May 15, 2017

It’s a Wrap: 2016 National Medal for Museum & Library Service Honorees

In February 2016, we completed our trip to the Madison Public Library,  the final trip in a series of adventures that took us from Santa Ana, California to Exeter, Rhode Island, and many places in between as we preserved the stories of the ten institutions awarded the Institute of Museum and Library Service’s 2016 National Medal. We are honored to share some of these recordings below.

We’ve been preserving the stories of all National Medal for Museum and Library Service winners for the past eight years and are thrilled to announce we’ll soon be on the road recording 2017’s honorees.

Mid-America Science Museum (Hot Springs, Arkansas)

At the Mid-America Science Museum, participants ranged from patrons to mentors, congressmen, and volunteers, and reflected the can-do spirit of the community as well as its diversity. In this story, Niles Ellis, who is a designer for the museum, talks with his colleague Lori Arnold about how he impressed the senior leadership of the museum with his ingenuity and ability to make things work on a shoestring budget.

“I could turn an area of the museum into a primordial existence…”

Brooklyn Public Library (Brooklyn, NY)

Brooklyn Public Library serves an extremely broad community — over 2.5 million people benefit from the system. Among the many diverse stories recorded with the library this past fall, Richelet Jean brought his young daughter Abigail to record and reflect on the impact that librarian Hasina Islam has had on their family.

“You see that spark that you’ve put in this child?”

Tomaquag Museum (Exeter, RI)

Tomaquag Museum is Rhode Island’s only museum dedicated entirely to telling the story of the state’s Indigenous Peoples. The museum invited Narragansett youth, adults, and tribal elders to tell the stories of their families and lives, and of their culture and traditions. In this story, brothers Lonnie (left) and Robert Shumate talk about their memories of some of the old characters in their family. The two remember attending powwows, cooking johnnycakes, and sharing food together. We hear first from Robert.

“We had somewhat of a battle as to who made the better johnnycakes…”

Otis Library (Norwich, CT)

Otis Library worked with a local community member to help them identify storytellers that would create a representative picture of the Norwich area. Among the people suggested were David Burnett (left) and his friend Joe. David is the Executive Director, and a former therapist, at Reliance Health, a facility that has helped people diagnosed with mental illness in Norwich, CT for more than 40 years. In Joe and David’s interview, they discuss why David was tentative to begin their client-therapist relationship 30 years ago. They also talk about how much they have helped each other throughout their friendship.

“They look at it as a sad thing but they don’t know what can become of us…”

Lynn Meadows Discovery Center (Gulfport, MS)

Throughout our trip to Lynn Meadows, we heard a wide range of stories, touching on everything from the lasting impact that Hurricane Katrina had on the museum to the creation of the WINGS Performing Arts and Education Center. In this story, LaWanda Jones speaks about why she brought her son, Joseph, to the WINGS program. They share members of Joseph’s first audition on stage and speak about how his love of singing evolved.

“I realized I had a voice.” 

Santa Ana Public Library (Santa Ana, CA)

Santa Ana is roughly 80% Latino, and the library’s services and programs provide an anchor for the community and respond to the community’s needs. In this story, Elizabeth Campos (left) speaks with Zulma Zepeda about Elizabeth’s experiences as a young woman living across the street from the library, her progress as a volunteer, and her reflections on how the library touches young people in particular.

“You could be the rocks or you could be the sand…”

The Chicago History Museum (Chicago, IL)

StoryCorps’ Chicago facilitators traveled up the road to the Chicago History Museum to record stories with a range of community members and contributors. Many participants shared stories of where they came from, including Bernie Wong, who contributed a coat to the Museum’s “My Chinatown” exhibition. As she explained, she was only allowed to bring one suitcase on her flight from Hong Kong to the United States, so her mother, a skilled tailor, made her a coat with seven coats inside, “that was so heavy it stood up by itself.”
In another story about personal history, Jean Mishima (left) reflected on her experience in a Japanese interment camp during World War II and the impact it had on her and her family. Jean also reflected on how her life changed after they moved to Chicago.

“That feeling of total isolation is still very vivid in my mind.”

North Carolina State University Libraries (Raleigh, NC)

NCSU Libraries’ conversations that touched on the things that make the NCSU Libraries really unique — their emerging technology collaborations, their visualization services, and their fearless director Susan Nutter.
In Saul Flores’s conversation with Marian Fragola, he explained how he came to be a photographer of work that represented his history as an immigrant. Before the library exhibited Saul’s photography, he was a student at North Carolina State University.

“It’s through my relationship with the library where I learned to speak…”

Columbia Museum of Art (Columbia, SC)

Members of the greater Columbia arts community told their stories during our three-day visit to the Columbia Museum of Art. Participants included a pair who helped procure a Dale Chihuly chandelier for the museum and Columbia’s poet laureate. Childhood and lifelong friends Brandolyn Pinkston (left) and Burnett Gallman spoke about memories of their church congregation and of segregation. They also shared memories of how their friendship evolved overtime through their mutual love of South Carolina’s music scene.

“I don’t think we could be closer if we were actually siblings.”

Madison Public Library (Madison, WI)

Madison Public Library featured interviews with community members, volunteers, and stafff, ranging from a hip-hop artist and producer to the mayor of Madison. One of the many stories we heard was from Char Braxton, who spoke about how her early experiences with libraries provided a road of experience and a road to college. Char spoke about taking a writing course and how that led her to explore her creativity and trauma she experienced as a young child.

