Sunday, April 23, 2000
Film Society broadens its focus
The Cincinnati Film Society this spring has expanded its horizons by adding local and regional works to its screening calendar.
First up is the documentary You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet: Tales of the Kentucky Derby, by Louis Guida of Lexington, screening on Saturday.
Mr. Guida, a Philadelphia native, has been making documentaries for years, including All Day and All Night, about the cultural scene in Memphis, and Saturday Night Sunday Morning: The Travels of Gatemouth Moore, which aired on PBS.
The Derby attracted his attention, he said, because “I thought it was quite a phenomenon, not just as a race but as a part of the American culture. I was sort of surprised that no one had ever made a film about it.”
Cincinnati Film Society screens Mr. Guida's documentary at 7 and 9 p.m. Saturday in the Scripps Howard Newsreel Theatre at the Cincinnati Museum Center, 1301 Western Ave.
On May 20, the society will present Shelby Showcase, a sampling of work of comic pieces by videographer Jeff Shelby.
The West End native grew up an only child watching re-runs of I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched and Gilligan's Island. “I had a little tape recorder and I would tape all the shows off the TV. I would always pretend I was the producer of these shows, at 6 or 7 or 8 years old. It was like a hobby.”
A 1988 graduate of the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music with a degree in broadcasting, Mr. Shelby honed his production skills at Cincinnati Community Video (now Media Bridges) and by creating variety shows for children to perform, among other efforts.
Mr. Shelby, who is also a mental-health caseworker and a fitness instructor, recruited local actors, including Priscilla Myerson, John Wuerdeman and comedian William Alexander for the program he will present for the film society, a collection of comic sketches.
Mr. Shelby's program will be shown at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. in the Museum Center's Reakirt Auditorium. Both shows will be preceded by a dramatic reading by poet Shawn Scott of her work Expositions of the Heart.
Tickets are $5, $4 for seniors and students, and $3 for film society members. More information is available online at www.cincinnatlas.com/filmsociety, or by calling 251-6060. Advance tickets for the May 20 program also are available by calling 241-4376.
Margaret A. McGurk is Enquirer film critic. Contact her by mail, 312 Elm St. Cincinnati 45202; fax, (513) 768-8330; or e-mail mmcgurk@enquirer.com.
