Archive for the ‘Louisville & KY’ Category

Muhammed Ali Humanitarian Awards

Posted on: September 1st, 2014 by wmapother No Comments

I’d venture that I probably don’t share many things in common with Muhammed Ali (link provided for those of you from Mars), but one thing we do share is a hometown—Louisville, Kentucky.

m ali

Among things we don’t share: He has an award-winning museum and multicultural center there; I don’t.

Every year his Center there hosts the ceremony for the Muhammed Ali Humanitarian Awards. The Center’s website describes them far better than I can: “The Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Awards celebrate the greatness of people from around the world who are making differences in their communities and beyond. In addition to awards given to seasoned humanitarians, six young people are honored with an award for each of Muhammad’s Six Core Principles: Confidence, Conviction, Dedication, Giving, Respect, and Spirituality.”

Recipients of the 2014 awards include six winners under the age of 30, and Jim Brown, Mick Ebeling of Eyewriter, Susan Sarandon, and others.

I have been given the great honor to present one of the awards at this year’s ceremony, on September 27. Louisville’s newspaper, The Courier-Journal, ran the following piece on the awards. (I’ve pasted and preserved it below because the paper’s content expires after a while..).

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Ali Humanitarian Awards recipients named

The annual Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Awards are given to inspire people to continue to do great things in their community and globally.

This year’s recipients were announced Thursday and include Cleveland Browns running back and Hall of Famer Jim Brown, who will receive a Lifetime Achievement award for his dedication to civil rights. The Global Citizenship award will go to actress Susan Sarandon, whose many charitable works have included ambassador for UNICEF, the Amazon Conservation Team.

The Humanitarian of the Year Award will be given to Mick Ebeling, creator of Eyewriter, a low-cost device that enables individuals with paralysis to communicate with the movement of their eyes. Hip-hop artist Common will get the Humanitarian Award for Education for his work with disadvantaged youth in urban communities.

Other honors include a Kentucky Humanitarian Award, which will be given to Robert and Deborah Blair, founders of the West End School. There are also six young winners under the age of 30: Jessica Matthews of New York, Mario Andres Hurtado Cordazo of Colombia, Kennedy Odede of Kenya, Talia Leman of Iowa, Sejal Hathi of California and Mastura Rashid of Malaysia.

All recipients have been chosen because of their significant dedication to improving their communities and the world.

The awards will be presented Sept. 27, 7 to 11 p.m., at the Louisville Marriott Downtown, 280 W. Jefferson St.

Individual tickets are $1,000 and include the awards event plus a premium ticket to a special concert, featuring Bruno Mars and opening act The Temptations Review and Southern Sirens on Sept. 20 at the Kentucky International Convention Center. Check the Ali Center’s website for more information and tickets: alicenter.org/awards.

Matt Lauer, host of NBC’s “Today,” will serve as host for the awards ceremony. Other presenters include Lonnie Ali, Brad Montague and Robby Novak, Holly Robinson-Peete, Father George Kilcourse, William Mapother, Pearse Lyons, Donald Lassere, U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth and Pamela Brown.

Muhammad Ali and his wife, Lonnie, plan to attend.

Posted in Charitable Causes, In Person (or, like, Live), Louisville & KY, Press

Louisville Oscar Party

Posted on: February 21st, 2014 by wmapother No Comments

On March 2, Louisville Film Society is throwing their 1st annual Oscar Party, and it’s in our awesome new home in the Portand neighborhood. Local food and drinks, an auction, and a chance to see the new building, which includes a four-screen movie theatre. Definitely the place to be for the Oscar Party. Come cheer on our fellow Kentuckians at the show.

Posted in Film, Louisville & KY, News & Events

And William’s Envelope for Adaptation Goes to…

Posted on: February 7th, 2014 by wmapother No Comments

Louisville Magazine, a monthly in my hometown, recently asked several Louisvillian filmheads for their opinion of the best film adapted from a book. Questions with “best” and “favorite” tend to give me hives, but I took one for the hometown and ventured an opinion. (Because I’m usually so, you know, unopinionated…)

My answer is below, and all our answers are online.

Okay, let’s have it. What would you nominate for Best Adaptation from a Book?

“For William Mapother, actor and co-founder of the online film-investment marketplace Slated, form drives function, though sometimes an adaptation hits a home run. “Every narrative form has its own inherent advantage — for example, the internal for novels, dialogue for plays and the external (movement) for movies,” says Mapother, who most recendy starred in the Sundance Award-winning Another Earth… “This has produced the general rule for adaptations: The better the book, the worse the movie, and vice versa. (Stanley Kubrick explained: ‘Great writers are embarrassed by plot.’) So, let’s set aside the debate about which criteria to use (most difficult book to adapt, best book, degree of faithfulness to the source, etc.). Across all reasonable criteria for best adaptation, The Godfather receives the highest average score. It’s a great film, period. And it’s recogoizable as both an adaptation and a work of its own. And it so improves upon the source material that the book seems almost a novelization of the movie. (Author Mario Puzo also co-wrote the screenplay.) And it became a touchstone for adaptations. And, yes, it has Brando.”

Posted in Film, Louisville & KY, Press

Environmentalist, Schmenvironmentalist

Posted on: October 12th, 2013 by wmapother No Comments

A few years ago, Highland Cleaners in Louisville, Kentucky, opened their 12th location. It’s in an environmentalist’s dream structure, with a wide variety of features designed to be best buddies with our great green planet. It’s named, aptly, the Highland Green, and it boasts a terrific website about the building.

Michael Jones, Highlands’s President and a longtime (and long suffering) friend of mine, asked me to narrate a video he commissioned about the building and its environmental features. Business First of Louisville just ran a piece about my narrating the video.

Attached is a list of highlights about the building. The #1 LEED rating for a U.S. dry cleaning facility.

Signing off now, as I must go cuddle up to some earthworms.

Highland Greens 2-pg PDF

Posted in Charitable Causes, Louisville & KY, Video (Online & Home)

My, How You’ve Grown

Posted on: September 20th, 2013 by wmapother No Comments

Business First of Louisville today ran a nice piece on the growth of Slated.
Until I saw it, I hadn’t realized how much we’ve grown. When Business First previously ran piece on Slated, we had 44 films listed, and now we have 230. And before we had probably about 2,000 users in our network, and now we have 5,000. Who doesn’t appreciate a little perspective?