Who: Al Pacino What: Benefit screening and Q&A for the Actors Studio Where:United Palace Theatre, 4140 Broadway at 175th St. When: Thursday, October 27, $35-$1000, 7:00 Why: The Actors Studio is celebrating its seventy-fifth anniversary with a special event at United Palace Theatre on October 27 at 7:00, a screening of Sidney Lumet’s classic Brooklyn-set drama Dog Day Afternoon, followed by a conversation with the star of the film and current Actors Studio copresident, Al Pacino. “This incredible institution, founded by Elia Kazan, Cheryl Crawford, and Robert Lewis, followed by Lee Strasberg, has left an indelible mark on the world of film and theater,” the East Harlem-born Pacino said in a statement. “It’s where actors are given the freedom to take chances and explore their work and craft. Anyone can audition for the Actors Studio. I’m surprised more people don’t know that. Once an actor becomes a member of the Actors Studio, it doesn’t cost anything, it’s totally free, and membership is for life. It’s going to be a great night at the United Palace. I look forward to watching Dog Day Afternoon and engaging, live, with an audience of New Yorkers, some who will be seeing it for the first time and others who will be seeing it for the first time in years.”
The 1975 film, based on a true story, earned six Oscar nominations, including Pacino for Best Actor, and won one statuette, for Frank Pierson’s original screenplay. Pacino stars as Sonny Wortzik, who leads a bank robbery with his friends Sal (John Cazale) and Stevie (Gary Springer) for a very special reason; the cast also features Chris Sarandon, Carol Kane, Lance Henriksen, Judith Malina, Dominic Chianese, James Broderick, Penelope Allen, and Charles Durning. Tickets for the event range from $35 to $1000; the other copresidents of the Actors Studio, the home of Method acting, are Alec Baldwin and Ellen Burstyn. “There are actors all over the world [who] regardless of their circumstances, professional or personal, regardless of whatever difficulties they are facing, whatever problems or changes — there is one thing they can rely on and that is that eleven o’clock on Tuesday and Friday mornings come rain, shine, snow, or what have you there is a session in the Actors Studio. And the fact that actors can count on that, that they know that that exists, can help them get through,” longtime studio artistic director Strasberg, who played Hyman Roth in The Godfather II opposite Pacino’s Michael Corleone, explained once upon a time.
Dustin (Jeremiah Garcia), Mike (Jeffrey Laughrun), and Lucas (Jamir Brown) prepare for battle in Stranger Sings! The Parody Musical (photo by Evan Zimmerman_MurphyMade)
STRANGER SINGS! THE PARODY MUSICAL
Playhouse 46 at St. Luke’s
308 West Forty-Sixth St. between Eighth & Ninth Aves.
Thursday – Tuesday through August 13, $39-$111 www.strangersingsthemusical.com playhouse46.org
Fans of Stranger Things — and I am proudly one of them — can’t get enough of the Netflix series, an engrossing horror story that premiered in 2015 and will present its fifth and final season in 2024. In addition to books, comics, video games, and podcasts, there is also Stranger Things: The Experience, an immersive presentation that has traveled to New York, San Francisco, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and London, and Stranger Sings! The Parody Musical, which has returned to Manhattan, continuing at Playhouse 46 at St. Luke’s through August 13.
Stranger Things takes place in the mid-1980s in the small, close-knit all-American town of Hawkins, Indiana. “We wanna welcome you to Hawkins / Where everything is a total cliché! / We’re just like folks from classic films and TV shows / It’s nostalgic and you love us that way! / We live a safe, simple life here in Hawkins / Our government says there’s nothing to fear! / Expect nothing but the everyday normal / Cuz stranger things have never happened here,” the cast announces at the beginning.
Nerdy twelve-year-olds Lucas Sinclair (Jamir Brown), Dustin Henderson (Jeremiah Garcia), and Mike Wheeler (Jeffrey Laughrun) stop their Dungeons & Dragons game to help find the missing Will Byers, a shy young boy who has disappeared. Will’s mother, Joyce (usually played by Caroline Huerta but I saw the vibrant Hannah Clarke Levine; the actor portraying Joyce also operates Will, a small puppet), is distraught and determined to locate her son, with or without the support of the local sheriff, Jim Hopper (Shawn W. Smith), who has his own scars when it comes to family. Also involved are Will’s older brother, Jonathan (Garrett Poladian), an oddball aspiring photographer; the oh-so-cool and handsome Steve Harrington (Poladian), who has the hots for Nancy Wheeler (Harley Seger), Mike’s adorable older sister; and Barb Holland (SLee), Nancy’s best friend and perpetual third wheel.
