Tag Archives: Central Arkansas Library System

Submissions open for Arkansas Cinema Society Filmland: Arkansas 2019

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LogoThe Arkansas Cinema Society and its premiere event Filmland were created to build a film community in Arkansas where film lovers can watch films, share ideas, connect with each other and nurture the new and existing film talent within our state through increased exposure to filmmakers and their art.

Filmland returns this August to the CALS Ron Robinson Theater in downtown Little Rock, furthering ACS’s mission to promote local filmmakers with Filmland: Arkansas. Information and details on how to submit to Filmland: Arkansas can be found in the specific short film and feature film categories.

The past two years have included Academy Award nominated actor Adam Driver, five-time Oscar nominated Director Richard Linklater, Director David Lowery, Producers Fred Berger and Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, Actors David Arquette, WIll Forte and Ted Danson and Oscar winner and ACS board member Mary Steenburgen. Screenings also feature Q&A’s moderated by ACS Founder and Director Jeff Nichols and every night is topped off with a party for filmmakers and attendees.

Filmland 2019 will take place the weekend of August 23rd. The exact dates, events and other details will be announced once special guests are finalized.

Awards & Prizes

ACS Filmland is a non-competitive, curated event but there will be an audience award for the Filmland: Arkansas program.

Rules & Terms

Submissions are for Arkansas filmmakers who either made their film in Arkansas or for an Arkansas Filmmaker who is an Arkansas producer, director, or writer of a film. Films may also be considered if an Arkansas native was the lead or key role as an Actor, Supporting Actor, Production Designer, Costume Designer, Sound Designer, Composer, Editor, Cinematographer, Animator, Visual Effects, Makeup and Hair or First Assistant Director. The Arkansas filmmaker(s) must be available to attend the screening for a conversation after the film.

More information (including a link to submission) can be found here.

CALS ONE OF 78 ORGANIZATIONS NATIONWIDE TO RECEIVE AN NEA BIG READ GRANT

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Image result for nea big readThe Central Arkansas Library System (CALS) is a recipient of a $14,900 grant to host the NEA Big Read: CALS. An initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest, the NEA Big Read broadens our understanding of our world, our communities, and ourselves through the joy of sharing a good book.

CALS is one of 78 nonprofit organizations to receive an NEA Big Read grant to host a community reading. The NEA Big Read: CALS events will take place between March 16 and April 26, 2020.

“We are very excited to host Tim O’Brien and to explore his classic The Things They Carried throughout the library system and beyond,” said Mark Christ, CALS adult programming coordinator. “As an institution, we strive to improve literacy and encourage the exchange of ideas, social engagement, and cultural expression. We hope that additional partners will join with us before the NEA Big Read begins next March.”

The NEA Big Read showcases a diverse range of titles that reflect many different voices and perspectives, aiming to inspire conversation and discovery. The main feature of the initiative is a grants program, managed by Arts Midwest, which annually supports dynamic community reading programs, each designed around a single National Endowment for the Arts Big Read selection.

“It is inspiring to see both large and small communities across the nation come together around a book,” said National Endowment for the Arts Acting Chairman Mary Anne Carter. “We always look forward to the unique ways cities, towns, and organizations, like Central Arkansas Library System, explore these stories and encourage community participation in a wide variety of events.”

Planned events for the NEA Big Read: CALS include a lecture by Tim O’Brien, author of The Things They Carried; book clubs, readings and exhibits at CALS branch libraries; an Operation Song event at the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History in Little Rock; a film and documentary series, panel discussions and dramatic readings at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater; readings and discussions of The Things They Carried by private book clubs in the area; Vietnam veteran oral history recordings by the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies staff in the CALS Bobby L. Roberts Library of Arkansas History & Art; performances by the Writeous Poets from Little Rock Central High School; special displays and discussions during the Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans event at the Jacksonville Museum of Military History, and other events.

Partners include the Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs, Arkansas State Library, MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History, Little Rock Central High School, public radio station KUAR, the Jacksonville Museum of Military History, the Arkansas Educational Television Network, Central Arkansas Literacy Council, professors from Hendrix College, Arkansas State University and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and others.

