Tis’ the Season for the Independent Film Festival
• June 18, 2013

The Washington, DC Independent Film Festival is coming up from March 3 to 13, showcasing 100 feature, short, animation and documentary films by local and national filmmakers.

“Each entry in this year’s festival illustrates how individuals and the medium of film may be more powerful now than ever before,” said DCIFF founder and executive director Carol Bidault. “The technologies that are transforming all our lives provide everyone with a platform. Our filmmakers are using their platforms to make powerful statements and, in turn, make a difference.”

Special guests this year include Eduardo Sanchez (co-director and writer of The Blair Witch Project), actor Harry Shearer (This is Spinal Tap, The Simpsons), and cult director Monte Hellman (Two-Lane Blacktop, The Shooting). Those in attendance will also have an opportunity to participate in workshops and seminars run by industry professionals, as well as a special music festival.

The Annual Washington, DC Independent Music Festival will run in tandem with the film festival to provide nightly gospel, hip-hop and open mike performances.

Want to go?
When: March 3 – 13, 2011
Where: Navy Memorial Heritage Center, 701 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Cost:
Opening Night Film & Reception: $25
Closing Night Film & Reception: $25
Tickets to film sessions : $10/$7 student and seniors
Tickets to seminars: $25 per seminar.

Columbia Heights Makes The New York Times
•

The New York Times recently deemed a strip less than a mile long in Columbia Heights “cool.” In a slide show, they featured BloomBars, a nonprofit “art bar” that offers hip-hop jam sessions, belly dance classes and activist theater performances, wine bar Room 11, restaurant Meridian Pint and bar Wonderland. All situated between Park Road and Kenyon Street, the cool paradise is a mere few blocks from Target, Giant and IHOP on 14th St.

“The inspiration happened in the years leading up to the last presidential election. There was a sense that something radically different was needed to unite and inspire a diverse and demographically shifting Washington, DC, my hometown for the last 18 years, as well as in communities across the globe,” said John Chambers, founder and executive gardener of BloomBars. Meridian Pint called it a “great write up.”

Capital BikeShare Winter Weather Contest Winds Down
•

The Winter Weather Warrior Contest through Capital Bikeshare wraps up February 28 with ten in the lead. Starting in January, annual and monthly members could choose to participate to ride the most miles, with the winner receiving a three-year extension to their membership, $100 gift card to Hudson Trail Outfitters and a $25 gift card to Starbucks. In addition, on days when the weather is particularly bad, riders received double points. This includes any day with rain and a high below 50 degrees, frozen precipitation or a high temperature below freezing.

Helen Hayes Awards Nominations Released
•

Nominations for the 27th Helen Hayes Awards were announced Feb. 28 at the Helen Hayes Gallery in the National Theater, highlighting 156 artists and 45 productions as outstanding contributors and contributions to DC theater.

This year, Arena Stage tied with the Kennedy Center in their total number of nominations with both venues receiving 23 nominations in categories such as Outstanding Lead Actor in a Residential Musical and Outstanding Set Design in a Residential Production. The Arena Stage, however, received most of its nominations in residential production categories while the Kennedy Center gained more recognition for its non-residential performances.

The Shakespeare Theater was close behind the Arena Stage and Kennedy Center with a total of 22 nominations split between six different productions, the most recognized of those being “Candide” with 12 nominations.

The Folger Theater also received a substantial 19 nominations, an admirable number especially considering the fact that it only presented three shows in the 2010 season: “Henry VIII,” “Orestes, A Tragic Romp” and “Hamlet.” All three productions were nominated in various categories.

Other venues and companies whose names frequented the list of nominees are the Synetic Theater, the Signature Theater and Theater J, among others.

The ceremony revealing the winners of the 2011 awards will be held April 25 at the Warner Theater.

DowntownDC BID and PepsiCo Team Up to Fight City Waste Problems
By Samantha Hungerford

In an effort to green up our streets, DowntownDC BID and the Department of Public Works announced their partnership with PepsiCo on March 1. This joint venture will place 363 new recycling bins and interactive kiosks in convenient areas throughout DC as part of PepsiCo’s Dream Machine recycling initiative.

The initiative, introduced by PepsiCo in 2010 on Earth Day, aims to increase the recycling rate of beverage containers from 34 to 50 percent by 2018. The project will also help to advance the Greening Downtown DC initiative.

For every bottle and can recycled in DC’s new kiosks and bins, as well as other bins across the country, PepsiCo has agreed to make a donation to the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities, a program that trains disabled post-9/11 veterans in entrepreneurship and small business management.

“This latest public-private partnership achieves the BID goal of providing citywide approaches to environmental issues while enhancing the quality of the visitor experience Downtown,” said Richard H. Bradley, executive director of the DowntownDC BID in a Downtown DC BID news release. “This partnership will have real results.”

Bradley stated that DowntownDC BID is estimating that more than one million pounds of recyclable bottles and cans will be diverted from the owntown area’s annual waste output.

While DC is the first city to join with PepsiCo’s venture, 20 states have already signed on and about 1,500 bins and kiosks have been placed throughout the U.S. in high-traffic areas such as retail stores and gas stations.

The DPW will install the bins and kiosks in batches of 75 through May and will convert 63 existing recycling bins into Dream Machines.

