[ThisWeek] Sideways and Esther at the Kenworthy

[thisweek at kenworthy.org]

This week at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre-

Sideways (R)
Friday, March 25
7:00 PM
Saturday & Sunday, March 26 & 27
4:15/7:00 PM
$5 adults
KFS passes accepted for Sunday shows
(See Review Below)

Esther
Showing of videotaped performance of this original family musical
March 26, 1:00 PM
FREE
(more information below)
* * *

Next week at the Kenworthy-

University of Idaho presents
American Indian Film Festival
March 30 Ceremonial Opening
With Hearts & Hands & Bells
March 31 American Indian Graffiti
April 1 Moccasin Flats and Chiefs
April 2 The Films of Shelly Niro
All events begin at 7:00 PM
FREE
(more information below)


ONE DAY ONLY-
Hotel Rwanda (PG13)
Sunday, April 3
1:30/4:15/7:00 PM

* * *
Coming in April to the Kenworthy-

Sirius Idaho Theatre presents
The U.S. premiere of a romantic comedy by Uniontown playwright, Bruce Gooch
Random Acts of Love
April 6 - 9, 7:30 PM
April 9, 2:00 PM
Tickets $15/adult, $9/senior or student
TicketsWest or BookPeople
(more information below)

The Life Aquatic (R)
April 10, 1:30/4:15/7:00 PM

An evening of Bluegrass with
Steptoe
Blackberry Jam
South Hill Ramblers
April 15, 7:00 PM
Tickets $10/adult, $7/child under 13

A Series of Unfortunate Events (PG)
April 16, 1:00/3:45/7:00 PM
April 17, 1:00/3:45

Borah Symposium presents
About Baghdad
April 17, 7:00 PM
FREE
(more information below)

A Very Long Engagement (R)
April 22, 7:00 PM
April 23 - 24, 4:15/7:00 PM

Born into Brothels (NR)
April 29, 7:00 PM
April 30 - May 1, 4:45/7:00 PM

Coming in May:  The Sea Inside, Hard Goodbyes My Father, Lost Embrace.

Regular Movie prices:  $5 adults, $2 children 12 and younger.
KFS passes accepted for Sunday movies

Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre
508 S. Main Street, Moscow, Idaho
For more information, call 208-882-4127 or visit http://www.kenworthy.org
* * *
This week¹s review-

Sideways

Directed and written by Alexander Payne, based on the novel by Rex Pickett
Running time: 2 hours, 4 minutes
Rated R with the following advisory: This film contains nudity, strong
sexuality and profanity.

As reviewed by Manohla Dargis writing for the New York Times

The specter of a disappointed life hangs over Alexander Payne's film
''Sideways,'' casting shadows so deep and so dark it's a wonder that the
story's nearly broken hero hasn't drowned in them.

But Miles, beautifully played by Paul Giamatti, hasn't yet been broken by
his divorce, unpublished novels and the accumulation of everyday indignities
that have helped make him the man he is. And therein lies the great cosmic
joke of this heart-piercing film: without struggle and pain, Miles wouldn't
be half the good and decent man he is, though he certainly might complain a
little less, venture a little more.

Directed by Mr. Payne, who adapted the screenplay with his longtime writing
partner, Jim Taylor, from the book by Rex Pickett, ''Sideways² is about a
man on the verge of saying uncle to life. The film opens with Miles taking
off with his longtime friend Jack (Thomas Haden Church) to the central
California coast for an orchestrated week of wine, golf and camaraderie.

Afterward, the two will motor back to reality, where Jack, a B-list actor
and pretty boy fast on the fade, will marry for the first time. For Miles,
eagerly waiting word on the fate of yet another manuscript, the week
promises a much-needed respite from his day-to-day; for Jack, it's an excuse
to beat a quick if temporary retreat from the future.

