Press Releases - Santa Cruz Film Festival CineMAH Presents An American Experience: The Donner Party Santa Cruz, California -- The Museum of Art & History (MAH), in partnership with the Santa Cruz Film Festival (SCFF), presents the third installment of MAH's after-hours programming, CineMAH. CineMAH is held the first Thursday of the month and offers yet another perspective on current exhibitions at MAH. The April 7th event includes extended gallery viewing hours and a screening of The Donner Party: American Experience, by filmmaker Ric Burns. From the PBS series The American Experience comes this documentary about a harrowing struggle for survival. Like many others with the pioneering spirit, the Donner party headed west for California in 1846, following their American Dream. Hitting difficult terrain and weather, they were forced into some of the most excruciating survival techniques known to man, and their name became synonymous with their hardship. Novelist James D. Houston will introduce the film and be on hand for a Q&A session afterward. Houston's latest novel, Snow Mountain Passage, is based upon the experiences of a family who came into California with the infamous Donner Party. This novel was named one of The Year's Best Books by The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, and the Washington Post. Central to the story is James Frazier Reed, co-organizer of the ill-fated wagon train. Much of the novel is narrated in the fictional voice of his younger daughter, Patty Reed, as an 80-year-old woman looking back upon this formative episode in the history of her family and in the settling of the Far West. The author was drawn to this epic material, having lived for many years in an elderly Victorian in Santa Cruz where Patty Reed spent the final years of her long life. Copies of Snow Mountain Passage will be available for purchase and booksigning by the author. This event is a perfect companion to MAH's current exhibitions Picturing the West: Tom Trujillo and Artists of the American West and Overland: The California Emigrant Trail of 1841-1870, both on view through June 19, 2005. Media sponsors: KWAV 97/Magic 63 and Metro Santa Cruz Media Contact: March 24, 2005 MAH: Dana Werdmuller (831) 429-1964 ext. 31, pr@santacruzmah.org ------------------------------------------------------ CineMAH: The Donner Party: American Experience WHERE: The Museum of Art & History (MAH) HOURS: Extended gallery viewing hours: 5:00 - 6:45 pm; INFO: Call the Museum at (831) 429-1964 |