As the balmy dog days of August threaten, the calendar pays no heed to the desire for the summer to go on and on and on. But the more one listens to Correct Behavior (Kanine, July 2012), the delightful sophomore album from Eternal Summers, the more it feels like the season just might actually last forever. After having her Parker Nitefly stolen during her last tour, lead singer Nicole Yun opted to replace it with a Fender Telecaster and bassist Jonathan Woods, turning the Roanoke duo — Yun and drummer Daniel Cundiff recorded the band’s debut, 2010’s Silver, and the 2011 four-track EP Prisoner — into a trio that expands their infectious postpunk dream pop in exciting ways. Correct Behavior blasts off with a massive triple shot of ’80’s-inspired subtle power, with “Millions,” “Wonder,” and “You Kill,” before turning to the goofy and playful “I Love You,” featuring bright, summery woo-oo-woo-oo-woo-oo vocals. Cundiff talk-sings his way through the electro-grooves of “Girls in the City,” leading into the shoegazing harmonies of “Good as You.” One of the best albums of the year concludes with the appropriately titled “Summerset,” as Yun opines, “With you I’ll die.” Summer isn’t quite dead yet, especially with Endless Summers playing two shows this weekend, Saturday night at 285 Kent with Dinowalrus, Life Size Maps, and Grand Resort, then Sunday afternoon at 3:00 at the free Sound Bites series at Fulton Stall Market at the South Street Seaport.
Yearly Archives: 2012
UNACCOMPANIED MINORS: THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER
Robert Mitchum gets caught up in some dangerous dichotomies in THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER
VIEWS OF YOUTH IN FILMS FROM THE COLLECTION: THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER (Charles Laughton, 1955)
MoMA Film, Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Saturday, August 11, 8:00
Series runs through August 14
Tickets: $12, in person only, may be applied to museum admission within thirty days, same-day screenings free with museum admission, available at Film and Media Desk beginning at 9:30 am
212-708-9400
www.moma.org
Robert Mitchum stars in Charles Laughton’s lurid story of traveling preacher/con man/murderer Harry Powell, who has the word “love” tattooed on one set of knuckles and “hate” on the other. While in prison, Powell bunks with Ben Harper (Peter Graves), who got caught stealing $10,000 — but the only person who knows where the money is is Ben’s young son, John (Billy Chapin). When Preacher is released from jail, he shows up on the Harpers’ doorstep, ready to woo the widow Willa (Shelley Winters) — and get his hands on the money any way he can, including torturing John and his sister, Ruby (Gloria Castillo). Laughton’s only directorial effort is seriously flawed — the scenes in the beginning and end with Lillian Gish are wholly unnecessary and detract from the overall mood. Stanley Cortez’s cinematography is outstanding, featuring his unique use of shadows, the battle between light and dark (which plays off of several themes: old versus young, rich versus poor, good versus evil, and men versus women), and some marvelous silhouettes. The Night of the Hunter is screening August 11 at 8:00 as part of the MoMA film series “Unaccompanied Minors: Views of Youth in Films from the Collection,” being held in conjunction with the new exhibit “Century of the Child: Growing by Design, 1900-2000.” Running through August 14, the festival includes such other films about childhood as William A. Wellman’s Frisco Jenny, Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan, Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves, and David D. Williams’s Thirteen.
THE PONDEROSA STOMP: SONGS OF SOULFUL ACTIVISM
Ponderosa Stomp will celebrate the legacy of Gil Scott-Heron and others at the free Roots of American Music Festival at Lincoln Center this weekend
LINCOLN CENTER OUT OF DOORS: ROOTS OF AMERICAN MUSIC FESTIVAL
Lincoln Center
Bruno Walter Auditorium, Damrosch Park Bandshell, Hearst Plaza
Saturday, August 11, and Sunday, August 12, free
www.lcoutofdoors.org
www.ponderosastomp.com
The Ponderosa Stomp, whose official mission is “to ensure that the unsung heroes of American music are given their due: celebrated, included, and remembered, but most of all, heard,” returns to New York City for its fourth year participating in the Roots of American Music series at the free Lincoln Center Out of Doors festival, and the nonprofit organization has again brought an amazing cast of characters. “Songs of Social Activism” will take place August 11-12, with the first day dedicated to soulful songwriters and the second to socially conscious musicians. Saturday begins with the Stoned Soul Symposium at 12:30 in Bruno Walter Auditorium, with Michele Kort hosting a discussion on Laura Nyro, Gayle Wald talking about the fortieth anniversary of the Soul at the Center festival, and Greg Tate moderating a panel on Gil Scott-Heron. At 5:00, everyone will head outside to the Damrosch Park Bandshell for Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls All-Stars Band: Sister Songwriters, led by drummer LaFrae Sci, followed at 6:00 by the Triple Goddess Twilight Revue — Celebrating the Music of Laura Nyro, with such performers as Nona Hendryx, Sarah Dash, Desmond Child & Rouge, Melissa Manchester, and Kate Ferber. At 7:30, the Soulful Songwriters Circle consists of Dan Penn, Teenie Hodges, and William Bell, with the great Otis Clay and the Platinum Band closing the night at 8:45. On Sunday from 12 noon to 5:30, Hearst Plaza will be home to Erin McKeown & Her Fine Parade, Taylor Mac, Tom Paxton, Daniel Kahn & the Painted Bird, and the Pura Fé Trio. The party then moves back to the bandshell, where Swamp Dogg takes the stage at 6:00 and Aloe Blacc at 7:00 before the festivities come to a stirring close with Pardon Our Analysis: An All-Star Gathering for Gil Scott-Heron, featuring the Black Rock Coalition Orchestra and such poets, writers, and musicians as Brian Jackson, Sapphire, Martha Redbone, Abiodun Oyewole, Sandra St. Victor, Cark Hancock Rux, A. Van Jordan, Gordon Voidwell, Hanifah Walidah, Willie Perdomo, and more.
