‘A Small Good Thing’ comes home to the Berkshires
Great Barrington — How can we live in a better way? While the answer is different for every individual, there are common threads amongst “happy people.” Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Pamela Tanner Boll explores these questions in the new documentary film which was shot in the Berkshires. A Small Good Thing is screening at the Berkshire International Film Festival on May 31 at 11 a.m. at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center on 14 Castle Street.
The feature-length film, which recently won Best Documentary at the Boston International Film Festival, tells the stories of people moving away from the philosophy that “more is better.” It centers on a more holistic concept of well-being − one based on a close connection to themselves, the natural world, and to the greater good.
Produced by Mystic Artists from Winchester, Mass., and shot on location in various communities throughout the Berkshires, the film follows innovative farmer Sean Stanton, social work student Tim Durrin and yoga teacher Mark Gerow, whose earlier careers in the armed forces have now shifted to service of a different kind; Jen and Pete Salinetti, a college-educated couple with two small children who have chosen to be farmers as a way to connect with their community; and Shirley Edgerton, a community activist and founder of both the Youth Alive Step Team and the Women of Color Giving Circle.
The film is directed by Boll, who co-executive produced the Academy Award®-winning 2004 film Born into Brothels: Calcutta’s Red Light Kids. Boll’s directorial debut was Who Does She Think She Is? With this new film, she partners with producers, and long-time associates, Paula Kirk and Kerthy Fix.
“A Small Good Thing does not pretend to have all the answers,” Boll said. “However, the film asks whether we can change our larger goals as a nation and learn from the rest of the world about the small truths that are the sources of human happiness. The film explores how working in small but meaningful ways, we can overcome obstacles to happiness – to create joy for ourselves and others.”
Adding professional insight to the “everyday people” covered in the film is: Bill McKibben, author on climate change; Jeremy Rifkin on the future of energy; Stephen Cope, director of the Institute for Extraordinary Living at Kripalu; Dacher Keltner, positive psychology researcher; and Kristin Neff, a leading expert on self-compassion.
A cast and crew panel discussion will follow the screening.
— H.B.
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Music in Common founder Todd Mack to play Guthrie Center
Housatonic — Veteran singer-songwriter Todd Mack will perform at the legendary Guthrie Center at the Old Trinity Church on Saturday May 30 at 8 p.m. as part of this year’s Troubadour Series.
A musician, songwriter, and producer whose 30-year career has been built upon his unwavering belief in the power of music to change the world, Mack has often taken the road less traveled. He has toured extensively throughout the United States, Far East, and Middle East, at times finding himself performing in some unlikely venues – a bomb shelter, olive grove, and hangar to name a few.
Over the years Todd has earned a reputation as an engaging and provocative performer, often weaving stories of his travels and experiences into his shows and breaking down conventional barriers between artist and audience. He has lectured and presented at universities and conferences the world over, including a TED Talk in 2011, on the power of music to create change. Relix magazine calls him “a noteworthy artist in the singer-songwriter genre” and his music and songwriting has been compared to Steve Earle, Fred Eaglesmith, and Tom Waits among others. He is currently working on his 8th CD and has produced dozens of album projects by other indie artists at his Off the Beat-n-Track recording studio in Sheffield, MA and elsewhere.
In response to the 2005 murder of his friend and band mate Danny Pearl, the Wall St. Journal reporter who was abducted in Pakistan shortly after 9/11, Mack founded Music in Common, a nonprofit organization whose immersive community-building programs have served thousands of people in more than 250 communities around the globe. With a focus on deepening understanding between the Abrahamic faiths and between Western and Middle-Eastern cultures, MiC has been working extensively throughout Israel and Palestine since 2010. This summer the organization will bring together Israeli, Palestinian, and American high school students at the second annual MiC Youth Summit at Bard College at Simon’s Rock.
Tickets for the May 30th show are $15 for members and $20 for non-members and can be purchased by calling the Guthrie Center at (413) 528-1955. Mack will be joined that night by longtime musical collaborator Chris Merenda on drums, banjo, and vocals and Dave Christopolis on upright and electric bass.
For more information, please visit www.toddmack.net.
— H.B.
