(CNN) — San Francisco is undeniably having a moment.

Over the past year, headlines claiming the city is caught in a spiraling “doom loop” have become so prominent that a city commissioner decided to cash in on downtown San Francisco’s storefront vacancies, homelessness and opioid issues by anonymously advertising an hour-and-a-half long tour showcasing “doom and squalor.” For $30 a person, you could see the city’s “open-air drug markets” and “abandoned tech offices” first-hand.

However, just before it was scheduled to take place, the tour was canceled (and the commissioner ultimately resigned). Instead a more “positive” walk organized by a local nonprofit guided participants through the city’s Tenderloin, highlighting a neighborhood that’s long been a poster child for the city’s hardships.

While people sleeping on sidewalks and drug use were still visible, it focused on the community’s more positive attributes, including a rich history, art and a career center that’s working to get struggling San Franciscans back on their feet.

Still, for many would-be visitors, it’s San Francisco’s more discernible difficulties that are the real deterrents.

“My clients who’ve recently been to San Francisco have never said they felt unsafe,” says Alana Scalise Livingston, owner of Wander Spokane tours in Spokane, Washington (and a former San Francisco resident). “They just say it’s not as nice as it used to be, and there are many homeless people flooding the streets.”

Joshua Hirsch, owner of Sidewalk Food Tours SF, has received much of the same feedback. “According to our tour participants, the homeless people in cities like San Francisco and New York seemed to have become more brazen and outspoken since the pandemic,” he says. “They think it’s their neighborhood, and you don’t even have the right to be walking on the sidewalk.”

Additionally, there’s the city’s so-called “death spiral” or “doom loop” touted by news outlets (including the city’s own) – in which remote work leads to empty real estate, resulting in less foot traffic and then shuttered restaurants and reduced public services. This in turn leads to more overt drug activity as well as unhoused individuals congregating in front of unoccupied spaces.

It’s not that the tales of downtown retail stores closing in bulk and vacant office buildings are untrue, nor are the stories of drugstore chains such as Walgreens locking up most everything in the store behind see-through cabinets, though the latter is occurring in other big cities nationwide.

San Francisco has also been experiencing a rash of car break-ins, including this SF Whole Foods garage break-in video that went viral in Indonesia, that many fear could have long-lasting effects on the city’s tourism.

This past June, the investment firm behind the Hilton San Francisco Union Square (at 1,921 rooms, it’s the city’s largest hotel) and the nearby Parc 55 hotels announced that it is stopping payments on a $725 million loan and surrendering the remaining debt to its lender. Tech companies such as Red Hat and the SF Bay Area’s own Meta have decided to cancel their 2024 conferences in San Francisco as well, citing ongoing concerns over safety and the cleanliness of downtown streets.

‘It felt vibrant and alive’

It seems like everywhere you turn, the news about San Francisco just keeps getting worse. Or is it just the news we’re reading?

“We definitely feel like there is a significant misconception of what is really happening on the ground,” says Dina Belon, chief operating officer at Staypineapple Hotels, which has a property in San Francisco’s Union Square district.

Yuki Hayashi, a Toronto-based marketing writer and editor who visited San Francisco in late July for the city’s annual marathon, agrees. “Based on what we saw on Reddit, my family and I thought the city had turned into some post-apocalyptic hell zone,” she says. “But instead it felt vibrant and alive.”

The San Francisco hoteliers and restaurateurs interviewed for this article acknowledge that a drop in the city’s tourism this summer has been evident. That’s the result of a combination of factors, they say. They include the negative headlines and fewer full-time office workers, “which has significantly reduced our business and corporate travel,” says Belon. There’s also the absence of Chinese tourists — which pre-pandemic was one of the city’s top international markets — because of Covid and flight restrictions.

But they also agree that many of the gloomy headlines have been misleading.

“Yes, there are parts of San Francisco that need work,” says Marc Zimmerman, owner and executive chef at Gozu, a modern Japanese eatery located in the city’s East Cut neighborhood. “I don’t think we should pretend that the city doesn’t have issues. But the whole idea that, you know, everybody’s just laying around every SF street with needles hanging out of their arms is definitely a stretch.”

Ben Parks, board chair for San Francisco City Guides, feels similarly.

“It’s like, if the negative media coverage is all you pay attention to,” he says, “you just really miss out on everything the city has to offer.”

