Here's what's going on this week:
Thursday, April 18

• The High Falls Film Festival begins today. The first event is a Coffee Chat with Directors held at the Rochester Plaza State Street Grill (in the hotel) from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. [source: High Falls Film Festival website, 2013-Apr-16]
• This evening from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Frederick Douglass Resource Center (36 King Street), the FDRC Underground presents Mindbuilders.
  

  MindBuilders is committed to building a community of youthful spirits, curious about life and communal prosperity! These monthly programs engage and stimulate each participant's critical and creative thought process utilizing music, spoken word and photographic elements. Our monthly 'UnPlugged' spoken word series is hosted by BrightIdeCy, FDRC's resident poet. MindBuilders facilitates a discussion centered on the content of the various forms of stimuli with a guided analysis of the art.

  [source: Facebook, 2013-Apr-16]

• Today from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. is the first of a six session course on Cast Concrete — Intro to Artistic Techniques at the Rochester Makerspace (850 St. Paul St.)
  

  In this course you will learn to cast small concrete objects with traditional wood forms, unusual artistic forms, and fabric. Taught by Pat de Keyserling, a mason with thirty five years experience, you will have the opportunity to investigate various techniques, additives and colors for projects ranging from jewelry to residential sidewalks. Bring your imagination.

  (Also bring $120.) [source: Craigslist classes, 2013-Apr-16]

• Tonight from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in the Winton Community Room of the Winton Branch Public Library is a screening of the Best Short Films from the Rochester International Short Film Festival. [source: Monroe County Library website, 2013-Apr-16]
• Tonight at 7:30 p.m. in Hoyt Auditorium on the University of Rochester campus is a screening of Who Cares About Kelsey? (Dan Habib, U.S. 2012, 80 min.)
  

  Kelsey Carroll has one goal—to graduate from high school—and plenty of reasons why she shouldn't. She attends a school with one of the highest dropout rates in New Hampshire and has dealt with homelessness, sexual abuse, and ADHD. As a freshman, she didn't earn a single academic credit, but she did get suspended for dealing drugs. 'Who Cares About Kelsey?' is the story of Kelsey's transformation from a defiant and disruptive 'problem student' to a motivated and self-confident young woman. Along the way, critical figures in her personal and educational life shape her coming of age and play important roles in an education revolution that's about empowering—not overpowering—our most emotionally and behaviorally challenged youth.

  [source: University of Rochester Cinema Group website, 2013-Apr-16]

• This evening at 8 p.m. and on Sunday at 2 p.m., the Dryden will screen Room 237 (Rodney Ascher, U.S. 2012, 102 min., Blu-ray).
  

  After the commercial failure of Barry Lyndon, Stanley Kubrick took on a more commercial project: an adaptation of a bestselling thriller by Stephen King, whose Carrie had delivered major box office a few years earlier. Of course, the end result, The Shining, befuddled just as many critics, even as it steadily gained recognition as … what? A statement about the breakdown of patriarchy? A disguised study of the Holocaust? An allegory for the genocide of Native Americans? An apologia for Kubrick's helping to fake the moon landing? Ascher takes on these theories and more in Room 237, which explores the divergent readings of a group of devout fans and film scholars in the manner of a suspense thriller. A darkly funny deconstruction of Kubrick's masterpiece and our desire for fixed meanings, Room 237 is a must for any of his fans.

