Film
World War II, which shaped the 20th century and produced what’s been called the greatest generation, also inspired many classic films — and a selection of the best is being presented on Island with special introductions by American history scholar Sheldon Hackney.
The series begins on Monday, June 7, with The 49th Parallel, a 1941 British drama and wartime propaganda film starring Laurence Olivier, screening at 8 p.m. at the Katharine Cornell Theatre on Spring street in Vineyard Haven. Doors open at 7:30 p.m.
Asher and Shyfra Scharf were ready for their trip. Their Uzbek visas were current, though they hadn’t set foot in the country for more than 60 years. All they needed now was a reason to return. They didn’t know how or when the call would come, nor did they have a reason to believe it would come at all. But still, they waited.
While other recent natural disasters may have drawn the international news media’s attention elsewhere, Haiti continues to struggle against widespread corruption and popular fear in the effort to rebuild itself in the aftermath of an earthquake that struck of the beleaguered island several months ago.
The Vineyard Haven library does its part in keeping Islanders updated on the situation faced by our southerly sister at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, May 25, with a free screening of a film, Burn!, followed by post-earthquake updates.
You’d think that with all the planning that goes into a new project — a feature film at that — filmmaker Taylor Toole might set aside his other work and focus on the task at hand. But fresh off a grand prize win for his 2009 feature Mow Crew at Connecticut’s Kent Film Festival, and a series of screenings at the Capawock Theatre of his recent short featuring Island skateboarder Nick Briggs, Mr. Toole has set to work organizing a casting call for a film he plans to shoot on-Island this summer.
With its water-themed issue on the stands, National Geographic will continue to focus on this most precious resource on Martha’s Vineyard this weekend with the launch of the new book Written in Water: Messages of Hope for Earth’s Most Precious Resource and the premiere of its film Shark Eden. Events on Saturday and Sunday bring world-renowned authors, activists, filmmakers and musicians together for a festival called Water Is Life, cosponsored by the Island nonprofit group World Waterway.
In honor of Earth Day, the Martha’s Vineyard Film Society will screen No Impact Man, a documentary film that follows Manhattanite Colin Beavan and his family during their year-long pursuit of a lifestyle that leaves zero environmental impact. To Vineyarders, such a goal would seem ambitious, but certainly plausible. But for a young family living in New York city, zero impact means zero elevators, taxis, Windex, television, material consumption of any kind, and no garbage.