His all-volunteer organization has been leading free walking tours citywide for nearly five decades and currently has 79 offerings. Parks says that these days, their attendance has actually been increasing, with what the organization suspects are more local residents interested in learning about the city’s neighborhoods, which in many cases are where San Francisco continues to impress.

“There are so many good things happening in many of our neighborhoods and communities,” Grace Horikiri, executive director of San Francisco’s Japantown Community Benefit District, “and it often gets overshadowed by all the non-positive news.”

Within the past year, Japantown has welcomed new restaurants such as Copra and Fermentation Lab, saw the opening of the Kimpton Hotel Enso in its former Buchanan Hotel space and watched the growth of its popular monthly Mini Art Market in the community’s Japantown mall.

New businesses, new life

The city is also seeing new life in some of its major tourism hubs.

This August, IKEA bucked the trend of major retailers moving out of downtown and opened a San Francisco store focusing on small-space living along Market Street (between Sixth and Fifth streets), while more than 15 local small businesses, including Devil’s Teeth bakery, Holy Stitch! apparel and The Mellow, are setting up pop-up shops in vacant downtown storefronts, beginning mid-September.

Over in Fisherman’s Wharf, San Francisco’s iconic Ghirardelli Chocolate Company hosted the grand reopening of its Original Ice Cream and Chocolate Shop in July after a six-month renovation. The city’s LUMA hotel, which opened in 2022 adjacent to the city’s Chase Center sports and entertainment area, even won Tripadvisor’s 2023 Travelers’ Choice Best of the Best award, despite San Francisco’s negative narrative.

Chinatown, a neighborhood especially hard-hit by the pandemic, is hosting a series of new festivals, including a Halloween Festival on October 28. In January, the community also saw the long-awaited opening of its Rose Pak Muni metro station, providing Muni light-rail riders direct access to the heart of Chinatown’s streets.

Whether it’s Golden Gate Park’s 1.5-mile stretch known as JFK Promenade, with its Adirondack chairs; street art and playable pianos, which became permanently vehicle-free during the pandemic; or city stalwarts such as Amoeba Records in the Haight-Ashbury (which Santa Cruz bookseller Liz Pollock says is still filled with people “flipping through LPs” every time she visits), the city is in many ways just going about its business.

‘We needed a kick, and we got it’

Homelessness has been an ongoing issue in San Francisco, with thousands of homeless people sleeping on the streets on any given night, and the effects of the pandemic have brought it even more to the city’s forefront. “The challenges that San Francisco has always had are just more visible,” says Belon.

However, when it comes to violent crimes in US cities, San Francisco’s numbers are comparatively low. Larceny, such as car thefts and break-ins, is what really drives up crimes figures in the city and at the same time drives away visitors.

“We can’t just act like nothing is wrong,” says Zimmerman, “but for whatever reason, that’s the direction we went. But I feel like we needed a kick, and we got it. This is a great and resilient city, and now we’re seeing a big push to bring it all back.”

To help curb auto break-ins, the San Francisco Police Department is beginning to deploy bait cars that can help identity and arrest thieves, notably in tourist areas such as the Palace of Fine Arts, Alamo Square and Fisherman’s Wharf.

Getting homeless people off the streets and into places where they can get viable help (mental and physical) isn’t so easy, but that’s not to say efforts aren’t being made. In December 2022, a federal judge effectively barred the city from breaking up or sweeping tent encampments until there are more shelter beds than individuals, but the issue isn’t so cut and dry.

While the San Francisco Homeless Outreach Team works collaboratively with the Department of Public Health’s Street Medicine team to address the medical and behavioral health needs of many of the city’s homeless residents and also to offer them volunteer overnight shelter, many would rather stay on the streets for reasons such as feeling unsafe in shelter and the inability to keep their belongings with them.

Still, says Zimmerman, “It’s a different experience for those of us who walk around San Francisco every day. Yes, there are parts of the city that need work. But just in the neighborhood of Gozu, you’ve got Salesforce Park that is beautiful. The ballpark is beautiful. This is the perfect opportunistic position for San Francisco to bounce back.”

While raising capital for his newest venture, Yokai, a new hi-fi listening bar with cocktails and food that’s scheduled to open just a short walk from Gozu in mid-September, Zimmerman first heard a term that he’s since adopted as his own: “SF long,” which investors and other long-term San Francisco residents have been using to show their commitment to the city.

