Maria Quezada of Boca Raton and her
Cairn terrier, Kaege, attend the Toto Look-a-Like
Contest in Mizner Park. Quezada, dressed as Dorothy
from The Wizard of Oz, was a contest judge and is an
employee at Mizner Park’s Love My Puppy store.
Photo by Tim Stepien
By Thom Smith
Films by an award-winning veteran, a successful actor making the leap to directing and a dedicated local filmmaker who keeps plugging away: the Palm Beach International Film Festival, as usual, will offer a little bit of everything during its March 23-28 run.
The opener will be Win Win, whose director, Thomas McCarthy, made a name for himself acting in The Lovely Bones, 2012, and in several installments of The Wire. So now he’s behind the camera, barking orders to the likes of Paul Giamatti, Amy Ryan and Jeffrey Tambor.
Mark Medoff, by comparison, was making headlines before McCarthy reached puberty, winning a Tony as a playwright for Children of a Lesser God, but he’s acted in, directed and produced more than his share, including Clara’s Heart. Now the University of Miami grad, who also served as the Burt Reynolds Eminent Scholar at FSU’s theater school, is back as writer and director of festival feature Refuge, starring Linda Hamilton and Christopher McDonald.
And then we have Frank Eberling. He’s had a love affair with a camera in Palm Beach County for more than 30 years. Started as a TV news shooter, branched into documentaries and even dabbled in a couple of locally made features and taught his craft to hundreds of high school and college students. Frank’s latest project is Turkles, which he wrote, directed and filmed. It’s a kids comedy about turtle egg poachers and, as is typical of Eberling’s productions, cast and crew are locals.
The festival will close March 28 with The First Grader, a Kenyan film about the struggle to get the education he could never afford by an 84-year-old man.
As for the suspense, well, most of it has abated along with rumors that the festival would not be held this year.
“That was never true,” festival Executive Director Randi Emerman said. “The only question was about Mizner Park Cinema, because we knew it was going to close. But we’ve got it all worked out.”
Instead of Mizner, the festival’s Boca site will be the new Living Room Theaters on the FAU campus. Screenings also will be held at the Movies of Delray, Lake Worth Playhouse and Muvico CityPlace in West Palm Beach. Boca’s Bridge is the host hotel this year.
Festival organizers have kept the celeb list a tight secret, but they did let on that this year’s Golden Palm Award will go to Richard Jenkins.
The Visitor, in which he appeared with McCarthy, is just one of 20 credits for Jenkins since 2005, and it earned him an Oscar nomination. Actually, his career stretches back to Silverado (1985) and before, and includes The Witches of Eastwick, Stealing Home, Sea of Love, There’s Something About Mary, Random Hearts, Shall We Dance, Eat, Pray, Love and the just-released Hall Pass. Jenkins will be honored at a new event, the Silver Screen Splash on March 25, at the Boca Resort & Club swimming pool.
“If it rains, I have a backup,” Emerman said. “And in keeping with our commitment to make this a festival for everyone, people can go to every film and every event, including the Splash, with a Platinum Pass for just $300. A $150 Gold Pass admits to every event except the Splash, and a pass for the festival films is offered to students for $35.” (www.pbifilmfest.org).
Busy man that Dennis Lambert.
The singer-songwriter will perform at the Film Festival’s big Splash. He’s already performed at the festival … on film in 2008, a documentary his son Jody directed, which has since inspired Warner Bros. to begin a feature about his life … with Steve Carell in the title role. Next up — April 22 at FAU’s Kaye Auditorium — is a concert, appropriately titled, “He wrote THAT?”, because Lambert, who is best known around Boca as a real estate agent (Double Platinum Realtors) has been nominated for 12 songwriting
Richard Jenkins
Grammys, including Starship’s We Built This City, the Four Tops’ Ain’t No Woman, One Tin Soldier and Rhinestone Cowboy among more than 80 Billboard hits.
The concert will kick off a national tour, and will feature a few guests, including R&B stars Tavares, Starship’s Mickey Thomas and Player’s Peter Beckett. For tickets, $40 to $125, visit fauevents.com or call 800-564-9539.
