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Events

[ click "Play" button to hear Susan's interview with Josh Aronson]

DSCN6170  Part-time local Josh Aronson is a regular at Telluride Mountainfilm, an event that began as a homespun gathering of gnarly outdoor adventurers and evolved into a crazy quilt of lively talks, memorable exhibits, and yes, films. (Mountainfilm's current program director, David Holbrooke, is also a filmmaker.)

Josh received an Oscar nomination in 2001 for his very first film, "Sound & Fury," which documents one family's struggle over whether or not to provide two deaf children with cochlear implants, devices that can stimulate hearing. Implants are hot-buttons in the deaf community: while they provide easier access to the hearing world, they also challenge one's identity within the deaf culture. "Sound & Fury" screened at Mountainfilm following its premiere at Sundance.

21 May, 2009 /

[click "Play" button to hear Susan's conversation with Paul Bosch]

Telluride region features regularly in Bosch's art

IMG_0007 Pastor and painter of landscapes. Paul Bosch is part of a long tradition dating back to 19th-century America, when artists, particularly of the American West, expressed a rapturous identification with the surrounding terrain. Albert Bierstadt and Frederic Church are two examples. They went way over the top in their depictions of cathedral-like peaks and the Golden Glow that enveloped a scene. At the time, the presiding metaphor was God as Supreme Artist and men like themselves, were simply His obedient servants.

IMG_1701 Paul has been painting his entire life. "Someone has said  (Picasso?  Matisse?  Freud?) that painters are basically feces-smearers, and this was true of me in my crib, according to my parents." While he has been a university chaplain or campus pastor most of his professional life, Paul is also author of numerous published articles/essays on the subject of the arts as they pertain to religious faith, and three books on related themes.

 


20 May, 2009 /
Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer sends us a Summer Poem

The 31st annual Telluride Mountainfilm Moving Mountains Symposium is on the subject of food: the pending crisis and fruitful options. In their third year as organic fruit growers, longtime Telluride region locals Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer and husband Eric are part of the solution.

010 It was not their dream. One day, they just did it. Their 70-acre orchard, New Leaf Fruit, located on the Gunnison River north of Delta, produces peaches, pears, apricots, cherries, nectarines and apples. They have two children together, five-year-old Finn and 10-month-old Vivian, who was born at the orchard last apricot harvest. Eric's other daughter, Shawnee, worked at the orchard three years ago and loved it so much she is now in graduate school in international development, focusing on sustainable agriculture in Latin America. Rosemerry's most recent poetry collection, Holding Three Things at Once (Turkey Buzzard Press, 2008), is a finalist for the Colorado Book Award and explores the world of mothering, orcharding and communicating with each other and our environment.
19 May, 2009 /

[Click the "Play" button to hear Gene Baur]

Editor's note: Animal activist/author Gene Baur is coming to Telluride for Mountainfilm's Moving Mountains Symposium about food.  Listen to his podcast to learn more about his Farm Sanctuary and how the one-time McDonald's talking head wound up rescuing and providing refuge for farm animals.

Gene-1 Fido au gratin? Perish the thought. For activist/author Gene Baur of the Farm Sanctuary, dining on Babe is no different.

The cover of his best-seller, "Farm Sanctuary, Changing Hearts and Minds about Animals and Food" says it all: there's Babe, alive and well. On the back cover, you will find an image of The Man cuddling up to a Holstein. The endorsement by Dr. Jane Goodall (the gorilla lady) is the final nail in the coffin: "Filled with hope, this book is written for all who strive for a more compassionate world. I highly recommend it." Who doesn't want to be considered compassionate, especially when it comes to our four-legged friends? The package is enough to make a person swear off bacon cheeseburgers forever.  And that's Gene's point.

19 May, 2009 /

Tibet flag There is something new this year at Telluride's Mountainfilm, available to everyone, including those who enjoy the "festival without a pass." It is the TIBET ROOM, at the Silver Bell Gallery, corner of S Spruce and Pacific Streets.

Flags at Manasarovar Mountainfilm favorites Ace Kvale and Jimmy Chin will exhibit photographs there, next to a collection of fabulous archival prints on loan from theTibet House in New York. An eclectic assortment of artifacts from the Tibetan world rounds out the exhibits.

18 May, 2009 /

Astronaut John Grunsfeld has been to Telluride Mountainfilm twice, the first time in 2000, and the second in 2006.

IN 2006, John spoke on the subject was ET, NASA's search for planets with "life signatures." His objective: to help reframe people's thinking about life in the universe. He also addressed "Man, Moon, and Beyond," how NASA was planning its next push towards manned missions. Finally, John provided an astronaut’s eye view of the mountain ranges of our blue planet, not from the Hubble – which Grunsfeld has been in charge of repairing – but from his own Hasselblad. But the Hubble has been one of the astronaut's pet project for years.

18 May, 2009 /

[click "Play" button to hear Susan's interview with Jane]

Jane The girl can’t help it. Long before any inconvenient truths, before green became the new red, white and blue, longtime, part-time Telluride local Jane Goren was busy recycling, turning the detritus of people’s lives into edgy fine art.  

Jane came buy her obsession naturally: in the corner of Brooklyn where she grew up no one ever threw anything away.

SPAGHETTI IDARADO  In 1974, Goren moved to Los Angeles. Years later, in this landscape of insecurity both real and imagined, an earthquake struck. The artist began collecting discarded windows, which she painted on the reverse side of the glass in an offbeat attempt to restore order to a disoriented city. These images also allowed Jane to examine issues of voyeurism, surveillance, and the deceitful nature of appearances. The Telluride Gallery of Fine Art, her local gallery, has examples of this work in its stable, and a number of pieces are on display at La Marmotte.

17 May, 2009 /

Friday night, May 15, a cast of Telluride teenagers earned a standing ovation at the end of their performance of "Audition" at the Sheridan Opera House. Teenagers playing (mostly) teenagers, dressed as teenagers, dealing with teenagers' concerns and without sets: it was a great evening....

17 May, 2009 /

[Editor's note: Click the "play" button to listen to Telluride Mountainfilm guest Chef Ann Cooper talk about why she thinks the National School Lunch Program needs major tweaking and what she and others are doing to address the challenge.]

Chef_ann_aboutphoto What's wrong with this picture?

While legions of parents are obsessing about whether their offspring are getting enough vitamins or consuming too much sugar and salt, as they are trying in growing numbers to encourage healthy eating habits, at school millions of kids are consuming French fries, processed chicken nuggets and syrupy fruit salad, standard fare on the average commodity-driven lunch menu.

According to Chef Ann Cooper, aka  "Renegade Lunch Lady," the National School Lunch Program is an antique – it was launched in 1946 as a public safety net – in dire need of recycling. She contends  we won't have much hope for future generations of healthy kids unless we begin teaching them what good food really is.

16 May, 2009 /