Students’ scary movies shown at The Moviehouse
From left: SOAR Executive Director Lauren Brown with Salisbury Central School students Zeira Collins, Noah Tencer, Augustus Tripler and Theodore Kneeland after the screening of their student-produced, -directed, -acted and -written series of short films shown to the public at on Sunday, Oct. 29, at The Moviehouse in Millerton. Photo by Judith O’Hara Balfe

Students’ scary movies shown at The Moviehouse

MILLERTON —  On Sunday, Oct. 28, The Moviehouse hosted a screening of short films written, directed, acted in and produced by youth from Salisbury Central School (SCS) in Connecticut, all participants in the Salisbury-based SOAR (Seek, Originate, Aim, Reach) program.

The first film was “The Dream,” followed by “The Girl,” “The Library,” “A Walk in the Woods,” and “Held Back.” All of the stories held some element of fright interspersed with real-life situations, such as a dissatisfied teacher handing back papers, learning a lesson about a full moon, fellow students morphing into monsters, and strange happenings in the library. Only one story had an actual adult in it, who played both a teacher and a devil, and that individual was Karen Lundeen, one of the founders of SOAR.

The production came about through the collaborative efforts of SOAR Executive Director Lauren Brown and Kip Williams, a board member of The Moviehouse. General Manager Jeremy Boviard greeted the audience and introduced the films. At the end, he opened a question-and-answer session, praising the youths for their hard work and the quality of their endeavors.

What came through in the Q&A was the fact that while the students had fun producing the films, they also learned from the experience and came to appreciate the talents of others. They were given a certain amount of autonomy, but all said that the grown-ups were indispensable, and they were grateful for SOAR, without which, they all agreed,  not even half a minute of film could have been created.

SOAR was begun in 2000 by Zenas Block, who served on the SCS board of finance for many years. As a chemist, business school professor and entrepreneur, he worked with C. Bynek Gold, the school’s principal, to develop a program that would enrich the school’s other curriculum. They were aided by Karen Lundeen, SOAR’s first program director.

SOAR also provides after-school programs, in-school author visits, assemblies and reading programs, and gives small grants to SCS for field trips and other programs. SOAR also hosts community-building programs that allow SCS students to engage with the wider community in positive and meaningful ways.

Latest News

Angela Derrick Carabine

Angela Derrick Carabine

SHARON — Angela Derrick Carabine, 74, died May 17, 2025, at Vasser Hospital in Poughkeepsie, New York. She was the wife of Michael Carabine and mother of Caitlin Carabine McLean.

A funeral Mass will be celebrated on June 6 at 11:00 a.m. at Saint Katri (St Bernards Church) Church. Burial will follow at St. Bernards Cemetery. A complete obituary can be found on the website of the Kenny Funeral home kennyfuneralhomes.com.

The Millerton News - June 5, 2025

The Millerton News - June 5, 2025

Download directly

Revisiting ‘The Killing Fields’ with Sam Waterston

Revisiting ‘The Killing Fields’ with Sam Waterston

Sam Waterston

Jennifer Almquist

On June 7 at 3 p.m., the Triplex Cinema in Great Barrington will host a benefit screening of “The Killing Fields,” Roland Joffé’s 1984 drama about the Khmer Rouge and the two journalists, Cambodian Dith Pran and New York Times correspondent Sydney Schanberg, whose story carried the weight of a nation’s tragedy.

The film, which earned three Academy Awards and seven nominations — including one for Best Actor for Sam Waterston — will be followed by a rare conversation between Waterston and his longtime collaborator and acclaimed television and theater director Matthew Penn.

Keep ReadingShow less
film screening

The art of place: maps by Scott Reinhard

The art of place: maps by Scott Reinhard

Scott Reinhard, graphic designer, cartographer, former Graphics Editor at the New York Times, took time out from setting up his show “Here, Here, Here, Here- Maps as Art” to explain his process of working.Here he explains one of the “Heres”, the Hunt Library’s location on earth (the orange dot below his hand).

obin Roraback

Map lovers know that as well as providing the vital functions of location and guidance, maps can also be works of art.With an exhibition titled “Here, Here, Here, Here — Maps as Art,” Scott Reinhard, graphic designer and cartographer, shows this to be true. The exhibition opens on June 7 at the David M. Hunt Library at 63 Main St., Falls Village, and will be the first solo exhibition for Reinhard.

Reinhard explained how he came to be a mapmaker. “Mapping as a part of my career was somewhat unexpected.I took an introduction to geographic information systems (GIS), the technological side of mapmaking, when I was in graduate school for graphic design at North Carolina State.GIS opened up a whole new world, new tools, and data as a medium to play with.”

Keep ReadingShow less
exhibit