Tech trend-spotter Howard Rheingold says these fluid, Net/cell-phone communities have still-unmet entrepreneurial promise. Link
Friday, October 24, 2003 5 to 9 pm
For more information, please call 260-427-6455 or email.
Be Dr. Doolittle for the evening and "talk" with the animals! The Botanical Conservatory invites you to meet animals such as hawks and owls from Soarin' Hawk Avian Rescue; a black leopard, sulcata tortoise, green macaw, and boa constrictor from Black Pine Animal Park; and adoption animals from Animal Care and Control.
Chui, a black leopard, will be our special guest at Creature Feature. He is a male African leopard who normally shares his den with China, a male Asian leopard. Both Chui and China are two years old and were rescued from the pet trade and now live at Black Pine Animal Park.
Bring your family and friends to get an up-close look at all the animals and learn about their conservation, habitats, rescue and adoption.
Volunteers also will share insights into animal habits and habitats while costumed animal characters will hand out goodies to the children. Other activities include prizes and the Creature Scavenger Hunt, Make a Treasure Bag, Bug in a Bottle, Nature Discovery Box, Pot A "Spider" Plant, Flower Fling, Pick A Pumpkin and many other games and crafts.
The Food Court" will be open until 8:30 p.m. with 50 cent hot dogs, popcorn and drinks.
Creature Feature is sponsored by Oldies 101.7 and the Fort Wayne Parks and Recreation Department.
A responsible adult must accompany all children. Admission is $4 adults, $2 children (ages 3-17) and free to children age 2 and under. (All activities, except for refreshments, are included in the admission price.)
For more info, visit cinemacenter.org or email movies@cinemacenter.org.
Tuesday 9/23 Winged Migration 5:15, I Capture the Castle 7:00, Northfork 9:00 Wednesday 9/24 Winged Migration 5:15, I Capture the Castle 7:00, Northfork 9:00 Thursday 9/25 Winged Migration 5:15, Northfork 7:00, I Capture the Castle 9:00 Last Shows for Winged Migration & Northfork!
--Dirty Pretty Things, I Capture the Castle, When Night is Falling
Coming Soon: Lost in Translation – Opens Friday October 3rd
Dirty Pretty Things
"Director Stephen Frears and his writer, Steve Knight, use the power of the thriller and avoid the weaknesses in giving us, really, two movies for the price of one." -- Roger Ebert. "A suspenseful, entertaining movie." –Newsday. "It offers as its hero an extraordinary fellow: He's an authentic moral being who, though the universe has gone all twisty-crazy into greed, mendacity and manipulation, nevertheless clings to his own code." –Washington Post. "Fueled by gripping suspense, dark humor and outraged humanity, the film is a modern horror story that means to shake you, and does." --Rolling Stone. 107 min., Rated R. Friday at 8:30PM, Saturday at 6:30PM & 8:30PM, Sunday at 4PM, Monday at 8:30 PM, Tuesday at 6:30PM, Wednesday at 8:15PM, Thursday at 8:30PM
I Capture the Castle
Last Shows! "Neither conventionally told nor resolved, and able to make the most eccentric situations believable, I Capture the Castle is both an ordinary story and a special one -- and that, finally, is the secret of its success."-- Los Angeles Times. "A refreshingly mature look at first love and life's often-rough transitions." – Dallas Morning News. “3 1/2 Stars.”—Roger Ebert. "It may be best to think of I Capture the Castle as a kind of comfy chair with a few frayed edges and telltale leaks in its upholstery. Perfect furniture, in other words, for a lazy summer afternoon." – Newsday. 113 min., Rated R. “The R rating ("for brief nudity") is another attempt by the MPAA to steer teenagers away from useful and sophisticated entertainments, and toward vulgarity and violence. If this movie is R and "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" is PG-13, then the rating board has no shame. Better the Angels as strippers than an innocent nipple during a swim in the castle moat?”—Roger Ebert Friday 6:15PM, Saturday at 4PM, Sunday at 2PM, Monday at 6:30PM, Thursday at 6:30PM
When Night is Falling
When Night is Falling is being presented as part of our Lesbian-Gay Film Series 94min., Unrated (intended for mature audiences) Saturday at 2PM, Sunday at 6PM, Tuesday at 8:30PM, Wednesday at 6:30PM
Dirty Pretty Things
For director Stephen Frears, the plight of immigrants in London certainly isn't virgin territory. He explored the subject with a bold sensuality in 1985's "My Beautiful Launderette." Frears returned (less successfully) a couple of years later with bombastic gusto in "Sammy and Rosie Get Laid" (1987). But those pictures were made during the frosty days of Margaret Thatcher. In "Dirty Pretty Things," Stephen Frears arrives in post-Thatcher London and dauntlessly seizes on the delicate subject of illegal immigrants--and he does it with a stunning assurance. Frears opens us up to a colorful world in which Chinese, Turks, Africans and Indians, existing in the shadows of mainstream life, find ingenious ways to protect each other from the Immigration authorities. But where most directors would wring their hands over the misery and exploitation of illegals, Frears seizes on their drive rather than their despair. This gives "Dirty Pretty Things" a vitality that's both audacious and tragic. Take Okwe (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is a Nigerian doctor who was forced to flee his homeland. He finds himself illegally working two jobs as a cab driver and a night porter at a hotel. Living in dread of being caught, he befriends Senay (Audrey Tautou "Amelie"), a Muslim chambermaid who is eventually forced to take a job at a sweatshop, delivering sexual favors to her boss in exchange for protection. "Dirty Pretty Things" is about how Okwe and Senay keep their integrity despite the extreme measures required to help them escape. Newcomer Chiwetel Ejiofor gives an engaging and strongly dignified performance that never once becomes pious. Audrey Tautou, who was too self-consciously precious in "Amelie," gives a richer performance here. Tautou's Senay hides her wisdom and beauty behind an invisible veil that Okwe soon parts. "Dirty Pretty Things" is a shimmering gem of a movie. Rated R for sexual content, disturbing images and language. 107 min.
