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Telluride's summer cultural season is winding to a close as the 36th annual Telluride Film Festival officially opens for business Labor Day weekend, Friday, September 4 and runs through Monday, September 7.

Thanks to Ralph and Ricky Lauren, however, the Telluride Film Festival  kicks off unofficially for passholders and nonpassholders alike today, Wednesday, September 2, and Thursday, September 3, with two free al fresco screenings at the Abel Gance Open Air Cinema in Elks Park, beginning at sunset, around 8:30 p.m.

MV5BMTM3NzgyMzIzMF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNTYyMTYyMQ@@._V1._CR0,0,216,216_SS80_ Wednesday's film is "Hidalgo," a 2004 film made by director Joe Johnston, based on a story from 1890 about an American cowboy, Frank T. Hopkins (Viggo Mortensen), the first outsider or infidel to be invited by a wealthy Sheik (Omar Sharif) to race in the greatest long-distance horse race ever run, the "Ocean of Fire," a grueling 3,000-mile survival horse race across the Arabian Desert with the winner receiving $100,000 as prize money and the honor of being the best in the world. When the sheik's emissary approaches him, Hopkins, once a dispatch rider in the U.S. Cavalry, is working Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. The race itself, held every year for the last thousand years, has only been open to the purest line of Arabian horses ever bred. Hopkins' horse, Hidalgo, a small mixed-breed mustang, was regarded as impure, and therefore not fit to run wth purebred Arabian stallions.

02 September, 2009 /

Painting_within Did you know you had an artist living next door? Robert Weatherford is a Telluride local, an Ah Haa board member, and a painter with an international reputation. The course he teaches, "Painting from Within" is all about helping students bring their inner Picasso or Matisse to the surface. The class echos one of the founding premises of the school itself: Everyone is an artist.

Focusing on expressing what's hidden or unspoken, rather than technique,  Robert believes what makes a painting speak to the painter –  and the viewer –  is honesty. The work should come from the soul, not the intellect. The end result are interior landscapes expressing the movement of the spirit that are still aesthetically appealing and accessible.

02 September, 2009 /
[click "Play" for John Fago on his photography and Telluride]

Jf_TFF31_08_14 The Telluride Film Festival opens this weekend, September 4 – September 7. The perfect warm-up is a trip to the Telluride Gallery of Fine Art to view the work of long-time Festival photographer John Fago.

Fago claims to have been born at a very young age of artist parents: dad, an animator and mom, a painter/journalist. Growing up just outside New York surrounded by creative types, Fago never once considered a real job. At college, he studied painting but switched to photography in the mid-1970s.  His robust career has included extended photographic journeys to Asia and North Africa. He is currently pursuing a multi-year project in Brazil.

01 September, 2009 /
[click "Play" to hear Susan's conversation with director Tom McPhee]

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Tom McPhee

On Monday, August 31, Telluride's Wilkinson Public Library is really going to the dogs. Starting at noon, Second Chance Humane Society is out front, its Pet Mobile filled with animals in need of loving homes.

At 5:30, Second Chance gets to plead its cause, followed by a real life Katrina pet rescue story featuring locals Alfredo Lopez and Nancy Landau. (Bring Kleenex, a checkbook and a leash.)

At 6 p.m., the Library and the Second Chance present a screening of director Tom McPhee's  award-winning "An American Opera: The Greatest Pet Rescue Ever." What could have been pessimism porn about an American tragedy turned out to be an upper about the triumph of the human spirit.

31 August, 2009 /
[double click to view in larger format]

Head shot 2009 copy The girl can't help it. Sculptor and long-time Telluride local Julie McNair was born to make art.

 Her mother had studied fine art and music in college. Her grandmother was an antique dealer with a large collection of dolls from Europe and China. Both women were always up to something creative.  McNair's entire family encouraged her in her personal goal to become an artist.

McNair gathered credentials. She studied sculpture at North Texas State University and then earned a master of fine art in sculpture at the University of Wyoming. After graduating, McNair worked as an Artist-in-Residence for Northwest Community College in Powell, Wyoming, where she taught bronze casting and set up a foundry and was then hired as an Assistant Professor at Mississippi State University to teach ceramics, sculpture design and art appreciation. She was director of the Art League of Houston, which involved running all aspects of a non-profit school and gallery.

26 August, 2009 /

Thumbprints. Snowflakes. Telluride. Harold O'Connor's jewelry. These are all unique, one-of-a-kind.O'Connor is in town to teach a class in his art at the Ah Haa School. In addition he will appear at a reception and a showing of his work at Telluride Gallery...

25 August, 2009 /
[click "Play" to hear susan's conversation with Julie McNair]

Head shot 2009 copy Sculptor and long-time Telluride local Julie McNair makes doll-like figures – but don't be thinking of Barbie. Barbie has curves. McNair's whimsical creations throw you a few.

Dolls have a history dating back 25,000 years. The earliest dolls evolved out of a  spiritual context and were used in a wide variety of rituals and ceremonies to heal the sick, make barren women fertile, capture the spirit of an enemy, influence the outcome of love and war. Shaman are known to have worn dolls on collars and belts. The use of dolls in the voodoo religion is the stuff of B movies.


19 August, 2009 /
[click "Play" to hear Susan's conversation with Israel Nebeker of "Blind Pilot"]

Unknown The band, Blind Pilot is in town for a concert at Telluride's venerable Sheridan Opera House. Show time is Tuesday, August 18, 8 p.m.

In 2008, Blind Pilot became a regular on NPR's "Best Of," list, where the track "One Red Thread" featured in a review of the year's musical highlights. iTunes supporters like the group too. The band appeared in the "Best of 2008 Indie Spotlight," a collection of 20 indie music tracks downloadable from the Apple Students Fan Page on Facebook. DJ Kevin Cole of KEXP, Seattle, Washington’s taste-making radio station, rated the Blind Pilot's debut recording, 3 Rounds and a Sound, one of the best of 2008.

16 August, 2009 /

[double click to view in larger format]Ask anyone who has been a member of the Telluride Academy's Mudd Butts Mystery Drama Troupe and they will tell you that theater is the ultimate learning tool – and not just because drama impacts all the senses. For...

14 August, 2009 /