“It means, ‘we’re weathering this out together, and we’re not going anywhere. We’re in it for the long haul,’ ” Zimmerman said.

For all of San Francisco’s perceived and more evident troubles, the city still has a lot going for it.

“We have the geography,” says Zimmerman, “the location — with both Napa and Sonoma both an hour north — the restaurant scene, some great museums, and this awesome cultural melting pot of people. The whole thing is very unique.” 

Others such as Belon, Pollock and Livingston feel the same. “It’s the whole experience of it,” says Pollock, “and you can’t find it anywhere except San Francisco.”

Laura Kiniry is a freelance journalist and 28-year resident of San Francisco. She lives in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood.

The-CNN-Wire

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Standing at the base of the Gendarme, Elizabeth Doyle almost felt she could wrap her arms around the pedestal.

What is holding this thing on here? she thought. It’s obviously cracking—that’s how you climb it!

The Gendarme was a slender 40-foot pinnacle in the center notch of the beautiful 300-foot quartzite fin of Seneca Rocks, West Virginia.

She recalls, “I could see myself standing on top as the whole pillar fell silently and majestically, like a swan dive, until it and I exploded on the scree far below.”

She wanted to stay put. But her friends jeered, so she climbed the Gendarme.

“I have never,” she says, “stayed for such a short period on a ‘summit.'”

She was a pretty good judge. In fact, she is now a judge, in county court in Pennsylvania. A few short years later, the Gendarme, once worshiped by the Seneca tribe and later climbed by many—an ascent was a high point of local climbing courses—crashed to the ground at 3:27 pm on October 22, 1987. Only one person saw it go, an 11-year-old named Brock Markwell, who was outside at the local elementary school.

***

Things fall apart. In climbing, that can mean whole walls in far mountains, sections of cliffs from the San Jacintos to the Adirondacks and White Mountains, and iconic forms or features on area crags. Early August 2014 brought news that the 40-foot Cobra Tower, in the Fisher Towers near Moab, Utah, had collapsed, news that made some sad, many reflect on impermanence, and ascentionists feel plenty lucky.

We climbers go up, but these things can come down.

Herewith, in chronological order, a gallery of climbing features that have cratered. And a few ideas for what’s next.

The Gendarme as it once stood in the center of the notch. (Photo: Courtesy of senecarocksmuseum.org.)

The Gendarme may have been undone by freeze-thaw cycles: in the night, temps had dropped to 20 degrees F., but they rose to 80 F. on that warm autumn day. Another theory is that the Air Force jets that often flew above the valley, purportedly above the sound barrier, may have jarred the tower.

People knew the tower would go sometime, though. I saw it there my first visit, and it was gone the next.

beach crack, Mickey’s Beach, San Francisco Bay Area, 1994. Beach Crack was a famous 5.12b in one of the Bay Area’s most beautiful regions, and some climbers were working the line, perhaps as a first 5.12, up until the day it went. The route—or rather, half of it—fell, along with Scott Frye’s famous 5.13b/c Plate-o-Shrimp and two others, during a huge storm. On the plus side, when the right half of the crack climb fell, it bared Mickey’s Beach Arete (5.13c).

The colorful seaside atmosphere here includes crashing waves, the smell of the brine, tide pools, starfish, sea otters, shore birds… nudists… and, at one time, a character in costume.

On May 25, Memorial Day, 1981, “Spider Dan” Goodwin soloed the Sears Tower, then the tallest building in the world, using suction cups and camming devices and wearing a Spiderman suit. Soon after, he was seen toproping the Beach Crack, in a blue Lycra suit with a red cape, though at that point he’d been warned off the Spiderman logo. The rock at Mickey’s Beach is slick even on a dry day. Credit Goodwin for boldness when he soloed the route.

You can watch this old video of his solo, complete with extra moves, a bit of choreography that never (thank god, since it looks really dangerous), caught on.