I Capture the Castle
"I have relived this particular day many times. It is a golden memory, and I am suspicious of it.... Perhaps it really was a happy day." With that intriguing voiceover, accompanied by sunny visuals of a young and hopeful English family in an open car on their way to an old Suffolk castle that will become instead their dank, cold and unhappy home for the next 10 years, begins the story of younger daughter Cassandra ("Nicholas Nickleby's" Romola Garai, simple perfection), a diary-keeper who dreams of becoming a writer like--well, not quite like--her creatively burned-out father Mortmain ("Fairy Tale's" Bill Nighy, a bit given to dramatics). And Cassandra, like older sister Rose ("City of Ghosts'" Rose Byrne, quite good as a desperate gold-digger: "I’d marry a chimpanzee if he had money"), dreams of falling in love--although there are no boys living anywhere near the impoverished family's far-flung outpost. Until, that is, two young and rich American gentlemen ("Gangs of New York's" Henry Thomas and "We Were Soldiers'" Marc Blucas, both convincingly good-hearted) come on scene. First-time feature director Tim Fywell brings a certain literate sensibility from his BBC TV work to "I Capture the Castle,” which itself is based on a 1948 novel by British writer Dodie Smith, who later penned "The Hundred and One Dalmatians." Despite its high-class producer imprimatur (David Parfitt won an Oscar for "Shakespeare in Love"), as captured here the tale seems less aimed for the older art-house crowd than for teenaged girls eager for discerning and intelligent drama--in the same "serious" way that, say, Franco Zeffirelli's "Romeo and Juliet” was; however, an inexplicable R rating--for a momentary scene in which Cassandra’s bohemian-painter stepmother ("Siren's" Tara FitzGerald) disrobes to better experience an evening countryside rain--will bar most of that prime distaff demographic. What could bring a specialized buzz to "I Capture the Castle" is the performance by Garai, whose plain but passionate face proves fertile ground for Fywell's camera and whose voice seems perfectly attuned to Smith's text as adapted by screenwriter Heidi Thomas (who paired with Fywell on the BBC's "Madame Bovary"). Although much of her character’s activity is reactive, Garai provides the film’s heart; every key action or decision of her family or the fellows seems to seep through her and become imprinted on her soul, and her most effective work occurs in the silent registrations of their lighter or darker moralities on Garai’s argent face. 113 min., Rated R.
When Night is Falling
A sexual journey for grown- ups, ``When Night Is Falling'' introduces Pascale Bussieres, a Quebecois actress making her English- speaking debut, as Camille. A teacher at a Christian college, Camille is engaged to Martin (Henry Czerny), a fellow theologian who represents security and stalwartness -- but doesn't know beans about cutting loose. When her dog dies, Camille falls apart, and is comforted in a launderette by Petra (Rachael Crawford), a beautiful young circus performer with enormous eyes. The women accidentally switch their laundry bags, prompting Camille to seek out the circus tent and deliver the goods to Petra. Two women work out on the trapeze, a man on a unicycle juggles fire batons, and Petra dances with a ball of light. Like Dorothy stumbling upon Oz, or Alice falling into a sexual Wonderland, Camille enters a thrilling, unknown world when she crosses that portal to the circus. When Petra invites Camille to her trailer and brazenly tells her, ``I'd love to see you in the moonlight with your head thrown back and your body on fire,'' Camille freezes and leaves. What follows is a struggle -- not only between heterosexuality and homosexuality, but between obligation and fulfillment, convention and experiment. The circus, which resembles Cirque du Soleil, is Rozema's metaphor for freedom, spontaneity and personal change, while the halls of Christian academia represent repression and uniformity. These are fairly simplistic symbols -- as is the hang gliding that Petra introduces to Camille -- but not ill-fitting the overall spirit of ``When Night Is Falling.'' It's a romantic fairy tale, really: about confronting our fears, seen and unseen, and making that journey, over enormous barriers and unseen terrain, to our essential selves. When Martin learns that his fiancée has strayed, Camille tells him, simply, ``She answered a wordless question in me.'' Rozema is a fabulist with a strong visual sense, and she creates a distinctive, enclosed world to illustrate Camille's odyssey. The look of her film isn't ``authentic,'' even though it was shot in urban Toronto, but subtly distorted and playfully surreal. Bussieres and Crawford both give delicately shaded performances in ``When Night Is Falling,'' but it's Czerny, a startling and precise actor, who impresses most deeply. The subject of a dispute with the Motion Picture Association of America, ``When Night Is Falling'' was given an NC-17 rating earlier this month, apparently on the basis of two lesbian sex scenes -- neither particularly graphic. Rozema chose to release the film uncut, with no rating. 94 min.
