• The East Asheville Library resumes its documentary series with the 2014 film The Ivory Tower Thursday, Sept. 17, at 6:15 p.m. Stirred by rising tuition rates and student loan debt, director Andrew Rossi asks if college is worth the cost. To find out, he travels from the halls of Harvard to public colleges in financial crisis to Silicon Valley. The screening is free and open to the public.
• More than 40 short films from around the world and one feature-length picture will be shown at the sixth annual Movies by Movers Festival at Appalachian State University in Boone from Wednesday, Sept. 16, through Saturday, Sept. 20. The diverse slate of films about dance challenges preconceptions of what the art form can be, from modern, ballet and jazz to circus, parkour, skating and other sports.
The festival was founded by ASU dance faculty member Cara Hagan and showcases work by longtime professionals, emerging artists and students. The featured film for 2015 is Soar, which explores the relationship forged between sisters Kiera Brinkley — a dancer, choreographer and quadruple amputee who lost her limbs at age 2 — and Uriah Boyd, who was born a month before her sister contracted pneumococcal sepsis. The Thursday, Sept. 17, screening at 7 p.m. will be followed by a Skype Q&A with Brinkley and Boyd.
Other festival highlights include Well Contested Sites, a choreographic work for film that features former inmates (part of a program focused on activism), and the documentary From the Heart of Brahma (part of a program focused on LGBT issues). All screenings are free and open to the public. avl.mx/1jm
• In conjunction with R&B/soul-singer Ms. Lisa Fischer’s Friday, Sept. 18, performance at the Diana Wortham Theatre, the Fine Arts Theatre is hosting two special screenings of 20 Feet from Stardom, the Oscar-winning documentary in which Fischer is prominently featured. The first showing will be Thursday, Sept. 17, at 7 p.m. with a post-film Q&A with Fischer. The second takes place Friday, Sept. 18, at 4 p.m. Tickets are available at the Fine Arts Theatre box office and online. fineartstheatre.com
• Asheville writer Maryedith Burrell will lead Prose To Picture, a workshop for local writers who want to transform prose — from novels to short stories to comics — into a working script. According to the workshop description, it is “designed to introduce writers of other media to the fine art of screenplay. Using lecture, film clips, on-site exercises, discussion and handouts, students will get the basics of visual storytelling and dramatic structure, plus an opportunity to try their hand at adaptation.” The workshop takes place Saturday, Sept. 26, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church’s Sandburg Hall
Prose To Picture is sponsored by the Flatiron Writers. The cost is $65 per person. flatironwriters.com
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