The chockstone that was part of a classic two-pitch 5.10 on the Easter Island tower (marked with arrow) cut loose on the morning of Easter Sunday, 2001, even as climbers walked up the approach. (Photo: Michelle Peot)

The Chockstone on Easter Island, Bridger Jack Towers, Canyonlands, Utah, March 31, 2002. This feature was, as Mountain Project described it, “the unique chockstone bridging the gap” between the first and second pitches of the three-star Thunderbolts (5.10), put up by Jeff Achey. People belayed beside the piano-sized rock, and then stepped upon it to gain
the face of the crux second pitch.

Parties had climbed the route the day before, and more were heading up toward the tower and route the morning it fell: on Easter Sunday. Really.

Wrote a poster on Mountain Project: “I was camped underneath the Bridgers and watched the piano block fall out. Had climbed the route the evening previous, great fun.”

The Old Man of the Mountain, May 3, 2003. When you rounded a bend and saw the Old Man, the glacier-carved craggy profile high on Cannon Cliff, Franconia Notch, in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, you felt a thrill. The sight signaled arrival at the vast granite face, 1,000 feet at its highest, with all the adventure of its routes and unpredictable weather. If you climbed to the top and walked down rather than rappelling, you stepped around the big concrete blocks, steel cables and turnbuckles that were part of a hundred-year effort to stave off the predations of freeze-thaw cycles on this state symbol.

The stern visage of the Old Man of the Mountains. (Photo: Boston Public Library)

The famous eight-pitch Lakeview (5.6) finished up a corner (climbed in 1933 by Fritz Wiessner and Robert Underhill) to the top of the Old Man’s head, and two routes tackled his overhanging front face. One line was what the guidebook called the “spectacular free climb” of Bubba Marty (5.11), done in 1982 by Dave Anderson and Mike Kenney. The other was Cheek to Cheek, also 1982, a 5.10 by Steve Larson and Andy Tuthill on corners and overhangs up the Old Man’s throat and face.

Larson, then 26, remembers asking Tuthill that day, “Whattaya think’s out there?”

“Why don’t I try to traverse out and have a look?”

Tuthill cast off and set up a hanging belay right below the Old Man’s chin.

Recalls Larson, “Tourists for years had admired that square jaw, and I was delighted to see the finger crack in the corner.”

Some 20 years later, the Old Man of the Mountain fell, sometime between midnight and 2:00 am, after a spring rainstorm. “Apparently the Adam’s apple gave way first,” says Larson, “and the Old Man just slid down the slabs.”

The Cobra, Fisher Towers, Utah, sometime between July 31 and the first week of August, 2014. Rumors of the fall of the tower, shaped like a rising cobra, were long an April Fools’ staple. But this time the news was for real. The collapse was of not just the top block of the formation, as would be expected, but the whole hood outline that gave the cobra its shape. The extent may have indicated a lightning strike.

Many had climbed the 40-foot hoodoo, via a 5.11 first done in 1995 by Jimmie Dunn, who wrapped his dog’s leash around the column as per.

Sam Feuerborn climbing the Cobra—while he could. (Photo: Dan Holz)

Steve “Crusher” Bartlett, climber and author, has written on Mountain Project of the experience: “So unlikely, yet so much fun, and semi-terrifying too. Once I was on top, the wind almost blew me right back off, and, acutely aware that a windy day is just the kind of day which will see this thing fall over, I stayed perhaps a second, before lowering, mildly gibbering, to the ground.”

No one witnessed the destruction when a violent storm, with rain and high winds, swept through.

***

What’s next?

Well, high on the list of candidates should be three items that have starred in hoaxes. Variously said to have fallen off are the Split Pillar, whose inside
edge creates a laser-cut pumpy layback on the Grand Wall, the Chief, Squamish; the pasted-on Boot Flake, also providing a steep layback, on the Nose, El Capitan; and the Totem Pole, Tasman Peninsula, Australia. See video of Mayan Smith-Gobat and Ben Rueck climbing it.

Of course, there’s also a Totem Pole in Queen Creek Canyon, Arizona. And Totem Pole in Monument Valley…

To me the top pick, come earthquake or high water, would be the popular fluted spire that is the most popular finish for a route (usually Stolen Chimney, 5.10) on the 300-foot Ancient Art formation, the Fisher Towers. In 2011 Katie Brown and Alex Honnold spent two days there filming a Citibank commercial. The viewing public went nuts: people thought the ad was faked; got vertigo looking at the shots taken from Brown’s helmet cam; wondered who that “cute” and awesome girl was. Jeanne Moos of CNN did a funny little segment on the furor.