Coming Soon: Lost in Translation
Opens Friday October 3rd
Any lingering accusations of nepotism that may have followed Sofia Coppola in the wake of her 1999 directing debut "The Virgin Suicides" should be entirely dispelled by "Lost in Translation," a brave and accomplished study of love and human connections that establishes the young Coppola as one of the most acute talents of her generation. Patterning her film on the time-honored premise of lonely strangers in strange surroundings finding solace in each other's company (the current Claude Lelouch film "And Now... Ladies and Gentlemen" is another variation), Coppola manages to transcend all the usual romantic clichés, almost daring the audience to second-guess her by framing the picture around two figures who would normally have nothing in common if not for the fact that they're both Americans simultaneously suffering the culture shock of a first-time visit to Japan. Aging movie star Bob Harris (Bill Murray) has arrived in Tokyo to shoot a whiskey commercial while recent college grad Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) is simply tagging along on a job with her photographer husband (Giovanni Ribisi). Both manifest obvious feelings of alienation in this neon-encrusted, digitized collision of modernity and antiquity, but it's their shared alienation from life and love that brings them together. In stark defiance of formal narrative, Coppola's film follows a course more akin to the movies of the French New Wave than anything American; it's directionless but not aimless, the course of the story dictated by the spontaneous evolution of a relationship that transcends sex, romance and even friendship. Given that so much of the picture must be shouldered by the two performers, one cannot help but be awed by what Murray and Johansson have crafted, generating the kind of on-screen chemistry that rarely graces American cinemas without the intermediary of subtitling. It's been years since Murray has been this funny or this affecting, and he has certainly never been this understated. Johansson is equally impressive, measuring Murray scene for scene with a canny blend of soulful sadness and cunning confidence. But this is still, first and foremost, Coppola's film. At 32, she is roughly the same age as her father was when he made "The Godfather," and there is no reason to doubt that she is any less in command of the medium than he was at the same stage. Her voice is distinctive, her style utterly unique. It is her understanding of things far beyond her years, however, that impresses most--her ability to convincingly tap into the rarest of emotions and communicate them to a mass audience. Ostensibly, "Lost in Translation" is a film about love, albeit one which has the audacity to ask what love is--and the courage to leave the question unanswered. "Tart and sweet, unmistakably funny and exceptionally well observed."-- Kenneth Turan, LOS ANGELES TIMES. "Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson give performances that will be talked about for years." -- Peter Travers, ROLLING STONE. "How to sing the praises of Lost in Translation without drowning out its subtle pleasures?"-- Lisa Kennedy, DENVER POST. “Four Stars!” Roger Ebert. 102 min., Rated R.
Down with the yard and two-car garage! In cities of all sizes, people of all ages flock to the loft.Last year Bill Bertram, 50, said goodbye to his 3,000-square-foot house and sprawling lawn in the suburbs and headed downtown to a newly converted loft apartment — complete with 18-foot ceilings, skylights, floor-to-ceiling windows, even a roof-top garden. Link
Welcome to our annual list of the 50 best planning and development websites. We've listed the websites alphabetically within ten general categories. Link
For more info, visit cinemacenter.org or email movies@cinemacenter.org.
Wednesday 9/17 Gentleman’s Agreement Thursday 9/18 Trembling Before G-d 5:15, Northfork 7:00, Winged Migration 9:00 Last Show for Trembling Before G-d!
