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<FONT FACE="Verdana"><B>This week at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre-<BR>
<BR>
<FONT COLOR="#800000"><FONT SIZE="5">Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room</FONT></FONT></B><FONT SIZE="5"> </FONT>(not rated)<BR>
<BR>
<B>Friday, October 7, 7:00 pm<BR>
</B><U>Panel discussion to follow film<BR>
</U>Moderated by Myron Schreck<BR>
Panelists include:<BR>
Mark Anderson, UI Professor of Law<BR>
Robert Greenberg, WSU Professor of Accounting<BR>
Deirdre Rogers, UI Professor of Sociology<BR>
<BR>
Also showing:<BR>
<B>Saturday & Sunday, October 8 & 9<BR>
4:30 & 7:00 pm<BR>
</B>Tickets $5/adult, $2/child under 13<BR>
<B>(see Review below)<BR>
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Next week at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre . . .<BR>
</B><BR>
<H2>Mad Hot Ballroom (PG)<BR>
</H2><B>Friday, October 14<BR>
7:00 pm<BR>
Saturday & Sunday, October 15 & 16<BR>
4:30 & 7:00 pm<BR>
</B>$5/adults, $2/children under 13<BR>
<BR>
Coming in October: Turtles can Fly, March of the Penguins<BR>
Check KPAC’s web site for dates & times. <FONT COLOR="#0000FF"><U>http://www.kenworthy.org<BR>
<BR>
</U></FONT><B>Regular Movie prices</B>: $5 adult, $2 child under 13 <BR>
KFS passes accepted year-round for Sunday movies!<BR>
<B>* * *<BR>
<BR>
Fall 2005 at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre<BR>
</B><BR>
<B>Darol Anger Republic of Strings in concert<BR>
Thursday, October 27<BR>
7:30 PM<BR>
</B>Tickets $16/adult, $12/senior or student<BR>
<BR>
"Darol Anger is the quintessential improvising violinist," says Dr. Billy Tayler of CBS Sunday Morning. Eric Fidler of the Associated Press says, "Darol Anger has been obliterating musical borders for years, but never to better effect. ... the Darol Anger Fiddle Ensemble creates rich, lusciously textured, complex and quite beautiful music."<BR>
<BR>
Renowned for his versatility and depth, Darol Anger has helped mastermind the evolution of the American string band with his groundbreaking groups The Turtle Island String Quartet, Fiddlers 4, Psychograss, Newgrange, Montreux, and the David Grisman Quintet. Michael John Simmons of Amazon.com says, "Harmonically complex, rhythmically rich arrangements. You might call this improvised Afro-Scandivanian Irish old-time string band music, but it would be equally true, and much simpler, to just say they play great music."<BR>
<BR>
The concert is sponsored by local businesses Advantage America Mortgage and Hayden, Ross & Co. and is funded in part by the Idaho Commission on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.<BR>
<BR>
Tickets for the concert go on sale October 1 at BookPeople of Moscow.<BR>
Tickets are $16 for adults and $12 for seniors, children or students with ID and can be charged by phone to 208-882-4127. There is a $.50 per ticket fee on all charge card orders.<BR>
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For more information, visit www.kenworthy.org or call 208-882-4127.<BR>
<B>* * *<BR>
</B><FONT COLOR="#0000FF"><U><BR>
</U></FONT>Moscow Community Theatre presents<BR>
<H2>Noodlehead<BR>
</H2>Original musical by Lisa Kliger<BR>
November 3 - 5, 10 - 12 at 7:30 PM<BR>
November 6 & 12 at 2:00 PM<BR>
$11/adult, $9/student or senior<BR>
<BR>
<B>* * *<BR>
This week’s review-<BR>
</B><BR>
<H2>Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room<BR>
</H2><BR>
Directed by Alex Gibney; written by Mr. Gibney, based on the book "The Smartest Guys in the Room" by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind<BR>
Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes<BR>
This film is not rated. <U>Advisory</U>: This documentary has brief scenes of nudity. <BR>
<BR>
<B><I><U>As reviewed by Marjorie Baumgarten writing for the Austin (Texas) Chronicle<BR>
</U></I></B><BR>
It’s a truism that things are done big in Texas, but who knew that approach applied to failures as well successes? <BR>
<BR>
The Enron debacle – the bankruptcy scandal that demolished the Houston corporation that was ranked the seventh largest in the country, and also devastated its swindled employees, stockholders, business associates, and even casual observers – is put under the microscope in Gibney’s documentary. <BR>
<BR>
