We at Boulder Community Media (BCM) wish everyone a Merry Christmas. As we move to the end of 2010 and into a new year, we hope that your lives will be prosperous and filled with happiness and great opportunities.
The year began with preparations for the Boulder International Film Festival in February. BCM provided full video coverage of the BIFF capped with exclusive interviews with Alec Baldwin on closing night.
BCM has provided the organization structure for Wyoming Community Media (WCM) which produced the Cheyenne International Film Festival in May screening 35 films over three days at the historic Atlas Theatre in Downtown Cheyenne. Planning is underway for CIFF May 20-22.
The summer time was filled with production work, including partnerships with the Boulder Reporter and Wyoming Lifestyle Magazine.
How time flies and as we move into the new year, we leave you with a great moment from “The Christmas Gift” starring John Denver. the 1986 film was shot in Georgtown and Beaver Creek, Colorado. Click on the VHS jacket to play the clip.
Check out the Hitching Post Theater at the Nomad Theater every 2nd Sunday of the month. Five playwrights pen short plays from 830am – 1230pm. Their works are turned over to a director and two actors who rehearse until 6pm with the performances at 7pm and 830pm.
BCM’s Alan O’Hashi wrote of the five plays. The theme was “Romeo and Juliet – Another Lifetime” and the required prop was a blue parasol umbrella.
Open up the link If you’d like to read the “Romeo and Juliet” script. The director and actors have lots of discretion when performing the work. Open the link for more in formation about the Hitching Post Theater. It’s really a grassroots community theater company that is seeking actors, producers, directors and writers.
Also appearing on Friday night was a band called the Blacktooth Rounders. View a sample of their music.
The CineYouth Film Festival set for May 6 – 8 at Columbia College in Chicago has a new deadline for film entries.
If you’re 20 years of age or younger, then this festival is for you. Officially selected films will be screened and filmmakers are invited to attend exciting workshops, meet film professionals and network with other youth filmmakers from across the country at the Festival in May..
For more information, please visit http://www.cinemachicago.org/cineyouth for submission guidelines and festival information. Columbia College is located at 1104 South Wabash in Chicago.
Boulder Community Media (BCM) was the site for the February Business After Hours networking event. Trattoria on Pearl provided great appetizers, pizza and pasta and music was provided by Caroline Cotter.
Well over 125 people attended the mixer. Click on the image of Caroline Cotter to view other photos from the event taken by BCM paparazza Ejiga Hartmane and paparazzo Ken Wajda.
Boulder Community Media Executive Director Alan O’Hashi headed up a team of 24 videographers, reporters and editors to provide curtain to curtain coverage of the Boulder International Festival that wrapped in Boulder over Valentines’ Day Weekend. Click on the image of BCM host Kaiti Williamson and BIFF honoree Alec Baldwin to see more pix from closing night.
The festival screened at three venues and included 47 films from around the world.
The festival opened opening Thursday night with a film called “The Lightkeepers” starring Richard Dreyfuss. The film’s producer Straw Weisman and director Dan Adams were in attendance along with actress Blythe Danner.
Take a look at more images from the four days taken by BCM photographer and reporter Lauren Bailey by clicking on the image at the left of BIFF Executive Producer of Special Events Ron Bostwick who chatted with Alec Baldwin in front of a packed house in the Boulder Theater.
The closing night event was a tribute to Emmy Award-winning 30 Rock actor Alec Baldwin, who is co-hosting the Academy Awards next month along with “It’s Complicated” co-star Steve Martin. Here’s the Alec Baldwin Tribute video By Ron Bostwick and Alan O’Hashi.
The Boulder International Film Festival (BIFF) opened with a great start on Thursday night at the Boulder Theater. Boulder Community Media (BCM) covered the event that featured the movie “The Lightkeepers” directed by Dan Adams and produced by Straw Weisman. Blythe Danner, one of the actors in the movie, was on hand to watch the screening. Click on the photo to see more images from opening night. (BCM Photo: Jenna Jordan).
BY ALAN O’HASHI PRODUCER and PUBLISHER BOULDER COMMUNITY MEDIA
The Boulder International Film Festival 2010 Asian Film Program consists of five movies. This year they will screen at the United Methodist Church at 14th and Spruce Street and the Boulder Theater 2032 14th Street. Click on the title to download a .pdf of a one-sheet about each film. Here’s the line up:
Tibet in Song – February 11, 4:30pm – United Methodist Church One of the most dramatic and daring films of the decade, Tibet in Song follows young Fulbright scholar Ngawang Choephel back to his native Tibet to document the country’s disappearing folk-singing tradition. While leaving Tibet to go home, he was arrested for espionage by the Chinese, tortured and served seven horrific years in prison. Seven of Choephel’s videotapes were confiscated at the time, but nine were smuggled out. From this footage, he draws a never-before-seen glimpse into customs far outside the country’s population centers. Music is more than a pastime for these rural Tibetans: it’s a joyous, integral part of life, setting the rhythm and spirit of every conceivable activity. Choephel, like any good anthropologist, not only documents performances of the Tibetan folk songs, but also the sometimes-surprising explanations of the songs from the laconic older generations of Tibetans living in the villages. Subtitled and narrated by Richard Gere.
