New Documentary About Gene Wilder To Screen at Park Theatre on June 7
Acclaimed actor and comedian is profiled in new documentary
JAFFREY, New Hampshire (May 28, 2024) Award-winning filmmaker Ron Frank has created a loving tribute to Gene Wilder (1933-2016) entitled Remembering Gene Wilder. It will have a single screening on Friday, June 7 at 7:00 p.m. at The Park Theatre in Jaffrey, New Hampshire.
The film celebrates his life and legacy as the comic genius behind an extraordinary string of film roles, from his first collaboration with Mel Brooks in The Producers, to the enigmatic title role in the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, to his inspired on-screen partnership with Richard Pryor in movies like Silver Streak. It is illustrated by a bevy of touching and hilarious clips and outtakes, never-before-seen home movies, narration from Wilder's audiobook memoir, and interviews with a roster of brilliant friends and collaborators like Mel Brooks, Alan Alda, Harry Connick, Jr., and Carol Kane. Remembering Gene Wilder shines a light on an essential performer, writer, director, and all-around mensch.
This new documentary film has won eight film festival awards. Ron Frank's other films include When Comedy Went To School, The Naked Truth, Deepak Chopra's How To Know God, and In The House with Peter Bart & Peter Guyer.
Tickets for Remembering Gene Wilder are $10/$9. Purchase by going to theparktheatre.org, calling the box office (603) 532-8888 or you can buy at the door. Doors to the theatre open at 6pm with free live music from The Grateful Dads performing in the theatre's Lounge Bar.
The Park Theatre performing arts center is located at 19 Main Street in downtown Jaffrey, New Hampshire, just 90 minutes from Boston and 60 minutes from Worcester MA.
Massachusetts Senate Votes to Take Next Step to Change the Flag and Seal
The Massachusetts Senate voted 30 - 9 on Thursday, May 23 to require Governor Maura Healey to take the next step in the historic process of replacing the violent imagery of the Massachusetts flag and seal.
The vote came in the form of an amendment to the state budget. If it survives the upcoming conference committee with the House, the amendment would task the governor with appointing a 10-member advisory commission with a one year timeline to "select a final design for a new seal and new flag of the Commonwealth, and a new motto of the Commonwealth." The amendment would allocate $100,000 to hire a professional designer to prepare the new design.
Two of the ten members of the new advisory commission would be Indigenous leaders chosen by the director of the Massachusetts Commission on Indian Affairs.
If the amendment survives the conference committee to be included in the final state budget, the advisory commission will be required to hold its first meeting within two months of final passage. The new commission would solicit "design ideas from the general public," for a new flag, seal and motto, choose three finalists, and hold public hearings in at least three locations across the Commonwealth before choosing a final design. The governor would then "submit legislation to amend relevant sections of the General Laws to codify the new state motto and designs for the seal and flag."
Passage of the amendment would essentially complete the final recommendations of the recent 19-member Special Commission on the Seal and Motto, which issued its findings on November 15th, 2023. The special commission called for the complete revision of the current flag, seal and motto of Massachusetts, finding the current symbol harmful, and easily interpreted as a "celebration of the history of violence perpetuated by settlers against Indigenous populations."
The Senate budget amendment: "An Advisory Commission to Design a New Seal, Flag and Motto for the Commonwealth," offered by Sen. Jason Lewis of Winchester and Sen. Rebecca Rausch of Needham, adopts one other recommendation of the special commission. It would require the new advisory commission to outline ways to implement "educational programs to help residents understand local Indigenous history and the historical underpinnings of the previous and new seals, mottos and flags from an Indigenous perspective."
Late Thursday, as debate advanced slowly through a thicket of hundreds of budget amendments, Sen. Lewis held up discussion of the flag and seal until the very last. Finally, he rose and pointed upward toward the gilded bas relief seal, looming above the Senate president's dais, with its depiction of a white settler's hand holding a Colonial sword over the head of an Indigenous figure, and the Latin motto, "She seeks a quiet peace under the sword, but peace with liberty."
Lewis said it was the one aspect of the Senate chamber he did not like.
"We have a responsibility to tell the story of our history honestly," he said.
Lewis told his colleagues that the sword held above the head of the Native figure on the seal was modelled after the broadsword of the Pilgrim's military commander, Myles Standish, who used that sword to kill Native people. The sword's placement on the state flag and seal has long been viewed as a symbol of "white supremacy and ethnic cleansing," Lewis said.
Lewis paid tribute to the foundational role played by former Boston representative Byron Rushing, who worked with the late Mashpee Wampanoag medicine man John Slow Turtle Peters, former director of the Massachusetts Commission on Indian Affairs, to first introduce legislation to change the flag and seal ("if you can believe it") in 1985.
He urged the Senate now to replace that harmful imagery with a new "aspirational and inclusive" flag and seal, to educate the public about the meaning of the state's symbols, and to complete the work the Senate initiated in July of 2020, when it voted unanimously to establish the Special Commission on the Seal and Motto.
