FESTIVALS
Carry the Torch
Tonight is the annual Minneapolis Aquatennial Torchlight Parade across downtown. Grab a chair, a bench, or a curb, and join the tens of thousands of people along Hennepin Avenue for a two-hour spectacle with 100-plus floats, numerous live bands, an excess of torches, and specialty units. Along with Saturday’s fireworks, this is really the highlight of the Aquatennial events, so don’t miss it. I also recommend you stop by the American Iron Metal Sculpture Contest in front of the IDS Center on Nicollet Mall during the day (10:30 a.m. – 6 p.m.) to view the “Art of Recycling” metal sculpture competition and public art display. There’s actually some fairly impressive work there.
8:30-10:30 p.m., Hennepin Ave., from the Basilica of St. Mary near Dunwoody Boulevard to the end at Fifth and Hennepin, Minneapolis; free.
FILM – LOCAL
This Is How We Do It
Time for another Cinema Lounge this evening. Go check out what our local filmmakers are doing, and meet the minds behind the movies as they bring the filmmakers to the stage to answer your questions. Tonight’s films include include Urban Lull (At Once Charmed) by Micah Dahl, an Umbrella Sequence music video captured entirely in one shot; A Satisfied Life by Freya Schirmacher, the 2006 Greatest Generation Project winning short exploring the life of North Minneapolis resident Ted Wryk; Who To Trust? by Dean Peterson, in which a man loses his journal and then loses his mind trying to figure out who is reading his every secret; Buddy, Buddy by David Matenaer and Jesse Roesler, winner of “Best Film” in Minneapolis’ 2007 48-Hour Film Project; and Unhinged by Gregg Holtgrewe, a frenetically-cut exercise in style takes a sparring couple form communication problems to deadly peril when their car is hijacked.
7 p.m., Bryant Lake Bowl, 810 West Lake St., Minneapolis; 612-825-8949; free.
FILM – ASIAN
Late Spring in Summer
If you’ve enjoyed the Summer Asian Film Series so far, you won’t want to miss this evening’s screening of Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu’s Late Spring. The 1949 movie shows the relationship of a widowed father and daughter who live a happy and humble life in a countryside town near Tokyo until her father wants to see her married and conspires with his sister to trick his daughter into pursuing an arranged marriage. Director Ozu creates a poignant portrait of devotion, separation, and familial love, quietly creating a tension between the traditional Japanese family structure and the stirrings of social progress in occupied postwar Japan. Tonight’s film will be introduced by Christine Marran, Department of Asian Languages and Literatures, University of Minnesota.
7 p.m., Institute for Advanced Study, Room 155, Nicholson Hall, Minneapolis; 612-626-5054; free.
FILM – OUTDOORS by Danielle Kurtzleben
“Hey, you guys!!!”
Sean Astin! Martha Plimpton! Corey Feldman! That kid from Temple of Doom! Brush up on your 1980s child stars tonight at Steven’s Square Park with a screening of The Goonies, the 1985 cult classic about a bunch of kids and a treasure map made my a pirate named — no kidding — “One-Eyed Willy.” Show up at 7:00 p.m. to check out local music and art (the film starts at dusk) as part of Steven’s Square’s ongoing “Cinema and Civics”-themed Music and Movies series. We’re not sure what the civic message of The Goonies is, but hopefully it has something to do with Sloth.
7 p.m., Steven’s Square Park, three blocks east of Nicollet at the intersection of 18th St. and Second Ave., Minneapolis; 612-879-0200; free.
BOOKS & AUTHORS
Meet Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Tomorrow Morning
This is actually an event for tomorrow, but I figured since it’s so early in the morning, I better let you all know today so that you can make plans to attend. Noted author and environmentalist, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. will discuss our environmental destiny at the Conference on Social Change hosted by Walden University on Thursday, at 8:30 a.m. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., author of Crimes Against Nature: How George W. Bush and His Corporate Pals are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy, will talk about how regulatory rollbacks have threatened our health, our national security, and democracy as we know it. As one of the country’s most prominent environmental attorneys, Kennedy examines how the administration has orchestrated these rollbacks almost entirely outside of public scrutiny and in tandem with the same industries that these laws are meant to regulate. He will be signing copies of his book following the discussion.
Thursday at 8:30 a.m., Northrop Auditorium, 84 Church St. S.E., Minneapolis; 612-625-6000; free tickets available at the U of M Bookstore at Coffman Memorial Union, 300 Washington Ave. S.E., Minneapolis.
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