It’s been five years, but Westport writer and filmmaker Jarret Liotta is ready to debut his Westport-based murder mystery film.

Jarret Liotta: film was five years in making. Contributed photo

“Home Movie” will premier on YouTube at 9 p.m. on Saturday. Click HERE.

The feature-length dark comedy was shot entirely in Westport with the help of many different individuals, businesses and organizations.

“It’s the story of a young woman who comes home for her father’s funeral only to grow suspicious that her mother may have killed him,” says Liotta, who also contributes to WestportNow and other local publications.

By Susan Granger

Continuing the Earth Day celebrations, here are three “nature” documentaries to stream this week:

After months of painstaking work by photographers and editors, “Elephant” is the most accessible and appealing nature film ever made about the annual 1,000-mile trek of elephant herds across Southern Africa. And having an engaging narration by Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, is an added bonus.

The elephants’ migration begins in Botswana’s lush Okavango Delta when, according to ancient tradition, the wise but weary, 50 year-old matriarch Gaia decides it’s time to leave that once-verdant paradise and steadfastly plod across the arid Kalahari Desert to the Zambezi River and its islands atop Victoria Falls.

In this survival story, as the ‘ellies’, particularly Gaia’s younger sister, Shani, and her calf, Jomo, face death from thirst as they travel from one watering hole to the next, they try to elude predators like lurking crocodiles and a prowling pride of lions.

The Westport Country Playhouse announced today it is canceling its 2020 season because of the coronavirus.

“After careful consideration of public health guidelines and with the health and wellbeing of our audience members, patrons, artists, and staff in mind, we have made the painful decision to postpone our 2020 season,” said an email to subscribers.

“The curtain will not go up again until 2021, when we hope to present the originally scheduled 2020 programming — five mainstage plays featuring the reimagining of Ain’t Misbehavin’, five Script in Hand playreadings, and Family Festivities presentations for young audiences.”

The email from Mark Lamos, artistic director, and Michael Barker, managing director, said this is “a frightening and unnerving time for us all, especially for the Playhouse.”

By Susan Granger

These three movies were scheduled for theatrical release this month, then shifted to streaming.

“Les Miserables,” winner of the 2019 Cannes Film Festival Jury Prize and France’s official submission for Oscar’s Best International Feature, is basically Victor Hugo’s ‘Les Miz’ in the ‘Hood.

Co-written and directed by Ladj Ly, who was born and raised in Montfermeil, where Hugo set part of his story, it’s surprisingly relevant in contemporary culture, focusing on a real incident of police brutality.

The story opens on July 15, 2018, as a troublemaking, street-wise youngster named Issa (Issa Perica) wears a French tricolor as if it were a cape. France is playing Croatia in the World Cup final, and thousands have gathered to watch.

The Westport Country Playhouse today announced the randomly selected Fairfield County high school students who will participate in Friday’s streaming event with Kelli O’Hara, Tony award-winning Broadway star and Westport mom.

The “Getting to Know You: A Celebration of Young Artists” goes live at 7 p.m., on the Playhouse YouTube channel and Facebook Live.

During the virtual showcase, the students will have the opportunity to share their experiences with O’Hara and perform a musical theater selection.

High school students from across Fairfield County prepared, filmed, and submitted videos of songs, many of which they had hoped to perform in school musicals this spring. Ten participants and ten understudies were selected at random.

By Susan Granger

Nominated for two Academy Awards — as Best Documentary and Best International Feature — “Honeyland” revolves around a beekeeper who lives with her elderly, ailing mother in the village of Bekirlija in mountains of Macedonia.

It begins with Hatidze Mutatova walking along a narrow cliff ledge that’s high above a valley. Removing a stone slab in the rock, she carefully gathers honey from a teeming nest of wild bees.

Hatidze has always dutifully observed her culture’s ancient beekeeping rituals, taking only half the honeycombs and leaving the rest for the bees. She then sells her precious harvest at the marketplace in Skopje, the Macedonian capital, about 12 miles away.

But when a large, boisterous, itinerant family parks their trailer on a plot of ground near Hatidze’s hut, tensions mount. The patriarch Hussein insists on defying tradition, practicing selfish beekeeping, upsetting the delicate balance between nature and humanity.

Westport Fifth grader Rocky Penny today shows off some of his spray paint art in an effort to #putartinyouryard, a call to local artists to beautify their neighborhoods. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Renie Penny for WestportNow.com