Hi, all--
As some of you know, this fall is an exciting time for Clif and me. My
YA fantasy book, /Maya and the Book of Everything/, will be coming out
in November. As to be expected, we are as busy as can be getting the
book ready. Unfortunately, what this means is that we will not be as
involved with Cinema Explorations as we have been in the past. The
planning time for Cinema Explorations almost exactly overlaps when we
will be getting /Maya/ ready. However, we do want to stay involved.
We've been on this committee since the beginning, and we do love this
little film series. So, after much discussion, here is what we came up
with. We will come to the first meeting and the last meeting. In
between, if there are screenings and meetings, we will attend those if
we can. Clif is going to see about getting Vimeo to run passworded
movies on our television. Sitting bunched around a small computer screen
seriously affects our judgment of the film along with cramping my creaky
knees and stiff neck ;) Unfortunately, we can't come to meetings every
week, but we will stay in touch through email. Clif will continue to
manage the listserve.
We are very sorry to have to reduce our involvement, but we feel it is
necessary as we are on a rather tight schedule.
Onward and upward!
Laurie & Clif
On 09/13/2016 06:10 PM, Joel Johnson wrote:
Wow! 2017!
There have been inquiries about our upcoming winter film series. Some of this has come from the recent announcement that Shannon Haines would be changing her position and how this would affect the Maine Film Center and—ultimately—our little corner of that. Alan acknowledged in an e-mail to me that a lot about what responsibilities Shannon would continue to perform had yet to be worked out, but that he felt quite confident that CINEMA EXPLORATIONS should and would continue. I am hoping to be in touch with Ken when he gets back from Toronto to discuss film possibilities and ways that our group could make arrangements to see films. As many of you know, the use of DVD screeners by film distributors is becoming increasingly rare. Many on the committee found viewing films on a computer via a link as not particularly satisfactory. I think sometimes the film may have been punished for not being seen in a more advantageous situation. Anyway, hopefully we can have some film leads and a plan to allow people on the committee to see them. I would like to set up a meeting during the week of September 26-30.
What I need to know from each of you is whether you are willing and able to be involved in our process this year? Life situations change and that can impact your availability. Assuming that most of you are available, I would like to know what time would work best for a meeting. I have commitments for Tuesday and Thursday evening that week, but I am otherwise free. Since many of us are retired, we did end up having meetings during the day last year and that well may work for us this year.
In the meantime you may want to check out https://pointsnorthinstitute.org/ciff/ . This is a page that links you to the films in the Camden International Film Festival. This festival has many of the best documentary films and documentary shorts of the year. Many of these will be released in the next few months. I have forwarded to you other websites in the past. Some of these are for distributors and others for film festivals. Obviously one of the big festivals is the ongoing Toronto International Film Festival http://www.tiff.net/tiff/ . There’s a lot of films there and many will be released over the next few months though many others may not show up for quite some time. The New York Times publishes a Fall Movie Special Section which should be coming out over the next couple of Sundays. That can give you a peak at what films are being released when and a brief description. Some of you are particularly partial to classic films. Do you have any suggestions? One classic film that I know has been recently re-released is the 1992 film “HOWARD’S END.” If you are aware of others or have recommendations, be sure to bring those to our meeting.
Joel
