From Friday to Sunday, Nov. 14-16, the Bainbridge Island Arts & Humanities Council will showcase works from Bainbridge film professionals through 28 films at its 16th annual Celluloid Bainbridge Film Festival.

Following the simple guideline that works must have been filmed on Bainbridge or feature a past or present Bainbridge Islander in the cast, crew or production, the goal of the three-day festival is to bring the Bainbridge community together to learn about and celebrate local filmmakers, according to a news release from the Arts & Humanities Council. This year’s films hail from aspiring students, young professionals and established artists in the field of film.

Admission to films screened on Saturday and Sunday are free of charge. Saturday morning of the festival will be at Bainbridge Cinemas, where three theaters will be showcasing a variety of family focused films, in addition to the Celluloid Bainbridge Film Challenge entries. On Sunday, the Historic Lynwood Theatre will offer films from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

A full schedule and descriptions of the films and their Bainbridge Connections can be found on the festival’s website, http://bainbridgeartshumanities.org. The film schedule has been arranged for viewers to enjoy several movies in a row or come and go as they please throughout the weekend.

In addition to a diverse group of film professionals, the festival will also explore global and local topics throughout the weekend, diving deeper into social, economic and environmental issues, interpersonal relationships, historical documentation and even athletics.

In Matt Smith’s autobiographical tale “My Last Year with the Nuns,” the master storyteller himself spins a wild and surprising yarn of growing up in 1960s America. Simultaneously categorized as a comedy, avant-garde, mockumentary, dramedy and period/historical piece, the film seeks to explain why the 8th grade was the best year of Smith’s life.

Another local writer with a film in the festival is Matt K. Turner, creator of “Family Weekend.” This movie centers on a 16-year-old competition rope skipper who takes matters into her own hands to bring her parents, played by Hollywood actors Kristin Chenoweth and Matthew Modine, back to “normal.”

After well-deserved accolades at screenings in Malaysia, Australia, Myanmar, Korea, China and New York City, writer Hector Carosso will return to Bainbridge to show “Kayan Beauties” to friends and family. This film tells the story of three Kayan women who travel from their remote village to sell handicrafts in a distant city in Myanmar. They are accompanied by a Kayan girl, who has just had the tribe’s decorative, heavy brass coil rings placed around her neck. In the city, the girl is kidnapped by human traffickers. Far from home and out of their element, the Kayan women desperately search for the girl.

The multi-talented Robert Scott Crane will also return to the island, bringing with him from Los Angeles his newest film “Curio Shop,” an award-winning post apocalyptic acid western. Directed by two-time Emmy Award winning Eric S. Anderson and shot by the Academy Award- and Emmy Award-winning director of photograhy, DP David Stump A.S.C., this hallucinogenic fable stars Crane and Christopher Sweeney. Crane will be available for a question-and-answer session immediately following his film Sunday evening.

Local filmmaker and student at Bainbridge High School, Brendan Bennett has three of his short films in the festival this year, the highlight of which is “Listen.” A story about a boy and his drug-dealing brother and how the power of music shapes their lives, this film has been screened at festivals in Omaha, Hollywood and Ireland.

The Opening Night Celebration on Friday at the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, will help to underwrite the otherwise free festival. This will be a festive evening with refreshments, a chance to Meet the Filmmakers and enjoy the feature film, The EDGE at the Movies, celebrating the best of the EDGE Improv. Tickets for opening night can be purchased at CelluloidBainbridge.org.

The educational highlight of the festival will be Sunday afternoon when three films on the topic of the Japanese American Exclusion during World War II will be shown with a discussion panel featuring the voices and stories from invited guests from the Bainbridge Japanese-American community.

In Lois Shelton’s film “After Silence: Civil Rights and the Japanese American Experience,” the past comes alive as the late Frank Kitamoto, who spent 3.5 years of his childhood in a United States concentration camp during WWII, and five students from Bainbridge Island High School develop archival photographic prints in the high school darkroom together as they discuss the need to safeguard the constitutional rights of those living in the U.S., especially in a time of crisis. Shelton offers this rescreening of the film as a fitting tribute to Kitamoto’s legacy. Kitamoto passed away in March at age 74.

“Only What They Could Carry” is a Brenda Berry film viewing the exclusion topic through the lens of a delegation of Bainbridge Islanders who journeyed to the former Manzanar concentration camp, where current Bainbridge Island educators and community leaders accompanied former incarcerated Islanders to the High Sierra desert of California on the 70th anniversary of their forced removal and relocation.

“The Manzanar Fishing Club” by Cory Shiozaki, about a small group of Japanese-Americans incarcerated at Manzanar who sought personal freedom by sneaking outside the barbed wire and machine gun towers to catch fresh fish in nearby streams, then return to camp, without ever being discovered by guards or camp officials.

The Celluloid Bainbridge Film Festival is funded by the Arts & Humanities Council and its donors, along with the Washington State Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts. The festival would not be possible without support from Northwest Films, BIMA, Bainbridge Cinemas and the Historic Lynwood Center.

