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from the issue of March 8, 2007
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'Lives of Others,' 'Commune' open March 16
"The Lives of Others," winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Picture, and "Commune" plays the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center from March 16 to April 12.
A political thriller and human drama, "The Lives of Others," begins in East Berlin in 1984 (five years before Glasnost and the fall of the Berlin Wall) and on into reunited Germany in 1991.
"The Lives of Others" traces the gradual disillusionment of Capt. Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Muhe), a highly skilled officer who works for the Stasi, East Germany's all-powerful secret police. His mission is to spy on a celebrated writer and actress couple, Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch) and Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck).
"Commune" is an exploration of the history of Black Bear Ranch - a utopian community founded in the 1970s in Siskiyou County, Calif.
During the radical fervor of the early 1970s, utopian communities like Black Bear dotted the American landscape. These communities aimed to reshape the world with "free love" and common property.
Though the idea of communes is often relegated to a naïve past, "Commune" director Jonathon Berman discovers a successful and lasting - if controversial - legacy at the influential Black Bear Ranch.
Premised on the idea of "free land for free people," and financed by Hollywood rock stars, the founders of Black Bear bought land deep in the wilderness and raised a rough-hewn homestead. Over the years, hundreds would join the community and life would be complicated by conflicts about the role of women, child-rearing, proper communalist behavior, the FBI and a child-snatching cult.
"Commune" features herbalist Michael Tierra (credited with rediscovering Echinacea), internationally renowned painter Elsa Marly, and actor Peter Coyote.
"Commune" is not rated; "The Lives of Others" is rated R for some sexuality and nudity.
The film plays through March 22 at the Ross. For more information, go online to www.theross.org or call 472-5353.
GO TO: ISSUE OF MARCH 8
ARTS HEADLINES FOR MARCH 8
Profs aid NET
American Life in Poetry
British quilter to discuss U.K. craft March 19
Great Plains museum offers 'Journey Home' to March 26
Great Plains Quarterly features Plains artists, Treaty Six, Crazy Horse
Kruger offers new miniatures March 19
'Lives of Others,' 'Commune' open March 16
Paddywhack offers Free at 6 performance
Ross event explores German cinema
Scarlet and Cream Singers to open Nebraska tour
Sheldon's 'Room in New York' to go on tour
Steamroller presents 'Fresh Aire' at Lied
TALKING QUILTS
732743S36828X
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