I Capture the Castle, Northfork, & Winged Migration
I Capture the Castle
Opens Friday, September 19th "Neither conventionally told nor resolved, and able to make the most eccentric situations believable, I Capture the Castle is both an ordinary story and a special one -- and that, finally, is the secret of its success."-- Los Angeles Times. "A refreshingly mature look at first love and life's often-rough transitions." – Dallas Morning News. “3 1/2 Stars.”—Roger Ebert. "It may be best to think of I Capture the Castle as a kind of comfy chair with a few frayed edges and telltale leaks in its upholstery. Perfect furniture, in other words, for a lazy summer afternoon." – Newsday. 113 min., Rated R. “The R rating ("for brief nudity") is another attempt by the MPAA to steer teenagers away from useful and sophisticated entertainments, and toward vulgarity and violence. If this movie is R and "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" is PG-13, then the rating board has no shame. Better the Angels as strippers than an innocent nipple during a swim in the castle moat?”—Roger Ebert Friday 6:30PM, Saturday at 6:30PM, Sunday at 4PM, Monday at 7PM, Tuesday at 7PM, Wednesday at 7PM, Thursday at 9PM
Winged Migration
"Winged Migration is a marvel.”—Los Angeles Times. “A movie of awesome beauty and innovation…”—Chicago Tribune. “Who wants to see a documentary about birds of every feather who migrate across forty countries and seven continents? You do. Winged Migration is a movie miracle; it soars.”—Rolling Stone. In a summer full of digitally enhanced machines ("The Matrix Reloaded") and mutants ("X2"), you won't see anything more amazing and electrifying than the soaring birds in this marvelous movie.”—L.A. Daily News. 90 min., Rated G. Saturday at 2PM & 4PM, Sunday at 2PM, Monday at 5:15PM, Tuesday at 5:15PM, Wednesday at 5:15PM, Thursday at 5:15PM
Northfork
“Four Stars! A masterpiece! A visionary epic! There has never been a movie quite like Northfork!”—Roger Ebert. “Dreamy and entrancing. At a moment when so many films strive to be as obvious and interchangeable as possible, it is gratifying to find one that is puzzling, subtle and handmade.”—The New York Times. “Magical! A thoroughly original accomplishment of a high artistic order! A provocatively bold stroke of imagination. Full of sly touches.”—Los Angeles Times. "A powerful, surreal fable, one that requires a small amount of patience from the viewer in exchange for a moving experience."—Dallas Morning News. "Like the best work of David Lynch, Northfork is that rare movie that draws you in more (rather than alienating you) at precisely those moments when you least understand it."—Variety. 94 minutes, Rated PG-13. Friday at 8:45PM Saturday at 8:45PM, Sunday at 6:15PM, Monday at 9PM, Tuesday at 9PM, Wednesday at 9PM, Thursday at 7PM
I Capture the Castle
"I have relived this particular day many times. It is a golden memory, and I am suspicious of it.... Perhaps it really was a happy day." With that intriguing voiceover, accompanied by sunny visuals of a young and hopeful English family in an open car on their way to an old Suffolk castle that will become instead their dank, cold and unhappy home for the next 10 years, begins the story of younger daughter Cassandra ("Nicholas Nickleby's" Romola Garai, simple perfection), a diary-keeper who dreams of becoming a writer like--well, not quite like--her creatively burned-out father Mortmain ("Fairy Tale's" Bill Nighy, a bit given to dramatics). And Cassandra, like older sister Rose ("City of Ghosts'" Rose Byrne, quite good as a desperate gold-digger: "I’d marry a chimpanzee if he had money"), dreams of falling in love--although there are no boys living anywhere near the impoverished family's far-flung outpost. Until, that is, two young and rich American gentlemen ("Gangs of New York's" Henry Thomas and "We Were Soldiers'" Marc Blucas, both convincingly good-hearted) come on scene. First-time feature director Tim Fywell brings a certain literate sensibility from his BBC TV work to "I Capture the Castle,” which itself is based on a 1948 novel by British writer Dodie Smith, who later penned "The Hundred and One Dalmatians." Despite its high-class producer imprimatur (David Parfitt won an Oscar for "Shakespeare in Love"), as captured here the tale seems less aimed for the older art-house crowd than for teenaged girls eager for discerning and intelligent drama--in the same "serious" way that, say, Franco Zeffirelli's "Romeo and Juliet” was; however, an inexplicable R rating--for a momentary scene in which Cassandra’s bohemian-painter stepmother ("Siren's" Tara FitzGerald) disrobes to better experience an evening countryside rain--will bar most of that prime distaff demographic. What could bring a specialized buzz to "I Capture the Castle" is the performance by Garai, whose plain but passionate face proves fertile ground for Fywell's camera and whose voice seems perfectly attuned to Smith's text as adapted by screenwriter Heidi Thomas (who paired with Fywell on the BBC's "Madame Bovary"). Although much of her character’s activity is reactive, Garai provides the film’s heart; every key action or decision of her family or the fellows seems to seep through her and become imprinted on her soul, and her most effective work occurs in the silent registrations of their lighter or darker moralities on Garai’s argent face. 113 min., Rated R.
