The CD-sized, full-color map is designed to help visitors and locals find one-of-a-kind places to eat and shop and do fun things. The map’s boundaries cover a walk-able area from Mercado San Agustin on the west side of downtown, through the downtown arts districts, and along 4th Avenue to Main Gate Square near the University of Arizona.

More than 50,000 complimentary copies of the Tucson Small Wonders Map have been printed and are being distributed across Arizona. For a uniquely Tucson experience, visit localfirstaz.com/small-wonders/tucson.

Participants include such best-selling authors as Diana Gabaldon, Jodi Picoult, and John Sayles as well as children/youth authors Susan Lowell, Conrad Storad, R.L. Stine. To mark this free event’s fifth year, two programs have been launched that recognize and develop great writing: the Tucson Festival of Books Literary Awards writing competition and Masters Workshop. Details, including a full list of attending authors, are available on TucsonFestivalofBooks.org.

Get social! Follow Festival of Books on Facebook & Twitter.

Four top film and TV agents and managers who represent major actors and other industry talent will be in Tucson to take part in the fourth installment of INSIDE TRACK:  “Agents & Managers – What They Do & How to Get One” on Friday, October 26, 2012 from 4:00 – 5:30 p.m. at the UA Center for Creative Photography. Admission is $10 – cash only. All students and faculty are FREE with I.D.

All the panelists are University of Arizona alumni. And all of them worked their way up through the ranks at Hollywood’s most competitive agencies. They will share how they built their own careers and how they build successful careers for clients who include Ben Affleck, Josh Brolin, John Cusack, Octavia Spencer, and Forest Whitaker among others. They’ll explain who needs an agent and/or manager, and they’ll answer the question: How do you get one?

This series is for anyone interested in the art and business of the entertainment industry.

Confirmed panelists:

MICHAEL COOPER (UA Alumus)

Talent agent with CAA, he represents motion picture talent with such notable clients as Michael Fassbender, Josh Brolin, and John Cusack.

MATT LUBER (UA Alumus)

Talent manager, producer and president of Luber Roklin Entertainment, he represents Abigail Breslin and Adam Goldberg, writers, and directors. He produced BRIDE WARS, EVAN ALMIGHTY and more.

BRAD SLATER (UA Alumus)

Talent agent at WME, his clients include Ben Affleck, Kevin Costner, Dwayne Johnson, Octavia Spencer, and Forest Whitaker.

TROY ZIEN (UA Alumus)

Talent Manager at 3 Arts Entertainment, his clients include Thomas Haden Church and Kevin Connolly.  3 Arts also produces primetime shows like 30 Rock and The Office.

Moderator:

LORNA SOROKO

An award-winning writer, producer, TV development executive, and entertainment lawyer who is originally from Los Angeles, currently lives in Tucson, and guest teaches at the University of Arizona.

“Inside Track: A Series of Film & TV Panels” is a collaboration between the UA Hanson Film Institute and the Tucson Film Office, a department of the Metropolitan Tucson Convention & Visitors Bureau. 

Film industry leaders from around Arizona will participate in an Industry Town Hall on August 16 at the University of Arizona Center for Creative Photography*.

The event is a call for business leaders and owners to join with film and television professionals who live in Arizona to craft new economic solutions together, it is sponsored by The Tucson Film Office (TFO) and the Arizona Film and Media Coalition (AFMC.) Doors open at 6:00 p.m., the panel discussion begins at 7:00 p.m. A Q+A session will follow. THE EVENT IS FREE and open to the public. SEATING IS LIMITED. RSVP to PCatalanotte@visittucson.org by August 13.

Panelists:
• Shelli Hall, Director, Tucson Film Office
• Mike Kucharo, President, Arizona Film and Media Coalition
• Barry Aarons, Aarons and Associates, lead lobbyist for incentive legislation
• Steve Kozachik, Ward 6, Tucson City Councilman

Moderator:
• Harry Tate, former Director of the Arizona Film Office at the Arizona Department of Commerce

The panel will discuss why state film incentive legislation has failed to pass two years in a row, and what is being done now to ensure the bill’s passage in 2013. A Multimedia Incentive Program has the power to create thousands of high wage jobs, generate millions of dollars in economic impact for Arizona-based businesses and enrich city, county and state coffers with new tax revenue.

*The Center for Creative Photography, 1030 North Olive Road, is located in the Fine Arts complex in the northwest corner of the UA campus. Convenient parking is available at the Park Avenue Garage on the northeast corner of Park and Speedway, with direct access to the Center’s front door via a pedestrian underpass.

***

The Tucson Film Office is a department of the Metropolitan Tucson Convention and Visitors Bureau, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the Tucson and Southern Arizona as a convention, visitor and film production destination. It is financially supported by the City of Tucson, Pima County, the Town of Oro Valley and more than 500 individual and business members.

The Arizona Film and Media Coalition’s mission is to enhance the economic vitality of the Arizona film and media communities through public relations, education and legislation.

The Skin Cancer Institute at the University of Arizona is working with Biosphere 2, Pima Air and Space Museum, Reid Park Zoo, Tohono Chul Park, and Tucson Botanical Gardens to install sunscreen dispensers in public restrooms at each venue.

The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum has provided sunscreen and sun-blocking umbrellas to its guests, for the past six years, as part of a partnership with the institute. Visit azcc.arizona.edu/sci for more information.