Event Archives

Lisa Redfern brings three talented Maine songwriters to perform in an intimate, unplugged setting in Frontier’s theatre for an evening of compelling songs and stories.

The 25 year old singer/guitarist has been described as "smooth" and an "earnest songwriter" by Dispatch Magazine and been compared to the likes of John Mayer, Dave Matthews and Jason Mraz.

Gallant has shared stages with acclaimed acts including the The Mallett Brothers Band, Zach Jones, Marion Grace, Eric Bettencourt and Amanda Gervasi.

Drawing influence from a variance in artists from Eric Clapton, to Robert Cray, to Jack White, to D'Angelo, Gallant delivers a "full-bodied whisper of a voice" (Sam Pfeifle, Portland Phoenix) paired with a strikingly hopeful tone to his guitars.

Gallant's debut EP, "My Own Divide", released on October 28, 2011 and is now available at Bull Moose locations.

_________________________________________________

Maine-grown artist Amanda Gervasi’s insightful lyrics and intensity on-stage bring an audience to close attention while encouraging a look into themselves. With a folk-rock, roots and blues appreciation, her songs reveal a comfortable blend of her influences and originality. Amanda first drew inspiration from pre-international performer Ray Lamontagne, citing a 2004 State Theater show as one that sparked a “switching of the life-plan gears.” After a few years of traveling and sampling university (for good measure), she made the decision move to Portland and begin the musical pursuit of happiness. Within a short year, Amanda had a slew of reputable shows under her belt, performing shows at Port City Music Hall, SPACE, The Big Easy, Empire Dine and Dance, Blue, Slainte and Northstar Music Café among others. Amanda Gervasi’s debut, “Merry the Ghost,” defines itself as an album that explores the fine-line between love and insanity while allowing the listener an inside view of a passionate artist who has something to say.

Buy Tickets

The directorial debut of William Monahan, the Oscar®-winning screenwriter of The Departed, London Boulevar follows an ex-con trying to make a fresh start in a relationship with a reclusive actress. A sexy, stylish gangster thriller bristling with wit and brutal intrigue, London Boulevard stars Colin Farrell and Keira Knightley as star-crossed lovers who run afoul of one of London’s most vicious crime bosses.

“A mix of 1960s Brit gangster-movie flourish and 1940s Hollywood noir… Hard-boiled crime yarn with Irish wit, colorful characters and considerable style” – Hollywood Reporter

Buy Tickets

Buy Tickets

Arborea is a musical duo formed in the summer of 2005 by husband and wife Buck Curran and Shanti Curran.  Their music follows in the progressive folk and rock traditions of diverse artists like Tim Buckley, Chris Whitley, and Jeff Buckley, as well as contemporaries Iron and Wine, and Gillian Welch. Buck plays guitar, slide guitars, bowed strings, flutes, banjo, and vocals. Shanti provides lead vocals, banjo, ukulele, bowed strings, harmonium, and percussion. Portland Mercury writer Ned Lannamann recently described their music…”If you could take a shiver and slow it down so that it lasted for 50 minutes, you’d have Red Planet, the fourth album from Arborea. It’s folk music that runs through your veins ice cold, but in a way that’s so compelling and irresistible you can’t help be moved by it. Red Planet is released by Portland label Strange Attractors Audio House, but Arborea actually hail from a spot much closer to the other Portland; the husband-and-wife duo of Shanti and Buck Curran live in Maine, a state of rugged beauty, endless forests, summertime bugs the size of hummingbirds, and a cold and rocky coastline. Shanti’s voice rises above sparse instrumental backing like a cool fog, and while the pair has earned comparisons to acts like Pentangle and Alela Diane (whose sometime backup singer Alina Hardin opens tonight’s show), to me Arborea sounds utterly unique and entirely captivating.” In 2011 Arborea released their 4th full length album ‘Red Planet’ and toured throughout the US, UK, and Europe. ‘Red Planet’ has made Rolling Stone ‘Best Under-the-Radar Albums of 2011, Editors Top Pick in the December 2011 issue of Guitar Player Magazine, Uncut Magazine Editor John Mulvey’s list of the 100 Best albums of 2011, textura’s Top 20 Albums of 2011, and the Portland Phoenix Top 10 Albums of 2011. Equal parts experimental and backwater folk, inspired by Smithsonian field recordings, Arborea succeeds in creating new folk forms of breathtaking originality.

Rolling Stone - "Best Under-the-Radar Albums of 2011"

Mojo Magazine - "glowing, warm, triumphant"

Best Albums of 2011 Portland Phoenix

“Your horse is a mirror to your soul, and sometimes you may not like what you see. Sometimes, you will.” So says Buck Brannaman, a true American cowboy and sage on horseback who travels the country for nine grueling months a year helping horses with people problems.

BUCK, a richly textured and visually stunning film, follows Brannaman from his abusive childhood to his phenomenally successful approach to horses. A real life “horse-whisperer”, he eschews the violence of his upbringing and teaches people to communicate with horses through leadership and sensitivity, not punishment. Buck possesses near magical abilities as he dramatically transforms horses – and people – with his understanding, compassion and respect. In this film, the animal-human relationship becomes a metaphor for facing the daily challenges of life. A truly American story about an unsung hero, BUCK is about an ordinary man who has made an extraordinary life despite tremendous odds.

Buy Tickets

Buy Tickets

From Academy Award® nominated filmmaker, Charles Ferguson (No End In Sight), comes INSIDE JOB, the first film to expose the shocking truth behind the economic crisis of 2008. The global financial meltdown, at a cost of over $20 trillion, resulted in millions of people losing their homes and jobs. Through extensive research and interviews with major financial insiders, politicians and journalists, INSIDE JOB traces the rise of a rogue industry and unveils the corrosive relationships which have corrupted politics, regulation and academia.    Narrated by Academy Award® winner Matt Damon, INSIDE JOB was made on location in the United States, Iceland, England, France, Singapore, and China.  A documentary by Charles Ferguson.  PG-13 - 108 mins.

"The definitive screen investigation of the global economic crisis, providing hard evidence of flagrant amorality -- and of a new nonfiction master at work." — Rob Nelson, Variety

“A masterpiece of investigative nonfiction moviemaking - a scathing, outrageous, depressing, comical, horrifying report on what and who brought on the crisis.” — Wesley Morris, Boston Globe

“It might well be the most important film you see this year, and the most important documentary of this young century.” — Anderw O'Hehir, Salon.com."

Buy Tickets

THE ILLUSIONIST is a story about two paths that cross. An outdated, aging magician, forced to wander from country to country, city to city and station to station in search of a stage to perform his act meets a young girl at the start of her life's journey. Alice is a teenage girl with all her capacity for childish wonder still intact. She plays at being a woman without realizing the day to stop pretending is fast approaching. She doesn't know yet that she loves The Illusionist like she would a father; he already knows that he loves her as he would a daughter. Their destinies will collide, but nothing -- not even magic or the power of illusion -- can stop the voyage of discovery.

The script for THE ILLUSIONIST was originally written by French comedy genius and cinema legend Jacques Tati as a love letter from a father to his daughter, but never produced. Sylvain Chomet, the Oscar®-nominated and critically acclaimed creator of The Triplets of Belleville, adapted the script and brought it to life in his distinctive hand-drawn animated style.  Directed by Sylvain Chomet. From an original screenplay by Jacques Tati.  PG - 82 mins - In French w/ English subtitles

"A thrilling exercise in retro aesthetics, from the pencil-and-watercolor look to the 2D animation that harks back to mid-1960s Disney (especially 101 Dalmatians) —  Leslie Felperin, Variety

Buy Tickets

Connor Garvey's initiation as a modern troubadour came in 2008 by way of train; a 45 day, self-booked tour by Amtrak across the US. Now, many tours later, Garvey is finding his place as a seasoned folk-rock singer-songwriter on the national circuit. Through his rhythmic guitar foundations and a unique, clear voice, Connor encourages us to hope, grow, laugh, and see beauty in all of life's metaphors. His recent release Where Ocean Meets Land (2011) is already garnering wide acclaim as it builds upon his 2009 release (Constancy of Stars) known widely due extensive Sirius XM satellite airplay-placing him in their top 6 new Singer Songwriters of 2010. Now a Portland based musician, Garvey is building a strong local following with the help of his solid band of local hard-working musicians.

********************************************

Builder of the House is my newest musical incarnation. The music combines elements of bluegrass and folk with vocal effects, percussive guitar and lyrics that volley between spirituality, metaphysics, and the human experience at large.

The conscious influences on this music vary widely, but perhaps the most noticeable are Johnny Cash, Ennio Morricone, Frankie Valli, Kaki King, Tom Waits and Bright Eyes.

My goal with all my music is to create positive energy that will spread to the listener and beyond.

Buy Tickets

MIDNIGHT IN PARIS, a new romantic comedy from writer/director Woody Allen, tells the story of a family that travels to the picturesque French capital on business. The party includes two young people who are engaged to be married in the fall and have experiences there that change their lives. It’s about a young man’s great love for a great city, Paris, and the illusion people have that a life different from theirs would be much better.

Official Selection (Opening Night Film) at the 2011 Cannes International Film Festival

“Smart, funny, whimsical–one of the best romantic comedies in recent years. - Richard Roeper

“A wonderful new picture. [Allen's] best, most enjoyable work in years.” - Los Angeles Times

“Allen’s best film in more than a decade” - New York Magazine

Buy Tickets

A film by Michael Winterbottom

NR - 112 mins

THE TRIP is an improvised tour of the North of England reuniting comedy favorites Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon. In the style of Curb your Enthusiasm, the story is fictional but based around their real personas. When Steve is commissioned by the food supplement of a Sunday newspaper to review half a dozen restaurants, he decides to mix work with pleasure and plans a trip around the North of England with his food loving American girlfriend. But when his girlfriend decides to leave him and return to the States, Steve is faced with a week of meals for one, not quite the trip he had in mind. Reluctantly, he calls Rob, the only person he can think of who will be available. Rob, never one to turn down a free lunch (let alone six) agrees, and together they set off for a culinary adventure. Over the course of six meals at six different restaurants in and around the Lake District, Lancashire and The Yorkshire Dales, this ultimate odd couple find themselves debating the big questions of life such as how did I get to here, where do I go next, over a series of culinary delights.

Buy Tickets

Based on the heart-wrenchingly bittersweet story of food writer Nigel Slater’s childhood, and set to the songs of Dusty Springfield, TOAST is a delicious love letter to the tastes and smells that a young boy
associates with his journey into adulthood.

No ordinary boy, Nigel, laps up cookbooks, spending all his time gazing longingly at the delights on offer in Percy Salt’s grocers.  Nigel’s father, meanwhile, worries that there is something “wrong” with his son and the two find it difficult to connect. Nigel finds it far easier relating to Josh, the gardener, who teaches Nigel about the wonders of nature as they sit munching freshly picked radishes and pork pies. After Nigel’s mother dies, leaving Nigel and his father heartbroken, the two struggle on fuelled by cheese on toast, until a saucy new cleaner who makes lemon meringue pies to die for, (played with gusto by Helena Bonham Carter), arrives. She sets her sights on Nigel’s father, and cooking soon becomes the key weapon in the battle between then for his father’s affections.

Buy Tickets

Buy Tickets

Wry Climate began in the fall of 2010 with Dan Nelson crafting and recording demos with the basic Pro Tools set up in his University of Southern Maine dorm room.   The project grew into the recording of a full-length record with Noah Cole joining on drums over the winter.   Bridge Ice, Wry Climate’s forthcoming release, is a guitar-driven indie rock album with atmospheric layers surrounding satisfying melodies and lyrics about the comforts/complexities of Maine winters, the World Wide Web and heavy machinery.  Nelson has performed extensively with his previous band 9th Rail and as a solo artist as far away as MusicFest ‘n Sugar Grove in North Carolina and the Obz Café and Swingers in Cape Town, South Africa.  Wry Climate’s January 7th performance at Frontier will be the Bridge Ice limited edition physical CD release concert, with the album becoming available online on November 22nd.  Wry Climate’s live show features the trio heard on the album: Dan Nelson on vocals and guitar, Noah Cole on drums, Jasper Boyd on bass, along with DJ Furhman on guitar and Jon Simmons on keys.

Click here to read about them.

Click here to see/hear them.

____________________________________________________

The Milkman's Union is an enigmatic three-piece based in Portland, Maine. While their sound can most easily be characterized as indie-rock, idiosyncrasies abound. Drawing from classical, jazz, folk, electronic, and various non-western musics, the band infuses rock grooves with deft melodic hooks and rhythmic flourishes that combine for a unique sound. Gabe Birnbaum of Ampeater.com writes "the music conjures up its own cloud of mood the moment it comes on". Seven Days writes that the band is "startlingly gifted" and "hyper-literate". The Bangor Daily News writes, "If Radiohead was more influenced by country and folk music than by electronic and jazz, they’d probably sound like The Milkman’s Union."

Over the past two years, their sound has been broad enough to share the stage with diverse acts such as Deerhunter, The Morning Benders, Wintersleep, Ben Kweller, Woods, S. Carey, White Hinterland, Ducktails and Kate Voegele. They've grown popular in the New England college circuit and have played at Dartmouth, Wellesley, Trinity, Middlebury, Wesleyan, Mt. Holyoke, Bowdoin, Bates, UMaine Farmington, UMaine Augusta, Clark, SUNY Purchase and Colby in the past year alone. They were recently named the Deli Magazine's New England artist of month for March and were runner-ups in the Portland Phoenix best indie act of the year. Their latest full-length 'Roads In' is currently in rotation at more than 100 independent radio stations across the U.S. and Canada. They released a 7" single featuring guest vocals from fellow Mainer Lady Lamb the Beekepeer on Eternal Otter Records in September.

Click here to read about them.

Click here to see/hear them.

Buy Tickets

I AM is an engaging and entertaining film that poses two practical and provocative questions: what’s wrong with our world, and what can we do to make it better? The filmmaker behind the inquiry is Tom Shadyac, one of Hollywood’s leading comedy practitioners and director of  blockbusters like Ace Ventura, Liar Liar, The Nutty Professor, and Bruce Almighty.  In I AM, Shadyac steps in front of the camera to recount how a cycling accident that left him incapacitated gave him with a new sense of purpose in life. Determined to share his own awakening  to his prior life of excess and greed, and armed with nothing but his curiosity and a small film crew, Shadyac embarks on a 21st century quest for enlightenment. The result is a fresh, energetic, and life-affirming film that challenges our preconceptions about human behavior while celebrating the indomitable human spirit.

"Refreshing. An optimistic exploration of what's right and wrong with the world."
— Hollywood Reporter

"An utterly inspiring call to action."
— New York Press

Buy Tickets

CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS, a breathtaking new documentary from the incomparable Werner Herzog (ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD, GRIZZLY MAN) follows an exclusive expedition into the nearly inaccessible Chauvet Cave in France, home to the most ancient visual art known to have been created by man.

A hit at this year’s Toronto Film Festival, CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS is an unforgettable cinematic experience that provides a unique glimpse of pristine artwork dating back to human hands over 30,000 years ago -- almost twice as old as any previous discovery.

"A sacred space where the human and the mystical effortlessly intertwine, and we are in Werner Herzog's debt for that great gift." - Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

"If you're a member of the human race - you owe it to yourself to see this movie." - Dana Stevens, Slate

Official Selection - Toronto International Film Festival 2010

Official Selection - AFI Film Festival 2010

Buy Tickets

The 2011 OSCAR SHORTS will consist of two separate, feature-length programs: The 2011 Animated Shorts and the 2011 Live Action Shorts. Each program will include all five nominated short films from its category:

ANIMATION SHORTS (TRT: approx.* 85 mins)

......................................................................................
DAY & NIGHT USA/6 MIN
When Day, a sunny fellow, encounters Night, a stranger of distinctly darker moods, sparks fly! Day and Night are frightened and suspicious of each other at first, and quickly get off on the wrong foot. But as they discover each other's unique qualities - and come to realize that each of them offers a different window onto the same world - the friendship helps both to gain a new perspective.  Director/Writer: Teddy Newton, Producer: Kevin Reher 

LET’S POLLUTE (USA / 6 mins)
In the spirit of 50's & 60's educational films, 'Let's Pollute' is a modern satire on how pollution is our heritage and keeps our economy growing strong, while instructing us how to be better polluters for a better blighted tomorrow. Director: Geefwee Boedoe, Writers: Geefwee Boedoe, Tim Crawfurd, Teddy Newton, Producer: Geefwee Boedoe

THE LOST THING (Australia, UK /15 mins)
A boy discovers a bizarre looking creature while out collecting bottle tops at the beach. Realising it is lost, he tries to find out who owns it or where it belongs, but is met with indifference from everyone else, who barely notice its presence, each unwilling to entertain this uninvited interruption to their day to day lives. For reasons he does not explain, the boy empathises with the creature, and sets out to find a ‘place’ for it. Directors/Writers: Andrew Ruhemann, Shaun Tan
Producer: Sophie Byrne

MADAGASCAR, CARNET DE VOYAGE (France / 11 mins)
A visual travel journal demonstrating the importance of dance, death, and traditional customs present and vibrant in the Malagasy society. Director: Bastien Dubois, Writer: Bastien Dubois,
Producer: Ron Dyens, Aurélia Prévieu

THE GRUFFALO (UK, Germany / 27 mins)
The magical tale of a mouse who takes a walk through the woods in search of a nut. Encountering three predators who all wish to eat him - a fox, an owl and a snake - the plucky mouse has to use his wits to survive, creating an imaginary monster who then turns out to be all too real. Directors: Max Lang, Jakob Schuh, Writers: Julia Donaldson, Max Lang, Jakob Schuh, Producers: Martin Pope, Michael Rose, Cast: Helena Bonham Carter, James Corden, Tom Wilkinson, John Hurt, Rob Brydon, Robbie Coltrane

* The Animated program will include two or three Oscar short-listed titles that were not nominated to bring the running-time up to approximately 85 minutes.



LIVE ACTION SHORTS (TRT: approx. 110 mins)

......................................................................................