Northfork
One of the most hauntingly beautiful films ever made, the Polish brothers’ “Northfork” nimbly fuses history and fantasy in a ’50s-set fairy tale set in the titular Montana mining community. While the rest of the country is profiting from a postwar economic boom, this small town is about to vanish from the face of the earth under the waters of a river to be dammed up imminently. Three pairs of men in trench coats (James Woods and Mark Polish among them) glide across the flat plain, visiting the remaining holdouts who refuse to leave their homesteads. The men’s own futures are at stake, for they have been promised 1.5 acres of lakefront property in exchange for the secured evacuation of 65 properties. With 48 hours to go before the waters are reined in, time is running out. Meanwhile, sickly orphan Irwin (Duel Farnes) lies in a feverish coma under the care of a kindly priest (Nick Nolte). In his restless dreams, Irwin encounters an eccentric family--flamboyant Cup of Tea (Robin Sachs); wordless cowboy Cod (Ben Foster); androgynous Flower Hercules (Daryl Hannah), in a black pixie haircut and ruffled shirt; and Happy (Anthony Edwards), an amputee with wooden hands and multi-lensed spectacles--who are in search of the Unknown Angel. Desperate to go with them when they leave, Irwin brings evidence--feathers, a tranquilizer gun, bodily scars--proving that he is the one for whom they are looking. In the end these two storylines converge in a wholly unexpected way. Not only is the story intensely moving, but also the imagery throughout “Northfork” is lovely. Drawing from a palette of flat grays and browns, helmer Michael Polish and cinematographer David Mullen have produced a look reminiscent of an old, faded, sepia-toned photograph. Particularly poetic are the visions of the surface of a lake, churning from a disturbance below until a casket pops to the surface, and a church with a missing fourth wall, a priest preaching his final Sunday sermon while cow’s graze serenely in the background. In addition, in the otherworldly characters and a wooden dog-giraffe hybrid creature that beckons to Irwin from across the plain, Michael Polish and his brother Mark, with whom he produced and crafted the script, exhibit wild, evocative imagination. Yet the film is subtly humorous as well, with the reconstruction of the Biblical ark by a particularly devout polygamist family; debates on the differences between people who drive Fords and people who drive Chevys; and, in a scene of comic brilliance, the protracted guessing game of what the local diner might have on the menu with a waitress whose features are profoundly, shall we say, unique. Here, too, are anachronisms such as a quip about fast food and the throwaway line, delivered just so, “What are you talking about, Willis?” The jokes do take one out of the film for a moment, yet somehow, in the context of this quirky piece, they work. The final movement in the Polish brothers’ trilogy that also includes “Twin Falls Idaho” and “Jackpot,” “Northfork” is a classic for all time. Rated PG-13 for brief sexuality. Running time: 94 min.
Winged Migration
You won't find any purer example of the power of cinema than Jacques Perrin's Oscar-nominated documentary "Winged Migration." Here's the long and short of it: "Winged Migration" is 90 minutes of footage of birds flying, though Perrin looks at the variety of natural and man-made hazards birds face in the course of their semi-annual instinctive trek across great expanses of globe. And yet, with only these images and sounds of birds, a musical score and a minimum of narration, Perrin's film speaks volumes about the way these animals live in nature and, occasionally, in spite of nature. There is something heroic and awe-inspiring about their indomitable struggle to follow the instincts they were born with. There undoubtedly will be people who find this notion boring: Birds? Flying? That's it? I can see that on the Nature Channel. But give this movie a chance. Perrin's film is profound – and profoundly entertaining. You will look at the world in a different way after seeing "Winged Migration." 90 min., Rated G.
For more info, visit cinemacenter.org or email movies@cinemacenter.org.
Wednesday 9/10 Winged Migration 5:15, La Tropical 7:00, Northfork 9:00 Thursday 9/11 Winged Migration 5:15, Northfork 7:00, La Tropical 9:00 Last Shows for La Tropical!
--Trembling Before G-d, Northfork, Winged Migration & Gentleman’s Agreement
Trembling Before G-d
5 Shows Only! Presented as part of our Lesbian-Gay Film Series “Trembling Before G-d is a fascinating examination of gay Orthodox Jews. These men and women find themselves in the grips of an impossible dilemma - unwilling to give up their sexual identities but at the same time unwilling to give up their faith, even though it disdains and rejects them. Its amazing that the filmmaker, Sandi Simcha DuBowski, got access to this hidden world - one he explores with lyricism and insight.” -- Newsweek. “A loving documentary that ably leavens its tears with the healing balm of humor: a consummately Jewish way to go. Stirring. Haunted. Eloquent. Devastating. A resonant, moving and often surprisingly funny swirl of testimonies." - Jan Stuart, Newsday. "...Trembling Before G-d, beginning with the title, is above all a work of reverence. DuBowski's sober, scrupulous documentary doesn’t lash out at an oppressive religious structure so much as offer a hopeful prayer—out of love and devotion—that it be made better." - The Village Voice
84 min., Not Rated. Saturday at 4:00, Sunday at 6:00, Monday at 7:00, Tuesday at 5:15, Thursday at 5:15
Gentleman’s Agreement
$2.00 Admission to this film. Sponsored by the Catholic-Jewish Dialogue Elia Kazan directed this sometimes powerful study of anti-Semitism in nicer circles, based on Laura Z. Hobson's post-World War II novel. Gregory Peck is a hotshot magazine writer who has been blind to the problem; to ferret it out, he passes himself off as Jewish and watches the WASPs squirm. Seen a half-century later, the attitudes seem quaint and dated: Could it really have been like this? Yet the truth of the story comes through, in the wounded dignity of John Garfield, the upright indignation of Peck, and the hidden ways bigotry and hatred can poison relationships. That's particularly true in the Oscar-winning performance of Celeste Holm, who finds more layers than you'd expect in what seems like a stock character.