  [source: Dryden website, 2013-Apr-16]

• Tonight starting around 9 p.m. at Abilene is "acclaimed singer-songwriter … and ukulele player" Cammy Enaharo, and "poetry-guitar duo," Arbitration Sweets. [source: Abilene website, 2013-Apr-16]
• Declan Ryan and Close Calls will perform their Album Release Show and Tour Kickoff tonight at the Bug Jar with really great sounding acoustic trio Baby Shark, and Tim Avery starting around 8 p.m. [source: Bug Jar calendar, 2013-Apr-16]

Friday, April 19

• Tonight at Image City Photography Gallery is the Opening Reception for Worlds Apart: Ethiopia and Elsewhere featuring works by Jim Patton, and David Perlman from 5 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. The show is on display through May 12. [source: Image City Photography Gallery e-mail, 2013-Apr-15]
• Starting around 6 p.m. at Abilene is Happy Hour with "the funky jazz sounds of" The Mighty High and Dry followed at 9 p.m. by "folk duo" Hollands, and "Philly-based blues/funk band" Funkharp. [source: Abilene website, 2013-Apr-16]
• This evening from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Community Darkroom is the Opening Reception for Draft, "an annual photography publication and exhibition organized and executed by students in the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT)." [source: Genesee Center for the Arts website, 2013-Apr-16]
• The Baobab will screen Nat Turner: a Troublesome Property (Charles Burnett, U.S. 2003, 58 min.) at 7 p.m.
  

  Nat Turner's slave rebellion is a watershed event in America's long and troubled history of slavery and racial conflict. Nat Turner: A Troublesome Property tells the story of that violent confrontation and of the ways that story has been continuously re-told during the years since 1831. It is a film about a critical moment in American history and of the multiple ways in which that moment has since been remembered. Nat Turner was a "troublesome property" for his master and he has remained a "troublesome property" for the historians, novelists, dramatists, artists and many others who have struggled to understand him.

  [source: Baobab website, 2013-Apr-16]

• The Eastman Jazz Ensemble and the New Jazz Ensemble perform tonight at 8 p.m. in Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre. [source: Eastman School of Music calendar, 2013-Apr-16]
• Tonight at 8 p.m., the Dryden will screen 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, U.S./U.K. 1968, 142 min.)
  

  Deemed "the ultimate science fiction movie" by George Lucas, Kubrick's 2001 has had an incalculable influence on filmmaking. Even now, at a time when the sci-fi blockbuster has become commonplace, the film continues to resonate with audiences and contains some of the most enduring images, characters, and dialogue in all of cinema. A near-perfect intersection of stunning cinematography, epic storytelling, and sharp cultural relevance, the film marks both the rising influence of Kubrick and the New Hollywood directors and the legitimization of science fiction as a viable genre outside the "B-movie" productions of the 1950s. The Dryden proudly presents this landmark film in its original 35mm widescreen format and invites you to join us for an unforgettable cinematic experience.

  [source: Dryden website, 2013-Apr-16]

Saturday, April 20

• All day today is Record Store Day, so head to your local record shop and make sweet love to some music. [source: Bop Shop website, 2013-Apr-16]
• Today from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the Community Room of the Arnett Branch Public Library, Judy Price will present Canning and Freezing Food Tips.
  

  A Cornell Cooperative Extension Home Food Preservation expert will discuss modern methods for canning, freezing and drying high quality and safe foods. It's not your grandmother's canning anymore! Basic instructions on up-to-date methods using recommended equipment will be given. [source: Monroe County Library website, 2013-Apr-16]

• ArtAwake 2013 happens today from 2 p.m. to 11:45 p.m. at the Sibley Tower Building (25 Franklin St.) [source: UofR website events calendar, 2013-Apr-16]
• This afternoon at 2 p.m. at the Little is the matinee screening of the New York Film Quarterly (NYFQ) program of short films. [source: Little Theatre website, 2013-Apr-16]
• Today from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the Kate Gleason Auditorium of the Bausch and Lomb Library Building, Kim Bixler will discuss her book, Growing Up in a Frank Lloyd Wright House.
  

  Kim Bixler's family owned Frank Lloyd Wright's 1908 Edward E. Boynton House in Rochester, Ny from 1977 to 1994. During its construction, the world-renowned architect was frequently onsite, supervising all details, including the design of the furniture (seventeen pieces still remain in the prairie-style house).

