By Thom Smith
Seems like everywhere you turn these days, you’ll find a film festival. No sooner does the Palm Beach International Festival wrap than two others hit local silver screens.The first Palm Beach Women’s International Festival opens April 7 for a four-day run at Muvico Parisian in West Palm Beach and the Lake Worth Playhouse. Opening film is The Whistleblower, best picture winner at the Palm Springs Festival. Hannah Free, the producer, and star Sharon Gless will be honored at the film’s screening at 7 p.m. Saturday, April 8 at the Compass Community Center in Lake Worth. A party in Gless’ honor will follow at The Cottage in Lake Worth.
The festival boasts 10 world premieres, seven U.S. premieres and films from 15 nations. Details at www.pbwiff.com.
From April 9-17, we get the Sixth Annual Downtown Boca Film Festival. Wait a minute! A festival in Boca? Well, the festival’s the same, just the name and the location have changed. For five years it was the Delray Beach Film Festival and, in fact, many of the films will be screened at the Movies of Delray.
The Boca festival opens with “Casino Night in Old Hollywood” at the Mizner Park Cultural Arts Center. Michael Stone, one of the forces behind Pineapple Groove in Delray, will host the party with sister Kelly Stone-Singer. No confirmation yet that their sister Sharon will make an appearance.
“She’s making a film right now, so we don’t know if she can get away or not,” Michael Stone said.
The event will benefit Planet Hope, founded by the Stones to help homeless children and their mothers. The black-tie-optional party will include food from local restaurants, silent and live auction, a casino and entertainment by 44th Street. Tickets are $50 in advance, $65 after April 4.
Several additional events are planned, including Reel to Runway fashion show on April 11 at Mizner Park ($35), filmmaker workshops, and parties every night. The screening schedule, however, was not available at press time. Check out www.dbff.us for details.
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A day for legends. Two of football’s greatest coaches, enjoying a little breakfast at the Boca Raton Resort & Club, then taking a few friendly jabs at each other and offering some insight. The occasion was the Boca YMCA’s annual Prayer Breakfast. The legends: Howard Schnellenberger and Bobby Bowden.
Schnellenberger helped guide the Miami Dolphins to NFL titles and led the University of Miami to a national collegiate championship. Bowden won two titles at Florida State University.
Now Schnellenberger is working his magic at Florida Atlantic University, building the program and a stadium from scratch. “It’ll be ready next fall,” he says of the stadium, its towers easily visible from I-95. “Even better, it’s ahead of schedule and under budget.”
Bowden, who retired, not exactly willingly, last year, said he’s on the road three or four days a week, but instead of recruiting, he’s making speeches. “I do get a chance to play golf a little more,” he confessed between bites, “but I’m not beating anybody.”
He turned a little more serious during his address, stressing the need for opportunity and responsibility.
“We need help for our young people; we need help for our families,” he said, asking rhetorically if young college players have changed in the half century since he started coaching.
“No, boys haven’t changed … but where the heck are their daddies? Who’s gonna raise these boys? Boys haven’t changed; parents have changed.
“Put a ball in their hands, and I don’t care if it’s a football, a baseball, a basketball or what, it’ll keep ’em occupied.”
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Tie down your easels, it’s going to be a bumpy month at Clay Glass Metal Stone Gallery in Lake Worth.
The madness began with an April Fool’s party, but it really gets going with the Second Annual Haitian Empty Bowl Fundraiser Saturday, April 9, from 10-4. More than 500 ceramic bowls — no two alike — that have been decorated by local artists, will be sold to supporters for $25 each or four for $80 in advance, $35 day of. Purchasers can then take their bowls to participating Lake Worth restaurants for menu morsels.
Participants this year include: La Bonne Bouche, The Cottage, Java Juice Bar, Taco Lady, TooJay’s, Rita’s Italian Ice, Havana Hideout, Kilwin’s, Nature’s Way, Paws on the Avenue (doggy treats), Rum Shack, Downtown Pizza, Dolce Vita, Dave’s Last Resort and Raw Bar, Brogue’s, Rotelli’s and Fiorentina.
Proceeds will go to the Art Creation Foundation for Children, an arts-based organization promoting personal growth, empowerment and education for children in Jacmel, Haiti. (561-588-8344)
On April 19, CGMS is hosting a “Peep Show” from 6-9 p.m. Gallery manager Joyce Brown isn’t saying much, except that the gallery “will be flooded with peeps of all kinds, shapes and colors.”
Rest easy, it’s G-rated.
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Hot stuff on the beach. Anthony Sanders, who for years was sous chef at the hot, hot 32 East in Delray and currently is a chef-consultant just up A1A at Café Cellini in Palm Beach, has a somewhat more earthy gig a little closer to the beach. Every Saturday during the season, he dishes up tacos from a truck at the Oceanside Farmer’s Market in Lake Worth.
At Taco Loquisimo (for gringos: Crazy Taco), he uses fresh ingredients and, unlike the usual taco trucker, his menu is always changing, depending on what’s available, including items he buys from fellow vendors that morning. Tacos are $3 a pop and they really ring a bell according to local patrons who begin lining up before Anthony’s 8 a.m. opening. Business is booming. He usually sells out.
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For two decades, Share Our Strength’s Taste of the Nation has been one of the most popular culinary fundraisers in Miami and Fort Lauderdale. The nationwide event, which features many of the nation’s top chefs, has raised more than $80 million to help reduce childhood hunger. Now it’s finally coming to Palm Beach County.
Café Boulud’s Zach Bell, who has hosted several smaller Share Our Strength dinners at his restaurant ,will spearhead this much larger event, set for Wednesday, April 13, at the Kravis Center.
Joining Bell will be Darryl Moiles from the Four Seasons Resort, Roy Villacrusis of Kubo, Holger Struett of Chops Lobster Bar and Dean James Max of 3800 Ocean, among many others, and including south county favorites 32 East, Casa d’Angelo, Dada, Michelle Bernstein’s at the Omphoy, Temple Orange at the Ritz-Carlton, Atlantic Ocean Club and Buddha Sky Bar, de la Terra at Sundy House, City Fish Market and Apicius.
Taste of the Nation supports Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry campaign, which supports summer meal and after-school snack programs, an average of nearly 11,000 lunches each day. Tickets are $80 in advance, $100 at the door; VIP tickets are $125 and $150 and include special lounge seating, specialty wines and spirits and a gift bag. Go to www.strengthflorida.org or call 561-998-2983.
Thom Smith is a freelance writer. He can be reached at thomsmith@ymail.com.
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