“I always thought that a non-telepathic son of telepaths was an interesting idea,” says filmmaker Hal Burdick, sitting among the debris in his Durham apartment-cum-production office in early August. The genial 30-something writer-director is resting between edits of his low-budget film, Neptune and Me, and discussing its premise with a self-conscious campiness that reveals just […]
Matthijs E. Schoots
Posted inArt
Straight to Hell
The Open Door Theatre is presently preaching a fine sermon–The Bible: The Complete Word of God (Abridged)–that would be positively sinful to miss. Actors/Saints/Soap Salesmen Benjamin Beecher, Meredith Sause and Dante Walker, tasked with covering every book in the Bible in little over an hour, perform a marathon of costume and character changes that leaves […]
Posted inGuides
This Is Not a Novel
David Markson’s This Is Not a Novel starts with the phrase, “Writer is pretty much tempted to quit writing.” Then, on the next line, we read, “Writer is weary to death of making up stories.” Learning that “Writer” is equally tired of inventing characters, he lays out that his aim is “a novel with no […]
Posted inArt
Unlikely Activists
Patsy Clarke remembers very clearly the first words Eloise Vaughn ever spoke to her. “My name is Eloise Vaughn,” said a voice over the phone. “I understand you’ve lost a son to AIDS. So have I.” It was 1995, and Clarke, “wading through a morass of misery,” felt after this dramatic introduction that the woman […]
Posted inGuides
Her Generation
World-renowned “nonfiction filmmaker” Barbara Kopple will be in Durham during the DoubleTake Documentary Film Festival, running May 3 through May 6, to receive the festival’s Career Award. Kopple’s films are well known to documentary lovers. Harlan County, USA, for which she won an Oscar in 1977, plunged viewers into the heartbreaking but ultimately victorious struggle […]
Posted inNews
Time in a cup
It’s 7:45 p.m. and you’ve arrived at the coffee house a solid 15 minutes early. Guessing that she won’t have made it here before you, you have nevertheless prepared a disclaimer against your uncool punctuality. Gaucheness is a precipice you are willing to skirt, however, as you haven’t had a date this knee-weakening in ages. […]
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