This article was originally published in Rock and Ice in 2014.

So read

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Back in 1977, David Tolson and his sister, Anna Neace, started Chimney Sweep Cleaners.

They had seen a story in the Messenger-Inquirer about chimney sweeps in another state donning black coats with tails and top hats, traditional chimney sweep attire that dated back to the 1700s in England.

So, they tried it here, driving a 1951 Studebaker from job to job.

And the romantic image of chimney sweeps, inspired by the 1964 movie, “Mary Poppins,” caught on.

By 1985, the company was handling 25 to 30 chimney and fireplace repairs a week.

Chimney Sweep Cleaners was a success and today Roman Tolson, David’s grandson, still operates it.

But the name has been changed to Chimney Cleaning & Repair.

Tolson said he started working with his father, Kelly Tolson, in the business in 2012 and took over the company the following year.

“Customers ask why I don’t dress up,” he said. “I try not to get too uncomfortable when I’m working. And that attire isn’t comfortable.”

Top hats do keep things from falling down a chimney onto a sweep’s head, Tolson said.

“I do have a top hat,” he said. “But I don’t wear it.”

It takes about 45 minutes to an hour and 15 minutes to clean most chimneys, Tolson said.

“Technology has really improved,” he said.

Two years ago, when his father was dying of pancreatic cancer, Tolson said he took time off to help care for him.

And then last year, COVID concerns shut him down for much of the year.

But Tolson is back in business this year.

“I have regulars who have me clean their chimneys every year,” he said. “But if it doesn’t need cleaning, I’ll tell them that at no charge.”

He doesn’t accept credit cards to keep his expenses down, Tolson said.

“It’s a pretty good business,” he said.

But Tolson is also working on a bachelor’s degree in information technology, which he started last year when COVID precautions prevented him from working.

“I like working for myself,” he said.

In addition to cleaning chimneys, Tolson also rebuilds them and replaces bricks when they need it.

He notices that there are more pre-fab chimneys today.

“People don’t seem to be as skilled as they were years ago,” Tolson said.

He said he works in about a 55-mile radius around Owensboro in Kentucky, but he doesn’t work in Indiana.

“My goal is to eventually have a crew,” Tolson said. “But I want quality over quantity in my work.”

Chimney sweeps sometimes find more than soot in a chimney.

“In 2017, I found a chimney full of bats,” Tolson said. “But it was illegal to touch them because it was breeding season.”

He said, “I’ve pulled animal skeletons out of chimneys, but never a whole carcass.”

Tolson can be reached at 270-925-0947.

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LOS ANGELES – (BUSINESS WIRE) – Dec. October 2021–

Prometheus Alternative Investments is excited to attend the SohnX San Francisco Investment Conference 2021 on October 27th from 12:00 PM to 3:00 PM PDT. The virtual event concludes with a fireside chat with Prometheus correspondent Amelia Martyn-Hemphill and keynote speaker Lee S. Ainslie III, founder and manager partner of Maverick Capital.

“Our media team is excited to share insights and stories from investment professionals with everyone on Prometheus. Thanks to the Sohn Conference Foundation for the opportunity to have an in-depth conversation with hedge fund legend Lee Ainslie, ”said Martyn-Hemphill, a journalist and filmmaker whose résumé includes BBC News, Bloomberg TV and Jim Cramers TheStreet.com.

Prometheus Founder and CEO Michael Wang added, “Prometheus is all about access, access to expert ideas, access to industry insider conversations, access to financial literacy and direct access to alternative fund investments through a streamlined platform. We are honored to work with the Excellence in Investing Foundation and the Son San Francisco Investment Conference to improve access and support the critical community and educational work of Community Education Partners, Bridge the Gap College Prep and 826 Valencia. “

ABOUT THE EXCELLENCE IN INVESTING FOUNDATION

The 12th annual Son San Francisco Investment Conference is hosted by the Excellence in Investing Foundation. The conference is the Bay Area’s premier investor event bringing together highly successful portfolio managers, private investors and asset allocators of all levels to learn from the insights and expertise of highly successful portfolio managers and has raised more than $ 2 million. Conference proceeds will support organizations in the Bay Area that are focused on improving educational opportunities and life outcomes for underserved youth. For more details and conference updates, please visit excellencesf.org.

