Active Living Fair at Wolf Lake

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Updated: November 11, 2011 3:49PM

Participation is the link between two very different weekend events: a healthy living fair along Wolf Lake and a film festival.

† Hiking and dancing, health screenings, nutrition and safe fish preparation are some of the activities planned for this year’s Active Living Fair at Wolf Lake, on both sides of the state line. The event “demonstrates how Wolf Lake and surrounding natural areas are good for body and soul,” according to the Association for the Wolf Lake Initiative, the group sponsoring the fair.

The event starts at 9 a.m. with a lively Zumba (Latin-inspired dance-exercise) session at Shelter 2 of the William Powers Conservation Area, off of Avenue O at 126th Place in Chicago.

This will be followed by a hike, then a storytelling and movement session, and a bike tour at 10.

Throughout the morning, a farmers’ market, educational displays and free health screenings will be available. Officials from The Field Museum in Chicago will discuss safe preparation of fish caught in and near Northwest Indiana, and creative cooking advice.

The Active Living Fair will move to Hammond in the afternoon, with activities resuming and repeating from 1 to 4 in the Environmental Education Center, 2405 Calumet Ave.

For more information about the AWLI, Wolf Lake or the Active Living Fair, go to www.wolflakeinitiative.org or call 933-7149.

† Imagine judging an international film competition. I’ve done it, and what a fun, thought-provoking experience it was.

I’ll have a chance to judge again this week, along with all audience members attending a screening of the Manhattan Short Film Festival.

Each attendee receives a ballot to vote for his or her favorite film. A comedy or drama? Maybe a documentary?

The varied subjects of this year’s finalists include a comedy “horror-rock musical” set at a campout, an immigrant teen mother, the uprising in Egypt, and a doctor examining his ethics as he supplements his income as a taxi driver.

Go to www.manhattanshort.com for a synopsis of the finalists, trailers, an interview with each director and information on screening locations.

The Manhattan Short screenings will include the 10 finalists from the 598 films submitted this year from 48 countries. Each film can be up to 18 minutes in length, a real challenge for developing characters and plot. Most of the films are foreign with English subtitles.

The closest screening to NWI will be at 11 a.m. (CDT) Saturday at the Vickers Theater, 6 N. Elm St., Three Oaks, Mich., about five miles east from Interstate 94 at Michigan Exit 4. Tickets there are $10 cash.