Sandra Gail Lambert

Multi-media poetry!

Take a poem and add a whole collaboration of musicians and actors and all the people and locations and props it takes to make a film.  Now you have Alice Teeter's double sestina The 103rd birthday of Emma Regina DeGraffenreid Smith lifted off the page and made dimensional.  It thrills me, the thought of all that effort and time by all those people, young and old, focused in on one poem.  It makes me want, well, something - maybe get some of my dialogues acted out, have a scene put into song, or at least form a poetry study group of some sort.  Anyway, here's the video.      

Cinema Verde Environmental Film and Arts Festival

The Third Annual Cinema Verde is happening.  Check out this chock-full schedule of events.  Once again, it's a good thing to live in Gainesville.

Lives Worth Living - A Story of the Disability Rights Movement

The opening scene of this trailer, that little half-naked child with under arm crutches and strapped-on braces, could be a picture right out of my family album.  Here's one that actually is.  

Lives Worth Living is an upcoming Independent Lens film about the early disability rights movement.  Here in Gainesville, it first shows on Thursday, October 27th at 10pm on PBS. 

The Poetry of Resilience - Written and Directed by Katja Esson

 
Katja Esson brings us the stories of six international poets who have survived political violence.  They tell us and themselves why they write - "to remember, to take revenge, to curse, to forgive, to honor, to commemorate, to transcend."

Li-Young Lee, Lillian Boraks-Nemetz, Majid Naficy, Alexandre Kimenyi, Yashuhiko Shigemoto, and Choman Hardi speak, each one, of their history and their relationship to the creative.  The Poetry of Resilience premiers any day now.  Here's a trailer.   

Poetry of Resilience Excerpt from Penelope Pictures on Vimeo.

Pariah - A Movie by Dee Rees

 
Dee Rees wrote and now directs the soon to be released Pariah - "a coming of age story" "a desperate search for sexual expression."  Oh, my, this looks good.  

A Bit of Monday Morning Poetry - Tanya Davis and Andrea Dorfman

  

Tanya Davis (poet, songwriter, musician) and Andrea Dorfman (filmmaker) collaborated on this meditation. 

Gainesville Environmental Film and Art Festival - The First Annual!

 
The First Annual Gainesville Environmental Film and Art Festival is from March 19th through the 28th, and there are so many ways to participate.  You can attend any number of the eighteen screenings of twelve different films, bring your loved ones to the day-long street fair of music, booths, and movies, hang out at one of the gallery openings, go on a guided nature outing, volunteer, or donate scads of money. 

A really good option is the All Inclusive Festival Pass - $50 gets you a VIP opening night reception, a ticket to four (update - it's now 12!) different films, reserved front row seating, and the satisfaction of supporting another one of those Gainesville events that makes us glad that we live here.   

The Miracle Worker? Or Annie Dearest?

Yes, one can be horrified and laugh really hard at the same time.  The co-producer and co-director of this Faust Films Production of Annie Dearest is Terry Galloway.  Her memoir Mean Little Deaf Queer is due out in paperback soon. 

 

The Same Love - Lesbian Relationships

And this is just Part One of a documentary by Bernadette.