Found Footage Festival
COLUMBIA HEIGHTS, Minn. – The Found Footage Festival, the international touring showcase of odd and hilarious clips from found videotapes, will return to the Twin Cities on Friday, Sept. 15, for a special benefit show for IFP Minnesota, a non-profit media arts organization that supports and promotes the work of artists who create screenplays, film, video, and photography in the Midwest.
Having played to sold out crowds in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas and New York, the Found Footage Festival curators are looking forward to debuting their all-new lineup of video clips and comedy in their old stomping grounds of Minnesota.
All tickets will be sold in advance only, for $12, and proceeds will go to support IFP Minnesota. To purchase tickets, call (651) 644-1912. This show is a homecoming for curators Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher, and organizers expect a sell-out. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. and the show begins at 8 p.m.
This one-of-a-kind event compiles more than an hour’s worth of footage from videos that were found at garage sales and thrift stores and in warehouses and dumpsters throughout the country. Curators Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher, both former Minnesota filmmakers, host each screening in-person and provide their unique observations and commentary on these found video obscurities. From the curiously-produced industrial training video to the forsaken home movie donated to Goodwill, the Found Footage Festival resurrects these forgotten treasures and serves them up in a lively celebration of all things found.
Among the new clips to be featured in this special show:
The high-pitched songs and stories of a preacher known as Lil’ Markie.
An all-new collection of exercise videos featuring Marky Mark Wahlberg, O.J. Simpson and a group of rapping pregnant ladies.
An instructional video for a cosmetic device so frightening that it will forever haunt you.
The Found Footage Festival has been named a "Critic’s Pick" in dozens of publications, including The Onion, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle and The Chicago Tribune, and was the subject of a front page story on Wired.com. The festival has been featured on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" the G4 cable network’s "Attack of the Show," and recently on National Public Radio.
The Language of Spirit
MINNEAPOLIS – Religion today provokes strong emotions, from great loyalty to great misunderstanding. Now a local author and an innovative arts center collaborate to explore relevant ancient and contemporary expressions of progressive and hope-filled faith with The Language of Spirit: Feeding the soul with an evening of inspiring art, readings and live music.
The event is hosted by the new SpiritOne Arts Center, a resource for high quality spiritual art and the Midwest art dealer for The Saint John’s Bible, and it will take place from 5-9 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 16, at the center, located at
1128 Harmon Place, Harmon Court #305, in Minneapolis.
The special guest is Twin Cities author Tony Jones, who will read from his acclaimed inspirational book The Sacred Way: Spiritual Practices for Everyday Life (Zondervan). Combined with an exhibit of fine art from The Saint John’s Bible, along with other regionally and nationally known artists that includes illuminations from sacred texts and artwork in a variety of media expressing the human search for God.
Jones is a sought-after speaker on the topics of theology and the emerging church. He is National Coordinator of Emergent Village, a network of innovative missional Christians, as well as doctoral fellow and senior research fellow in practical theology at Princeton Theological Seminary. He has written several books on philosophy, theology, ministry, and prayer, including Divine Intervention, Postmodern Youth Ministry and Soul Shaper.
Demonstrating its mission to integrate the arts into daily living for positive personal and spiritual growth, SpiritOne’s founder and director Vicki Hovde says, "We want to provide a showcase for life-affirming and thoughtful artwork, literature and music that promotes healing and peace-loving faith traditions. We are delighted to host Tony, whose research into ancient spiritual practices is relevant and practical for today’s believers and spiritual seekers." Dyan Westman, SpiritOne’s education and outreach specialist adds, "Many of the prayer practices about which Tony writes, such as Lectio Divina, or ‘sacred reading,’ are the very practices that guide some of our artists during the creative process."
For more information, visit www.SpiritOneArt.com, www.SpiritOneNews.com or call (612) 332-1148. SpiritOne gallery hours are noon to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, and Monday through Saturday and evenings by appointment. There is free event parking.
‘One Square Foot’MINNEAPOLIS – Tiles, square pieces of artwork that can be breathtaking as separate pieces as well as in a group, are on display in a national juried tile show, "One Square Foot," through October 31 at Clay Squared to Infinity Gallery, 34 13th Ave. NE, in Minneapolis.
The tile show presents 52 artworks featuring 42 artists from 21 states and Canada. The display of tile works showcases the diverse range of syles and techniques of the handmade tile landscape. The broad range of interpretations of tile as a contemporary artform is taking place in conjunction with the National Tile Conference, "Tiles of the Northern Plains: Building on Tradition."
The work on display is separated into seven categories: water landscapes, geometric designs, floral, geometric abstractions, free form abstractions, pictorial, and textual tiles useing 23 types of material. Awards will be given for grand prize, most intriguing design, most creative material and best reflecting American traditions at the artist reception from 6-9 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 14.
For more information, visit www.claysquared.com, call (612) 781-6409 or e-mail josh@claysquared.com. Gallery hours are from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday.
Poetry workshops at Benedictine Center
MAPLEWOOD, Minn. – Michael Dennis Browne, a nationally acclaimed poet whose work has been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, is offering four poetry workshops at the Benedictine Center called "God in the Four Seasons." Each workshop will focus on a changing season, with the first one scheduled to celebrate the fall – from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 16.
"We will learn to be awake to what the seasons have to show us," Browne says of the upcoming sessions. "As our bodies and psyches adjust to each seasonal change, we experience it in a personal way. But we will also tap into deeper levels of awareness and learn what mythology, spiritual traditions, and even the earth itself teach us and help us come alive."
The workshops will consist of reading, writing, discussion and "becoming aware of what each season has to offer us."
The winter session will be December 16; spring, March 17; and summer, June 16.
Browne’s award-winning poetry has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies, including The New Yorker and American Poetry Review. Two of his five books have won the Minnesota Book Award for poetry. Last year, he wrote the words for To Be Certain of the Dawn, a post-Holocaust oratorio, which premiered at the Basilica of Saint Mary and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in music.
Currently, Browne is a distinguished professor of English at the University of Minnesota, where he has taught for 25 years. He is also the former director of its graduate program in creative writing.
The $65 fee for each workshop includes lunch. To register online for the September 16 workshop, go to www.stpaulsmonastery.org and follow the Benedictine Center Link. For information, call (651) 777-7251 or benedictinecenter@stpaulsmonastery.org. The Benedictine Center is located at 2675 Larpenteur Ave. E. in Maplewood.
Red Wing artists open doors
RED WING, Minn. – A dozen art studios and the work of more than 30 artists will be on display September 22-24 during the fifth annual Red Wing Area Fall Artist Studio Tour and Art Sale.
The Mississippi River valley area in Minnesota and Wisconsin is home to literally hundreds of artists. From just south of the Twin Cites to beautiful Lake Pepin, some of the finest artists in the Midwest live and work. This is an opportunity to tour the studios, meet the artists and see and purchase art work in a variety of media, including pottery, painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture, textiles, jewelry, computer imaging, Giclee prints, and musical instruments. Three of the sites will also have live music during the weekend.
Hours for the studio tour are: 3-7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 22; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 23; and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 24. A full color booklet about the artists and a map of the tour is available at area merchants, the Anderson Center and the Red Wing Art Association Depot Gallery, or contact the Studio Ramble for more information at www.studioramble.com, or e-mail studioramble@husomandrose.com.
