Short Films at the Peace River Film Festival

How often do you see a movie that stays with you longer than the time it takes to walk to the parking lot after the end of the show?   I'm betting that your answer, like mine, is "not very often."  If it's hard for a feature length, high budget movie to make a lasting impact, what are the chances that a "short" film can do so in a compacted period of time?  (If you're shaking your head at me right now, you've obviously had the pleasure of seeing more short films than I have.)  So it's much to my surprise that I find my thoughts returning to two very different short films that I saw over the week-end at the Peace River Film Festival.

The first was "World of Art" by Mike Allore.  When the film opens, we are introduced to an artist (Arthur) in his studio who is suffering from the equivalent of writer's block.  He just can't seem to find any inspiration.  Arthur goes to a local pub for a drink and is surprised when the owner tells him that he had heard that he was dead.  Arthur was greatly confused, needless to say.  The owner leads him outside to find graffiti written on the sidewalk that declares, "Art is dead."   The film takes off from there, as we figure out that the "establishment" is trying to get rid of art (with a lower case "a") by getting rid of Art (with a capital "A").  Art finds himself locked in jail with other living pieces of art as his cellmates.  Among others, we find the Mona Lisa and the farmer and his wife from American Gothic and Whistler's mother and the guy with the apple featured in Magritte's Son of Man.  The prisoners urge Art to save them and prove that art cannot be confined.  The film was charming and funny and thoroughly enjoyable.  (And, yes, Art does find his inspiration at the end of the day.)   If your curiosity is piqued, you can take a peek at the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30Kmajg7EL8.

The other film that I keep thinking about was "Tuesday.  Life Goes On" by Nicole Allyn Rogers and David Shark.  It was described in the program as "a quietly provocative glimpse into an ordinary day in the life of a young couple as they reunite after being separated by war."   The film opens with a woman stepping in front of a car as she crosses the street.  The boxed cake that she's carrying tumbles to the ground, and the car screeches away.   We next see the woman at home putting up a big "Welcome Home" sign across the front porch.  A soldier approaches and the two start to get reacquainted, heading into the kitchen for some slightly worse-for-wear cake.

Cut to two soldiers in a car who are obviously on their way to make a death notification.  As they approach the home of the deceased soldier, they see a body bag being loaded onto an ambulance about a block away.  When they reach the front door, they knock and ring the bell but nobody answers.  As time passes we realize that the young couple has been reunited, but not in this world.   It was an incredibly powerful and haunting film, and I'm quite sure that my description does not do it justice.

If these films sound interesting, don't miss "Beyond the Film Fest" at the Visual Arts Center in Punta Gorda.   On the third Wednesday of each month, the VAC will offer movie buffs the chance to screen some short films, some of which were shown at the Peace River Film Festival.   Given the quality of shorts that were shown at the Festival, I am eager to see more.   Don't forget the popcorn!

Lights! Camera! Action! Peace River Film Festival, Take Two

Once again, I'm dating myself, but one of the creepiest movies I've ever seen is "Carrie," Brian de Palma's adaptation of the book by Stephen King.  I remember the prom scene vividly with the telekinetic powers of Carrie White/Sissy Spacek spinning wildly out of control as she realizes that the whole evening is a cruel prank at her expense.   Fast forward to opening night of the 2012 Peace River Film Festival and the feature-length film "Parapsychology 101" by Dan McCarthy.   I have to admit that the description of the film didn't sound that interesting to me.  "After losing funding for his work, paranormal researcher Dr. Allen Greer has devised a way to continue his research and experiments with dozens of willing test subjects.  His plan?  Become a teacher of parapsychology, where his students will secretly double as test subjects.  They are about to get a much more hands-on learning environment than any imagined."   I wanted to show my support for the Festival, though, so I found myself in the audience as the lights went down.

The film grabbed me from the start with its documentary approach.   The opening scene is an interview with a college administrator who is explaining the rationale for having offered a parapsychology course.  We know that something is awry, but can't tell if it's just a controversy over a goofy topic being given credence or something darker.  Cut to Day One of the class, with Professor Greer asking his students (and, implicitly, the audience) to set aside their skepticism.  He tells the class about his prior work at the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Lab (PEAR--which actually did exist!) involving the "interaction of the human consciousness with the physical world."  Yes, like in "Carrie," we're talking telekinesis.  The students' first homework assignment is to video themselves attempting to make little paper umbrellas move through the sheer force of their wills.   As the semester proceeds, the homework and in-class projects get more intense as the kids start to unleash the power of their subconscious selves.  Two students are singled out as having particular "promise," and Professor Greer cultivates them for his project, going so far as to hypnotize one of the kids during class to "help him" remember his deepest secret and access its power for telekinetic purposes.  The film is interspersed with interviews with the students (who increasingly believe in their powers), which added a nice counterbalance to the classroom scenes and homework projects.  As the movie moved towards its denouement, you could tell that it was not going to have a happy ending.  Even though it's unlikely that you'll see this film yourself, it cuts too much against my grain to tell you what happens.   (If your curiosity is piqued, though, you can get a sense by watching the trailer at  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5ZfAwwDsac.)

