MACON, Ga. — Art Matters: Engaging the Community through Embedded Arts Journalists is pleased to announce the fourth in its series of six public symposia on the role of criticism and arts journalism in fostering an informed and engaged community. The symposium will be held at The 567 Center for Renewal on March 1 at 5:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public and is co-presented by the Macon Film Festival.
The discussion at this symposium will focus on the role of film and film criticism in society, current trends in the fields, and how the changing media landscape is affecting film and film criticism. Featured panelists are Karina Longworth and Matthew Modine.
Karina Longworth is a film critic and journalist based in Los Angeles. For three years she served as an editor and film critic at the LA Weekly and Village Voice, and she has contributed as a freelancer to Vanity Fair, The Guardian UK, New York Magazine, TimeOut New York, indieWIRE, Slate, The Daily Beast, Weekend Edition, The Takeaway and other print and online publications and radio productions. In 2005, she co-founded Cinematical, one of the first comprehensive, multi-contributor film blogs on the web, which was acquired by AOL and eventually folded into Moviefone. For two years, Karina served as the editor of the now-defunct SpoutBlog, which was later acquired by indieWIRE.
In 2012, Karina’s film criticism won the Entertainment Reviews of the Year award from the Los Angeles Press Club, while her story on LACMA’s hiring of Elvis Mitchell as the figurehead of their film program won an award for business reporting from the National Association of Black Journalists. In 2011, her study of the restoration of Barbara Loden’s Wanda won a National Entertainment Journalism award, and her profile of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival was honored by the Los Angeles Press Club. She was also a 2012 finalist for the Livingston Award for her LA Weekly story on the fate of the Kim’s Video collection and contemporary socio-economics in Sicily. She is the author of Masters of Cinema: George Lucas, published by Phaidon in 2012, and Al Pacino: Anatomy of an Actor, published by Phaidon in 2013. Her book on Meryl Streep — the first published long-form study of the actress through the prism of feminism — was released in January 2014. After studying video and film at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Karina earned a BFA in Film from the San Francisco Art Institute, and an MA in Cinema Studies from New York University.
Matthew Modine has been called “one of the best, most adaptable film actors of his generation” by legendary New York Times film critic Vincent Canby. He has worked with many of the film industry’s most acclaimed directors including Oliver Stone, Sir Alan Parker, Stanley Kubrick, Robert Altman, Alan J. Pakula, John Schlesinger, Tony Richardson, Robert Falls, Sir Peter Hall, Abel Ferrara, Spike Lee, Tom DiCillo, Mike Figgis, Jonathan Demme and John Sayles. Mr. Modine has been nominated for three Golden Globe Awards and he was part of the cast of Robert Altman’s Short Cuts, which was presented a Special Award at the 1994 Golden Globe Awards ceremony. He is perhaps best known for his role as Private Joker, the central character of Stanley Kubrick’s 1987 war movie Full Metal Jacket. Mr. Modine’s work in Alan Rudoplph’s film, Equinox, helped to earn the film four Independent Spirit Award nominations including Best Film and Best Actor. In 2012, Mr. Modine starred in The Dark Knight Rises, Family Weekend and Girl in Progress opposite Eva Mendes. His latest short film, “Jesus was a Commie,” is “an avant garde dialectical conversation about the world and the prominent issues of modern society.” It won the Founders Prize for Best Short Film at Michael Moore’s Traverse City Film Festival and is currently playing the international film festival circuit. Mr. Modine’s most recent acting work includes the role of “Sculley” in the Steve Jobs biopic JOBS, a film that premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival; as well as Reelz Channel mini-series, CAT. 8 and the upcoming feature film Altar.
Art Matters: Engaging the Community through Embedded Arts Journalists is a one-year initiative designed to engage the community through high-quality arts journalism. A $40,000 National Endowment for the Arts Art Works grant and a matching $40,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation support the $80,000 project. The project received one of only four national arts journalism grants funded by the NEA in 2013 and is the first time in seven years that Macon Arts Alliance has been awarded an NEA grant.
The Macon Arts Alliance (MAA), in collaboration with Mercer University’s Center for Collaborative Journalism, will embed paid journalism interns in various arts organizations served by Macon Arts Alliance. These journalists will create news articles, blogs, video reports and more for local news outlets, the CCJ’s newsroom, and Macon Arts Alliance’s Ovations365.com and other publications. The program provides for a critic-in-residence at the CCJ and a series of public symposia that will pair different artists and critics to discuss the state of various art forms and criticism.
About Art Matters
Art Matters is an arts journalism partnership of Macon Arts Alliance and Mercer’s Center for Collaborative Journalism that seeks to engage the community through embedded arts journalists. This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, Art Works. Matching funding provided by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
About Macon Arts Alliance
The mission of the Macon Arts Alliance is to foster and support the advancement of arts and culture in Central Georgia. Macon Arts Alliance works to create an environment where arts and culture thrive and Central Georgia is recognized as an unparalleled cultural destination.
About the Center for Collaborative Journalism
The Center for Collaborative Journalism (CCJ) is a unique partnership between Mercer University, The Telegraph and Georgia Public Broadcasting, with generous support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and The Peyton Anderson Foundation. The Center’s groundbreaking collaboration has students, faculty and veteran journalists working together in a joint newsroom. Learning in a “teaching hospital” model, students engage the community.
About Macon Film Festival
Surrounded by a rich musical and southern culture, the Macon Film Festival celebrates independent films while promoting filmmaking for entertainment, inspiration, education and economic development. The Macon Film Festival screens independent films from around the world in multiple historic theatres in the city’s downtown district. The festival features film screenings, celebrity guests, special screenings, and workshops throughout the festival weekend. The board of directors includes Terrell Sandefur, President; Elliott Dunwody, Vice President; Julie Y. Wilkerson, Treasurer; Priscilla Esser, Secretary; and at-large members, Jeffrey Bruce, Danny Davis, April Hornsby, Heidi Lancaster, Tony Long, Sr., Sam Macfie Tim Regan-Porter and Tabitha Lynne Walker. Learn more at MaconFilmFestival.com or call (478) 256-3809.
