Each month, Hands on Miami and the WPBT series INDEPENDENT LENS host a free screening of one of the films from that series.
You can find out more information about the film on May 22, New Year Baby and watch a personal message from series host Terrence Howard along with a series preview by visiting here: myspace.com/communitycinemamiami
Next week, we at Channel 2, have the opportunity to participate in three important screenings, all of which are opened to the public and free.
The first film is direct from its World Premiere at the Miami International Film Festival, Miami Noir: The Arthur E. Teele Story. The documentary examines the events that led up to the suicide of Miami City Commissioner Arthur Teele, Jr. in the lobby of the Miami Herald in July 2005. This film blends interviews with dramatizations to portray one of Miamiâs most controversial, political, and human interest stories. This non-profit film was created within the educational environment of the University of Miami by undergraduate film students, Joshua Miller and Sam Rega. The screening will be on the U.M. Campus at the Bill Cosford Cinema on Monday, April 14, 2008 at 8:00 p.m.
“KING CORN,” ENTERTAINING AND ENLIGHTENING FILM ABOUT THE ODYSSEY OF ONE ACRE OF CORN FROM FARM TO FOOD SUPPLY Film to Premiere on the WPBT/Channel 2 in Miami as part of the Series Independent Lens on Tuesday, April 15 at 11 p.m.
“As relevant as Super-Size Me and as important as An Inconvenient Truth.” —The Austin Chronicle
KING CORN is a feature documentary about two friends, one acre of corn and the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation. Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, best friends from college, move to the heartland town that was once home to their great-grandfathers. With the help of friendly neighbors, genetically modified seeds, nitrogen fertilizers and powerful herbicides, they plant and grow a bumper crop of America’s most-productive, mostsubsidized grain on one acre of Iowa soil. But when they try to follow their pile of corn into the food system, what they find is that the fat of the land is fattening us up, and their journey raises troubling questions about how we eat— and how we farm.
Here are a couple of upcoming screenings sponsored by WPBT and open to the public.
Join us Friday at 7 p.m. for a free screening of AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: GRAND CENTRAL as part of the CINEMA 2 AT THE WOLF series.
"When Grand Central Terminal opened on February 12, 1913, the press heralded it as the greatest railway terminal in the world. By 1947, more than 65 million people - the equivalent of 40 percent of the population of the United States - had traveled through the station. Today, it remains one of New York's and America's most famous spaces and a living monument to the nation's great railway age.
The Wolfsonian-FIU is located at 1001 Washington Avenue (305-535-2644).
In 1966, General Motors, the most powerful corporation in the world, sent private investigators to dig up dirt on an obscure 32-year-old public interest lawyer named Ralph Nader, who had written a book critical of one of their cars, the Corvair. The scandal that ensued after the smear campaign was revealed launched Ralph Nader into national prominence and established him as one of the most admired Americans and the leader of the modern Consumer Movement. A fascinating look at the life and times of Nader, and the evolution of his image from beloved populist hero to beleaguered political outsider, AN UNREASONABLE MAN, part of the Emmy® Award-winning PBS series Independent Lens, hosted by Terrence Howard, will air on Tuesday, December 18, 2007 at 10:00 PM.
The series Independent Lens (along wih P.O.V.) have remained a steady source for interesting and inventive independent filmmaking and for Native American Heritage month, WPBT/Channel 2 in Miami presents two more examples of why these series are consistently our most asked about and commented upon offerings.
First, for more than 50 years, the Miss Navajo Nation beauty pageant has given its contestants opportunities to showcase not only their beauty but also their skills in dance, music and sheep slaughtering. Following contestants in their quest for the crown, and featuring personal stories of recent winners, MISS NAVAJO is a celebration of womanhood. Watch a clip here.
MISS NAVAJO premieres Tuesday, November 13 at 11:00 p.m. on Independent Lens
In 1942, 3,000 Japanese troops invaded the Aleutian Island of Attu in Alaska, the only invasion of American soil since the War of 1812. Sixty years later, two U.S. soldiers who fought on the remote island journey back to one of the worst battles of World War II, where they relive the 19-day combat that the American government kept secret. RED WHITE BLACK & BLUE premieres Tuesday, November 6 at 11pm on Independent Lens, a weekly series airing on WPBT/Channel 2 in Miami. Hosted by Terrence Howard, the acclaimed series showcases powerful and innovative independent films. Watch a clip here.
In an elementary school in the city of Wuhan in central China, three eight-year-old students campaign for the coveted position of class monitor. This is the first election for a class leader to be held in China. The three candidates hold debates, campaign tirelessly and show their intellectual and artistic skills, until one is voted the winner.
