I am thankful for @AuroraPicture because...

This holiday season Aurora Picture Show has partnered with several amazing companies for a holiday raffle and un-office party extravaganza that will get your holiday sweaters out of the closet and onto the dance floor. We hope that you will consider supporting Aurora by purchasing a raffle ticket or becoming an Aurora member today. For that, we would be very appreciative!

As a friend to the Muses, we want to know what arts inspired you in 2009 and what you are thankful for this holiday season. We know it has been a tough year, but even in gloomy times there is still inspiration and beauty. Show your gratitude and let us know what you are thankful for to be entered for a chance to win one free raffle ticket!

Help us spread the word about the Aurora Holiday Raffle by letting us know "@AuroraPicture, I am thankful for..."

Submit your entry to @AuroraPicture via Twitter, on the Aurora Facebook page, or here in the comments section of the Aurora blog anytime between 11/16 and 11/26. We will giveaway five (5) raffle tickets to the best responses. Just let us know what you are thankful for!

Aurora is thankful for our Holiday Party and Raffle Sponsors, including SXSW, Hotel Sorella, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Shade Restaurant, Canopy Restaurant, Kiehl's in Highland Village, Cyclone Anaya's, DiverseWorks, Block 7 Wine Company, Crave Cupcakes, 13 Celsius, Whole Foods Market, Tacos A G0-Go, Treebeards Restaurant, Cinema Bomar, Saint Arnold Brewery, WorldFest Film Festival and Stockholm Vodka.

To learn more about the raffle and purchase tickets, CLICK HERE

To join Aurora Picture Show, CLICK HERE

To visit the Aurora Picture Show Twitter Page, CLICK HERE

To visit the Aurora Picture Show Facebook Page, CLICK HERE

CONTEST RULES

• Contest is from Monday, November 16, 2009 and will end on or around 4 p.m. on Thursday, November 26, 2009.
• Aurora is not responsible for technological difficulties that may prevent an individual from completing an entry.
• To participate in the Contest, you may enter via the following method: Submit what you are thankful for via Aurora Picture Show Twitter account @AuroraPicture. All entries submitted become the sole property of Aurora Picture Show and will not be acknowledged. Use of any device to automate entry is prohibited. Proof of submission of an entry shall not be deemed proof of receipt by Aurora Picture Show.
• One entry per person.
• The contest is open to all persons who are 21 years of age or older.
• Only one winner per household is permitted.
• Aurora may reject and delete any entry that it determines to be false or fraudulent or who do not meet the eligibility requirements, and will also delete any entry received from persons under the age of 13.
• Decisions of Contest Entities management with respect to the Contest are final.
• Winner need not be present to win but must provide contact information.
• By participating in the contest, the winner or winners agree to have their name and information used in promotions about the contest.
• Failure to comply with the Contest rules may result in a contestant’s disqualification solely at the discretion of the Contest Entities.
  

Aurora Artists and Co-presentations at Cinema Arts Festival Houston

Aurora Picture Show is delighted to have been among the arts organizations that helped shape and define Houston’s newest film festival, Cinema Arts Festival Houston. Running November 11-15, 2009, Cinema Arts Festival highlights contemporary art and artists through feature films, panels, workshops, and special events. Listed below are screenings co-presented with Aurora, and events that feature past Aurora Artists who will be in attendance.

Be sure to check out the Cinema Arts Festival website for a full schedule and ticketing info. Aurora will also be hosting ticket give-aways to some festival events, so stay tuned to our Facebook and Twitter pages for chances to win!


What if, Why Not? Underground Adventures with Ant Farm
Thursday, November 12 at 7PM, UH College of Architecture Auditorium
Presented with Aurora Picture Show
What If, Why Not is the first film to delve into the work of the renegade 1970s architecture collective Ant Farm, best known for its iconic land-art piece Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, Texas. Radical architects, video pioneers, and mordantly funny cultural commentators, the Ant Farmers created a body of deeply subversive work that questioned everything by posing a set of creative and comedic alternatives. Combining futuristic notions gleaned from Buckminster Fuller and NASA with lo-fi production methods; utopian visions with a love of trashy backyard Americana; and a respect for "high" intellectual ideas with an irreverent, often crass sense of humor, Ant Farm's work was quintessential American in its ethos and methodology and emblematic of a period in American history that continues to captivate and shape modern culture.

