Antrim Caskey is a photojournalist now living in Rock Creek, West Virginia. Rock Creek is also the home of Appalachia Watch, a grassroots nonprofit group Antrim started in 2006 to focus on the environmental costs of mountaintop removal coal mining.

In April 2011, Antrim became one of eight winners of The Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights' 43rd Annual Journalism Award for "Dragline," a photographic exposé of mountaintop removal coal mining and the campaign to end the practice. 

Currently Laura Antrim Caskey is the West Virginia correspondent at Bag News Notes. She is also the poster artist for the 33rd annual Mountainfilm in Telluride. Her image is also on the program for 2011. An exhibition of her work is scheduled to hang at the Telluride Conference Center in Mountain Village, "Appalachia: A Land and People Under Threat."

23 May, 2011 /
[click "Play" to hear Alec Loorz speak with Susan about climate change and young people]

 

kicker: teen activist featured at Moving Mountains Symposium

Alec-photo Ask Victoria Loorz about her Mother's Day. Likely she will respond by telling you what her son was up to.

And no, he was not out raising hell Ferris Bueller style. Neither was behaving like the proverbial teen skulking in his room. For sure he wasn't sexting. The thought would never occur.

For Mother's Day, March 8, 16-year-old Alec Loorz, through his nonprofit iMatterMarch, had arranged for a series of more than 100 marches in states across the country and 25 countries around the world (including Kuwait) to proclaim a teen revolution. The goal: Let the world know climate change is not about money. It is not about power. It is not about convenience. It is about the future of a generation too young to vote, but aiming to protect its future.

Want to know more?

22 May, 2011 /
[click "Play" to listen to Paul Colangelo's conversation with Susan]  

Moose, water, sky Each year, Mountainfilm in Telluride hands out a Commitment Grant. The award is designed to help creative individuals tell important stories in keeping with the spirit of the event: they are about "Celebrating Indomitable Spirits," the theme of Mountainfilm, and turning Awareness into Action, the motto for 2011 and a running subtext of the event.

Mountainfilm's Commitment Grant goes to filmmakers, artists, adventurers and photographers whose projects are designed to have a positive and tangible effect on vital issues concerning people, places and ideas under siege some place on the map. Photographer Paul Colangelo received one of five $5,000 grants handed out last year. The grant was for Paul's photographic exposition entitled "Sacred Headwaters, Sacred Journey" about the shared birthplace of three of British Columbia’s great salmon-bearing rivers, the Stikine, Skeena and Nass.
21 May, 2011 /

Mountainfilm in Telluride kicks off the summer festival season in town. And the official kick-off of that party gets underway with Mountainfilm's Gallery Walk.Twelve different venues around town host receptions (drinks and hors d'oeuves ) for artists selected by Festival director David Holbrooke....

20 May, 2011 /

Multimedia Site Lights the Way to 33rd Annual Weekend and Beyond

In the midst of preparing for its biggest-ever festival, Mountainfilm in Telluride completely re-made its website. Mountainfilm executive director Peter Kenworthy says the timing was just right.

“To be able to unveil our new site just as we announce this year’s film list is perfect,” says Kenworthy. “It will mean immediate exposure. Right away we will engage our audiences as never before in our world. We couldn’t be happier. It made this winter a little busy but a spring launch is ideal.”

20 May, 2011 /