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Sculptor Roberley Bell reception at Chesterwood
Stockbridge — Chesterwood will host an open studio, reception and talk with sculptor Roberley Bell at the Morris Center at Chesterwood on Saturday, May 30 from 4-6 p.m. at 4 Williamsville Road. Chesterwood’s 2015 Artist-in-Residence, Roberley Bell is best known for her sculptural and installation work that creates a dialogue between our interior and exterior worlds as well as the natural realm and its synthetic likeness.
While in residence at Chesterwood this month, Roberley Bell embarked on a new project she calls “object a day.” Each day she has documented her discoveries and experiences while examining sculptor Daniel Chester French’s studio, the French family residence, formal gardens and woodland paths…and found an unexpected synergy and counterpart in the legacy of Margaret French Cresson, French’s daughter.
Roberley Bell’s work culminates daily at Chesterwood with the creation of a sculpture based on direct and immediate responses to her sources of inspiration. She says the documentation and sculptures created here will provide resource material for her future works.
“The time constraints have afforded a freedom from judgment and forced me to work quickly, spontaneously and intuitively, and to honestly allow impulses that might otherwise be edited out or omitted,” she says. “The forms serve as a distillation of the visual impulses absorbed through the process of looking, thinking and reflecting upon my daily encounters at Chesterwood.”
Roberley Bell lives in upstate New York and teaches at the Rochester Institute of Technology. She is the recipient of many grants and fellowships including the New York Foundation for the Arts, a Pollock Krasner Fellowship, a summer Fulbright to the Netherlands and a 2010 Senior Scholar Fulbright to Turkey.
In 2012, she received a Fellowship for the Turkish Cultural Foundation and Dave Bowen Projects. A solo exhibition of Roberley Bell’s work is scheduled to open in September 2015 at the Hermitage Museum and Gardens in Norfolk, Virginia. She has completed public projects in Cambridge, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Baltimore, New York, Russia, and Turkey, and most recently installed her sculpture at the Albany International Airport.
Roberley Bell’s residency at Chesterwood is supported by a grant from the Lillian Heller Curator’s Award.
Light refreshments will be served at the event, which is free and open to the public. Pre-registration is suggested, as space is limited. To register, email lreynolds@savingplaces.org
— H.B.
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Ron Ramsay, Samantha Talora do Sondheim at Whitney Center
Pittsfield — NYC cabaret singer and pianist Ron Ramsay and vocalist Samantha Talora, both Berkshire natives, present Part II of “A Sondheim Trilogy” at 7:30 pm on Saturday, May 30th at Whitney Center for the Arts at 42 Wendell Avenue.
This dynamic duo share a six octave vocal range that perfectly sets their sights on the expansive and brilliant songbook of composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim. After 2 sold-out performances and one added “encore” performance of Sondheim Part I, this duo will delve into the underlying themes and complex relationships in this next installment of Sondheim II. Singing songs from such classics as Company. Into the Woods, Sweeney Todd, Dick Tracy, Sunday in the Park with George, as well as a few surprises.
The masterful work and artistry of Stephen Sondheim has spanned over a half century penning some of the greatest known songs & lyrics in the history of musical theater. Audiences will be delighted by this nostalgic glance at his career taking a journey from its beginning stages to present-day.
The pair will be joined again by Michael Gillespie on saxophone and flute, as well as Courtney Clark on violin.
Since the beginning of their collaboration in the spring of 2014, Ramsay & Talora have been performing throughout the Berkshires, captivating audiences with their series of sold-out performances of “Our Time,” “An Evening of Song,” “Metaphor,” “Affairs of the Heart,” a Valentine’s performance at Ventfort Hall in Lenox; and most recently a benefit concert “Ron Ramsay & Samantha Talora w/Friends” for the Lee Food Pantry at Lee Congregational Church, Lee, Mass.
Beer, wine and soft drinks as well as a tapas menu will be available for purchase before and during the show. Tickets are $20. Show begins at 7:30 p.m., doors open at 6:45 p.m. Reservations are recommended and can be made by calling 413-212-4459 or e-mailing rerpromusic@gmail.com. Produced by RER Pro Music.
— D.S.