  [source: Friends of the Public Library e-mail, 2013-Apr-15]

• This evening starting around 6 p.m. is the Lovin' Cup's 4/20 Bash featuring wicked fun, saxophone-driven, percussive groove-rock band The BuddhaHood, The Filthy Mcnasty's, Extended Family, and Hollands [source: Lovin' Cup website, 2013-Apr-16]
• Special Event: This evening starting at 7 p.m. at the Flying Squirrel is a Script-in-Hand Reading of Citizens Band by Jason Olshefsky (that would be me, by the way).
  

  When Ann and Ben embark on a cross-country road-trip, will their friendship make it all the way?

  [source: Facebook, 2013-Apr-16]

• This week's 7 p.m. film (Saturday, Sunday, and Tuesday through Thursday) at the Cinema is Ginger and Rosa (Sally Potter, UK/Denmark/Canada/Croatia 2012, 90 min.)
  

  London, 1962. Two teenage girls — Ginger and Rosa — are inseparable. They skip school together, talk about love, religion and politics and dream of lives bigger than their mothers' domesticity. But the growing threat of nuclear war casts a shadow over their lives. Ginger (Elle Fanning) is drawn to poetry and protest, while Rosa (Alice Englert) shows Ginger how to smoke cigarettes, kiss boys and pray.

  [source: Cinema Theater website, 2013-Apr-17]

• This week's 8:30 p.m. film (also Saturday, Sunday, and Tuesday through Thursday) at the Cinema is Lore (Cate Shortland, Germany/Australia/U.K. 2012, 109 min.)
  

  Left to fend for themselves after their SS officer father and mother, a staunch Nazi believer, are interred by the victorious Allies at the end of World War II, five German children undertake a harrowing journey that exposes them to the reality and consequences of their parents' actions. Led by the eldest sibling, 14-year old Lore (striking newcomer Saskia Rosendahl), they set out on a harrowing journey across a devastated country to reach their grandmother in the north.

  [source: Cinema Theater website, 2013-Apr-17]

• Starting at 9 p.m. at Abilene is their Record Store Day Celebration featuring Johnny Outlaw and the Johnson Creek Stranglers, the nicely harmonious rock band Walri (resurrected for this one show as Zombie Walri), Amos Rose and Sun People, a rich tapestry of modern Americana from The Bogs Visionary Orchestra, Stephen Roessner, and Stoney Lonesome and the House of Lights. [source: Abilene website, 2013-Apr-16]
• Tonight at 7 p.m., 9 p.m. are screenings of Blazing Saddles (Mel Brooks, U.S. 1974, 93 min.) in Hoyt Auditorium on the University of Rochester campus. [source: University of Rochester Cinema Group website, 2013-Apr-16]
• An Evening of Blues and Other Hues featuring Jeff Slutsky, Babak Elahi, Joe Fornieri, Patrick Jaouen, Crossroads, Mike Stets, and Skip Creveling will be performed at 8 p.m. at the Bread and Water Theatre. [source: Bread and Water Theatre website, 2013-Apr-16]
• Great synth-driven, drum-rich dance-rock from El Ten Eleven, Slow Magic, and Nude Pop perform at the Bug Jar starting around 10:30 p.m. tonight. [source: Bug Jar calendar, 2013-Apr-16]

Sunday, April 21

• Today's discussion of Rochester's Rich History concerns Rabbi Philip Bernstein and Jewish Activism in Rochester, 1930-1950, presented by Mary Posman today from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. in the Rundel Auditorium on the 3rd floor of the Rundel Memorial Building. [source: Monroe County Library website, 2013-Apr-16]
• Today at 3:30 p.m. at the Little is the High Falls Film Festival Best of the Fest: Documentary followed by the Best of the Fest: Narrative at 6 p.m. [source: High Falls Film Festival website, 2013-Apr-16]
• Nice, solid acoustic rock from Archimedes, John Valenti, a rich tapestry of modern Americana from The Bogs Visionary Orchestra, and The Sleep Soundlies perform around 9 p.m. at the Bug Jar. [source: Bug Jar calendar, 2013-Apr-16]

