Images Cinema Community Open House & Art Show Opening

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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. - Images Cinema will host a Community Open House on Friday, January 16 from 5:30-7:30pm, to give everyone an opportunity to see the newly renovated space. Free popcorn and hot chocolate will be available, as well as new concessions item samples, including natural colas, handcrafted peanut butter cups, giant ginger cooks, and handmade dark chocolate non-pareils.

This event is happening in tandem with the opening reception for "In the Flesh," an art show organized by a group of Williams College students, as well as an informal kick-off to the Williams College Queer Film Festival, organized by the Dively Committee, which is happening at Images Cinema January 16 through Thursday, January 17. Images Cinema is located at 50 Spring Street, Williamstown, MA.

In The Flesh

"In The Flesh" is a collection of student work that explores, among many things, the expression and denial of corporeality. Skin, meat and bones—on one hand, they carry weight, anchoring our lives to the physical world, providing a vehicle for our desires and a means with which to pursue our dreams. On the other hand, our bodies are ultimately transient and ephemeral, bearing the whips and scorns of time, vulnerable to the consumption of others. The show also investigates extent to which our presence is apparent in our environments, even when our bodies have disappeared. As the introductory show organized by H?W!presents, we hope and find it appropriate that you come to meet us, and our art, in the flesh.

Williams College Queer Film Festival

The Williams College Dively Committee for Human Sexuality and Diversity will present The Williams College Queer Film Festival 2009 January 16-22 at Images Cinema. The highlight of the Festival will be the January 17 appearance of acclaimed writer, actor, and director John Cameron Mitchell to host the screening of his films "Shortbus" and "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" and to DJ at a dance party following. The Festival starts at 8 pm on Friday, January 16, "The Edge of Heaven," a 2007 Turkish-German film written and directed by Fatih Ak?n, which won the Prix du scénario at Cannes. At midnight, join the South Hadley-based Come Again Players for a traditional live-cast midnight screening of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show."

For information about the other films in the festival, please visit http://williamsqueerfilmfestival.com/ or http://www.imagescinema.org/events.php. The only one of its kind in Berkshire County, Images Cinema is a year-round non-profit, member-supported community film house that presents a wide range of films that impact filmmaking and our culture. Images continuously seeks to entertain, educate and engage the community with quality programming, while maintaining its dedication to independent film and media. Images Cinema is supported in part by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency. Check for up-to-date happenings at www.imagescinema.org.
If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Williamstown Planning Board Narrowing in on Subdivision Bylaw Changes

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Planning Board late last month discussed specific features of what it plans to pass as a new subdivision control bylaw this year.
 
The board long has discussed the complex set of regulations as being out of date and cumbersome to both potential developers and the board itself, which has needed to hear requests for waivers of outdated rules for the handful of residential subdivisions that have been proposed in town in recent years.
 
This spring, the town engaged consultants from Northampton's Dodson and Flinker Landscape Architecture and Planning to go through the existing bylaw, compare it to more contemporary regulations in other communities and help craft a revised bylaw.
 
Unlike the zoning bylaw, where amendments require approval of town meeting, the subdivision control bylaw is a creation of the Planning Board, which can make changes on its own after a public hearing process it hopes to complete this year.
 
At a special Planning Board meeting on May 26, Dillon Sussman of Dodson and Flinker and his colleagues walked the board through a dozen different decision points that the board must resolve — either by leaving the bylaw as is or making a change — and offered suggestions based on best practices.
 
All of the issues are technical and ranged from the fundamental, like how the bylaw will define types of subdivisions, to the highly specific, like what turning radii will be required in new streets that are constructed to serve planned developments.
 
One example of a topic that came up in the recent approval of a four-home subdivision off Summer Street is stormwater management.
 
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