July 29, 2011 “Raising Renee,” by Newton filmmakers Jeanne Jordan and Steven Ascher, is an honest and intimate portrait of a family and the issues of race, class, and intellectual disability that they face. The feature documentary (81 minutes) will be screened on Monday, August 1, at 7 PM in Redfield Auditorium on Water Street. … Continue reading
July 29, 2011 “Jimmy Tingle’s American Dream” will be screened on Tuesday, August 2, at 7 PM, at Redfield Auditorium on Water Street, and Tingle, himself, will perform at Woods Hole Community Hall, 68 Water Street, on Thursday, August 4, at 8 PM. A comedian and a commentator on social and political issues, Tingle explores … Continue reading
July 28, 2011 “We Still Live Here (Âs Nutayuneân)” (2010, 56 minutes) is a feature documentary by Anne Makepeace. This is a beautiful, fascinating, and inspiring film about the efforts of the Wampanoag people to bring back their native language—100 years after the last fluent speaker died. It was in 1994 when Jessie (Little Doe) … Continue reading
July 28, 2011 Circus Smirkus, the only traveling youth circus in America, comes to Sandwich for its annual visit in August. Performances are at Heritage Museums & Gardens, with shows on Monday, August 1, at 7 PM and Tuesday and Wednesday, August 2 and 3, at 2 and 7 PM. Those who love the circus … Continue reading
July 28, 2011 The gorgeous and awe-inspiring feature documentary “Oceans” opens the Woods Hole Film Festival tomorrow at 7 PM. The film will be shown in Redfield Auditorium on Water Street. Produced by Disneynature (2010, 84 minutes) and directed by Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud and narrated by Pierce Brosnan, the film offers one spectacular … Continue reading
July 28, 2011 A scene from Morning Copy The Woods Hole Film Festival 2011 opens Saturday, July 30, and runs through Saturday, August 6: eight days of feature length and short films, workshops, classes, parties, and live entertainment. For details, go to Woods Hole Film Festival. For the past couple of weeks, I have had … Continue reading
August 1, 2010 Most of the narrative films I previewed this year touch on death of a family member, or the aftermath of death for the living. In this category are “House of Bones,” a documentary about a family house on Martha’s Vineyard after the death of the director’s grandmother; “Lebanon, PA,” a drama about … Continue reading
July 31, 2010 Still from “Climate Refugees” The Woods Hole Film Festival begins tonight with “Climate Refugees: The Human Face of Climate Change,” a documentary about people displaced by climate-induced environmental disasters. It is one of several environmentally themed films in the festival, which also features outdoor screenings on Project Green Screen, a wind and … Continue reading
June 26, 2008 Young @ Heart is a chorus in Northampton, Massachusetts, as well as a movie about the chorus, its challenges and successes. Two things make this chorus different from any other: the average age of the participants is 80, and they sing songs you wouldn’t expect them to want to listen to, let … Continue reading
Notes on The Arts 