THE CONFESSION (UK / 26 mins)
Quiet and sincere, 9-year-old Sam is worried about making his first confession at church. As his conscience is clear, he therefore cannot hope for any relief from the experience. He and his friend Jacob decide to remedy that situation, but their initially innocent prank turns unexpectedly tragic.
Director: Tanel Toom, Writer: Caroline Bruckner, Producer: Emily Williams, Cast: Aran Bell, Joe Eales, Lewis Howlett, James Simmons

THE CRUSH (Ireland / 15 mins)
An 8-year-old schoolboy is so besotted with his teacher that he challenges her boyfriend to a duel to the death. Director/Writer: Michael Creagh, Producer: Damon Quinn, Cast: Charlie Bonner, Neilí Conroy, Oran Creagh, Rory Keenan, Olga Wehrly

GOD OF LOVE (USA / 18 mins)
Lounge-singing darts champion Raymond Goodfellow finds his prayers are answered -- literally -- when he receives a mysterious package of passion-inducing darts. The catch is that the one woman he loves -- Kelly, a drummer in his band -- is already in love with Ray's best friend Fozzie, the guitarist in the band. But when Ray uses the darts in a loony scheme to resolve this strange romantic triangle, he learns a surprising lesson about unrequited love and discovers his own place in the universe. Romance is in the air in this bohemian charmer. Director/Writer: Luke Matheny
Producers: Gigi Demant, Ryan Silbert, Stefanie Walmsley, Cast: Luke Matheny, Marian Brock, Christopher Hirsh, Emily Young, Miguel Rosales

NA WEWE (Belgium / 19 mins)
1994: There is civil war in Burundi, a small country of Central Africa directly bordering Rwanda. A near genocidal confrontation opposes rebels mainly composed of ethnic Hutus and a national army with a majority of Tutsis. This short film relates a sadly frequent episode of this fratricidal conflict: the attack by rebels of a minivan carrying ordinary citizens.  A Kalashnikov bursts out. The bus stops, the passengers get off. An order is barked: “Hutus to the left, Tutsis to the right!” The sorting out begins. But who is a Hutu, who is a Tutsi? This story is entirely based on real people and situations. It was written by a person who has lived in the beauty of Burundi and suffered its horrors. With emotion, suspense and humor it exposes the absurdity of ethnic and racial strife. "NA WEWE" (pronounce "Na wayway") means "You too" in Kirundi. Director: Ivan Goldschmidt, Writers: Ivan Goldschmidt, Jean-Luc Pening, Producer: Ivan Goldschmidt, Cast: Renaud Rutten

WISH 143 (UK / 24 mins)
A fifteen-year-old boy with only months to live is granted one wish from the Dreamscape Charity. But David doesn't want to go to Disneyland or meet Gary Neville; what he really wants is an hour alone with a naked woman.
Director: Ian Barnes, Writer: Tom Bidwell, Producer: Samantha Waite, Cast: Jim Carter, Jodie Whittaker, Dean Andrews

Buy Tickets For the Live Action Shorts

Buy Tickets For the Animated Shorts

Buy Tickets

Buy Tickets

Buy Tickets

Bettencourt is a songwriter at heart, expertly crafting a wide range of tunes around his scratchy, Janis Joplin-esque voice. Whether equipped with just an acoustic guitar, or with his whole backing band, Bettencourt combines folk, blues, and classic rock elements into always-pleasing melodic concoctions. He has admittedly learned from the rock gods themselves - Hendrix, Clapton, Page, Dylan - but is able to stay contemporary, also drawing on current artists like Iron and Wine and Ray LaMontagne. Combining guitar chops with lyrical prowess is a proven recipe for success and Bettencourt isn't afraid to go with what works. However, he still brings ingenuity to his tracks, often using unconventional arrangements. A staple in the Portland scene, Bettencourt has just released his third full length CD, Secret Songs For Secret People.

In support of Eric will be singer-songwriter, Scott Peterson, whose two full length albums are Rhythm in the Pines (2007), and First Meditations From Montsweag Creek (2009). The later is Scott and Moses Atwood, the former including the likes of Greg Donahue, Frank Hopkins, Nora Smiley, Brie Moulton, Justin Shlawin and Gabrielle Raymond.

Buy Tickets

Hilarious holiday cheer!

Join us for “Ho Ho HoYeah!”, our second annual Holiday Comedy Show.

Featuring five of Maine’s premier stand-up comedians:

• Karen Morgan (Sirius XM Blue Collar Comedy, The Coast Morning Show)
• John Ater (Maine’s Funniest Painter)
• Nellie Coes (Nick at Nite’s Funniest Mom Finalist)
• Kate Ghiloni (Rooftop Comedy, Boston Comedy Festival)
• Stephanie Doyle (Winner of Portland’s Funniest, Boston Women in Comedy)

Come eat, drink & laugh!  Be Merry & Bright!  Ho Ho HoYeah!

Buy Tickets

Portland's own Jason Spooner Trio (Jason Spooner - guitar & vocals, Reed Chambers - Drums & Percussion and Adam Frederick - Bass & vocals) recently wrapped up their busiest summer to date. Over the last 4 months the band has opened for acts as varied as B.B. King, Michael Franti, Jackie Greene and Sara Bareilles. This summer alone the band performed at Targhee Fest in Jackson Hole, WY - FloydFest in Floyd, Va - The Festival at Sandpoint - Sandpoint, ID - The Naukabout Festival on Cape Cod, the River City Roots Festival in Missoula, MT and The Rocky Mountain Folks Festival in Lyons, CO.

In addition to recent press in High Times Magazine and USA Today, the Spooner Trio's latest album Sea Monster has been featured heavily on Sirius/XM's The Loft channel, on NPR's All Things Considered and at over 11,000 Starbucks retail locations nationwide. Earlier this year, the album reached the #18 spot on the national BDS Indicator chart for all of Triple A Radio. It was the only independent album on the chart at the time.

The band has just returned to Maine after completing a western Fall tour with their New England neighbors, The Ryan Montbleau Band which included dates in CO, UT, WA, OR and CA.

For more info, visit: www.jasonspooner.com

Buy Tickets

Join us for the first look at the new Frontier during our Welcome Back Weekend. Music, film and art inspired by the world will be on display along with a preview of our new menu. The new Frontier will open fully with our expanded menu and full-service on Tuesday, December 13.

Welcome Back Weekend begins on Friday evening with the Jason Spooner Trio Holiday Show. On Saturday, a special presentation of Robert Freson: The Heyday of Photojournalism, which includes a film, an art exhibit, and a discussion with the artist. We invite you to join us early each evening for light fare, drinks and gathering in our renovated space. Not just a celebration of Frontier, Welcome Back Weekend celebrates the continued revitalization of the Mill with two additional art shows: one, a collection of artists based in the Mill; the second, a Bowdoin student exhibit.

Our original plan was to present our entire menu to you this weekend, but sometimes construction projects take longer than planned. We want to do it right. Going beyond takes time. We appreciate both your patience and enthusiasm, and we look forward to celebrating the new Frontier with you this weekend, when we unveil the new menu on December 13 and in the months and years to come.

Filmmaker and home birth mom, Nicolle Littrell, will present two films from her series At Home in Maine:

9:15am - At Home in Maine in Northeast Harbor - An intimate account of a winter home birth in a beautiful town in downeast Maine. A couple preparing for their second child addresses the fear, personal/cultural expectations, and challenges of letting others help in the healing process of home birth.

10:05am - At Home in Maine Part III – This film is the third in a series of films focusing on political activity in Maine’s homebirth community, in particular, movement around licensing Maine’s Certified Professional Midwives. The film looks at post-enactment activity and views around CH.669, a law passed in 2008 that legalizes Maine’s Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) to use of a short list of medications at homebirths. Midwives, legislators, medical professionals and homebirth consumers comment on and critique this unprecedented legislation.

12:05pm - Home Delivery – This film documents the lives of three women in New York, who for very different reasons have decided to go up against social trends and take the birth of their children into their own hands…and homes.

2:35pm - The Business of Being Born – Compelled to find answers after a disappointing birth experience with her first child, actress Ricki Lake recruits filmmaker Abby Epstein to explore the maternity care system in America. Focusing on New York City, the film reveals that there is much to distrust behind hospital doors and follows several couples who decide to give birth on their own terms.

4:15 - No Woman, No Cry – Pregnancy is a death sentence for more than half a million women every year, but their deaths would be preventable if they could obtain the health care they needed. Christy Turlington’s documentary explores the personal stories behind such stunning statistics.

There will be a panel of Midwives and a panel of Mothers available for discussion during the event!

The last of the great, black, American troubadours, Samuel James is a performer of stunning singularity. He has irreversibly changed what it means to be a solo act. Unfortunately for the reader he is unique to the point of non-comparison. I mean, seriously, he's been called, "...the Guardian of Lightning," by Rolling Stone, France. That's pretty serious, right? He has mastered the guitar, piano, harmonica, and banjo. Yup, even the banjo.

His performances have received standing ovations in the United States from coast to coast as well as England, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, France, Spain, Belgium, Germany, and Poland. And Canada. He challenges you not to. It only counts if you come to the show. He will move you from your feet all the way to your heart.

On 11-11-11, Samuel James will announce the winner of his fan naming contest, a portrait will be rewarded, and new songs will be performed.

Lauryn Hottinger:

Lauryn Hottinger, a Native Mainer, has arrived on the music scene with noticeably poetic aplomb. Ms.Hottinger mixes complicated guitar playing with a sensual, hypnotic voice---and her lyrics, at turns haunting and ecstatic, are never lost. Here is a musician who will ring in your ears for hours after; you will ache for more. And thankfully, due to a solid, local lineup of upcoming shows, you will get your fill.

Builder of the House:

Builder of the House is my newest musical incarnation. The music combines elements of bluegrass and folk with vocal effects, percussive guitar and lyrics that volley between spirituality, metaphysics, and the human experience at large.

The conscious influences on this music vary widely, but perhaps the most noticeable are Johnny Cash, Ennio Morricone, Frankie Valli, Kaki King, Tom Waits and Bright Eyes.

My goal with all my music is to create positive energy that will spread to the listener and beyond

http://www.builderofthehouse.com/fr_sociallinks.cfm
http://builderofthehouse.com

Pecha Kucha Nights are fast-paced and enlightening evenings which feature ten presentations by artists, entrepreneurs, and individuals talking about their art and ideas.  The presentation format is 20 slides, each presented for 20 seconds, with presenter having six minutes and forty seconds to talk.  The form levels the playing field for presenters and offers the audience a stimulating evening.  Started in 2003 by Klein Dytham Architects.  Pecha Kucha Nights were established in Maine in 2007 by the Maine Center for Creativity in partnership with Architalx, Portland Society of Architects and University of Maine-Augusta Architectural Program and are now held in seven Maine communities.

Four veteran musicians and long-time fans of living legend Bob Dylan recreate the vibe and spirit of America's greatest singer/songwriter. A faithful musical journey through the amazing Dylan catalogue - nearly 50 years of folk, rock, country, blues, even gospel.

"Bob'a music is eternal, timeless," says lead singer Dennis Bailey. "I hear something different every time we play one of his songs. You just never get tired of them. His music is so varied. Dylan fans love it, and people who aren't big fans usually say, 'I didn't know that was a Dylan song.'"

Find out more at www.thebobband.com, or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/thebobbandpage

The Bob Band is:

Dennis Bailey: vocals, guitar, harmonica

Roy Fox: guitar, lap steel

Mary Maravic: upright bass

Bryan Litchfield: percussion, vocals

The Maine African Film Festival is a program of the African Cultural Foundation, a non-profit organization promoting cross-cultural literacy, communication, appreciation and understanding between people of post-colonial African culture and the non-African public.

1st GRADER
Directed by Justin Chadwick -Kenya, 2011 (105mins)
In a small, remote mountain top primary school in the Kenyan bush, hundreds of children are jostling for a chance for the free education newly promised by the Kenyan government. One new applicant causes astonishment when he knocks on the door of the school.  He is Maruge (Oliver Litondo), an old Mau Mau veteran in his eighties, who is desperate to learn to read at this late stage of his life.  He fought for the liberation of his country and now feels he must have the chance of an education so long denied - even if it means sitting in a classroom alongside six-year-olds.

Click here to view trailer

SHORT COMBO#1 (68 MINS):

LEZARE (FOR TODAY)
Zelalem Woldemariam Ezare, Ethiopia, 2010, 14min.
Lezare is a revealing and touching story about a homeless boy in a small village in southern Ethiopia. A powerful message, and beautifully shot film, about global warming and shortsightedness.
Click here to view trailer

ONE WAY, A TUAREG JOURNEY
Fabio Caramaschi, Italy/Niger, 2010, 52min.
Caramaschi's inspirational documentary chronicles a separated family's slow, fractured emigration from Niger to Italy, and the adversity and opportunities they find there.

Click here to view trailer

How to describe Nobuhiko Obayahshi’s indescribable 1977 movie HOUSE? As a psychedelic ghost tale? A stream-of-consciousness bedtime story? An episode of Scooby Doo as directed by Dario Argento? Any of the above will do for this hallucinatory head trip about a schoolgirl who travels with six classmates to her ailing aunt’s creaky country home, only to come face to face with evil spirits, bloodthirsty pianos, and a demonic housecat. Too absurd to be genuinely terrifying, yet too nightmarish to be merely comic, HOUSE seems like it was beamed to Earth from another planet. Never before released in the United States, and a bona fide cult classic in the making, HOUSE is one of the most exciting genre discoveries in years.

Confluence Films, the outfit that has brought you great fly fishing films like “Rise” and “Drift” are at it again with the latest creation “Connect.”   Shot on location in Japan, Yellowstone National Park, the Yukon drainage of Alaska, the flats of Cuba, the coast of Maine, and in the wilds of Tanzania, Africa, this feature-length movie will once again transport viewers around the world in search of new waters and exhilarating travel experiences.

For additional ticketing information:

http://www.flyfishinginmaine.org/connect/

Working in collaboration with the Maine Arts Commission and Artists in Context, the MWPA is excited to announce a OneBook Book Club with author Chris Thompson and his recently published book Felt: Fluxus, Joseph Beuys, and the Dalai Lama.

Read the book, and then join the author and your community of fellow readers for a discussion on October 27.

Felt centerson a highly publicized yet famously inconclusive 1982 meeting between German artist Joseph Beuys and the Dalai Lama. Thompson—an associate professor of art history at Maine College of Art in Portland—explores the interconnections among Beuys, the Fluxus movement, and Eastern philosophy and spiritual practice.

The OneBook discussion will be held at the Frontier Cafe in Brunswick, and all readers are invited to a reception and discussion with the author.

FMI: director@mainewriters.org

Antonioni’s masterpiece—his first film shot in color—is lovingly presented in a beautiful new remastered edition. The inimitable Vitti plays a neurotic housewife who looks to others for solace and comfort, but finds none in a desolate mining town. Antonioni gives the entire setting a sickening, sulfur–yellow glaze, making it one of the most innovative uses of color cinematography on record. Red Desert is “a plangent anti-romantic melodrama and a prescient environmentalist masterwork, a Silent Spring of the soul” (Richard Brody, The New Yorker).

Directed by Michael Barnett

1 hr. 22 min., NR

A favorite at this year’s Slamdance Film Festival, Superheroes is a look inside the zany world of Real Life Superheroes (RLSH) – a national phenomenon comprised of more than 300 registered superheroes in the United States. Through candid interviews, patrol footage, archival material and motion graphics, Superheroes explores this cultural phenomenon, revealing what inspires these everyday citizens to take the law into their own hands as they try to make the world a better place.

The film spotlights several of the country’s most famous masked heroes, including San Diego’s Mr. Xtreme and the members of Brooklyn’s New York Initiative (N.Y.I.) as they guard city streets with the goal of deterring violent crimes. Superheroes also features interviews with: Stan Lee, legendary comic-book writer and former Marvel Comics chairman, who co-created Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four, The X-Men, Hulk and Iron Man; Lt. Andrea Brown, a 24-year veteran of the San Diego Police Department; and Robin Rosenberg, a clinical psychologist and expert on the psychology of superheroes, both real-life and fictional.

Whether they actually protect the public from crime or are just oddball vigilantes, the vast majority of these men and women are motivated by a heartfelt desire to fight apathy and the so-called “bystander effect.” Some of the superheroes profiled in the film were inspired by the widely reported 1964 murder of Kitty Genovese, in which neighbors heard the victim’s screams without coming to her aid. Others decided to turn their lives around after struggling with violence, depression or addiction. Many RLSH channel their energies into doing a variety of good deeds, from giving out food and water to the homeless, to organizing toy drives for children in shelters.

An evening with three soulful and bluesy singers!

Lynn Deeves came to the stage via the New England top-40 rock circuit in “spandex and spiked hair.” The Muse called her to songwriting and she’s released three independent CD’s since 1996. In 2001, Deeves collaborated with fellow Mainers, Anni Clark and Dan Merrill and released “under the song tree Live!” to rave reviews (Jam Music magazine “Folk Artist of the Year”; Falcon Ridge “Favorite New Artist” runner-up). Lynn has performed with America, Catie Curtis and Ellis Paul. She earned 2^nd place in the New England Song contest. Portland Press Herald says of Deeves: “…5 star stage presence…this gals’ got a set of pipes…”

Two-time Boston Music Award nominee Colleen Sexton migrated to the Northeast to attend law school but, instead found the fertile Boston songwriting scene and has been touring ever since. Colleen has shared stages with Richie Havens, Susan Werner and Cheryl Wheeler. Her latest release, “Greatest Find” features guests including her brother Martin, Cliff Eberhart and Janis Ian. The Boston Globe says “Very promising, fast-rising new songwriter…her own songwriter, but shares her brothers’ jazzy exuberance/captivating vocal style.”

Minneapolis-born songwriter, Trina Hamlin attended Berklee School of Music, earning a degree in Professional Music. In 1998, after singing voice-overs for commercials, she stepped into the national spotlight with songs featured on TV’s “Dawson’s Creek”, television with Conan O’Brien and radio with Rick Dees. She tours with Susan Werner’s band and has opened for Rickie Lee Jones and John Hiatt. Hamlin’s energy and passionate performance are exceeded only by her soulful harmonica-wailings in her R and B, blues-tinged songs.

In her follow-up to Me and You and Everyone We Know, internationally acclaimed artist, author and filmmaker Miranda July returns with her moving and fearless drama The Future. When thirty-something couple Sophie (writer/director July) and Jason (Hamish Linklater) decide to adopt a stray cat, their perspective on life changes radically, literally altering the course of time and space and testing their faith in each other and themselves.

For over 75 years, the game of MONOPOLY has brought friends and families together on countless occasions and created millions of memories. This documentary captures how the classic board game became a worldwide cultural phenomenon, and follows the colorful players who come together to compete for the title of MONOPOLY World Champion.