DOWNTOWN DANCE FESTIVAL
Saturday, August 11, and Sunday, August 12, Battery Park lawn, 1:00 – 4:00
Monday, August 13, through Friday, August 17, One New York Plaza, Water St. at Whitehall St., 12 noon – 2:00 pm
Saturday, August 18, Dance New Amsterdam, 280 Broadway (enter on Chambers St.), 6:00
Admission: free
www.batterydanceco.com
The thirty-first annual Downtown Dance Festival grooves into Battery Park this weekend, kicking off eight days of free music and movement from around the world, including global fusion dance theater, soul-driven contemporary dance, a teenage group from New York City, an Indian company from Petrozavosk, Russia, and other troupes and disciplines. Sponsored by the Battery Dance Company, the festival gets under way on Saturday afternoon at 1:00 on the Battery Park Lawn with Figures of Flight, the Jamal Jackson Dance Company, Morales Dance, Phoenix Project Dance, Roschman Dance Company, and Singapore’s Sri Warisan Som Said Performing Arts. Sunday includes the host company as well as Buglisi Dance Theatre, Dancewave Company, Exit 12 Dance Company, Kun-Yan Lin/Dancers, Peridance Contemporary Dance Company, and Jamal Jackson and Phoenix. The festival continues Monday through Friday with performances at One New York Plaza, including Vanaver Caravan’s tribute to Woody Guthrie on Thursday and the Erasing Borders of Indian Dance Festival on Friday with Bageshree Vaze, Jaikishore & Mosilikanti, Mayuri Dance Group, Sonali Skandan & Jiva Dance, and the Trinetra Chhau Dance Company. Things conclude on Saturday night at Dance New Amsterdam with Exit 12 and Battery Dance; DNA and Battery Dance Studios will also hold master classes and workshops through August 17.
DOCUWEEKS 2012: WE WOMEN WARRIORS
Three brave Colombian women fight for basic human rights in WE WOMEN WARRIORS
WE WOMEN WARRIORS (TEJIENDO SABIDURÍA) (Nicole Karsin, 2012)
IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at Third St.
August 10-16
Series continues through August 23
212-924-7771
www.ifccenter.com
www.wewomenwarriors.com
“If we don’t open our eyes, if we are afraid of challenges, then we won’t be cultivating life,” Flor Ilva Triochez says near the start of the compelling documentary We Women Warriors, continuing, “We will be cultivating death.” From 2002 to 2009, journalist Nicole Karsin covered the ongoing bloody battle in Colombia between the army, the paramilitary, and rebel guerrillas, a violent struggle whose collateral damage includes atrocities being suffered by the more than one hundred indigenous tribes caught in the middle, their very existence being threatened by the unending drug-related violence. Karsin picked up a camera to tell the story through the eyes of three three brave women who, independent of one another, decided to do what the government and others refused to and take matters into their own hands. Karsin follows Doris Puchana, an Awá governor who risks her life by speaking out publicly about a horrific massacre; Ludis Rodriguez, a Kankuamao mother who watched her husband get murdered and was then falsely accused of having killed fifteen policemen; and Flor Ilva, who, as the first female leader of the Nasa people in three hundred years, demands that the police take down their barracks and leave her community. Eventually the three amazing women come together to share details not only of their lives but of their organizational methods, unwilling to be silenced as they seek peace for their people. Part of the sixteenth annual DocuWeeks festival at the IFC Center, We Women Warriors is an inspiring tale filled with hope in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds, as three strong women overcome personal tragedy to fight for justice and freedom. We Women Warriors runs August 10-16, with the filmmakers on hand for one of the two daily screenings. The festival continues through August 23 with such other documentaries as Eugene Martin’s The Anderson Monarchs, about an African-American girls soccer team in an at-risk Philadelphia neighborhood, Dafna Yachin’s Digital Dharma: One Man’s Mission to Save a Culture, about Mormon E. Gene Smith’s determination to preserve ancient Sanskrit and Tibetan writings, and Thomas Riedelsheimer’s Garden in the Sea, in which Spanish artist Cristina Iglesias builds an underwater sculpture in the Mexican Sea of Cortez.
