Contertainer Public Library
Batu, East Jawa, Indonesia

The Contertainer is a public library designed by the Indonesian firm, Dpavilion Architects, that repurposes steel shipping containers to house both a library and a health clinic. Shipping containers are easily accessible and cheap in Indonesia, and the architects decided to use them because of their multi-functional properties and ease of construction. The center is composed of five shipping containers hoisted up on top of stilts. The Contertainer’s third story setting offers views of the city and the surrounding landscape. The name is an amalgam of two words: container and entertainer, which reflects its goal of providing a better quality of life for villagers.

Batu is a relatively new town with strong roots in agriculture. The widening gap between those who have money in Indonesia and those who do not was the impetus for this playful and colorful project, which is totally free to the public. Inside, the health clinic provides villagers with health care and the public library the opportunity for learning, community activities, and entertainment.

Due to their modular nature, containers have become popular with architects over the past decade. From a stadium in Qatar made from 974 containers to this little library in Batu, containers have been used to create a wide range of buildings and homes. Repurposing shipping containers, many of which lie dormant or abandoned, is an eco-friendly method of construction, saving on the need for other building materials.

Teen-only Movie Night
Friday, October 28, 7:30 p.m.

The teens on our Teen Advisory Council have chosen the next film in their movie night series. We welcome all teens to this event! Library staff will be on hand, and popcorn will be served.

The Films of Alfred Hitchcock with Brian Rose
Sunday, October 30, 4:00 p.m. via Zoom

Alfred Hitchcock was a prolific "master of suspense." For five decades, first in England, then in Hollywood, he made fifty-four films, including classics such as The Thirty-Nine Steps, Rebecca, Notorious, Rear Window, North by Northwest, Vertigo, and Psycho. Few filmmakers have been as popular, critically celebrated, and influential. Hitchcock was not only a director but also a multi-media showman through his television series, magazines, book anthologies, even board games and record albums. Brian Rose will look at his achievements through dozens of film clips, and examine his extraordinary creativity as one of the 20th century’s greatest filmmakers.
Get ready for Halloween with some Hitchcock thrills and chills!

To register for this webinar, please click here.

BRIAN ROSE is a professor emeritus at Fordham University, where he taught for 38 years in the  Department of Communication and Media Studies. He’s written several books on television history and cultural programming, and conducted more than one hundred Q&A’s with leading directors, actors, and writers  for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, the Screen Actors Guild, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and the Directors Guild of America.

The Norfolk Library has an extensive collection of Alfred Hitchcock movies available via streaming and DVD.

French New Wave Film Series with Diego Ongaro
Thursdays at 7:00 p.m. in the Great Hall

Please join us for this series of French New Wave films. The films will be introduced by French writer/director/editor Diego Ongaro with discussion to follow the screening. Wine and cheese will be served. A resident of Norfolk, Ongaro wrote and directed four acclaimed short films and two feature films. He was short-listed for the Someone to Watch Award at the 2016 and 2022 Independent Spirit Awards for both feature films. Ongaro's second film, Down With the King, premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival (ACID section). It won the Grand Prix at the Deauville American Film Festival in France and was recently acquired by Sony Pictures Worldwide for distribution.

Breathless  (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960)
Thursday, November 3, 7:00 p.m.

Probably the most emblematic film of the French New Wave, Breathless stars Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg. The enfant terrible Jean-Luc Godard breaks free of the rules of cinema and follows the wanderings of a petty thug and a young American woman in Paris. Please register for this program here.

Next up (click on title to register)

November 10 - A Summer's Tale (Eric Rohmer, 1996)

Portrait of Turgenev by Eugène Louis Lami, 1843-44

Norfolk Library Book Group with Mark Scarbrough
Ivan Turgenev, Spring Torrents (1872)
Thursday, November 17, 10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. or 7:30 - 9:00 p.m.

The next novel in Mark's Turgenev series is a fascinating, partly autobiographical story with one of Turgenev's favorite themes - a man's inability to love without losing his innocence and becoming enslaved to obsessive passions. Russian novelist Ivan Turgenev fell in love with Pauline Viardot, a French mezzo-soprano of Spanish descent, after hearing her rendition of The Barber of Seville in Russia in 1843 when he was 25 years old. He followed her on her singing tours in Europe and spent long periods in the French house of herself and her husband, both of whom accepted him as a family friend. In Spring Torrents, twenty-three-year-old Dimitry Sanin meets the beautiful Gemma Roselli, who works in her parents' patisserie in Frankfurt, and falls deeply in love for the first time. Convinced that nothing can come in the way of everlasting happiness with his fiancée, Dimitry impetuously decides to begin a new life and sell his Russian estates. But when he meets the potential buyer, the intriguing Madame Polozov, his youthful vulnerability makes him prey for a darker, destructive infatuation.

If you are new to the Book Group and would like to participate, please email Mark at [email protected], and he will email you a formal invitation link to the online discussion group.

Mindfulness of Gratitude and Generosity

As the evenings get cooler and we look forward to Thanksgiving, let us come together to explore the ideas of gratitude and generosity using mindfulness techniques. Practicing gratitude and generosity is one of the best things to help keep us healthy and happy. Miranda will teach the science behind this  and how to practice gratitude and generosity using meditation, journaling, and discussion.