“I felt like a butterfly in that I was free.”

Source: SNPR Story Corps

May 14, 2017

Michael Mann on ‘Heat,’ 22 Years Later: What We’ve Learned from His Recent Interviews

22 years after attaining instant-classic status, “Heat” has been restored and rereleased on Blu-ray. Michael Mann has been making the rounds discussing his action masterpiece to mark the occasion, discussing everything from the performances of Al Pacino and Robert De Niro to more recent films like “Blackhat.” Here are some of his most interesting comments:

READ MORE: Michael Mann to Co-Write ‘Heat’ Prequel Novel With Reed Farrel Coleman

On why he shot it in Los Angeles rather than Chicago, where the events that inspired it took place:

“L.A. is more balkanized than Chicago. There’s a unity to Chicago. It’s got north and south streets. It’s all in a grid. It has a downtown area. Then you have residential neighborhoods. Then it goes on to suburbs. L.A. is all these little cities put together. If you think of L.A. as the County of Los Angeles, it’s bigger than most countries.” (Entertainment Weekly)

On Pacino and De Niro’s approaches to acting:

“To say that an actor has one method of acting versus another method of acting is false with the guys I’ve worked with — who are the best. Pacino’s method of acting is the Pacino method, that’s it. For Al, it’s very much about internalizing the way somebody feels. He memorizes scenes two weeks before he’s gonna shoot them. He wants them to roll around in his consciousness. He’ll dream about them.

“And Bobby is terribly smart — brilliantly analytical. “Why does this guy do that?” and the specifics are all very important. You know, what he’s wearing — all that detail is very expressive of character and feeds something to him. Pacino’s less concerned about what he’s wearing.” (LA Weekly)

READ MORE: Hugh Jackman and Noomi Rapace to Star in Michael Mann’s Ferrari Biopic

“Heat”

On offering the script to Walter Hill:

“Walter Hill and I have been friends since 1972. This is a small community and we talked to each other yesterday. Our families are close. And, he would have been a terrific choice if he wanted to direct it. It wasn’t a matter of approaching a stranger. I know the way Walter thinks and I know his work very, very intimately. And, that’s what that decision of approaching him was based on.” (Vulture)

On what the film would look like if he shot it now:

“Let me put this rather precisely. When you see an emotion on a human’s face, how much of the face do you see? What constitutes fear? What constitutes apprehension? What constitutes suspicion?

“Yes, I evolved, but also, audience perception evolves, and media evolves, year to year. If I shot this film two or three years ago, this particular film would be less chromatic. And the sense of tension would become more pronounced with greater contrast and kind of a more blue-black palette, than the film as I wanted it to be when I shot it in ’94-’95.” (Entertainment Weekly)

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Source: IndieWire film

May 14, 2017

‘The Day After’ Trailer and Photos: Hong Sang-soo Remains as Prolific as Ever With Latest Cannes Drama

Ever prolific, Hong Sang-soo is back at Cannes with two different films this year. “The Day After” is premiering in Competition, while “Claire’s Camera” is set to make its bow Out of Competition. As you wait for similar materials from the latter to surface, avail yourself of the trailer, poster and photos from the former below.

READ MORE: ‘The Day After’ First Trailer: Hong Sang-soo Tells Another Tale of a Love Affair in Cannes Drama

Here’s the synopsis: “It is Areum’s first day of work at a small publisher. Her boss Bongwan loved and recently broke up with the woman who previously worked there. Today too, the married Bongwan leaves home in the dark morning and sets off to work. The memories of the woman who left weigh down on him. That day Bongwan’s wife finds a love note, bursts into the office, and mistakes Areum for the woman who left.”

READ MORE: Hong Sang-soo Addresses His Marriage Scandal With a Movie in ‘On the Beach at Night Alone’ — Berlinale 2017

Not to be confused with Hong’s “Night and Day” or “The Day He Arrives,” “The Day After” marks the writer/director’s fourth collaboration with “The Handmaiden” star Kim Min-hee; she also appears in “Right Now, Wrong Then,” “On the Beach at Night Alone” and “Claire’s Camera.”

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Source: IndieWire film

May 14, 2017

‘Barbara’ Trailer: Mathieu Amalric’s Female-Centric Drama Premieres at Cannes This Month — Watch

Mathieu Amalric is returning to Cannes this month, and not just as an actor. In addition to appearing in frequent collaborator Arnaud Desplechin’s “Ismael’s Ghosts,” Amalric will also be in the Un Certain Regard category with his latest directorial effort. Avail yourself of the trailer and new photos for “Barbara” below (via the Playlist).

READ MORE: Watch: U.S. Trailer For Arnaud Desplechin’s ‘My Golden Days’ Starring Mathieu Amalric

Here’s the synopsis: “An actress, Brigitte, is playing Barbara in a film that soon begins shooting. Brigitte works on her character, her voice, the songs and scores, the imitation of her gestures, her knitting, the lines to learn. Things move along. The character grows inside her. Invades her, even … Yves, the director, is also working — via encounters, archival footage, the music. He seems inhabited and inspired by her … But by whom? The actress or Barbara?”

READ MORE: Mathieu Amalric To Star In Benoît Jacquot’s Adaptation Of Don DeLillo’s ‘The Body Artist’

Jeanne Balibar plays the title character in the film, with Amalric co-starring. He most recently wrote and directed “The Blue Room,” which likewise premiered in Un Certain Regard three years ago.

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Source: IndieWire film