That the two men may end up running in opposite directions is suggested as
soon as they slam the car doors on the way toward their adventure. Eyes wild
with excitement, Jack grabs a bottle of warm sparkling wine, pops the cork
and in a single gesture turns a rarefied pleasure into a party-animal's
aperitif. Although horror washes across him, Miles endures Jack's guzzling
for a reason. 

A writer by vocation, a schoolteacher by profession, Miles maintains the
posture of an initiate when it comes to wine. But there's an aspect of a
grand passion underneath his tasting notes about color, smell and rim versus
core, and it's clear that Miles, who shares Apollo's sense of order and
reason, also secretly admires the wildness and chaos embodied by the
Dionysus riding shotgun in his car.

The friends finally settle into a dumpy hotel in the faux-Danish tourist
trap known as Solvang. There, amid trips to local wineries, they hook up
with a sad-eyed waitress, Maya (Virginia Madsen), with whom Miles has a
vague acquaintance, and a lusty wine pourer, Stephanie (Sandra Oh), whom
Jack picks up along with some cases of wine.

While Jack and Stephanie unceremoniously dispatch their clothes, Miles and
Maya begin a slow, tentative dance. Miles leads by explaining his love of
pinot noir, a notoriously difficult grape to cultivate that can nonetheless
yield sublime delights; it's a delicate and rather precarious metaphor that
Maya answers by looking deep into Miles's eyes, taking hold of one of his
hands and baring herself to him completely.

A small masterpiece, this exquisitely shaped scene shows just how far Mr.
Payne has come as a director, especially of actors. It took courage to cast
Mr. Giamatti in the central role, not because he isn't up to the challenge,
but because he's neither pretty nor a star, two no-no's in the contemporary
film industry. (It took similar daring to cast Mr. Church and Ms. Madsen,
who each repay Mr. Payne's gift wonderfully.) But it takes more than courage
to push actors to their limits of their talents, which Mr. Payne does here.
You need to understand that the truth of both a human being and a screen
performance doesn't exist only in grace and beauty, but in small fissures
and cracks, in the tiny vein on Miles's forehead that throbs out the rhythm
of his anguish. 

American movies are filled with actors who loudly beat their chests on their
way to the Academy Awards. Although Miles throws a few tantrums, including
an encounter with Jack in a dusty vineyard that begins with a comic flourish
then pivots into sorrow, Mr. Giamatti doesn't indulge in the usual screen
histrionics in ''Sideways.''

As reviewed by Roger Ebert writing for the Chicago Sun Times

"There was a tasting last night," Miles Raymond explains, on one of those
alcoholic mornings that begin in the afternoon and strain eagerly toward the
first drink. That's why he's a little shaky. He's not an alcoholic, you
understand; he's an oenophile, which means he can continue to pronounce
French wines long after most people would be unconscious. We realize he
doesn't set the bar too high when he praises one vintage as "quaffable." No
wonder his unpublished novel is titled The Day After Yesterday; for anyone
who drinks a lot, that's what today always feels like.

Miles is the hero of Alexander Payne's "Sideways," which is as lovable a
movie as "Fargo," although in a completely different way. He's an English
teacher in middle school whose marriage has failed, whose novel seems in the
process of failing, whose mother apparently understands that when he visits
her, it is because he loves her, and also because he needs to steal some of
her money. Miles is not perfect, but the way Paul Giamatti plays him, we
forgive him his trespasses, because he trespasses most of all against
himself.

Miles' friend Jack is getting married in a week. They would seem to have
little in common. Jack is a big, blond, jovial man at the peak of fleshy
middle-aged handsomeness, and Miles looks like -- well, if you know who
Harvey Pekar is, that's who Giamatti played in his previous movie. But Jack
and Miles have been friends since they were college roommates, and their
friendship endures because together they add up to a relatively complete
person.

