AIF Blog - Arts
December 10, 2012
Last week, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the shortlist of documentaries that will progress into the voting process for the Oscars. Among the 15 are two films that screened at Aspen Ideas Festival.James Balog's Chasing Ice and Rachel Grady's and Heidi Ewing's Detropia. Watch the trailers below and see the talks they gave at Aspen Ideas.Chasing Ice (Watch post-screening discussion here.)In...
November 13, 2012
This episode of The Aspen Institute Presents delves into the importance of art with some of contemporary culture's most creative forces.Moby talks at length about his love of photographing Los Angeles, the joy he gets from collaborating with his heroes, and his process for making music—which he calls a “monastic” experience.Julie Taymor reveals how her experiences living in Indonesia as a teenager profoundly...
July 01, 2011
Aspen Ideas' Afternoon of Conversation is a signature event, and yesterday's was no exception. Over a thousand guests filled the Benedict Music Tent for a stimulating afternoon of discussions on the dais. Speakers included a Supreme Court justice, the leader of Israel's opposition, a cabinet secretary and more; it was a heady way to spend a rainy day in Aspen.Here are the highlights:"Every time we have a First...
September 20, 2011
The Aspen Ideas Festival congratulates Roland Fryer Jr. and Kay Ryan who are among the 22 new fellows named by the MacArthur Foundation.According to the foundation's website: "They will each receive $500,000 in no-strings-attached support over the next five years. MacArthur Fellowships come without stipulations or reporting requirements and offer Fellows unprecedented freedom and opportunity to reflect, create, and...
May 25, 2011
Ways of Seeing, Ways of Thinking...The Aspen Idea has always seen the arts as interwoven with the other forces in our society. At the Festival, we’ll explore the importance of design with Paola Antonelli, MOMA’s senior curator of architecture and design; the role documentary film plays in our culture with Steve James (director of the Interrupters), Diane Weyermann, executive producer of Waiting for “Superman,”...
February 11, 2011
Last summer, John Fetterman brought down the house at the Ideas Festival. The mayor of the small Pennsylvania town of Braddock told his inspiring story about how the arts would affect social change in his poverty-stricken town. Read about his audacious story of urban renewal here in the The New York Times."Thrust into the national spotlight, Fetterman has become something of a folk hero, a Paul Bunyan of hipster...
December 10, 2010
With a spate of new 3D movies out this holiday season, where is technology and the movie industry headed? Jeffrey Katzenberg, head of DreamWorks, the world's largest animation studio, talks about the movie biz, 3D sports broadcasting, the roll of 3D in storytelling and even holograms, at the 2010 Festival.