The Art of Dialogue: Discussions and Films with Filmmakers, Authors, Poets and Scientists

Saturdays, January 4 thru March 22, 2014

5:00 - 7:30 pm. 

January 4

Film: We Still Live Here

Speaker: Film Researcher and Assistant Producer, Jennifer Weston

We Still Live Here tells the remarkable story of the cultural revival of the Southeastern Massachusetts Indian tribe, the Wampanoag. The story begins in 1994 when Jessie Little Doe begins to have recurring dreams in an incomprehensible language. Her quest for understanding leads Little Doe to garner the support of surrounding tribes who uncover hundreds of documents written in Wampanoag- a language that had not been spoken in over 100 years. After a century with no native speakers, the Wampanoag language is brought back to life, re-empowering this native Indian community.  

Jennifer Weston has 18 years of experience working with tribal community programs. She is the Charter and Personnel Coordinator for the Wampanoag Language Immersion School Development Project and manages the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Language Department.  From 2008 to 2012 she managed the Endangered Languages Program for the nonprofit Cultural Survival, Inc., in Cambridge, MA, where she built a network of 350+ tribal language programs, and helped to raise nearly $2 million for 6 grassroots tribal language programs. 

January 11

Book: Necessary Assets

Speaker: Author, James Ring

As summarized by North End Waterfront.com: In Necessary Assets, the Mafia make an effort to prevent an al-Qaeda terrorist attack on US soil by anonymously giving information to the FBI through agent Patrick. Desperate to convince their fundamentalist donors to return to the fold, al-Qaeda has authorized "The Engineer" to operate off the al-Qaeda grid leading two cells of radicalized US citizens to attack the nation's economic hub, Manhattan, and its freedom hub, Boston. They are willing to unsheathe an evil not yet dared, transforming both cities into dead zones where no one can commute to work. 

James Ring is a retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent who investigated the American La Cosa Nostra and the Sicilian Mafia in New England. Ring received the Department of Justice's highest award as the architect of the first and only electronic interception of the La Cosa Nostra/Mafia induction ceremony of new members, including the Omerta oath.   

January 18

Film: One Fast Move or I'm Gone: Kerouac's Big Sur

Speakers: Director and Producer, Curt Worden and Gloria Bailen

One Fast Move or I'm Gone: Kerouac's Big Sur tells the story of Jack Kerouac's retreat to a cabin on the California coast in an attempt to evade the unraveling fame that illuminated him as a literary star of the Beat Movement. The film highlights the events of Kerouac's book Big Sur through his own prose as well as the voices of Kerouac's contemporaries and contemporary artists influenced by his work. 

Curt Worden is CEO and Executive Producer of Rhode Island's largest full service video production company. He has won two Emmy Awards for his work in broadcast journalism and has shot over 30 broadcast documentaries for network and national cable television. 

Gloria Bailen has over 25 years of experience in broadcast television and is the senior producer at First Priority Media. Bailen has worked for NBC News, ABC News 20/20, ABC News Nightline, Travel Channel, Lifetime Television Network, just to name a few.  

January 25

Film: The Lepers of Buzzard's Bay

Speaker: Lisa Schmid-Alvord 

In the early 20th century, the irrational fear of a leprosy epidemic lead Massachusetts to pass legislation that mandated every person in the commonwealth diagnosed as a leper be committed to a hospital on Penikese Island, a treeless windswept island 14 miles from New Bedford in Buzzard's Bay. Those committed to Penikese Island were, in effect, sentenced to lifetime confinement with little chance of pardon or parole. The Harvard center for treatment of tropical diseases used the island as experimenting grounds for finding a cure to leprosy until one heroic physician finally put his foot down.  This is a great medical drama of a time not so long ago. 

Lisa Schmid-Alvord is a multi-talented philanthropist who has graced the south coast with her work. She is the president of Urban Improv and founded Our Sister's School of New Bedford. Schmid Alvord wrote The Lepers of Buzzard's Bay in conjunction with Ken Hartnett. 

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