Based on the book by <I>Fortune</I> writers Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind, <I>Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room</I> documents the collapse in vivid detail and with cinematic flourish. Moreover, the film doesn’t require an economics degree to understand the factors that led to Enron’s demise, although laymen may occasionally wish for a pause button in the theatre in order to absorb the volumes of information in more manageable scoops. <BR>
<BR>
The film teeters between two narrative strategies: Enron’s undoing seen as the work of some bad apples who tainted the whole bushel and the story of Enron as an American saga – a story not only of rampant hubris and self-interest at the local level but also a story about the operational mentality of the largest corporate contributor to George W. Bush’s re-election campaign and the tacit complicity of banks, accountants, stock analysts, and others in willfully turning a blind eye to irregularities that might have pointed out that the emperor was wearing no clothes.<BR>
<BR>
With such characters as Kenneth Lay, Jeffrey Skilling, and Andy Fastow at the helm of Enron, the "great man" approach is irresistibly tempting, since their "sins" are so lurid and grandiose. Gibney makes great use of lots of inside material: training films, news footage, party spoofs, and some especially damning audiotapes of Enron traders callously manipulating the price of oil on the West Coast as California suffered the consequences with rolling blackouts. In the course of showing these scoundrels for their true measure, Gibney strikes a few unfair blows that make it clear that the filmmaker’s stance is not fully objective, and that should not be forgotten either while watching his film. But the sensibility that manipulatively matches the Traffic tune "Dear Mr. Fantasy" with the introduction of Andy Fastow is the same sensibility that closes the movie with Tom Waits’ fabulous rendition of "God’s Away on Business." (The film's music choices show great forethought.) Despite these biases, the movie helps the average American understand the nature of the shell games perpetuated by Enron and how "synergistic corruptions" can corrupt absolutely.<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<B><I><U>As reviewed by A. O. Scott writing for the New York Times<BR>
</U></I></B><BR>
If you are looking for a good dose of outrage at a theater near you, you won't find a better bargain than "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room," a documentary directed by Alex Gibney. Based on the best-selling book by the Fortune magazine reporters Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind, "Enron" is a tight, fascinating chronicle of arrogance and greed. <BR>
<BR>
Interweaving Peter Coyote's sober, ever-so-slightly sarcastic voice-over narration with interviews and video clips (as well as one ill-advised and unnecessary re-enactment) and accompanied by an anthology of well-chosen pop songs, it manages to be both informative and entertaining.<BR>
<BR>
Much of the entertainment value comes from the undeniable pleasure of feeling morally superior to many of the people on screen, a nice antidote to the envy they might have inspired when they were riding high. Mr. Gibney uses video from Congressional hearings and financial chat-show appearances to damning effect; in the era before CSPAN and CNBC, the case against Enron might have been much harder to make. <BR>
<BR>
He has also obtained in-house video from company meetings, in which Mr. Skilling and Mr. Lay, in their very different styles, strut and brag through the company's boom years. Mr. Lay is a bit like a classic Texas football coach - gruff, tough but also possessing a measure of courtly charm. Mr. Skilling is more tightly wound, supremely confident of his intellect and abilities, with a chillier demeanor than his boss. When their enterprise starts to collapse, Mr. Skilling, expressing no remorse and accepting no responsibility, abruptly quits. Mr. Lay, rallying his troops, indulges in one of the most dismaying appropriations of the Sept. 11 attacks ever recorded - - - declaring to employees in the autumn of 2001 that, just like America, Enron is under attack.<BR>
<BR>
Appropriately enough, Mr. Gibney's quick, fluid editing gives his film the suspenseful, queasy fascination of a disaster flick, even - or perhaps especially - because you know exactly where it's headed. As the story moves forward, keep your eye on the bottom of the screen, where the stock price is periodically shown. Watch it soar, and then watch it plummet.<BR>
