OT 2023
OT Telluride
The Big Idea Pass gets you access to all OT events in Telluride from Thursday, October 5 through Saturday, October 7. This includes film screenings, talks, and all other gatherings including Original Drinkers after-parties.
OTV
The OTV Pass gets you access to all OT events at CampV from Sunday, October 8 to Tuesday, October 10. This includes all film and speaker programming as well as guided hikes, meditation, yoga and other activities.
Schedule
-
Thursday, October 5
Noon-8 pm - Box office hours - Telluride Arts HQ East
3-4 pm - Tea Ceremony
4-5 pm - Opening Gathering
5-6 pm - How We Heal Ourselves - Lesa The Gardentisa in conversation with David Holbrooke
6-7:30 pm - Telluride Artwalk | Dinner - Grab yourselves dinner and check out the various galleries throughout Telluride.
7-7:30 pm - Live Music with Brigid Kaelin
7:30 pm: Screening - A Revolution on Canvas with director Till Schauder
9:30-11 pm - Original Drinkers at Bruno - Cash bar. Light snacks will be provided.
-
8:30 am-7:30 pm - Box office hours - Telluride Arts HQ East
9-10 am - Talk: How We Can Save Democracy with Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold
10 am-Noon - Tea Trek with Colin Hudon who takes you to a secret tea garden
10:30-11:30 am - Zendo Stereo with Leo Canneto upstairs in the Nugget Building
11 am -3 pm - Telluride Farmers Market
Noon-1 pm - How We Bring Balance to the Human Condition with Dr. North
1-2 pm - Tai Chi with Daniel the healer upstairs in the Nugget Building
4-5 pm - Talk: How We Fix Journalism with war reporter Jane Ferguson
7:30-9:30 pm - Screening: How We Can Get Free - Shorts program
9:30-11:30 pm - Original Drinkers at Woodear - Kitchen open until 10pm
*denotes location TBD
-
8:30 am-7:30 pm - Box office hours - Telluride Arts HQ East
9-10 am - Climate Café -Herbal tea by Rebecca & coffee provided
10:30-11:30 am - Zendo Stereo with Leo Canneto upstairs in the Nugget Building
Noon-1 pm - Women’s Circle
1:30-2:30 pm - Tai Chi with Daniel the healer upstairs in the Nugget Building
1:30-2:30 pm - Book Signing at Bruno with Jane Ferguson
4-5 pm - Talk: How We Work Psychedelics into Love with guides Rachel Kolar and Orpheo McCord
7:30-9:30 pm - Screening: Eternal Memory with OT guests sharing their Big Idea
9:30 pm-Midnight - Original Drinkers - Secret Location
*Denotes location TBD
-
1:30 pm - Shuttles to CampV - Contact us if you need a ride to Naturita.
3-3:30 pm - Opening Gathering - Welcome to the desert
3:30-5:30 pm - Guided desert hike
5:30-6:30 pm - OT Circle: Psychedelics and Fear Group Dinner
6:30-7:30 pm - Group Dinner
7:30-8:30 pm - Screening Under the Stars
9-10 PM - Herbal Rose Ceremony - How we learn from rose: a guided rose petal elixir meditation by herbalist Rebecca Roberts
9-11 pm - Celestial Medicine Ceremony led by Rachel Kolar and Orpheo McCord -Additional signup required.
-
8-9:30 am - Breakast by Kyle
8:30-9:30 am - Tai Chi with Daniel the healer
10-1 am - Guided desert hike
Noon-2 pm - Lunch at CampV
2-4 pm - Energy class with Lesa the Gardenista
4:15-5:15 pm - Zendo Stereo with Leo Canetto
5:30-6:30 pm - OT Circle: Healing Ourselves - Original Drinkers
6:30-7:30 pm - Dinner
7:30-8:30 pm - Screening Under the Stars
8:30-10:30 pm - Bonfire - Sing-a-long with Brigid Kaelin
-
8-9:30 am - Breakfast
8:30-9:30 am - Tai Chi with Daniel the healer
9:30-11:30 am - Naturita beautification loop
Noon-1 pm - Integration lunch & closing
Guests
Jane Ferguson
Jane Ferguson is a war correspondent who has spoken at OT before and comes back to talk about her gripping memoir, No ordinary Assignment. This well-reviewed book looks at both her life reporting from the front lines of some of the worst conflicts we have known as well as her life growing up in Northern Ireland amidst the Troubles. Her work for PBS NewsHour has garnered some of the most prestigious awards in journalism and her pieces for The New Yorker have offered a stark and up close insight into everything she is seeing in the field. She will be talking about her memoir as well as her ideas of how to save journalism.
