David Oyelowo stars as Martin Luther King Jr.
in “Selma,” directed by Ava DuVernay, right.
The historical drama “Selma” hits a few screens on Christmas, opening wide on Jan. 9.
A preview screening takes place in Birmingham at 7 p.m. Jan. 6 at the Carmike Summit 16, and free passes are available.
The movie tells the story of the civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965, led by Martin Luther King Jr. (David Oyelowo, recently in “Interstellar” and “Lee Daniels’ The Butler”). Ava DuVernay, who became the first African-American woman to win the Sundance Best Director Prize in 2012, signed on to direct after Lee Daniels chose to make “The Butler.”
Oprah Winfrey and Brad Pitt are among the producers.
The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute will hold
its annual Kwanzaa Celebration on Dec. 30.
Places around Birmingham will mark Kwanzaa, taking place Friday through New Year’s Day. A guide to events:
Dec. 27: St. Paul’s United Methodist Church has its Kwanzaa Celebration from 3 to 5 p.m. Free. 1500 Sixth Ave. N., downtown [map].
Dec. 30: The Five Points West branch of the Birmingham Public Library has Kwanzaa Kraft Time from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Free. 4812 Ave. W [map].
Dec. 30: The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute has a hands-on workshop at 5 p.m. in the Abraham L. Woods Community Meeting Room, followed by a community celebration at 6 p.m. in the Odessa Woolfolk Gallery, including musical and children’s performances. Free. 520 16th St. N. [map].
Video: Celebrating Kwanzaa at the Birmingham
Civil Rights Institute
“Real World” pioneers Norman Korpi, Heather Gardner (center)
and Birmingham’s Julie Oliver Gentry reunite Sunday on OWN.
It was the series that launched the reality TV craze. Sunday, Oprah Winfrey catches up with a cast member from Birmingham.
Julie Oliver (now Gentry) starred in the first (of 30!) season of “The Real World,” MTV’s docu-soap that followed seven strangers in a New York loft. She joins castmates Heather Gardner and Norman Korpi for “Oprah: Where Are They Now?”
Julie Oliver then (on the show in 1992) and a few years later.
In the same hour, Winfrey interviews Beth Holloway, whose daughter Natalee disappeared in 2005 during a Mountain Brook High senior trip to Aruba. She has never been found.
“Oprah: Where Are They Now?” airs at 8 p.m. Sunday on OWN (repeats throughout the week).
Video: Promo for “Oprah: Where Are They Now?”
(and note who else is on the show)
Sandra Jaffe’s film “Our Mockingbird” is scheduled to run Feb. 3 on PBS’ World Channel as part of the “America Reframed” series. The director had already set out to do a documentary on Harper Lee’s landmark novel when she discovered that mostly black Fairfield High and her alma mater, mostly white Mountain Brook High, were working on a joint production of the play.
The documentary has screened in various stages since its debut in 2010 in Monroeville, Lee’s hometown. It appeared at the 2012 Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival and as a part of Birmingham’s 50 Years Forward in 2013, as well as screenings in Jaffe’s current city, Boston.
This isn’t the first time Jaffe has turned her lens on her hometown. In 1985, she directed the short doc, “Jazz in the Magic City,” about musicians in the 1920s and ’30s who learned to read music in the city’s only black high school from the printing instructor. It aired on PBS and the Discovery Channel.
Jaffe is a screenwriter and script consultant in addition to director, plus a screenwriting instructor at Northeastern University. She has won several awards for her work, including one from the Writers Guild of America.
A specific time for Alabama Public Television has not been announced yet.Update Jan. 28: The film premieres at 7 p.m. Feb. 3 on PBS World, repeating throughout the week. PBS World broadcasts in Birmingham on channel 10.2.
Video: Birmingham Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts
raise $15,730.88 for the KIND fund.
They did it again.
After raising more than $18,000 in 2013, the Scouts based at Sixth Avenue Baptist Church pulled in $15,730.88 this year for the KIND Fund. The money goes to Kids In Need of Desks, a UNICEF campaign providing desks for schoolchildren in Malawi.
That translates into 484 students who no longer have to sit on the ground in school.
MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell helped launch the fund in 2009 and has raised $7.6 million to date. The 2013 check from Boy Scout Troop 415 and Cub Scout Pack 415 was the single largest donation to KIND then.
The Scouts hit the streets starting back in October to collect donations in buckets, as they told O’Donnell Monday night on his program, “The Last Word.”
Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts at Sixth Avenue Baptist Church
prepare to donate to UNICEF.
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