118 minutes. Not Rated Wednesday 7:00, One Show Only!
Winged Migration
"Winged Migration is a marvel.”—Los Angeles Times. “A movie of awesome beauty and innovation…”—Chicago Tribune. “Who wants to see a documentary about birds of every feather who migrate across forty countries and seven continents? You do. Winged Migration is a movie miracle; it soars.”—Rolling Stone. In a summer full of digitally enhanced machines ("The Matrix Reloaded") and mutants ("X2"), you won't see anything more amazing and electrifying than the soaring birds in this marvelous movie.”—L.A. Daily News.
90 min., Rated G. Friday at 8:30PM, Saturday at 2PM & 6:30PM, Sunday at 2PM Monday at 5:15PM Tuesday at 7PM, and Thursday at 9PM
Northfork
Opens Friday, August 29th “Four Stars! A masterpiece! A visionary epic! There has never been a movie quite like Northfork!”—Roger Ebert. “Dreamy and entrancing. At a moment when so many films strive to be as obvious and interchangeable as possible, it is gratifying to find one that is puzzling, subtle and handmade.”—The New York Times. “Magical! A thoroughly original accomplishment of a high artistic order! A provocatively bold stroke of imagination. Full of sly touches.”—Los Angeles Times. "A powerful, surreal fable, one that requires a small amount of patience from the viewer in exchange for a moving experience."—Dallas Morning News. "Like the best work of David Lynch, Northfork is that rare movie that draws you in more (rather than alienating you) at precisely those moments when you least understand it."—Variety.
94 minutes, Rated PG-13. Friday at 6:30PM Saturday at 8:30PM, Sunday at 4PM, Monday at 8:45PM, Tuesday at 8:45PM, Thursday at 7PM
Trembling Before G-d
Trembling Before G-d is an unprecedented feature documentary that shatters assumptions about faith, sexuality, and religious fundamentalism. Built around intimately-told personal stories of Hasidic and Orthodox Jews who are gay or lesbian, the film portrays a group of people who face a profound dilemma - how to reconcile their passionate love of Judaism and the Divine with the drastic Biblical prohibitions that forbid homosexuality. As the film unfolds, we meet a range of complex individuals - some hidden, some out - from the world's first openly gay Orthodox rabbi to closeted, married Hasidic gays and lesbians to those abandoned by religious families to Orthodox lesbian high-school sweethearts. Many have been tragically rejected and their pain is raw, yet with irony, humor, and resilience, they love, care, struggle, and debate with a thousands-year old tradition. Ultimately, they are forced to question how they can pursue truth and faith in their lives. Vividly shot with a courageous few over five years in Brooklyn, Jerusalem, Los Angeles, London, Miami, and San Francisco, Trembling Before G-d is an international project with global implications that strikes at the meaning of religious identity and tradition in a modern world. For the first time, this issue has become a live, public debate in Orthodox circles, and the film is both witness and catalyst to this historic moment. What emerges is a loving and fearless testament to faith and survival and the universal struggle to belong. 84 min., Not Rated.
Northfork
One of the most hauntingly beautiful films ever made, the Polish brothers’ “Northfork” nimbly fuses history and fantasy in a ’50s-set fairy tale set in the titular Montana mining community. While the rest of the country is profiting from a postwar economic boom, this small town is about to vanish from the face of the earth under the waters of a river to be dammed up imminently. Three pairs of men in trench coats (James Woods and Mark Polish among them) glide across the flat plain, visiting the remaining holdouts who refuse to leave their homesteads. The men’s own futures are at stake, for they have been promised 1.5 acres of lakefront property in exchange for the secured evacuation of 65 properties. With 48 hours to go before the waters are reined in, time is running out. Meanwhile, sickly orphan Irwin (Duel Farnes) lies in a feverish coma under the care of a kindly priest (Nick Nolte). In his restless dreams, Irwin encounters an eccentric family--flamboyant Cup of Tea (Robin Sachs); wordless cowboy Cod (Ben Foster); androgynous Flower Hercules (Daryl Hannah), in a black pixie haircut and ruffled shirt; and Happy (Anthony Edwards), an amputee with wooden hands and multi-lensed spectacles--who are in search of the Unknown Angel. Desperate to go with them when they leave, Irwin brings evidence--feathers, a tranquilizer gun, bodily scars--proving that he is the one for whom they are looking. In the end these two storylines converge in a wholly unexpected way. Not only is the story intensely moving, but also the imagery throughout “Northfork” is lovely. Drawing from a palette of flat grays and browns, helmer Michael Polish and cinematographer David Mullen have produced a look reminiscent of an old, faded, sepia-toned photograph. Particularly poetic are the visions of the surface of a lake, churning from a disturbance below until a casket pops to the surface, and a church with a missing fourth wall, a priest preaching his final Sunday sermon while cow’s graze serenely in the background. In addition, in the otherworldly characters and a wooden dog-giraffe hybrid creature that beckons to Irwin from across the plain, Michael Polish and his brother Mark, with whom he produced and crafted the script, exhibit wild, evocative imagination. Yet the film is subtly humorous as well, with the reconstruction of the Biblical ark by a particularly devout polygamist family; debates on the differences between people who drive Fords and people who drive Chevys; and, in a scene of comic brilliance, the protracted guessing game of what the local diner might have on the menu with a waitress whose features are profoundly, shall we say, unique. Here, too, are anachronisms such as a quip about fast food and the throwaway line, delivered just so, “What are you talking about, Willis?” The jokes do take one out of the film for a moment, yet somehow, in the context of this quirky piece, they work. The final movement in the Polish brothers’ trilogy that also includes “Twin Falls Idaho” and “Jackpot,” “Northfork” is a classic for all time. Rated PG-13 for brief sexuality. Running time: 94 min.
