Glenn’s Pick – Glenn Webb, Director of Programs – Perhaps it is simply the accumulation of experience that makes it harder each year for me to find my way into some sort of “holiday spirit,” as if the bright shiny ornament has been encrusted with the inevitable layers of loss and stress that have coincided with this time of year. I find myself coming at it sideways, taking advantage of the things that still open me up to wonder and hope, which is why the story of how a baby finds a loving home turns out to be just what I needed. IN SAFE HANDS is an intelligently crafted movie, restrained enough to calmly let the stories unfold, letting the emotion arise from the situation rather than forcing drama. And in an era when everyone rushes toward indignation at how our institutions fail us, it is important to recognize that much of the time they actually get it right, being the collective organized efforts of altruism that bring care where it’s needed, creating a structure for folks to act on the “better angels of our nature.”
And if you crave a more ironic flavor of holiday cheer, FN Weird serves up a nostalgic clip show of the weird and wonderful bits of Rankin/Bass animated holiday shows, with misfit toys, a year without Santa, the little drummer boy, and more, strung together by our own Stephen, reprising his role as the storyteller of TV lands’ inexplicably odd specials.