Main Library

“Imagine I’m Beautiful” Film Screening with Naomi McDougall Jones

by

Join The Community Library for a free, special screening of Imagine I’m Beautiful, the first feature film from writer/director duo Naomi McDougall Jones and Meredith Edwards. After her mother’s suicide, a young woman moves to New York to start afresh. After a rocky start with her new and troubled roommate, the two slowly forge a friendship, finding solace in each other’s difficult pasts; until one of them makes a discovery that will alter their friendship for good.

The 2014 film received 12 awards on the film festival circuit including 4 Best Pictures and 3 Best Actress Awards, as well as The Don Award for Best Independently Produced Screenplay of 2014. The film was named as #8 of OscarWorld’s Top 10 Films of 2014 and was distributed theatrically and digitally by Candy Factory Films.

Join us after the screening for a discussion with Naomi McDougall Jones.

 

Naomi McDougall Jones is one of the current Hemingway Writers-in-Residence with The Community Library. Naomi is an award-winning actress, writer, producer, and women in film activist. She grew up in Aspen, Colorado and attended Cornell University before graduating from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (AADA). Following the success of Imagine I’m Beautiful (2014), Naomi’s second feature film, Bite Me (2019), premiered at Cinequest. The film is a subversive romantic comedy about a real-life vampire and the IRS agent who audits her.

Naomi has also appeared in 100 plays, films and TV shows, including HBO’s Boardwalk Empire and The Mire (Cherry Lane Theatre). Seven of her played have been produced in New York City and through the U.S. Her articles on the independent film scene and women’s role in it have appeared in IndieWire, MovieScope Mag and Cinema/Verite and is a contributing blogger for The Huffington Post. Naomi is currently at work on a book, The Wrong Kind of Woman: Dismantling the God of Hollywood, which will be published by Beacon Press in February 2020. She is also the host of the podcast Fear(ful)less: Filmmaking From the Edge, a monthly window into the successes, failures, and conversations of an independent filmmaker. 

 

“Frank Church and the ‘New Conservation'” with Sara Dant

by

The tenure of Idaho’s Senator Frank Church (1957-1981) coincides with an era of unprecedented federal environmental protective legislation. Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, in particular, presided over a flurry of congressional lawmaking that effectively focused national attention on preservation – protecting nature from exploitation – and established some of the most far-reaching and powerful laws affecting plant and animal species, air and water, and public lands. During this remarkable stretch of years, bipartisanism flourished. And many of the consensus-building measures that preserved wilderness, wild rivers, and wild places were the work of Frank Church, who long sought balance between economic development and environmental protection.  At the time, Church advocated an idea he called the “New Conservation” – a big-picture approach he believed would insure “a healthy and habitable environment for man.”

Join us for a presentation and discussion of Church’s pioneering ability to galvanize consensus into a win-win model of environmental protection that also suggests a way forward toward cooperation and sustainability in our own time.

Books will be available for sale and signing, courtesy of Chapter One Bookstore.

This presentation will be live streamed and recorded for later viewing on our LIVESTREAM page.

 

Sara Dant is Professor and Chair of History at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, whose work focuses on environmental politics in the United States with a particular emphasis on the creation and development of consensus and bi-partisanism. Her newest book is Losing Eden: An Environmental History of the American West (2017), a “thought-provoking, well-written work” about the interaction between people and nature over time. She is also the author of several prize-winning articles on western environmental politics and Frank Church, chapters for three books on Utah history, a precedent-setting Expert Witness Report and Testimony on Stream Navigability upheld by the Utah Supreme Court (2017), and co-author (with Hal Rothman) of the two-volume Encyclopedia of American National Parks (2004).  An avid outdoor enthusiast and native westerner, Dant divides her time between northern Utah and the Galisteo River Valley outside Santa Fe, New Mexico.

This event is sponsored by the Frank Church Institute, whose mission is to promote civic engagement and understanding of public policy. The Institute was established in 1982 within the School of Public Service at Boise State University to honor the achievements and to carry forward the principles of one of Idaho’s most distinguished native sons, Senator Frank Church. The Institute is non-partisan and seeks to provide a forum for open and informed discussion characterized by civility, tolerance, and compromise. For more information, please visit https://www.boisestate.edu/sps-frankchurchinstitute/.

“Talk to Me: How Voice Computing Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Think” with James Vlahos

by

The titans of Silicon Valley are racing to build the last, best computer that the world will ever need. They know that whoever successfully creates it will revolutionize our relationship with technology—and make billions of dollars in the process. They call it conversational AI.