Since 2006, the National Endowment for the Arts has funded more than 1,400 NEA Big Read programs, providing more than $20 million to organizations nationwide. In addition, Big Read activities have reached every Congressional district in the country. Over the past twelve years, grantees have leveraged more than $50 million in local funding to support their NEA Big Read programs. More than 5.7 million Americans have attended an NEA Big Read event, approximately 91,000 volunteers have participated at the local level, and 39,000 community organizations have partnered to make NEA Big Read activities possible. For more information about the NEA Big Read, please visit arts.gov/neabigread.

For more information about NEA Big Read: CALS, contact Mark Christ at (501) 918-3069 or mchrist@cals.org.

The CALS Ron Robinson Theater $2 Terror Tuesdays continue tonight with WHITE ZOMBIE

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Image of a film poster with a dark green background. Large eyes overlook two hands clasped together. The text at the top reads "With these zombie eyes, he rendered her powerless". In the middle is the title, White Zombie. Below is written "With these zombie hands he made her perform his every desire!".$2 Terror Tuesdays continue tonight (6/11) at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater with 1932’s WHITE ZOMBIE.

White Zombie is a 1932 American horror film independently produced by Edward Halperin and directed by Victor Halperin.

The screenplay by Garnett Weston, based on The Magic Island by William Seabrook, is about a young woman’s transformation into a zombie at the hands of an evil voodoo master.

The film stars Bela Lugosi as a zombie master, as well as Robert Frazer, Madge Bellamy, and John Harron.  It is considered the first feature-length zombie film.

The showing starts at 7pm.  Cost is $2.

Journalist Ernie Dumas discusses his new book tonight (6/10)

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Veteran journalist and political observer Ernie Dumas will talk about his new memoir The Education of Ernie Dumas. He’ll sign copies of the book both before and after his talk, beginning at 5:30 p.m.

Dumas’s book traces the post-World War II evolution of Arkansas, beginning with the defeat of Governor Francis Cherry by Orval Faubus, the son of a hillbilly socialist, at the end of the Joseph McCarthy era, and leading up to Arkansas’s first president of the United States.

The book collects the mostly untold stories, often deeply personal, that reveal the struggles and tribulations of the state’s leaders—Cherry, Faubus, Winthrop Rockefeller, Dale Bumpers, David Pryor, John McClellan, J. William Fulbright, Bill Clinton, Jim Guy Tucker, and others.

Schedule of events:

  • Doors open at 5:00 p.m.
  • Book Signing: 5:30 p.m.
  • Talk: 6:00 p.m.

Co-sponsored by the Clinton School of Public Service and Political Animals Club.

The CALS Butler Center for Arkansas Studies is seeking photos, video of historic 2019 flooding for future historians

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Have you taken photographs or video footage of the Arkansas River flood?

The Central Arkansas Library System’s Butler Center for Arkansas Studies would love to have your help preserving and remembering this historic event.

CALS is collecting photos and video of the 2019 Arkansas River flood to document the impact on our region.

Submissions will be preserved as part of the archival collection at CALS.

Thank you in advance for your contribution to this project!

SUBMIT YOUR PHOTOS here.

Restoring Taylor House in Drew County is subject of today’s CALS Legacies & Lunch Lecture

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Tommy Jameson, lead architect for the restoration of the Taylor House (among many other restoration works in Arkansas), will discuss the past, present, and future of the dogtrot-style home built in 1846 at Hollywood Plantation in Drew County, one of the few remaining examples of Arkansas vernacular architecture built before the Civil War.

The program takes place today (June 5) at noon in the Darragh Center at the Central Arkansas Library System Main Library in Library Square.

The house was donated in 2012 to the University of Arkansas at Monticello (UAM) for historical research and interpretation, and UAM began restoring the house and adjacent grounds to how they appeared in the earliest known photographs.

About Legacies & Lunch

Legacies & Lunch is a free monthly program of CALS Butler Center for Arkansas Studies about Arkansas related topics. Program are held from noon to 1 pm on the first Wednesday of the month. Attendees are invited to bring a sack lunch; drinks and dessert are provided. A library parking discount is available upon request. For more information, call 918-3030.