Sundance Short Film Master Class comes to Akron Art Museum March 12

Approaching the Elephant (April 30th at the Akron Art Museum)

[APPROACHING THE ELEPHANT screens Thursday April 30th at 7:00 pm at the Akron Art Museum. Admission is free. The film is also available on Netflix Instant.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

As public schools become increasingly rigid with concepts like the common core and multiple standardized tests, many parents are looking for alternatives. One particularly extreme alternative is the Teddy McArdle Free School of New Jersey. Imagine a school with no formal classes and no grades, where kids get to study what they want to study, when and how they want to study it, and also participate in how the schools are run, getting an equal vote with teachers and administrators on most issues. How the heck would that work?

Amanda Rose Wilder's documentary APPROACHING THE ELEPHANT takes a fly on the wall approach to showing how the free school philosophy plays out at Teddy McArdle, covering the school's first year of operation from start to finish. It's a bumpy ride, to say the least.

Akron Film+Pixel to bring “arthouse” cinema experience to Akron with new and classic film series

[Press release from Akron Film + Pixel Festival.]

On December 27th, Akron Film+Pixel will begin bringing current critically acclaimed films to Akron on a regular basis.

“We're filling a gap for 'arthouse' cinema,” says Akron Film+Pixel Film Curator Tim Peyton. “Cleveland has the Cinematheque and Cedar Lee Theatre, but until now there's been no place in Akron to see new festival films on the big screen, with an audience.”

The first film in the series is festival hit TABU.  This surrealistic love story about a dying woman’s secret past, inspired by early Hollywood adventure films, is landing on many critics’ best-of lists for 2012. Akron Film+Pixel will bring TABU to the Akron Art Museum on December 27th for its first public screening in Northeast Ohio.

Akron Film+Pixel Announces Call for Entries and New Summer/Fall Events

Akron Film+Pixel is proud to announce a full schedule of contests, film screenings and events for late Summer and early Fall 2012. Please see below for details about our three new upcoming events.

Secrets of Science Animation Contest

Screening Event: Thursday, August 30, 2012

Akron Film+Pixel invites Northeast Ohio artists to create a short animated movie that re-imagines how a given technology or natural phenomenon works in the new filmmaking competition “Secrets of Science.” The resulting films will be exhibited and a winner selected on August 30, 2012 at 7 p.m. at the Akron Art Museum.

“We anticipate entries from experienced animators and from people trying animation for the first time,” says Akron Film+Pixel Executive Director Steve Felix. “There are charming low-tech ways to animate, like with cutouts or LEGO pieces. And since all entries are screened at a fun event at the Akron Art Museum, everyone gets something out of the contest.”

All entries will be screened at a free event on August 30, 2012 at 7 p.m. in the Akron Art Museum’s Charles and Jane Lehner Auditorium. Each movie will be viewed by an independent panel of reviewers, who will select a winning entry to receive $250 and a repeat screening at Night of the Freakishly Short Animation Festival on October 25, 2012 at the Akron Art Museum.