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September 6, 2007
Contents- Poet Laureate Billy Collins Named Curator
- Correct Guesser Revealed
- 2007 Schedule Due Online
- Volunteers, Volunteers, Volunteers
Poet Laureate Billy Collins Named Curator
Former
U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins, arguably the nation���s best known poet,
has accepted the post of guest curator for the 2007 Port Townsend Film
Festival, scheduled for Sept. 28-30.
As curator, Collins will program the festival���s Formative Films segment, a screening of a film so resonant in its impact that it informed his life and/or career. Collins choice is the 1964 black comedy, "Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb," directed by Stanley Kubrick.
Selections by previous curators have included: novelist Tom Robbins, "The 400 Blows" and "Tarzan Finds a Son;" mountaineer Jim Whittaker, "Mr. Hulot's Holiday;" and Turner Classic Movies host, Robert Osborne, "Laura."
Collins will introduce the film, explaining why it holds his interest, and then respond to questions and answers following the screening.
Billy Collins is an American phenomenon. No poet since Robert Frost has managed to combine high critical acclaim with such broad popular appeal. His work has appeared in a variety of periodicals including The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and The American Scholar, he is a Guggenheim fellow and a New York Public Library "Literary Lion." His last three collections of poems have broken sales records for poetry. His readings are usually standing room only, and his audience - enhanced tremendously by his appearances on National Public Radio - includes people of all backgrounds and age groups. The poems themselves best explain this phenomenon. The typical Collins poem opens on a clear and hospitable note but soon takes an unexpected turn; poems that begin in irony may end in a moment of lyric surprise. No wonder Collins sees his poetry as "a form of travel writing" and considers humor "a door into the serious." It is a door that many thousands of readers have opened with amazement and delight. ��No wonder he likes "Dr. Strangelove."
He has published eight collections of poetry, including Questions About Angels, The Art of Drowning, Picnic, Lightning, Taking Off Emily Dickinson���s Clothes, Sailing Alone Around the Room: New & Selected Poems, Nine Horses, and The Trouble With Poetry and Other Poems.
Included among the honors Billy Collins has received are fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation. He has also been awarded the Oscar Blumenthal Prize, the Bess Hokin Prize, the Frederick Bock Prize, and the Levinson Prize ��� all awarded by Poetry magazine. In October 2004, Collins was selected as the inaugural recipient of the Poetry Foundation���s Mark Twain Award for humorous poetry.
In June 2001, Billy Collins was appointed United States Poet Laureate 2001-2003. In January 2004, he was named New York State Poet Laureate 2004-06. Billy Collins is a professor of English at Lehman College of the City University of New York.
Port Townsend grocery store manager, Bob Geisler, was declared winner of the 2007 Port Townsend Film Festival "Guess-the-Guest" contest, according to Sherry Grover, general manager of the festival.
Geisler's name was drawn from among 52 who correctly identified the film event's featured guest, actor Elliott Gould who will be honored at the September 28-30 celebration of film. Geisler and his wife will be invited to attend a special screening of Gould's 1974 film, "California Split," directed by the late Robert Altman, followed by a private reception.
The Port Townsend Safeway manager was among 143 who participated in the contest. Nearly 38 percent correctly identified Gould as the honoree. The first clue was sufficiently obscure that no one made a correct guess, but during the second week two players got it right. The remaining 50 guessed during the third and final week.
The first clue, "In the guest's first stage appearance, the special guest worked with a classic vaudevillian," referred to Gould's appearance in the 1957 musical comedy, "Rumple," with vaudevillian Eddie Foy, Jr.
The second clue, "The special guest admired a prostitute in his second stage appearance," was a reference to the 1960 musical play, "Irma la Douce."
The third clue, "The special guest appeared in several classic Robert Altman films, the first being released in 1970," referred to Gould's major break-through role as Trapper John in "M*A*S*H."
Gould was one of 29 actors identified as the 2007 special guest. Others receiving a significant number of votes: include Micky Rooney, Rene Aberjanois, Candace Bergan, Sally Kellerman, and Tom Skerritt.
Those who correctly identified Gould include: Kerry A, Oakey Ball, Cheryl Baumann, Greg Blackmer, Nancy Blackmer, Linda Bovee, Cheryl Brass, Esko & Megan Cate, Bob Chamay, Jeff Chew, Chris Cuzzetto, Amy Dahlberg, Peggy deBroux, Dori Lee Dunkle, Stuart Dunkle, Joanne Eagen, Sandra Eisenman, Lisa Ferenz, Rob Gruye, Hali ��Johnson, Nathalie Johnson, Jonathan Safir, Carrie Kanable, Gerald ��Kanza, John Kielas, Robere Le Huguet, Linda Maguire, Kevin Mason, Patricia McCauley, Nan ��McGraw, and Andy Miklancic.
Also Jennifer ��Nielsen, Donna Nouss, Linnea Patrick, Jessica Pavish, ��Patricia Quyle, Sue Raley, Beverly Rich, Marion Rideout, Mary D Rizzardi, Bob Rousseau, Jonathan Safir, Lou Sarna, Stephen Schumacher, Cheryl Smith, Trish Stornetta, Beverly Taylor, Rob ��Thompson, James Trekas, Howard ��Vern, Jeremy Vrablik, Lynne ��Webster, Anne Winegar, and John ��Wood.
On Monday, September 10, the schedule for the eighth annual Port Townsend Film Festival will go online. Members of PTFF will be able to buy advance tickets for screenings in the Uptown Theatre, the Rose Theatre, and the Rosebud Cinema during the two and one-half day festival. Advance tickets will go on sale to the general public on Monday, September 17.
Passes for the full festival are currently available and will be throughout the days leading up to the festival. Go online to place your order.
Volunteers, Volunteers, Volunteers
Volunteers are always welcome and always needed during the film festival. It takes upwards of 300 dedicated film lovers to put the festival together, then take it apart. For every three hours you volunteer, you���ll receive a voucher to attend any film of your choice on a space available basis. Click on "Volunteering" for more info.