Winged Migration
You won't find any purer example of the power of cinema than Jacques Perrin's Oscar-nominated documentary "Winged Migration." Here's the long and short of it: "Winged Migration" is 90 minutes of footage of birds flying, though Perrin looks at the variety of natural and man-made hazards birds face in the course of their semi-annual instinctive trek across great expanses of globe. And yet, with only these images and sounds of birds, a musical score and a minimum of narration, Perrin's film speaks volumes about the way these animals live in nature and, occasionally, in spite of nature. There is something heroic and awe-inspiring about their indomitable struggle to follow the instincts they were born with. There undoubtedly will be people who find this notion boring: Birds? Flying? That's it? I can see that on the Nature Channel. But give this movie a chance. Perrin's film is profound – and profoundly entertaining. You will look at the world in a different way after seeing "Winged Migration." 90 min., Rated G.
The third weekend in September will bring visitors to Fort Wayne from around the country to celebrate the life and times of John Chapman known as Johnny Appleseed.
The 29th annual Johnny Appleseed Festival is scheduled to occur on Saturday, September 20 from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and Sunday, September 21 from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. in Archer Park and Johnny Appleseed Park located adjacent to the Memorial Coliseum off US Highway 930 and Parnell Avenue.
Free parking is available at IPFW and Concordia High School. Additional parking is available at the Memorial Coliseum for a fee. Shuttle buses will run from IPFW and Concordia for a minimal fee of $.50 per person each way.
The festival provides a unique atmosphere of enjoyment, while still learning about history. It is an event that the whole family will enjoy. The emphasis of family is also exhibited by the decision of Festival‚s Board of Directors to donate all proceeds from the Wishing Well to the Vincent House. In the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, the Johnny Appleseed Festival decided to donate that year‚s Wishing Well proceeds, usually earmarked for Festival projects, to the Salvation Army to assist in the relief and recovery efforts. Festival visitors that year donated over $3000 to the Wishing Well, and the Festival matched that figure, resulting in a donation of over $6000. The Board decided to continue that tradition again this year with the donation to the Vincent House. The Vincent House provides a homelike environment for homeless families as they work towards independence, with 70 percent of those individuals being children. The Festival will once again be matching a portion of these donations.
The festival maintains an authentic pioneer setting with period dress by all participants. The pioneer atmosphere is further reflected in the following: food cooked over open fires freshfruits, vegetables and herbs antiques and handmade crafts activities for children demonstrationsby tradesman livinghistory hill with military encampment in addition to trappers and traders entertainmenton stage and throughout the festival grounds.
These events will offer fun and excitement for the entire family.
Admission to the festival is free.
When designers set out to offer a fresh perspective on the Twin Cities, they came up with a giant urban board game and some unique guides.
The kind of a map you'd give to a visitor to the Twin Cities would include this sort of information: the significant buildings and civic institutions, the major roadways and the location of the most important, historical and beautiful tourism sights.But how about a map showing where to experience the best smells in the city? Or where to find the most interesting or intriguing noises? Or, instead of seeing the Cities as a grid of roads and land-use categories, how about viewing it as a network of spiritual centers? A collection of community gardens? Or as a giant game board? Link
There is a dramatic shift afoot in urban fortunes, weakening the clout of the biggest cities while spreading power and influence to scores of smaller centers, nowhere more markedly than here in the United States.Blame 9/11, technology or geographic shifts in the national economy -- or a combination of all three -- but the nation's urban hierarchy is flattening out. A host of smaller players are chopping off chunks of what was once the big boys' exclusive domain. What used to take place almost entirely in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago or San Francisco -- whether in high finance, advertising or marketing -- is now happening more and more in unlikely locales such as Omaha, Des Moines, Fargo, N.D., and Columbus, Ohio. Link
Fort Wayne, IN: The Parks and Recreation Department is hosting five meetings this month as part of its Comprehensive Plan efforts. Citizens are encouraged to share ideas and concerns, which will play a vital part in shaping the future of the Parks and Recreation Department for the next 10 years.
