Greetings, FLEFF fans of all ages! You've done it ... you've made it through two brain-draining days of the best darn film festival around. Now you know why Ithaca College has approximately 57,000 coffee stands on campus!

Wednesday's Highlights

Noon: Breast Cancer: The Estrogen Connection -- Filmmakers Ann Michel and Phil Wilde join IC faculty member Julie Boles, coordinator of the preprofessional program at the School of Health Sciences and Human Performance, for a FLEFF Lab screening and discussion. The documentary examines how ingredients in a wide array of consumer products can mimic the hormone estrogen, thereby increasing cancer risk in women. (Center for Health Sciences 202, 11 minutes)

4:00 p.m.: New World Water -- Codirector William O'Marra will be on hand for a post-screening talk on his film, which uses colorful images and crisp narration to document how the nation of Madagascar is proactively coping with water-related issues. Stewart Auyash, associate professor of health promotion and physical education, will facilitate the discussion. (Hill Center 56, 40 minutes)

4:00 p.m.: Prometheus's Garden -- underground animator Bruce Bickford, perhaps best known for his collaborations with '70s prog-rock icon Frank Zappa, crafted this feature inspired by the Greek myth about Prometheus, the Titan who created the first mortals from clay. The medium for his film? Clay animation, naturally. (Park Hall 219, 58 minutes)

7:00 p.m.: Blood on the Flag: Local Civil Disobedience -- The living members of the "St. Patrick's Four" -- Clare Grady, Teresa Grady and Daniel Burns -- and other special guests will pay tribute to SP4 member Peter DeMott, who passed away earlier this year. IC writing professor Fred Wilcox and local activist Mary Anne Grady will also be in attendance, and IC politics professor Beth Harris will serve as moderator. (Friends Hall 309)
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7:00 p.m.: High Stakes Testing -- Director John Valadez will appear to discuss his documentary, which is a examination of the far-reachign implications of the No Child Left Behind Act, one of the Bush administration's signature educational reforms. Professor of strategic communication Gordon Rowland will facilitate the discussion. Valadez continues his FLEFF appearances with a Spice Lab on Friday morning, a "How to Get Your Break" seminar Friday afternoon, and screenings of his Tejano music doc La Onda Chicana Saturday and Sunday at Cinemapolis and Fall Creek, respectively. (Location TBD, 60 minutes)

Well, you did it. Somehow you made through a long day of running between Williams Hall, CNS, CHS, Textor Hall, the business school, and the Park School to catch all those FLEFF screenings. Only six more glorious days to go!

Tuesday’s Highlights

9:25 a.m.: Made in L.A. -- Traces the efforts of three Latina garment workers who face an uphill battle in attempting to hold an American retailer accountable for poor labor conditions. (Smiddy Hall 325, 70 minutes)

12:05 p.m.: Children of the Amazon -- Follows Brazilian filmmaker Denise Zmekhol as she travels a modern highway deep into the Amazon in search of the indigenous Surui and Negarote children she photographed 15 years ago. (Friends Hall 210, 73 minutes) 

1:10 p.m.: Dispatches 4 -- A collection of short films reporting from Falluja, Umm Qasr, Sadr City, and other locations in Iraq that mainstream media dare not tread. (Park Hall 277) 

2:35 p.m.: She’s a Boy I Knew -- An "auto-ethnography" that traces Steven/Gwen Haworth's male-to-female gender transition, using archival family footage, interviews, phone messages, and hand-drawn animation. (Center for Health Sciences 208, 70 minutes) 

6:50 p.m.: We Feed the World -- A film about food and globalization, fishermen and farmers, the flow of goods and cash … about scarcity amid plenty. How is that close to a billion of Earth's 7 billion citizens go hungry? (Hill Center 56, 96 minutes)

Trailers and Clips

Children of the Amazon

Made in L.A.

She's a Boy I Knew

Happy Monday! Or, we should say … happy FLEFF-day! Today kicks off the annual Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival (FLEFF), which runs through Sunday, April 5.

For those not in the know, FLEFF is "a one-week multimedia interarts extravaganza that reboots the environment and sustainability into a larger global conversation." For those whose response might be "say huh?" let's just say that it's a week chock-full of excellent, thought-provoking movies, concerts, galas, workshops, and other events that you just can't find anywhere else. 

The festival spends most of its time on the Ithaca College campus now through Thursday, then mostly shifts to downtown with tons more screenings at Cinemapolis and Fall Creek Pictures. And did we mention that just about every screening and event is absolutely free?!

