🎬 Meet ATL's Sundance Fellow

Monday Call

July 29 — Summer, we didn’t really know you. Several local school systems start this week: Decatur starts tomorrow, Cobb and Atlanta public schools start Thursday, August 1. DeKalb, Fulton, and Gwinnett start next Monday. Here are some tips for back-to-school shopping.

🌧️ More rain with a high of 85° today.

🚒 The Atlanta Fire Department is investigating the cause of a fire that severely damaged a luxury apartment building on Howell Mill Road on Saturday. No injuries have been reported, but the Red Cross is helping people who lost their homes.

Atlanta police homicide investigators continue to search for a suspect in the killing of restaurant owner Chad Dillon last week in Old Fourth Ward.

🎗️ Seven people, including three members of Georgia-based gospel quartet The Nelons and Georgia Board of Corrections Chairman Larry Haynie, died in a plane crash in Wyoming on Friday.

✏️ Students showed continued improvement on the latest Georgia Milestones tests that failed during the pandemic, the state Department of Education reported Friday.

🗣️ A public open house on the Peachtree Dunwoody Road multi-use trail will be hosted by Sandy Springs and Perimeter Community Improvement Districts on August 15.

📻 WSB Radio raised over $2 million during its annual Radio Care-a-Thon supporting the Aflac Cancer & Blood Disorders Center of Children’s Healthcare in Atlanta.

🎾 After a several-hour interruption due to rain, Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka beat Australia’s Jordan Thompson to win the latest Atlanta Open title.

🍷 Discounted tickets are on sale for the Sandy Springs Wine Festival taking place October 6th on the Heritage Entertainment Lawn.

SOMEWHERE ELSE

🚒 Wildfires are raging across the western United States and Canada, with the Park Fire in California being the largest, burning an area larger than Los Angeles.

📺 Warner Bros. Discovery is suing the NBA for rejecting its offer to match Amazon’s $1.8 billion-a-year deal, sparking debate over fan access and the future of sports broadcast rights.

OLYMPIC GAMES

The United States leads the overall medal standings with nine to date, including two golds in swimming.

🤸🏻‍♀️ Simone Biles dazzled again on Sunday, despite a lower leg injury, the American gymnast placed herself and her team at the top of the qualification tables.

🇬🇧 Georgian gymnast Brody Malone did not perform as he had hoped for in the qualifying rounds.

🕖 Here’s what’s in today’s newsletter:

• Sundance Local Member
• Titanic: an immersive journey
• Global headlines
AND
• Listen, look

Go for gold this week,
Collin and Sammie

🛶 River lovers and paddlers! Join us for the Georgia Rivers Gala on August 22 at the Atlanta History Center to celebrate historic river conservation efforts and support the future of river recreation. Get tickets here.

SPONSOR MESSAGE

1. Artemis Fannin’s Journey to Becoming a Sundance Fellow

🎭When Artemis Fannin was a little girl, she thought she wanted to be an actress.

She worked hard to become a successful artist. She acted in school plays, she took ballet classes, she played in the orchestra. She kept that idea of acting all the way through high school and into college. It was there, at Georgia State University, that she realized her dreams might lie elsewhere.

“Somewhere along the way, I realized I didn’t want my whole life to be about my physical appearance – me, as an actor,” Fannin said.

Ultimately, Fannin decided to become a producer. Decades and many false starts later, Fannin is one of eight women selected for the 2024 Sundance Women to Watch x Adobe Fellowship, a year-long program designed to support and sustain the creative practice of women artists, with a focus on filmmakers from historically underrepresented communities.

☀️ Learn more about Fannin’s journey to becoming a Sundance Fellow here.

Don’t miss the Atlanta Food and Wine Festival!

SPONSORED BY THE ATLANTA FOOD & WINE FESTIVAL

🥂 Come see the best chefs in Atlanta at the Atlanta Food and Wine Festival September 13-15 at Fourth Ward Historic Park!

At the famous Tasting Tents presented by Goya Foods, guests will have the chance to immerse themselves in over 60 tasting stations, each a portal to culinary bliss as your ticket includes delicious food, mouthwatering beverages, captivating entertainment and more this September!

🍴 Hurry – Early Bird tickets are on sale now! Buy your tickets here.

2. “Titanic: An Immersive Journey” premieres at the Doraville Exhibition Center

Prepare to be educated, amazed and overwhelmed by Exhibition Hub’s latest installation, “Titanic: An Immersive Journey,” which made its world premiere on July 26.

At a media preview last week, executive producer John Zaller gave our colleague Cathy Cobbs a tour of the exhibit. His latest project took more than three years to design and assemble, drawing on 300 artifacts from the Titanic and its sister ships, the Olympic and Britanic, as well as the Carpathia, the ship that rescued more than 700 survivors that fateful night.

Zaller said the Titanic exhibit stands out from other similar storytelling projects because it tells the story in reverse order, first featuring the iceberg that caused the “unsinkable” ship to sink. The story then moves on to the intricate planning and execution of the ship’s construction in Belfast, Ireland, to its maiden voyage in April 1912 and its devastating demise just two days later.

⚓ Learn more about the exhibition here.

3. Venezuelan elections; Hezbollah strikes Druze village

🇻🇪 Despite opposition claims of fraud, incumbent President Nicolás Maduro was declared the winner of yesterday’s presidential election in Venezuela. Exit polls show his opponent Edmundo González ahead of Maduro by 40 points. The economic collapse under Maduro has forced an estimated eight million Venezuelans to flee the country.

Israel’s security cabinet has authorized the government to respond to a rocket strike on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights that killed more than 12 Druze children and teenagers playing soccer.

🇮🇷 Iranian President-elect Masoud Pezeshkian will be sworn in before parliament as the ninth president of the Islamic Republic.

🇱🇦 Foreign ministers from Southeast Asian countries discuss security at the annual ASEAN Regional Forum in Laos.

🇿🇦 South Africa has appointed Mandisa Maya, 60, as its first female chief justice.

🇬🇧 After a three-year hiatus, Ukraine held its largest music festival since Russia invaded the country.

🇰🇷 Olympic organizers have apologized for introducing South Korean athletes as North Korean during Friday’s opening ceremony.

🗓️ Register today to attend a fireside chat and breakfast with Karen Pierce DCMG, British Ambassador to the United States, on Thursday, September 5. Gain a deeper understanding of the past, present, and future of the special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom. Learn more.

SPONSOR MESSAGE

4. Olympic Podcasts

🎙️ The IOC offers a multitude of podcasts – including interviews, previews and recaps – on its official website.

🎧 Season 10 of Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History looks at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, in the multi-part series “Hitler’s Olympics.”

🎙️NBC is offering a daily podcast called The Podium throughout the Games.

🎧 Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers host a special podcast called Two Guys, Five Rings where they discuss Olympic Village gossip and obsess over Parisian fashion.