Miles, as the best man, wants to take Jack on a weeklong bachelor party in
the California wine country, which makes perfect sense, because whatever an
alcoholic says he is planning, at the basic level he is planning his
drinking. Jack's addiction is to women. "My best man gift to you," he tells
Miles, "will be to get you laid." Miles is so manifestly not layable that
for him this would be less like a gift than an exercise program.

Of course they meet two women. Maya (Virginia Madsen) is a waitress at a
restaurant where Miles has often stopped in the past, to yearn but not
touch. She's getting her graduate degree in horticulture, and is beautiful,
in a kind way; you wonder why she would be attracted to Miles until you find
out she was once married to a philosophy professor at Santa Barbara, which
can send a woman down market in search of relief. The next day they meet
Stephanie (Sandra Oh), a pour girl at a winery tasting room, and when it
appears that the two women know each other, Jack seals the deal with a
double date, swearing Miles to silence about the approaching marriage.

The women are not plot conveniences, but elements in a complex romantic and
even therapeutic process. Miles loves Maya and has for years, but cannot
bring himself to make a move because romance requires precision and tact
late at night, not Miles' peak time of day. Jack lusts after Stephanie, and
casually, even cruelly, fakes love for her even as he cheats on his fiancée.

Alexander Payne has made four wonderful movies: "Citizen Ruth," "Election,"
the Jack Nicholson tragicomedy "About Schmidt," and now this. He finds plots
that service his characters, instead of limiting them. The characters are
played not by the first actors you would think of casting, but by actors who
will prevent you from ever being able to imagine anyone else in their roles.

As reviewed by Sam Adams writing for the Philadelphia City Paper

Just as it's never too late to change your life for the better, your life is
never so screwed up you can't make it worse. That's the semi-inspirational
message of Alexander Payne's Sideways, a midlife-crisis comedy which is at
once gentle and acute, comforting and terrifying. The split personality
makes sense, since at first glance, its pair of wine-country weekenders
couldn't be more mismatched. Miles (Paul Giamatti) is a glum, nervous
schoolteacher and unpublished novelist; Jack (Thomas Haden Church) is a
sun-baked soap-opera actor who's spending the last week before his impending
marriage with Miles in the Santa Ynez Valley, shuttling between vineyards
and rundown steakhouses with killer wine lists.

In movies about male friendship, women inevitably take a back seat, but if
the women in Sideways don't get equal time, Payne never treats them like
props or plot fixtures. Along with co-writer Jim Taylor, Payne has the knack
of giving you the feeling you've walked in on something that's been going on
for years, like Miles' long-standing crush on Maya (Virginia Madsen), a
pretty waitress at one of those oenophile steak shacks. When Jack goads
Miles into asking her out, it's Miles' fantasy come true, but the
flesh-and-blood awkwardness of a relationship neither one is ready for
quickly takes hold. Jack has no difficulty jumping into bed with Stephanie
(Sandra Oh), a winery bartender, but their no-strings-attached sexual
relationship gets tangled when Jack discovers she has a young son. Men may
be surprised by Jack's self-destructive response to this sudden turn, but I
imagine women will be more likely to nod their heads.

The film's extended wine metaphor comes to a head when Miles, whose disdain
for Merlot verges on pathological, explains his love of the pinot grape:
it's delicate, persnickety and grows only with great care‹which makes it, of
course, a lot like Miles himself. But as Maya reminds him, on a night when
their inhibitions almost fall, there's a moment when wine peaks, when it's
as good as it's ever going to get. As she talks, the background around her
seems to drop away; the focus softens, and Miles stares rapt, and you can
feel him falling in love‹not just with her, but with her wisdom. Seizing the
moment isn't Miles' forte: It takes Maya to point out that the title of his
unpublished novel, The Day After Yesterday, is just a complicated way of
saying "today." But every moment in Sideways is worth seizing.

In some ways, Sideways is a modest movie; ambition too great would ill suit
its characters. But it's hardly a modest achievement when real life finds
its way onto the screen, even less so when it stays still long enough for
you to take a long, soft look at it.