Aurora Connections:
Laura Harrison: Co-director, Aurora Advisory Board member, and past Aurora artist
Beth Federici: Co-director, former Aurora Advisory Board member, and past Aurora artist
Chip Lord: Art Farm member, recipient of Aurora Award 2004, past Aurora artist
Curtis Schreier: Art Farm member, recipient of Aurora Award 2004, past Aurora artist

Experimental Film and Visual Arts: Holly Fisher and Jennifer Reeves
Moderated by Andrea Grover
Friday, November 13 at 1PM, Alabama Theater
The moving image, as manipulated in striking, painterly ways by experimental filmmakers Jennifer Reeves and Holly Fisher, will be explored in relation to painting, sculpture and photography.

Aurora Connections:
Andrea Grover: Founder, Aurora Picture Show
Jennifer Reeves: Featured artist on Aurora Video Label, Cinemad DVD.

Pictures from a Revolution
Friday, November 13 at 4PM, Museum of Fine Arts Houston
No one captured more powerfully the suffering, sacrifice, and finally celebration that accompanied the Sandinista victory than Susan Meiselas, the award-winning photojournalist who covered the Nicaraguan revolution for the New York Times and London Times. In Pictures from a Revolution, Meiselas returns to Nicaragua a decade later with codirectors Richard P. Rogers and Alfred Guzzetti to track down the people—soldiers, revolutionaries, and ordinary people—pictured in her original photographs and their previous film, Living at Risk (screening Saturday at the Cinema Arts Festival Houston). Pictures from a Revolution is not a sequel to the previous work, which explored the life of a Nicaraguan family; rather, it is a deeper and wider analysis of a country and its people.

Aurora Connection:
Alfred Guzzetti: Past Aurora artist

When it was Blue
Friday, November 13 at 7PM, Rice Media Center
Cine artist, Jennifer Reeves is again showcased in a screening night that includes a double-projector performance with live musical accompaniment by Skúli Sverrisson. When It Was Blue is an ode to nature and 16mm film as they rapidly vanish. This double-projection 16mm film rejoices in the splendor of seasons, landscapes, and wildlife as we traverse land and ocean.

Aurora Connection:
Jennifer Reeves: Featured artist on Aurora Video Label, Cinemad DVD

Living at Risk: The Story of a Nicaraguan Family
Saturday, November 14 at 4PM, Rice Media Center
Filmed before Pictures From A Revolution, Alfred Guzzetti's Living at Risk is a snapshot of the life of a family during a period of civil war, uncertainty, and despair, five years after the Sandinistas gained power in Nicaragua, overthrowing the brutal and long reign of the Somoza family. The documentary centers on five brothers and sisters who commit themselves to work with the Sandinista revolutionary government and to contribute to the social changes in their professional and personal lives.

Aurora Connections:
Alfred Guzzetti: Past Aurora artist

What if, Why Not? Underground Adventures with Ant Farm
Friday, November 13 at 9:45PM, Angelika Film Center
See description above.

The Time We Killed
Saturday, November 14 at 1PM, Rice Media Center
The Time We Killed is the first feature by avant-garde filmmaker Jennifer Reeves, who had been generally known for her formal experimentation with optical printing and painting directly on film (as in the extraordinary When It Was Blue, screening Friday) and her exploration of a range of topics including women’s sexuality, mental health and recovery, poetry, and dogs. The Time We Killed is a surprising departure, a remarkably assured narrative feature.

Aurora Connection:
Jennifer Reeves: Featured artist on Aurora Video Label, Cinemad DVD

The Yes Men Fix The World
Saturday, November 14, 7PM, Rice Media Center
Winner of the Panorama Audience Award at the Berlin International Film Festival, The Yes Men Fix the World is a screwball true story about the satirical activist team the Yes Men. Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno’s theatrical performances take place on unusual stages. Dressed in thrift-store suits, posing as top executives of corporations they consider criminal, the Yes Men lie their way into business conferences and parody their corporate targets in outrageous, yet strangely plausible ways.

Aurora Connection: The Yes Men: Past Aurora artists

H Box: A conversation with Banjamin Weil
Sunday, November 15 at 1pm, Alabama Theater
In Conversation with Toby Kamps and Mary Magsamen
The artistic director of H BOX, an innovative, mobile screening room presenting work by ten international artists, talks about commissioning original works of art and exhibiting them in this exciting new venue, on display in the Alabama Theatre through November 15.

Aurora Connection: Mary Magsamen: Current Aurora Artistic Director, past Aurora artist

The Yes Men Fix The World
Sunday, November 15, 1PM, Angelika
See description above