AUGUST
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The lives of the leads in the two films that kick off the Black Harvest International Festival of Film and Video tonight revolve around food, drink, and romance. Short on Sugar stars Lynn A. Henderson (who also wrote and produced the ten-minute short) as the shy owner of a cafe who’s out to hook the man of her dreams. Musician, painter, and actor Moussa Sene Absa’s 2002 feature, Madame Brouette, focuses on an independent divorced woman who sells food from a cart in a Senegalese shantytown. She dreams of someday opening a snack bar, but her affair with a ne’er-do-well policeman throws her off track. Opening night festivities also include a tribute to V103 host and community relations director Bonnie DeShong, recipient of the first Deloris Jordan Award for Excellence in Community Leadership. At 6 the Muntu Dance Theatre of Chicago will give a free performance in front of the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State in Chicago. The screening starts at 7 and will be followed by a reception at Marshall Field’s, 111 N. State. Tickets are $8 and include the reception. (Both films will be shown again Sunday, August 3, at 3.) The Black Harvest festival runs through August 14; call 312-846-2800 or see www.siskelfilmcenter.org for more information. See Movies for a schedule and descriptions of the other films in the festival.
2 SATURDAY
Entertainment lawyer Kim Craft will talk about how to keep from getting ripped off in the music world at a free seminar in Oak Park tonight. Protecting Yourself as a Songwriter: Getting the Royalties You Deserve will cover everything you need to know about copyrighting your work. Craft, the former director of DePaul’s Music Business Program, recently launched her own business, the Commercial Music Institute, in Chicago, but promoter David True, who works with her and set up the seminar, maintains the lecture “is not an infomercial for CMI.” Two subsequent sessions, also free, will cover “Self-Promotion for Artists” (August 12), and “Tips on Negotiating Recording Contracts” (August 19). Hours are 6:30 to 8:30 PM at the Maze branch of the Oak Park Public Library, 845 S. Gunderson in Oak Park. Call 773-342-1337 for more information.
7 THURSDAY
