Jill Sprecher
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Jill Sprecher
Jill Ann Sprecher (born 27 July 1957) is an American film director, producer and writer. Sprecher collaborates on her film projects with her sister, Karen Sprecher, who writes. She is known for her films ''Clockwatchers'' and ''Thirteen Conversations About One Thing'' and her contributions to ''Big Love'' on HBO. Her films feature stories about realistic human experiences and the struggles of women. Biography Jill Sprecher grew up in Madison, Wisconsin with her two siblings and parents, Peter, an insurance broker, and Phyllis (née Willingham) Sprecher, a medical technologist. Jill's father worked in insurance. Depending on where Pete found insurance jobs, the family moved between Madison and Milwaukee. The children attended Memorial High School. Jill studied literature and philosophy at the University of Wisconsin. Jill moved to New York the day after she graduated to study film and begin her career in the industry. She graduated from New York University with a Masters in c ...
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United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territories, nine Minor Outlying Islands, and 326 Indian reservations. The United States is also in free association with three Pacific Island sovereign states: the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau. It is the world's third-largest country by both land and total area. It shares land borders with Canada to its north and with Mexico to its south and has maritime borders with the Bahamas, Cuba, Russia, and other nations. With a population of over 333 million, it is the most populous country in the Americas and the third most populous in the world. The national capital of the United States is Washington, D.C. and its most populous city and principal financial center is New York City. Paleo-Americ ...
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Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world's most populous megacities. Los Angeles is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Southern California. With a population of roughly 3.9 million residents within the city limits , Los Angeles is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic and cultural diversity, being the home of the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, and its Greater Los Angeles, sprawling metropolitan area. The city of Los Angeles lies in Los Angeles Basin, a basin in Southern California adjacent to the Pacific Ocean in the west and extending through the Santa Monica Mountains and north into the San Fernando Valley, with the city bordering the San Gabri ...
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Arizona International Film Festival
The Arizona International Film Festival is the oldest and longest running independent film festival in Arizona. Taking place yearly, film programs include a mix of shorts, children's films, feature-length films, documentaries and animation films. The festival is also a Film Festival Grant Recipient of ''The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motion ...''. References External links * {{official website, http://www.filmfestivalarizona.com Film festivals in Arizona Festivals in Tucson, Arizona ...
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Constructionism (learning Theory)
Constructionist learning is the creation by learners of mental models to understand the world around them. Constructionism advocates student-centered, discovery learning where students use what they already know, to acquire more knowledge.Alesandrini, K. & Larson, L. (2002). Teachers bridge to constructivism. The Clearing House, 119–121. Students learn through participation in project-based learning where they make connections between different ideas and areas of knowledge facilitated by the teacher through coaching rather than using lectures or step-by-step guidance. Further, constructionism holds that learning can happen most effectively when people are active in making tangible objects in the real world. In this sense, constructionism is connected with experiential learning and builds on Jean Piaget's epistemological theory of constructivism. Seymour Papert defined constructionism in a proposal to the National Science Foundation titled ''Constructionism: A New Opportunity ...
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Modernist Literature
Literary modernism, or modernist literature, originated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and is characterized by a self-conscious break with traditional ways of writing, in both poetry and prose fiction writing. Modernism experimented with literary form and expression, as exemplified by Ezra Pound's maxim to "Make it new." This literary movement was driven by a conscious desire to overturn traditional modes of representation and express the new sensibilities of their time. The horrors of the First World War saw the prevailing assumptions about society reassessed, and much modernist writing engages with the technological advances and societal changes of modernity moving into the 20th century. Origins and precursors In the 1880s, increased attention was given to the idea that it was necessary to push aside previous norms entirely, instead of merely revising past knowledge in light of contemporary techniques. The theories of Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), and Ernst Mach ...
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A Barbecue For Betty
"A Barbecue for Betty" is the ninth episode of the American drama television series ''Big Love''. The episode was written by producer Jill Sprecher and series creators Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer from a story by Sprecher and Karen Sprecher, and directed by Julian Farino. It originally aired on HBO on May 7, 2006. The series is set in Salt Lake City and follows Bill Henrickson, a fundamentalist Mormon. He practices polygamy, having Barbara, Nicki and Margie as his wives. The series charts the family's life in and out of the public sphere in their suburb, as well as their associations with a fundamentalist compound in the area. In the episode, Bill throws a barbecue to celebrate Don's new marriage, but his plans are jeopardized when he learns about Nicki's debts. According to Nielsen Media Research, the episode was seen by an estimated 4.04 million household viewers. The episode received mostly positive reviews from critics, who praised the conflicts and character development ...
