UMPI: play cancelled, course offered, film premiere

“Our Town” canceled
    PRESQUE ISLE – Due to unforeseen circumstances, the play production of “Our Town,” scheduled for performance at the University of Maine at Presque Isle’s Wieden Auditorium on Oct. 27, has been cancelled. Please spread the word, as many people were planning to attend. If you have questions, contact Carol Ayoob, Director of Cultural Affairs, at 768-9462.
Introduction to Meditation
    PRESQUE ISLE – Expect the mood to be calm in the Normal Hall Faculty Lounge for the next several Thursday evenings as a professor and community member host a five-week series on meditation.
    Dr. Lynn Eldershaw, assistant professor of sociology, and meditation instructor Ray Gribetz will facilitate an Introduction to Meditation class from 7 to 9 p.m. every Thursday from Oct. 18 to Nov. 15. This five-week series will introduce the university campus and the Presque Isle community to a technique of mindful awareness and equanimity. Everyone is welcome to join Eldershaw and Gribetz for sitting meditation in the Normal Hall Faculty Lounge starting Oct. 18. All session are free. For more information, contact Eldershaw at lynnelde@maine.edu.
UMPI professor premieres film
    PRESQUE ISLE – A University of Maine at Presque Isle art professor who has completed an award-winning film and numerous other research projects on World War II is bringing to life another piece of history with a new documentary film.
    In the 90-minute documentary, Echoes from the Apocalypse, Tinian: 60 Years Later, Professor Anderson Giles focuses on a tiny island in the Pacific Ocean named Tinian, the crucial role it played during WWII and an important event held there in 2005.
    The film was written, produced and directed by Giles and filmed by award-winning filmmaker Bill Francis of Ogden, Utah-based Imagination Studios. It premiered this fall in Albuquerque and Chicago before two very discerning audiences. The film was shown at the 504th Bomb Group reunion on Sept. 6 in Albuquerque and at the 509th Composite Group reunion in Chicago on Sept. 8. Both of these famous units featured prominently in the events documented in the film, Giles said. Echoes from the Apocalypse documents the once-in-a-lifetime commemoration event held on Tinian in August 2005 to mark the 60th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bombs and the end of WWII. The event brought together U.S. and Japanese veterans, as well as atomic bomb survivors, to spend a week on the island viewing important WWII sites, attending commemorative ceremonies, and being filmed and interviewed by documentary teams.
    The island they explored had once been home to the world’s largest airfield and the site of the top secret atom bomb assembly facilities. Both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic strike missions originated from the airfield in Tinian.
    That airfield, as well as most of the buildings and important World War II sites on the island, had been reclaimed by the jungle when Giles made his first visit to Tinian in 1987.
    Giles noted that the University has supported his work on WWII projects with numerous faculty development grants. Giles’ last film, the two-hour documentary Thunder from Tinian, won a Telly Award in 1997. The Telly Award is a national award for non-broadcast films. Giles also has done a large commissioned painting for the new high school on Tinian, served as a prime consultant for the audio-visual components of the new National Parks Service Museum on WW II on Saipan and has led numerous tours back to Tinian and other islands involved in the war in the Pacific. Eventually, Giles’ work on Tinian helped lead to the week-long 60th anniversary event in 2005. But Giles said many military and government officials felt the event was too controversial to support because it would bring together former enemies in face-to-face meetings and could result in an embarrassing international incident. Instead, the event treated members of the international press to riveting eyewitness testimonials and new insights into Tinian’s historic role in the war. The dropping of the atomic bombs was recently voted the top news story of the 20th century by the Associated Press.
    Giles will present a local premiere of his film at 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 8 in Wieden Auditorium. An open forum discussion will follow. The public is invited to attend. For more information about Echoes from the Apocalypse or to purchase a copy of the DVD, contact Giles at tantora99@yahoo.com. For information about the event, contact Carol Ayoob at 768-9462.