NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Saturday, September 11, 2021
Eastern Oregon Film Festival prepares for 12th rendition
By DAVIS CARBAUGH
The Observer
LA GRANDE — As fall
approaches, so too does one
of La Grande’s growing arts
traditions.
The 12th presentation
of the Eastern Oregon Film
Festival is slated for a hybrid
presentation this year, with
in-person and virtual events
for Oct. 21-23. Prior to festi-
val passes going on sale, a
virtual sneak peek fundraiser
is on Wednesday, Sept. 15.
“We’re going to pull back a
bit and be safe about things,”
Eastern Oregon Film Festival
Director Chris Jennings said.
A big alteration to this
year’s film festival will be the
limited availability of in-per-
son passes for only official
EOFF members and visiting
artists. This decision comes
in the wake of the surge in
COVID-19 cases and uncer-
tainty of venue availability.
“For us to be able to
manage the festival this year,
we have to limit that all-ac-
cess festival pass to just our
members,” Jennings said.
“Because we’ve had such
a large response in artists
who are coming, we need
to make sure we can serve
up the festival in-person to
visiting artists and major
members as well as having
everything else available
online virtually.”
Alex Wittwer/EO Media Group, File
Jesse Cimon, left, Ryan Edvalson, center, and Chris Jennings pause for a portrait April 23, 2021, at the performing arts venue
HQ in La Grande. The Eastern Oregon Film Festival organizers are prepared to manage the 2021 festival in the safest way
possible.
Festival passes for in-per-
son access now are available
on the festival’s website,
while virtual passes will be
available to purchase online
starting Sept. 17. The sneak
peek fundraiser event marks
the deadline for festival
sponsorship opportunities.
Further details on streaming
the event will be available at
www.eofilmfest.com.
Despite the hurdles
C OV I D -19 p r e s e n t s ,
Jennings is happy with how
the festival has grown in
popularity. The festival is
showing more films than
ever this year and received
its largest number of submis-
sions. Visiting filmmakers
contributed 40 short films
and 13 feature films to this
year’s exhibition. Jennings
already is expecting at least
30 visiting filmmakers to
present their works in person
in La Grande.
“We have a lot of inter-
est on the filmmaking side,
so hopefully we can make
a nice networking party for
the visitors and engage them
with our members while still
Forecast for Pendleton Area
| Go to AccuWeather.com
TODAY
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Partly sunny and
nice
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Mostly sunny and
pleasant
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OREGON FORECAST
ALMANAC
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PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yest.
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Seattle
Olympia
65/53
70/48
77/54
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
75/56
Lewiston
73/56
78/54
Astoria
67/52
Pullman
Yakima 75/52
69/53
77/55
Portland
Hermiston
76/57
The Dalles 78/52
Salem
Corvallis
75/54
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
74/45
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
Bend
79/53
71/45
75/45
Ontario
83/49
Caldwell
Burns
75°
65°
84°
50°
98° (1944) 35° (1932)
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
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Albany
75/55
0.02"
0.02"
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1.95"
1.66"
5.41"
Today
Boardman
Pendleton
Medford
84/53
City manager consults with
attorneys on possible lawsuit
workers, and to the require-
ment that students wear face
masks while indoors at school.
Councilors discussed
BAKER CITY — Baker options, including filing a
City City Manager Jon lawsuit or joining another
Cannon has been
city’s or county’s
busy during the past
lawsuit.
week carrying out the
Cannon on Tues-
city council’s order to
day, Sept. 7, said he
look into a possible
has been speaking
with attorneys.
lawsuit challenging
“I have a couple
Oregon Gov. Kate
Brown’s mandate that
potentials for them
health care workers
to think about, but
Cannon
be vaccinated against
I haven’t got ten
COVID-19.
anything that the council
Councilors voted unan- has wanted to call a meeting
imously during their Aug. for and talk about,” Cannon
24 meeting to have Cannon said.
investigate the city’s possible
He said he is gathering
options.
information to present to
Councilors during that councilors at a future meet-
meeting heard from residents ing.The council’s next regular
who object to the vaccine meeting is Tuesday, Sept. 14.
mandate, which also applies
Cannon said he also
to teachers and other school received many phone calls
By SAMANTHA
O’CONNER
Baker City Herald
77/42
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2021
from city, county and school
district officials from across
the state who are interested in
possible legal avenues to chal-
lenge the governor’s executive
orders.
“From east to west, north
to south, from a lot of different
entities,” Cannon said.
Before and during the
council’s Aug. 24 meeting,
a group of residents gathered
outside city hall to protest the
vaccine and mask mandates.