Joyce Byers (Caroline Huerta) is determined to find her son in playful parody (photo by Evan Zimmerman_MurphyMade)
Strange things start occurring following the mysterious appearance of Eleven (Seger), a young girl with scary powers. “She looks like an escaped mental patient,” Dustin says. He’s not that far off; Eleven, whose real name is Jane, has run away from a government-run testing facility where she was under the care of Dr. Brenner (Poladian), known as Papa. “I always wanted a dad / Who never would make me cry / One who’d tell me, ‘Kid, I’m so proud of you,’ / Instead of ‘Stay in your cell til July,’” she sings. Throughout the show, Dr. Brenner and two men in white lab coats keep trying to track down Eleven and bring her back to the facility, supposedly for her own safety.
Oh, there’s also a murderous demogorgon hanging around, an evil creature in tight spandex that has emerged from the Upside Down, a creepy hell where Will and Barb have been taken.
You don’t have to be a big fan of Stranger Things to get a kick out of the parody musical, but it does help, as it is filled with inside jokes and aural and visual references to the show as well as the 1980s themselves. Audience members, a few of whom arrive dressed like some of the characters, sit on all four sides of the central staging area, which is surrounded by tree branches, as if the Upside Down is ever-present (the set is by Walt Spangler), and dozens of props (courtesy Brendan McCann) that are used in the show, from a 1980s telephone and bicycle handlebars to gynormous walkie-talkies and a boombox. There are also four beanbag chairs for audience members who want occasional interaction with the performers.
Barb Holland (SLee) stands up for herself and lets everyone know it in Stranger Sings! (photo by Evan Zimmerman_MurphyMade)
Jonathan Hogue wrote the book, music, and lyrics, which are lots of fun, with arrangements and orchestrations by Michael Kaish and playfully goofy choreography by Ashley Marinelli. The production, which features such musical numbers as “Hopper Triggered,” “Getting Closer,” and “Where There’s a Will,” is too long at 110 minutes with intermission, but director Nick Flatto keeps it all from descending into chaos; the creepy lighting and sound are by Jamie Roderick and Germán Martínez, respectively, and Matthew Solomon’s costumes immediately identify who is who. (You can come in your own costume October 21-31 and qualify for audience-voted prizes each night.)
The engaging cast captures the essence of the series, the feeling of constant impending doom along with the promise that comes with adolescence as the residents of Hawkins explore who they are and who they might be. Levine is terrific as Joyce, although a scene about Winona Ryder, who plays the mother on the show, although funny, jars you out of the narrative. Smith is fab as the brave, heroic sheriff, and Poladian is a hoot switching between the heartthrob Harrington and the weird Jonathan. Eleven is relegated to a relatively small role in the parody and, curiously, Dr. Brenner, played by a composed and careful Matthew Modine on Netflix, is portrayed here as a bumbling idiot.
Stranger Sings! does seek to right a terrible wrong from the streaming series in resurrecting Barb, who is mostly forgotten after a pool party; she doesn’t even make the cut in the nineteen-character cast list on Wikipedia. But the parody gives her several star turns, complete with well-deserved grudges. When Jonathan asks, “I’m confused . . . who is that?” Barb replies, “That’s right. Who IS that? Could that be poor Barb Holland, the throw-away plot device who not one person thought to look for??” SLee brings down the house a few times, but there ends up being too much of Barb; I wanted more Eleven. And for fans of Max, as I am, the show primarily stays within the first season, with some Easter eggs of what is to come.
Chen Chen & Kai Williams’s Blue Heron Triangle floats on the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Japanese pond (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
FOR THE BIRDS
Brooklyn Botanic Garden
900 Washington Ave. at Eastern Parkway
Through October 23, $25-$30 (children under twelve free), 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
718-623-7200 www.bbg.org/forthebirds online slideshow
One of the most delightful outdoor exhibits of the year is “For the Birds,” concluding this weekend at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. The show consists of more than three dozen birdhouses created by artists, architects, and others, placed throughout the garden’s fifty-two-acre expanse. Even with a map, finding each creation can be a bit like a treasure hunt as you make your way through the Native Flora Garden, Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden, Magnolia Plaza, Ginkgo Allée, Shakespeare Garden, Bluebell Wood, Herb Garden, Belle’s Brook, Rose Garden, Bamboo Grove, Cherry Esplanade, and other lovely locations.
