Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Cappella Clausura

Cappella Clausura: Sacred Music by Women Composers

Sunday, March 28, 2010, 4:30 pm First Baptist Church, 190 Main St., Brattleboro

In honor of Women's History Month, and in collaboration with WFF and "Visions" art show, Cappella Clausura will present a program benefiting the local Women's Crisis Center. Cappella Clausura is a women's vocal ensemble of music professionals from the Boston area. Their Brattleboro program includes works by contemporary composers Patricia Van Ness and Hilary Tann, as well as Hildegard von Bingen from the early 1100s, late Renaissance composers Sulpitia Cesis and Raphaella Aleotti, and Baroque composers Chiara Cozzolani (whose five-movement Messa Paschale is threaded throughout) and Orsina Vizzana. Some pieces will include accompaniment on portative organ, viola da gamba, and theorbo (a lute-like instrument).

Tickets: $18, including a $5 donation to the Women's Crisis Center. This event is supported in part by a New England States Touring grant from the New England Foundation for the Arts, as well as a $500 "challenge grant" from composer Patsy Rogers, a former Brattleboro-area resident and supporting member of Friends of Music.

There will be a preconcert lecture by composer Hilary Tann. For further information on the Tann presentation and the concert, call: 802-254-3600, or go to www.fomag.org.

The Cappella Clausura website is www.clausura.org http://www.clausura.org>

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Events at the Womens Film Festival

Visions Art Show:

March 5th On view at the Hooker-Dunham Theater & Gallery

Another special feature of the Festival—“Visions,” a show of women’s art and craft, with proceeds from the month-long silent auction also going to the Crisis Center. The show opens on Gallery Walk Friday, March 5th.

The Moon Inside You: Q&A with Director Diana Fabianova by Skype

March 13, Sat.    18:30:00  Hooker-Dunham Theater

Talk with the Director Diana Fabianova in Slovakia who will be on the screen through Skype after the film.
(women's health, menstruation)

Quest for Honor: Q&A with Director Mary Ann Smothers Bruni

March 13, Sat    19:00:00  Brattleboro Museum and Art Center

Mary Ann Sothers Bruni, just back from Iraq will be here for Q&A after the film. A photographer, this is her first film.
(Kurdish Iraq violence against women, women activists)

Kaziah: The Goat Woman: Q&A with Director Amy Duzinski Janes

March 14, Sun.    13:00:00   Brattleboro Museum and Art Center

Amy Duzinski Janes, Director coming from California will be here along with a new painting by Kaziah, of local fallen soldier Kyle Gilbert to be presented to family.
(Art, grief, farming)

Glass House: Q&A with Producer Melissa Hibbard    

March 18 Thurs.    18:30:00    Latchis Theater

March 19, Fri.    10:00:00    Room 101, International Center, School for International Training

Producer, Melissa Hibbard will be on hand for Q&A after the film.
(Iran social issues, young women and teens)

Motherland: Q&A with Director Jennifer Steinman    

March 20, Sat    13:00:00    Latchis Theater

Director Jennifer Steinman here from California will be available for Q&A after the film.
(mother's grief)

Orgasm Inc: Q&A with Director Liz Canner

March 20, Sat    18:30:00    Latchis Theater

Vermont Director Elizabeth Canner will be here for Q&A after the film.
(women's health, pharmaceutcal politics)

Closing Party:

On Saturday, March 27th, a festive closing party will include the final evening of bidding on the artwork in the “Visions” exhibit and a screening of the film chosen by festival-goers as “the Best of the Fest."

Cappella Clausura:

Finally, on Sunday, March 28th, the Women’s Film Festival welcomes Boston's Cappella Clausura: Sacred Music by Women Composers, performing a special benefit concert for the Women's Crisis Center.

19th Women’s Film Festival March 12-21, 2010

19th Women’s Film Festival March 12-21, 2010

March in Vermont is traditionally mud season, with cold winds, waning cabin fever, and St. Patrick’s and Town Meeting Days. In Brattleboro, it has also come to mean the Women’s Film Festival, when this southern Vermont town hosts a premier event showcasing films made by women about women. Proceeds from ticket sales go to the Women’s Crisis Center, which helps women and children affected by domestic or sexual abuse.

Starting with a special benefit screening of Academy Award-nominated “Precious” on March 5th at the Latchis Theater, then continuing on March 12th and running for ten days through March 21st, Brattleboro becomes headquarters for the finest in cutting-edge, innovative, and informative film-making.

In this, the Festival’s nineteenth year, twenty-five award-winning documentaries and feature films will be presented, hailing from Colombia, Iran, Canada, South Africa, England, the United States, New Zealand, Scotland, and France. Owing to the Festival’s growing reputation, more directors than ever will be present to introduce their films.

The festival opens with “The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls,” a New Zealand film about yodeling lesbian country-western singers, called “provocative and disarming.” Other highlights of the festival include “The Beaches of Agnes,” a poignant and cinematically creative memoir by Agnès Varda, short-listed for an Academy Award; the heroic tale of an artist street-survivor, “Begging Naked;” Kim Longinotto’s “Rough Aunties,” a documentary about women in South Africa who work to save children traumatized by sexual abuse and assault, documentary-making at its finest and most inspiring; “The Jazz Baroness,” about filmmaker Hannah Rothschild’s aunt who became the benefactor of Thelonius Monk, narrated by Helen Mirren.

The Festival closes with a one-time screening of “Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg,” an award-winning feature-length documentary directed by Aviva Kempner about the life of Molly Berg, a pioneer in TV comedy, weaving Berg’s personal story with the history of early television and Jewish-American life in the first half of the 20th century.

This is only a small sample of the films lined up for this year’s Festival.