Brigid Kaelin
Brigid Kaelin based in Louisville, Kentucky brings her talents to OT once again as she has appeared at the festival every year but 2020. Kaelin, who plays ten different instruments including the Saw, recently played with Elvis Costello at a residency and is working on a new album that will be released in 2024. She is a breast cancer survivor who also has a son who was in Dark Waters, a film with Mark Ruffalo about the cancer caused by Dupont’s spewing of toxic chemicals and it turns out she had another family connection to the project.
Owen Dubeck
Owen Dubeck is a filmmakerwho has two films at OT this year - Abundance: A Farmlink Story and Paperboy Love Prince Runs for Mayor. The two films are radically different yet both tell unexpected stories of people who look at the world and think they could improve it by their own actions. Abundance has raised enormous amounts for its cause of cutting food waste by connecting farmers with food orgs and has also helped change legislation.
Jena Griswold
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold is on the front lines of keeping democracy working in this country. This used to be a relatively quiet position until 2020 when the Trump lies about the election created a new climate where all of a sudden Griswold was receiving credible death threats and is currently being sued by Republicans and other groups for next year. She grew up in rural Colorado and was the first member of her family to attend a four-year college and law school and as her official bio says, "She knows first-hand how important it is for every vote to count and for every Coloradan's voice to be heard, no matter their background."
Orpheo McCord
Orpheo McCord is another good friend of Original Thinkers as he is part of the team of artists called Chromasonic who brought the sound/light installation Fluid State to Telluride’s Deep Creek mine. He is also a founding member of the band, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes and played percussion in other bands as well. Along with his wife, Rachel Kolar, he has done a deep study of psychedelics and they will be talking about their marriage and how psychedelics have been worked into all parts of their relationship. He is also releasing an instrumental album designed for ketamine therapy over OT weekend as he is "immersed in resonant percussion and its use in creating music that calms the nervous system and allows the listener space to go into enhanced states of awareness.”
Leo Cannetto
Leo Cannetto is the founder of Zendo Stereo, which is a meditative escape that he leads through a unique DJ experience that involves laying down on the floor with eye masks and wireless headphones as he takes you on a musical journey that is much more about the internal self than getting down on the dance floor.
Till Schauder
Till Schauder is a filmmaker who co-directed A Revolution on Canvas (Untitled Nicky Nodjoumi) with his wife Sara Nodjoumi about her father who is a painter born in Iran who had to leave the country because of his artwork. Schauder is Brooklyn-based and has made an array of films before Revolution on Canvas, which will be released on HBO later in the year.
Lesa the Gardenista
Lesa is a healer based in Los Angeles who uses a combination of rolfing, structural reintegration, reiki and energy work to help people through pain that is often misunderstood or misdiagnosed by traditional Western medicine. She worked on OT founder and ringleader David Holbrooke, allowing him to move forward with the festival this year after saving him from having to undergo two gnarly surgeries on his feet.
Rachel Kolar
Rachel Kolar is immersed in a deep study of psychedelics getting a PhD in this work that has taken her around the world to study with indigenous teachers. She was at OT 2021 where she spoke about the powers of 5MEO-DMT and now returns with her husband Orpheo McCord to talk about this work and how it has impacted their marriage.