Based on Graham Greene’s chilling 1838 novel, BRIGHTON ROCK is the hard-boiled, visually captivating debut film of Rowan Joffe. An official selection of the Toronto International Film Festival, the film features an incredible cast of both British acting royalty and brilliant newcomers. Sam Riley (CONTROL) is the young anti-hero Pinkie, a cunning charmer trying to make his mark on the vicious gangland of Brighton. When a young waitress (Andrea Riseborough, who was nominated for 2 BIFAs for her breakthrough performance) stumbles on evidence that links Pinkie and his gang to a revenge killing, he draws her into a conned romance to keep the loose end tied up. When Rose’s world-weary boss (Oscar-winner Helen Mirren) becomes suspicious of the enigmatic young man hanging around her charge, the tangled web becomes a deadly game of psychological cat-and-mouse — an atmospheric mystery-noir that fully captures the mood of Greene’s violent and sexually daring masterpiece.

Thirty years before the antics of Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears were regular gossip fodder, Miss Wyoming Joyce McKinney made her mark as a tabloid staple ne plus ultra. Academy Award-winner Errol Morris’ TABLOID follows the much stranger-than-fiction adventures of Joyce McKinney, a former “beauty queen” whose single-minded devotion to the man of her dreams leads her across the globe and directly onto the front pages of the British tabloid newspapers. Joyce’s crusade for love and personal vindication takes her through a surreal world of gun point abduction, manacled Mormons, oddball accomplices, bondage modeling, magic underwear and dreams of celestial unions.

Equal parts love story, film noir, brainy B-movie and demented fairy tale,
TABLOID is a delirious meditation on hysteria – both public and personal – from a
filmmaker who continues to break down and blow open the documentary genre with his penetrating portraits of eccentric and profoundly complex characters.

From the filmmakers of “Hoop Dreams”, THE INTERRUPTERS tells the moving and surprising story of three dedicated individuals who try to protect their Chicago communities from the violence they, themselves once employed. These “violence interrupters” (their job title) – who have credibility on the street because of their own personal histories – intervene in conflicts before the incidents explode into violence. Their work and their insights are informed by their own journeys, which, as each of them point out, defy easy characterization.

Shot over the course of a year, THE INTERRUPTERS captures a period in Chicago when it became a national symbol for the violence in our cities.  THE INTERRUPTERS follows Ameena, Cobe and Eddie as they go about their work, and while doing so reveals their own inspired journeys of hope and redemption.

THE INTERRUPTERS is an unusually intimate journey into the stubborn persistence of violence in our cities.

This year the Festival received 598 entries from 48 countries and selected 10 Finalists. You can read detailed interviews with the filmmakers and see the trailers of their films by clicking on the links below:

INCIDENT BY A BANK
Director: Ruben Ostlund
Run Time: 9:30
Country: Sweden
Synopsis: Shot using a single camera, 90 people meticulously recreate a failed bank robbery that took place in Stockholm in June 2006

Click here to read the interview with Ruben Ostlund on the making of the film

DIK
Director: Christopher Stollery
Run Time: 9:30
Country: Australia
Synopsis: A six -year-old boy brings home piece of schoolwork that prvokes his parents to question his sexual orientation

Click here to read the interview with Christopher Stollery on the making of the film and watch the trailer

MAK
Director: Geraldine Zosso
Run Time: 18:00
Country: Switzerland
Synopsis: Ilinka is 14 years old. She has been living in Switzerland for a year with her Moldavian Mother and Aunt. Ilinka just gave birth to a boy. Ilinka's mother has heard about a box where unwanted babies can be deposited.

Click here to read the interview with Geraldine Zosso on the making of the film and watch the trailer

I LOVE LUCI
Director: Colin Kennedy
Run Time: 11:00
Country: Scotland
Synopsis: A comedy of missing teeth, unrequited love and one dog's potential to shape the fortunes of a couple destined never to be together.

Click here to read the interview with Colin Kennedy on the making of the film

THE LEGEND OF BEAVER DAM
Directors: Jerome Sable & Eli Batalion
Run Time: 12:00
Country:  Canada
Synopsis: A campfire song awakens an evil monster and now it’s up to nerdy Danny Zigwitz to save his fellow campers from a bloody massacre. Heads will rock n’ roll!

Click here to read the interview with Jerome Sable & Eli Batalion on the making of the film and watch the trailer

SEXTING
Director: Neil LaBute
Run Time: 8:00
Country:  USA
Synopsis: Fed up with her relationship with a married man, a young woman decides to meet his wife for coffee.

Click here to read the interview with Neil LaBute on the making of the film and watch the trailer

THE  FOREST
Director: Kárpáti György Mór
Run Time: 12:00
Country:  Hungary
Synopsis: Murder is committed in the forest. A young man becomes caught up in the events, and this experience has an increasingly unsettling effect on him.

Click here to read the interview with Kárpáti György Mór on the making of the film

A DOCTOR'S JOB
Director: Julio Ramos
Run Time: 10:30
Country:  Peru
Synopsis: Doctor Ramon Moran supplements his income by driving a taxi in order to financially support his mentally ill mother. While driving the taxi, Ramon becomes involved in a crime that tests his pride and work ethic.
Click here to read the interview with Julio Ramos on the making of the film

DAVID & GOLIATH
Director: George Zaverdas
Run Time: 12:00
Country:  USA
Synopsis: The true story of a man, a dog and the Holocaust.
Click here to read the interview with George Zaverdas on the making of the film

MARTYR FRIDAY
Director: Abu Bakr Shawky
Run Time: 10:00
Country:  Egypt
Synopsis: An inside look at the events surrounding the 2011 uprising in  Cairo.
Click here to read the interview with Abu Bakr Shawky on the making of the film

Jessica Kinney is a Maine native and mother of five who lives and writes on the coast of Maine. A Bowdoin College graduate and former middle- and high-school English teacher, Kinney says The Pig Scramble was inspired by a true story about her husband, who grew up as the youngest child on a Maine dairy farm and really did win a pig at a local fair. The Pig Scramble is her first children’s book.

Sarah S. Brannen is the author and illustrator of Uncle Bobby's Wedding. She also illustrated Digging for Troy: From Homer to Hisarlik; Mathias Franey, Powder Monkey; and The ABC Book of American Homes. She has illustrated for several children’s magazines and is a regular contributor to Skating magazine. Sarah also is a founding member of the children’s writing and illustrating web site, yellapalooza.com.

The Steve Grover Sextet will present a concert featuring jazz interpretations of The Beatles songbook on Friday September 30 @ 7PM at The Frontier Cafe, Fort Andross Building, Brunswick ME. Drummer and award-winning composer Steve Grover is the guiding musician behind The Beatles Project, assembling a crack sextet of some of Maine’s finest jazz musicians to perform his arrangements. The group will perform sextet arrangements of Beatles material from the recent CD “Flying” and new sextet arrangements of “Thank You Girl”, “The Inner Light”, “Dear Prudence”, and several others. Special guest artist Trent Austin- an outstanding trumpet player familiar to Brunswick Junior High and High School students- will be on hand as part of the group. Be sure to mark your calendar for this fun and musically satisfying event featuring great jazz interpretations of some of the greatest songs from the most influential pop band of all time.

“Deft arranging and fresh rhythmic approaches…”Flying” is topnotch work from some of the state’s top players. I think Lennon, McCartney and company would dig it, too.” – Rich Tozier, Friday Night Jazz MPBN radio

“Flying” is available at www.cdbaby.com

*********************************

The Steve Grover Sextet

Steve Grover, drums: Steve has led jazz groups in the New England area since the mid 1980’s. A Maine  native, he teaches at The University of Maine at Augusta (where he received his degree in music), Bowdoin College and Bates College. Steve was a faculty member of The Maine Jazz Camp from 1984-97, and was director from 1992-94. In 1994, Steve won the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz/BMI Jazz Composers Competition, and in 1996 was a winner in JAZZIZ  Magazine’s “Percussion On Fire” talent search. He received an honorable mention in the 2004 Billboard Song Contest, and his composition “Breath” was featured that same year on NPR’s “All Songs Considered”. In 2008 Steve’s original composition “Art Advocate” was chosen as the theme song for the MPBN program “Conversations With Maine”.  Steve’s group won “Best Jazz Act of 2009” in The Portland Phoenix Best Music Poll, and was voted one of the “Ten Most Influential Bands of the Last Ten Years” by The Phoenix that same year.

Steve has released nine CDs, with reviews appearing in Down Beat, JazzTimes, and Cadence magazines.  “The Garden Above”, a collaborative CD with saxophonist David Wells and guitarist Tony Gaboury, was included in The Portland Phoenix Top Ten CDs of 2006. In addition to performing with his own groups and with clarinetist Brad Terry, Steve has performed with Buddy Tate, Jay McShann, Eddie Gomez, Chris Potter, Marvin Stamm, Greg Tardy, Jerry Bergonzi, George Garzone, Kurt Rosenwinkel and many others. Steve lives in Farmingdale, ME.

Tony Gaboury, guitar: Tony holds his Master’s degree in Performance from Goddard College, and currently teaches at The Berklee College of Music. He has performed with many outstanding artists, including George Garzone, Mick Goodrick, Bruce Saunders, and many others. Tony’s latest CD is entitled “Empathy” on the Invisible Music label. Tony lives in Portland, ME.

Tom Bucci, bass: Tom is one of the finest bassists and musicians in Maine. Tom attended the Berklee College of Music from 1968-71, and since then has performed with many of the area’s legendary top jazz musicians, including Brad Terry, Roy Frazee, Tommy Gallant, Dom Moio, Jaxon Stock, Herb Pomeroy and many others.

Trent Austin, trumpet: : A graduate of The University of New Hampshire, Trent is one of the leading jazz and classical trumpeters in New England. He has performed with an array of well-known jazz artists including Bennie Green, Clark Terry, The Artie Shaw Orchestra, and many others. Trent’s two jazz CDs “Trumpet 101” and “Two-Toned” have been released to wide critical acclaim. His most recent CD is the solo release “Meditations For Solo Trumpet”. Trent currently resides in Salem, MA.

David Wells, tenor saxophone: Originally from the San Francisco Bay area, saxophonist David Wells is a bright light on the Maine jazz scene. He has performed with Rosemary Clooney, Joe Henderson, Jerry Bergonzi, Bob Mintzer and other artists. Prior to moving to Maine in 2002, David was living in London, participating in the jazz scene there. Since moving to Maine, David has been teaching and performing in the wider New England area. He currently resides in Windham, ME.

Jason St, Pierre, alto saxophone: A resident of Portland, Maine, Jason is considered one of the finest saxophonists in Maine, sporting a contemporary concept imbued with the jazz tradition. Jason attended the prestigious New School For Jazz and Contemporary Music, studying and performing with many of the jazz greats, including renowned saxophonists George Garzone and Dave Liebman. Since returning to Maine, Jason has been the saxophonist of choice in all styles on the Portland jazz scene.

Performed at the Royal Opera House, London, England

Composed by Adolphe Adam

Choreographed by Marius Petipa

Starring Marianela Nuñez and Rupert Pennefather

2 hrs 30 mins including one intermission

Giselle is one of the most influential of all Romantic ballets, and one of the greatest and most popular works of the dance canon and of The Royal Ballet’s repertory. The title role presents the transcendental power of a woman’s love in the face of betrayal and is one of the most technically demanding and emotionally challenging roles in classical dance – not surprisingly, it is here a great showcase for the leading ballerinas of the Company. Peter Wright’s sensitive staging in the atmospheric designs by John Macfarlane heightens the contrast as the story moves between the human and supernatural worlds. – Courtesy of Opus Arte

Otter Island Films and The Strand Theatre

Between the Tides, is a series of 8 short films that celebrate MidCoast Maine: the stunning environment, the diverse, tenacious people who call this place home and the stark beauty of everyday life. For visitors these films introduce the MidCoast in new and different ways and for the people who live here, these films affirm the treasures of everyday life.

~ • ~

AN ISLAND - To make this film the producers had to agree to not give the name of the Island or the name of the family that has owned it for over 300 years. In return we have the privilege of visiting another world from a time gone by. (sneak preview) 23 min.

INFERNO - provides a unique opportunity to see Jamie Wyeth, one of America's greatest artists, painting in his studio.  8 min.

WAVES - overwhelms the senses with powerful waves filmed crashing in slow motion against Maine's rugged coast.  4 min

BROWN'S BOATYARD - tells a story about fathers and sons who have been building boats on North Haven Island since 1888.  10 min.

WE THE PEOPLE - The 3^rd/4^th grade class at the community school on North Haven Island is studying constitutional government.  Hannah Pingree, Majority Leader for the Maine State House of Representatives., comes to help with their legislation. Then the class goes with Hannah to see how the State Government works. (sneak preview) 16min.

JOEY - is an affectionate profile of Joseph Silverstein - the great violinist, conductor and teacher - performing at a private concert. Narrated by Eleanor Sokoloff, who knew him as a bad little boy. 9 min.

PETER’S EYE follows still photographer Peter Ralston as he roams the islands of Penobscot Bay photographing the landscapes and people of the island communities. (sneak preview) 18 min.

THE OSPREYS OF ROCKPORT HARBOR - shows the drama of two adult ospreys raising their young in the midst of a busy working harbor. 10 min.

"Climate Reality" is a multimedia presentation that shows the effects of climate change and links to recent extreme weather in a specific area within each time zone. 24 Hours of Climate Reality is being streamed live starting at 7pm. Frontier Cafe, in downtown Brunswick, will show the 7-8pm hour, followed by a public discussion moderated by the Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences. Manomet is developing climate change adaptation plans for the greater Sagadahoc region and other areas of New England. Manomet's mission includes providing opportunities for public dialogue about climate change science and policy.

 

Every February competitive grocery baggers from across the country meet in Las Vegas to vie for the title of National Best Bagger. READY, SET, BAG! is an entertaining, award-winning look into the lives of eight state champions, following these delightfully fun, quintessentially American characters from local contests to their moment on the national stage. All of us, regardless of age, location or class, recognize that last personal contact at the supermarket, which we entrust to protect our bread and eggs from our canned goods. READY, SET, BAG! showcases the pride and effort these individuals put into their job to be the best at what they do – capturing the spirit of working class Americans.

Cinder Conk plays music drawn from the Black Sea -- the wellspring of Europe’s deepest and most diverse musical traditions.  It is the sound of celebration and lament of those who have lived on its coast over thousands of years - Roma, Jews, peasants, and nationalists.

Cinder Conk weaves frenzied accordion riffs (Matthew Schreiber) with warm double bass counterpoint (Xar Adelberg) to create a sound that's energetic, gripping, winsome and haunting.

Cinder Conk has shared the stage with Slavic Soul Party, Beat Circus, Fishtank Ensemble, and The Toughcats; and played festivals including the sold out Free Range Music Festival in Maine, Balkan Night in Concord Mass, BARBES and the Zlatne Uste Golden Festival in Brooklyn NY.

In 1964, Ken Kesey, the famed author of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” set off on a legendary, LSD-fuelled cross-country road trip to the New York World’s Fair. He was joined by “The Merry Band of Pranksters,” a renegade group of counterculture truth-seekers, including Neal Cassady, the American icon immortalized in Kerouac’s “On the Road,” and the driver and painter of the psychedelic Magic Bus. Kesey and the Pranksters intended to make a documentary about their trip, shooting footage on 16MM, but the film was never finished and the footage has remained virtually unseen. With MAGIC TRIP, Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney and Alison Ellwood were given unprecedented access to this raw footage by the Kesey family. They worked with the Film Foundation, HISTORY and the UCLA Film Archives to restore over 100 hours of film and audiotape, and have shaped an invaluable document of this extraordinary piece of American history.

2 hrs 49 min with 3 intermissions

Juan Pons stars in Nabucco, live from the Teatro Antico, Taormina, Italy, in this four-act opera, Verdi’s third and the work that permanently established his reputation as a composer.  Since its construction in the 7th century B.C., the Teatro Antico’s audiences have watched performances with Mt. Etna and the Ionia Sea as a stunning backdrop for the theatre’s arena stage.  The theatre (also called the Greek Theatre) is home to the annual summer Taormina Arte festival.

Kinloch (KC) Walpole is touring the nation by motor cycle giving presentations on Women and Children in the Jails and Prisons of the Nation. It is a 14,000 mile journey that reaches the four corners of the nation (Florida, California, Alaska, Maine and back to Florida) designed to not only brings awareness of the problem but to offer some solutions to the incarceration phase as well as their re-entry.

The second objective of the journey is to raise money for the construction of a model center designed by incarcerated women for a re-entry program for women that can be replicated by religious and secular organizations.

A presentation designed to heighten the public awareness of the issues and problems of the skyrocketing incarceration numbers of women in prison. This presentation starts with a background analysis of the core issues leading up to the problems leading up to the skyrocketing incarceration numbers of women in prison

GONE: The Mystery of the DON Disaster explores the strange disappearance in 1941 of the pleasure craft DON with 34 people on board. No wreckage was ever found and only 14 bodies were recovered. For more than 70 years, the sea off the rocky coast of Maine has held its secrets about this terrible loss of life. The event remains one of New England's worst boating disasters.

After a much-publicized departure from hosting NBC’s Tonight Show – and the severing of a 22-year relationship with the network – O’Brien hit the road with a 32-city music-and-comedy show to exercise his performing chops and exorcise a few demons. The “Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour” was O’Brien’s answer to a contractual stipulation that banned his appearance on television, radio and the Internet for six months following his last show.

Filmmaker Rodman Flender’s resulting documentary, Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop, is an intimate portrait of an artist trained in improvisation, captured at the most improvisational time of his career. It offers a window into the private writers room and rehearsal halls as O’Brien’s “half-assed show” (his words) is almost instantly assembled and mounted to an adoring fan base.

At times angry, mostly hilarious, O’Brien works out his feelings about the very-public separation with comedy and rockabilly music, engaging in bits with on-stage guests such as Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart and Jim Carrey, duetting with Jack White and sweating out manic Elvis Presley covers with his band and back-up singers. We see a comic who does not stop — performing, singing, pushing his staff and himself. Did Conan O’Brien hit the road to give something back to his loyal fans, or did he travel across the continent, stopping at cities large (New York, Las Vegas) and remote (Enoch, Alberta) to fill a void within himself?

Christian Cuff celebrates the official 2011 release of his album Chalkboard with a European tour this Spring, alongside band members Joey Pierog (upright bass), Johnny Venom (guitars and keys), and Dan Boyden (drums). Cuff will bring his energetic and engaging live performances to venues in England, Italy, Holland, France, Belgium, Sweden, and Germany.

