On Friday, April 17, Albuquerque’s Public Academy for Performing Arts (PAPA) will host a screening of black-and-white silent films with original piano performances by film and piano lab students. The event will take place from 3 to 5 p.m. at the charter high school’s campus (4665 Indian School NE, Suite 101). Tickets are $3 at the door. This film and music event is a fundraiser to help PAPA students attend the Desert Light Film Festival in Alamogordo on Friday, April 24. PAPA Advanced Film students have been invited to project their experimental dance films onto the dunes of the White Sands National Monument as part of the grand finale for the film festival. Desert Light is a competition for middle school and high school students sponsored by New Mexico State University at Alamogordo and the Otero County Film Office.
They say there’s nothing new under the sun. And when that sun shines over Hollywood, the axiom is doubly true. This Friday, April 17, High School Musical hottie Zac Efron will star in 17 Again, a comedy about a middle-aged man who magically finds himself in the body of a teenage boy. If the plot (and even the title) sound familiar, it’s because Hollywood has tried this so many times, it’s developed into its own genre. The “body swap” comedy reached its height in the ’80s thanks to the runaway popularity of Big starring Tom Hanks. Now, the genre seems to be on the rise again. Earlier this year, that trend barometer Ashton Kutcher announced he would star in Traded, a body swap comedy about a superstar NFL quarterback who mysteriously trades bodies with a 12-year-old middle school geek. So how about a little perspective on this born-again genre?
Easygoing Southern California documentary wizard Stacy Peralta (Dogtown and Z-Boys, Riding Giants) turns his attentions away from the recreational pursuits of his youth to more serious topics of SoCal culture in Crips and Bloods: Made in America. In his usual dazzling style (half MTV/half Ken Burns), Peralta gives viewers a compact and meaty history of South Central L.A.’s gang problem.
Still looking to fill gaps in its Thursday night schedule (See ya, “Kath & Kim.” Not like we’ll miss ya.), NBC has talked the creators of “The Office” into contributing another sitcom. Though “Parks and Recreation” isn’t an actual spin-off of “The Office,” it’s as close in subject and tone as a show can be. Wisely, the show is designed as a vehicle for star Amy Poehler.