IT IS NO DREAM: THE LIFE OF THEODOR HERZL
The life of playwright, journalist, and early Zionist Theodor Herzl is examined in new documentary
IT IS NO DREAM: THE LIFE OF THEODOR HERZL (Richard Trank, 2012)
Quad Cinema
34 West 13th St.
Opens Friday, August 10
212-255-2243
www.quadcinema.com
www.itisnodream.com
One of the most important figures in the creation of the State of Israel, Budapest-born writer and activist Theodor Herzl was surprisingly not a strong believer in the Jewish religion and tradition, as revealed in the staid, plodding documentary It Is No Dream: The Life of Theodor Herzl. Produced by the filmmaking wing of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the international human rights organization that promotes tolerance while focusing on the Holocaust, the well-meaning but overly reverential film clumsily begins with a look at the neo-Nazi movement before examining Herzl’s transformation from a journalist and wanna-be playwright into a zealot combating anti-Semitism as a result of his covering the trial of accused French traitor Alfred Dreyfus. Public cries of “Kill the Jews” led Herzl to write Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State), a controversial plan for the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Director Richard Trank (Winston Churchill: Walking with Destiny) and cowriter Rabbi Marvin Hier, who previously teamed up on the Oscar-winning documentary The Long Way Home, gloss over Herzl’s personal life, which appears to have had many interesting facets, and instead relies on choppy narration by Sir Ben Kingsley and excerpts from Herzl’s diary dryly read by Christoph Waltz. Trank also includes only one talking-head expert, historian Dr. Robert S. Wistrich (although Israeli president Shimon Peres makes a brief appearance), making it feel incomplete, as if there is much more to tell. Although it does feature many intriguing details, It Is No Dream: The Life of Theodor Herzl never quite captures the fervor of the Zionist campaign, coming off more like the kind of documentary shown as part of a museum retrospective, where the surrounding materials are needed to help bring life to the story. The film opens Friday night at the Quad, with Trank on hand for Q&As and introductions at several weekend screenings.
AMERICAN GAGSTERS — GREAT COMEDY TEAMS: TROUBLE IN PARADISE
Kay Francis, Miriam Hopkins, and Herbert Marshall are caught in quite a pickle in risqué Ernst Lubitsch classic
TROUBLE IN PARADISE (Ernst Lubitsch, 1932)
BAMcinématek, BAM Rose Cinemas
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
Friday, August 10, 4:30 & 9:15
Series runs through September 17
212-415-5500
www.bam.org
“Beginnings are always difficult,” suave thief Gaston Monescu (Herbert Marshall) says at the beginning of Trouble in Paradise, but it’s not difficult at all to fall in love with the beginning, middle, and end of Ernst Lubitsch’s wonderful pre-Code romantic comedy. It’s love at first heist for Gaston and Lily (Miriam Hopkins) as they try to outsteal each other on a moonlit night in Venice. Soon they are teaming up to fleece perfume heir Madame Mariette Colet (Kay Francis) of money and jewels as the wealthy socialite takes a liking to Gaston despite her being relentlessly pursued by the hapless François Filiba (Edward Everett Horton) and the stiff Major (Charles Ruggles). Displaying what became known as the Lubitsch Touch, the Berlin-born director has a field day with risqué sexual innuendo, particularly in the early scene when Gaston and Lily first meet (oh, that garter!) and later as Madame Colet’s affection for Gaston grows, along with Lily’s jealousy. Loosely based on the 1931 play The Honest Finder by Aladár László, which was inspired by the true story of Romanian con man George Manolescu, the 1932 film remained out of circulation for decades during the Hays Code, and it’s easy to see why. Trouble in Paradise is screening August 10 in the BAMcinématek series “American Gagsters: Great Comedy Teams,” which runs through September 17 and consists of fifty films (all but one in 35mm), including such other classics as Some Like It Hot, Sullivan’s Travels, Born Yesterday, Blazing Saddles, Airplane! and multiple movies starring Cary Grant, Woody Allen, Peter Sellers, Steve Martin, and Bill Murray.