Image-Conscious
9/15-9/17
Moviemaking went digital years ago, but we’ve only been getting half the picture. (Breakthrough innovations such as surround sound, e-tickets and adjustable cup-holder armrests barely scratch the surface.) Here’s our dilemma: Why should we settle for another less-than-stellar big-screen image of Naomi Watts when we can get a much better view on DVD? That’s why we’ll be there to see digital films presented with real digital projectors — in all their megapixel glory — at the region’s first International Digital Film Festival.
AMC Theaters, Pathway Digital Studio and Cyberyouth Club usher in this digital cinema revolution Thursday through Saturday at the AMC Ward Parkway 14 Theatres (8600 Ward Parkway) with a full slate of movies, including Ocean Front Property (winner of the Audience Choice Award at the Texas Film Festival and pictured below). Camcorder auteurs and aspiring filmmakers are invited to rub shoulders with industry experts at a series of workshops and seminars at the downtown Radisson Hotel (1301 Wyandotte).
Film purists will likely hurl canisters in the aisles. And that’s OK. For the rest of us, it’s all about more choices, less grain and watching movies the way George Lucas wants us to. For tickets and information, call 816-474-5935 or see www.pathway digitalstudio.org. — Tim Henningsen
Sample Sale
Shop till you drop at Fashionmonger.
SAT 9/17
At fashion shows, models present designers’ work in the most flattering light, but spectators can’t impulsively purchase their outfits. By contrast, trade shows enable instant gratification but offer all the ambience of an overpopulated warehouse. But Carman Stalker combines the glamorous and the pragmatic with Fashionmonger, where 28 booths peddle everything displayed on the runways. A Kansas City native who organized the San Diego-based couture collection WearHaus, Stalker established a KC chapter when she came back to town last year. Local stalwarts (Birdies, BBlaze, Spool) join St. Louis, Lawrence and San Diego designers in a lineup so vast, it takes five hours to unfurl. Fashionmonger starts at noon Saturday at Cadillac Catering (1935 McGee), with models marching at 1:30, 2:30 and 3:30 p.m. All previously paraded models form a grand-finale procession at 4:30 p.m., and though that may be an efficient way to catch the entire spectrum, it leaves no time for shopping. For more information, call 816-786-2002. — Andrew Miller
Skin Deep
Petah Coyne takes sculpture to the next level.
FRI 9/16
Wood. Ribbons. Wax. Hair. Baby powder. Silk flowers. Chicken wire. When sculptor Petah Coyne goes shopping for supplies, those are the types of everyday items she purchases. What she does with them, though, is out of the ordinary. Her dramatic tangles and chandelierlike hanging sculptures coated in layers of wax are part of Petah Coyne: Above and Beneath the Skin — along with her black-and-white photography. The exhibit, tracking Coyne’s work since the late ’80s, opens Friday at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art (4420 Warwick Boulevard, 816-753-5784) with a reception from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Coyne speaks at 6:30. The show remains on view until November 27.— Rebecca Braverman
Girls on Film
These photographers dig deep into red country.
FRI 9/16
At first glance, we thought that the photographs exploring rural America in Hugh and Alethea‘s exhibit From Indiana With Love were too staged to take seriously. But after considering our own small-town experience, we changed our minds. Models or not, those sexy-trashy girls have on their faces the spot-on cocktail of hunger and terror that we saw every day of high school. Catch the show Friday at UCP’s Project Space (21 East 12th Street, 816-221-5115). — Annie Fischer