ABOUT THE SON CONFERENCE FOUNDATION

Since 1995, the Sohn Conference has brought together the industry’s brightest finance professionals, where investors donate their time and present their “best investment ideas”. The Sohn Conference Foundation honors the memory of Ira Sohn, a talented Wall Street professional whose life came to an end when he died of cancer at the age of 29. Ira’s friends and family founded the Sohn Conference Foundation in New York City. Since then, investment managers from around the world have been inspired to create partner-son conferences and unite the financial community to support multiple charitable causes. The Sohn San Francisco Investment Conference is hosted by the Excellence in Investing in Children’s Causes Foundation (EICC), an independent 501C3 based in San Francisco.

About Prometheus Alts

Prometheus was founded by hedge fund experts looking to modernize their archaic industry and share their insights from years of analyzing and managing alternative funds. Understanding that this type of long-term investment relies on relationship building, CEO Michael Wang combined the idea of ​​a social network with a marketplace for alternative funds. Although old laws limit the ability to invest in these funds to accredited investors, the social network is opening the knowledge base to everyone … until the time comes when we modernize the laws and have free access to some of the best assets in the world can create for everyone.

Disclosure: https://prometheusalts.com/disclosures.html

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211021005933/en/

CONTACT: Michael Wang

CEO Prometheus Alternative Investments

michael@prometheusalts.com

(917) 446-5313 Adam Straus

SonX San Francisco

adam@strausevents.com

(415) 377-2327

KEYWORD: UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA CALIFORNIA

INDUSTRY KEYWORD: PROFESSIONAL SERVICES PHILANTHROPY COMMUNICATION SOCIAL MEDIA FINANCE FOUNDATION

SOURCE: Prometheus Alternative Investments

Copyright Business Wire 2021.

PUB: 10/21/2021 1:37 PM / DISC: 10/21/2021 1:37 PM

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Copyright Business Wire 2021.

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Juliet Romeo met Peter Baxter, the co-founder and president of Slamdance, at a Zoom session in mid-2020 giving advice to Miami filmmakers. She was impressed with Baxter’s open-mindedness and contacted him to discuss her own films in which people like herself live with sickle cell anemia.

That email blew up and Slamdance (running online February 12-25, 2021) is launching its first unstoppable program, 22 short films by YouTubers with disabilities and a series of themed lectures and panels. Showcasing the work of disabled artists fits in with the slam dance ethos: artist-led programs and a desire to “explore new forms of stories that we have never seen before and that speak the truth,” says Baxter.

Romeo curated the selection along with four other programmers – Gabriel Cordell, Asha Chai-Chang, Chris Furbee, and Steve Way – who decided not to include films with physically challenged actors in disabled roles.

Way is a comedian and actor (Ramy) who also suffers from muscular dystrophy. “What felt special to me was that I could bring my past experiences, my personality, my worldview into the programming,” he says. “We researched whether the actors are actually disabled. As an actor, I really fight for it. “

They selected a diverse work including the satirical music video A $$ Level by Alison Becker; Shaina Ghuraya’s science fiction comedy Human Helper; Ashley Eakin’s anti-rom-com single; Cameron S. Mitchell’s robbery story The Co-Op; and Rachel Handler and Catriona Rubenis-Stevens’ health documentary How Much Am I Worth ?.

“One of my top priorities has been to tell stories about people with disabilities without the story being just their disability,” explains Romeo. “We are just normal people who can fall in love, who can be the hero, who can hunt down thieves and who can save the girl.”

British actor, writer and director David Proud is thrilled that his BFI-supported short Verisimilitude has been selected. The film – part of the short anthology Uncertain Kingdom 20 and tells a story about a disabled actress who trains a disabled actor – has already met with great acclaim at festivals such as Encounters and Palm Springs. “We wanted to start this conversation about disabled actors in roles with disabilities, it really came at the right time,” he says. “Visibility is important, we have to be visible to be out there. We have to be part of this conversation about film. “

The Unstoppable team hopes that other festivals will follow suit. “We are showing the world that this is possible,” says Way. “Now there’s no excuse why Sundance, Toronto or Tribeca can’t do the same.”

Ongoing support

There are already festivals that take disabled filmmakers and public accessibility seriously; Special events are the Superfest in San Francisco and the British Oska Bright Film Festival and Together! Film festival for the disabled.

