VIRTUAL – “A Parent’s Guide to Remote Learning” with Paul Zimmerman

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The Blaine County School District will be returning to school this fall in a hybrid model, with students learning on site two days a week and virtually three days a week. As parents, what can you expect from the platforms your student will be using? What are the tools and how will your student navigate them? 

Join Paul Zimmerman for this Livestream class to learn more about what to expect this fall and how you can support your student’s at-home learning and engagement. Paul will discuss the three platforms the school district is using: Seesaw, Google Classrooms, and Schoology, and he’ll share tips and tricks on how to use them to support your student.

Q&A to follow the presentation.

Image courtesy of Edmentum.com.

REGISTER HERE

VIRTUAL – Tech Help Desk “Intensive” with Paul Zimmerman

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Do you need one-on-one technical support for some of those more difficult technology challenges you’re facing?

This “intensive” offers 15-minute slots with Paul Zimmerman, the Library’s tech guru, to help you answer your most pressing questions.

The help desk is hosted on Zoom. Meeting information will be sent to registered attendees.

Email mwilliams@comlib.org to sign up.

Story Time is Online!

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Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic we are not currently hosting in-person programming. Instead, story time has moved online.

Each week, our regular story time host, Lee Dabney, will be sharing a story time along with an easy, simple craft project that can be done at home with supplies you likely have on hand. You can also drop-in at the library during open hours to pick up a story time craft kit, while supplies last. Just ask at the Children’s circulation desk.

You can watch story time online anytime, at your convenience. We hope you enjoy!

Online Story Time can be found HERE:

or to save this link use: https://www.comlib.org/virtual-story-time/

VIRTUAL – Family of Woman Film Festival: “The Perfect Candidate”

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Watch the film on LIVESTREAM.

This film will only be available for live viewing at the time scheduled.

Haifaa al-Monsour is Saudi Arabia’s first female director. She burst into world view with her first feature film, Wadjda, about a young Saudi girl who becomes a student of the Koran in order to win a bicycle in a contest. The Perfect Candidate is a much more complex and nuanced film, with a story and a cast of characters who are so engaging, a viewer is left wanting a sequel.

The film starts with a problem increasingly irritating Maryam, a young woman Saudi doctor: an unpaved, rutted and constantly flooded street leading to the doors of her clinic makes access next to impossible for patients and ambulances alike. Frustrated by the failure of her entreaties to the local authorities to fix the problem, Maryam decides to run for her local city council to get things done. She is assisted by her two sisters—the older an enthusiastic wedding player, and the younger a reluctant teenager—and also by the grandson of a crotchety old man he has brought to the hospital after an accident. The elderly gentleman insists upon being examined by a real (male) doctor, and remains a thorn in Maryam’s side until he admits that he voted for her. Maryam’s father is a professional musician, who is constantly on the road playing traditional music. He and his best friend, another musician, become an amusing Greek chorus as Maryam’s campaign progresses, both agreeing that nothing can be done about daughters.

Dramatic comedy, Saudi Arabia – 104 Minutes

 

    

About the Filmmaker

Haifaa-al-Mansour is regarded as one of Saudi Arabia’s most significant cinematic figures. She studied comparative literature at The American University in Cairo and completed a master’s degree from the University of Sydney. The success of her 2005 documentary, Women Without Shadows, influenced a new wave of Saudi filmmakers. Her debut feature, Wadjdaˆ, is the first fictional feature film shot entirely in Saudi Arabia. It received wide critical acclaim after its premiere at the 2012 Venice Film Festival and was selected as the first-ever Saudi Arabian entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards. al-Mansour is the first artist from the Arabian Gulfregion to be invited to join the Academy of Motion Pictures in the USA.

Summer Reading Program Ends Today at NOON

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Our Summer Reading Program: Imagine Your Story ends at NOON today. You must report the minutes you’ve read (kids) or pages read (teens) by NOON. You can report your Summer Reading on our website. Late entries will not be accepted.