One fun aspect of the evening was that there was a short Q&A with Dan McCarthy, the filmmaker, after the screening.  We learned that "Parapsychology 101" was McCarthy's senior project.  (He is a student at the Art Institute of Jacksonville.)  McCarthy shared that he literally dreamt up the idea for the film.  He has always had a vivid dream life, and telekinesis is a regular part of those dreams (which is a bit scary).  So the topic seemed a natural choice for his project.   The actors--who did an incredible job--were by and large fellow students, although the guy who played Professor Greer is a professor in real life who acts on the side (which explains why he seemed so natural in the role).  After some prodding, McCarthy divulged that he made the movie for something like $400.   What a world we live in.

It was an exciting start to the Festival, which is in its second year.  The offerings over the week-end range from Student Film Shorts to a Double Feature Experience to Cell Shot Films (which, for the technologically challenged among us, means a film shot with a cell phone).  I'm looking forward to taking in a sampling of these films over the week-end.   Maybe I'll see you there!

Prima Doggie

I am in withdrawal.  After two weeks of almost daily yoga classes, I headed over to the East Coast to take care of Drew (my sister's ten year old) and Jakie (the just-turned one year old dog) while the rest of the family went to New York to visit TJ at NYU and to take Elizabeth on some college visits.  The closest I've gotten to yoga in the past couple of days is watching Jakie do upward and downward dogs.  (That always cracks me up.)   I could, of course, do my own practice here, but I tried one downward dog pose and Jakie started licking my leg.  So I'll get back to my new routine next week.

In the meantime, I'm catching up on a lot of paperwork and working around Jakie's schedule.  (If you're getting the sense that I'm here to watch the dog rather than the boy, you've got that right!)  I am learning that dogs have body clocks the same way people do.  Jakie is up and at 'em in the morning, lazes throughout the day, and wilds at night.   I've proposed to Jakie that we go on morning walks, but he is having none of that.  Even though he's only about 12 pounds, when he digs in, that's it.  Instead, like many babies, he wants to go on a car ride.  So one morning I bundled him into the car and went for a short ride to a park.  He sat on my lap while I drove and looked with curiosity at the other dogs out walking with their owners.  (I say "other dogs" but I don't think he recognizes any resemblance to those creatures.)  Things were getting off to a good start at the park but a woman walking with her dog and child suddenly appeared and the dog (a very fluffy white poodle) gave Jakie a friendly bark.  Have I mentioned that Jakie is a scaredy dog?   He hightailed it straight back to the car and I had to carry him in the other direction until we were well out of sight of any other living creature before putting him down.  And though he likes to play in the morning, he wants nothing to do with wet grass (or pavement, for that matter).  One morning he seemed interested in walking on the street until he realized that  it had rained the night before and his little legs are so short that his belly was getting a bit damp.  That was the end of that.   I haven't resorted to putting him in the doggie stroller and going on a constitutional, but if I were going to be here much longer, that would definitely be in my future.

I did manage to go on one outing during my stay to the Boca Raton Museum of Art.  (Trust me when I say that it was incredibly hard to close the door on his sad little face.  I have now figured out that the way to get out the door easily is to use the diversionary tactic of putting human food out for him.  He is truly a Crist.)   Anyway, the Boca Museum had an exhibit on called Big Art::  Miniature Golf that I was interested in seeing/experiencing.  It was a very unusual exhibit, and while I didn't love it, it was definitely creative.  The hole pictured here is called "Trapped in Paradise" and as you enter the hole, a bubble machine is triggered and bubbles waft around you as you putt out. "Chasm" is a play on Catholicism.  There are 352 golf balls hanging from twine on either side of the hole and the goal is to stay on the straight and narrow and hit the ball into a chalice.  The center aisle is intended to represent the nave of a cathedral.  (Surprisingly, I didn't do so well on this one.)   My favorite hole, though, is called "The Life Hole."    You start the hole at birth and play until you reach your death.  Along the way there are sand traps with streaming video graphics with expressions like "your putt is in your hands", "par excellence", and "have fun on the journey."  The graphics in the final trap alternate between "your hole awaits" and a picture of a cemetery. As I said, the exhibit might not be your cup of tea, but it is definitely creative.