Film reviews researched and edited by Peter Haggart
* * *

FREE showing of videotaped performance of the family musical, Esther.
Saturday, March 26, 1:00 PM

ESTHER was performed by the Moscow Community Theatre in May of 2003.  It is
an original musical based on the biblical story, with script, music and
lyrics by Myron Schreck.  The musical was directed by Jerry Schutz and
produced by Cathy Brinkerhoff.  It stars Alice Bolin as Esther, Chris Eisele
as Haman, and Nick Henderson as the King.  The costumes were designed by Liz
Brandt, and the choreography was by Lorraine Person, of Festival Dance.  The
cast, crew, and musicians are filled with local residents.

The video of ESTHER is also a local production.  It was taped and edited by
Dan Moyer of After Image Visual Services, in Moscow.  An audio compact disc
was recorded by Joel M. Abbott of Audio Production Services, also in Moscow.
The performances were recorded live at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre.

ESTHER tells the story of young orphan in Persia who, either by fortune or
by divine intervention, becomes Queen.  The King of Persia, at the time, was
Achashvayrosh.  The biblical story begins with the King banishing his wife
for refusing to dance at one of his parties.  Then the King has a beauty
contest to select the new queen.  At the same time, Haman, one of the King's
ministers, is trying to increase his political power and remove his enemies,
which include the tribe of Yehudeem.  Esther captivates the King with her
beauty and her intelligence.  She has kept it a secret that she is a member
of the tribe of Yehudeem.  The plot reaches a crisis when Haman obtains a
royal decree to kill the Yehudeem, and Esther must find a way to save her
people.  The musical contains a dozen original songs that represent diverse
styles and convey the various themes of the story:  love, hope, freedom,
nostalgia, the nature of evil, and the power of faith.

The video is suitable for the entire family.  It runs for approximately 2
hours and 15 minutes.  The showing is free and open to the public.
* * *

UI American Indian Film Fest March 30-April 2
Includes Post-Screening Dialogues

MOSCOW, Idaho -- Northwest Native American writer Sherman Alexie's latest
film effort "49?" will be shown as part of the University of Idaho's
American Indian Film Festival March 30 through April 2 at the Kenworthy
Performing Arts Centre in Moscow.

All shows begin at 7 p.m.; admission is free and discussions follow the
shows.
            
The series is sponsored by UI American Indian Studies Program, Idaho
Humanities Council and UI President¹s Diversity Initiative Grant. The
ceremonial opening Wednesday, March 30, includes a welcome by a tribal elder
and keynote messages from UI Professor Georgia Johnson and Washington State
University Professor Michael Hays.

The schedule of films is:

-- Wednesday, March 30, 7:00 PM

"With Hearts, Hands and Bells: The Story of the Sister Building on the Coeur
d¹Alene Indian Reservation," documentary written by Georgia Grady Johnson,
directed and produced by Michael Hayes. It depicts life from the late 19th
century to the present at the Catholic missionary school in Desmet.
 
-- Thursday, March 31, 7:00 PM
"American Indian Graffiti," co-directed and written by Steven Judd (Choctaw)
and Tvli Jacob (Choctaw/Kiowa); set in contemporary Oklahoma, the ensemble
drama tells about the intertwining lives of four Native Americans. It¹s a
story about friendships that falter, dreams that come true, families that
fall apart, and the struggle to survive.
 
-- Friday, April 1, 7:00 PM
"Moccasin Flats," directed by Randy Redroad (Cherokee). A Native youth is
caught between his chance at a college education and his conflict with the
"home boys." This gritty drama depicts urban and rural Indian communities
across North America.

"Chiefs," directed by Daniel Junge, this documentary shows how basketball
provides youth with a sense of belonging and camaraderie, a means of
achieving victory, and an opportunity to explore life off the reservation.

"49?" directed by Sherman Alexie, a short six-minute film on the dance
tradition called the 49.
 