Enemies of the People Feb 12 12:15pm – Boulder Theater command. As the film In the 1970’s. in one of the darkest episodes of human history, the Khmer Rouge slaughtered nearly two million people on the Killing Fields of Cambodia.. Why? That qustion had never been answered until Thet Sambath, a young journalist for the English-language Phnom Penh Post, spent 10 years winning the trust of the former Khmer Rouge, beginning with the foot soldiers, who demonstrated on camera how they slit people’s throats. Sambath never revealed that his own family was murdered by the Khmer Rouge as he travels up their chain of progresses, it gradually reveals the scope and importance of Sambath’s hard work. The biggest fish in Sambath’s net turns out to be “Brother Number 2″ Nuon Chea, Pol Pot’s right-hand man who grants Sambath an exclusive, and electrifying, interview. Subtitled.
Mother Feb 12 2:15pm – Boulder Theater What lengths would a fiercely maternal single mother go to protect her only child, a handsome but mentally challenged 27-year-old son who is in jail because he was framed for a heinous murder? The small-town police and the town folk are already convinced of his guilt, while the mother ferociously goes on a hunt for the real killer herself. Bong Joon-ho, who wrote and directed the cult film The Host, has crafted a superb Hitchcockian murder mystery peppered with surprising twists coming thick and fast, which keep his audience guessing over who the real culprit is until the very end.
Journey from Zanskar Feb 12 5:00pm – Boulder Theater Near-mythical Zanskar, in the Indian Himalayas, is one of the most inaccessible and isolated regions on Earth. Today, it is considered the last place in the world where traditional Tibetan Buddhist norms and ways of life still exist, but it is now being connected to the outside world by a road being built by the Indian Army. Concerned by the coming deluge of influences from the outside world, the Dalai Lama instructed two Zanskar monks to bring 17 bright students down to a Buddhist school in Manali. The purpose: to educate the next generation in the Tibetan alphabet so that they can read the Tibetan Buddhist scripture and, in doing so, preserve their language, heritage and culture. Oscar-winning filmmaker Frederick Marx follows their beautiful and dangerous journey. Subtitled.
The Last Train Home Feb 13 10:00am – Boulder Theater The world’s largest human migration takes place each year in China as 130 million factory workers fight for space on overcrowded trains to return home for the Spring Festival. The New Year is a joyous time as the migrants return to the rural villages and families they left behind to seek work in the booming coastal cities. This stunningly beautiful film captures two years in the life of the Zhangs who, 16 years ago, left the poverty of the countryside and their children behind with their extended family. This year, they travel with additional purpose: they’re trying to bring home their runaway teenage daughter, Qin, so that she can return to school and not have to spend the rest of her life in a factory. Painful moments reveal that the patience the Chinese are known for has its limits. Subtitled.
In 2009, the Boulder Asian Film Festival made took a big step and became a program of the BIFF to increase the number of viewers to see content produced by Asian film makers as well as see movies about the Asian experience. To view past Asian Film Festival programs go to the website at www.boulderasianmovies.org
Contact the author, Alan O’Hashi at 303-910-5782 or by email at bvet22@yahoo.com
There are plenty of new features at the 6th Annual Boulder International Film Festival. Robin Beeck, Executive Director of BIFF, talks about three exciting additions to this year’s program.
DiMe Symposium
BIFF is excited to host this panel discussion with the Governor’s Office of Film, Television & Media and the Boulder Convention and Visitor Bureau. At the St. Julien, leaders in the field of animation and gaming will consider potential collaboration and the industry’s future as well as Colorado’s role as a major player in the years to come. This exciting conversation will be followed by a networking reception. The admission fee includes a screening of panelist and Oscar-nominated producer, Don Hahn’s, new documentary, Waking Sleeping Beauty, at the First United Methodist Church. You don’t want to miss this opportunity. Tickets are available at the Boulder Theater box office for $35.
Speaking of the Church
This year, The First United Methodist Church has been added as one of the screening venues for BIFF. This is an exciting addition for festival organizers because the Church is just a few short blocks from the Boulder Theater, allowing attendees a greater opportunity to see more films.
Call2Action
BIFF has a long tradition of screening documentaries that promote social change, often leaving audience members to ask, “What can I do to help?” This year, BIFF launched a new website that provides a channel to do just that. Look for films with the new Call2Action logo and then go to biff1.com/call-to-action for more details on how you can help with the causes depicted in many of this year’s documentaries.
We at Boulder Community Media (BCM) wish everyone a Merry Christmas. As we move to the end of 2010 and into a new year, we hope that your lives will be prosperous and filled with happiness and great opportunities.
