Griffin Dunne to Visit Triplex Cinema for Double Screening, Talkback

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GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. The Triplex Cinema will host a special program of events with actor, writer, producer and director Griffin Dunne, on Saturday, Sept. 21. 
 
Dunne will visit the Triplex to screen "The Center Will Not Hold," his award-winning documentary about his aunt, Joan Didion; to sign copies of his critically acclaimed new memoir "The Friday Afternoon Club," and to present "An American Werewolf in London," directed by John Landis and starring Dunne and David Naughton." The Center Will Not Hold" will screen at 4:30 PM and "An American Werewolf in London" will screen at 8:00 PM. In between, Dunne and WKZE radio host Adam Schartoff will have a talkback, and Dunne will introduce "An American Werewolf in London." 
 
Tickets are available for all of the events at the Triplex website, and books will be available to be purchased and signed at the Cinema.
 
"The Center Will Not Hold" was released  in 2017 to critical acclaim. The film incorporates archival footage and conversations with Didion about the eras she covered in essays, novels and screenplays. The documentary also touches on key events in Didion's personal life. Appearing in the documentary are Tom Brokaw, John Gregory Dunne, Harrison Ford, Patty Hearst, Vanessa Redgrave and Anna Wintour, among many others. Dunne's father, writer Dominick Dunne, was the brother of Didion's husband, John Gregory Dunne. 
 
"An American Werewolf in London," released in 1981, is a comedy horror film written and directed by John Landis. The film tells the story of two American backpackers, played by Dunne and David Naughton, who are attacked by a werewolf while traveling in the English countryside.  The film follows the two Americans as they head to London, and deal with the effects of the attack. "Werewolf" was Landis' followup to his gigantic hits "National Lampoon's Animal House," and the "Blues Brothers," and was both a critical and commercial success. "It was Dunne's first starring role. At the 1982 Academy Awards, Rick Baker was given the first ever Award for Best Makeup for his work on the film; Baker has gone on to win six additional Academy Awards for Best Makeup. 
 
"The Friday Afternoon Club" is Dunne's memoir of growing up among larger-than-life characters in Hollywood and Manhattan. Covering his childhood growing up in an around Hollywood royalty in an unconventional family, the book has received acclaim.
 
Nicki Wilson, President of the Triplex Board of Directors said: "We are so excited to have Griffin Dunne joining us at the Triplex for this multipart event. His memoir is wonderful, and both films we are showing are special in their own way," said Nicki Wilson, President of the Triplex Board of Directors. "Thank you to WKZE's Adam Schartoff for joining us for what I know will be a lively and well-informed conversation."
 
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South County Celebrates 250th Anniversary of the Knox Trail

By Tammy Daniels iBerkshires Staff

State Sen. Paul Mark carries the ceremonial linstock, a device used to light artillery. With him are New York state Sen. Michelle Hinchey and state Sen. Nick Collins of Suffolk County.
GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. —The 250th celebration of American independence began in the tiny town of Alford on Saturday morning. 
 
Later that afternoon, a small contingent of re-enactors, community members and officials marched from the Great Barrington Historical Society to the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center to recognize the Berkshire towns that were part of that significant event in the nation's history.
 
State Sen. Paul Mark, as the highest ranking Massachusetts governmental official at the Alford crossing, was presented a ceremonial linstock flying the ribbons representing every New York State county that Henry Knox and his team passed through on their 300-mile journey from Fort Ticonderoga to Boston in the winter of 1775-76. 
 
"The New York contingent came to the border. We had a speaking program, and they officially handed over the linstock, transferring control of the train to Massachusetts," said Mark, co-chair of Massachusetts' special commission for the semiquincentennial. "It was a great melding of both states, a kind of coming together."
 
State Rep. Leigh Davis called Knox "an unlikely hero, he was someone that rose up to the occasion. ... this is really honoring someone that stepped into a role because he was called to serve, and that is something that resonates."
 
Gen. George Washington charged 25-year-old bookseller Knox with bringing artillery from the recently captured fort on Lake Champlain to the beleaugured and occupied by Boston. It took 80 teams of horses and oxen to carry the nearly 60 tons of cannon through snow and over mountains. 
 
Knox wrote to Washington that "the difficulties were inconceivable yet surmountable" and left the fort in December. He crossed the Hudson River in early January near Albany, crossing into Massachusetts on what is now Route 71 on Jan. 10, 1776. By late January, he was in Framingham and in the weeks to follow the artillery was positioned on Dorchester Heights. 
 
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