Sen. Jo Comerford of Northampton spoke about how she first came to be involved, decades ago, in the effort to change the Massachusetts flag and seal when she took part in a statewide walk, inspired by Slow Turtle, with the monks and nuns of the Nipponzan Myohoji Peace Pagoda in Leverett, to call attention to the violence inherent in the state symbol.
Comerford said, "The people of Western Massachusetts built a movement that pushed east."
Then she added, "Peace by the sword and the subjugation of Native Americans is not the peace I represent. I want something that calls us to an acknowledgement of our common humanity, that affects all of us in a beautiful and positive way."
Sen Nick Collins, of Boston, led the opposition to the amendment. He said he favored simply removing the sword, without having to replace all the flags flying across the state, perhaps forgetting that the sword is pictured not only on the seal, but on the flag as well.
Collins said he thought the Latin motto allowed "language access" to the current seal for all the people of the Commonwealth who share common roots in the Romance languages, such as French, Italian and Portuguese. He said an Indigenous language was also present on our seal, in the word "Massachusetts," which he said meant Great Blue Hills. He noted that the special commission, on which he served in its final months, had surveyed more than 10,000 residents of Massachusetts on their choices for themes for a new motto. The word "Peace" was the top pick. Collins suggested that the word Peace was already contained in the current Latin motto: "She seeks a Quiet Peace... under the Sword...."
Sen Peter Durant, of Spencer, backed Collins, saying that the Latin motto was as "old as Virgil, old as Rome," and therefore could have no relevance to the subjugation of Native Americans.
A fire alarm went off causing the entire Senate chamber to evacuate for half an hour. With the midnight hour approaching, debate resumed and the roll was called.
Seven senators (Michael Brady, John Cronin, Ryan Fattman, Edward Kennedy, Michael Moore, Patrick O'Connor, and John Velis) joined Durant and Collins in voting no. The amendment carried with the support of the minority leader, Sen Bruce Tarr of Gloucester, joining 29 Democrats in the affirmative.
North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce to celebrate accomplishments at 40th Annual Business Meeting and Luncheon
North Central Mass.--The 40th Annual Meeting and Business Luncheon for the North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce is scheduled for Thursday, June 20, 2024, from 11:45 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Great Wolf Lodge, 150 Great Wolf Drive, Fitchburg.
This annual event celebrates businesspeople working together to ensure a bright future for North Central Massachusetts and presents an opportunity for the region's business and community leaders to build camaraderie among peers. In addition to the Chamber's annual recognition awards and commencement for the Community Leadership Institute Class of 2024, a tabletop Business Expo will also be offered to showcase local businesses. The expo provides an opportunity for exhibitors to reach hundreds of business and community leaders from throughout North Central Massachusetts. The Business Expo will begin at 10:30 a.m.; the Annual Meeting and Luncheon will run from 11:45 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.; and the Business Expo will close out the day from 1:30 to 2:00 p.m.
The event is funded by the generous support of various businesses and organizations, including:
Annual Meeting Sponsor: Fidelity Bank
Business Expo Sponsors: MassHire North Central Workforce Board and the North Central Massachusetts Development Corporation
Supporting Sponsors: AIS, Inc.; Enterprise Bank; Fitchburg Redevelopment Authority; Fitchburg State University; GFA Federal Credit Union; Great Wolf Lodge; IC Credit Union; Leominster Credit Union; Main Street Bank; Micro Machine & Electronics, Inc.; Mount Wachusett Community College; Rollstone Bank & Trust; and Staples.
This year's keynote speaker is Anthony Everett, the 14-time Emmy Award-winning anchor of WCVB Channel 5's nightly newsmagazine, Chronicle. Everett has hosted Chronicle, the nation's longest-running, locally produced newsmagazine, since 2005. On the show, Everett explores the "Main Streets and Back Roads" of New England, serving as part storyteller and part ambassador for its best offerings. He has also served as co-anchor of NewsCenter 5 at 5:00, 5:30, 6:00 and 11:00 p.m. Additionally, he has served as WCVB's senior correspondent for major national events and breaking news and has regularly contributed to special reports for all WCVB newscasts. His strong reporting skills have helped WCVB garner multiple prestigious awards, including the Edward R. Murrow Awards for News Series and News Documentary in 2013, the Associated Press Awards for Investigative Reporting and Documentary Reporting in 2012, and the National Headliner Award for Breaking News in 2003.
Registrations for the Annual Business Meeting and Luncheon are being accepted through June 19, by contacting the Chamber at 978.353.7600, ext. 222 or ext. 235, or via email at chamber@northcentralmass.com. Registration is also available online at northcentralmass.com. The cost is just $55 per person for members and $70 per person for non-members and includes lunch. Reservations are required. Supporting sponsorships, expo tables and tables of ten are also available.