Chalkboard was recorded in the woods of New Hampshire with Rocking Horse Studio and released in the United States in May, 2010.  The album was produced by Brian Coombes and features the work of twenty-three musicians, including members of the New Hampshire Philharmonic Orchestra. Following upon the critical success of his 2008 debut album Silo, Cuff’s second album marks an artful transition from a mellow, smoky acoustic sound towards a fuller, richer and more diverse musical range.

Christian Cuff is renowned for live performances that deftly blend light-spirited banter with powerhouse pieces that are at times dark, brooding and aggressive. His music draws its roots in the rugged coastline of Maine and the gritty streets of New York City, and these backgrounds are reflected in the honesty, raw emotion, and quick wit inherent in Cuff’s work. Haunting and evocative, Cuff’s lyrics tell narratives of grace and despair, rendered through moments of biting humor and irony.  His music drives and pushes forward, combining entrancing harmonies, eclectic instrumentation and intricate rhythms into complex pieces that buzz with energy.

_________________________________________________________

Billy Libby combines elements of indie, folk, and pop to craft ethereal yet captivating music. Hailing from Portland, Maine, Billy took the long winter to record a collection of new material.  With the first official release, "Pitter Patter" due out Fall 2011 in conjunction with Intrigue Music, Billy presents a record that is subdued, yet deliberate with instrumentation ranging from lap-steel, to kalimba, accordion and circuit bent keyboards. Now living in Brooklyn NY, Billy plays in a 6 piece, 4 piece and duo setting and performs throughout the North East. Currently available is the stripped down independent release, The Little Bird EP, which “relies on a perfect mixture of pop music craftsmanship and candid intimacy” – The Free Press.

Since 2006 Maine based Alt Folk duo Arborea (wife and husband Shanti and Buck Curran) has released 3 cds, performed shows and festivals in the U.S., U.K (Green Man Fest), and Europe...including a session for the BBC World on 3 program in London in 2009. 

Arborea is currently supporting their latest cd 'House of Sticks' released on Borne! Recordings.  Buck Curran has also curated and produced a compilation cd titled 'Leaves of Life' that was released during the summer of 2009 (http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2009/05/devendra-banhart-alela-diane-others-collaborate-on.html). Leaves of Life includes artists such as Alela Diane, Devendra Banhart, Starless and Bible Black, and Marissa Nadler.  All proceeds from the sales of the record are going to support vital hunger relief programs run by the UN World Food Program.  Arborea is also part of an Odetta tribute that was just released by the UK magazine Wears the Trousers (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuQXRH7jxLE).  Buck has curated a Robbie Basho tribute cd that was released on Important Records in May of 2010 and features Meg Baird, Fern Knight, Arborea, Helena Espvall, Glenn Jones, Steffen Basho Junghans, Iraqi born (and Grammy nominated) Oud player Rahim Alhaj, and Irish guitarist Cian Nugent.  The duo will release their 4th record Red Planet in early 2011.

When critics say a band have timelessness about them, people generally mean the band's music is sort of universally appealing, outside of trends or genres. And the mostly acoustic duo Arborea is that, especially on their fourth album, the new Red Planet. But Shanti and Buck Curran also seem to exist outside of time itself, both inhabiting a world that never actually was and pacing their songs so that they seem to make time elastic.

Arborea's songs are pretty, with Shanti Curran's vocals alternatingly resonant and whisper-sweet. They leave in plenty of what the mastering engineers call "mouth noises," so she at times seems to actually brush up against your ear, especially in the desperately languid "Black Is the Colour," an Appalachian traditional once recorded by Nina Simone.

Hear and read more about them here on NPR: http://www.npr.org/2011/05/02/135924916/arborea-on-world-cafe-next

Plains:

Plains are a 5 piece group out of Portland, Maine.  Formed in 2007 the ensemble is   comprised of the talented song writer and singer Erin Sprinkle, writers Patrick Corrigan, Dave Noyes, and the duo South China.
The group came about after the disbanding of Seekonk founded by Corrigan and Noyes.  With a body of work originally intended for Seekonk they took their songs to Erin Sprinkle who would ultimately create a new character for the music.  Sprinkle most recently got great reviews for her music directing of the Garcia Lorca play 'Blood Wedding'.  Plains are rounded out by the great duo South China.  South China are married couple Jeremy and Jerusha Robinson who have for a decade have been writing, performing, and touring their slow core folk music.  The duo are often enlisted to add their orchestrating skill to several groups in the North East, most notable being Brown Bird.

Plains music is rooted in the downer side of country music, incorporating elements of the sprawling spaghetti western and the uplifting part harmony of Free Design.  Standout to the group are Sprinkle's beautiful voice which evokes the soul of Roberta Flack and the old time feel of Doris Day, and Corrigan's spellbinding guitar parts, at times serene as a Malian blues and at other times loud, fuzzed out and gritty.

A film by John Turturro
Italy/USA - 90 mins - English & Italian w/ English subtitles

Little wonder that Passione, John Turturro’s wild, colorful, sexy ode to the music and people of Naples, was “rapturously received” (Variety) and interrupted by “spontaneous outbreaks of applause” (Sight + Sound Magazine) in Italy, where it played for more than four months (its soundtrack on the charts for five). Turturro describes Passione as “a musical adventure that comes directly out of the people and the volcanic land they inhabit. Conjuring ancient stories and myths that still live — of love, sex, jealousy, and social protest — each song is a small screenplay, an emotional postcard. I tried to see if I could understand in a small way, a little bit of the soul of the city, while at the same time killing clichés about it. There are places you go and once is enough. Then there’s Napoli.”

Verdi’s most evocative music brings Shakespeare’s drama to life on the stage of the Royal Opera House. Macbeth stars British baritone Simon Keenlyside as the titular tormented ruler of Scotland. Don’t miss this thrilling tale of power and corruption, broadcast LIVE from London.

About Macbeth
Verdi’s lifelong love affair with Shakespeare first took wing with Macbeth in 1847. The composer thought the play ‘one of the greatest creations of man’ and, along with his librettist Piave, set out to make of it, ‘something out of the ordinary’ on the operatic stage. Musically, Verdi’s masterstrokes were the macabre choruses for the witches, the evocative orchestral colours and the increased role for the ‘ugly and evil’ Lady Macbeth. Although Verdi later revised the opera in 1865 for Paris, his earlier, more unified version of the opera is used here for this revival of Phyllida Lloyd’s striking staging. Simon Keenlyside and Martina Serafin play the Scottish nobleman and his villainously ambitious wife, who spurs her husband to murder for the sake of his career, and American bass-baritone Raymond Aceto takes the role of Banquo, murder victim and symbol of conscience.

Spewing out of the “East meets West” whirlwind that is Shanghai, The Song Dynasty arrive in the US in July for their summer tour. Formed in 2009, the band has quickly become a fixture on the Shanghai music scene, playing their mysterious blend of dub, jazz, hip-hop and folk to energized expat and local audiences. The band was formed under the premise of creating intelligent music that grooves hard. The sound merges the accessibility of indie song-writing with the pulsing charm of reggae, all underpinned by funk and electronic-inspired odd-time beats. Expect lyrics intertwining English and Mandarin Chinese, flowing melodies, pounding loops and quirky improvisational passages.

The Song Dynasty will also be promoting their recently released debut record, “All That's Keeping You Here,” which was produced in collaboration with many guest artists from the Shanghai scene. The band are keen contributors to and supporters of local music in China, a country whose economic explosion will inevitably be followed by a cultural blossoming. Each song is a story born out of their experience as foreigners immersed in this rapidly changing cultural landscape.

Circus Dreams tells a heartwarming story about kids digging deep to pursue their passion. The vibrant feature documentary opens as a group of funny, sweet and extremely bendy 12 to 18-year-olds audition for Circus Smirkus, the only traveling youth circus in the United States. The film captures the lucky chosen ones moving onto a 3-week rehearsal period in Vermont, and then follows them through their exhilarating and exhausting 70-performance tour. Circus Dreams immerses viewers into the lives of these talented kids, capturing their intense work ethic, passion for performance, deep friendships and budding loves. Packed with drama, humor and great characters, Circus Dreams is a cinematic treat for viewers of all ages!

Circus Dreams premiered at SPROCKETS Toronto International Film Festival for Children and Youth in April 2011 as the Festival’s Closing Night Film, where it was honored with a Youth Jury award. Circus Dreams also screened at the Sarasota Film Festival and the Boston International Film Festival. In addition, it just received the Youth Jury Best Films4Families Feature Award at Seattle International Film Festival in June!

We are thrilled Circus Dreams will be showing at The Frontier Cafe & Cinema in Brunswick, Maine on July 25th & July 26th with show times at 1:30, 4:00 and 6:30. Former Smirkus Troupers will appear at the evening shows to perform and answer questions. Aaron DeWitt and Shane Miclon, from Buckfield, Maine, were on the Big Top Tour in 2009 & 2010. Aaron and Shane are exceptional jugglers; Aaron has been accepted to the prestigious National Circus School in Quebec and will attend in September. Shane’s Dad, Mike, is a world-renowned entertaine and the owner of the Oddfellow Theatre in Buckfield. He will join Aaron and Shane for some hilarious antics that will give you a taste of the fun found under the Smirkus Big Top.

The proceeds of this event at the Frontier will benefit our Magic Matinee Fund that sponsors over 700 children from community groups like Make-a-Wish, Big Brother/Big Sister, Easter Seals of Portland, Freeport Community Services and many other local service organizations. We hope you can come see the film, enjoy the Smirkus performers and help sponsor kids-in-need to go to the circus!

“Signe Taylor’s Circus Dreams brings us to world we’ve never seen, charms us with young people dedicated to living their dreams and enthralls us with their performances.”

Don Schwartz, CineSourceMagazine.com

The 98^th Tour de France will be made up of 21 stages and will cover a total distance of 3,430.5 kilometres.  Frontier will be screening Stages 17, 18, 19 & 20.  Stay tuned for additional information about live screenings.

On the opposite side of musical tastes, politics and the war in Vietnam, Gabriel disappears into the counterculture following a devastating confrontation with his father, Henry. The film opens two decades later, when Henry and wife are told their son has been found wandering the streets of New York City. Gabriel is in a near-catatonic state, unable to recall or create new long-term memories and believing he is still in 1968. But when a music therapist discovers that Gabriel responds actively to the music of the psychedelic era and can converse when those records spin, Henry begins his own pilgrimage through the bands of the sixties, determined to forge a relationship with his son the only way he can.

THE MUSIC NEVER STOPPED tells the real-life journey of a father, his estranged son, and a lifetime of missed opportunities.  Based on the case study “The Last Hippie” by Dr. Oliver Sacks, M.D. (“Awakenings”).

Exhilaration, intensity, velocity, celebration:  There's Gypsy jazz, and then there's Ameranouche, a power trio that churns up a blazing acoustic whirlwind.

Audiences delight when Ameranouche sneaks in a French waltz or a haunting Russian folk song, and then cranks up the heat up for Flamenco rhythms.  Often billed as a Gypsy jazz act, they use the term only as a springboard for exploration.

The award winning Ameranouche trio features the solo guitar work of Richard Sheppard, rhythm guitarist Ryan Flaherty, and upright bassist, Xar Adelberg.  Together, they cultivate a vigorous energy that arrives in a familiar package; a diverse demographic can relate immediately.

Ameranouche formed in 2004, and has been charging ahead, touring year round, ever since.  In 2008, they were the first Gypsy jazz group ever to play at the JVC Newport Jazz Festival (which originated in the 1950s), and received a standing ovation, opening for Sonny Rollins and Herbie Hancock.   In 2007, three of their original compositions were featured on a National Lampoon Soundtrack.   In 2006, they released their first CD, and have since released a second -- both to critical acclaim.  Having already achieved two "Best of New Hampshire" awards in '08 and '09, Ameranouche is already arguably the hottest, hardest swinging acoustic group out of New England.  Hear them live, and be launched.

Boundary-pushing Oscar®-nominated filmmaker Morgan Spurlock explores the world of product placement, marketing and advertising in a film that was fully financed through product placement from various brands, all of which are integrated transparently into the film. While using brands in film promotion is not new for Hollywood, it certainly is new territory for the documentary format. Spurlock exploits the phenomenon to new heights, with everything from branded pizza boxes and in-flight film promotions to branded-everything in-film.

With humor and insight, THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER SOLD unmasks the marketing process to bring audiences behind closed doors directly into the pitch meetings and marketing presentations which ultimately inform our everyday entertainment decisions.

“Exuberant…Demonstrates the all-pervasive influence of modern advertising by satiric example, and with great ingenuity…” — Wall St Journal

“Spurlock says he’s not selling out, he’s buying in. I’m buying into Spurlock. As ever, he makes you laugh till it hurts.” — Rolling Stone

3 for 3 Presents:
Tom Acousti with Robbie Coffin
Veteran performing songwriter, Tom Acousti, performs his extraordinary "songs about you" in this intimate concert setting. Joining Tom on guitar is the remarkable Robbie Coffin.

To benefit: National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and Freeport Players

American Guitar Masters is comprised of Peter Janson and Larry Pattis - two acclaimed American Fingerstyle acoustic guitarists whose solo careers encompass nearly 50 years of performing and recording, and whose sensibilities are very much affected by today’s world. They have numerous recordings to their credit and have performed widely across North America, from large concert stages, to elite clubs, to intimate house concerts.

American Guitar Masters artists Peter Janson and Larry Pattis share a mutual devotion to the heart and soul of guitar music. Their common vision is in bringing forth the highest level of emotive qualities of the acoustic guitar; their common goal is to delight the audience with landscape and mood of the life experiences that are the foundation of their music.

Larry Pattis: Named one of the “Top 10 Best Acoustic Music Artists of the Decade” by the International Acoustic Music Awards, Larry Pattis has been a featured headline performer at such illustrious venues as the Montreal International Jazz Festival and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’ Millennium Stage in Washington DC.  A winner of numerous awards, in 2008 he was awarded First Prize for “Best Instrumental” in the IAMA competition.

The folks at Godfrey Daniels (Bethlehem, PA) describe Larry Pattis’ guitar music as “Simply brilliant. Simply beautiful”.  Yet, beyond the words and accolades, in listening to his superb recordings or experiencing the magic of a live concert, Pattis succeeds in merging styles of instrumental guitar music not normally found together in the same room. Both Folk and Classical styles seem to be fully represented within Larry’s playing and compositions, and although devoted to the emotive side of the instrument, he demonstrates considerable technical prowess. His musical vision is a
blending of beauty with technique, bringing forth the many voices that the steel string guitar can manifest. Like that of classical guitar masters, Pattis’ music is filled with strong melodic content and rich harmonic counterpoint, supported by moving, evocative rhythms and he allows the experiences of life (both large and small) to influence his writing. His pieces are inspired by his relationships to places and friends, but also to the strong emotions we all have in common.

Peter Janson: Considered a “gifted acoustic fingerstyle guitar player” (Dirty Linen), and the winner of the “Best Contemporary Instrumental Album” in the 2006 NAR Lifestyle Music Awards, Peter Janson’s brand of American Fingerstyle music brings world-class solo guitar playing to the concert stage.  Reminiscent of American Folk guitar, Celtic guitar, and American Roots music his original and compelling contemporary style is filled with artistry, superb technical mastery,
and heartfelt passion.

With critical acclaim such as “perfection... highly creative,” “a true artist’s soul,” and “perhaps the leading contemporary fingerstyle guitarist today” there’s no doubt he has bridged a gap bringing together the every-day music fan with die-hard guitar fans.  He’s collaborated on stage with a variety of acoustic artists including guitar luminaries Alex de Grassi, Ed Gerhard, Dakota Dave Hull, and Chris Proctor, contemporary fingerstyle players Ken Bonfield and Steve Davison, singer-songwriters Brooks Williams, Shane Jackman, Greg Greenway, and Tim Harrison, and Celtic artists Aine Minogue, Aoife Clancy, Robbie O’Connell, and many more...

Peter’s music has entertained millions throughout the world on radio, digital radio, internet radio, TV, airline flights, and in concert.  His solo recordings include Firelight Moonlight, Winter Gifts, Across the Bridge, Sometimes From Here, and most recently Compass Rose. He also appears on numerous international recordings and compilations.  He is a regular performer at guitar festivals and concerts throughout North America.

They are seekers, madmen, and angels hell-bent on riding across America on a bicycle in less than ten days. But what begins as the adventure of a lifetime is transformed in an instant when tragedy strikes the race. These voyagers discover what is truly at stake as they pedal on, praying for the deliverance only the finish line can bring. By journey's end, some are saved, others are lost, but all learn that the fuel that takes a soul toward its own true destiny is desire.

"Bicycle Dreams comes the closest I've seen to capturing the essence of the human heart. The drama, the pain, and the incredibly intimate moments captured on camera make for a documentary of stunning insight. The film isn't about cycling, it's about the human condition." - Amazon.com

Winner Yosemite Film Festival 2009

Winner Grand Rapids Film Festival 2009

Winner All Sports Los Angeles Film Festival 2009

Winner Solstice Film Festival 2009

Winner Breckenridge Film Festival 2009

Winner Fallbrook Film Festival 2009

Winner Red Rock Film Festival 2009

Knitter/sculptor, Katharine Cobey, has been knitting for over 40 years, most recently, from her studio in Cushing, Maine. In December, Schoolhouse Press published her book on "Diagonal Knitting." The book details her investigations of basic knitted shapes—the square, circle, rectangle and triangle—and how they can be developed to work three-dimensionally to create both garments and sculpture.

Copies of her book will be available for sale, and the event is sponsored by statewide arts nonprofit Maine Fiberarts, based in Topsham.

Katharine's talk will be preceded by a slide presentation about Maine studios and farms and by a nine-minute video of a working Worumbo Mill back in the fifties, portraying its process from sheep to cloth.

A modern gothic tale of crime and redemption. When a young, unidentified woman is found dead by the lake - the victim of a brutal and violent crime - Walter, an aging small town police officer, is called to the scene of the town's first murder investigation in decades.

Haunted by his past, and hampered by the mistrust of the community and a state police officer overseeing the investigation, he sets out to solve the murder, complicated by his ex-lover and his suspicion of her current boyfriend. As he delves deeper into the crime, his newly-reformed life begins to unravel threatening his relationship with Sam and intertwining itself within the investigation and possibly the murder itself.