PLEASE VOTE FOR ME premieres Tuesday, October 23 at 10 p.m., on Independent Lens, a weekly series airing on WPBT/Channel 2 in Miami. Hosted by Terrence Howard, the acclaimed series showcases powerful and innovative independent films. Independent Lens is presented by ITVS. For more information, visit here.
The New York Times crossword puzzle is considered one of the most difficult in America. Every day millions of people attempt to solve the mind-boggling game. WORDPLAY presents an entertaining and informative look at the editor of the crossword, Will Shortz, and the puzzle constructors with whom he collaborates. This acclaimed film is an engaging portrait of a community of crossword lovers everywhere. WORDPLAY premieres Tuesday, October 16 at 10 p.m. on Independent Lens, a weekly series airing on WPBT/Channel 2 in Miami. Hosted by Terrence Howard, the acclaimed series showcases powerful and innovative independent films and presented by ITVS. Visit the Web site.
In one of documentary cinema's more remarkable enterprises, "49 Up" makes its U.S. broadcast premiere on P.O.V. on WPBT/Channel 2 in Miami on Tuesday, October 9, at 10pm as the seventh in a series of films that has profiled a group of English children every seven years, beginning in 1964.
Renowned director Michael Apted has doggedly pursued the series as the children have grown into adults, navigating the divide between childhood dreams and adult realities. "49 Up" revisits questions of love, marriage, career, class and prejudice - discovering unexpected turns in individual lives and surprising views of the Up film series itself. Find out more about this film and other P.O.V. films.
As baseball moves into October and the sounds of ballparks full of fans drawn to playoff caliber games echo from Anaheim to New England, with stops in New York, Philadelphia, Arizona, Cleveland, Chicago and possibly even San Diego or Colorado. It is an appropriate time to reflect on the tradition of baseball in Miami. Yes I said tradition and baseball in the same sentence.
WPBT/Channel 2 invites you to join GenerationEngage when they host a free movie screening of "The Kite Runner" on September 26th at 6:30 p.m. The movie screening will be hosted at the Colony Theater on Miami Beach, 1040 Lincoln Road.
The Kite Runner is the first novel by Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini. The Kite Runner tells the story of Amir, a well-to-do Pashtun boy from Kabul, who is haunted by the guilt of betraying his childhood friend Hassan, the son of his father's Hazara servant. The story is set against a backdrop of tumultuous events, from the fall of the monarchy in Afghanistan through the Societ invasion, the mass exodus of refugees to Pakistan and the United States, and the Taliban regime.
After the movie screening GenerationEngage will host a Q&A session with several speakers from the Afghan community.
From crossword aficionado Jon Stewart to consumer activist Ralph Nader, to men dancing hula and women running countries—the new season of Independent Lens is as diverse as ever.
The Wolfsonian FIU on Miami Beach started a summer film series on August 2nd. The focus this year is the Colonial Legacies in African Countries. The first screening was "Black Girl" directed by Senegalese director Ousmane Sembene.
Very late in December, 1968, I was spending the winter
recess at my cousin’s house in East Flatbush. A few days after Christmas, my Aunt bundled
up our 10 year old bodies and took us for a subway ride into Manhattan. Besides the display windows and holiday shopper gawking, our prime objective was to see a film that was only playing in one theatre. It had just opened and came highly recommended by older cousins who lived in San
Francisco
The Museum of Contemporary Art's Optic Nerve Film Festival
Thursday ~ July 26 at 7 & 9 p.m.
Here's a chance to support local artists and filmmakers! MOCA's Optic Nerve Film Festival has been, and remains to be, one of the few venues for South Florida's independent filmmakers to submit short movies (from 50 seconds to 6 minutes in length). Seventeen films were chosen from an open call of over 60 submissions.
Get an up-close look at investigative reporting when FIU’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication hosts the premiere screening of Money for Nothing, followed by a panel discussion, this Tuesday, July 24 at 7:00 pm.
FIU, Biscayne Bay Campus
3000 NE 151 Street, North Miami
Hospitality & Tourist Management Building
Room HM135/1st floor
(bldg is located just beyond the main library)
P.O.V. continues its 20th Anniversary season on Tuesday, June 17 at 11pm on WPBT/Channel 2 in Miami with the premiere of the film, The Chances of the World Changing.
