Film screening brings soulful slice of Americana, and a pie party, to Newport Beach
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Embedded somewhere in between a flaky golden crust and ooey gooey layers of creamed confections or seasonal fruits, resides the soul of a pie.
What is it made of? Where does it come from? Why does such a humble creation, in its vast variations both sweet and savory, have the power to connect people when offered in the spirit of celebration, condolence or a simple act of sharing?
An earnest search for answers would inevitably lead you to Beth M. Howard, an author, blogger and baker-turned-pastry-provocateur who’s seen up close the transformative power of pie in her own life and now travels the world, passing on its wisdom and comforts to others.
On Sunday, her travels will bring her to Newport Beach’s Lido Theater, where she will host a special screening of a new pie-themed documentary, “PIEOWA: A Piece of America” at 4 p.m., followed by a Q&A book signing and, after that, a pie party at Woody’s Diner next door.
Through several published works — including the 2012 “Making Piece: A Memoir of Love, Loss and Pie,” penned after the sudden death of her husband, and “Ms. American Pie,” a cookbook interspersed with tales of operating a pie stand while living inside the iconic farmhouse depicted in “American Gothic” — the Iowa native opines on a culinary touchstone.
“It represents comfort, love, generosity, and community,” Howard, 63, writes on her blog at theworldneedsmorepie.com, in honor of Pi Day on March 14. “Pie brings people together to sit down and talk and share something homemade. This combination of dessert and fellowship is nourishing to the soul and fortifies our relationships.”
A former journalist and public relations executive who later created websites for tech upstarts before the dot-com boom went bust, Howard began baking in earnest in 2001, spending a year at Malibu Kitchen & Gourmet Country Mart under the tutelage of revered local baker Mary Spellman.
Pie-making helped her mourn the loss of her husband from an aortic aneurysm in 2009. She paid that gift forward in 2012, overseeing volunteers as they baked 250 pies for families grieving the mass shooting in Sandy Hook, Conn.
“It was pie that healed me; that’s where the story began to take hold,” Howard said. “And it’s not just the making of it, it’s the sharing of it. It’s the time you take. That’s the gift, giving of yourself — it’s the circular recipe for happiness.”
“PIEOWA” explores how the dessert is honored, celebrated and enjoyed by Iowans of all stripes, from state fair competitors to cyclists in an annual pie-centric road race, to an Asian restaurateur who delicately wraps rangoons, stretching the concept of pie beyond the conventional disc.
The film’s June 13 debut in Henning, Minn. (population 854) turned into an all-out pie party after a viewer in her 90s confessed to having two pies cooling at home, Howard recalled during an interview Tuesday.
“She went home and got them, then brought them in to share with everybody. Someone else ran out and got ice cream,” she said of what’s since become sort of a tradition. “This film has taken on a life of its own.”
One testament to that is the story of how “PIEOWA” came to land in Orange County, at the request of Newport Beach resident Jill Fales, a mother of four who’d recently taken on the challenge of pie baking after getting a copy of “Ms. American Pie.”
Fales was visiting her son in Minnesota in September when she took a sojourn to the Iowa boyhood home of Meredith Willson, creator of “The Music Man.” Howard had just happened to host a screening of “PIEOWA” the month before.
Seeing the event listed on the historic place’s website and bummed to have missed it, Fales reached out directly to Howard to organize a local screening.
“I love documentaries, I love pie and I love Iowa,” Falles said Tuesday, recounting how she bundled up the kids in 2011 for a cross-country minivan trip that included a week on a corn farm in the Hawkeye State. “I also adore the Lido Theater and could picture this really fun film there.”
Much like Howard, the retired teacher is enchanted by pies and the art of making them. Even in posh Newport Beach, where things are often polished or upscale, nothing beats a rustic creation made with love.
“The act of making a pie crust, of peeling the apples and cutting them — maybe we crave not just the pie, but things that require just our hands,” Fales said. “We crave something simple and made with love.”
A screening of “PIEOWA: A Piece of America” takes place at 4 p.m. Sunday at Lido Theater, 3459 Via Lido, Newport Beach. Doors open at 3 p.m. Tickets cost $12.50 and are available thelidotheater.com/events/pieowa.
