Not all Chinese movies are teary costume dramas. The romantic comedy “Be There or Be Square” is the second highest grossing film ever in China. Can that many people be wrong? (more…)
You don’t have to break the bank by going to the IMA’s summer film series - this film fest is free. View the projects that students from the first annual Campecine Youth Academy have been working on for the past six weeks. Documentaries and animations made in Indianapolis by Latino youth bear alternative names - varriomentaries and issuemations - to reflect the language blending their makers experience.
Themes include current social issues, from race relations in Indianapolis to local and national immigration policy reforms to teen pregnancy, ICE Raids, and education.
From the press release:
The Campecine Youth Academy is a six-week program [of the Latino Youth Collective and FIRME Productions] that trains youth in “on-the-job” action research using new media technology. The program employed 27 youth for 20 hours a week and engaged students in a process called Youth Participatory Action Research, a process that engages young people in
(1) identifying a community issue of concern to them, and
(2) investigating its causes and potential solutions through the use of advanced media technology and inquiry methods. Youth then use the results for education and community action.
Sounds like one way to do a lot of good in the community, and the public gets to bear witness to it all. Added bonus: the event is bilingual! So practice your rusty Spanish - o alternativamente, ensaye un poquito el inglés.
At the IMA, in DeBoest Hall
Saturday from 1-4 pm
Free and open to the public.
http://campecine.com/
This documentary, about the multitudes of Chinese children adopted by Americans since the early 1990s, is sure to find an appreciative audience at the always socially conscious Earth House.
Summary: “Since the early ’90s, Americans have adopted nearly 70,000 Chinese children. With thousands of them now at an age to appreciate returning to the homeland, heritage tours have brought adoptees and their families to China, presenting an unequaled opportunity for bonding and sharing identity issues. “Found in China” follows six Midwestern families as they observe contemporary trends and ancient Asian traditions in both urban and rural contexts. The 80-minute documentary focuses on the 9- to 13-year-old girls and how they attempt to fit together the puzzle pieces of their pasts.”
When: 5 pm (it’s 82 minutes long)
Where: Earth House at Lockerbie Central United Methodist Church, 237 North East Street
Part of IndyFringe and the Indianapolis International Film Festival.
One of the most celebrated films in the Chinese language, “Farewell my Concubine” looks at the turmoils of the mid-20th century through lives of two performers in the Peking Opera and the woman they love. (more…)
View a documentary on the water rights preservation vs. privatization controversy. Saturday, July 12th at
View Larger Map“>Lockerbie Central UMC at the corner of New York & East, downtown. Come at 7:00 for the Water Fair, or at 8:00 for the premier. Learn about this critical global issue and (optionally) make a contribution toward making drinking water available to all.
here are some sites relevant to the issue at hand.
a good general wikipedia article on water privatization
the Sierra Club’s perspective on water privatization
There’s plenty more out there to get you started. Begin with the FLOW film!
“The Story of Stuff,” a 20-minute video that covers environmental, psychological and social impacts of our consumption oriented society, will be shown on Wed. July 9 at 6 pm in Room 116 at Wheeler Art Center, 1035 Sanders, sponsored by Marion County Green Party, Campaign for Sustainable Economics, The Black and Latino Institute, and Simple Living Group of Indianapolis. Discussion afterwards will be lead by Greg Buck. For more info, contact Greg Buck at ecothink@yahoo.com or 917-1638.
It’s the Fourth of July! Why should you be spending your time hearing music, watching theatre, and seeing art?
Because supporting your community supports your country, without residual political guilt and without resort to the glorification of redemptive violence.
The Teen Arts and Music Festival gives rising artists a little space and time to share their music with the community. A more youthful counterpart to June’s Independent Music and Art Festival, but the idea remains the same: a day of free music, theatre, and art, with lots of the warm, fuzzy feelings one gets from supporting local, independent artists and not military might.
An all-day affair. Go to the MySpace page for the line-up (15 bands of teenagers), or the event website for contact information.
This free film showing is put on by Indy Parks. Movies start at dusk (around 9:15). This one’s 100 minutes long, so plan on staying around until 11.
“Breaking Away” is one of the classics of the ’70s. The film, which won Best Screenplay at the 1979 Academy Awards, chronicles the life of a young aspiring cyclist named Dave Stoller and his three hapless friends as they adjust to life as townies in Bloomington, Indiana. Dave agonizes over going to college, falling in love, and not being Italian, immortalizing the joys of cycling in celluloid.
The parks department is screening this one at the Major Taylor Velodrome, an unusual place for the Movies in the Park series. The Velodrome is a 333 1/3-meter-long smooth concrete biking track with banked turns, one of only 18 in the United States, and has hosted all kinds of bike races. But there can be no better place to view “Breaking Away,” which was filmed entirely in Indiana, using IU students as extras in the climactic Little 500 scene.
The Major Taylor Velodrome
3649 Cold Spring Rd., Indianapolis, IN 46222
Phone: 317-327-8356
Visualize the ancient Egyptian quest for eternal life. Feel the press of the gods’ judgments and witness the elaborate journey toward divinity. Performance, dance music and language meld in this one-time presentation by NoExit Performance, Inc., inspired by To Live Forever: Egyptian Treasures from the Brooklyn Museum. Then see a screening of the latest film version of “The Mummy.” (more…)
Check out the Midwest film premiere of On the Road Now: Artists and Writers Respond to Kerouac in the 21st Century, a reflection on the Kerouac beat legacy featuring Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Amiri Baraka, and others. Head conservator Jim Canary, curator of the scroll at Indiana University’s Lilly Library, will introduce the film and afterward, show images of the scroll’s own roadtrip across the world. (more…)
NUVO gives Provocate 2007 Cultural Vision Award
Provocate featured in Indianapolis Monthly
"Award combines film, activism: Festival to recognize social justice of Sept. 11, Congo in discussions,"
Indiana Lawyer April 16, 2008 ... on Provocate's Eric Parker Social Justice Award at the Indianapolis International Film Festival
