News & Notes

Focus on filmmaker Helfand

Peabody Award-winning documentary maker Judith Helfand will present four programs at Film Streams’ Ruth Sokolof Theater, 14th and Mike Fahey Streets, Friday through March 28.

Friday night at 7, a retrospective of Helfand’s career will feature film clips from her released works and scenes from her current project, “Cooked.”

Saturday will bring a double feature of Helfand films, “A Healthy Baby Girl” (1997) at 1 p.m. and its sequel, “Blue Vinyl” (2002), at 3 p.m. In both films, she addresses corporate responsibility and health issues that relate to her family. She will also seek audience feedback on DVD extras in development for the 2010 DVD re-release of “A Healthy Baby Girl.” Helfand will take questions after the screenings.

Helfand’s films have been called socially conscious and humorous, politically engaged and personal. In “A Healthy Baby Girl,” she presents her mother’s story of taking the harmful drug DES during her pregnancy with Helfand. In “Blue Vinyl,” (co-directed with Daniel Gold), she searches for the origins of her parents’ new vinyl siding. “Everything’s Cool” (2007, also co-directed with Gold) is about global climate change and those who try to communicate its dangers.

Helfand will lead a free workshop titled “Story Leads to Action” on March 28 at noon, introducing a production company dedicated to supporting women filmmakers. The workshop will cover how story-driven nonfiction movies combined with community campaigns can lead to social change.

For more information, call 933-0259 or visit www. filmstreams.org.

Twice the Shakespeare

The Nebraska Shakespeare Festival has hired A. Bryan Humphrey to direct next summer’s production of “Romeo and Juliet,” while William Roudebush will direct the musical version of “Two Gentlemen of Verona.”

Humphrey has acted in past NSF seasons, including as Don Armado in “Love’s Labour’s Lost” in 2007 and as the Earl of Kent in “King Lear” in 2008. Roudebush is a New York and regional theater director based in Philadelphia.

Both plays will be presented free June 24 to July 11 in Elmwood Park. The festival returns to two plays and three weekends of shows this summer after cutbacks forced a one-show, two-weekend season in 2009.

The festival also has announced it will again hold a Will’s Best Friend dog contest at 5:30 p.m. June 27.

‘Oz’ leads Chanticleer season

The Chanticleer Theater in Council Bluffs has unveiled its play choices for the 2010-11 season, kicking off with a children’s musical, “The Wizard of Oz,” in the fall.

Other titles next season will include “To Kill a Mockingbird,” opening in November; the nonmusical version of “Little Women,” in January; “Life With Father,” in March; and “Fiddler on the Roof” in May.

Omaha Film Festival awards

“In My Sleep,” a murder mystery involving a sleepwalker, won the jury prize as best feature film of the fifth Omaha Film Festival, which concluded last weekend. “Mount St. Elias,” about extreme athletes who climb and ski down a treacherous Alaskan peak, won best documentary, and “True Beauty This Night” won best short.

Max Mentzer’s “F. Word Pizza” snagged the Nebraska short award, and “The Mouse That Soared” won animated short.

Audience choice awards went to “Last Breath” for best feature, “65_RedRoses” for best documentary and “Meltdown” for short film. The OFF the Edge award went to “The Revenant.”

Leon Micek’s screenplay “The Imperfects” won best feature-length screenplay and best Nebraska screenplay. “The Budgie,” by Kimberly Coleman, was named best short screenplay. “Kavi” won best cinematography for a short film.

Payne films in Hawaii

Director-screenwriter Alexander Payne, an Omaha native, has begun principal photography in Hawaii on “The Descendants,” his fifth feature-length movie. Already, Web sites are listing it as a possible Oscar contender on the strength of Payne’s track record and the attention actor George Clooney brings to any project.

“Election,” “About Schmidt” and “Sideways,” previous Payne movies, all earned Oscar nominations. Payne and screenwriting partner Jim Taylor won the adapted-screenplay award in 2004 for “Sideways,” which also was a best-picture nominee.

“The Descendants,” based on Kaui Hart Hemmings’ novel, stars Clooney as lawyer Matt King, a land-rich descendant of Hawaiian royalty and American missionaries who is considering selling land to a developer. When a boat accident puts his wife in a coma, he must decide whether to pull the plug.

The decision is complicated by his discovery that she was having an affair. He takes his two young daughters with him as he journeys to another island to confront the man.

Besides Clooney, the cast list includes Beau Bridges, Judy Greer, Matthew Lillard, Robert Forster, Mary Birdsong, Shailene Woodley, Amara Miller and Nick Krause.

Auditions

“Young Playwrights Festival,” Teens’n’ Theater at the Rose, 6 p.m. March 29 at the theater, 2001 Farnam St. Show runs May 6 to 9. Information: 345-4849.

“High School Musical 2,” the Rose, students ages 12 to 18 at 1 p.m. March 28 at the theater, 2001 Farnam St. Arrive 20 minutes early for paperwork. Call-backs are 6 p.m. March 30. Adult auditions 6 p.m. March 29. Show runs June 4 to 20. Information: 345-4849.

Compiled by Bob Fischbach

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