A decade ago, after an epiphany at a New York restaurant, Richard Ogust began dedicating his time and resources to rescuing endangered turtles —
I have written before in this space about my appreciation
for independent film and one of the real perks of working in public television
is the opportunity for consistent exposure to the efforts of burgeoning
filmmakers.
This past Monday, I had the chance to attend an evening
of short films called Defining Shorts at the Cinema Paradiso in Ft. Lauderdale. It was a coming out party for some of the
senior film students at Miami International University, a chance to showcase
their thesis projects before a packed house and they didn’t disappoint.
Hopefully you'll see the AMERICAN MASTERS presentation of Les Paul:Chasing Sound on Wednesday night, but in case you missed it, want to see it again or would like the opportunity to hear from the filmmaker, Jim Arntz, then I hope you'll join Channel 2 for our regular monthly screening at the Wolfsonian/FIU on Friday night, July 13 beginning at 7pm.
One of the most exciting features of WPBT's videosharing website, uVu, is our section for user generated content. That we are starting to see some serious work by young film makers is exactly what we envisioned when we launched the site a few months ago. If you haven't taken a look yet or haven't been back recently, I hope you will spend a little time exploring some of these little gems.
Join us for a special preview from the series Simon Schama's Power of Art on Friday, June 15 at 7pm. The screening is part of the monthly series, CINEMA 2 At THE WOLF, which takes place at the Wolfsonian Museum/FIU, located at 1001 Washington Avenue in South Beach.
Internationally acclaimed scholar and writer Simon Schama tells the dramatic stories behind eight cutting-edge masterpieces — eight artist troublemakers in deep trouble, eight stories of disaster and triumph, and eight events that ultimately changed the way the world looks at art. With Schama’s trademark style of passionate storytelling, the series uses a mix of dramatic re-enactments, atmospheric location shooting and spectacular art photography to create a cause-and-effect analysis of the creative process, placing viewers in a vortex of visual imagination, individual biography and cultural history.
The broadcast series begins Monday, June 18th at 9pm on WPBT/Channel 2, but here is your chance to see one of the epsiodes before anyone else, as we screen program 3
Caravaggio: The war for the allegiance of the Christian world was being fought over pictures. Protestants destroyed them. Catholics made and adored them. Rome was the spiritual arsenal of that war, the munitions factory of images. But what images, what likenesses of the Savior, the Virgin, the Apostles, and the Saints? Along came Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. Enough, he said, of refinement (to which he was himself a stranger). The glory of the Gospel was that the Savior was made of flesh and blood like our own. Although Caravaggio was a thug with a hair-trigger temper and a knife that saw too much action, he put his bruiser’s instinct for physical, in-your-face contact at the service of the faith.
A murderer, a fugitive, an escapee from prison who was stalked and beaten within an inch of his life, Caravaggio tried to paint his way out of trouble with David with the Head of Goliath. In the painting, he painted himself as the villain of the piece, Goliath. Maybe he hoped that by making this guilty plea in paint he would be spared. Alas, he died an early and wretched death from typhus. In the end, Caravaggio changed forever the sense of what painting could do, how real it could feel, how it stood in relation to our physically lived lives. He was the man who came to destroy painting, said another great artist, not just because of his violation of the decencies, but because he robbed it of its spiritual lift-off power, weighed down as his pictures were with the burden of the flesh.
FOR MORE INFORMATION on the screening, call the Wolfsonian at 305-531-1001
In the years between 1945 and 1948, tens of thousands of Holocaust survivors faced the incredible disadvantage of bearing the term “displaced person.” Displaced persons had escaped Hitler’s deadly grasp on Europe, however, they had nowhere to return to after being freed from his concentration camps. THE LONG WAY HOME traces the stories of displaced persons who attempt to rebuild some semblance of home in a world that offers them no help. This poignant program airs on on WPBT/ Channel 2 in Miami on Sunday, June 10 beginning at 6:30pm.
This somber documentary begins its journey in 1945 after Germany had been defeated by the Allies and the war in Europe was officially over. At the time, American, British and Russian soldiers had liberated Nazi death camps in Central and Eastern Europe, uncovering to the world the horror and tragedy of the Holocaust. The majority of the Jewish survivors had lost most, if not all, of their family members. Those who tried to return home were often met with anti-Semitism and threats of physical violence.
THE LONG WAY HOME is narrated by Morgan Freeman and features the voices of Edward Asner, Sean Astin, Martin Landau, Miriam Margolyes, David Paymer and Nina Siemasko, The program combines rare archival films and stills with new interviews and interweaves historical narrative with stories, anecdotes and recollections of Jewish refugees.