-- Saturday, April 2, 7:00 PM
The Experimental Films of Mohawk Filmmaker Shelly Niro, from Niagra Falls,
New York and currently living in Brantford, Ontario. Storytelling through
film and installation art, Niro creates roles for native women that give
them a voice of strength and community. Her work addresses questions of
identity. 

"It Starts with a Whisper" follows a young Iroquois woman who has grown up
on a reservation and her decision about which path to follow in life.
 
"Overweight with Crooked Teeth" frames issues of Native identity by
reversing Native stereotypes.
 
"Honey Moccasin," an all-Native comedy-thriller, is part of the Smoke
Signals new wave of films that examine native identity in the 1990s. Set on
the Grand Pine Indian Reservation, the melodrama, performance art, cable
access, and ³whodunit² unfold.
 
"The Shirt" is an experimental video featuring Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie that
uses the tee-shirt to express history and irony.
 
"Our mission is to bring Native-made films to our region in order to deepen
our understanding of contemporary Indian life and strengthen intercultural
relationships," said Janis Johnson, festival organizer and assistant
professor of American Indian Studies at UI. "One of the most compelling ways
to tell American Indian stories is through film. This year¹s festival
includes independent films with a focus on the challenges Native young
people face.²

Friday daytime showings are possible for school groups by arrangement with
Johnson, janjohn at uidaho.edu, (208) 885-6156 or (208) 743-1222.
* * *

Tickets now on sale-

Sirius Idaho Theatre
in conjunction with new fangled  stages,
presents the United States premiere of the romantic comedy,
Random Acts of Love by Bruce Gooch
Directed by Forrest Sears

April 6, 7, 8, & 9 at 7:30 pm
Matinee on April 9 at 2:00 pm

Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre
508 S. Main St.  Moscow, Idaho

Tickets available at BookPeople of Moscow or TicketsWest
(www.ticketswest.com <http://www.ticketswest.com/> 800-325-SEAT,
208-885-7212)
$15 adults and $9 seniors/students (plus applicable fees)

Forrest Sears, University of Idaho Professor Emeritus of Theatre, is working
with Sirius Idaho Theatre to bring this production to the Palouse. Sears, in
speaking about his former student Bruce Gooch, says, ³Bruce¹s new play,
Random Acts of Love, is the most romantic, gripping and compelling of all
his many fine scripts. For lovers of Shakespeare, it is a must. For those
new to the bard, it will lure you into his works like nothing else I know.²

Recognized as ³Outstanding New Play² at the Toronto Fringe Festival 2004,
Random Acts of Love features Bruce Gooch, a Uniontown native and University
of Idaho alum, and Lynn Vogt, co-founders of Toronto-based new fangled
stages.

Synopsis
Having had the audacity to age, Victoria Daniels, played by Vogt, has been
³let go² from her daytime drama. She ditches trash-for-cash television and
agrees to star in a two-character play of Shakespeare¹s greatest hits called
The Seven Ages of Love. Confident in this decision for herself and her
children, she runs head long into her co-star, Russell Thomas, played by
Gooch, an actor with whom she had a passionate encounter fifteen years
earlier. They battle and brawl their way through rehearsals, threatening to
ruin the show. Random Acts of Love links the past and present into a love
story about the theatre, Shakespeare and second chances.

During their visit to the Palouse in April, Bruce Gooch and Lynn Vogt are
offering an audition workshop for actors on Thursday, April 7 from 2:30 ­
5:00 pm, at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre. Gooch and Vogt will work
with ten students. Additional seating is available for observers.

Lynn and Bruce audition for their livelihood up to 10 times a week. They
know what casting directors are looking for in film, TV, stage and
commercials. They coach actors for individual auditions. They will teach
what you need to know about auditions, from walking into the room to walking
out. Observers of this workshop will gain almost as much as the participants
on stage. Anyone interested in learning more about the life and livelihood
of an actor should plan to attend.

