My mother began to go crazy. Not in a ‘Let’s paint the kitchen red!’ sort of way. But crazy in a ‘gas oven, toothpaste sandwich, I am God sort of way.
~Author Augusten Burroughs, Running with Scissors: A Memoir

The recent triumph and record attendance at the BendFilm festival is testimony to many variables: the founders, sponsors and volunteers of the event, the culture of our community and creativity of the writers, filmmakers and directors that radiates from the festival.

According to Ben Dittman, current board president, the festival saw a 35 percent increase in tickets sale sand 15 percent increase in attendance. The savvy director, Orit Schwartz, who calmly keeps all the parts running was especially pleased that 80 filmmakers from all parts of the globe attended this year’s festival.

Having served on the board of the festival I am intimate with the challenge of raising the funds to be able to stage the event - funds needed for the venue rentals, staffing, filmmaker awards and celebrations.  Fundraising is even more challenging during these difficult economic times. And yet our community continues to rise to the occasion and the increased attendance proves, once again, that BendFilm is a superb event that merits support and admiration.

However, all this attendance and sustainability would not be possible without the creators of these films who provide such great entertainment and thought provoking content. We thank them profusely! An appropriate comment from actor Keanu Reeves: The whole aspect of cinema and film festivals should be a moment to come together and celebrate art and humanity. It would be a shame if there was such a divide.

Which brings us to another festival: The Nature of Words (November 2-6) where once again a local event has blossomed and grown under the leadership of its founder Ellie Waterston. The Nature of Words and the guest authors who have been selected to read, discuss and present their books and poetry to us will absolutely blow you away. The festival features noted authors and poets in readings, lectures, workshops, panel discussions and a gala dinner with guest author Augusten Burroughs presenting Loss Is Not Subtraction. Burroughs is known for his inspiring, humorous and often unscripted presentations.

The entire plate of literary guests is awe inspiring from Heidi Durrow, a former corporate attorney, journalist and life skills trainer with her debut novel, The Girl Who Fell From the Sky and William Kittredge, a renowned Western writer, who grew up on the cattle ranch his grandfather built in southeastern Oregon’s Lake County, the setting for his memoir, Hole in the Sky to Nancy Mairs one of the most highly respected writers of literary non-fiction and the personal essay including her spiritual autobiography Remembering the Bone House.

You can also sample Seth Mnookin, an award-winning journalist and author, who uses a combination of investigative reporting, intellectual and scientific history and sociological analysis to explore the controversies over vaccines and their rumored connection to developmental disorders as well as Aimée Nezhukumatathil the author of three poetry collections, Keith Scribner, author of The Oregon Experiment, Mark Spragg of Where Rivers Change Direction (Publishers Weekly said his writing “weds the venerable Western tradition of frontier exploration of self and nature with the masculine school of writing stretching from Hemingway to Mailer.”) and Kevin Young widely regarded as one of the leading poets of his generation.

You have several opportunities to partake in the festival, for a full list of events go to www.thenatureofwords.org.

Let yourself be inspired, entertained and stimulated! Right here in Central Oregon!