Monday, April 22

• Tonight from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Flying Squirrel is a Green Party Meeting. [source: Flying Squirrel website, 2013-Apr-16]
• Tonight starting around 8:30 p.m. at the Bug Jar is LAZER/WULF, Manray, and Chaos Came to Be. [source: Bug Jar calendar, 2013-Apr-16]

Tuesday, April 23

• Today from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the Hawkins-Carlson Room of the Rush Rhees Library at the University of Rochester is a Lecture by Krystal Frazier titled That's Not What the Black Family Is: Combating Negative Images, Empowerment and Employing the Family Reunion Model at the new Millennium.
  

  Black family reunions are more than the t-shirts, food, and fun that come to mind for many participants and observers. Frazier will explore the black nationalist roots of the "family reunion explosion" and the ways in which late-twentieth century activists used the familiar "family reunion model" to advance various economic and political initiatives, while the increased visibility and commercialization of reunions forced reassessments of the meaning of formal family gatherings and challenged familial identity at the dawn of the new millennium.

  [source: UofR website events calendar, 2013-Apr-16]

• Today is The 449th Birthday of William Shakespeare at the MuCCC starting around 7:30 p.m., "a night of scenes, speeches, songs, and sonnets by William Shakespeare." [source: MuCCC website, 2013-Apr-16]
• Starting at 7:30 p.m. in Hoyt Auditorium on the University of Rochester campus is a screening of No Woman, No Cry – Every Mother Counts.
  

  "No Woman, No Cry" tells the powerful stories of at-risk pregnant women in four parts of the world, including a remote Maasai tribe in Tanzania, a slum of Bangladesh, a post-abortion care ward in Guatemala, and a prenatal clinic in the United States.

  [source: University of Rochester Cinema Group website, 2013-Apr-16]

• Tonight at 8 p.m. at the Dryden is a screening of Le Grand Amour (Pierre Étaix, France 1969, 87 min., French w/subtitles).
  

  Upon his marriage to Florence (Étaix's real-life wife Annie Fratellini), Pierre fantasizes about all the women he could have married before he gave them all up for domesticity and a steady job. Years later, he is the manager of his father-in-law's factory, and a new secretary arrives who spurs his imagination once again. Étaix's final narrative film is a neglected masterpiece, marrying (no pun intended) hilarious sight gags to a bittersweet look at the folly of the middle-age crisis.

  [source: Dryden website, 2013-Apr-16]

• Over at the Bug Jar around 9 p.m. is punk hard-rock band Green Dreams, Chica and The Wolves, and Comedown. [source: Bug Jar calendar, 2013-Apr-16]
• This evening starting around 9 p.m. at Abilene is the "punk, bluegrass, Dixieland and circus sounds of" Carrie Nation and The Speakeasy. [source: Abilene website, 2013-Apr-16]

Wednesday, April 24

• The Dryden will screen The Householder (James Ivory, India 1963, 101 min.) tonight at 8 p.m.
  

  Almost two decades before they would enchant audiences with such films as A Room with a View and Howard's End, James Ivory, Ismail Merchant, and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala collaborated for the first time to create this inspiring film encompassing the connections of love, culture, and family. Prem, a newlywed schoolteacher, seeks to settle his devastating insecurities about married life by confiding in his domineering mother. When that proves hopeless, he seeks advice from outsiders: an American tourist and a Swami. Based on the novel by Jhabvala, Ivory brings a passion and candor to the story that only the most gifted of filmmakers could have accomplished.

  [source: Dryden website, 2013-Apr-16]

• Tonight around 9 p.m. at the Bug Jar is Crazy Spirit, Glam, Una Bestia Incontrolable, and Bad Taste. [source: Bug Jar calendar, 2013-Apr-16]
• Amy Lavere, and Savannah King perform tonight starting around 9:30 p.m. at Abilene. [source: Abilene website, 2013-Apr-16]