<BR>
Of course, the consequences of Enron's foray into funny money were quite serious, and "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room" does not forget the real costs of this catastrophe. While it notes the friendship between Mr. Lay and the Bush family, and details Enron's role in the California energy crisis and the political destruction of Gray Davis, the film is for the most part too journalistically scrupulous to indulge in anything that might smack of conspiracy theorizing. <BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<B><I><U>As reviewed by Jonathan Curiel writing for the San Francisco Chronicle<BR>
</U></I></B><BR>
Its name is synonymous with corporate misbehavior, but a documentary about Enron elevates its story into the ranks of the truly absurd. "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room" is laced with dark humor and "Are you kidding me?" moments that shed new light on the rise and fall of the giant Houston energy concern. <BR>
<BR>
Take the audiotapes that director Alex Gibney features in "Enron." The recordings, made during the height of California's energy crisis in 2000 and 2001, reveal Enron traders gloating as they shut down perfectly fine power plants in a bid to raise kilowatt prices -- and their own profits. One trader hears about wildfires that are engulfing state property (including power lines that, if burned, would raise kilowatt prices even more), and says, "Burn, baby, burn!" Another says, "That's a beautiful thing." Gibney obtained the audio from the Snohomish County Public Utility District in Washington, whose lawyers secured them in an Enron-related lawsuit. The tapes, whose contents have been previously reported in dribs and drabs, are damning evidence of Enron's immoral practices, which fueled California's rolling blackouts. <BR>
<BR>
Another coup by Gibney: getting major players in the Enron debacle, and those heavily affected by the corporation's ruthlessness, to speak frankly to the camera. Among them is former California Gov. Gray Davis, who was arguably deposed by the shenanigans undertaken in the name of Enron Chairman Ken Lay and chief executive Jeff Skilling. <BR>
<BR>
With a dose of incredulity that humanizes him, Davis rips the Federal Energy Commission (whose chairman owed his job to Lay) for failing to intervene early on in California's energy woes. Bush also failed to intervene, setting the stage for Arnold Schwarzenegger's gubernatorial run. Asked whether Bush and Lay had a political agenda to blame Davis for the state's energy woes, Davis says, "Hello?" <BR>
<BR>
Gibney mixes in old clips of Lay and Skilling, then adds darkly humorous touches, such as having the Dusty Springfield song "Son of a Preacher Man" play in the background as we learn that Lay's father was a Baptist preacher. (Another darkly humorous segue: juxtaposing the money-grubbing culture of Enron with old black-and-white clips of the Milgram experiment -- the Yale University exercise that suggested that people would zap others to death if motivated by money and pressure.) <BR>
<BR>
Gibney lets Lay and Skilling hang themselves with words that are oh-so- ironic in retrospect. Lay: "Enron is a company that deals with everyone with absolute integrity." Skilling: "We're the good guys." Americans were taken for a ride by Enron. This film lets us sit back and see how it all happened. There will be lots of seething at the sight of it all, but there are enough good laughs to make the experience more than worthwhile. <BR>
<BR>
<I>Film reviews researched and edited by Peter A. Haggart<BR>
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<B><I>Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre<BR>
</I>508 S. Main Street, Moscow, Idaho<BR>
</B>For more information, call 208-882-4127 or visit http://www.kenworthy.org<BR>
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<BR>
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<FONT COLOR="#0000FF"><U>http://www.kenworthy.org<BR>
<BR>
</U></FONT>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<BR>
PAMELA PALMER, <B>Volunteer<BR>
</B>Mailto:ppalmer@moscow.com<BR>
Film and Events Committee <BR>
Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre<BR>
<BR>
http://www.kenworthy.org<BR>
To speak with a KPAC staff member, <BR>
call (208) 882-4127<BR>
Mailto:kpac@moscow.com<BR>
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