The Museum also has a show on display entitled "Contemporary Glass Movement Turns 50."  As long as I was there, I decided to stroll through the exhibit, expecting to see lots of pretty glass bowls and the like.  Instead, it was a really interesting exhibit with works ranging from Tim Tate's multimedia glass work entitled "Falling on Deaf Ears"  to Danny Perkins' Abstract Expressionist-inspired takes on Mount Hood and a city Skyline to Dale Chihuly glass mobiles.  (There were also some pretty bowls.)

After cruising through the glass exhibit I headed out to the sculpture garden, which was my favorite stop of the day.  I had to laugh when I saw "Tete au Carre [Square Head]."  It made me think of Lucy saying, "You're such a blockhead, Charlie Brown."  I'm not sure that that's what French sculptor Sasha Sosno was going for, but it made me laugh, and there's nothing wrong with that.  The sculpture I liked best was a lovely bronze entitled "Woman Walking" by Lynn Chadwick.  It was made to scale and, while somewhat abstract, captured a female figure walking purposefully towards her destination.  The sculpture reminded me, though, that I'd been away from home a while and it was probably time to head back and try and get Jakie out for a walk.

When I watched the kids last year when Suzanne and Tim took TJ to college, I came away exhausted and with a much greater appreciation of the schedule of a stay-at-home-mom.  This year I'm coming away with an appreciation of what a commitment it is to have a pet.  There are incredibly wonderful moments, and you  feel very loved, but it is definitely a lifestyle decision.  I'm sure that if Jakie were my dog, I'd get used to leaving him while I went about my life.  As a petsitter, though, it makes me feel too guilty so I'm just enjoying our time together.  Tomorrow's time enough to get back to my real life.      

Yoga Challenge Midpoint

One thing I can say about myself is that I don't do things halfheartedly.  I am pleased to report that I am midway through the Yoga Sanctuary's 20 class challenge for National Yoga Month (well ahead of schedule).   At this rate, I might even get in some extra classes!  The studio has a chart with the challenge participants' names on it, and Anna puts little smiley face stickers next to our names to show how many classes we've taken.  It is amazing how much fun it is to watch those stickers accumulate (and it confirms the power of the sticker, which is a device I use for students at the Adult Learning Center who've done a good job on their work).      

Anne working with Barbara on her warrior II pose

I am immensely enjoying the frequency and variety of classes that I am taking. Last week I pulled a "double" one day--a very active ashtanga class followed by a meditation class, both taught by Anne Moore.  It was a wonderful morning.  One of the cool things about ashtanga is that the sequence of the class is the same universally.  I could be traveling in Japan or Argentina and not speak a word of the language and yet be able to participate in an ashtanga class.  That doesn't mean that instructors can't put their own twist on the practice.  Anne started last week's class by saying that we would be doing "pirate yoga".  Hmm.  It turns out that didn't mean that the chanting of "om" would be replaced by pirately "arrghs" (although I have to admit that I was tempted).  Instead, we were to think of our legs as hollow, with our breath starting at the tips of ours toes and coming up to fill our chests.  This visual actually worked for me, and I swear I could feel my breath flowing through my legs when I wasn't too busy thinking about all the other things I was supposed to be doing.

Heart chakra image

The meditation class was a great follow-up to the ashtanga practice.  I will admit that I was a bit surprised to see how many people there were in the class.  I had only taken a meditation class once before and, while I enjoyed it, I feel way too busy to take a class that doesn't burn any calories.  (That feeling is, of course, a sign that perhaps I should be embracing the opportunity to sit quietly and try and still my mind.)

