The arts agency for the cities of Lewiston and Auburn, Maine

The Lewiston group Welcoming Maine, is continuing in their effort to spread goodwill, create understanding, and promote social integration with an additional screening of the powerful documentary film “Not in our Town: Light in the Darkness.” The screening of “Not in our Town: Light in the Darkness,” will occur on May 8 at 7pm. It will be shown in the DownStage at L/A Arts located at 5 Canal St. Alley, Lewiston. Admission to this event is free; seating is limited, reservations encouraged.

“Not in Our Town: Light in the Darkness” is a documentary about a town coming together to take action after anti-immigrant violence devastates the community. The documentary, which debuted in September 2011, tells the story of Patchogue, N.Y., and the community’s response to an influx of Ecuadorian immigrants.

“In 2008, a series of attacks against Latino residents of Patchogue, New York, culminate in the murder of Marcelo Lucero, an Ecuadorian immigrant who had lived in the Long Island village for 13 years. Over a two-year period, the story follows Patchogue Mayor Paul Pontieri, the victim’s brother, Joselo Lucero, and everyday Patchogue residents as they address the underlying causes of the violence, heal divisions, and begin taking steps to ensure everyone in their village will be safe and respected”.

For more information and to view a trailer of the film, please visit www.niot.org.

About Welcoming Maine

Welcoming Maine is a 12 member community group that works to improve social integration between new and native Mainers. They are being assisted by six Bates College students, all taking a class on Privilege, Power and Inequality taught by Professor Emily Kane.

Imagine yourself in the idyllic French countryside in the 1930’s. Sometime before dark, a gypsy caravan sets up camp in a field outside of town, luring the locals out for an evening’s fun. The wanderers travel with a film projector, pointing it at the side of a barn. As the images flicker to life beneath the stars, gypsy musicians play their guitars and fiddles, matching every movement on the screen with characteristic virtuosity, passion and humor. Reviving this lost entertainment, The Hot Club of San Francisco presents Cinema Vivant, an evening of vintage silent films accompanied by live gypsy swing, on Friday May 10. Hosted by L/A Arts and Bates College, Cinema Vivant will take place at Olin Arts Center at 7:30PM. Tickets to this wonderful event are $20 for adults and $10 for students.

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Le Jazz Hot is the quartet of the Hot Club of San Francisco, still continuing the tradition of fine French Gypsy Jazz performed on string instruments. Inspired by Django Reinhardt, a man hailed as one of the greatest guitar players that ever lived, Hot Club of San Francisco revives an art form based on the foundations of gypsy culture, American Jazz and the polygot culture of 1920s Paris. Once you hear it you can’t forget it. It is sophisticated, yet it has a sentimental quality. It is Gypsy jazz, and the popularity of this sometimes flamboyant, sometimes melancholy guitar music is growing around the world. Aficionados everywhere are forming bands, called Hot Clubs in honor of Django Reinhardt’s famous Quintet of the Hot Club of France.

Cinema Vivant is a celebration of imagination and innovation; it combines live gypsy swing and jazz with vintage silent films. Before World War I, European filmmaker Ladislaw Starewicz pioneered stop-action animation, creating a never-before-seen movie experience. A gifted storyteller who used the new medium of animation to illuminate his fantastic imaginings of the secret lives of ordinary objects, Starewicz has become an obscure cult hero. Two Starewicz films are featured in Cinema Vivant—The Cameraman’s Revenge, a charming piece about the marital troubles of beetles and The Mascot, an adventure story about lost toys. On the other side of the Atlantic, American Charley Bowers revolutionized the industry in the 1920’s by combining animation with live action. There It Is, a recently rediscovered film by Bowers, is a whimsical comedy about a mysterious occurrence investigated by Scotland Yard.