Each birdhouse is accompanied by a sign identifying the title, artist, and materials and including a brief background on the work. A Palace for the Eastern Bluebird by SO – IL, Dalma Földesi, Jung In Seo, and Eventscape was “inspired by the intricate and haphazard way that birds weave their nests. We chose to make a birdhouse made of 3D-printed clay because it can produce textures evocative of woven structures. We are interested in seeing how birds, particularly the eastern bluebird, will interact with this kind of material. We hope that the earth tones of the clay will be highly attractive to them.”
Kevin Quiles Bonilla’s Pal’ campo honors his Puerto Rican heritage (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
Nina Cooke John’s Oh Robin! “is an abstracted interpretation of the robin’s act of nest weaving. Robins have become invisible to us, like the grocery store cashier, Amazon delivery worker, bus driver, and other workers who are critical to the running of our city but have faded into the background of our lives. The robin shows us its scrappiness by making its nest almost anywhere.” Tom Sachs says about his contribution, Swiss, a red plywood version with a white Swiss cross, “To find home or shelter in Switzerland is the dream. If those damn birds are so above it all, why not let them share our burden? Let’s ground the birds in that reality.”
Andy Holden’s The Auguries, a kind of miniature avian sculpture park, was made by cast resin from 3D prints of waveforms created by recordings of rare bird songs. Shun Kinoshita + Charlap Hyman & Herrero’s simply named Birdhouse “is for all birds, including the spirits of birds long gone.” Kevin Quiles Bonilla’s dazzling Pal’ campo honors his family home in Puerto Rico and explores “the idea of both birds and humans as migrating beings, the memories we keep during our travels, and the notion of what home is to those who move from one place to another.”
Julie Peppito’s United Birds of America (E Pluribus Unum) is a condo of curiosities (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
Others pay tribute to the downy woodpecker, the Carolina wren, little bluestem grass, Olivier Messiaen’s use of birdsong in his compositions, scarecrows, the blue heron, the barn owl, and others while taking on climate change and extinction, envisioning birdhouses as safe havens and sanctuaries.
Many of the birdhouses are beautiful works of art all by themselves. Chen Chen & Kai Williams’s Blue Heron Triangle floats on a raft constructed of bamboo reeds tied to empty plastic containers. Sourabh Gupta’s woven offers multiple birds a place to gather. Jessica Maffia’s A Home for Flickers features a trompe l’oeil blue sky with clouds and surreal hands emerging as if holding out protection. Also look out for Pat McCarthy’s Batloft, Joey’s Coop, Babylon Coop, Niknak’s City Cart, funkmaster George Clinton’s Come Fly, Flock Together, Barry McGee’s Untitled, Luam Melake’s Descendants, Suchi Reddy’s The Nest Egg, Amy Ritter’s Safe Space, and Julie Peppito’s wildly engaging United Birds of America (E Pluribus Unum), “one big bird condo [that is] a metaphor for the United States, because we must learn to live together or divided we fall,” a robotlike form filled with tiny delights.
Sourabh Gupta’s woven hides out in BBG’s Overlook (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
In addition, most of the birdhouses are accompanied by a tune as part of the Birdsong Project, curated by Randall Poster, with specially selected songs by Michael Penn, Balmorhea, Kurt Vile, Dan Deacon, Uwade, Terry Riley, Suzzy Roche, Loudon Wainwright III, Laurie Anderson, Beck, and others. “So while in quarantine, I became much more aware of the birds and the birdsong around me,” Poster explains on the website. “I spent a lot of time listening to the birds singing. I was not alone. It was something that we began to talk about. The beauty of birds, the joy and mysteries of birdsong. Given that the situation in the fall of 2020 was sad, strange, and frightening, as plagues tend to be, this fascination with the birds was a magical distraction. Thank God for the birds. . . . And so we are building a community, joined to celebrate and protect the birds. We are birds.”
Finally, as They Might Be Giants advised once upon a time, “Make a little birdhouse in your soul.”
