Last year’s Matinees that Matter from Sustainable Bainbridge and the provocative Mythic Journeys event introduced the concept of community viewing – experiencing a film with an opportunity to share insights, ideas, and feelings about the work, or to brainstorm and network around concepts from the film. This week, Bainbridge plays host to four compelling films:
Half the Sky
The Half the Sky Event is from 7:30-9:30 p.m. March 4 at Bainbridge Cinemas, 403 N. Madison Ave.
Tickets, $12.50 each. For more information, call 855-8173 or visit www.halftheskylive.com.
Bainbridge Cinemas is one of only 10 theaters in the state to offer the one-night “Half the Sky” event inspired by the book by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Sheryl WuDunn and Nicholas Kristof. Featured on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” CNN and Dateline NBC, “Half the Sky” remains a New York Times bestseller.
Coinciding with International Women’s Day, the Half the Sky event is 7:30-9:30 p.m. March 4 at Bainbridge Cinemas, and will feature music, a celebrity discussion and the world premiere of “Woinshet,” a narrative documentary directed by Academy Award® winner Marisa Tomei and Lisa Leone.
“When NCM Fathom offered this alternative content, I immediately called Eagle Harbor Book Company to see how the book had been received on Bainbridge. It had been huge,” said Emily Adamson, director of marketing with Faraway Entertainment, which books films for Bainbridge Cinemas, Lynwood Theatre and seven other community theaters in the state.
“When I tell people who have read the book, their face lights up,” she said of the film based on the fall 2009 book about discrimination and gendercide that is prevalent throughout the world.
The event is produced by CARE, a nonprofit humanitarian organization that has focused on fighting poverty since it was founded in 1945 and which has narrowed its focus recently to specifically empowering poor women globally. Learn more at www.care.org.
“Woineshet” tells the story of a 13-year-old girl from a small village in Ethiopia who, along with her family, fought back against a brutal local tradition of rape and forced marriage.
Tickets, $12.50, are available for this one-night event at the Bainbridge Cinemas box office or for will call by calling Emily at (206) 930-3383. For more information, visit www.halftheskylive.com.
Jeff Brein, owner of Bainbridge Cinemas, said the cafe will be open following the movie for those who would like to stay and process the film together.
For more information, visit Bainbridge Cinemas at www.bainbridgepavilion.com/half-the-sky.html.
Under Our Skin
“Under Our Skin” begins at 4 p.m. Feb. 28 at Lynwood Theatre, 4569 Lynwood Center Rd.
Tickets, $10 each. For more information, call 842-3080 or visit www.underourskin.com.
When “Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood” jumped from The New York Times bestseller list onto the bigscreen, its author, Bainbridge Islander Rebecca Wells, should have been jumping for joy. Instead, she was falling down. Wracked with pain and a set of systems that had defied diagnosis for half a decade, Wells finally was diagnosed with Lyme Disease in late 2004.
“People think it doesn’t exist here, that it’s an East Coast thing,” she said on the phone Wednesday. “It exists here.”
By 2005, she was under 100 pounds and couldn’t get out of bed.
“My life was not my life anymore,” she said of the debilitating illness that ravaged her body and her life.
“I’ve tried to learn from this. Not to ask ‘Why me?’ but to ask ‘How do you give this meaning, so it’s not just meaningless suffering,” she said.
“I slowly began to share something of my journey with this illness,” she said. She posted information on her Web site, www.rebeccawellsbooks.com, which has been well-received. Now, she’s ready to tell more about that journey. She may or may not be in a wheelchair this weekend.
“Under Our Skin” will play at 4 p.m. Feb. 28 at the Lynwood Theatre, 4569 Lynwood Center Rd. The documentary, about the science, politics, and lives of people living with this mysterious, life-changing and sometimes life-threatening illness, will be followed by a post-film discussion with Wells and Dr. Susan Marra, a Seattle naturopath whose patients include Bainbridge Island Lyme sufferers and who has Lyme herself.
Wells, who is seeing some progress after a series of antibiotic treatments, is finding gratitude and joy these days.
“I’m a strong believer in prayer,” she said. “I have my life back.”
Wells will share what she calls “snapshots” of her story as well as echo topics addressed by the film, namely the state of health insurance and the lack of research on an illness that is the most rapidly growing vector-born disease.
Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at the Lynwood Theatre. For more information, visit www.lynwoodtheatre.com or www.underourskin.com or Well’s Web site.
Race to Nowhere
“Race to Nowhere” preview screening is from 6:30-8:30 p.m. March 1 at Bainbridge High School Commons.
Tickets, $12, $5 students (limit 200). For information, visit www.justknow.org or www.racetonowhere.com.
The Just Know Coalition for Youth and Parents, a Bainbridge-based nonprofit that encourages dialogue between youth, parents and educators, has organized a preview screening of “Race to Nowhere,” a documentary about the pressures faced by American schoolchildren and their teachers in our achievement-obsessed public and private educational system and culture. Just Know was working to bring the film to Bainbridge, unaware that several Bainbridge High School students were contacting the filmmakers as well.
The screening, followed by a discussion period is from 6:30-8:30 p.m. March 1 in the Bainbridge High School Commons. The film highlights the pressure of young people, the ever-increasing expectations to perform and succeed at almost everything they do, and the high price we are all paying. Cost: $12/person. $5 for the first 200 students. Info: visit www.racetonowhere.com.
“This affects all of us. It’s about starting a conversation. Regardless of what side of the issue you come from, we can all benefit from insights and perspectives,” said Debbie Hollyer, co-chair of the Just Know Coalition.
“Race to Nowhere” highlights a dysfunctional system: frequent cheating, disengaged students, stress-related illnesses, depression and burnout, and young people who arrive at college and the workplace unprepared and uninspired. It is a call to challenge current assumptions on how to best prepare the youth of America to become healthy, bright, contributing and leading citizens.
Vicki Abeles, who directs the 85-minute documentary, will be on hand for a Q-and-A session following the film.
The film touches on sensitive issues and organizers recommend that parents of students K-sixth grade, view the film first. Middle schoolers and high schoolers are encouraged to attend.
For information about the film visit <a href="http://www.racetonowhere.com"www.racetonowhere.com or www.justknow.org.
Green Dragon
A free matinee showing of “Green Dragon” is from 2-4:40 p.m. Feb. 27 at Eagle Harbor Congregational Church.
For more information, visit www.eagleharborchurch.org.
A free matinee showing of Green Dragon (2001), starring Patrick Swayze and Forest Whitaker, will be from 2-4:30 p.m. Feb. 27 at Eagle Harbor Congregational Church. This award-winning film tells the story of Vietnamese refugees sent to Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base in California in 1975. The film is rated PG-13.
Tu-Ha Nguyen, a member of University Congregational, will lead a discussion after the film, sharing her own experience as a refugee who fled Saigon one day before the communist takeover. Tu-Ha’s family journey to America took them through the South Pacific, Arkansas and ultimately to Redmond where they started a new life in August 1975.
For more information, visit www.eagleharborchurch.org.
.