Computers that can speak and think like humans may seem like the stuff of science fiction, but they are rapidly moving toward reality. In Talk to Me, veteran tech journalist James Vlahos meets the researchers at Amazon, Google, and Apple who are leading the way. He explores how voice tech will transform every sector of society: handing untold new powers to businesses, overturning traditional notions of privacy, upending how we access information, and fundamentally altering the way we understand human consciousness. And he even tries to understand the significance of the voice-computing revolution first-hand — by building a chatbot version of his terminally ill father.

Vlahos’s research leads him to one fundamental question: What happens when our computers become as articulate, compassionate, and creative as we are?

Join us for a conversation around Vlahos’ research and work.

This event will be LIVE STREAMED and RECORDED for future viewing. Click here to visit our Livestream page.


James Vlahos is a contributor to the New York Times Magazine, Popular Science, Scientific American, the Atlantic, GQ, and National Geographic. His popular 2017 cover story for Wired chronicled how he programmed his own AI chatbot to resemble his late father. He lives in El Cerrito, California.

“The Serpent, The Puma, and The Condor: A Tale of Machu Picchu” with Gayle Marie

by

Join us for a reading and discussion with Gayle Marie around her first novel, The Serpent, The Puma, and The Condor: A Tale of Machu Picchu.

The novel received a 2019 Gold Medal for Best First Book–Fiction from IPPY (Independent Publisher Book Awards), was a 2019 Finalist for Multicultural Fiction at the Next Generation Indie Book Awards, and received a 2019 National Indie Excellence Award for Multicultural Fiction.

Gayle Marie is a native of Boise, Idaho. After her first career as an astrologer she earned a Ph.D. in clinical psychology. She now uses her obsessive research methods, insight into human nature, and love of magical elements in everyday life to tell stories. She is currently at work on her second novel, The Muse of Albi, a time-travel tale that takes place in New Orleans and France.

Copies of the The Serpent, The Puma, and The Condor: A Tale of Machu Picchu will be available for sale by the author, and 25% of sales will be donated to the Sun Valley Center for the Arts.

Was I Your Mother? Finding Love in Alzheimer’s – Talk and Panel Discussion

by

September 10, 2019

What’s it like to care for a parent that no longer knows you? Is that still a “relationship”?

Join TEDx speaker, Gini Ballou as she shares the success, misses and humor of caring for a parent with Alzheimer’s.

After the talk, stay for a panel discussion with leaders in the field of brain health. Panelists include Adrean Cavener, Dr. Maria Maricich, Jovita Pina, and Joanne Cox. Aimee Christensen will moderate.

This event will be recorded and available for later viewing.

Gini Ballou has been a resident of the Wood River Valley for over 40 years. She served as main caregiver for her mother for several years until her death in 2008 from Alzheimer’s and ovarian cancer. Gini serves as Assistant Director of United Vision/United Action for Idaho, President of the Idaho Democratic Women’s Caucus, and Alzheimer’s Association Ambassador for ID/CD2.

Adrean Cavener is the Executive Director of the Greater Idaho Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association. She came to the Association because her father, David, passed away 2 and a half years ago from the disease. She currently lives in Meridian, Idaho.

Joanne Cox has been a CNA for the last 25 years and has worked at nursing homes, assisted livings and private care. She started her path to the Senior Connection almost 3 years ago. Working first as a caregiver and then being promoted to the Connection Club—a respite class for family members to leave their loved ones who suffer from Alzheimer’s or dementia. She continues to work in the Connection Club as well as being the Client Care Manager.

Jovita Pena is a native of the Wood River Valley and has 12 years’ experience in the nonprofit industry. Jovita’s role as the Senior Connection’s Associate Director of programs and services includes ensuring the center provides programs and services to seniors in the community.

Dr. Maria Maricich is the founder of The Wellness Clinic in Ketchum and Dr. Maria Online, a virtual practice to help people with dementia worldwide. She is a Doctor of Chiropractic and specializes in the new and emerging field of Functional Medicine, which looks for underlying causes of health problems rather than just treating the symptoms. Her passion is understanding the brain and applying evidence based natural methods to improve function and stop neurodegeneration.

Aimée Christensen is Founder & Executive Director of the Sun Valley Institute, a Center for Resilience, and CEO of Christensen Global Strategies, developing solutions for a resilient world. She has twenty-five years’ experience in policy, law, investment, philanthropy and business. In 2015 she founded the Sun Valley Institute to protect regional quality of life and to serve as a model and resource to communities everywhere, convening the annual Sun Valley Forum to share strategies and catalyze action.

Watch on the Program Archive

Support the Library

The Community Library’s free resources and services reflect the generosity of community members like you!
Donate
Gold Mine Stores
Volunteer