Telluride Films
A REVOLUTION ON CANVAS
Directed by Sara Nodjoumi and Till Schauder
Regimes and artists are always going to have a challenging relationship and that was certainly the case with painter Nicky Nodjoumi and Iran. This compelling documentary delves into just how complicated it was for this artist who art was celebrated and banned, while he was tortured and eventually left Iran, making a home and career in Brooklyn. The film, directed by his daughter Sara and son-in-law Till Schauder, also offers up an unexpected mystery about what happened to some of his paintings that stayed in Iran. Nodjoumi’s artworks will be exhibited in Telluride and co-director Till Schauder will be in attendance.
HOW WE GET FREE
Directed by Geeta Gandbhir and Samantha Knowles
Bail reform seems like such an unlikely subject for a great documentary however this short is compelling with a terrific central character in reformer and activist Elisabeth Epps. She toils into the night in Denver, helping incarcerated people who can’t afford their bail before trial, which is yet another way for society to criminalize poverty. Her work is inspiring and the film sheds light on a subject that we would not know otherwise, while adding another layer with her run for State Representative representing Denver. This woman is a force and dedicated abolitionist who we are so fortunate to get to know through this film.
ABUNDANCE: THE FARMLINK STORY
Directed by Owen Dubeck
Thirty to forty percent of the produce grown in our country goes to waste, a shocking statistic that shocked some young organizers into action that resulted in the Farmlink Project. Born out of necessity during the pandemic, this organization works to fix the broken supply chains between farmers and food groups working to feed people in need. This short doc tells the story of an astonishing success that has grown substantially while rescuing more than 70 million pounds of food, providing economic relief worth more than $4 million to farmers and serving about 60 million meals over the last three years.
WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?
Directed by Liberty Smith
This funny and poignant short doc profiles artist Angela Charles who has had to deal with a degenerative eye condition, which is particularly vexing for a painter. However as an art critic said about her work, “A blind artist is not a contradiction. A blind artist is potentially even an upgrade.” Still, it has been a challenge, one that Angela takes on with honesty, vulnerability and mostly good humor as she not only continues to create beauty but also bring about changes as she advocates for more accessibility in the arts.
Telluride Films
TRANSENDERS
Directed by Diane Russo Cheng
Skateboarding can be a toxic culture for trans people, making the story of Alexa, a trans woman with a strong skate community unusual and compelling, especially in this sharply made short doc.
THE ETERNAL MEMORY
Directed by Maite Alberti
This is a most unusual documentary that is part love story, history lesson and a deeply thoughtful reflection on memory. It tells the story of a magical Chilean couple - Augusto and Paulina - who have lived through so much politically, personally and now are grappling with his advancing Alzheimers. They are not an ordinary pair. Augusto was a legendary Chilean newscaster and commentator who's still haunted by reporting the horrors of past Chilean history. Paulina is extraordinary herself in her own accomplishments as a famous actress and minister of culture and as a loving, caring partner to her ailing husband. These are not easy themes to explore and yet, the filmmaking is fresh and inventive, so much so that it sometimes feels like a fiction film that is trying to reach these deeper truths.
Piled up
Directed by Sophia Lebowitz
Passion and outrage permeate Piled Up, which tells the story of Anna Sacks, a dumpster diver in New York City who finds an insane amount of perfectly usable food and other products in the trash. Her work gains her a significant social media following but her psyche gets weighed down by what to do with the ever-growing waste she collects. Her infectious energy allows her the drive to persist.
PAPERBOY LOVE PRINCE RUNS FOR MAYOR
Directed by Owen Dubeck
An entirely unexpected candidate, Paperboy Love Prince (yes, that is their real name) wants to be mayor of New York City. The campaign is like the candidate themselves, flamboyant, funny and also deeply rooted in a serious and sensible belief that there should be more equitable representation in politics.
BEAUTIFUL POISON
Directed by Dan Ashby
Former coal towns are challenged by poisoned rivers that are often polluted with iron oxide. Surprisingly, iron oxide is a key component of paint and a resourceful artist is extracting it for commercial use to use in his artworks, while helping the rivers heal.