Second annual Western Mass. Film & Media Exchange
Holyoke — Berkshire Film and Media Collaborative is pleased to announce that the second annual Western Massachusetts Film and Media Exchange will feature a diverse series of panels and workshops of interest to the film and video community and the business community who want to utilize film and video in their marketing and social media efforts. The Exchange will take place on Friday, October 23 from 9:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. at Baystate Health’s Whitney Avenue Conference Center.
Academy Award-winning Berkshires-based filmmaker Cynthia Wade will be the keynote speaker. Wade won an Oscar for her short documentary “Freeheld,” the story of a New Jersey police officer who was diagnosed with cancer and wanted to give her benefits to her same-sex partner. The documentary has been turned into a motion picture starring Julianne Moore, Ellen Page, and Steve Carrell. Wade is a producer of that venture.
A panel specifically for businesses, “How Your Business Can Use Video Effectively,” will feature MassLive president Allison Werder, Baystate Health’s vice president of marketing Suzanne Hendery, and Western Mass News station manager John Hesslein.
Other panels during the Exchange will be geared to filmmakers and their interests. Entertainment lawyer Fred Fierst will bring a panel of lawyers and filmmakers to discuss every legal aspect of getting a project done, from concept to script to raising the funding to attaching cast and crew and dealing with the unions to negotiating and closing the distribution deal, as well as tax credits and gap financing. Another panel, “Funding Your Film,” will include with leaders in crowdfunding and how to source local production grants.
Several panels will be geared to all of the attendees. “How to Market Yourself and Your Business” will be led by Rachael Frank of Gravity Switch. The “Local Success Stories” panel will feature industry professionals living and working in the region and will include director Diego Ungaro, whose feature “Bob and the Trees” was featured at Sundance Film Festival this year and won the grand prize at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, and Craig Crawford of Cadence Effects, whose work can be seen on “Game of Thrones” and several Hollywood feature films.
Tickets for the Exchange are $55 in advance, $65 at the door, and $25 for students. Admission includes full access to all exhibits, workshops, panels, and demos, along with breakfast, lunch, and a networking cocktail party at the conclusion of the conference. For tickets and more information, see the Berkshire Edge calendar or call Laura Gratz at (413) 528-4223.
–E.E.
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Donna Murch to deliver Williams College’s annual Davis Lecture
Williamstown — Donna Murch ’91 will present Williams College’s annual Davis Lecture on Thursday, October 22, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. The lecture, titled “Transcending Punishment: Black Liberation, Resistance, and the Criminalization of America’s Most Vulnerable,” will be held in the Bernhard Music Center’s Brooks-Rogers Recital Hall and is free and open to the public.
In her presentation Murch will explore the concurrent rise of the prison industrial complex and efforts to quell black liberation and black power movements in the late 1960s. She will address prison abolition, anti-death penalty activism, and the new movement against state-sanctioned violence that took off in the aftermath of the murder of Michael Brown in August 2014. Murch’s talk will resonate with those seeking to understand current campaigns such as “Black Lives Matter” while explaining the prison economy and its ramifications on African American communities over the last 40 years.
Murch is an associate professor of history at Rutgers University and the former co-director of the Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis and for the Black Atlantic Lecture Series. Murch received her Ph.D. from the Department of History at University of California, Berkeley and was a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow while an undergraduate at Williams. Murch has won numerous fellowships and awards including a Teaching Effectiveness Award, a Phillis Wheatley Book Award, and a Woodrow Wilson postdoctoral fellowship.
–E.E.
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MASSPIRG to call on Subway to save antibiotics
North Adams — MASSPIRG will take part in a national Day of Action to convince Subway to stop serving meat raised on antibiotics. MASSPIRG will be highlighting student support on a giant 10-foot sub sandwich prop, making phone calls to Subway, and taking social media actions. Across the country there will be 50 visibility events outside of Subway locations and over 250,000 petitions will be delivered to Subway’s headquarters in Connecticut. MASSPIRG has already helped convince McDonald’s to switch to chicken raised without routine antibiotics.
The event will take place on Thursday, October 22 at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts‘ Amsler Campus Center Subway from 12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. and the Main St. Subway from 2 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
–E.E.
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Salisbury Bank to offer checking account seminar
Great Barrington — Salisbury Bank will offer a free seminar with important information on operating a checking account on Wednesday, October 21 at 5:30 p.m. at Community Health Programs Health Center on Stockbridge Road.
The seminar will cover the basics of checking accounts and the benefits of opening and maintaining an account as well as discussion about ATM and debit cards. It will be presented by Georgann Farnum, Assistant Vice President Branch Manager at Salisbury Bank’s Great Barrington office.
Reservations are suggested but not required. To reserve a spot, call Kevin Norton at (860) 435-9801 x1010 or email at knorton@salisburybank.com and type “Checking Accounts” in the subject line.
–E.E.
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Berkshire Art Association to honor Norman and Rose Avnet
Pittsfield — The public is invited to a reception honoring Norman Avnet and his late wife Rose for their extraordinary support of the Berkshire Art Association (BAA). The reception will be held Tuesday, October 20 at 5:30 p.m. at the Lichtenstein Center for the Arts and will be followed at 6 p.m. by the Berkshire Art Association’s annual meeting where Danielle Steinmann will be installed as the Association’s new president, succeeding longtime president Mary Rentz who will continue on the board as past president.
Dr. Norman Avnet and his late wife, Rose, have been generous leaders in the Pittsfield community since the 1970s, when Norman assumed the chairmanship of Berkshire Medical Center‘s Radiology Department. Lovers of the arts, they were active members of the Berkshire Art Association, Jacob’s Pillow, Temple Anshe Amunim, Berkshire Museum, and many other organizations. Norman was a founder of what is now the Osher Lifetime Learning Institute at Berkshire Community College. Rose served as president of the Berkshire Art Association and was on its board when she passed away in 2007.
In the 1980s the Avnets established an investment fund for the annual Berkshire Art Association college fellowships. With additional support from the community, BAA has been able to award $5,000 in recent years to Berkshire college art students. This fund will henceforth be known as the Norman and Rose Avnet Berkshire Art Association Fellowship Fund.
–E.E.