"Eerily beautiful. Evoking the Coen Brothers" — Screen Daily

Fipresci Critic’s Prize Best Film – Torino International Film Festival

Winner - World Cinema Director - Phoenix Film Festival

Winner - Best Actress - Whistler International Film Festival

Anton is a doctor who commutes between his home in an idyllic town in Denmark, and his work at an African refugee camp. In these two very different worlds, he and his family are faced with conflicts that lead them to difficult choices between revenge and forgiveness.

Anton and his wife Marianne, who have two young sons, are separated and struggling with the possibility of divorce. Their older, ten-year-old son Elias is being bullied at school, until he is defended by Christian, a new boy who has just moved from London with his father, Claus. Christian's mother recently lost her battle with cancer, and Christian is greatly troubled by her death.

Elias and Christian quickly form a strong bond, but when Christian involves Elias in a dangerous act of revenge with potentially tragic consequences, their friendship is tested and lives are put in danger. Ultimately, it is their parents who are left to help them come to terms with the complexity of human emotions, pain and empathy.

"Magnificent! Exceptional! Richly humanistic." - Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

"The Oscar for IN A BETTER WORLD, from director Susanne Bier, is well deserved. This filmmaker is becoming a master of the intimate, and in the drama of family relationships and world events, she created something extraordinary." - Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times

Best Foreign Language Film - Academy Award Winner

Best Foreign Language Film - Golden Globe Award Winner

Each designer was given the  challenge to create their designs by obtaining their materials from local second - hand stores for resources and inspiration.  The goal, based on recycling, was to rethink, re-do, re-furbish and/or redesign their materials.  Ranging from practical to theatrical our designers are sure to provide an evening of entertainment and a chance to meet local talent, vendors of the trade, and other talented folks that share interest in design.

Proceeds from the event will benefit the ArtVan Program.

A Songwriter-In-The-Round style show featuring local musicians:

Eric Bettencourt is a songwriter at heart, expertly crafting a wide range of tunes around his scratchy, Janis Joplin-esque voice. Whether equipped with just an acoustic guitar, or with his whole backing band, Bettencourt combines folk, blues, and classic rock elements into always-pleasing melodic concoctions. He has admittedly learned from the rock gods themselves — Hendrix, Clapton, Page, Dylan — but is able to stay contemporary, also drawing on current artists like Iron and Wine and Ray LaMontagne. Combining guitar chops with lyrical prowess is a proven recipe for success and Bettencourt isn't afraid to go with what works. However, he still brings ingenuity to his tracks, often using unconventional arrangements. A staple in the Portland scene, Bettencourt is also a producer and runs his own record label Shadow Shine Records.

A blend of indie and folk, Pete Miller's songs explore the unmasking of human tendencies. His lyrically clever offerings delve into the raw nature of humans—exposing, proposing, desiring, and accepting. Miller’s determined approach and desire to transcend traditional music boundaries have established him as a prominent, emerging local musician.

Maine-grown artist Amanda Gervasi’s insightful lyrics and intensity on-stage bring an audience to close attention while encouraging a look into themselves. With a folk-rock, roots and blues appreciation, her songs reveal a comfortable blend of her influences and originality. In addition to her solo-project, in late 2009 she became the newest member/lead singer of Gypsy Tailwind, recording two albums simultaneously and doubling her performance schedule. July 24th, 2010 marks the long-anticipated release of Amanda Gervasi’s debut album, “Merry the Ghost,” an album that explores the fine-line between love and insanity while allowing the listener an inside view of a passionate artist who has something to say.

BLANK CITY tells the long-overdue tale of a disparate crew of renegade filmmakers who emerged from an economically bankrupt and dangerous moment in New York history. In the late 1970's and mid 80's, when the city was still a wasteland of cheap rent and cheap drugs, these directors crafted daring works that would go on to profoundly  influence the development of independent film as we know it today.

BLANK CITY weaves together an oral history of the “No Wave Cinema” and “Cinema of Transgression” movements through compelling interviews with the luminaries who began it all. Featured players include acclaimed directors Jim Jarmusch and John Waters, actor-writer-director Steve Buscemi, Blondie’s Debbie Harry, Hip Hop legend Fab 5 Freddy, Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, photographer Richard Kern as well as Amos Poe, James Nares, Eric Mitchell, Susan Seidelman, Beth B, Scott B, Charlie Ahearn and Nick Zedd. Fittingly, the soundtrack includes: Patti Smith, Television, Richard Hell & The Voidoids, The Contortions, The Bush Tetras, Sonic Youth and many more.

New York Times Critics' Pick

Official Selection - AFI Fest

Official Selection - Edinburgh International Film Festival

World Premiere - Berlin International Film Festival

Official Selection - Tribeca International Film Festival

“Blank City' provides a vivid, vicarious tour...[Ms. Danhier] illuninates a hectic and fascinating place and time, bringing it back to life and tracing its continuing influence...” — AO Scott, New York Times

You are invited to meet a special guest from India: Sister Lucy Kurien, founder of Maher “Mother’s Home” a refuge for abused, abandoned, and at-risk women and children.

Come “visit” Maher with Sister Lucy through photos and stories.  Be inspired and learn how one woman has made an enormous difference to so many.  Become part of her work to help the most at risk women and children in India to restore security, health, self-reliance, hope, and more.

Learn about Maher’s uniquely successful approach to serving India’s most at-risk women and children.  Meet some of the women and children whose lives have been restored, through photos and stories.

Some of the ways Maher is unique:

• Founded in values of interfaith, caste-free, no bribes paid or accepted
• Meets all of the needs of arriving women and children such as: food, shelter, clothing, counseling, mediation & legal assistance with family (if appropriate), medical assistance, job training and placement, life-skills to prepare for independent living, education, & more.  Women may stay as long as they like.
• Addresses root causes in family and village life case by case (poverty, lack of resources, alcohol abuse, lack of opportunities, environmental issues, and more).

Maher now has a full rainbow of services for women, children, families, and villages to address root causes to ultimately create a world where places like Maher are no longer needed.

This event is hosted by Friends of Maher New England

*Come early for dinner for Indian-inspired food from the cafe.

Eight French Christian monks live in harmony with their Muslim brothers in a monastery perched in the mountains of North Africa in the 1990s. When a crew of foreign workers is massacred by an Islamic fundamentalist group, fear sweeps though the region. The army offers them protection, but the monks refuse. Should they leave? Despite the growing menace in their midst, they slowly realize that they have no choice but to stay… come what may. This film is loosely based on the life of the Cistercian monks of Tibhirine in Algeria, from 1993 until their kidnapping in 1996.

Best Foreign Film, 2010 National Board of Review

Best Picture, 2011 Cesars (France Academy Awards)

Grand Prize – 2010 Cannes Film Festival

2010 Toronto International Film Festival

2010 Telluride Film Festival

2010 New York Film Festival

Juliette Binoche won the Best Actress prize in Cannes for her performance in this playful and provocative romantic drama from legendary auteur Abbas Kiarostami (TASTE OF CHERRY, THE WIND WILL CARRY US), his first feature made outside of Iran. Binoche plays a gallery owner living in a Tuscan village who attends a lecture by a British author (opera star William Shimell) on authenticity and fakery in art. Afterward, she invites him on a tour of the countryside, during which he is mistaken for her husband. They keep up the pretense and continue on their afternoon out, discussing love, life and art, and increasingly behaving like a long-married couple. But are they play-acting on a whim or is there more to their seemingly new relationship than meets the eye?

“An elegant, wistful and picturesque tale of two ships passing in the Tuscan sunlight. Adult viewers should be intrigued by Kiarostami’s dazzling images and tricky questions” – Andrew O’Hehir, Salon

* to encourage word of mouth buzz
* build the kinds of relationships that will turn your prospects into customers and your customers into fans.
* steps to take to turn those relationships into more income profits
* what social media tools work best for what businesses and how to leverage their strengths.
* why every business should have a blog and how best to use it.
* why it is important to participate in the conversations about your industry and your business.

Joan Carney, of Fresh View Inc., coaches artisans, solo entrepreneurs and small business owners on strategic planning and implementing. She helps them layout and implement a framework  for incorporating systems & best practices, newly learned & adopted skill sets & habits to best leverage their strengths and grow their business.

Pete Kilpatrick is a Maine-based acoustic singer-songwriter who has released five albums in the past seven years. The twenty-eight year old has performed over 1,000 shows around the country, both solo and with his band, and his performed alongside some of the most recognizable artists of the past fifteen years. Most recently, Pete and his band have been touring with O.A.R. and DJ Logic as well as performing benefit concerts with members of Dave Matthews Band, and Guster. His influences range from 60's and 70's singer-songwriters to more modern European groups such as Travis, The Frames, and Coldplay. Kilpatrick and his band have been named Maine's Best Act in four of the past five years by the Portland Phoenix and are currently in the final round of the USAA songwriters competition which has been narrowed down from 500 bands to just four. Pete and his band will be releasing their sixth studio album in the early summer of 2011 with a full length tour to follow.

Marie Moreshead’s blend of folk pop songwriting has been described by The Maine Switch as “aural comfort food.” With an acoustic guitar in hand, she has shared the stage with regionally and nationally touring acts including Ray LaMontagne, Sonya Kitchell, NeedToBreathe, Rustic Overtones, and Mark Erelli. In 2010, she was voted “Best Female Vocalist” in the Portland Phoenix Best Music Poll Awards and was selected as a showcase artist for the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival in New York. Moreshead’s EP Birdwatchers was named “Top EP of 2009” by the Portland Phoenix and she recently released her self-titled full-length album in January 2011, a two part disc containing five full band tracks and five bare bones acoustic tracks.

Portland, Maine based singer/songwriter Sara Hallie Richardson, has been performing and writing music through folk, indie and electronic styles.  With influences such as Joni Mitchell, Bjork and Feist, Richardson's songs have won her honors at the University of Maine including the Research and Creative Achievement Award and the Outstanding Achievement Award in Arts and Communication Media.  She was nominated two years in a row for Best Female Vocalist by the Portland Phoenix.  Richardson has participated in performances with musicians such as Amos Lee, Guster, and Kenny Rogers, and has collaborated on projects with The Flannery Brothers, Tris McCall, Lauren Zettler and Maine local band, Gyspy Tailwind.  With her second album in the works, you can find her debut album, A Curious Paradox, in Bull Moose Music stores, ITunes and Amazon.

“We all get dressed for Bill,” says Vogue editrix Anna Wintour. The “Bill” in question is 80-something-year-old New York Times photographer Bill Cunningham. For decades, this Schwinn-riding cultural anthropologist has been obsessively and inventively chronicling fashion trends and high society charity soirées for the Times Style section in his columns “On the Street” and “Evening Hours.” Documenting uptown fixtures (Wintour, Tom Wolfe, Brooke Astor, David Rockefeller—who all appear in the film out of their love for Bill), downtown eccentrics and everyone in between, Cunningham’s enormous body of work is more reliable than any catwalk as an expression of time, place and individual flair. In turn, Bill Cunningham New York is a delicate, funny and often poignant portrait of a dedicated artist whose only wealth is his own humanity and unassuming grace.

OPENING NIGHT – NEW DIRECTORS/NEW FILMS FILM FESTIVAL – NEW YORK

WINNER – AUDIENCE AWARD – BEST DOCUMENTARY – MELBOURNE FILM FESTIVAL

WINNER – AUDIENCE AWARD – BEST DOCUMENTARY – SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL

WINNER – BEST STORYTELLING FOR DOCUMENTARIES – NANTUCKET FILM FESTIVAL

WINNER – BEST FIRST DOCUMENTARY – ABU DHABI FILM FESTIVAL

When the USSR broke apart in 1991, a generation of young people faced a new realm of possibilities. An intimate epic about the extraordinary lives of this last Soviet generation, Robin Hessman’s feature documentary debut tells the stories of five Moscow schoolmates who were brought up behind the Iron Curtain, witnessed the joy and confusion of glasnost, and reached adulthood right as the world changed around them. Through candid first-person testimony, revealing verité footage, and vintage home movies, Hessman, who spent many years living in Moscow, reveals a Russia rarely ever seen on film, where people are frank about their lives and forthcoming about their country.

2010 Official Selection: Sundance, Hot Docs-Toronto

New Directors/New Films, Doha Tribeca Film Festivals

2011 Official Selection: Int’l Film Festival Rotterdam

Anni Clark was recently nominated for “Female Vocalist of the Year” in the Texas Music Awards, based on her newest CD Anni Clark LIVE. Recorded at the rustic and intimate Deertrees Theatre in Harrison ME one hot summer’s eve, the disc showcases 15 of Anni’s most requested songs. With over two decades of full time touring and seven successful recordings under her belt, this Maine native’s passion for communication through music continues to build a widespread and loyal audience. Anni supports her strong melodic vocals with both six and twelve string guitars to create infectious performances that blend “folk, pop, & blues with a dash of Maine hue-mah.”

Ellen Tipper: "I compose and write songs in pictures. I try to get deeply inside the experience I'm writing about - whether it's my own or something I've observed. I believe that music can help us understand each other and ourselves better. Film lets us do that too, but it's always the music inside the film that ultimately draws me in to the empathy or the fear or the joy."
"My second album release "The Juggler" was largely inspired by women's stories, but men's stories feature prominently as well. I've never been very good at sticking to a genre, so you'll find a little americana, a little pop, a little country, a little world music, a little jazz, and some piano ballads, of course."

In the outlandish dark comedy SUPER, James Gunn has created what is perhaps the definitive take on self-reflexive superheroes. When sad-sack loser Frank sees his ex-addict wife willingly snatched by a seductive drug dealer (played by Kevin Bacon), he finds himself bereft and wholly unable to cope. But soon he decides to fight back under the guise of a DIY superhero called Crimson Bolt. With a hand-made suit, a wrench, and a crazed sidekick named Boltie (Juno’s Ellen Page), the Crimson Bolt beats his way through the mean streets of crime in hopes of saving his wife.  The rules were written a long time ago: You are not supposed to molest children, cut lines or key cars; if you do, prepare to face the wrath of the Crimson Bolt!

No stranger to rebel filmmaking, James Gunn cut his teeth writing for Troma before making his directing debut with 2006’s SLITHER. In a similar vein, his follow-up feature combines absurd humor with violence to create something that is both unashamed and inimitable. But this time Gunn adds a new ingredient, one that is dark, dramatic and subversive to the core.

Official Selection – 2011 SXSW Film Festival

"Take a vibrant singer who has passion for music and poetry combined with her compassion for the world. Add energy, fun, intelligence, curiosity, and respect and it adds up to Vanessa Torres. Vanessa Torres can handle the generation gap. She knows from where she comes and brings it on full force while maintaining a loving relationship with the elders in her audience. Bridges are how we get across the river." - Holly Near

Known for her role in the female folk-rock band, Raining Jane, Mai Bloomfield also comes to the stage as a solo artist, delivering finely tuned songs straight from the heart.

With Musicians Joshua DeScherer, Frank Mauceri, Crank Sturgeon, Dan Sonenberg & Maria Wagner,
and Phil Carlsen

Joshua DeScherer (b. 1977, Englewood, NJ) was granted his PhD for music composition from the University at Buffalo in 2010. Joshua is noted for his performances of some of the more theatrical pieces in the contemporary contrabass repertoire, and he is active as a composer, performer, and improviser. Recent compositions have included "Labyrinthine Trilogy", an homage to adventure books and games, and "Untitled Sequence of Signals for a Forgotten Ritual", a collaboration with choreographer Ren Morrill and a wonderful ensemble of improvising musicians and dancers. Joshua has been exploring an expanded sonic pallete of late, including re-purposed children's toys and dismembered LP records. He lives in Brunswick, Maine.

Composer and saxophonist Frank Mauceri’s work includes chamber music, multi-media compositions, and works for jazz ensemble. He has performed with the Boston based Aardvard Jazz Orchestra, and in Maine with Fire-Caught-Fire, Loki, and with his own trio.  His research has focused on the social effects of music technology and on computer assisted composition. Currently, he is developing interactive computer systems for use with improvising musicians.  Frank founded the organization, Jazz for a New Society, a collective of jazz musicians working to raise funds and awareness in support of local activist organizations. He teaches at Bowdoin College and at the University of Maine at Augusta

Daniel Sonenberg is a composer, performer and scholar. His music has been performed by ensembles and institutions including the Da Capo Chamber Players, Friends and Enemies of New Music, American Opera Projects, the Manhattan School of Music, the American Composers Alliance, the Momenta String Quartet and numerous others. Along with Chen Yi, Mr. Sonenberg was a composer in residence at the Portland Chamber Music Festival last summer, where his piece Whistlesparks for harp and flute was performed by Orpheus principle flutist Elizabeth Mann and harpist Bridget Kibbey. Mr. Sonenberg is a co-founding member of the New York-based composers collective South Oxford Six, who have given concerts in New York and Serbia, and made their Maine debut last month on a concert at USM. Mr. Sonenberg premiered 7 Jarring Dances for Clarinet(s) and Steel-String Guitar with Maria Wagner in February, at Whitney Art Works, reprised the performance at the 3rd annual Back Cove Festival of Contemporary Music, and will perform the work again with Ms. Wagner in Brooklyn, New York, in June. Mr. Sonenberg has also published scholarly work on the music of Joni Mitchell, and is completing a book on that topic for the University of Michigan Press. He directs composition studies at the University of Southern Maine, where he is Associate Professor and Resident Composer.

Maria Wagner is a performer and private clarinet instructor in the greater Portland, Maine area.  She graduated in 2010 with a Masters of Music in Performance and in 2008 with a Bachelors of Music in Performance from the University of Southern Maine where she studied clarinet with Dr. Thomas Parchman, principle clarinetist of the Portland Symphony Orchestra.  Maria has performed with the Portland Ballet Orchestra, the Maine State Ballet Orchestra, the Portland Chamber Music Festival Orchestra, the Medomak Conductor's Retreat Orchestra, the Longfellow Chorus Orchestra, and the Camden Holiday Pops Orchestra.  As a soloist, she performed Heinrich Baermann's Adagio for Clarinet at the University of Southern Maine's presidential inauguration, Elliott Schwartz's Souvenir at the Portland Conservatory of Music's Noonday Concerts, as well as the Maine premier of Daniel Sonenberg's Six Small Pieces for Clarinet and Piano at the Portland Conservatory Contemporary Music Festival.  In June 2009, Maria won the Bay Chamber Competition's Summer Music Woodwind Solo Prize.