Once a refugee, Dr. Ruth Gruber recalls her conversations with a young displaced mother after the war, “She said she was 23. She looked at least 40. And I said, ‘Don't worry. This will end. You’re going to get there.’ I said everything stupid in the presence of some overwhelming tragedy. But she was much wiser than I, and she said, 'No, my life is wrecked, but I’m going to live. I’m going to live so that my child will live. I’m going to live so that no Jewish child will ever be burned in the gas chamber again.’ And then I realized that this whole odyssey, that this whole terrible journey had been made for the children, that they were determined that these children would survive.”
Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times considers the program to be “Superb … Masterful … offers epic dimension.” THE LONG WAY HOME was the recipient of the 1997 Academy Award for best feature documentary. It was written and directed by Mark Jonathan Harris and produced by Rabbi Marvin Hier and Richard Trank.
The following entry is posted on behalf of Ela Troyano, the producer of La Lupe, Queen of Latin Soul. The film can be seen on Tuesday, June 5 at 10pm on WPBT, Channel 2 in Miami, as part of the series Independent Lens. You can see two short interviews with Ms. Troyano at uVu.channel2.org (pt.1/ pt.2) excerpts from a full program, Viva Voz, which can be seen on Vme (digital channel 2.3). You can read the first part of Ela's entry here.
La Lupe and controversy over drugs
Almost everyone I interviewed for the documentary brought up the issue of drugs one way or the other. Some wanted to know my position before agreeing to an interview, often insisting, adamantly that La Lupe never did any drugs. It became a kind of litmus test.
There were many things that seemed odd and unfair about these discussions. For one the 60’s and 70’s, La Lupe’s era was one of tremendous cultural change, and drugs and sex played interlocking roles. While there were many Latino musicians that did their share of drugs, only La Lupe and Hector Lavoe were branded in public as drug users.
Often La Lupe’s friends will insist that “no one saw her use drugs.” As Izzy Sanabria claims in the doc “If you took me to a court of law… I never saw La Lupe do drugs cause she never shared, I never did coke with her.” Perhaps Richie Viera Jr’s explanation for this is the most plausible, he believes that she was private about any drug use because she was scared of being deported back to Cuba, back to Fidel.
There are credible witnesses “off the record” who claim they saw her do drugs. And there are other factors – her first husband in Cuba, the band leader Eulogio “Yoyo” Reyes was a known drug user, even seller according to some. But in the club scene in Cuba in 1957 musicians considered smoking weed to be the same as drinking rum, simply no big deal. At that time La Lupe had just finished her studies in La Escuela Normal, with a teaching degree, an innocent twenty-one year old arriving in the big city. By the mid 70’s towards the end of her music career she got together with Mario "Chango" Di Frisco, the father of her daughter Rainbow; it is public record that Mario is a recovering drug user. There were drugs near her throughout her life.
Her long time personal assistants Merceditas Rojas and Viola Vazquez insist she did no drugs but both agree that she was “pastillera,” that she took pills, “up's and down"s.”
Why is the discussion of drugs off limits in any discussion of latin music when it has been a presence in all American music? Why were drugs, something so prevalent in that era used to discredit La Lupe, to belittle her contribution as the Queen of Latin Soul?
The following entry is posted on behalf of Ela Troyano, the producer of La Lupe, Queen of Latin Soul. The film can be seen on Tuesday, June 5 at 10pm on WPBT, Channel 2 in Miami, as part of the series Independent Lens. You can see two short interviews with Ms. Troyano at uVu.channel2.org (pt.1/ pt.2) excerpts from a full program, Viva Voz, which can be seen on Vme (digital channel 2.3)
Making La Lupe Queen of Latin Soul
Her name is Lupe Yoli Raymond aka La Lupe or La Yiyiyi. There’s a
common mistake still making the rounds on the internet that she was
named Guadalupe. Though she did love wearing her large Virgen de
Guadalupe medal – bling before its time.
I saw her by chance in 1987 --- there was a poster on the street. I
knew she was famous but had no idea what she was doing here in the
Lower East Side. But I went to the address, a Church packed with
families. She was at the altar with light streaming behind her. I’m
not sure if this is all true or just the way I remember her. She
insisted that she did not like video recordings, they made her nervous
and asked us not to videotape; I had an audiotape recorder and decided
it was ok. I went up to her during the blessing making sure the red
light was blinking, hidden in my jacket. It was a portentous moment; I
was carried away with her presence, had only one cassette and kept
turning it over convinced what she was saying now was even more
important than what she had said moments earlier. It was a
spellbinding performance. Afterwards there were questions – was she
hustling us? There was a kind of purity about her, a sadness. For
years I’d come back to her music. Yo Soy Tu Esclava was the first song
of hers I fell for; it spoke for me completely, the enslavement of a
love gone wrong.