Monday's Highlights

10:00 a.m.: Gimme Green -- A humorous look at the American obsession with the residential lawn and the effects it has on our environment, our wallets, and our outlook on life. (Park Hall 281, 28 minutes)

4:00 p.m.: Blue Gold in the Garden of Eden -- As the world enters the 21st century, "progress" and "development" compete with the greater good in the cradle of Western civilization as countries and other groups clash over uses of the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers. (Friends Hall 309, 58 minutes)

4:00 p.m.: Traces of Trade: A Story from the Deep North -- Hear the story of how one woman uncovers her New England family's deep involvement in the Triangle Slave Trade and, in so doing, reveals the pivotal role slavery played in the growth of the whole American economy. (Williams Hall 218, 51 minutes)

4:30 p.m.: FLEFF Lab: Brown Cloud Paper Cutting -- Artist Pamela See is among Australia's foremost emergent talents in the visual arts. An Australian born from Chinese descent, See uses the traditional folk art of paper cutting to narrate the migrant experience. In the spirit of the ready-made, her application of paper cutting technique to found objects breaks with art and also crafts conventions. See returns for another FLEFF Lab at noon Tuesday in the Handwerker Gallery; she also gives a gallery talk with fellow new media artist Jolene Rickard Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. in Park Hall 279. (Handwerker Gallery)

8:15 p.m.: "Wood That Sings" live concert with film projection -- This FREE concert features the premiere of a new work for marimba, percussion, and violin by IC music professor Gordon Stout and explores "syncopation," one of FLEFF 2009's programming streams. The performers will play against a backdrop of projections of ambient media curated and DJ'ed by Ann Michel and Phil Wilde of Insights International.

More Info on "Wood That Sings"
Get the Full Schedule of Events
Capsule Descriptions of Each Film

And what is "syncopation," you ask? Perhaps our trailer can answer your question -- or at least tease your brain for a minute and five seconds:

I tell ya, nothing cramps the campus life and events section of the web quite like spring break. We thought about auctioning off your stuff while you were away, but in the end that would have involved leaving the office for more than a mad frozen dash to the coffee cart, and we just weren't ready for that level of commitment.

Alas, today isn't much of an improvement. For me the jury is out on tangentially Irish endeavors on St. Patrick's Day. Wegmans certainly goes to some lengths to seasonally represent; their corned beef/cabbage/soda bread/Guinness/Bewley's Coffee/Irish Drinking Songs CD display is nothing if not widely varied in its stereotypical portrayal of Irishness. All they need is a dear old Mayo mammy in an Aran sweater beating an English soldier to a bloody pulp with a sack of potatoes and they'd be cooking with diesel.

Both local McDonald's outlets ran out of Shamrock shakes before lunch today. I just think that's a sign.

So I'm not entirely heartbroken that there isn't anything particularly plastic Paddy happening on campus. Suffice to say elsewhere in town the bon mots and beer will be flowing like the broad majestic Shannon tonight, but if you were hoping for something a bit more highbrow, dream on.

Of course, you could just pretend you're living in a Beckett play where absolutely nothing happens. That's about as Irish as it gets.

* * *

Simple fact is IC is saving up its event mojo for the "Sport, Sexuality, and Culture" conference this Wednesday to Friday. In the interest of promoting a healthy dialog about sexuality in what could well be the last great bastion of entrenched bigotry on college campuses and the workplace, this conference is free and open to everyone in the Ithaca community.

I'll take a wild guess and presume it doesn't blow your minds to find out the sporting world hasn't always been the most gay-friendly corner of American life. Invariably homoerotic with all that butt slapping and sweaty rolling around in tandem, yes. But queer positive? Survey says "noooo."

Perhaps it's not surprising, then, that the first player to come out in the almost cartoonishly macho NBA was English, and thus already an anomaly in the league. Conference keynote speaker and former NBA player John Amaechi is many things, but "typical" is not among them. Despite having once turned down $17 million to play for the Lakers, Amaechi seems to be doing just fine as a media pundit, author, high profile public speaker, and advocate for LGBT youth. He'll be speaking in Emerson Suites Thursday at 7:00 p.m.

Don't miss this one; lots of good stuff comes to Ithaca year round, but this is a pretty special event even by our robust standards.

Of course John Amaechi is only part of the conference. Lots of other stuff going on, covering topics like

• legal issues involving sex and sexual orientation discrimination
• sport, media, sexuality, and culture
• gender, race, sexuality, and culture
• research trends and issues
• replacing homophobia/transphobia with humanism in sport settings

Check it out and tell us what you think. This is an adventurous and high profile event for Ithaca College, so we expect a lot of chatter.

And to warm you up, check out John Amaechi telling Ann Coulter where she can stick it:

What's going on over spring break?

Spring is here.  It has been raining and gray.  It is beautiful if you're in the right mood.

The Chronicle of Higher Education has put forward an article, circulating via staff e-mail, about the 13 reasons colleges are in an economic mess. Are economic conditions bad at Ithaca College?  With an elephant this large, everyone who touches it has a different interpretation of what it is. I've heard some say this institution is very strong and offers a good value to students in these tough times.  We'll see.

Here's a little sparkle I found on Intercom: a new addition to the LGBT Center website provides resources you might find helpful, diverting, and essential during spring break.  Just thought someone should shine a light on it.

Travel safely, friends!  Come back to campus rested and in one piece.