Who:The Eli “Dr. E” Yamin Quartet What: Live Music Downstairs Where:Bond 45, 221 West Forty-Sixth St. between Seventh Ave. & Broadway, 212-689-4545 When: Sunday, October 23, no cover ($25 minimum), 7:30 Why: Broadway might be mostly dark on Sunday nights, but that doesn’t mean the Theater District isn’t hopping with some of the hottest shows at that time. In recent months, such bands as Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks, the Stan Harrison Quartet, and the Mark Kostabi Trio have performed Sunday nights Downstairs at Bond 45, the popular Italian restaurant that is now located on West Forty-Sixth St. On October 23 at 7:30, the Eli “Dr. E” Yamin Quartet will take the stage for its second weekend, consisting of Eli Yamin (aka “Dr. E”) on piano and vocals, Zaid Nasser on alto sax, Elias Bailey on bass, and David F. Gibson on drums. A native of East Patchogue, Long Island, Yamin recently earned his doctorate in musical arts, specializing in jazz piano, from Stony Brook; he also cofounded and serves as managing and artistic director of Jazz Power Initiative, a nonprofit organization whose mission is “to ignite the power of jazz music education and transform lives by fostering creative self-expression, community, teamwork, and diversity,” and was the founding director of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Middle School Jazz Academy.
Yamin, who has a wide range of influences, from Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie to Bach and Mozart, from Sinatra and B. B. King to Jimi Hendrix and Taj Majal, has released such albums as Louie’s Dream,I Feel So Glad,You Can’t Buy Swing, and Pushin’ 30. The good doctor will kick off his Sunday at 2:00 cohosting the free Intergenerational Jazz Power Jam: Brass Extravaganza at the National Jazz Museum of Harlem before heading down to Bond 45. He’s also a bit of a philosopher, offering these words of wisdom on his website: “You can do it if you set your mind to it. Whatever your long term goal is, whether academic, artistic, spiritual. The main thing is just like Duke Ellington said and I’ll say it again. NEVER GIVE UP.”
The Rubin’s Mandala Lab is an immersive experience that explores anger, attachment, envy, ignorance, and pride (photo courtesy Rubin Museum of Art)
FREE EXHIBITION TOUR: MANDALA LAB ANNIVERSARY
Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th St. at Seventh Ave.
Friday, October 21, free, 7:15
212-620-5000 rubinmuseum.org
The Rubin Museum is celebrating the one-year anniversary of its interactive Mandala Lab with a guided tour on October 21 at 7:15 as part of its weekly free K2 Friday Night, which also includes tabla player DJ Roshni Samlal, access to all galleries, and a special cocktail menu.
In Buddhism, the mandala is a symbolic image of the universe, a painting, scroll, or sand sculpture that offers the ability to contemplate transformation and enlightenment. The Mandala Lab, subtitled “Where Emotions Can Turn to Wisdom,” consists of four quadrants of experiences that explore five afflictive emotions, or kleshas — anger, envy, pride, ignorance, and attachment — through multiple senses, each associated with a color and an element, either earth, air, fire, water, or space. The project design was inspired by the Rubin’s seventeenth-century Tibetan Sarvavid Vairochana Mandala, which contains circles and squares, the Five Wisdom Buddhas, and representations of earthly elements. “All great art helps us see each other from the inside out. But Buddhist art goes a step further,” Rubin head of programs Dawn Eshelman explains in a promotional video. “It provides a kind of visual to help us survive in uncertain times.”
In “Check Your Pride,” you place a token in a slot with such statements as “I think I am better than others” or “I feel proud of achievements I haven’t earned” while standing in front of a mirror. Palden Weinreb’s Untitled (Coalescence) gives you the chance to let go of envy by sitting on a cushion and breathing in time with a circular light sculpture that dims and glows. A touch screen allows you to share your thoughts on ignorance.
Attachment is tied to smell in an installation comprising six stations featuring videos by a half dozen visual artists accompanied by a corresponding scent. Each short video about personal memories, made by Laurie Anderson (Uncle Allen), Sanford Biggers (Joanin Temple for Mandala Lab), Tenzin Tsetan Choklay (1994), Amit Dutta (The Scent of Earth), Wang Yahui (The Smell of a Rice Field), and Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Waterfall), features a related scent created by master perfumer Christophe Laudamiel that you get to guess at the end of the two-minute film.
You can bang away your anger in a gong orchestra, for which composers and musicians Billy Cobham, Sheila E., Peter Gabriel, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Sarah Hennies, Huang Ruo, Shivamani, and Bora Yoon have chosen eight unique gongs and mallets, manufactured by Ryan Shelledy or Matt Nolan and made of brass, bronze, or silver nickel, that visitors are invited to activate, following these instructions: “1. Imagine your anger. 2. Gently strike the gong in front of you one time using the mallet to the right. 3. Raise the handle to the left to partially submerge the gong in the water. 4. Listen to the sound of your anger transform. 5. Let the sound fade, and for an added challenge, watch the water return to stillness. 6. When finished, lower the handle to return the gong back to its starting position.”