Crank Sturgeon has been active in performance, installation, and sound art since 1992. A comical conceptualist, Crank blends pun and the profane into noisy, happy accidents. Accompanied by ridiculous costuming, athletic endurance, and audience participation, the end result is often a recipe that embraces the loud, the wet, and the celebratory. Also as an indefatigable nomad, Crank frequently tours his one man show across the USA and Europe; in 2010, headlining at the 
NorCal Noise Festival, in Sacramento, CA; performing amplified badminton for the annual SPACE Block Party (curated by SPACE Gallery, in Portland, ME); as well as a solo installation at the MEME Gallery in Cambridge, MA. In recent years, Crank has also been a resident at Projektwerkstatt, an experimental artist workspace in Leipzig, Germany; guest artist at CESTA, an intermedia residency in Tabor, Czech Republic; as well as countless festivals such as WORM (held at 
the Rotterdam Institute of Architecture, Rotterdam, Netherlands), Wez to Wylasç, Warsaw, Poland, and the Antennae Festival, Paris, France.

SCHOOLING THE WORLD takes a challenging, sometimes funny, ultimately deeply troubling look at the role played by modern education in the destruction of the world’s last sustainable indigenous cultures.

Beautifully shot on location in the Buddhist culture of Ladakh in the northern Indian Himalayas, the film weaves the voices of Ladakhi people through a conversation between four carefully chosen original thinkers; anthropologist and ethnobotanist Wade Davis,  a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence; Helena Norberg-Hodge and Vandana Shiva, both recipients of the Right Livelihood Award for their work with traditional peoples in India; and Manish Jain, a former architect of education programs with UNESCO,  USAID, and the World Bank.

It  examines the hidden assumption of cultural superiority behind education aid projects, which overtly aim to help children “escape” to a “better life.” It looks at the failure of institutional education to deliver on its promise of a way out of poverty – here in the United States as well as in the so-called “developing” world. And it questions our very definitions of wealth and poverty – and of knowledge and ignorance – as it uncovers the role of schools in the destruction of traditional sustainable agricultural and ecological knowledge, in the breakup of extended families and communities, and in the devaluation of ancient spiritual traditions.

Finally, SCHOOLING THE WORLD calls for a “deeper dialogue” between cultures, suggesting that we have at least as much to learn as we have to teach, and that these ancient sustainable societies may harbor knowledge which is vital for our own survival in the coming millenia.

Sponsored by Goddard College's Education Program

On the day of their father’s 70th birthday party, four siblings come to terms with the publication of a novel written by the youngest sibling that exposes the family’s most intimate secrets.

"This duo is a force. The music comes from the heart, and bristles with excitement and inventiveness... Much of the country and world hasn't tuned in yet, but they will. One listen is all it takes."  -Aer Stephen ("Folk & Beyond" WTJU)

A sound that's hard to describe, yet impossible to forget.  With a cutting edge vibe that explodes with originality and soulful expression, Morwenna & Jay's music redefines the acoustic origins of violin and guitar.  Both graduates of Berklee College of Music, the Violin & Guitar duo started playing together in 2004 and have continued to push the boundaries of "acoustic" music.  The release of their highly anticipated 2nd CD "Chioggia Beat," illustrates their ability to reinvent the limits of their instruments and in the process produce a lush range of original work that is sure to move your soul and mind.  A worldly mix of 12 brand new tunes, the album showcases Morwenna and Jay's heartfelt composition skills, along with their knack for introducing unexpected musical tangents and motifs in a way that keeps you wanting more.   The CD features their signature duo sound, their full band, as well as a few special guest musicians such as legendary world artist Pierre Bensusan, soul singer Ezra Hamilton, and Dave Matthews Band trumpeter Rashawn Ross.

Morwenna is one of the most original and creative violinists of today.  After seeing Itzhak Perlman on Sesame Street at age 3, she begged her mom for a violin and began lessons shortly thereafter.  As a child, she studied  classical music with Richard Errante and also played in a band that she and her father co-founded called Cafe Musette that focused on Gypsy Swing, Celtic, and other genres.  Morwenna graduated early from high-school to attend Berklee College of Music in 2000 where she continued her studies in Jazz, Bluegrass, and other styles and graduated in 2003.  At Berklee, she was honored to have shared the stage with such greats as Brian Blade, Charlie Hayden, and Steven Tyler of Aerosmith.  Over time, Morwenna has developed her own unique sound and tone, that is simply unmistakable.  She plays with purpose and sincerity, and has often been compared to the great jazz violinist Stuff Smith and the haunting sounds of Scottish fiddler, Johnny Cunningham.

Jay began to study classical piano at the age of 5 and soon after decided to move on to drum lessons. The guitar was picked up accidentally in some sense, when his middle school band member did not show up to rehearsal and someone needed to fill in.  Jay put down his drum sticks, picked up a guitar, and soon discovered a passion for the guitar.  During high-school he studied with jazz/blues guitarist Jamal Millner and became fascinated with funk music when he discovered the sound of groups like Parliament Funkadelic and The Meters.  One day, his Spanish teacher told him that world renowned finger-style guitarist, Pierre Bensusan was playing a show in town and suggested that he should attend.  After that concert Jay's perception of how the guitar was played and what one could extract from the instrument changed forever.  He was so taken by the performance that he later studied with Bensusan at an intensive master class held in Chateau Thierry, France.  After graduating high-school, Jay moved straight to Boston, MA to enroll at Berklee College of Music where he studied songwriting, music business, and performance.  Jay plays with deep emotion and clarity and his sound is often compared to the late great Michael Hedges.

It wasn't until the last semester at Berklee during a "Music of India" class, where Morwenna and Jay met.  After becoming friends and discussing similar interests in music, Jay told Morwenna about the Charlottesville, VA music scene (of which he is a native) and they both moved there in the fall of 2003.  They immediately started teaching private lessons, doing session work, and playing in a few different projects. They soon discovered that playing music together and working on their original work as a duo was much more fulfilling.  With no one telling them what or how to play, they discovered a creative freedom that only comes from stepping beyond the confines of genre music.  Thus began their amazing creative journey.  2 albums & hundreds of shows later, they are making a mark on this world with their explosive music.  Blending together World, Jazz, Funk, Blues and more, these trailblazers continue to push the envelope and will not stop.

"We don't describe our music, it's just us and we're not trying to be anything other than that."
-Jay Pun

Together, they have shared shows with such greats as Bela Fleck & The Flecktones, Dave Matthews Band, Avett Brothers, Toubab Krewe, The Duhks, Frank Vignola Quintet, Jesse Colin Young, Ralph Stanley, Corey Harris, Ben Taylor, and more. They've also had the great pleasure and honor to play at some wonderful festivals and clubs such as FloydFest, Bristol's Rhythm & Roots, The Prism Coffeehouse, Club Passim, Eddie's Attic, Down Home, and the list goes on...

Lisa Redern brings two talented songwriters from Nashville, who will perform in an intimate, unplugged setting in Frontier’s theater for an evening of compelling songs and stories.
*This will be the final show before summer hiatus.

Jesse Terry: With his down-to-earth appeal and deceptively sharp writing, Jesse Terry plants himself firmly among the most promising singer-songwriters of his generation. He has performed regular showcases at the Bluebird Cafe, Nashville's premier venue for emerging musical talent. Terry's 2009 debut, The Runner, introduced him as an inspired prodigy on the Americana scene, and he's currently preparing his second album, tentatively scheduled for a summer 2011 release.

Michael Logen: Michael's blending of folk and pop is often enjoyed by fans of David Gray, Ray La Montagne and Amos Lee. Recently touring with John Legend, Jonny Lang and Sister Hazel, Michael's songs have also been featured on MTV, ABC and NPR. Upcoming tours of the Northeast US, Ireland and England in 2011. In early 2011 Michael signed with Nettwerk Music, joining Sarah McLachlan, Old Crow Medicine Show and William Fitzsimmons on their roster.

The film depicts a man, devoted to a life of study and worship, who hopes to impart his faith to his young son. It is a journey to the innermost world of the believer as he comes face to face with the still silence of God.

After the showing, a discussion will be led by cinematographer Yoav Kosh, the Schusterman Visiting Artist Program artist-in-residence at Colby College, who has been an active filmmaker and teacher in Israel for the past 25 years. His cinematography credits include about twenty five feature-length movies and dozens of television shows, drama series, and documentaries. Yoav has won numerous honors for his work, including two awards for “Best Cinematography” from the Israeli Film Academy, Israel's equivalent to the Oscars.

Sponsored By Beth Israel Congregation in Bath

Winner of Tribeca Film Festival 2007 - Top Award

Winner of Taormina Film Festival 2007 - Best Director

New York Times Review

THE PROMISE combines never-before-seen footage of Springsteen and the E Street Band shot between 1976 and 1978 (including home rehearsals and studio sessions) with new interviews with Springsteen, E Street Band members, manager Jon Landau, former-manager Mike Appel, and others closely involved in the making of the record.

*Purchase a ticket for the film and you could receive one of the giveaways:

- Limited Edition 10" Vinyl Record
- BluRay copy of "The Promise: The Making of Darkness On The Edge of Town"

"5 (out of 5) stars." - The Los Angeles Times

"A Revelation." - The Washington Post

"Extraordinary. Fascinating." - Rolling Stone

Martin Swinger: Armed with only an acoustic guitar and a great voice, Martin Swinger focuses over 40 years of performing experience into award-winning original songs, traditional and contemporary Americana music, swing and jazz standards and improvisational music with the ensemble, ImproVox. A veteran of Boston Folk Festival and Kerrville Folk Festival, Martin is known for his sterling performance and vocal range, surprisingly diverse repertoire, brilliant songwriting and engaging stage presence. Martin's talent and experience prove to be a winning combination!

>> Listen To Martin Swinger

Steve Gillette & Cindy Mangsen: "Steve and Cindy have hit on a combination that consistently produces high quality recordings and entertaining stage shows. Their voices and their styles meld seamlessly with a gentleness and a maturity that is unmatched in the world of folk duos." - Matt Watroba, Sing Out Magazine

Steve and Cindy have been performing together for 20 years, bringing together their love of traditional music and their wealth of original songs. Accompanying themselves with guitar, concertina and banjo, their live performances are known for rich harmony, compelling songs and a good dose of humor.

>> Listen To Steve & Cindy

From the director of The Real Dirt on Farmer John comes a profound, alternative look at the tragic global bee crisis. Juxtaposing the catastrophic disappearance of bees with the mysterious world of the beehive, Queen of the Sun weaves an unusual and dramatic story of the heart-felt struggles of beekeepers, scientists and philosophers from around the world. Featuring Michael Pollan, Gunther Hauk and Vandana Shiva, Queen of the Sun reveals both the problems and the solutions in renewing a culture in balance with nature.

In 1923, Rudolf Steiner, a scientist, philosopher & social innovator, predicted that in 80 to 100 years honeybees would collapse. His prediction has come true with Colony Collapse Disorder where bees are disappearing in mass numbers from their hives with no clear explanation. In an alarming inquiry into the insights behind Steiner’s prediction Queen of The Sun examines the global bee crisis through the eyes of biodynamic beekeepers, scientists, farmers, and philosophers. On a pilgrimage around the world, 10,000 years of beekeeping is unveiled, highlighting how our historic and sacred relationship with bees has been lost due to highly mechanized industrial practices. Featuring Michael Pollan, Vandana Shiva, Gunther Hauk and beekeepers around the world, Queen of The Sun weaves a dramatic story which uncovers the problems and solutions in renewing a culture in balance with nature.

OFFICIAL SELECTION - IDFA

WINNER - Audience Award - Maui Film Festival

"Entertaining, gorgeous and relevant…A tour of the physical world and the world of ideas…built with truly lovely cinematography and music, and taking us, once again, on a journey through a wood of confusion toward rays of hope… “Queen of the Sun,” demonstrates anew [Siegel's] rare eye and sensibility…The message here is vital and Siegel retains the gift of making you dream of making a difference." — Shawn Levy, The Oregonian

It is the vast, sprawling complexes of oil refineries and petro-chemical plants that help make the Texan economy one of the biggest in the world. But does the wealth come at too a high a price to the local community? Texan industries are legally permitted to release millions of tons of toxic pollutants into the air each year, plus thousands of tons more in ‘accidental’ or ‘unscheduled’ releases. When these incidents happen, local residents are told to stay in their homes and tape up their windows and doors. This procedure is called ‘Shelter in Place’. Communities living on the fenceline of Texan industry are usually poor, African American and powerless to protest. This film is an intimate portrait of a community battling against environmental pollution and corporate power.

"Beautifully shot, Shelter in Place is an emotionally engaging portrait of a people without a voice, trapped by their economic circumstances in an area whose air quality is affecting every generation” – The International Film Guide

EcoCinema, presented in partnership between Harbor Works Gallery, Frontier, & TNC, features a periodic series of award-winning documentaries and dramatic films about life and work in resource-based communities that are struggling for sustainability andenvironmental justice. Each film is a timely and emotional portrait of a marginal or unconventional place whose aspirations and challenges convey a universal message.

Shot over a five year period, ON COAL RIVER follows the transformation of four remarkable individuals as they fight for the valley they love and for future generations — making dramatic changes against all odds.

On Coal River just might be the most inspiring and triumphant story of a possible clean energy future." - Huffington Post

EcoCinema, presented in partnership between Harbor Works Gallery, Frontier, & TNC, features a periodic series of award-winning documentaries and dramatic films about life and work in resource-based communities that are struggling for sustainability andenvironmental justice. Each film is a timely and emotional portrait of a marginal or unconventional place whose aspirations and challenges convey a universal message.

Jacinda Martinez will be discussing the evolution and process of taking vegetable by-products and creating wearable art. 18 dresses will be shown via slide show along with a description of how each dress was designed and what eventually happens to them. This is a one night only event, so please come prepared with lots of questions.

The idea for this project began while working on a farm in 2009 after Jacinda encountered 6 feet tall Swiss Chard plants in one of the farms greenhouses. Currently, she is entering her third season of farming and creating dresses. Jacinda expresses, “Each year brings exciting chances for me to design in new and unique ways.”

Presented By Physicians for Social Responsibility, Maine Chapter Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.

During the cold war, public consciousness fixated on the atomic bomb. Then the cold war ended, and we retreated into denial. In fact, the danger of nuclear annihilation never disappeared; it only swelled. Countdown to Zero sweeps us into a scorching, hypnotic journey around the world to reveal the palpable possibility of nuclear disaster and frame an issue on which human survival itself hangs.

Scientists, world leaders, and security experts—including Valerie Plame herself—expose the absurdities and alarming realities of the situation. The 1990s heralded a second nuclear age. Many countries and terrorist groups are now actively acquiring fissile materials and construction blueprints. The possibility of an accident or miscalculation looms even larger. As the film projects a startling vision, interviews with Jimmy Carter, Mikhail Gorbachev, Tony Blair, and Pervez Musharraf yield a unified message: our only option is to eradicate every-last nuclear missile. Luckily for us, getting to zero is possible—step by step. Let’s jump-start the change.

TEDxRamallah is no normal TEDx:

As an event, TEDxRamallah is happening in a city on land that cannot be reached by a large part of its own population due to occupation. It is also removed from access to the larger majority of people from neighboring countries.As an initiative, TEDxRamallah takes on the responsibility to go beyond the event itself to fulfill the promise of what TED stands for: "We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world."

TEDxRamallah aims to showcase inspiring stories of Palestine. It also aims to educate and inspire by providing a space for people to share their ideas in any field, whether science, education, literature, technology, design, etc. to contribute to the positive perception of Palestine.

TEDxRamallah is a one day event that will take place in three venues in three cities: Convention Palace in Bethlehem*, Sunflower Theatre in Beirut, and in a venue in Amman. The partner cities (Beirut and Amman) support Palestine, a place with limited access, by getting people who cannot be part of the event in Bethlehem closer to the live experience. The TEDxRamallah program will have a majority of speakers speaking live from the Convention Palace, while those speakers who cannot access Palestine will speak from the partner cities and will be streamed into Bethlehem.

To register to attend TEDxRamallah, click on image:

To learn more about TEDxDirigo:

Heavily influenced by Andalusian Flamenco and Arabic folk music, translated through a blend of American folk, rock, Arabic, and Afro-Cuban sounds, Olas is an original, all-acoustic mash-up of very raw and passionate music and dance in Portland, Maine.

Molly Angie palmas / vocals
Dylan Blanchard cajon / bongo / palmas / vocals
Lindsey Bourassa zapateado / palmas / vocals
Megan Keogh zapateado / palmas / vocals
Tom Kovacevic oud / ney / palmas / vocals
Leif Sherman-Curtis guitar / palmas / vocals
Chriss Sutherland lead vocals / guitar / palmas
Anna Trunzo palmas / vocals

The Fish Belong to the People, a feature length documentary, follows a group of family fishermen in Port Clyde, Maine as they work to save their fishing grounds from government, market structure, and themselves. With each passing season their way of life has slowly been extinguished by old ways of doing business that favors the most efficient and destructive ways of fishing over sustainability.

In the last forty years fishing technology has advanced largely unchecked and without conscious attention to the preservation of the fish stocks. As a result government and big business are slowly pushing small family fishermen out in the name of conservation.

With nothing left to lose, the local fishermen of Port Clyde are trying to stay afloat by finally becoming an environmentally friendly operation. Their proactive association is developing cleaner ways of fishing by reducing their use of powerful technologies at sea. On land they retool how their catch is sold- as a cleaner alternative that comes fresh off the boat straight to the public. Ultimately it is the people as consumers who can buy local seafood and support family-owned boats in their community.

EcoCinema, presented in partnership between Harbor Works Gallery, Frontier, & TNC, features a periodic series of award-winning documentaries and dramatic films about life and work in resource-based communities that are struggling for sustainability andenvironmental justice. Each film is a timely and emotional portrait of a marginal or unconventional place whose aspirations and challenges convey a universal message.

Documentary filmmakers Jauretsi Saizarbitoria and Emilia Menocal provide a revealing glimpse of Cuba's hidden hip-hop culture and everyday life on the island, with profiles of three members of El Cartel, an underground rap collective. Soandry raps about social justice and talks about the separation from his brother who left for America a decade earlier; charming and charismatic Mikki raises pigeons and sings of love; and Magyori, the tough and poetic daughter of a prostitute, reflects about daily survival. "The real deal" - The New York Times.

