Category — Interesting People

Breven Angaelica Warren is the founder and producer of the Columbia Gorge International Film Festival. Formerly known as the Washougal Film Festival, the newly-named event will move to the downtown Vancouver Hilton and Convention Center this month. It will open on Wednesday, August 18 and close on Sunday night, August 22.

Breven Angaelica Warren, Producer, Columbia Gorge International Film Festival

The opening night starts with a reception followed by a screening of Earthwork, directed by Chris Ordal. In addition a film designed to be projected onto ice will be shown – on ice, with music.

Films will be shown throughout the day and evening on Thursday, Friday and during the day on Saturday – in four different theaters at the Convention Center. An awards ceremony will be held on Saturday night and prize-winning films will be re-screened on Sunday.

A filmmaker and producer who also works at other festivals like Sundance, Breven has scheduled more than 300 films, ranging in length from 1 minute to 2.5 hours. Numerous filmmakers are coming to Vancouver for the event. Admission to view the films is free! Trailers for some of the films are available at Trailer Addict . The complete film list is posted here.

What brought you to SW Washington?

My mother graduated from Washougal and my dad graduated from Camas so I was made here. They had me in Florida and I grew up in Florida and Jamaica. My family moved back here quite a few years ago and I came here to help them with what they were doing and I am a filmmaker so I brought my film projects with me.

I was living in Washougal and the community was so amazingly supportive of my filmmaking. A lot of times I would get the question, “Where can we see your films?” Unless you were on the film festival circuit I don’t know where you would see them. So I had the idea of starting a festival to share with the community what they were helping me make and to bring independent film to the community.

That is how I started the festival in 2008, largely to give back to the community as well as to offer another opportunity to filmmakers because the film circuit is very tricky to get into and it took me a long time to get my films on the festival circuit. In 2008 we screened over 300 films. Part of my mission is to have it free to everyone. It’s a terrible business model but I want to stick to that.

In 2009 we grew a little and had more films and more filmmakers come. We are in our third year and the Convention Center was available and we could have everything under one roof. So many filmmakers come in from out of town as well as out of country and we can offer them all the amenities.

What is the best kept secret about SW Washington?

Is it a secret that we have the most amazing nature opportunities here? I’m obsessed with the gardening here.

If you didn’t live here, where would you live?

Somewhere where I can create. I am more interested in my community, the people around me, than the location.

What’s coming up that you are excited about?

Absolutely the Film Festival and getting to share so many amazing films with so many people. And especially the quality of filmmaking. We have amazing films from all over the world. We represent about 40 countries and really breathtaking storytelling, creative art films, great narratives and wonderful documentaries.

What would surprise people to know about you?

I started working in the industry as a child. Got my SAG card at age nine. Also, I make installations. I construct things. I like to make large pieces of art. I love glue and tape.

“Regard it as just as desirable to build a chicken house as to build a cathedral.” – Frank Lloyd Wright

When I was a kid, chickens lived in barnyards. I was in awe of my grandmother’s fearlessness as she entered her long, white hen house and reached under each angry hen to snatch her egg. Those beaks looked mighty scary to me.

Looking back, I can’t imagine what it was like to have the 150 Rhode Island Reds and White Leghorns, which she tended to every day. That is a LOT of eggs! Combine that with multiple crowing roosters and we’re talking serious (and noisy) poultry.

Pondering the age-old question: Which came first?

The Wall Street Journal reported about the urban chicken trend on July 8, article here. Now chickens enjoy city backyards and Vancouver is no exception. We love our chickens!

Roosters are forbidden in our city limits (thank you, City of Vancouver!) but hens are doing quite well. In fact, the chickens will be queens for the day on July 17 at the Coop du Jour Tour, which will allow us to look into their castles. A fundraiser for the Hough Foundation, the self-guided tour will feature chicken coops of various designs in Vancouver’s Uptown Village neighborhoods. The tour will be held from Noon to 4 pm.

I had the opportunity to preview one of the coops in June. “Coop” is WAY too weak of a word. This was nothing like my grandmother’s utilitarian hen house. The Mowats have created a stylish home for their brood in the Hough Neighborhood and will be part of the tour.