While at the Rubin, be sure to see the other exhibitions as well: “Gateway to Himalayan Art,” “The Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room,” “Tales of Muted Spirits — Dispersed Threads — Twisted Shangri-La,” “Healing Practices: Stories from Himalayan Americans,” “Shrine Room Projects: Rohini Devasher/Palden Weinreb,” and “Masterworks: A Journey Through Himalayan Art.”
COST OF LIVING
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
261 West Forty-Seventh St. between Broadway & Eighth Ave.
Tuesday – Sunday through November 6, $74-$298 www.manhattantheatreclub.com
When I saw Manhattan Theatre Club’s production of Martyna Majok’s Cost of Living at New York City Center’s Stage I five and a half years ago, I did not anticipate that it would win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. I also never imagined that the show, which I called “a tender, emotional play about four lonely people seeking connections,” would eventually transfer to Broadway. But Cost of Living has made a terrific transition to MTC’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, with all its tenderness, emotion — and sense of humor — fully intact. In fact, it is now even better.
The play is once again directed by Obie winner Jo Bonney on Wilson Chin’s set, which rotates between the homes of John (Gregg Mozgala), a Harvard grad working on his PhD at Princeton and confined to a wheelchair with cerebral palsy, and Ani (Katy Sullivan), a quadriplegic also in a wheelchair.
While John is looking for a caregiver and interviews and hires Jess (Kara Young), a Princeton grad scrambling to make a living by working multiple jobs and who assures John that despite her slight build she can handle his needs, Ani initially refuses help from her ex-husband, Eddie (David Zayas), a former truck driver with a new girlfriend.
The play opens with Eddie sitting at a bar, talking to an unseen person in what is essentially a long, compelling monologue delivered directly to the audience. “The shit that happens is not to be understood. That’s from the Bible,” he says. “That life is good for people. I was thankful for every day they ain’t invented yet the trucker-robots. That life is good. The road. Sky. The scenery. Except the loneliness. Except in the case of all the, y’know, loneliness. This was what my wife was good for. Not that this was the only thing.”
The loneliness and vulnerability experienced by all four characters is palpable, expressed most effectively in scenes of back-to-back caretaking. In the first, Jess washes John in the shower, moving him out of his chair and then back into it, followed by Eddie giving Ani a bath.
Describing his sensations, John tells Jess that his body feels as if he’s constantly under attack. “That’s what it’s like. Under my skin. From underneath my skin. Like people hitting me from beneath my skin. And that’s what you’ll be working with. Every morning. Is touching, shaving, undressing, washing, and clothing — that. That’s what I’m like.”
Meanwhile, Eddie visits Ani on a day her nurse hasn’t shown up, so Eddie asks Ani to hire him instead. “What do you think’s gonna happen you come take care of me a few hours a day? Huh?” she spurts out. “You brush my teeth a couple mornings, dump my bedpan a few times, and BOOM, conscience — fuck-shit, clap yer hands when I say Boom. . . . Yer not doin’ penance on me.”
The separate storylines merge at the end in an uneasy finale that acknowledges that we all encounter tremendously painful issues in life, regardless of our physical or psychological situations, which is further established during the curtain call.
Both Mozgala (Teenage Dick,Diagnosis of a Faun), who has cerebral palsy, and Sullivan (The Long Red Road,Finish Line), who was born without lower legs, return from the original cast, and both give intense, superb performances again, neither one pulling any punches. Young (Clyde’s,Halfway Bitches Go to Heaven) displays a tenacious fragility as Jess, who might be getting in over her head, while Zayas (Dexter,Anna in the Tropics) proves once more that he is one of New York City’s finest actors, balancing toughness with a sweet gentleness that shines through. Jeff Croiter’s lighting and Rob Kaplowitz’s sound capture the pervasive loneliness playing out onstage.
“Self-pity has little currency in these characters’ worlds. Humor, however, has much,” Majok (Ironbound,Sanctuary City) explains in a script note. Her and Bonney’s (Father Comes Home from the Wars,Fucking A) approach feels honest and unambiguous, as summarized in this exchange between Jess and John:
Jess: Sorry, I never worked with the, differently-abled — John: Don’t do that. Jess: What? John: Don’t call it that. Jess: Why, I — John: Don’t call it differently-abled. Jess: Shit, is that not the right term? John: It’s fucking retarded. . . . Jess: So what do I, how do I, refer to you? John: Are you planning on talking about me? Jess: No. John: Why not? I’m very interesting.
