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Our in-house cinema expert Jeff Boam deftly handled a number of big screen releases slated for this holiday season, but there’s one film coming to the 570 next month that’s worthy of “must-see” designation.

Living in Emergency: Stories of Doctors Without Borders Live with Elizabeth Vargas of ABC News’ 20/20 will air at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 14, at Cinemark 20 in Moosic. The event combines the critically acclaimed documentary, Living in Emergency, with a live town-hall discussion with frontline aid workers and award-winning journalists, moderated by Vargas.

I can’t speak to what the town hall meeting will bring about, but if the documentary is anything like the 2004 book, Hope in Hell: Inside the World of Doctors Without Borders, it will spur discussion amongst you and others about the hells brought forth by war and evil.

Doctors Without Borders is the English phrase for the Nobel Peace Prize-winning organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), an international medical humanitarian organization created by doctors and journalists in France in 1971, although many of the group’s volunteers are, by trade, neither. Its members travel to the most dangerous places on Earth offering medical aid impartial of race, nationality or political affiliation.

In the book Hope in Hell there are stories of negotiations with child soldiers heavily armed and heavily under the influence of narcotics, and others of high-risk, low-tech surgeries performed under the worst circumstances. I’d like to remember there was some hope in these first-hand accounts from volunteers who served abroad, but I can’t. What I remember feeling most was thankful, because the stories recounted by MSF members were chilling.

As for the movie, Doctors Without Borders gave a documentary crew unlimited and uncensored access to its field operations in war-torn Congo and post-conflict Liberia. The critically acclaimed documentary, Living in Emergency, interweaves the stories of four doctors who are forced to confront the limits of their idealism in the face of overwhelming medical needs.”

Cinemark is one of 450 theaters across the country to host the event. Cost is $15. To purchase tickets in advance, visit www.FathomEvents.com/doctorswithoutborders.


Promotions

There’s something charmingly tacky about the promotions run by Hardware Bar in downtown Wilkes-Barre, be it visits by Z-list celebrities or competitions involving mechanical bulls. And this week they’ve done the game of tacky (and almost surely successful) promotions proud.

Hardware Bar will host “midget bowling” this Saturday. You read that right. Midget bowling. I don’t know the exact parameters of how this event will work, but here’s guessing it involves little people with helmets and some form of bowling pins. Demeaning? Absolutely. Worthy of at least a peek? You bet.

On Wednesday, Thanksgiving Eve, the bar will host a Pillow Fighting Championship.

Let the raunch begin!


Thanksgiving edition

Next week’s edition of diamond city will be on newsstands Nov. 24. That’s two days early for those puzzled by the announcement. Grab a few and read them over, then use it to begin wrapping those Christmas gifts you’ll be buying on Black Friday.
-escicchitano@timesshamrock.com