Published September 15, 2010
Mangrove Slasher IIÂ Casting Call
2-5 p.m. Sat., Sept. 25, The Venue, 500 Central Ave., Sarasota, 539-0010 or mangroveslasher2.com, free.
Back in late April when CL broke the story about Mangrove Slasher II, an independent horror movie being filmed around the Suncoast, the two young filmmakers involved had been working on the project for nearly seven months, and planned to wrap up shooting in May with a tentative mid-June release date. Little did co-directors Sean Haitz and Chris Potter know, that date would soon become far more tentative than they had expected.
Potter, who Haitz brought on as co-director after meeting him toward the start of production, was arrested on May 13. According to various news reports Manatee High School, where Potter had worked as a television production instructor for four years, informed him that they would not be renewing his contract, and he later told a fellow teacher that he was going to bring a gun to an upcoming faculty event. This prompted the Bradenton Police Department to confront Potter in the school’s parking lot, where they found Roxycodone pills in his possession. According to the BPD, an investigation revealed Potter had been pawning equipment from the school’s audio and visual department since January to pay for his prescription drug addiction. (more…)
Category: Features
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Golden boy: The work of Ringling Museum Conservation Technician/Gilder Dave Piurek will be available to wear at S/ART/Q’s second screen-printing party
Published September 8, 2010 S/ART/Q Print Party 5-10 p.m. Sat., Sept. 11, The HuB, 1421 Boulevard of the Arts, Sarasota, 330-4838 or sartq.com, ringling.org, free, $5 per print. A little over a year ago a professional artists’ collective emerged from the shadows of Sarasota’s contemporary art scene going by the name S/ART/Q. Their first exhibition was held in November at the former DK Vogue space downtown, followed by a second exhibition at G.Wiz Science Museum in March. But the original event that introduced the group to the community was a screen-printing party held at the HuB incubator in the Rosemary District last August. The nonprofit collective will now return to their humble beginnings for a second installment of their Print Party, a fundraising event where each artist offers a custom made design for screen-printing onto any cloth item you wish for only $5 a print. Many of the artists involved in S/ART/Q are former Ringling Art School grads, but few have remained as close to the institution as Dave Piurek, a conservation technician and gilder for The John and Mable Ringling Museum. After receiving his BFA from Ringling College in 1998, Piurek landed a job as assistant preparer for the museum, actually working under fellow S/ART/Q artist Joseph Arnegger, hanging the priceless works of art that had been acquired by John Ringling. An avid art collector, Ringling had purchased over 13,000 pieces, many of them prominent works from all periods of art history, which now make up the vast majority of art on display at the Museum. (more…) -
Absolutely fabulous: The 12th Annual LGBT Film Fest covers the full spectrum of gay life
Published August 18, 2010 The 12th Annual LGBT Film Festival runs 2-10 p.m. Sat., Aug. 21 and Sun., Aug. 22, Burns Court Cinemas, 506 Burns Court, Sarasota, 955-3456 or filmsociety.org, individual tickets $9 non-members, $6 members; Festival Passes $45 non-members, $30 members; visit website for full film schedule and more information. The movies being featured at The Fabulous LGBT Film Festival represent a showcase of the LGBT community’s accomplishments throughout history, as well as the struggles they still endure. All of the films highlight different aspects of the gay rights movement, making the festival a well-rounded portrait of what has now become the civil rights movement of our time. Issues surrounding cultural discrimination will be brought to light in two documentaries that show the battle lines through the eyes of those in the fight. 8: The Mormon Proposition pulls back the curtain on the secretive, decades-long campaign against gay rights that has existed within the Mormon religion. Centered around Utah and California, the film shows the Morman church’s direct involvement in the promotion and passage of California’s Proposition 8, the highest-funded social ballot issue in U.S. history, and how they have continued to wage spiritual warfare against marriage equality fought with money and lies. On These Shoulders We Stand focuses on some of the O.G.s of the Los Angeles LGBT community and chronicles gay life in L.A. from the ’50s to the ’90s, showing the city’s major role in gay history. (more…) -
Once upon a time: Anthony Paull and Something Spilled Productions represent SRQ at this year’s LGBT Film Festival.
Published August 18, 2010 This weekend Burns Court Cinemas invites Sarasota to celebrate diversity with The Fabulous LGBT Film Festival, a two-day event featuring six feature-length films, four opening with a short by local filmmaker and writer Anthony Paull. The Once and Future Me is Paull’s directing debut and the second short he’s written and filmed in Sarasota through Something Spilled Productions, which Paull started with locals Steve Lesser and Heather Manley. The company was named after an incident that happened while Manley and Paull were covering the Sundance Film Festival. Paull had spilled some wine during an after party at a swanky house and had told the maid, “Something spilled over there.†The first film to emerge from Something Spilled was a short called The Green, Green Heart, which screened at the Delray Beach Film Festival. A promising outcome for such a low budget project, the trio decided to up the ante and hired a professional cinematographer and assistant director for The Once and Future Me. “It looks hot,†says Paull, “I mean, compared to our first film? Our first film was like a porno.†(more…) -
Textbook example: Tim Sukits wades into the battle between Rich Swier and the Sarasota County School Board
Published July 28, 2010
I approach the Sarasota County Schools building a bit after 3 p.m. on Tuesday, July 20 to see a handful of people in front passing out white T-shirts with green lettering that reads “Choose History, not His-Story.†As I pass through the foyer and enter the meeting room I spot about three dozen people wearing those shirts, scattered throughout a packed house of roughly 200. Sarasota County School Board Chair Shirley Brown helps her six-year-old grandson use a microphone to open the meeting with a recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.
The stage is set for the day’s main event. Dr. Richard Swier, editor of local conservative blog Red County, will have his chance to appeal the decision of a district advisory committee that denied his “request for reconsideration of instructional material,â€Â a formal complaint originally filed on April 25. Swier sought to have the textbook World History: Patterns of Interaction removed from the school curriculum, believing that it unfairly favors the religion of Islam over Christianity. (more…)
