Arts
The first 10 minutes of Rebuilding Paradise are harrowing.
Ron Howard’s documentary is mostly about the aftermath of the November 2018 “Camp Fire” in Paradise, California, but first it shows us the fire itself. With the help of cellphone and dashcam footage, it recreates people’s terror as they attempt to escape a wildfire that engulfed their town only minutes after originating on a nearby hillside.
In one particularly hair-raising moment, we find ourselves inside a vehicle barreling along a road that has turned into a fiery obstacle course. Meanwhile, the air is so filled with smoke that the day appears to have turned to night.
The danger is real, we learn. By the time the fire is brought under control, 85 residents of Paradise are dead. Of those who survive, most have lost their homes, along with schools, municipal buildings and services.
Following this terror-stricken beginning, Howard’s documentary evolves into a month-by-month account of attempts by residents and officials to revive a community that has been largely destroyed. The result is a film that’s sincere and warmhearted.
And, it must be said, just a little dull.
Facebook Event All proceeds from the auction will be donated to the Black Lives Matter Foundation Inc. We are currently looking for artists, vendors, volunteers, and professionals to donate items and time. If you have anything to offer, please message us; we would love to include you in the auction! The silent auction will mainly feature unique pieces of art, generously donated by local artists and vendors. This is a special chance for you to support a good cause, promote local artists, and go home with something you love. Here’s how the auction will work:
El día de hoy, CAPA anunció el programa del ¡Viva Festival Latino! una experiencia virtual que durará una semana completa, la misma que sustituirá al popular Festival Latino anual y presencial que tuvo que ser cancelado para este 2020. ¡Viva Festival Latino! ofrecerá una serie de eventos y actividades culturales en línea que resaltarán algunas de las características del Festival Latino. Estas incluirán, música latina, comida, danzas, artistas visuales, actividades para los menores, moda y recursos para nuestras comunidades en lo que respecta a la salud y el bienestar.
Organizado por CAPA en su totalidad, ¡Viva Festival Latino! es presentado por HONDA. Del mismo modo las compañías Nationwide, AEP Foundation, L Brands Foundation, City of Columbus Department of Recreation and Parks, y Abbott nos brindan un apoyo adicional.
CAPA today announced the schedule for ¡Viva Festival Latino!, a week-long, online experience that will stand in for the popular, annual Festival Latino canceled for 2020. ¡Viva Festival Latino! will offer a series of online cultural events and activities that highlight some of the favorite features of Festival Latino, including offerings in Latin music, food, dance, visual artists, children’s activities, fashion, and community and health and wellness resources.
Produced by CAPA, ¡Viva Festival Latino! is presented by HONDA. Additional support has been provided by Nationwide, AEP Foundation, L Brands Foundation, City of Columbus Department of Recreation and Parks, and Abbott.
In the 1970s, the country was struggling to recover from the dual tragedies of the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal that toppled the Nixon presidency. That helps to explain why so many Americans were attracted to the “Moonies,” a Korean-born cult that promised to unite and heal the world.
Blessed Child is a documentary by and about a woman who was raised in a Moonie family and found the religion a comfort and an inspiration—until it wasn’t. Then it became an impediment to her happiness and threatened to drive a wedge between her and her devout parents.
Directed by Cara Jones and filmed by her brother Bow, the doc is a gentle yet wrenching portrait of a family that was at first united and later divided by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church.
In a recent “Dilbert” cartoon, the hapless title employee talks about his hope of hooking up with a woman he’d met through virtual contract negotiations—even though, as it turns out, he’s seen only the part of her face that wasn’t hidden by a mask, a shower cap and an eye patch.
For those who lack a regular partner, a pandemic-induced quarantine is hardly the ideal environment for romance. And yet, people can’t turn off their libido simply because it’s not convenient. Recently, the New York City health department acknowledged this fact by releasing guidelines for how to deal with intimacy while minimizing the risk of contracting COVID-19.
One suggestion it missed: Have a romantic encounter while separated by a thick window several stories above the street. That’s the situation described in Squeegee, an 11-minute film written and directed by Morgan Krantz.
The 8th Annual Columbus Black Theatre Festival (CBTF) is this July 10th thru July 12th!
The festival will be presented as a free live streaming event this year due to COVID-19 social distancing restrictions in Ohio. The CBTF theme is "INCLUSION" which is very appropriate at this time in our society.
The CBTF team received plays from playwrights across the states between November 2019 and February 2020, and through a “blind read process” selected the plays and monologues to be presented, and notified the playwrights on March 1, 2020 that their plays would be produced by Mine 4 God Productions, the producers of the CBTF, at the July festival.
On March 5, Ohio was informed that they would be on a mandate order to stay at home, close up shop, shut down the schools and go out only when necessary. COVID-19 had arrived and everyone, every business, every person had to make an adjustment to the current situation. The CBTF had to also make adjustments to how and if they would be able to present the theatre festival amongst the pandemic.
Did you miss the June Free Press Second Saturday Cyber-Salon?
If so, here's a run-down of what happened and how you can be involved next time!
Working Man is a modest story set against the economic landscape that has left thousands of factory workers without jobs. It’s like a fictional counterpart of last year’s award-winning documentary American Factory. (Until it isn’t—of which, more later.)
Peter Gerety stars as Allery Parkes, who has spent decades toiling in a small-town plastics factory. He’s so devoted to the job that, after the owners shut the plant down, he breaks in through a back door and continues reporting to “work” every day. Unable to restart the assembly line because the power has been shut off, he simply switches to cleaning the machinery rather than running it.
Like a modern-day version of Herman Melville’s Bartleby the scrivener, Allery stubbornly clings to a job that no longer exists.
A brief scene in the beginning reveals that the plant shutdown isn’t the first heartache Allery has faced. Years earlier, he and wife Iola (Talia Shire) lost their son to suicide, leaving a mark on them and, no doubt, their marriage. Maybe that helps to explain why Allery is so loath to accept this latest loss in his life.