Much More than a 'Coop'

A Condo for Hens

My neighbors Caitlyn and Jerrad are inspiring new chicken owners. They have creatively transformed their daughter’s play structure into a handy coop, while preserving the swings, upper deck and slide for play. They will explain their architectural wonder during the tour. Frank Lloyd Wright would be proud.

Play Structure or Chicken Coop? It's Both!

Buy your tickets now for the Coop du Jour. They are available at Arnada Naturals and Mint Tea in advance (Only $10 per family) or on the day of the event. More info about the tour is here.

Grandma Moses reputedly said that if she hadn’t been a painter, she would have raised chickens. She would have enjoyed the Coop du Jour.

Rebar. Plastic bags. Gasoline cans. Art? This weekend, there were dozens of artists at the Recycled Arts Festival in Vancouver who have transformed the rusted, the plastic and the bound-for-the-landfill into collector’s items. Esther Short Park was lined with more than 80 vendors displaying remarkable reuse talents. Thank you Clark County Environmental Services for a great event! A few lessons stood out:

1. I don’t have to feel guilty about those (now rusty) garden tools I left in the rain.

Rusty tools can create great yard art

More information available at Howling Heights Metal Designs

2. Plastic bags can become a thing of beauty.

If you can crochet, you can create beautiful bags and rugs from plastic bags

Lots of products available through Molly J Walter

3. Those splintery chopsticks from my favorite Chinese restaurant can have a new life.

Who knew that chopsticks were so versatile?

There are lots of choices to purchase at Kwytza Chopstick Art .

4. The bowling balls I have been collecting are just begging to be beautified.

Way more interesting than Victorian gazing garden balls

Visit Ta-Dah Handmade about artwork and classes.

5. My collection of out-of-style sweaters could become in-style, felted hats.

These sweaters look great as hats!

Visit Sweater Heads for a great selection.

6. You can teach an old, red gasoline can new tricks as a dog.

Low maintenance pet - perfect for empty nesters

More information available at Howling Heights Metal Designs

7. A cigar box wants to make music.

These cigar box instruments can even be amplified

Alan Matta at Hammered Frets has the details on his instruments at hammeredfrets@gmail.com

8. Wine bottles recycled into jewelry can be way more interesting than gemstones.

Beautiful glass beads made from wine and beer bottles

Learn about hand-torched, glass bead jewelry at Late Night Lampworks

9. Vases, light fixtures and other glassware can become stunning, luminescent statues for the garden.

These glass art pieces will never stop blooming in your garden

For details about these sculptures, email vondaquilts@comcast.net or visit their Facebook page Tiffany on a Stick.

10. Every nut and bolt deserves another chance.

Nuts and bolts start new lives

More work available at Fairy Forge.

Got stuff? Avoid the landfill. Get out there and start re-creating!

Deena Pierott is the Founder and CEO of Mosaic Blueprint, which she started in 2007 to help companies find great talent worldwide. She is the Founder of Urban Entrepreneurs Network, which focuses on women and minority businesses in SW Washington. A true whirlwind, she is also the Founder of International Black Women’s Collaborative, an online platform with more than 1,000 women from all over the globe. Deena is a governor-appointed Commissioner on the Washington State Commission of African-American Affairs and a Board member of Community Choices in Vancouver.

We spoke in the new Fireside Café at 63rd and Andresen in Vancouver.

Deena Pierott

Deena, what brought you to SW Washington?

When my husband and I were married, we were in LA and we wanted a place that was slower paced for our son. I remembered how nice this area was when my parents had bought a home right outside of Salem so my husband came up and stayed for two weeks and loved it and said “I think we should move.” We first moved to Lake Oswego and lived there for about five years and then came over to Vancouver. I was drawn to SW Washington. Even though it’s just a river away from Portland, it’s really different. There is more of a sense of community here.

What is the best kept secret about SW Washington?

Besides being such as wonderful and encouraging community – the scenery here. There is a scenic drive near La Center where they have a winery and parks. There is one old barn with a creek that seems like it is out of a Norman Rockwell painting. And it is only a couple of hours to Seattle, you can go to Portland for entertainment, you can go to the mountains, you can go to the beach. It’s a wonderful location.

What is your favorite place to relax or play in SW Washington?

