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Watch for Summer CinemaLit: Musicals and Amusements!

CinemaLit will be on hiatus in June. In the meantime, Michael Fox recommends these summer film festivals:

SF DocFest  - June 4-18
Frameline LGBT Film Festival - June 18-28
SF Jewish Film Festival - July 23-Aug. 9

and two films:

Testament of Youth - Opening June 12, adapted from Vera Brittain's memoir of World War I.
Mr. Holmes - Opening July 17,adapted from Mitch Cullin’s A Slight Trick of the Mind.

Pam Troy suggests the following films from our collection:

If you want to laugh: The Dinner Game - A snobbish Parisian’s attempted prank on a working class civil servant backfires spectacularly.

If you want to cry: A Night to Remember - This movie about the Titanic is not as big-budget, but it’s much more heartfelt and true-to-life than the blockbuster Cameron film.

If you want to be afraid: I Walked with a Zombie - Jaques Tourneur directed this dreamlike little confection, the great-granddaddy of all zombie films.

And if you want to just feel good: The Parrots of Telegraph Hill - A documentary about San Francisco’s flock of wild urban Conyers and the man who loves and studies them.

Find us at History Expo!

Saturday 2/28 (11:00am - 5:00pm) and Sunday 3/1 (11:00am - 4:00pm)

Join us at the Old Mint as more than sixty San Francisco organizations create "mini-museums" showcasing the diverse history of San Francisco's communities. In addition, there will be historic films, special programs, and more.

Click here for more information.

Introducing Ralph Lewin

As those of you who attended the May Members’ Meeting learned, the Board of Trustees just hired Ralph Lewin to be Mechanics’ Institute’s Executive Director when Jim Flack retires.

Ralph was introduced by Richard Laiderman, President of the Board. For the past six years, Ralph was President and CEO of Cal Humanities, an independent non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Richard Laiderman praised Ralph’s experience and his passion for the values that are at the core of Mechanics’ Institute.

September 2, 2014 will be Ralph’s first official day on the job after he and his family take a travel break between his employment for the last 22 years with Cal Humanities and starting at Mechanics’. Ralph will devote a couple of days between travels to meet with staff this summer.