Some of Lambert’s friends will be here earlier — March 14, also at FAU. Hal Linden of Barney Miller fame, South Pacific’s William Michaels, comedians Robert Klein and Sal Richards, the Platters, and others, will be raising money for City of Hope. Tickets from $40 to $125 for VIP including after-show dinner at Matteo’s. (fauevents.com or 800-564-9539)
In August 1988, deadpan one-liner comic Steven Wright filled the Carefree Theatre in West Palm Beach. He was a howl, but when the show was over, the crowd was talking just as much about the opening act. He could play piano, he could sing and he could tell a pretty good joke or two himself.
That was Harry Connick Jr.’s first visit to South Florida. Soon he was big, really big.
Connick never forgot that promoter Jon Stoll of Fantasma Productions gave him that chance, and he returned often. He’ll be back April 9, with orchestra for AEG Live, Fantasma’s successor, at Mizner Park Amphitheater.
“We think it’s a perfect spot for Harry,” AEG V.P. John Valentino said of his first show at the Amphitheater since the city took it over from LiveNation. “We’ll see how it goes, but we expect to do a lot more.”
Three days before at Mizner, LiveNation will present Further, comprised of Grateful Dead members Phil Lesh and Bob Weir. Between the two shows, we’ll see how freeloading fans respond to new barricades to keep them off the median and the prohibition against coolers and open containers.
AEG also is producing several shows in April and May at Sunset Cove Amphitheater in South County Regional Park west of Boca, with Darius Rucker just added for May 12.
A non-AEG show featuring Little River Band is set for March 19, a benefit for Kids in Distress. Tickets are $35 or $75 for VIP seats that include beverages, snacks and a meet and greet with the band.
Speaking of topnotch entertainment and a little inspiration to boot, you can’t go wrong with Bobby Bowden. He may have retired from coaching, but he hasn’t lost his knack for telling tales. He’s also been writing: The book is titled Called to Coach, and he’ll no doubt mention it March 9 when he speaks at the YMCA prayer breakfast at the Boca Raton Resort & Club. For tickets, $75, call Terri Evans at 561-237-0943.
Boca has landed a real, honest-to-goodness pro sports team. Palm Beach County resident and magicJack inventor Dan Borislow bought the Washington Freedom of the Women’s Professional Soccer League, is renaming it magicTalk SC and moving it south for the 2011 season. Reports have the team splitting its home games between Boca and D.C., using FAU’s soccer stadium as the home field
For talent, the team boasts Abby Wambach, 2010 U.S. Women’s Player of the Year and Olympic gold medalist, and Boca Raton product Caitlin Miskel, 23, entering her sophomore season. League play begins April 9. Stay tuned.
More than 800 chocophiles packed the Boca Center courtyard Feb. 3 for the Junior League of Boca’s 10th annual Chocolate Decadence. While most of the participating restaurants offered a variety of desserts and libations — all infused with chocolate — Nunzio Billante, executive chef at Rocco’s Tacos, took honors for his main dish: Pork Mole Sopes. He picked up the recipe and technique while on vacation in the Yucatan. A couple of choco martinis also drew raves. The party raised nearly $50,000 for the Junior League’s programs.
So what’s a pro golfer to do after his first round at the Allianz Championship at Broken Sound? Well, if you’re David Frost, you make straight for the wine tent. The second annual Allianz Golf & Wine Experience showcases wines and spirits marketed by professional golfers, including Frost, Arnold Palmer, Greg Norman, Fred Couples, Ernie Els and Fuzzy Zoeller (he bottles vodka). Unlike his contemporaries, Frost didn’t invest in the grape after making his money on the green.
“My family has been growing grapes and making wine for more than 60 years,” Frost said. “I was working in the vineyards long before I was playing golf. It’s not something I take lightly.”
In fact, Frost paid for his first clubs with money he made picking grapes. He bought his own vineyard in
David Frost, left.
Fuzzy Zoeller, right.
his native South Africa in 1994 and produced his first cases in 1997, perfect timing since South African wines are now considered among the world’s best.
Incidentally, Frost placed ninth and pocketed $48,600, not bad for three days work. Bet it beats picking grapes.
Thom Smith is a freelance writer. He can be reached at thomsmith@ymail.com
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