OFFICIAL SELECTION
South By Southwest Film Festival, Los Angeles Film Festival,
Edinburgh International Film Festival

Advance tickets strongly recommend.  Please call the theater at (207)-725-5222

All proceeds from this event will go to the FFIM Grassroots Grant fund. Past recipients of FFIM Grassroots Grants have included Trout Unlimited, Casting For Recovery, Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, and many more.

Advance tickets strongly recommend.  Please call the theater at (207)-725-5222

All proceeds from this event will go to the FFIM Grassroots Grant fund. Past recipients of FFIM Grassroots Grants have included Trout Unlimited, Casting For Recovery, Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, and many more.

Energetic. Catchy. Fun. Exciting. Danceable. Memorable. Loveable. Beautiful. Amazing. At times, unabashedly hirsute. This is not the Toughcats ad on Matchmaker.com; these are just some of the words die-hard Toughcats fans mutter in their sleep after a performance. Toughcat shows are as exhausting for the audience as they are for the beat-red drummer and the blister-fingered string players. The intensity can induce a stoic crowd to dance, and a wild crowd to stop and take a look. They pull out a little something for everyone, the young folks, the old folks, the hippies and the hipsters, the yuppies and the rural unemployed. If you don’t fall head-over-heels in love with one of the band members, you are either a super villain, or an igneous rock (all other rocks have been noted to contain trace amounts of love for Jake Greenlaw.)

There will be a short performance prior to the main act with Chris Teret.

MUSIC >>

Billy Libby combines elements of indie, folk, and pop to craft ethereal, yet captivating music. Hailing from Portland, Maine, Billy Libby took the long winter to record a solo record. The record is a subdued, yet deliberate collection of music with instrumentation ranging from lap-steel, to kalimba, accordion and circuit bent keyboards. The record "Pitter Patter" is due to be released this coming winter. The Little Bird EP is a collection of songs from the upcoming full-length record by Billy Libby re-imagined in a stripped-down setting.

FILM >>

Tiny Furniture: 22-year-old Aura returns home to her artist mother's TriBeCa loft with the following: a useless film theory degree, 357 hits on her Youtube page, a boyfriend who's left her to find himself at Burning Man, a dying hamster, and her tail between her legs. Luckily, her trainwreck childhood best friend never left home, the restaurant down the block is hiring, and ill-advised romantic possibilities lurk around every corner. Aura quickly throws away her liberal-arts clogs and careens into her old/new life: a dead-end hostess job, parties on chilly East Village fire escapes, stealing twenties out of her mother's Prada purse, pathetic Brooklyn "art shows," prison-style tattoos done out of sheer boredom, drinking all the wine in her mother's neatly organized cabinets, competing with her prodigious teenage sister, and desperate sex in a giant metal pipe. Surrounded on all sides by what she could become, Aura just wants someone to tell her who she is.

King Corn: You are what you eat, a humorous documentary on the American corn agri-business. MOFGA Executive Director Russell Libby will join Seth Kroeck of Brunswick's Crystal Spring Farm to introduce the film and to discuss the present state of farm subsidies. Sponsored by the Brunswick Interfaith Earth Care Alliance.  Admission free, but seating limited. Reservations recommended. Call 729 7331.

King Corn is a feature documentary about two friends, one acre of corn, and the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation. In King Corn, Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, best friends from college on the east coast, move to the heartland to learn where their food comes from. With the help of friendly neighbors, genetically modified seeds, and powerful herbicides, they plant and grow a bumper crop of America's most-productive, most-subsidized grain on one acre of Iowa soil. But when they try to follow their pile of corn into the food system, what they find raises troubling questions about how we eat-and how we farm.

For many Americans, the bicycle is a choice. An expensive toy. An eco-conscious mode of transportation. For countless others across the globe, it is much more.

For Fred, a health worker in Zambia, the bicycle is a means of reaching twice as many patients. For Bharati, a teenager in India, it provides access to education. For Mirriam, a disabled Ghanaian woman, working on bicycles is an escape from the stigma attached to disabled people in her community. For Carlos, a farmer in Guatemala, pedal power is a way to help neighbors reduce their impact on the environment. For Sharkey, a young man in California, the bicycle is an escape from the gangs that consume so many of his peers. 

With My Own Two Wheels weaves together the experiences of these five individuals into a single story about how the bicycle can change the world—one pedal stroke at a time.

From the lush wetlands of Botswana's Okavango Delta comes the suspense-filled tale of a determined lioness ready to try anything--and willing to risk everything--to keep her family alive. In the new wildlife adventure THE LAST LIONS, filmmakers Dereck and Beverly Joubert follow the epic journey of a lioness named Ma di Tau ('mother of lions') as she battles against a daunting onslaught of enemies -- from crocodile-infested rivers to the slashing horns of a fierce herd of buffalo -- in order to ensure the survival of her cubs, and perhaps of the future of the species. THE LAST LIONS weaves dramatic storytelling and breathtaking, up-close footage around the question of 'are Ma di Tau and her young to be among the last lions?'

"The film's dramas are more persuasively framed than many human ones, going so far as to include multiple flashbacks." — Village Voice

"Among the most beautifully shot documentaries to hit the big screen in recent memory" — The New York Times

Join us for another evening of fast-paced presentations in which 10 people show 20 slides/20 seconds each about subjects they are passionate about: work, play, art, environment, changing the world.

Reservations are required (This event consistently sells out).  Please reserve a seat by emailing Five Rivers at info@fiveriversartsalliance.org; include your contact info.

For more information about Pecha Kucha, Vol 5 on March 21, contact Five Rivers Arts Alliance at 207-798-6964, info@fiveriversartsalliance.org, www.fiveriversartsalliance.org

Jonathan Winters, 85-year-old comic genius, is a gifted painter. He dreams of having his paintings hang in the Museum of Modern Art. When Jonathan’s art exhibitions in Beverly Hills and Las Vegas fail, a discouraged Jonathan is ready to abandon his dream. The filmmakers decide to help by hunting down a famous critic and show him Jonathan’s paintings. He believes Jonathan is “the missing link between Miro and Dali” and convinces the Museum of Modern Art to give Jonathan a show—but only if he paints three new paintings. Jonathan launches into a painting frenzy but disaster strikes when his favorite painting is stolen, causing him to lose his sense of humor. Without his sense of humor Jonathan sets out on a quest to get his mojo back.

WINNER - Feel Good Film Festival
Best Feature Film

WINNER - Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival
Best Documentary Feature

WINNER - Rhode Island Film Festival
Special Jury Prize

VIDEO: Bill Cosby on Jonathan Winters

Olivier Assayas electrified the Cannes Film Festival with CARLOS, his epic and definitive portrait of the notorious international terrorist known as Carlos the Jackal, who masterminded a wave of terror attacks in Europe and the Middle East in the ’70s and ’80s. Venezuelan actor Édgar Ramírez stars in the title role. Co-written by Assayas and Dan Franck, CARLOS illustrates the evolution of contemporary terrorism as it examines the life of its title character, a Venezuelan whose real name is Ilich Ramírez Sánchez. Tracing the arc of Carlos’ criminal activities across two decades and several nations, the film features a dynamic cast of international talent and was shot in numerous countries, including Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, Lebanon, and Morocco.

OFFICIAL SELECTION
Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, New York Film Festival

"An epic achievement. Nothing I've seen in recent years has held my attention so relentlessly." - Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal

"Vivid, exciting, pusingly cinematic...The Cannes Film Festival's Biggest Event." - Vogue

Jim Douglass - long-time peace activist and Catholic Worker in the Berrigan tradition - is the author of "JFK and the Unspeakable", a gripping and inspiring work. Mr. Douglass addresses the questions of why President Kennedy was assassinated, why it matters to history and how the military/industrial complex controls the presidency of our nation. A film of his September 2010 talk in Portland will be shown at this event.

Filmed over nearly three years, WASTELAND follows renowned artist Vik Muniz as he journeys from his home base in Brooklyn to his native Brazil and the world's largest garbage dump, Jardim Gramacho, located on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. There he photographs an eclectic band of "catadores" -- or self-designated pickers of recyclable materials. Muniz's initial objective was to "paint" the catadores with garbage. However, his collaboration with these inspiring characters as they recreate photographic images of themselves out of garbage reveals both the dignity and despair of the catadores as they begin to re-imagine their lives. Walker (Devil's Playground, Blindsight, Countdown to Zero) has great access to the entire process and, in the end, offers stirring evidence of the transformative power of art and the alchemy of the human spirit.  A documentary by Lucy Walker.  NR 98 mins.

WINNER Sundance Film Festival 2010
Audience Award Best World Documentary

WINNER Berlin Film Festival 2010
Audience Award for Best Film, Panorama

When we think of '60s revolutionaries, the women of Dagenham don't fit the clichés-but these feisty, funny factory girls shook their world with spirit and courage, and achieved lasting social change. Based on a true story, MADE IN DAGENHAM portrays a decisive moment in that decade of upheaval, when the fight for equal rights and pay at the Ford Dagenham car plant was led-unexpectedly-by ordinary working-class women with one foot in the kitchen, one foot on the factory floor, and ears glued to the pop coming over the radio and telly from far-off London (19 kilometers and a world away). Throughout the campaign, the women of Dagenham rely on their humor, common sense and bravado to stand together, take on their bosses and face an increasingly belligerent local community. Daring to stand up and push boundaries, they changed the rules of the game not only for factory workers but also for the rights and expectations of women everywhere.

"So smoothly written and well acted that its humanity and good will leave you with a 1960's buzz of hope that social justice might be at hand." - Stephen Holden, New York Times

Presented by Frontier and Chewonki Foundation

Featuring the heartbreaking stories of young people across the country who have been pushed to the brink, educators who are burned out and worried that students aren’t developing the skills they need, and parents who are trying to do what’s best for their kids, Race to Nowhere points to the silent epidemic in our schools: cheating has become commonplace, students have become disengaged, stress-related illness, depression and burnout are rampant, and young people arrive at college and the workplace unprepared and uninspired.

Race to Nowhere is a call to mobilize families, educators, and policy makers to challenge current assumptions on how to best prepare the youth of America to become healthy, bright, contributing and leading citizens.

In a grassroots sensation already feeding a groundswell for change, hundreds of theaters, schools and organizations nationwide are hosting community screenings during a six month campaign to screen the film nationwide. Tens of thousands of people are coming together, using the film as the centerpiece for raising awareness, radically changing the national dialogue on education and galvanizing change.

The Chewonki Foundation, based in Wiscasset, is dedicated to helping people grow individually and in community with others by providing educational experiences that foster an understanding, appreciation, and stewardship of the natural world and that emphasize the power of focused, collective effort.

Each year Chewonki touches the lives of nearly 40,000 young people. There are no limits to opportunities for life-changing experiences at Chewonki, and our core programs reflect this diversity:

Semester School
Camp for Boys
Camp for Girls
Wilderness Trips for Teens
Wilderness Vacations for Adults and Families
Outdoor Classroom for Schools
Traveling Natural History Programs
Sustainable Campus

Celebrating International Women's Day - March 8

BHUTTO is the definitive documentary that chronicles the life of one of the most complex and fascinating characters of our time. Hers is an epic tale of Shakespearean dimension. It’s the story of the first woman in history to lead a Muslim nation: Pakistan. Newsweek called it the most dangerous place in the world, and the home of nuclear war heads and the Taliban.

Official Selection 2010 Sundance Film Festival

Official Selection 2010 hotDOCS

"A worthy portrait of a phenomenal woman." - John Anderson, Variety

"Breathes life and heart into a history little known in the West." - Sean P. Means, The Salt Lake Tribue

Chris Velan > Chris Velan is an acoustic singer/songwriter based out of Montreal, QC. After wrapping up a great year that included performances at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, inclusion on a 1% For The Planet music compilation that also featured Jack Johnson, and multiple tours with the San Francisco based band ALO (signed to Jack Johnson's label), Chris will be back on the road in support of his next album, Fables For Fighters. This album is a culmination of a lot of tired miles, late nights, and shared stories. From a fairy tale to a murder ballad, the songs speak of struggle, longing, transformation and redemption.

Pete Miller > A blend of indie and folk, Pete Miller's songs explore the unmasking of human tendencies. His lyrically clever offerings delve into the raw nature of humans—exposing, proposing, desiring, and accepting. Miller’s determined approach and desire to transcend traditional music boundaries have established him as a prominent, emerging local musician and fueled him to continue growing beyond.

Jason Spooner > This multi-award winning New England-based songwriter discovered his father's collection of eight-track tapes as a child and never looked back. After early exposure to songwriter legends like Neil Young, Paul Simon, Jim Croce and Van Morrison along with Motown heavies like Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and Gladys Knight, Jason was inspired to start making the rounds on coffee house stages in his teens. Jason's writing style continues to emerge as a crucial strength that sets this Portland, Maine-based artist apart from the fray of young songwriters populating the New England music scene. Admittedly far from content with the majority of songs dominating today's radio charts, Jason hovers in a unique space between the literal and the psychological. As a writer, he often provides enough detail to ignite the listener's imagination while enabling them to deliver some personal experience to the equation.

A night of student work performed by the Hyde School Student Songwriter's Showcase featuring musical guests Michael McDonald, Tina Lear, Dylan McDonald, Randall Williams, Mark Radcliff, Matt Newberg, Ryan Winkle, Alex Fandman, Tim Mercer, Brian Thompson, Laura Piela, and Josh Welch.

Please note that musical guests are not performing, but will be accompanying students in support of the songwriter's showcase.

When a small group of Portland-based musicians were brought together by their mutual love of jazz improvisation and hip-hop rhythm, Treeyo was born. Since the summer of 2007, they've been rocking Southern Maine with soulful and adventurous original music and creative renditions of hip hop and jazz classics. Most commonly associated with Local 188, the popular Portland hang they've played since the groups inception, the musicians which comprise the band have played everywhere from Port City Music Hall to Lincoln Center, opening for Wilco, Soulive, and Marco Benevento just to name a few. Seeing them live is a must for anyone who loves jazz or hip-hop, or is, like them, somewhere in between the two. DJ Moore on drums, Tyler Quist on guitar and Andrew Seherzer on electric bass.

Best Jazz Act in Portland

Please note that Hassan was originally scheduled to perform piano with Treeyo, but was called out of town unexpectedly.  He'll be back at Frontier again shortly.

Featuring a Live Performance of an original Musical Score by Old-Time Piano Player, Doug Protsik.

D.W. Griffith’s 1915 classic psychological suspense filled melodrama by the greatest pioneer of feature film, historic in its ground breaking theme.

Join Karen Morgan and friends for an evening of comedy about love and laughter, featuring Maine comedians Karen Morgan, John Ater, Nellie Coes, Quinn Collins and more!

Karen Morgan, Maine's Funniest Mom, is a trial attorney turned stay-at-home mom turned professional comedian.  She made her comedy debut as a finalist in Nick at Nite's Search for the Funniest Mom in America in 2005 and has been performing ever since.  She has a weekly radio spot during the morning commute and can be also heard on Sirius XM's Blue Collar Comedy Channel.  She performs in comedy clubs, theatres and for corporate audiences around the country.  Originally from Georgia, her Southern accent is quite entertaining in Cumberland, Maine, where she lives with her husband, three children, two neurotic birds and big dumb dog.

Johnny Ater is a husband and a Dad to two wicked awesome kids. By day, a Painting Contractor; and by night, Ater is one of Maine's favorite Standup Comics, working hard and succeeding at his craft of making audiences laugh, since 2003. One moment he is taking light-hearted swipes at himself (and his fellow Mainers), and how NOT cool he is; and the next moment he is contorting his face in the most amazingly goofy ways, you can't help but crack a smile at what a ham this guy is. You will walk away from a show remembering Johnny Ater’s faces, it's most definitely his "signature" style in his comedy. And it’s no wonder this guy is near the top of the list of Maine's funniest professional Comedians and performing all over the state and New England, all the time.

Nellie Coes also made her comedy debut on Nick at Nite's 2nd Season of Search for the Funniest Mom in America.  A Maine native, Nellie's comedy is a refreshing look at suburbia and the people who reside there.  Audiences love her descriptions of parenthood, marriage and everyday life in Maine.  Audiences love her acerbic humor and always leave wanting to hear more.

Quinn Collins has been performing standup comedy since winning Portland's Funniest Professional Comedy Contest in 1994.  He is a regular performer in Boston, Los Angeles, and New York and colleges and clubs throughout the country.  He has worked with comedy legends Stephen Wright, Dave Attell, Brian Regan, Robert Klein, Anthony Clark, Bob Nelson, Gabe Kaplan, Michael Winslow, and many others.   Quinn is also an independent film producer, director, screenwriter and actor, and has appeared in numerous films.

April’s Heart was chosen by the Brunswick High School & Mt. Ararat High School YAP (Youth Advocacy Program) students, for its compelling depiction of adolescent struggles. Based on true stories, the film is a project of the Sanford High School Film Club and produced by the Safe Schools Healthy Students Initiative and Project AWARE.

April is a shy observer in a suburban high school.
She watches and listens while her peers survive teenage chaos.  Can she find her place in the cliquey, unforgiving halls of the high school, or will she stay safe and alone on the outside?

April's Heart tears the mask off of young people so we can see inside -- a story that gives us an intimate look at the challenges, hopes and dreams of American teenagers.  This movie invites us to listen....and to care.

The YAP students felt that a community discussion about the film would bring parents and students together to increase awareness of these same issues in our local community.  Mid Coast Hospital’s CASA (Communities Against Substance Abuse) and Healthy Maine Partnership ACCESS Health’s YAP program are proud to co-host this event.

After the screening of the film there will be a panel discussion.

Panelists include: 
Melissa Fochesato, (Partnership Director for ACCESS Health & Substance Abuse Prevention Program of Mid Coast Hospital), Geno Ring (Substance Abuse Counselor for the Brunswick School Dept.), Joel Merry (Sagadahoc County Sheriff), Andrea Nicoletta (Community Educator for Sexual Assault Support Services of Midcoast Maine), YAP students and Carl Lakari (coordinator and co-founder of Project AWARE).

Worried about how you'll be able to fit dinner in before the event?  The Frontier Cafe offers a wonderful menu of fresh, regional flavors inspired by food markets from around the world.  CASA will provide each attendee with a $5 voucher towards your meal.