For more information about the festival and all of the wonderful films, visit the Bainbridge Island Arts & Humanities Council’s website, facebook and twitter pages.

Earlier this month, the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) announced Lucy Ostrander and Don Sellers were winners of an Award of Merit at its Leadership in History Awards for the documentary “Honor & Sacrifice: The Ray Matsumoto Story” in Nashville, Tenn.

The AASLH Leadership in History Awards is in its 69th year and is the most prestigious recognition for achievement in the preservation and interpretation of state and local history, according to a news release.

The movie, which chronicles the life of Japanese immigrant Roy Matsumoto and his family’s challenges during World War II, also won the group’s History in Progress (HIP) Award by the Leadership in History awards committee.

“The HIP Award, given at the discretion of the committee, is an additional award for an Award of Merit winner whose nomination is highly inspirational, exhibits exceptional scholarship, and/or is exceedingly entrepreneurial in terms of funding, partnerships, or collaborations, creative problem solving, or unusual project design and inclusiveness,” the news release stated.

Ostrander, whose production company Stourwater Pictures is located on Bainbridge Island, said the AASLH presented only two awards for projects in Washington state and both were from Bainbridge. The Bainbridge Island Historical Museum won the other award for its exhibit, “The Overland Westerners.”

In April, “Honor & Sacrifice” won the prestigious Erik Barnouw Award from the Organization of American Historians for outstanding programming in documentary film concerned with American history in Atlanta. The documentary also has won award at film festivals in Gig Harbor and Port Townsend.

Bainbridge’s long awaited radio station has arrived – at least in the form of podcasts.

Bainbridge Community Broadcasting is now offering six podcast radio shows titled “What’s Up Bainbridge.” The 5-minute podcast previews of an upcoming local event “described in person by the organizer, artist or presenter closest to the event,” according to an email from BCB announcing the podcasts.

The radio shows are available at www.BestofBCB.org.

The six episodes are:

• Fun and lively Ignite Bainbridge event today, May 6th
• Bloedel Gardens Musical Event on May 10th
• Bainbridge Museum of Art spring exhibit now til June
• Nature’s Nurturers event at IslandWood for Mothers Day
• Weekly yoga happy hours at Bainbridge Yoga House
• Friday May 9 Library talk: The Business Solution to Poverty

In March, Bainbridge Community Broadcasting switched from the planning phase to training when it received its new three-microphone studio.

Bainbridge Community Broadcasting is awaiting a decision from the Federal Communications Commission this summer on its application for a low-powered FM radio license.

With July fast approaching, the Bainbridge Island Arts & Humanities Council is putting a call out for musicians interested in performing during its 26^th annual Bainbridge in Bloom garden tour July 11-12.

Folk, jazz groups and classical chamber artists are sought by the Arts & Humanities Council to play hourlong sets from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the Friday and Saturday of the event. Musicians can also perform longer than an hour and more frequently if they’d like.

Interested artists can contact, Bainbridge in Bloom music coordinator Karla Zimmerman at karlajzimmerman@comcast.net or (206) 979-9981.

Last year’s event drew more than 700 people.

Lucy Ostrander and Don Sellers’ “Honor & Sacrifice: The Roy Matsumoto Story” continues to impress critics and audiences.

Last weekend, the documentary captured the prestigious Erik Barnouw Award from the Organization of American Historians for outstanding programming in documentary film concerned with American history in Atlanta, Ga.

“Honor & Sacrifice” focuses on Roy Matsumoto and his Japanese immigrant family that endured tragedy and triumph during World War II. Matsumoto’s daughter, Karen, lives on Bainbridge Island and is the film’s associate producer.

“We’re particularly pleased because for the creators of historical documentaries, the Erik Barnouw Award represents one of the most important honors achievable,” said Ostrander, whose Stourwater Pictures is located on Bainbridge. “It not only speaks to the scholarly rigor of the work, but also to its historical importance.”

Ostrander said past winners of the award include Ken Burns and Henry Hampton, as well as revered films such as “The Most Dangerous Man in America” and “Death and the Civil War.”

“The Organization of American Historians is the major organization for historians who study and teach about the United States,” Ostrander said. “They annually present a small number of awards in recognition of scholarly and professional achievements in the field of American history. Only one is for a film, so the award is extremely competitive.”

If “Honor & Sacrifice” sounds familiar it should. It was shown at 15th annual Celluloid Bainbridge Film Festival last November.

If you haven’t seen the stirring “Honor & Sacrifice” yet, you’re in luck. It will be broadcast on Seattle public television station KCTS at 7 p.m. Sunday, May 25.

After a successful partnership with Bainbridge’s movie theaters the first two months of the year, the Boomerang Giving Project has now joined with Bainbridge Performing Arts to encourage people older than 65 to redirect their senior discounts to those in need.

