EVENTS: UGLY DISCO, “STOMP” 21 FILM: “UNKNOWN,” THE DAYNAS 28 RESTAURANT REVIEW: ITASTEA
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URBAN JOURNAL: AH, DEMOCRACY
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CROSSWORD 39
Nasty Habit • Rosanne Cash • Flogging Molly • Anyango Yarbo-Davenport • Brian Lindsay • Miss Honey Dijon • AND MORE MUSIC, PAGE 14
FEBRUARY 23 - MARCH 1, 2011 Free
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Greater Rochester’s Alternative Newsweekly
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Vol 40 No 24
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News. Music. Life.
Poor kids can learn, but not if they don’t want to.” MAIL, PAGE 2
Tracking changes in the world’s ecosystem. NEWS, PAGE 5
Teachers want Brizard out. NEWS, PAGE 6
REVIEW: Geva’s “Over the Tavern.” THEATER, PAGE 21
REVIEW: VSW’s “A Reading Room for Shedding Light.” ART, PAGE 24
FEATURE | STORY BY ERIC REZSNYAK | PAGE 10 | ILLUSTRATION BY MATT DETURCK
Changing reels: The Little in transition If you’re tuned in to the Rochester arts and cultural scene, you may have heard rumors about trouble at The Little, the region’s premier independent and foreign movie house. Between a recent lawsuit brought against the theater for non-payment of some of its café musicians, the lack of an executive director since last summer, and the constant pleas for memberships, the concern is understandable. But according to the current leadership of the theater, the concern is also unfounded. “The Little is not in trouble,” says Matthew MacKinnon, president of the Little Theatre Film
Society Board. He acknowledges that sluggish ticket sales and dwindling grant dollars left the theater in the red for the past two years. But MacKinnon says that the theater is currently doing well, and is coming out of what he refers to as a financial transition period. At the same time, the film industry itself has changed, with increased crossover between mainstream and independent films and a shift in theatergoing trends. The Little will be 82-years-old this fall, and “the Little will be around for the next 80 years,” MacKinnon says. “It is just continuing our mission that gets more patrons through the door.”