Dominic Dromgoole's production brings refreshing clarity to one of Shakespeare's most famous and best-loved tragedies, drawing out the contemporary relevance of this passionate teenage love story. Ellie Kendrick, a truly youthful Juliet, and Adetomiwa Edun, a boyish Romeo, head an excellent cast whose period costumes point to the timelessness of parental disapproval, adolescent temperament, rivalry and violence. Filmed before a live audience at Shakespeare's Globe in the heart of London, its intimate and atmospheric setting adds immediacy and vitality to the humour and passion of Shakespeare's verse. – Courtesy of Opus Arte

Synopsis

An ongoing feud between the Capulets and the Montagues breaks out again on the streets of Verona. Both sides are warned by Prince Escalus that they must not disturb the peace again, on pain of death. Romeo, love-sick for Rosaline, is comforted by his friend Benvolio.

Capulet forbids Paris to marry his daughter Juliet until she is older. Romeo and his friends learn of a party being held by the Capulets and decide to go to it as masquers. At the party, Tybalt sees Romeo but is prevented from fighting him by Capulet. Romeo meets Juliet and they instantly fall in love. After leaving the party, Romeo eludes his friends and returns to meet Juliet; they exchange vows of love. Romeo confides in Friar Lawrence and he consents to marry them.

"Celebrating the vocational & patriotic values in Longfellow's vision of the artisan & the masters of these living crafts in our community today."

5:45pm > Maine Studios and Farms: a slideshow assembled by Christine Macchi, Director of Maine Fiberarts.

6:30pm > Voice of Foreign Pastures: Natural fibers permeate every part of the globe, from the remote desert of northern Kazakhstan to the ancient streets of Tibet.  Editor and world traveler, Linda Cortright looks not only at the changing world of natural fibers beginning with the animal that offers its exquisite locks, but at the environmental and cultural influences as well.  Cortright is editor and publisher of Wild Fibers magazine, a quarterly that examines all aspects of the natural fiber industry, from raising goats in the High Himalayas to ancient weavings in Scandinavia.  She has a special interest in learning how natural fiber animals continue to define ancient cultures in spite of the advancement of modern technology.  Her home is in Union, Maine, where she maintains an aging herd of cashmere goats.

Longfellow days is a month-long program of the Brunswick Downtown Association and Bowdoin College made possible through support from the Nathaniel Davis Fund, the Senter Fund, and the Association of Bowdoin Friends.

Featuring a Live Performance of an original Musical Score by Old-Time Piano Player, Doug Protsik.

In 1927 Mary starred in her final silent movie, My Best Girl. As shop girl Maggie Johnson, she works in a five and dime department store where she meets and falls for the handsome Joe Grant, played by Charles "Buddy" Rogers, who is actually working incognito as the store owner's son, Joe Merrill. My Best Girl was the end of an era for Mary as film was transforming itself from silents to sound. This romantic comedy is truly one of Mary's finest movies and played an even more significant role in her personal life.

"And Everything Is Going Fine" provides an intimate portrait of master monologist Spalding Gray, as described by his most critical, irreverent and insightful biographer: Spalding Gray. Director Steven Soderbergh, who collaborated with Gray on Gray’s Anatomy (1996), has sifted through rare and revealing footage to construct a riveting final monologue. There are glimpses of Gray’s father, and of his son Forrest (who provides soaring music for the end credits), but mostly this is an inspired one-man show, a bittersweet display of Spalding’s playful and embattled intelligence, his gift for tracking universal truths by looking himself squarely in the eye. Directed by Steven Soderbergh. Starring Spalding Gray. Rated NR, 1 hr 29 mins.

The NYA Studio Band is a contemporary high school music ensemble that plays a wide range of music, including rock, metal, klezmer, hip-hop, and folk.  At Frontier they'll be performing a set that heads more in the "unplugged" direction, including original singer/songwriter material performed by students.

Giselle is one of the most influential of all Romantic ballets, and one of the greatest and most popular works of the dance canon and of The Royal Ballet's repertory. The title role presents the transcendental power of a woman's love in the face of betrayal and is one of the most technically demanding and emotionally challenging roles in classical dance – not surprisingly, it is here a great showcase for the leading ballerinas of the Company. Peter Wright's sensitive staging in the atmospheric designs by John Macfarlane heightens the contrast as the story moves between the human and supernatural worlds. – Courtesy of Opus Arte

A recent college graduate who returns to Maine amid the arrival of 2000 Somali migrants must face the hilarities and horrors of her homecoming as she helps her new neighbors make homes of their own.

Written and Performed by Cheryl Hamilton
Developed and Directed by James Bunzli

Led by Joan Carney, of Fresh View, Inc., this first of the year meeting will focus on “bringing it all together”: how the fundamentals of marketing have changed, what has not changed, and how new media tools can be employed for success in business.

Referring to her presentation, Carney says, “Many new online tools have become mainstream over the past few years, with updates arriving weekly, and often daily. New fang-dangled tools are great and setting up accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, You Tube and more is all well and good- but then what?”

“Marketing Frameworks will address: How do you use them to market your business? How do you use them to make money?” she adds. Whether you are: an artist looking to support your lifestyle by selling your art, a solo entrepreneur, a small main street business owner looking to draw more customers through your doors, being on line is a must. However, having a website and/or a Facebook account is just not enough. Knowing why and what to do with them is priceless. Marketing Frameworks on January 24 is the first in a series of presentations and workshops, sponsored by Five Rivers Arts Alliance, to learn how on and offline marketing fits together, what tools service what purpose, how to prioritize your efforts and more.”

Mike Stockbridge is continuing to prove that he is one of the most original voices in the New England Jazz scene today, bringing a hard edge to the highly refined Art. An alumnus of both Berklee and the University of Maine, his music has been featured on MPBN as well as radio programs in Europe. 2008 marked the debut of Mike's first full length, self titled album as a bandleader; which has been met with many positive reviews, Michael Whitthaus of the Hippo Press said this about Stockbridge: “He balances flash with finesse in a totally winning way. If Frank Zappa had started and stayed in jazz, he might sound like Stockbridge." Set to release his second album ‘Ama’ in February Mike is at the Frontier to showcase some of his new music. He is joined by Bassist Duane Edwards and Drummer Steve Grover.

On Martin Luther King Day, the famous actress Vinie Burrows will be in Brunswick, Maine.  She'll present excerpts from her highly regarded program "Walk together Children."

Ms. Burrows has performed on and off Broadway, on radio and television. Her acting journey has taken her throughout the world, often for presentations of one-woman shows highlighting the lives of Black women in Africa, in civil rights struggles, and in the American theater. The New York Times praises Vinie Burrows as "a magnificent performer." Reviewer Clive Barnes regards her as "one of the reigning divas of the Black theater." She  has appeared with Helen Hayes, Ossie Davis, Claude Rains, Will Geer, Mary Martin, and other notables.

Vinie Burrows, a stalwart of "Grandmothers for Peace," serves in the United Nations as Permanent Representative for the Women's International Democratic Federation. A political activist for decades, she's spoken at rallies for racial justice, equitable health care, and labor rights, ending up, on occasion, in jail.

In her program "Walk together Children," Vinie Burrows uses prose, poems, and songs to relive the African American experiences of struggle for survival and equality. Her material derives from slave narratives, Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, Amiri Baraka, and others.  Burrows will also recite and perform on themes relating to current struggle for world peace. She will end her program by engaging the audience in discussion.

Vinie Burrows' appearances in Maine are organized by the Maine Peace Council at (207) 743-2183.  For further information, call (207) 725-5222

Inspired by the most notorious missing person’s case in New York history, ALL GOOD THINGS is a love story and murder mystery set against the backdrop of a New York real estate dynasty in the 1980s. Produced and directed by Andrew Jarecki (Capturing the Friedmans), the film was inspired by the story of Robert Durst, scion of the wealthy Durst family. Mr. Durst was suspected but never tried for killing his wife Kathie who disappeared in 1982 and was never found. With a stellar cast, ALL GOOD THINGS captures the emotion and complexity of this real-life unsolved mystery.

“FASCINATING. IT WILL KEEP YOU ON THE EDGE OF YOUR SEAT UNTIL THE VERY LAST FRAME. You go away slack jawed with shock and sated with the chilling bedtime-story elements of a great unsolved mystery novel you can’t put down. THE ACTING IS MESMERIZING.” – Rex Reed, New York Observer

Moira Smiley & VOCO is a visionary blend of voices - redefining harmony singing with the power & physicality of folksong, the avant-garde fearlessness of Béla Bartók and the delicious, vaudevillian accompaniment of cello, banjo, accordion and body percussion. Moira Smiley leads an ensemble of extraordinary musicians who share a passion for spreading powerful, emotional music with lush four-part vocal harmony, cello, accordion and banjo. Original improvisation-built songs steeped in Appalachia and Eastern Europe. Named #1 a cappella group in the U.S. in 2007, VOCO is the energy of street singing and the elegance of a string quartet. Recently featured in Dirty Linen and on more than 100 radio stations nationwide on NPR's "Harmonia", VOCO has released two critically acclaimed CDs in '08-'09: "Small Worlds" and "Circle, Square, Diamond & Flag". VOCO is sweet, hard-driving Americana mixed with crooked eastern European dance and dissonance. It's all rounded out with body-stompin' percussive movement and joyous, magnificent, hair-raising harmonies - music that mourns and dances at the same time.

Carrie and Mary Dann are feisty Western Shoshone sisters who have endured five terrifying livestock roundups by armed federal marshals in which more than a thousand of their horses and cattle were confiscated -- for grazing their livestock on the open range outside their private ranch.

That range is part of 60 million acres recognized as Western Shoshone land by the United States in the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley, but in 1974 the U.S. sued the Dann sisters for trespassing on that land, without a permit. That set off a dispute between the Dann sisters and the U. S. government that swept to the United States Supreme Court and eventually to the Organization of American States and the United Nations.

AMERICAN OUTRAGE asks why the United States government has spent millions persecuting and prosecuting two elderly women grazing a few hundred horses and cows in a desolate desert? The United States Bureau of Land Management insists the sisters are degrading the land. The Dann sisters say the real reason is the resources hidden below this seemingly barren land, their Mother Earth. Western Shoshone land is the second largest gold producing area in the world.

Get Low is inspired by the true story of Felix "Bush" Breazeale, who attracted national attention when he threw himself a living funeral party in 1938 in Roane County, Tennessee. Sensing a big payday in the idea, fast-talking funeral home owner Frank Quinn enlists his gentlemanly young apprentice, Buddy, to win over Felix's business. But as the funeral approaches Buddy discovers that behind Felix's surreal plan lies a very real and long-held secret that must get out, a mystery that only Felix's widow and the Illinois preacher who refuses to speak at the funeral know about. When the big day arrives, Felix is in no mood to listen to other people spinning made-up anecdotes about him.  A film by Aaron Schneider.  Starring Robert Duvall, Bill Murray, and Sissy Spacek. Rated PG-13, 100 mins.

"Funny, touching and acutely observed film.  All you need to know is that Get Low puts Duvall and Murray in the same movie. Only a fool would want to miss that." — Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

"Simple, straightforward and stirring without sentimentality...with a majestic performance by Robert Duvall." — Rex Reed, New York Observer

Cinder Conk plays music drawn from the Black Sea - the wellspring of Europe’s deepest and most diverse musical traditions. It is the sound of celebration and lament of those who have lived on its coast over thousands of years - Roma, Jews, peasants, and nationalists. Cinder Conk mixes frenzied accordion and violin melodies and warm, double bass counterpoint with a classic bardic lyricism that invites and transcends.

Cinder Conk has shared the stage with Slavic Soul Party, Beat Circus, Fishtank Ensemble and The Toughcats.  Played at the sold out Free Range Music Festival, One Longfellow Square, Golden Fest, Barbes, etc.

Woody Allen's latest film follows a pair of married couples, Alfie and Helena, and their daughter Sally and husband Roy, as their passions, ambitions, and anxieties lead them into trouble and out of their minds. After Alfie leaves Helena to pursue his lost youth and a free-spirited call girl named Charmaine, Helena abandons rationality and surrenders her life to the loopy advice of a charlatan fortune teller. Unhappy in her marriage, Sally develops a crush on her handsome art gallery owner boss, Greg, while Roy, a novelist nervously awaiting the response to his latest manuscript, becomes moonstruck over Dia, a mystery woman who catches his gaze through a nearby window.  Taking its title from the prediction fortune tellers use to beguile their marks, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger illustrates with wry humor how easy it is for our illusions to make fools of us all.  Written and directed by Woody Allen.  Starring Anthony Hopkins, Antonio Banderas, Josh Brolin,
Naomi Watts, and Frieda Pinto.  Rated R, 98 mins.

Official Selection: 2010 Cannes Film Festival / 2010 Toronto International Film Festival

"Classic Woody -- an ensemble cast of brilliant actors, a timeless story that could be set virtually anywhere and crisp writing and direction that neither lollygags or rushes."
— Tom Lang, Detroit News

"Bottom line: It's a good one, fresh, funny and vintage Woody." — Box Office Magazine

The emotional and dramatic power of the music lies in one of Wagner's greatest innovations, the leitmotif. The leitmotifs are musical themes with specific dramatic associations. For instance, every time someone is singing about Valhalla, the home of the gods, the Valhalla leitmotif plays, conjuring up the grandeur of their palace. The concept of leitmotifs has expanded far beyond the opera house. For example, film score composer John Williams wrote a leitmotif for Darth Vader that instantly conjures up his evil visage. Wagner uses leitmotifs to great effect by allowing the orchestra to comment on the action on stage, almost as another character in this epic drama; as a result, his music adored by both opera and orchestral music fans alike. – Christiana Little

Cast/Crew

Siegmund: Simon O'Neill Hunding: John Tomlinson Wotan: René Pape
Sieglinde: Waltraud Meier
Brünnhilde: Nina Stemme
Fricka: Ekaterina Gubanova Gerhilde: Danielle Halbwachs Ortlinde: Carola Höhn Waltraute: Yvonne Fuchs Schwertleite: Anaïk Morel Helmwige: Susan Foster Siegrune: Lean Sandel-Pantaleo
Gringerde: Nicole Piccolomini Rossweisse: Simone Schröder

Music & Libretto: Richard Wagner
Conductor: Daniel Barenboim
Director: Guy Cassiers
Scenic Design: Guy Cassiers and Enrico Bagnoli
Costume Design: Tim van Steenbergen
Video: Arjen Klerkx, Kurt D’Haeseleer
Lighting Design: Enrico Bagnoli Choreographer: Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui

Blitzing the notion that a comedy about jihadists is a contradiction in terms, the film grossed an astounding £3M at the UK box office and was hailed by critics as "a brilliant film – astonishingly funny" causing "so many different kinds of laughter its almost incredible".

"It's as if Monty Python were back, putting its merrily imbecilic stamp on the dark world of terrorism." — Stephen Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer

"A hilarious farce and a brilliant takedown of the imbecility of fanaticism." — The Hollywood Reporter

"UTTERLY FASCINATING. A host of characters that would make Dickens weep for joy. Has all the ingredients for a potboiler: greed, corruption, sex, power, overweening ambition and jaw-dropping hubris. " — Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter

“CLASSICAL TRAGEDY MEETS THE TABLOIDS. It also plays like a political thriller. Director Gibney never forgets that he’s making cinema.” — John Anderson, Variety

“FASCINATING AND ENGROSSING. Director Gibney reveals himself as a master storyteller.” - Daniel Eagan, Film Journal International

"CLIENT 9 works like a good detective novel: Colorful and seemingly disparate characters are introduced, and then the strands that tie them together are revealed in a rich, sordid, thrilling tableau." — Stephen Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer

The largest domestic natural gas drilling boom in history has swept across the United States. The Halliburton-developed drilling technology of "fracking" has unlocked a "Saudia Arabia of natural gas" just beneath us. But is fracking safe? When filmmaker Josh Fox was asked to lease his land for drilling, he embarked on a cross-country odyssey, uncovering a trail of secrets, lies and contamination. Residents in Pennsylvania report that they're able to light their drinking water on fire, just one of the many absurd and astonishing revelations in GasLand. Part verite travelogue, part expose, part mystery, part bluegrass banjo meltdown, part showdown.  A documentary film by Josh Fox.  NR, 107 mins

Winner Special Jury Prize – 2010 Sundance Film Festival

“With its jolting images of flammable tap water and chemically burned pets, [GasLand] makes an irrefutable case against U.S. corporate ‘fracking." — Rob Nelson, Village Voice

"A work of art which also happens to educate quite effectively... GasLand may also be some ideal of that cherished sub-genre in many festival circles: the environmental film." — Cinemascopechine

"[The filmmakers] passion for Ginsberg's genius and their excitement over trying to deconstruction a literary master work is contagious. — Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter

"Not quite a biopic, not really a documentary and only loosely an adaptation, Howl does something that sounds simple until you consider how rarely it occurs in films of any kind. It takes a familiar, celebrated piece of writing and makes it come alive."
—  AO Scott, New York Times

"In dramatizing the inspiration, incantation and investigation of this scandalous shout from the subterraneans, Howl is the best movie ever made about poetry." — Joe Williams, St. Louis Post Dispatch

A magician with secrets, an enchanted gift, a battle with the Mouse King, a guiding angel and a visit through the Land of Snow to the Kingdom of Sweets: it must be the seasonal favorite, The Nutcracker. The ballet draws on all the imagination and fantasy of E.T.A. Hoffmann's story of Christmas Eve, when young Clara creeps downstairs for one of her presents, but finds herself instead at the start of a night of magical adventures.

The designs for this now classic production create the real world of the 19th-century – even when the Christmas tree magically grows and the toy soldiers come to life to fight the Mouse King! The beautifully colored imaginings of the fantasy Sugar Garden and its celebratory dances make a fabulous contrast – the Sugar Plum Fairy is just one of the delights you might discover here – and Peter Wright's production tells the story clearly from its mysterious start to its happy conclusion. Tchaikovsky's music is some of the most instantly memorable of all ballet, with a wealth of famous melodies. This is classical ballet at its most approachable and visually entrancing, with something for everyone to enjoy, from the youngest in the family to the oldest. It's a present to unwrap yourself this Christmas for that bit of extra magic. – Courtesy of Opus Arte

Conducted by Koen Kessels | Directed by Peter Wright | Choreography by Peter Wright after Lev Ivanov | 2 hrs 20 mins plus one intermission

Cast/Crew:

The Sugar Plum Fairy: Miyako Yoshida
Nephew/Nutcracker: Ricardo Cervera/Steven McRae
The Prince: Steven McRae
Drosselmeyer: Gary Avis

Conductor: Koen Kessels
Director: Peter Wright
Choreography: Peter Wright after Lev Ivanov