If I have the time, I like to just grab a lawn chair and go out to Klineline Park and just read.

If you didn’t live here, where would you live?

New York City.

What is coming up that you are excited about?

I’m working on a possible diversity event to be held in New York City – Women in Leadership: The Hidden Communication Barriers.

What would surprise people to know about you?

I think people see me as an overachiever a lot and someone who is leading several causes, companies, etc. I think they would be surprised at my compassion and empathy. I do have a very soft side. I don’t think people understand how community driven or collaborative I am even behind the scenes. I will try to bring everyone in on something so that everyone can share a piece of the pie. It reminds me of a quote: “Integrity — When you do the right thing even though no one is watching.”

“I prefer my piano to people. It’s totally reliable and it’s alive. I can hear what it’s saying.” ~ Tori Amos

Is there a piece of furniture that is more alive or elicits more memories than the family piano? This week we had the piano tuned. It was in surprisingly good tune in spite of 14 years since the last tuning and its home under a large, single-paned window. (Not good, I learned.) But it did suffer from “lost motion” and a few stuck keys.

Les Fitzpatrick gives our piano a tune-up

Listening to your piano being tuned can bring back all kinds of memories. This is the piano that joined the family in 1950 and helped me learn how to play music. This is the piano that attracted the neighborhood kids as my mother patiently played the Davy Crockett theme song over and over and over again while we all sang “Davy, Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier” at the top of our adolescent lungs. It has survived moves from house to house, state (Iowa) to state (Washington). It can go years without being played and not complain when its function has been reduced to holding houseplants.

Maintaining your piano in our community is more than just having the piano tuned. We are fortunate to have the only program of its kind in the world – the School of Piano Technology for the Blind. Founded by Emil Fries in 1949, the school attracts students from around the globe. All are blind or visually impaired.

Emil Fries was also blind. He studied at the Washington State School for the Blind in Vancouver, worked his way through the University of Washington by tuning pianos ($4 per piano) and returned to Vancouver to teach at the state school for 18 years before founding the independent piano technician program. Since 1949, the school has graduated more than 200 students.

For two years, the students (8 at a time) learn the intricacies of working with thousands of moving piano parts. They develop an “ear” for the pianos, learning how to tune and repair them. They also learn customer service skills and create business plans for their future careers. While the national unemployment rate is 60-70% in the blind community, they are bucking that horribly high rate by making plans for financial independence.

About half of the school’s budget comes from tuning, repairing and selling pianos. (Click here to see available pianos.) Staff members like Les Fitzpatrick, who tuned our piano, make about 1,000 service calls per year.

So you can make a difference while getting your piano tuned! Or you can donate your piano. Whether you own a piano or not, you can sit back, enjoy some wine and listen to a great pianist at the school’s fundraiser “Jazz, Pizazz and Vino” at Bethany Vineyards on Sunday, June 27 with Tom Grant on piano and Nancy Curtin on vocals.

Jazz, Tom Grant, Bethany’s gorgeous setting and a great cause — what more could you want on a summer Sunday in Southwest Washington?

And, by the way, get that piano tuned!

The year is 1903. Woodland resident Hulda Klager reads about Luther Burbank’s plant propagation work. Tired of peeling small apples for pies, she hybridizes a larger apple. From that work, she moves to lilacs and changes the history of the flowering shrub. After years of creating new varieties, she starts the tradition of annual open houses, sharing her plants with lilac collectors.

Thirty years later disaster strikes. Imagine that your life’s work is washed away. In 1948, a flood destroyed most of Hulda’s collection. At age 83, she started over. Many people who had purchased her many varieties came back with plant starts. She re-planted her collection and continued her spring open houses until her death at age 96 in 1960.

Today, the fragrant collection and the 1889 Klager home are maintained by the Hulda Klager Lilac Society. You can see the results of Hulda’s work, tour the Klager farm house and purchase plants every spring from mid-April through Mother‘s Day during Lilac Days . During the rest of the year, the grounds are open from 10 am to 4 pm, seven days a week. Details here .

Here are a few photos of Hulda Klager’s floral legacy:

City of Gresham

Katherine Havemeyer

Chrystle

Lilac Sunday

Glory