It was in Fall 1995 that I first was introduced to the gospel singing Sanders Family of “up near Siler City, North Carolina,” in a production of Smoke on the Mountain at Nashville's venerable Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre. In 2023, the family returns again, as if by magic or perhaps accompanied by flights of angels, in a warmly nostalgic, sweetly sentimental and altogether lovely production from Studio Tenn playing through April 2 at the historic sanctuary of the First United Methodist Church in downtown Franklin, which stands in quite nicely for the First Baptist Church of Mount Pleasant, North Carolina, on a Saturday night in 1938.
The Festival made its long-awaited return on April 21, inviting audiences back into the theaters with a program filled with unique stories and perspectives from around the world and the Bay Area.
The Sharjah International Film Festival for Children and Youth (SIFF) continues to serve as an exciting platform for young cinema enthusiasts, with the eighth edition announcing an impressive list of 40 foreign language masterpieces, which will be screened virtually from October 10 – 15.