Old Post Office Pavilion May Find New Purpose
By Samantha Hungerford

The Old Post Office Pavilion, a landmark on Pennsylvania Ave. for the past 112 years, faces an uncertain future as the General Services Administration renews its efforts in seeking a private partner to restore the space.

The 400,000 square foot property is currently the home of the National Endowment of the Arts, the National Park Service, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Although it also contains over 100 boutiques and restaurants, indoor putt-putt and a multimedia theater among other attractions, a large portion of the property remains underutilized.

The building and its currently vacant pavilion could be repurposed so that its facilities are more actively used. One suggestion has been to transform the space into a hotel, a solution that might fix the imbalance between the building’s revenue and operating costs due to unused space, low retail rent and high operating costs.

Several months ago, the Republicans on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee released a report stating that the government spends about $12 million annually to maintain the historic building, producing an operating loss of $6 million.

Quizzing for a Cause
•

This month, the Smithsonian Institution will donate to the National Zoo at least 50 cents per person who can answer five questions on the “Are You Smarter than a Curator?” quiz. Questions vary from facts about the mission of the zoo to the habitat of the cuddlefish, which were created by curator of enrichment and training Heidi Hellmuth. The quiz will be open until April 8. A spokeswoman says the funds would come from the larger Smithsonian Institution fundraising office.

You can take the quiz at SmarterThanACurator.org.

Environmental Film Festival
•

For the 19th year, the Environmental Film Festival will screen two weeks of films about the environment and social issues that surround it. Lasting through March 27, they’ll showcase 150 films from 40 countries, with 52 filmmaker and 94 special guest appearances. This year there are 80 primers, including the film, “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives,” winner of the 2010 Palme D’Or at Cannes; the multi-award-winning Russian psychological thriller, “How I Ended This Summer”; Werner Herzog’s new film, “Happy People: A Year in the Taiga”; and Chilean documentary filmmaker Patricio Guzmán’s “Nostalgia for the Light.” Most films are free and shown throughout the city.

For more information, visit DCEnvironmentalFilmFest.org

Reduced Salaries for Gray’s City Officials
•

In the wake of scrutiny over salaries for city officials, Mayor Vincent Gray has reduced salaries for eight city managers, by one to four percent, according to WTOP.com.

“I hired managers with outstanding qualifications and their initial salaries reflected their extensive experience and background,” Gray said in a press release. “I have now adjusted those salaries commensurate with the compensation schedules.”

At the same time, Gray released an online survey for public input on the 2012 budget, which includes five questions of various length and substance.

According to a press release from Gray’s office, he will “attend several community meetings across the city to discuss the budget” after it is rolled out in April. Additionally, Gray has encouraged residents to get involved in the DC Council budget hearings, which will run from April 7 to May 6.

Garden District Closed
•

Garden District, a full service urban garden center, located at 1740 14th St. NW has closed. In November of 2009, they filed for bankruptcy, and had been in three locations since it opened.
On the company website, owner Joe Carmack posted, “I regret to inform you Garden District, the business entity, has been closed. I worked very hard to maintain it, but at a certain point it did not make sense to continue. Thank you for supporting GD for 10 great yrs. It was a pleasure serving you.”

Section of 14th Street now Ron Brown Way
•

US Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and White House Chief of Staff Bill Daily will attend the ceremonial naming of 14th St., NW as Ron Brown Way, after the late Ronald H. Brown, former Chairman of the Democratic National Committee and Secretary of Commerce. The block of 14th St. between Constitution Ave. and Pennsylvania Ave., NW will be named for Brown, 15 years after his death. Brown died in a plane crash in 1996. The street was named after legislation was put through by Brown’s son, councilman at-large Michael A. Brown.

Politics and Prose Under New Ownership
•

Politics and Prose came under new owners last week after Barbara Meade and David Cohen, who started the store 27 years ago, decided to sell four months before Cohen’s wife, Carla, died in October.

Bradley Graham and Lissa Muscatine, both Washington journalism and public policy veterans, will become the store’s new owners later on this spring.

“The legacy of Barbara and Carla remains relevant and influential,” Muscatine told [Chevy Chase Patch] (http://chevychase.patch.com/articles/politics-and-prose-the-legacy-continues). “For me, it’s still one of those places for people to stop, to think and exchange ideas. We really think it’s an oasis — represents an alternative to instant news.”

Politics & Prose was founded 27 years ago by Barbara Meade and Carla Cohen in the Chevy Chase neighborhood. The two women announced their decision to retire last June. Despite wide-ranging changes in the book industry, the store has experienced rising revenues.

“Graham and Muscatine have the passion and wisdom to further strengthen Politics & Prose as a community institution that disseminates ideas and stands as a respected and revered public space,” Meade and Cohen said in a statement. “We are confident that they have the wherewithal and vision to sustain Politics & Prose for many years.”

Meade and Cohen spent nearly nine months interviewing prospective owners. Graham and Muscatine’s commitment to serve full-time as hands-on booksellers was a key factor in their selection.

“What was evident to us throughout the sale process was that Barbara and David were not selling just a business,” Graham and Muscatine wrote in a [Washington Post op-ed April 1] (http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-we-bought-politics-and-prose/2011/04/01/AFDjweJC_story.html). “They were selling a cultural institution that was part discussion forum, part neighborhood meeting ground, part event stage. And they were determined that Politics and Prose not only survive and thrive, but continue to reflect Barbara and Carla’s legacy.