Every major festival has an accessibility plan, and hybrid and online events can improve opportunities to reach a disabled audience. In 2021, Sundance will be offering films with subtitles and some with audio description. Its online conversations and events feature live subtitles; and for all personal questions and answers after the film, live interpretation services in American Sign Language (ASL) are available upon request.

The Berlinale offers German sign language interpretation for discussions and / or films with German audio description via the Greta app. Cannes publishes a bespoke guidebook for visitors with disabilities, and its hospitality team also offers bespoke guides. Toronto notes that the availability of captiview and listening devices, more subtitles and more online information about accessibility has increased. It also offered on-demand ASL for its industry programs in 2020. Venice says that “all of our cinemas are fully equipped for accessibility with extensive practical advice in our information service”.

Like Slamdance, the Sydney Film Festival offers both accessibility and visibility: its Screenability Initiative started in 2016 in partnership with Create NSW as a platform for the work of filmmakers with disabilities. The program runs alongside Create NSW’s disabled internship program and a production fund for disabled filmmakers.

“The strand aimed to validate the disabled cinema as a vibrant and provocative voice that adds to screen culture,” says writer / director Sofya Gollan, investment manager and screenability curator at Create NSW Screen. “[The festival] as a platform for public relations gave the filmmakers credibility as professional filmmakers and expanded their network with other practitioners. “

It was also sold out to the public. Sydney employees are trained each year in Access best practices. Gollan suggests that other festivals “should conduct an access audit with qualified organizations and acknowledge and accept that access will not be an item in the budget once, not twice, but continuously”.

British producer Lindsey Dryden, whose credits include Trans In America and Unrest, is a member of the BFI’s Disability Advisory Board. She has a wish list for festivals: work with D / deaf and disabled programmers; require filmmakers to provide subtitled and audio-descriptive films (and to fund these costs); Offering demonstrations with live subtitles and audio descriptions; welcome disabled critics; Expanding access to social, pitching and networking events; Working with fully accessible venues; and asking disabled filmmakers to give lectures that do not address disabilities.

“As a filmmaker, I find it incredibly exciting when film organizations not only dutifully include deaf and disabled people, but get enthusiastic about it – because they recognize that we have a value and of course should be included in culture and society. “Says Dryden. “One in five people in the UK have a disability, many of which are invisible, and film festivals can be much better for both filmmakers and audiences.”

Festivals can also benefit financially. “The disabled pound is valued at over £ 250 billion” [$347bn] annually to the UK business, ”notes Dryden.

She is also a founding member of Documentary Filmmakers With Disabilities (FWD-Doc), whose aim is to “work with industry partners to write a range of tips, guidelines and resources for the industry”. She also hopes that the BFI’s Press Reset campaign, launched in July 2020, “can provide the film industry with important action points to engage deaf and disabled talent and viewers and to think differently about representation, authenticity and justice”.

Proud, who is also a member of the BFI Disability Advisory Board and the Bafta Film Committee, senses that change is taking place. “The diversity conversation took an additional step forward [in 2020]. The wind is in the sails and we have a moment of change. “

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Despite some technical issues on opening night, inconsistent sound issues, and a lack of confidence in the performance of Elizabeth Krebs ‘choreography Mary Poppins – the musical theater version of the Disney film inspired by PL Travers’ stories loosely inspired by her own childhood adventures – opened for a rousing ovation from the audience at Smyrna’s Springhouse Theater Company on Friday night.

With sympathetic leading actors, Crystal Kurek, Michael Adcock and Kristina James lead the ensemble of eager and dedicated players (including two really cute child actors who play Jane and Michael Banks) in a pleasant and often appealing version of the much-produced musical that won awards on Broadway and in the west end. Directed by Margaret Meeks with a certain light-hearted elegance, the audience should be made aware that the only actor to use an accent – namely a Cockney – is Michael Adcock as Bert, while the others have Central American-sounding voices with a lagniappe of affect here and there a southern trait added to the mix.

The story should be familiar to anyone who has ever watched television, been to a movie house, or partially knew what was going on around them: A troubled family living on Cherry Tree Lane in Edwardian-era London needs a new nanny to correct you the wild and pesky pair of Banks children (played by Jackson Kinsey as Michael and Shelby Baltimore as Jane) while their parents (played by Kristina James and Gregory Henry) stand at odds as their two awkward servants (Marsha Allen as Paula Deens angry wig [aka Mrs. Brill]and Jack Gilpin as the aging Robertson Ay) try to make the best of an increasingly dire situation.