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Thin Ice (2011 Film)
''Thin Ice'' (originally released as ''The Convincer'') is a 2011 American comedy-drama film directed by Jill Sprecher and starring Greg Kinnear, Alan Arkin and Billy Crudup. Plot summary Wisconsin insurance salesman Mickey Prohaska (Greg Kinnear) is in desperate financial straits. His wife JoAnn (Lea Thompson) has thrown him out of the house, and he is willing to do or say practically anything to sell anybody a policy. Mickey accompanies another insurance agent he has just met, Bob Egan (David Harbour), to the farm of an elderly man named Gorvy Hauer (Alan Arkin). The house is a mess and Gorvy is absent-minded, perhaps a tad senile. He does not have much money and, the little he has, he seems to keep in a jar. Mickey tries to sell the old man some insurance anyway. Gorvy also has an old violin. A man named Dahl (Bob Balaban), an appraiser from Chicago who has a shop filled with musical instruments, examines the violin and says it is somewhat rare and actually worth $25,000. Comp ...
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CableACE Awards
The CableACE Award (earlier known as the ACE Awards; ACE was an acronym for "Award for Cable Excellence") is a defunct award that was given by what was then the National Cable Television Association from 1978 to 1997 to honor excellence in American cable television programming. The trophy itself was shaped as a glass spade, alluding to the Ace of spades. History The CableACE was created to serve as the cable industry's counterpart to broadcast television's Primetime Emmy Awards. Until the 40th ceremony in 1988, the Emmys refused to honor cable programming. For much of its existence, the ceremony aired on a simulcast on as many as twelve cable networks in some years. The last few years found the ceremony awarded solely to one network, usually Lifetime or TBS. In 1992, the award's official name was changed from ACE to CableACE, agreeing to do so to reduce confusion with the American Cinema Editors (ACE) society. By 1997, the Emmys began to reach a tipping point, where cabl ...
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Matthew McConaughey
Matthew David McConaughey ( ; born November 4, 1969) is an American actor. He had his breakout role with a supporting performance in the coming-of-age comedy '' Dazed and Confused'' (1993). After a number of supporting roles, his first success as a leading man came in the legal drama '' A Time to Kill'' (1996). His career progressed with lead roles in the science fiction film ''Contact'' (1997), the historical drama '' Amistad'' (1997), and the war film '' U-571'' (2000). In the 2000s, McConaughey became known for starring in romantic comedies, including ''The Wedding Planner'' (2001), '' How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days'' (2003), '' Failure to Launch'' (2006), '' Fool's Gold'' (2008), and '' Ghosts of Girlfriends Past'' (2009), establishing him as a sex symbol. In 2011, after a two-year hiatus from film acting, McConaughey began to appear in more dramatic roles, beginning with the legal drama ''The Lincoln Lawyer''. In 2012, he gained wider praise for his roles as a stripper in ' ...
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Torino International Festival Of Young Cinema
The Torino Film Festival (also called the Turin Film Festival, TFF) is an international film festival held annually in Turin, Italy. Held every November, it is the second largest film festival in Italy, following the Venice Film Festival. It was founded in 1982 by film critic and professor Gianni Rondolino as Festival Internazionale Cinema Giovani or the Festival of Young Cinema. The festival's directors have included Alberto Barbera, Stefano della Casa, Giulia d'Agnolo, Roberto Turigliatto, Nanni Moretti, Gianni Amelio and Paolo Virzì. History Gianni Rondolino founded the Festival Internazionale Cinema Giovani in 1982 in Turin, a city that was in economic decline. The festival, attracting big names in Italian and international cinema, helped to re-energise the city both economically and culturally. The first directors were Rondolino and Ansano Gianarelli. In 1998, the festival's name changed to the Torino Film Festival. In 2007, film director Nanni Moretti was appointed as dir ...
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Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,660 attending in 2016. It takes place each January in Park City, Utah; Salt Lake City, Utah; and at the Sundance Resort (a ski resort near Provo, Utah), and acts as a showcase for new work from American and international independent filmmakers. The festival consists of competitive sections for American and international dramatic and documentary films, both feature films and short films, and a group of out-of-competition sections, including NEXT, New Frontier, Spotlight, Midnight, Sundance Kids, From the Collection, Premieres, and Documentary Premieres. History 1978: Utah/US Film Festival Sundance began in Salt Lake City in August 1978 as the Utah/US Film Festival in an effort to attract more filmmakers to Utah. It was founded by Ster ...
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Lisa Kudrow
Lisa Valerie Kudrow ( ; born July 30, 1963) is an American actress, producer, and screenwriter. She rose to fame for her role as Phoebe Buffay in the sitcom ''Friends'' (1994–2004), which has since been named one of the greatest television characters of all time. Kudrow has received several awards, including one Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series from 15 nominations, two Screen Actors Guild Awards from 12 nominations, and one Golden Globe Award nomination. Kudrow starred in the cult comedy film ''Romy and Michele's High School Reunion'' (1997) and followed it with an acclaimed performance in the romantic comedy ''The Opposite of Sex'' (1998), which won her the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress and a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female. She created, produced, wrote, and starred in the HBO mockumentary series '' The Comeback'', which lasted for only season in 2005 but was rev ...
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