For more information about the play, audition workshop, or to sign up as an
usher for one performance, call Pam Palmer at 883-3741 or visit the web site
of Sirius Idaho Theatre http://www.siriusidahotheatre.com/
* * *

Borah Symposium presents ³About Baghdad²

The Borah Symposium this year, "Voices of Peace," is planned for April
17-April 20, 2005. The community kick-off event is a screening of the
documentary "About Baghdad" and meeting with the co-producer, Adam Shapiro.
The film is free and open to the public, 7:00 pm, April 17.  The
documentary, 'About Baghdad' is an hour and 30 minute documentary, shot in
totality in Baghdad in July 2003 (3 months into the occupation), and thus it
reveals a quite interesting place in time.

"About Baghdad" received numerous accolades and prestigious recognition; The
New York Times stated that it "manages to present a true diversity of
opinion. . . emotionally and intellectually challenging." It won Best
Documentary at the Big Apple Film Festival 2004 (NY), the Official Selection
of  IDFA 2004 (Amsterdam),  Montreal World Film Festival --Official
selection, Festival do Rio 2004 (Rio de Janeiro), International Film
Festival of Human Rights of Spain (Barcelona, Madrid, Bilbao, Girona &
Viranoz) and now it will be showing in Moscow, Idaho.

About Baghdad is an independent film of eyewitness testimony about and from
Iraqi people.  The documentary portrays a yearning for peace, reflections on
the complexity of the conditions for peace, and in essence portrays a drama
that is still unfolding.  In July 2003, Sinan Antoon, an exiled Iraqi writer
and poet, returned to Baghdad to see what has become of his city after wars,
sanctions, decades of oppression and violence, and now presence of foreign
power.  

The documentary will be introduced by one of its producers;  Adam Shapiro
(Please note the change form Dr. Rania Masri who regrettably is unable to
attend) Comments and conversation with Co-Producer Adam Shapiro, currently a
Ph.D. candidate in International Relations at American University in
Washington, DC.  He holds an MA in Arab Studies from Georgetown University
and an MA in Politics from New York University.

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Adam is a founding member of InCounter
Productions, which produced the film "About Baghdad" (www.aboutbaghdad.com),
a documentary filmed in Baghdad, Iraq in July 2003.  Adam co-produced and
co-directed the film, and was in Iraq as part of the on-location film crew.
His current film project is focusing on Darfur (www.darfurfilm.org), where
he filmed in October/November 2004.  The documentary film is due to be
completed in March 2005.

Previously Adam served in numerous capacities for Seeds of Peace, notably as
the first Director of the Center for Coexistence in Jerusalem, where he
oversaw all youth programs in the region.  He also worked as a consultant
for Civic Forum - a Jerusalem-based Palestinian NGO working on developing
civil society and democracy in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.  Adam
has traveled the region extensively and in addition to the West Bank has
lived and worked in Yemen, Egypt, Jordan, Cyprus and Iraq.  Additionally, he
has organized youth conferences in Villars, Switzerland and Prague, Czech
Republic.

Adam has spoken widely about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and about the
post-war occupation of Iraq, appearing at universities and other public
forums throughout the United States and the Middle East, and has been a
guest on many television and radio programs and interviewed for newspaper
articles, including CNN, MSNBC, BBC, NPR, Pacifica Radio and the New York
Times.  He has also published articles in The Nation.

For more information about the film and to view the film trailer please
visit the website at www.AboutBaghdad.com <http://www.aboutbaghdad.com/>
* * *

Sign up for this weekly email on events and movies at the Kenworthy by
logging onto our website
http://www.kenworthy.org

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PAMELA PALMER, Volunteer
Mailto:ppalmer at moscow.com
Film and Events Committee
Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre

http://www.kenworthy.org
To speak with a KPAC staff member,
call (208) 882-4127
Mailto:kpac at moscow.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  

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