Congrats to all the filmmakers who participated in the Lexington Film League's Doer's Contest.  Over 200 people attended the screening in Lexington at Natasha's Bistro & Bar to find out the winners and cheer on their favorite non-profit organizations.  One of the great things about the Doer's contest, sponsored by Make Yourself Necessary, was learning about all the great people and organizations doing great things in their communities. 

Best Overall
1st A Place To Call home
2nd The Braves
3rd March Madness Marching Band

People's Choice
1st CKRE - Sharing the Vision
2nd A Place to Call Home
3rd NAMI Rocks!
4th The Braves
5th Wholesome Table

Student Award
The Unpaid Shoveler

For more information about the Lexington Film League (LFL), visit them at www.lexingtonfilmleague.org.

Louisville had a special visit from Director Alex Rivera of Brooklyn, NY to screen his debut film Sleep Dealer at The Speed Museum.  The event was presented by the Commonwealth Center for the Humanities and Society, LFS, Speed Museum & the Latin American Studies Program.  Prior to the screening, Alex attended U of L Professor Gabriela Nuñez's class.

There was a great audience at The Speed Museum for the screening.  U of L Professor and Director of the Commonwealth Center for the Humanities and Society Tom Byers introduced Alex to the audience.

A big thanks to Chef Jayson Lewellyn and his staff at 732 Social for dinner the previous night.  As always, incredible!

George

To learn more about Alex Rivera and Sleep Dealer, visit www.alexrivera.com!

Check out Elizabeth Kramer's story on WFPL about Home Movie Day at the Filson Historical Society and listen to LFS's very own, Ryan Daly.  Listen here!  Home Movie Day is this Saturday at the Filson Historical Society from 1pm to 5pm.

Last night, William Morrow (Director of 21c Museum) and I were invited by Actors Theater to present at the Late Seating.  Speaking in public is not my strong suite, although after 2 1/2 years of introducing movies and talking about LFS, I'm getting better.  As we were watching the Sean Daniel's Radio Plays and laughing my tale off, I decided I needed to go out with a good joke.  Now, if you know me, I cannot deliver a joke!  Setting aside my fear of complete failure, I offered my attempt at being funny.  Mike Brooks, who if you haven't seen him emcee the Late Seating you're missing out, started out by introducing us and then asked me about LFS.  I started off by talking about how we concentrate in screening $100 million dollar blockbusters and bad cliché films.  The audience was confused but then got the joke.  So, not complete failure but I'll work on my delivery.

I'd like to thank Kathryn Spivey for attending and allowing us to show a clip from her film, Backyard Compatible (2009) which premiered at the 2nd Annual Kentucky Short Film & Video Showcase on the rooftop of 21c Museum Hotel's parking garage.

Thanks Actors Theater (and especially Emily, Mike, Sean, Matt and everyone else that helped with the Late Seating)!

George

October 2, 2009
Global Lens Series brings 10 foreign films to town Effort to promotecultural insights

By Larry Muhammad
lmuhammad@courier-journal.com

Ten movies from Argentina, Brazil, China, Ecuador, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Macedonia, Morocco and Mozambique will be shown in Louisville on Sundays from Oct. 4 through Dec. 6 as part of the Global Lens Series, an initiative using cinema to promote cross-cultural understanding.

Presented by the Louisville Film Society and the Muhammad Ali Center, the movies include “I Am From Titov Veles,” about three sisters desperate to escape the hardscrabble life of post-communist Macedonia, and the darkly comic “Song From the Southern Seas” about suspicions of infidelity, both Oct. 4 and Oct. 11; “My Time Will Come” Oct. 18 and Oct. 25, involving an Ecuadorian coroner's connection with his cases; “Mutum,” the coming-of-age story of a Brazilian farm boy Nov. 1 and Nov. 8; and “Sleepwalking Land,” Nov. 29 and Dec. 6, in which a refugee from Mozambique's civil war uses an old storyteller and a dead man's diary in a quest to find lost relatives.

All films will be screened at the Ali Center, where CEO Greg Roberts said in a press statement, “We are excited to have the Global Lens Series here in Louisville to expose our community to such higher caliber films that vividly communicate the range, diversity, struggles and victories of some of the world's cultures.”

Several of the movies to be screened have been critically acclaimed. “Getting Home,” a Chinese film about a dying wish, won the Ecumenical Jury Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival, and “Possible Lives,” an Argentine film about a woman's search for a husband who has mysteriously disappeared, was a Cinemas of the South selection at the Cannes International Film Festival.

“We were just excited when the Global Film Initiative reached out to us,” said Tracy Heightchew, Louisville Film Society co-founder, on the Global Lens Series. “We're in our third year as a community organization and our mission is to bring as much good film as we can to the city.”

An annual touring series rarely available at the local multiplex, the Global Lens Series was launched in 2003 by the San Francisco-based Global Film Initiative and comesto Louisville this year for the first time.

The Louisville Film Society will present other series during October, including: Fringe Fest, a selection of films from the archives of Louisville-based Cinemanonymous, Thursday, at NABC Bank Street Brewhouse in New Albany, Ind.; Home Movie Day at the Filson Historical Society on Oct. 17, which showcases 16mm, 8mm, Super 8 or video transfers brought in by Louisville-area residents to be inspected, repaired and cleaned by the film society on site, then shown; the Al Smith Fellowship Series at 21c Museum Hotel, which features two documentaries by Kentucky filmmaker Sean Anderson Oct. 20; and Art After Dark: Remix, a live music, improvisational-theater and short-film extravaganza Oct. 23 at the Speed Art Museum.

Reporter Larry Muhammad can be reached at (502) 582-7091.

Additional Facts Global Lens Series Muhammad Ali Center, 144 N. Sixth St.
$50 admission to all 10 films, or $8 for single showing and $12 for double feature. Members of the Ali Center and Louisville Film Society pay $6 for single showing and $10 for double features.
For tickets, call (502) 584-9254, e-mail VisitorServices@alicener.org or go to www.alicenter.org.
For Information about the Global Film Initiative, visit www.globalfilm.org. For information about Global Lens Series and Louisville Film Society, visit www.louisvillefilm.org.