At Maria Irene Forne’s playwriting workshops at INTAR she would often
bring up her own idol Olga Guillot pretending to go into rapture over
her songs. Maria Irene the intellectual felled by romantic love
songs. At Sundance’s first screenwriting workshop with Gabriel Garcia
Marquez he asked what I was listening to – Celia Cruz. I had read
somewhere that he wanted to be a bolero writer. At the workshop he
mentioned listening to itinerant musicians as a child, learning stories
from them. He loved to take my cassette recorder to listen to Celia.
Our common roots.
By the time I decided to embark on a film on La Lupe I was sure it would take time though lying to myself – only one year.
Please ask me questions – what do you want to hear about? There's so much still to tell about her
On the tails of its world premiere at the 2007 Miami International Film Festival, WPBT Channel 2 invites you to a FREE screening of the Independent Lens program LA LUPE: QUEEN OF LATIN SOUL
Thursday, May 31 7:30 p.m. at The Wolfsonian
Legendary Afro-Cuban pop singer Lupe Victoria Yoli, “La Lupe: The Queen of Latin Soul Music,” rose to fame in the 1960s and died in 1992 virtually unknown. Beautiful, sexual and the epitome of Afro-Cuban 60s sophistication, La Lupe remains the quintessential bad girl and perpetual outsider, renowned for her emotional performances and as the embodiment of female narcissism who stopped at nothing in the name of love and passion.
The Wolfsonian is located at 1001 Washington Avenue · South Beach · 305.535.2644
Discounted parking available at the Pelican Garage (1041 Collins Avenue) with museum validation
Seating is limited so please send an RSVP to jennifer_berman-diaz@wpbt.org by May 29. Please note only two seats per reservation.
A few months ago, I had a chance to meet Rolando Llanes at lunch. I was introduced to him by Joe Cardona, a filmmaker who has worked with WPBT often in the past. The meeting was to discuss their current project called "White Elephant."
Llanes, a local architect, who was teaching at UM 11 years ago when he began the project had enlisted Cardona and his KIDS IN EXILE FILMS Team, Mario De Varona and Gabriel Mena, to turn this idea into a film.
I won't get into too much detail about the film's premise, there is a terrific article from the Miami Herald this week which does that. But I can now tell you about what I witnessed on the screen last night at the Tower Theater for the film's World Premiere and about the results of their efforts.
The KIE team, along with Llanes' production company, CANTILEVER Productions, has taken a sprawling and complex story about the intersection of the Old Miami Stadium, the Cuban Revolution, Minor League Baseball, Urban Renewal, Civil Rights and one family's personal tragedies and turned them into a fascinating and curious story. Spanning roughly the entire second half of the 20th Century, "White Elephant" manages to tie all these disparate pieces together. Much to their credit, when we originally discussed the film, I couldn't imagine how Cardona would get this all to fit in a tight, 90 minute package, but he has.
I hope that WPBT has a chance to bring this film to a wider audience. Even though the Tower was standing room only, it represented a small portion of the potential reach "White Elephant" deserves.
Llanes said it best in his opening remarks before the film calling it "a labor of love turned into a work of art."
One footnote on the evening, before the film, we got a chance to see a trailer for KIE's next release, a long awaited bio-pic of Celia Cruz complete with a reminder that the Bass Museum of Art will have a new exhibition called ¡Azúcar! THE LIFE
AND MUSIC OF CELIA CRUZ opening next week. We hope to have a piece on that exhibition on uVu shortly.
The next in our monthly series of free screenings at the Wolfsonian-FIU is this Friday, April 20th at 7pm
Normandie: A Legendary Liner (2005, Jean Vive, France, Color, DVD, 60 minutes, English) — The Normandie embodied technical genius and boasted the best of the French ornamental art of the era.
CINEMA 2 AT THE WOLF is a new documentary film series presented in collaboration with WPBT–Channel 2.
The Wolfsonian-FIU is located on Miami Beach at 1001 Washington Avenue, for more information call (305) 535-2644
Each month, Hands on Miami and the WPBT series INDEPENDENT LENS host a free screening of one of the films from that series.
The broadcast series begins Monday, June 18th at 9pm on WPBT/Channel 2, but here is your chance to see one of the epsiodes before anyone else, as we screen program 3 
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