Due to the current pandemic, a summer reading party is not being held this year. Instead, librarians will conduct a random drawing. Winners will be contacted by the end of day on Monday, August 10th.

Thank you for participating.

VIRTUAL – Family of Woman Film Festival: “A Girl From Mogadishu”

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**If you missed the screening on September 9, REGISTER HERE to view the event on demand**

Based on a true story, the dramatization follows Ifrah Ahmed’s perilous journey as a refugee. Forced into an abusive marriage as a teenager, Ifrah has fled from this bondage, only to be rejected by her family. In the midst of civil war, she makes her way back to her home in Mogadishu to try to attempt a reconciliation . Rejected by her father, her grandmother gives her some money and the telephone number of a relative in the U.S.

Bombs are falling amid complete chaos. Director Mary McGuckian portrays Ifrah’s escape from Mogadishu in frightening, documentary fashion: you are there, experiencing the terror Ifrah experiences. The viewer becomes firmly placed in Ifrah’s shoes as she makes a perilous journey to safety, with danger at every corner. Who can she trust to help her? At the edge of your seat each step of the way, deep insight is gained into the desperation and determination of refugees fleeing for their lives. It is a shock when Ifrah doesn’t wind up in the US, but she has luckily landed in a haven where she realizes the potential buried inside of her. Today, Ifrah is a leader in the campaign to end FGM (Female Genital Mutilation).

A recorded interview with Mary McGuckian and Ifrah Ahmed, moderated by Sarah Craven of the UNFPA, will air following the film.

Drama, Somalia, Republic of Ireland, (113 Minutes)

 

    

 

About the Filmmaker

McGuckian has been producing, writing and directing feature films independently for over twenty years. A Girl From Mogadishu is her twelfth film as an auteur – producer, writer and director. Born and raised in Northern Ireland during the ‘troubles’, McGuckian completed her education in the Republic of Ireland at Trinity College, Dublin, taking a degree in engineering. At the same time, she became deeply involved with “Trinity Players”, appearing in over 30 productions, as well as producing, designing and directing. Post graduation, she followed an autodidactic path in literature, theatre, acting and directing in London, Paris and Italy, including writing a number of avant-garde plays, the most acclaimed of which was a long-running stage adaption of Brian Merriman’s poem, The Midnight Corner. In the early 1990s, she set up her own company, Pembridge Productions, to develop and produce feature film projects. Active as a co-producer on many Irish feature films, the company also produced three pictures which McGuckian wrote and directed, Words Upon the Window Pane, This is the Sea, and Best. Other films include Man on the Train, with Donald Sutherland; The Bridge of San Luis Rey, with F Murray Abraham, Kathy Bates, Gabriel Byrne, Geraldine Chapin, Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel; and The Price of Desire, a dramatization of the inception of 20th century architecture.

About Ifrah Ahmed

Ahmed left Mogadishu at the age of 17, and was granted refugee status in Ireland in 2006. Ahmed has established the United Youth of Ireland in 2010, an NGO for young immigrants, and the Ifrah Foundation, which is devoted to eliminating Female Genital Mutilation. Since 2016, she has been a Gender Advisor to the Prime Minister of Somalia.

The United Youth of Ireland provides support to young immigrants in their business, artistic and creative pursuits. Through the Ifrah Foundation, Ahmed continues to advocate for the eradication of FGM in her native Somalia. Her work includes raising awareness through producing media content to highlight the negative impact of FGM. In July 2018, in collaboration with the Global Media Campaign to end FGM, Ahmed produced a short documentary on the death of a 10-year-old girl due to complications resulting from FGM.

Additionally, Ahmed has been involved in organizing various events, workshops, fundraisers and seminars. Ifrah Foundation has partnered on impactful projects with international NGOs, and has formed strategic partnerships with governmental agencies on policy and legislation. Her focus over the past four years has been to deliver programs in Somalia providing evidence-based results that inform Ifrah Foundation’s proposed national action plan for the abandonment of FGM/C in Somalia.

Ahmed was awarded with a People of the Year Award in 2018 for her work.

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