Movie is the message

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Movie is the message

Community Cinema series finds a home at Discovery Museum

By Ted Holteen Arts & Entertainment Editor

Monday, Sept. 17, 2012 12:58 PM

Some films are so important that they need to be seen, regardless of box-office receipts.

Thats the idea behind the Durango Community Cinema series, but it is not an idea unique to Durango. The film series is a nationwide PBS program of that started at the affiliate WGBH in Boston. Now in its third year locally, Community Cinema has found perhaps a permanent home in the Boiler Room Theater at Durango Discovery Museum. The films will be shown on the third Wednesday of each month through June 19.

Although PBS makes it easy for local communities to participate in Community Cinema, providing the films and plenty of marketing and press materials, it still takes a local point person to make it happen. Here in Durango, thats Bliss Bruen. She has scrambled to find venues for the films since the programs inception. After stints at Fort Lewis College and local movie theaters, she said she is thrilled to have landed at the museum.

We live in such a nice town, but we tend to get isolated and insulated from a lot of whats going on around the world, Bruen said. I think people who watch PBS are also the kind of people who like to go to science museums and things. Their view of science and imagination and creativity involves solving thorny problems, and a lot of these films have some thorny issues.

The 2012-13 season will begin Wednesday with Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. The PBS documentary spans the globe as celebrities such as Meg Ryan and Eva Mendes meet women who are reversing generations of mistreatment and inequality in their communities.

The film is based on a book by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, It documents Kristofs global travels with nine celebrities. Like all Community Cinema features, a panel discussion will be held after the screening of the movie. For the opener, representatives of the Shanta Foundation, which works in Myanmar, and Step-Up Uganda will bring a local connection to the conversation.

There are also a high percentage of people doing good work in Durango, and this series is a platform for them, Bruen said. These two organizations are working in Asia and Africa, and theyre based right here.

For those unable to attend the monthly screenings, an encore showing will occur at noon the next Wednesday at Durango Public Library. Rocky Mountain PBS will begin airing Girls Who Lead, a larger series that incorporates Half the Sky, on Oct. 1.

ted@durangoherald.com

Community Cinema Series film schedule to run through June

All screenings are free in the Boiler Room Theater at the Durango Discovery Museum, 1333 Camino del Rio. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m. and films will start at 6 p.m.

Sept. 19: Half the Sky by Maro Chermayeff. Inspired by his best selling Pulitzer Prize-winning book, author Nicholas Kristof and celebrity activists travel to nine countries. They witness courageous individuals who are confronting oppression and creating meaningful solutions through health care, education, and economic empowerment for women and girls. (Conversation will be held after the film with the Shanta Foundation and Step-Up Uganda.)

Oct. 17: As Goes Janesville by Brad Lichtenstein. Two years in the lives of laid-off workers, business leaders and elected officials trying to reinvent their lives and their midwestern town amid the closure of their General Motors plant and Americas worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

Nov. 14: Solar Mamas by Jehane Noujaim. Rafea, who lives in a small Jordanian village, is 30 years old with four children and a husband eager to take a third wife. With encouragement from her countrys Ministry of Environment, she attends the Barefoot College in India to train to become a solar-energy engineer. The Barefoot College provides training to the rural poor to empower them to make their communities sustainable.

Jan. 16: Soul Food Junkies by Byron Hurt. This film delves into the historical and controversial relationship between the black community and soul food. How does our affinity for soul food and its dietary traditions affect the health of the black community?

Feb. 20: The Powerbroker by Bonnie Boswell. During the 1950s and 60s, civil-rights leader Whitney Young navigated a divided society. He challenged Americas white business and political leaders directly, but his efforts to open the doors for equal opportunity were often attacked by black Americans who felt his methods were in contrast with the Black Power Movement of the time.

March 20: Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines by Kristy Guevara-Flanagan. From the birth of the comic book superheroine in the 1940s, to the blockbusters of today, Wonder Women! looks at how popular representations of powerful women often reflect societys anxieties about womens liberation.

April 18: The Island President by Jon Shenk, Bonni Cohen and Richard Berge. After bringing democracy to his country, President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives, the lowest-lying country in the world, takes up the fight to keep his homeland from disappearing under the sea.

May 16: The Revolutionary Optimists by Maren Grainger. In the poorest neighborhoods of Calcutta, a lawyer-turned-social-entrepreneur is empowering young girls and boys to take an active role in transforming their own lives.

June 19: Love Free or Die by Macky Alston. Faith, love, marriage, homosexuality and the Episcopal Church collide in the first openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.

Source: Rocky Mountain PBS