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5Point Film Festival founder Julie Kennedy, with husband Michael Kennedy, launches her inaugural festival May 8-10 in Carbondale. (Contributed photo)
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The 5Point Film Festival takes its name from the five-point system by which rock-climbing routes are graded. But the festival, founded by Carbondale resident and former Climbing magazine publisher Julie Kennedy, actually does have five points to make and none of them have to do with how insanely far a skier can jump, or how daring a hold a climber can attempt. The guiding principles for the festival are respect, commitment, humility, purpose and balance, and Kennedy, a 53-year-old mother, has been vigilant in putting stories, perspective and a conscience behind the adventure footage. Witness the panel discussion titles: Living Passionately Through Adversity (featuring locals Aron Ralston and Chris Klug, and blind climber Erik Weihenmayer), and Inspiring Passion and Lifestyle with Your Kids. The inaugural 5Point festival, featuring 25 films and more, is Thursday through Saturday, May 8-10, at various Carbondale venues.

Its an improbably big-name week at Belly Up for such a quiet time of year in town. The tunes kick off Wednesday, May 7 with the Victor Wooten Band, led by the incomparable bassist of Bla Fleck & the Flecktones. The sextet features two of Wootens brothers guitarist Regi and keyboardist Joseph but not Flecktones drumitar master, Future Man, who also goes by Roy Wooten. Hot Tuna, the long-running roots group led by guitarist Jorma Kaukonen and bassist Jack Casady, plays a show an acoustic set and an electric set on Friday, May 9. Kathleen Edwards, a highly regarded Canadian singer-songwriter, makes her local debut on Saturday, May 10, touring behind Asking for Flowers, which was released last month. Opening is The Last Town Chorus, an edgy roots band led by singer-lap steel player Megan Hickey. Finally, one Bob Dylan. Make that six Bobs, as Todd Haynes Im Not There an extraordinary quasi-biopic featuring six actors (Cate Blanchett, the late Heath Ledger, Richard Gere) playing Bob-like figures shows at Belly Ups Movie Night on Thursday, May 8.

If the 50s in America was really that era of sweetness and innocence, then Bye Bye Birdie nails it. The musical, which premiered on Broadway in 1960, is a world of The Ed Sullivan Show, the young Elvis, families gathering at the dinner table, and scandals revolving around simple kissing. The local childrens theater company Gottlieb Bartley Productions (formerly Jayne Gottlieb Productions, but now with choreographer/co-director Adam Bartley on board) resurrects that notion of the 50s, Friday through Sunday, May 9-11, at the Wheeler Opera House. The show features Austin Corona as the struggling agent Albert, Bella Mobilian as his plotting girlfriend Rosie, and Luke Seamans as the Elvis-inspired Conrad in a production that Gottlieb calls a little bit like Grease but not quite as hip.

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