EPIC RETURN: Although Nathan Silver has lived in New York for 10 years, he chose his native Arlington as a filming site in the summer of 2010 for “Exit Elena,” a dark comedy that he co-wrote, directed, and produced.
On Friday, he will host its first local screening in a sneak preview at the Regent Theatre, 7 Medford St. in Arlington, at 7:30 p.m.
Kia Davis of New York, who shared writing duties with Silver, plays the title character, who takes a job as a live-in aide only to find herself in the middle of a family crisis.
The 72-minute movie also stars the director’s mother, Lexington resident Cindy Silver, with additional relatives and neighbors as members of the cast and crew. Silver’s best friend, David Dahlbom of Arlington, was the cameraman.
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Silver, who is working on his fourth feature film, said he is grateful for the attention “Exit Elena” has received at film festivals in Edinburgh, Vienna, Buenos Aires, Wilmington, N.C., and Woodstock, N.Y., where it won honorable mention in the narrative feature category. As an added thrill, he has met long-admired directors such as Hal Hartley and actors including Elliott Gould.
While Silver has enjoyed introducing his film to audiences worldwide, he is looking forward to a homecoming at the Regent Theatre.
“It’s always nice to show the movie around the place it was shot, and the fact it’s being shown in a theater I remember going to as a kid is pretty cool,” he said.
“Showing the film in all these foreign countries feels strange, but maybe this will feel stranger. You never know.”
Tickets cost $8 in advance and $10 on Friday. For details, visit www.regenttheatre.com or www.exitelena.com.
OUTLIVING THE SUN: Author, rocket scientist, and software engineer Allan Klumpp of Weston (right) will be the featured speaker in a Walden Forum presentation Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at First Parish in Wayland, 50 Cochituate Road .
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In his talk, “Making Civilization Permanent: Outliving the Sun,” Klumpp will describe practical approaches to protecting water supplies, reducing carbon dioxide, ending global warming and continental glaciation, and preventing impacts with celestial bodies.
His 44-year career in space technology included a stint in Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory developing software for the Mars rovers, and working on the Apollo lunar-descent guidance and steering systems — which were used in all six missions that landed on the moon — at the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory. He resigned from Caltech in 2003 to devote his efforts full time to extending human civilization.
“Some problems are extremely urgent, and others most certainly will be urgent to our grandchildren and great-grandchildren,” Klumpp said. “It is within humanity’s power to intervene for the benefit of all people and animals on the planet.”
The Walden Forum is a free public lecture series. For more information, e-mail info@waldenforum.org or visit www.waldenforum.org.
NEW PURPOSE: Although she attained her professional goal of becoming a lawyer in 1995, Maynard resident Carolyn Romano (below) never ceased searching for meaning beyond her work in estate planning and special education law.
Today, Romano leads several efforts to share her passion for mind-body medicine, self care, and skill building. Twice a month, she hosts the “Living on Purpose” show on the Dreamvisions 7 Radio Network.
The program complements the work she does through her practice, Bliss Healing Arts in Maynard, where she integrates alternative healing methods and follows the research-based model developed by the Center for Mind-Body Medicine in Washington, D.C.
Since 2005, Romano has also been president of the Theosophical Society, an Arlington-based nonprofit organization that encourages people to explore various philosophies and spiritual practices through lectures, workshops, study groups, and meditation exercises.
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From 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, the Theosophical Society will host its seventh annual Day of Healing and Insight, a fund-raiser offering 25-minute appointments for chair massage, reiki, qigong, energy healing, astrology, intuitive readings, and communication with pets.
Romano, who will offer Native American sacred path card intuitive readings, and selfrepair activation and biofeedback sessions during the event, said the overall goal is to help people keep their lives in balance so they can respond to obstacles from a place of peace and strength.
“Our vision,” she said, “is to make spiritual knowledge available to all seekers.”
For more information, go online to www.tsboston.org or www.blisshealingarts.com.
FOCUS ON ALZHEIMER’S: West Newton resident Eleanor Rubin will open her exhibition of works exploring the impact of Alzheimer’s disease on elders and their families Monday at the VSA Massachusetts Open Door Gallery, 89 South St. in Boston.
The show, “Progress of the Eclipse: Memory, Memory Loss, and Imagination,” features more than 25 prints, drawings, and watercolors Rubin created while caring for her mother, child psychoanalyst Marjorie Rosenfeld Leonard, prior to her death on Jan. 7, 1992.
“Creating images during a period of my mother’s illness fulfilled a need for self-transformation during times when the emotional burden was too great to be relieved by words,” said Rubin, noting that there is a “feeling of hope” among the images of loss and grief.
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A reception with Rubin will be held Thursday from 4 to 7 p.m. at the gallery, where the show will run through April 12.
For more information, visit www.ellyrubinjournal.typepad.com.
WHAT LIES BENEATH: Diane Bronstein of Arlington is the curator and a contributing artist for a traveling exhibition, “Underneath It All: Desire, Power, Memory, and Lingerie,” opening Tuesday at the Coconino Center for the Arts in Flagstaff, Ariz.
Bronstein will be the artist-in-residence through the end of the show on Feb. 16, leading workshops, giving public presentations, and working with local students.
The show, which includes work by Needham sculptor Ingrid Goldbloom Bloch , features 11 artists from around the country who use, interpret, or create lingerie in a wide range of media.
Bronstein said, “Our work examines many societal issues associated with lingerie,” such as sexual politics, gender identification, and mass marketing, “and is humorous, moving, and beautiful.”
For more information, visit underneathitallartexhibit.com.
FLOATING A NEW BOOK: An architect and artist from Newton, Lisa Reindorf (above) will celebrate the launch of her children’s book, “The Great Balloon Adventure,” with a gathering from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday at Soprafina Gallery, 55 Thayer St. in Boston. The gallery offers free parking in its Thayer Street lot.
For more information, call 617-728-0770 or go online to www.soprafina.com.
People items may be submitted to cantrell@ globe.com.