Baker City Mayor Kerry
McQuisten said the vaccine
requirement, which applies to
the city’s firefighter/paramed-
ics, could result in employees
resigning, leaving the fire
department without critical
staff.
Affected employees must
either be fully vaccinated by
Oct. 18, or receive an excep-
tion on either medical or reli-
gious grounds.
Sun.
WSW 6-12
W 6-12
WSW 6-12
W 7-14
IN BRIEF
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
continuing at the Liberty
Theatre, Jennings is cross-
ing his fingers the space will
be ready to host viewings in
just over a month. He expects
the festival will use a pop-up
screen and may have to
acquire a special occupancy
permit to hold showings at the
venue. The film festival also
will utilize the McKenzie
Theatre and Schwarz Theatre
at Eastern Oregon Univer-
sity, as well as the Lodge at
Hot Lake Springs and HQ
on Depot Street in down-
town La Grande. The venues
WINDS (in mph)
79/46
77/39
0.04"
0.04"
0.16"
4.41"
8.68"
8.81"
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Pendleton 73/42
79/56
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
HERMISTON
Enterprise
74/51
81/58
71°
63°
82°
52°
96° (1990) 30° (1895)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
70/52
Aberdeen
71/52
77/57
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
68/57
distributing a program that
works virtually,” he said.
Like many events and
organizations in the area,
EOFF is rolling with the
punches when it comes to
COVID-19. After having
hosted the festival virtually
last year, Jennings is confi-
dent in the festival’s techni-
cal setup and infrastructure
available to present a qual-
ity product this time around.
In addition to the pandemic,
venue accessibility is play-
ing a role this year.
With const r uct ion
have varying capacity limits
ranging from 60 at Hot Lake
to more than 400 at Eastern
Oregon, which is causing
headaches in planning.
“That’s why we wanted to
limit it to members and that
way we can plan ahead for the
capacity at all our venues,”
Jennings said. “Then, if it’s
safe and things are good and
we can do it, we’ll open a
day-of box office for the films
and things going down.”
Jennings said the festi-
val will take it one step at a
time and determine in-per-
son availability in October.
Once the total number of
member passes and visiting
filmmakers can be deter-
mined, in-person tickets
for nonmembers may come
available.
“We will have an in-per-
son festival,” Jennings said.
“It will be an artists’ festival
and a members’ festival, but
there will be public opportu-
nities depending on capaci-
ties.”
Eve n w it h ce r t a i n
limitations in place due to
COVID-19 and venue acces-
sibility, Jennings is hoping to
continue the film festival’s
growth and foster La Grande
as a cultural destination.
“We’re definitely going to
put it out there in the safest
way we can and manage
it in the best way we can,”
Jennings said.
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
6:29 a.m.
7:14 p.m.
12:05 p.m.
9:48 p.m.
First
Full
Last
New
Sep 13
Sep 20
Sep 28
Oct 6
NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 110° in El Centro, Calif. Low 29° in Wolcott, Colo.
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
Spa owner in hot water again
after women allege abuse
SISTERS — A spa owner in Sisters faces
fresh allegations of sexual abuse after the
Deschutes County District Attorney declined
to charge him in July due to insufficient
evidence.
Now Michael Boyle, 60, owner of Hop in
the Spa in Sisters, finds himself back in hot
water after 10 more women came forward
alleging abuse and a grand jury indicted him
on multiple charges.
The grand jury on Tuesday, Sept. 7, handed
down an indictment against Boyle for the
following, according to a press release from
the district attorney’s office: 13 counts of prac-
ticing massage without a license; two counts
of first-degree sexual abuse; third-degree
sexual abuse; and one count of fourth-degree
assault.
The first court appearance for Boyle, 60,
is scheduled for Sept. 23. A judge at that time
will inform him of the charges against him.
Deschutes County District Attorney John
Hummel said the abuse relates to touching
“sexually intimate parts of the body” while
giving massages.
The first case was dismissed because
Hummel said an investigation determined
Boyle had “skirted the line” but not commit-
ted a crime. Hummel said it’s not uncommon
for multiple women to come forward after one
person alleges abuse.
“People think that something that
happened to them was inappropriate,”
Hummel said, “but they think it just happened
to them and they don’t want to be the sole
person to come forward because then all the
focus is on them and they are rightfully reluc-
tant to take on that all alone.”
— EO Media Group
CORRECTION
The Page A1 story “Boardman Coal Plant decommissioning moves along,” published
Thursday, Sept. 2, misstated the dates of demolition of the plant. Original plans stretched
potentially into December 2023 but have since moved to the end of 2022.
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