A PRESS RELEASE FROM: Bruce Robinson Station Manager KRCB Radio Santa Rosa, CA

For more than 35 years, Les Blank has been making distinctive and fascinating documentary films. Some have won awards; many have been critically praised; a few have been shown on PBS. Music, food, and unique individuals who face life on their own terms inhabit Blank's films, which range from shorts that run just a few minutes to full-length features.

On Sunday, Feb. 27, KRCB and the Healdsburg Arts Council are proud to present a one-day Les Blank Film Festival at the Raven Film Center in Healdsburg. In addition to two separate programs of Blank's infrequently screened work, the filmmaker himself will be present, and will be interviewed on-stage during the afternoon program by KRCB's Michele Anna Jordan.

"More than any other filmmaker, Les Blank understands that food and the pleasure it imparts is an essential element of human culture, inseparable from life itself. His films capture real people in the normal course of living interesting and delicious lives," Jordan said. This will be the second time she has interviewed the filmmaker, and she is already looking forward to it. "His thoughts, as he is discussing his films, are just fascinating," Michele noted, "that's the crux of it for me." The interview will be recorded for later broadcast on Mouthful, Jordan's weekly exploration of regional food, wine and agriculture, which airs Sunday evenings, 7-8 p.m. on KRCB Radio.

The afternoon program will feature Blank's signature food film, Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers, along with Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe, and Yum, Yum, Yum, a close-up look at Cajun cooking. Following the program, there will be a special benefit dinner for KRCB at La Charcuterie, with both Blank and Jordan. Seating is very limited; please call (707) 585-6284 for details and reservations.

The evening film program will feature Blank's Burden of Dreams, his acclaimed feature-length documentary on filmmaker Werner Herzog's obsessive efforts to make his epic Fitzcarraldo, as well as Blank's cinematic tribute to Gap-Toothed Women. The full program will be shown twice, at 7 and 10 p.m. All programs will be in the Film Centers 137-seat Theater 2. KRCB television, Channel 22, is also joining in the festival, broadcasting Blank's In Heaven There Is No Beer, a light-hearted examination of polka dancing and the subculture that embraces it, at 10:30 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 20.