Free For All

Highlighting the week's greatest gratis event

Comments (0) By Susan Froyd Thursday, Mar 6 2003

Has this buttoned-down new millennium got you down? Need a jolt of that good, old refreshing Front Range bohemian culture? You'll find it at Wine, Art and Revoluciones, a multimedia evening hosted monthly by Revoluciones Collective Art Space, (719 West Eighth Avenue), a hole-in-the-wall along the Santa Fe Drive corridor that's quietly doing its share to change the world.

Christopher Smith

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The event, which takes place at 7:30 p.m. on March 12, features a cultural grab bag that includes jazz and spoken-word readings by the Soulovely house troupe, short works by independent filmmakers, art exhibitions, and visits from representatives of other local alternative niches such as Cafe Nuba in Five Points. But at its heart are screenings of the Indymedia Newsreal, a collection of grassroots news reports from around the world that's shown locally on Boulder's Free Speech TV (it airs in forty cities nationwide).

According to Free Speech program director Eric Galatas, the reports are submitted by anyone from first-time filmmakers to Academy Award-winning documentarians; recent coverage has leaned heavily toward the anti-war movement as it gains momentum across America. The current program, he adds, includes a local piece, titled Just Plain Mountain Folk Against the War, which focuses on a group that displays its signs and banners to ski traffic near the Eisenhower Tunnel; an account of immigrants recently summoned by the INS and then detained in California; and Drop Bush Not Bombs, featuring footage taken during recent Washington, D.C., anti-war demonstrations.

If nothing else, Galatas says, watching the Newsreal in a social setting gives people a sense of connectedness: "People feel powerless, like they're not able to stop something as big as a war in Iraq by themselves. But when you see people all over the world making a difference, you don't feel as alone and helpless." It's also very much a social event, he notes: "The topics may seem serious, but the people involved are often foolish enough to make it fun."

Call Revoluciones at 303-825-3845; for more about Indymedia Newsreal and Free Speech TV, call 303-442-8445, ext. 108.