Fans of fast-rising indie filmmaker Kelly Reichardt mark your calendars. On Saturday April 23 the Oregon auteur returns to Walker Art Center for her second in-person appearance and film screening in less than a year. It's a sneak preview of her minimalist/feminist anti-Western "Meek's Cutoff." The film, inspired by a real-life wagon train that went missing after chooosing a risky shortcut, is part historical drama, part critique of macho, authoritarian leaders, and part examination of 21st-century foreign policy dilemmas through an antique lens. Reichardt's meticulous eye is on the kind of mundane routine that's omitted by most male filmmakers, and she precisely captures everyday minutiae of the womenfolk's chores. Michelle Williams stars as a pioneer woman who begins to doubt the men who have put their families on a road to nowhere. Reichardt and her longtime creative collaborator Todd Haynes (director of 2005's "Far From Heaven") will present "Meek's Cutoff" at 7:30 p.m. in the Walker Auditorium. Tickets are $15 ($12 Walker members and students). Call (612) 375-7600 or visit http://calendar.walkerart.org to purchase tickets online.