"We're interested in hearing what citizens want to see in their parks and recreation system *mdash; what areas need to be improved, changed or added," said Dianne Hoover, director of Parks and Recreation. "Future parks and recreation activities will be determined by the citizens of this city, and these meetings are intended to encourage public participation."
The meetings will be held at the following times and locations:
Tuesday, September 9, 6:30 p.m. Pine Valley Country Club, 10900 Pine Mills Road
Wednesday, September 10, 5:30 p.m. Aboite Township Fire Station, 1131 Aboite Center Rd.
Wednesday, September 10, 7:30 p.m. Study Elementary School, 2414 Brooklyn Ave.
Thursday, September 18, 5:30 p.m. League for the Blind and Disabled, 5821 S. Anthony Blvd.
Thursday, September 18, 7:30 p.m. Good Shepherd United Methodist Church, 4700 Vance Ave.
Consultants from Woolpert, LLP have held focus groups with participants from stakeholder groups, including those serving youth sports, the environment, City planning and growth, the arts, and parks advocates. In addition, 3,000 surveys were sent to Fort Wayne residents this spring. The public meetings are one of the final steps in the comprehensive planning process before a final plan is presented to the Parks and Recreation Department in late October.
For more information:
Sarah Nichter Fort Wayne Parks & Rec. Manager - Information & Development Office: 427-6024 Fax: 427-6020 Email: sarah.nichter@ci.ft-wayne.in.us
The Fort Wayne Philharmonic musicians battle to outwit, outlast and outplay rach other on Friday, September 5 at the Foellinger Theater. The concert begins at 7:30pm. Tickets are just $13. Audience members will vote for their favorite orchestra section (strings, woodwinds, brass or percussion) where only one can be winner. Maestro Edvard Tchivzhel leads the charge in the ultimate orchestra battle for immunity. The event will feature the Three Rivers Jenbe Ensemble and the Fort Wayne Dance Collective. Free food from Club Soda following the concert. Call 456-2224 for tickets or visit Link
"aCommerce - The use of animation in various industries for various purposes"
DATE: September 5, 2003
TIME: 7:30 a.m. - Registration & Continental Breakfast, 8:00 to 9:00 a.m. - Presentation
PLACE: Barnes & Thornburg, One Summit Square, 5th Floor Multi-Purpose Conference Room (Also available via live video in Indianapoplis, South Bend, Washington, D.C., Bloomington, West Lafayette, Muncie, Terre Haute and Richmond.)
COST: No charge.
One of the growing tools of the New Economy is animation - the use of representational graphics (figures, cartoons, sketches) that move, in addition to more commonplace video of real people and real objects. Such representational graphics are often more effective than real images, and often much cheaper. This briefing will illustrate and discuss actual examples of what we are calling aCommerce - the use of animation in various industries for various purposes, from advertising to zoning appeals, and by various parties, from attorneys to zoologists.
PRESENTERS:
Jay Francis, phuuz entertainment inc.;
Joe Kitterman, oxygenED LLC;
Clint Koch, IU School of Informatics;
John Ludwick, IU School of Informatics;
Durwin Talon, IU School of Informatics;
Albert William, Visiting Research Associate, IU School of Informatics; and
Don Knebel, Barnes & Thornburg.
Presented by TechPoint and the Barnes & Thornburg Business & Technology Group (BTech).
TO REGISTER: Email eileen.meyer@btlaw.com or call 260.425.4658 for further information.
Date: Saturday, September 6, 2003
Time: 12:00 noon - 11:00 pm
Place: Headwaters Park
Cost: FREE 12:00 noon - 5:00 pm, $5.00 admission from 5:00 pm - 11:00 pm, Kids three and under get in freeFiesta Fort Wayne promises to be a celebration of all Hispanic cultures and will include food, music and activities from many nationalities. Link
Join us as we kick off Hispanic Heritage Month with Fiesta Fort Wayne. Continuing and expanding upon the long tradition of Fort Wayne's yearly Hispanic heritage festivals, DeSoto, along with the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, El Mexicano Newspaper, Hispanic Leadership Coalition, M.A.Y.A. Unity Center and several other organization, will be presenting music, food, games and other activities.
Fiesta Fort Wayne takes the place of La Gran Fiesta, which previously occurred annually in September.
Sprawling suburbs where it is hard to get around without a car may make residents fatter: Americans who live in the most sprawling counties tend to weigh six pounds more than their counterparts in the most compact areas.Adding to the sprawl concern: Pedestrians and bicyclists are much more likely to be killed by passing cars in this country than in parts of Europe where cities are engineered to encourage physical activity - and whose residents typically are skinnier and live longer than the average American.
Those are conclusions of major new studies published yesterday that call on urban planners and zoning commissions to consider public health in designing neighborhoods. Link