Reel Connections 2025
Reel Connections seek to tie film content to our local area with special guests who give demonstrations and engage exciting conversations.
Saturday, February 15 & Sunday, February 23:
Be An Anchor
Film: “Be Strong, Be Kind” Shorts Reel
Saturday, February 15, 10:30 am at Wheeler School Guilder Center
Sunday, February 23, 10:15 am at the RISD Museum Metcalf Auditorium
Is empathy your super power? Open your heart! “Be Strong, Be Kind” could be the perfect description for an ideal foster or adoptive parent. R.I. Dept of Youth, Children and Families has a foster/adoptive parent program called BE AN ANCHOR. We’ve invited them to share information about how you could provide an RI child with a safe, loving home.
Saturday, February 15 & Wednesday, February 19:
Sea Gardens
Film: Send Kelp!
Saturday, February 15, 2:15 pm at Hope High School
Wednesday, February 19, 11:30 am at Community Libraries of Providence, South Providence
POST SCREENING video of local kelp farmer Azure Cygler
One person’s weed is another person’s garden! “Send Kelp!” is an inspiring documentary that follows one woman’s attempt to confront her eco-anxiety by starting a kelp farm off the coast of Vancouver, Canada. Sure enough, the Ocean State is involved in similar work! Join us for a look at the work of Portsmouth kelp farmer, Azure Cygler and the Rhody Wild Sea Gardens.
Azure Cygler is a sea gardener, who grows kelp on lines in Narragansett Bay in the winter season. She grows sugar kelp, a native species to Rhode Island waters. Partnering with a local oyster farm her kelp farm, Rhody Wild Sea Garden, is helping to improve the health of our local waters and our planet.
Saturday, February 15: Filmmaker Joe Gowac
Film: The Fledgling 4
Saturday, February 15, 1:15 pm at Wheeler Guilder Center
POST SCREENING Director Q&A at 2:45 pm (ish)
Monday, February 17, 1:15 pm at Wheeler Guilder Center (**no post screening talk)
Whoooo…whooo…is speaking after the film? Join us after the screening on Saturday for a conversation with Director Joe Gowac! He narrates the film and is sure to be a hoot!
Joe Gowac has been teaching second grade in Connecticut for 18 years. Over the past 7 years he developed a love and passion for wildlife photography. This past spring he attempted his first video/documentary after discovering a barred owl family by his house.
Sunday, February 16 & Friday, February 21:
The Eerie Theremin
Film: The Day the Earth Stood Still
Sunday February 16, 1:15 pm at Wheeler Guilder Center
Friday February 21, 3:30 pm at Community Libraries of Providence, Mt. Pleasant
Join us for “The Day the Earth Stood Still”, and learn more about the Theremin – the curious instrument that makes that quintessentially eerie sci-fi film sound with Theremin tinkerer Lisa Sailer from Community Music Works!
Lisa Sailer is a pretty good violist and a not-yet-good thereminist. She teaches orchestra to lots of small children at Community MusicWorks, which is the best and funniest job in the world. At CMW, she can be found playing epic string septets and passionately leading rounds of the Chicken Dance, but not (always) at the same time.
Monday, February 17 & Thursday, February 20:
Dot-Dot-Dot-Dash-Dot
Film: The Major Tones
Monday, February 17, 3:15 pm at Wheeler Guilder Center
Thursday, February 20, 3:45 pm at Community Libraries of Providence, Mt. Pleasant
Dot-Dot-Dot-Dash-Dash-Dot… What did you say? “The Major Tones” narrative involves a mysterious coded signal that baffles the protagonist. Join Naval aviator and morse coder Tom Wesley to learn the importance of this code and how to create and unravel some simple codes of your own!
Tom Wesley has some very relevant experience with morse code. In order to earn his license as a Third Mate of ocean vessels nearly 50 years ago, he had to demonstrate his proficiency with it, but his first exposure to it was actually as a Boy Scout! Tom is a graduate of the United States Merchant Marine Academy and earned his wings as a Naval Aviator.
Monday, February 17: Filmmaker Angbeen Saleem
Film: “Billo Rani” in the Solving & Evolving Shorts Reel
Monday, February 17, 4:00 pm at Hope High School
POST SCREENING Director Q&A at 5:15 pm (ish)
Wednesday, February 19, 1:30 pm at Community Libraries of Providence, South Providence (** no Director talk)
Do your eyebrows speak to you? Join us with Director Angbeen Saleem for a discussion of Billo Rani, the story of Hafsa, a a sparkly and impulsive 12-year-old girl, who is made aware of her unibrow at Islamic Sunday School. Her eyebrows refuse to be browbeaten! They come alive to offer her some healthy advice.
Angbeen Saleem is Pakistani Muslim artist, filmmaker, poet, and aspiring farmer from Philadelphia, PA. She does communications for North Star Fund, a community foundation that funds grassroots organizing in New York City and the Hudson Valley. Previously, she worked at MTV, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the Aspen Institute. She loves the way storytelling can create space for learning, dialogue, and change.
Wednesday, February 19: Filmmaker Katie Cobos
Film: “Birds of a Feather” short film in the First Impressions Shorts Reel
Monday, February 17, 10:30 am at Wheeler Guilder Center (**no Director talk)
Wednesday, February 19, 10:00 am at Community Libraries of Providence, South Providence
POST SCREENING Director Q&A at 11:15 am (ish)
“Birds of a Feather” features a young child who has Tourette’s Syndrome. Join us for a conversation with Director Katie Cobos to learn more about this condition and how important it is to remember that first impressions never tell a person’s whole story.