Literally flying into her life to save the day as an Edwardian superhero is the sometimes silent but refreshingly direct Mary Poppins (the aforementioned Ms. Kurek), the magical and “practically perfect” governess who intends to become the Banks’ houseship -Family in Bristol repairing fashion – with the theater bag full of tricks in their carpet bag.

On the way from quarrelsome family to heartwarming and affectionate foursome, the members of the Banks household struggle with all sorts of fun (some of which will make you laugh, others will make you scratch your head) charming street performer with chimney sweep named Bert (Mr. Adcock has all the sparkling eyes and warmth in the role), who donates good luck with the handshake while he asks for the beautiful Miss Poppins.

Disney’s Mary Poppins and Cameron Mackintosh – as it is officially titled in the eloquent fashion of contemporary musical theater – includes a book by Julian Fellowes (he created Downton Abbey and also wrote the book for Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s stage adaptation of School of Rock, which is now on stage at Andrew Jackson Hall from TPAC through Sunday if you want a Julian Fellowes theater weekend) and features the original music and lyrics by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman (who made the Disney movie) with new songs and additional music and lyrics by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe. As written, the musical can be inventive and resourceful as its imaginative story unfolds on stage when all the technical requirements go smoothly, but when things go off the rails for even a brief moment the action slows down to a crawl and steps in moving forward at a treac pace.

This was the case on the opening night, when the very capable musical director / conductor Allison Hall and her accomplished nine-player orchestra had to vampire for (at least) five minutes while some technical snafu or other type of offstage was causing nonsense backstage. I half expected Fellowes to come off the wings to distract us with jokes and crazy stories of backstage gimmicks while the technical crew worked to fix the pesky issues.

However, we’re happy to report that thanks to Flying By Foy (the people who have made certain actors soar to heaven in their flying belts for generations), Mary Poppins flies gently and ethereally across the sky with her branded umbrella above and her magical carpet bag in her arms, much to the delight of every single person in the audience.

Director Margaret Meeks’ decision to cast Crystal Kurek (who previously played the title role for the Hendersonville Performing Arts Center) is an obvious, wonderful choice, given that her leading actress, Mary Poppins, confidently portrays Mary Poppins with generous charm and impressive panache, and her beautiful voice at the same time used musical score is due. And if there is anyone better suited to play Mary Poppins, then it is clearly her. Adcock is good like Bert, and uses his own charm and showbiz acumen to produce a believable performance. He’d be the first to admit he’s not really a dancer, but he speaks admirably throughout the show, which lasted two hours and 45 minutes on the opening night.

Kristina James is delightful when the actress became the wife and mother of middle class Winifred Banks, demonstrating her own singing talents in the process and showing off her own ample stage presence in scenes with the engaging Gregory Henry as her husband, the unhealthy George Banks. Among the cast members, Ximena Lindsey as the shopkeeper Mrs. Corry makes a bold statement by adding wit and panache to the sensational number “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”, and Shannon Henry almost stops the show herself as the malicious and demanding Miss Andrew (George Banks’) former nanny), with her lovely soprano who publishes some sheet music that is sure to rip your socks off.

The show can be a tech nightmare, and Springhouse Theater’s Mary Poppins will continue through September 30th, giving the company plenty of time to iron out any technical issues that will continue to nag until the issues are resolved (we even assume so that performance will improve significantly tonight)).

Mary Poppins from Disney and Cameron Mackintosh. A musical based on the stories from PL Travers and the Walt Disney film. Original music and lyrics by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman. Book by Julian Fellowes. New songs and additional music and lyrics by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe. Contributed by Cameron Mackintosh. Directed by Margaret Meeks. Musical director of Allison Hall. Choreography Elizabeth Krebs. Presented by the Springhouse Theater Company at the Springhouse Worship and Arts Center, 14119 Old Nashville Highway, Smyrna. Until September 30th. More information is available at www.springhousetheatre.com. Running time: 2 hours, 45 minutes (with a break of 15 minutes).

Photos by Kenn Stilger / Heavenly Perspective Photography

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