Local filmmaker and environmentalist Lavinia Currier will screen and discuss her movie OKA! at Foxcroft School on Tuesday, March 12 at 7pm.

The public is invited to attend this latest offering of the Helen Cudahy Niblack '42 Arts Lecture Series in the Athletic/Student Center on the Foxcroft campus.

Currier, a Fauquier, VA, resident, co-wrote and directed OKA!, based on the unpublished memoir of ethnomusicologist Larry Sarno.

Set mostly in the stunningly beautiful rainforest of Central Africa, the movies tells the story of Larry Whitman, an American who, despite a failing liver, accompanies the Bayaka pygmies on a dangerous journey into the heart of the forest. The film, co-produced by Currier and James Bruce, premiered at the 2010 Telluride Film and, in its final cut, at the 2011 Washington DC Environmental Film Festival.

Filmed in English, French, Sango, and Akka, OKA! stars Kris Marshall, perhaps best known for his role in Love Actually, with Isaach de Bankolé, Will Yun Lee, and a wonderful Bayaka ensemble.

Isaach de Bankolé is a veteran of more than 30 films, including Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007) and Casino Royale (2006); Lee appeared in Total Recall and Die Another Day and has been named one of People Magazine's "Most Beautiful People."

Lavinia Currier, studied poetry at Harvard University and acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York. She has made several feature films, including Heart of the Garden, which won a 1985 Gold Eagle Cine Award, and Passion in the Desert (1997). She was executive producer of the acclaimed documentary The Sun Behind the Clouds: Tibet's Struggle for Freedom (2010), and received the International Campaign for Tibet's Light of Truth Award from the Dalai Lama for her support of Tibetan refugees. Foxcroft's Audrey Bruce Currier Library is named for her mother.

The free, public screening is part of a longer visit to Foxcroft by Currier during which she will share the story of her artistic journey with students and faculty in other more informal and conversational events.

The Helen Cudahy Niblack '42 Arts Lecture Series, established by Austi Brown (Foxcroft Class of 1973) in memory of her mother, has brought a variety of literary, performing, and fine artists to Foxcroft to share their work, stories, and perspective on the nature of the creative process with both students and the larger community since it began in 2007.