Perfect for Lambertville

Sara Scully, program producer, ACME Screening Room, Lambertville
   Recently, the ACME Screening Room, Lambertville, (www.nickelodeonnights.org) hosted a screening of the documentary film — “Who Does She Think She Is?” — which profiles several women artists and the ways each have found to balance being a mother and a wife and an artist, or in some cases not, and instead blazing a totally different path post-divorce and a lot of soul searching.
   Despite the film’s subject being limited to artist-moms, its focus is universal. It does not matter if you are married with children or single, everyone of us all of the time is working on balancing our lives, making the calculations about time and how much to give to others versus ourselves, to what extent our feeding ourselves and indulging in time for self-discovery will in turn feed others and to what extent it will isolate us or disappoint our loved ones and to what extent we are responsible for that disappointment. Anyone who has been part of a family or a pack of friends has weighed the cost and rewards of self-expression, whether in her opinions or her art. Everyone has asked, how much can I put out there of my authentic self?
   While this film is about mothers making these calculations, anyone can relate to this issue. As a result this film, clearly evidenced by our overwhelming turnout for the film, sold out two shows. We added a third last minute to accommodate overflow!
   The huge turnout for this film is a testament to the universality of the theme, but also to the fact that our town is, in the words of one audience member, “Into nurturing.” We go in for this stuff. Whether it’s in our local artist galleries, our annual Pet Masquerade parade, our annual tour of locals’ gardens (sponsored by the Kalmia Club!) or the countless spontaneous porch-side chats about all of the above, our town fosters intimate, creative moments, events that allow our private worlds to become public in an atmosphere of support, tolerance and care.
   Lambertville supports creativity and in the follow-up comments of the same audience member, “One requirement for living in Lambertville is being friendly.” So true. And this film was “friendly,” open, honest and interested in the human experience. It treated its subjects with the caring interest of a friend — perfect for Lambertville.
   We, Friends of Lambertville Library were grateful for the chance to include the film in the Screening Room film series. We could not have done so without our sponsors: Kalmia Club and the Gebhardt & Kiefer Law Office, Clinton, — Richard P. Cushing, Resident Partner. We also would like to thank local artists Aylin Green and Annelies van Dommelen for suggesting we show this film and getting the word out about the screening. You gave our community another nurturing, intimate, creative experience. Thank you!