We began the class by talking about the heart chakra, the symbol for which is coincidentally the logo for the Yoga Sanctuary.  The whole chakra thing is a bit mystical for me, but I enjoyed listening to the discussion and doing the heart opening poses before the actual meditation portion of the class.  One of the things I liked most about the class was Anne's incorporation of Tibetan bowls that she got from Robert Austin.  (See my post from December 4th if you don't know about his Tibetan and glass bowl concerts.  They are truly amazing.)  She talked about her experience shopping for the bowls and how Robert "played" different bowls on different parts of her body in order to determine which bowls were the right ones for her.  It turns out that the bowls choose their owner rather than the other way around. It's kind of like when you go to the pound thinking that you are in the market for a miniature poodle only to end up with a labrador retriever.  (If you haven't done the whole bowl thing, this must sound incredibly ridiculous and crystal-ly and you probably think we've all gone over the edge.   All I can say is that you should reserve your judgment until you've had a chance to experience a Tibetan bowl concert.  Then we can talk.)   Anyway, Anne played the bowls during our meditation and, as always, their sound took me to another place.  Towards the end of the class she made her way to each student, placed the bowl above his or her heart, and played it.  I could hear that the bowl in fact sounded different on different people.  When it was my turn, the vibration of the bowl resonated through my body.  It was an incredibly cool feeling.  At the end of the class I was relaxed and refreshed and ready to conquer the world (or at least the pile of papers on my desk).

It's great fun to explore different yoga classes during the challenge and find out what I've been missing out on.  This week I'm going to take my first "yin" class, which I think involves holding poses for extended periods of time.   I'm hoping to make the chant for peace the following week, during which participants will chant "om" 108 times followed by a  brief meditation.  And I'm going to try a tuning fork session, which I would describe to you if I had a clue what's involved.  All in all, it's shaping up to be quite a memorable month.  

   

Celebrating National Yoga Month with the Yoga Sanctuary

September has always been one of my favorite months.  I think it must relate to the whole back-to-school cycle.  Summer is over (even if it doesn't exactly feel like it); I've had some time to rejuvenate; and it's a perfect time to take a step back and set some new goals.   Enter the Yoga Sanctuary.  Last year I heard about the Yoga Sanctuary's challenge to take 20 classes during the month of September as a way to celebrate National Yoga Month.  The idea was intriguing to me, but I just couldn't quite figure out a way to fit it into my schedule.  This year I took the plunge, and I'm already glad that I did.

Instructor Jennifer French with
Bonnie Yonker

This year's challenge started a bit early with the Yoga Sanctuary's monthly community class on August 30th.  Bonnie Yonker, who owns the studio, has a true commitment to our community.  Each month, there's a donation only class that benefits a local non-profit.   Bonnie has taken this idea a step further, though, for National Yoga Month, with all proceeds from the challenge going to support the Peace River Wildlife Center.  Participants are encouraged to solicit pledges from their friends and families to raise money for the cause.  Instead of a walk-a-thon, it's a yoga-thon.  This is the third year that the Yoga Sanctuary has combined its yoga challenge with its support for the Center, with more than $5,000 having been raised for the Center's coffers in the last two years.

Dr. Robin Jenkins, a veterinarian who volunteers with PRWC, told us a bit about the Center before the class started.   The mission of the Center is to "treat and rehabilitate injured and orphaned native Florida wildlife...and, if possible, to return them to the wild".   The Center admits approximately 2,000 injured birds and other animals annually and is home to 200+ residents.  The Center relies on private donations--and the occasional grant--to fund its operations.  The cost of feeding the permanent residents alone is nearly $75,000 per year, so that's a lot of fundraising.   Dr. Jenkins knows that the best way to pull on people's heart strings--and get them to open their wallets--is to show them what they are supporting, so she brought along one of the Center's most recent admissions--a small screech owl.  He is unbelievably cute and fluffy.  When the little guy was brought to the Center, he was in a coma.  It's likely that he injured himself by flying into a car or building while diving for food.   Although he's now awake and has started flying around in his cage, he is very docile, and he probably won't ever be strong enough to be re-released into the wilds of Punta Gorda.  (In fact, he didn't make a peep during the entire class.)  Dr. Jenkins' pitch was successful, with over $600 in contributions being made that night.  An anonymous donor generously agreed to match the donations made at the kick-off class, so the Center now has an additional $1200 to support its operations.

My goal, of course, is to try and fit 20 classes into the month despite a couple of week-ends away and a fairly busy work schedule.  Today I took my fifth yoga class in as many days.  This once-a-week yogi is already enjoying having a more consistent yoga practice.   And I challenged myself further by going back to an ashtanga class after more than a year's absence.   Trust me when I say that I'm becoming reacquainted with some muscles that have been dormant too long.   More importantly, though, I love the way I feel when I practice.  The minute I sit down on my mat, I feel more centered and detached from the noise in my day-to-day life.  The trick, of course, is figuring out how to transfer that feeling to outside the studio.  Thanks to Bonnie and the Yoga Sanctuary for giving me the push I needed to explore the benefits of yoga more fully.  I'll report back as the month progresses.   Namaste.