Clark Art Screens 'The Five Obstructions'

08:02AM / Monday, October 06, 2025Print Story | Email Story

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — On Thursday, Oct. 9 at 6 pm, the Clark Art Institute presents a screening of "The Five Obstructions," the next in a series of films celebrating Mariel Capanna's yearlong public spaces installation Giornata.

The screening takes place in the Manton Research Center auditorium.

Inspired by Capanna's practice of imposing time constraints upon herself while painting, this five-part series showcases films by directors who worked within time constraints.

According to a press release:

One of the great films about filmmaking, The Five Obstructions (2003) is a reflexive marvel of cinematic problem solving. In 1967, Jørgen Leth made The Perfect Human, a short anthropological comedy, which became a favorite of the young Lars von Trier. Decades later, von Trier came to Leth with an offer he couldn't refuse: he would produce five remakes of Perfect Human, each to be directed by Leth according to von Trier's diktat. The heart and soul of the film comes in their interactions: they meet, review the previous effort, and lay down the rules for the next. Von Trier's ruthless instinct for his collaborator's soft spots may be sadistic, but it's vastly entertaining. When he really wants to punish Leth, he gives him complete freedom. (Run time: 1 hour, 30 minutes)

All films in this series are free and screened on select Thursdays at 6 pm. Accessible seats available; for information, call 413 458 0524.

Tags: Clark Art,

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Mount Greylock School Committee Hears Budget Requests, Pressures

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
05:32AM / Wednesday, February 18, 2026

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Mount Greylock Regional School Committee Thursday heard the final rounds of fiscal year 2027 budget requests and heard why those — or any — discretionary increases in spending will be difficult in the year that begins July 1.

Williamstown Elementary Principal Benjamin Torres and middle-high school Principal Jake Schutz each presented the spending priorities formulated by their respective school councils. The requests followed a presentation by Lanesborough Elementary Principal Nolan Pratt at the January meeting.

Superintendent Joseph Bergeron then told the School Committee that state and federal aid to the district is going to be slightly lower than FY26 and reminded the panel that the district spent the last two years spending down its reserve accounts, as requested by the member towns, to the point where those reserves — School Choice, tuition and excess and deficiency — cannot be applied to the operating budget.

"Spending the exact same amount of money from this year to next year — that alone will mean a 4 percent increase [in appropriations] to each of our towns," Bergeron said. "That's the baseline on top of which everything else will happen.

"We know we're seeing an 8.75 percent increase in health insurance, but we also have an increasing number of employees who are taking our health insurance, so that health insurance line is increasing substantially. When it comes to out-of-district tuition as well as transportation, both of those are seeing marked increases as well."

District staff and the School Committee will further refine its FY27 budget over the next five weeks, with a budget workshop scheduled for Tuesday, March 3, and a public hearing and final budget vote on March 19.

The district's appropriations to Williamstown and Lanesborough, which each pay a proportional share of the prekindergarten-Grade 12 district's operating expenses, will face an up-or-down vote at each town's annual meeting, in May and June, respectively.

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