This month, discounts at Bainbridge Performing Arts, the Cinemas at the Pavilion and Lynwood Cinema can voluntarily be redirected by people over 65 years old to support Helpline House programs. BPA and the movie theaters are covering the program’s administrative costs to ensure that 100 percent of the donated discounts go to Helpline.

Dominique Cantwell, executive director of BPA, said she was “proud to be part of this inventive idea.”

Helpline House provides a full range of services to people in need.

“Boomerang Giving is a creative way for those over 65 to boost this community,” Helpline Executive Director Joanne Tews said. “We are delighted to be the beneficiary of this new effort.”

This month, Bainbridge Performing Arts is presenting the epic six-hour “The Kentucky Cycle,” which opens 7:30 p.m. Wednesday with a pair of pay-what-you-can previews with Part I on Wednesday and Part II on Thursday. An opening reception for the play is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Friday.

Performances are set for Friday through March 30 with Fridays at 7:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 2 p.m. (Part 1). Plus, Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. for Part II. The Bainbridge Performing Arts noted on its website that “given the length of the entire play, patrons have the option of seeing the full play over a span of two days.”

“The Kentucky Cycle” is highly regarded. It won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize – the first play in the prize’s 76-year history to win without first staging a New York production.

For more Bainbridge Performing Arts offerings this month, visit http://www.bainbridgeperformingarts.org/.

Boomerang Giving started on Bainbridge in January, with its first project the January and February donation of discounts to grant making supporting children and youth at the Bainbridge Community Foundation. At the Pavilion 39 tickets and 72 at the Lynwood were redirected, Boomerang Giving board chair David Harrison said.

Later this spring, Boomerang plans to start a pledge campaign in selected cities nationally.

“We think the idea of providing baby boomers and older Americans the chance to ‘give back’ through donating discounts will become commonplace,” Harrison said. “We are proud to have it start on Bainbridge Island.”

A documentary film about Bainbridge Island’s anchored-out liveaboards is set to screen at the Celluloid Bainbridge Film Festival on Nov. 2 at 10 a.m.

Island filmmaker Mark Davis worked on “Against the Tide” for years, filming numerous city meetings and interviewing people on both sides of the liveaboard debate.

Here’s what Davis has to say about the film:

“Set amidst the spectacular beauty of the Pacific Northwest and the urban backdrop of Seattle, Washington, this poignant and timely film reveals the unique lifestyles of the mariners and misfits who live illegally aboard their boats in Eagle Harbor, the scenic gem of Bainbridge Island. Long a refuge for liveaboards with limited means, or just those wishing for a simpler way of life, Eagle Harbor is a state-owned body of water surrounded by an affluent community, torn about whether to let them stay or drive them out.

When the state of Washington ruled that people anchoring in public waters could only live aboard their boats in the same location for 30 days, the members of this decades-old community became guilty of criminal trespass. Against the Tide follows the story of the liveaboards who refuse to move their homes… a behind-the-scenes look at the struggle of vulnerable persons defying homelessness with alternative shelters.”

Composer  and musician Jherek Bischoff has played concerts at some of the nation’s most venerable venues (Lincoln Center most recently). But he’ll give one of the most meaningful performances of his career Friday at Bainbridge Performing Arts.

The island concert marks a homecoming for Bischoff, who first took to the stage in Bainbridge High School and BPA musicals. Since then he’s released an acclaimed album of orchestral music and toured internationally.

Bischoff took the time to respond to a few questions by email this week for a Kitsap Sun/Bainbridge Islander story. Here’s what he had to say about the Bainbridge concert: Continue reading →

Here’s the Bainbridge Islander preview for June 7. Feel free to give your events a plug in the comment section below.

Here’s the Bainbridge Islander preview for May 24. Feel free to give your events a plug in the comment section below.

Four young filmmakers traveled to Guatemala in 2010 to experience life on less than $1 a day. The harrowing experiment resulted in “Living on One Dollar,” a documentary that premiered last fall.

Since then, the creators of Living on One – three of whom grew up on Bainbridge Island — have been busy turning the film into a social movement. They’ve screened the documentary at universities and festivals around the country in recent months. They’ve also organized events to raise awareness of global poverty and promote microfinance.

The film can be viewed free on Hulu through May 3.

Here’s the Friday preview: Bainbridge edition for March 29. Feel free to give your own events a plug in the comment section below. Above, a pair of lambs and their mother enjoy some sunshine Tuesday in a field off Madison Avenue NE. (Meegan Reid photo)

Weather: We don’t want to jinx it, but the National Weather Service is predicting a very pleasant weekend. Sunshine and highs in the 60s are expected today, Saturday and Sunday.

Sports: It will be a quiet weekend for the Spartans. The boys soccer team defends its home turf at 6 p.m. tonight against Chief Sealth. And that’s about it.

See a full Spartans schedule here and follow the Sun’s Prepzone on Facebook for updates.

Continue reading →