For a screenwriter, having your script performed live is a rare and invaluable opportunity to hone your craft. Ideas become tangible and the writer can easily see what works and what doesn’t work. On Monday night, nine area students got that opportunity.

Local photographer Mark Palmer has shot everything from drag queens to tropical storms to zombie poker games. A recent shoot featured our own Backstage Blogger Kathryn Parks getting sliced and diced by the slasher starring in House of Blood, a locally-made horror film.

Contributor Robin Punsalan thought she was all “movied-out” after wrapping up a long season of film awards with the Oscars—but then she rediscovered her list of movies for a rainy day.

The 85th Academy Awards aired less than 24 hours ago. Although Contributor Robin Punsalan didn’t get to watch all of the nominees this year, she has been doing a lot of thinking about this most exciting night in the film industry.

Don’t you love it when the little guy shoulders his way in to play with the big boys? This post-Hurricane Katrina fable film is centered on a feisty little girl, Hushpuppy (Quvenzhane Wallis), who lives with her ailing father Wink (Dwight Henry) in the Louisiana Bayou.

I am compelled to write about this film because I feel very few elevate something we all could use now: hope, humility, the recognition of our frailty and how, in the midst of hell, still we are capable of profound compassion.