The Broadway debut of Cost of Living, which was expanded from Majok’s 2015 short play John, Who’s Here from Cambridge, is a lot more than interesting, and you’ll be sure to be talking about it long after seeing it.
In his seminal 1972 book Ways of Seeing, British essayist, novelist, and cultural thinker John Berger writes, “According to usage and conventions which are at last being questioned but have by no means been overcome, the social presence of a woman is different in kind from that of a man. A man’s presence is dependent upon the promise of power which he embodies. . . . The promised power may be moral, physical, temperamental, economic, social, sexual — but its object is always exterior to the man. A man’s presence suggests what he is capable of doing to you or for you. . . . By contrast, a woman’s presence expresses her own attitude to herself, and defines what can and cannot be done to her. Her presence is manifest in her gestures, voice, opinions, expressions, clothes, chosen surroundings, taste — indeed there is nothing she can do which does not contribute to her presence. Presence for a woman is so intrinsic to her person that men tend to think of it as an almost physical emanation, a kind of heat or smell or aura.”
American filmmaker Nina Menkes forever changes the way you’ll see and experience movies in her eye-opening documentary Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power. “As a filmmaker and as a woman, I found myself drowning in a powerful vortex of visual language from which it is very difficult to escape,” she explains at the beginning of the film, an adaptation of her illustrated lecture “Sex and Power: The Visual Language of Oppression.” Producer and director Menkes, whose filmography includes Queen of Diamonds,Magdalena Viraga, and Dissolution, speaks with sixteen women and two men and shows clips from more than one hundred and twenty-five films as she reveals how much the movie industry is reliant on the male gaze, creating fantasy spaces that celebrate men while objectifying women.
Dartmouth filmmaker and faculty member Iyabo Kwayana posits, “I think we have to consider that it is through the formal visual language that we are effectively communicating meaning, and we inherit so much subliminally that comes from this language and it has to do with how shots are composed and framed, how they’re assembled and ordered in a sequence of shots. All of that becomes the grammar and syntax by which meaning is conveyed to a viewer. So in a visual culture such as ours, in which there is a ravenous appetite towards the female as object, if the camera is predatory, then the culture is predatory as well.”
Menkes divides her talk into five sections that comprise what she calls “The List”: “Subject/Object,” “Framing,” “Camera Movement,” “Lighting,” and “Narrative Position.” Among the films she examines are The Lady from Shanghai,Super Fly,Contempt,Carrie,Lost in Translation,Cuties,Crazy Rich Asians,Sleeping Beauty,Do the Right Thing,Blade Runner 2049, and The Silence of the Lambs, revealing how ingrained it is to depict men and women differently, what Transparent producer, writer, and director Joey Soloway calls “propaganda for patriarchy.” Director and activist Maria Giese adds, “Hollywood has been the worst violator of Title VII [part of the 1964 Civil Rights Act] of any industry in the United States — even worse than coal mining.”
Actress Rosanna Arquette shares the abuse she suffered at the hands of Harvey Weinstein as well as the regrets she has about a nude scene she did in After Hours. Menkes includes nude scenes throughout the film, involving Brigitte Bardot, Jane Fonda, Nicole Kidman, and many other familiar stars, describing how they can be “attacks on our selfhood.” She demonstrates how the use of slow motion focuses on a woman’s erotic sensuality but a man’s power and violence. Menkes also explores how the depiction of women on celluloid impacts sexual abuse.
Global Media Center for Social Impact founder Sandra de Castro Buffington asks, “How is rape culture normalized? There are really three key elements that we see on the screen and in real life. One is the objectification of women’s bodies. Another is the glamorization of sexual assault, especially on the screen. And the third is disregard for women’s rights and safety, even if a hand is not laid on another person. These are all of the elements that create an environment that allows one group to gain and maintain power over another.”
California State University faculty member Rhiannon Aarons expounds, “I think this visual language really contributes to female self-hatred and insecurity in a way that is not insignificant. What is normalized as beauty is really seen specifically and dominantly through a male gaze. I think that really changes how we relate in the world in general and not necessarily in the best way.”
Menkes spends extra time delving into such films as Raging Bull,Bombshell, and Mandingo, demonstrating how women’s voices are silenced and power dynamics are ingrained in visual storytelling. She uses a critical scene from Portrait of a Lady on Fire to display how director Céline Sciamma exposes that subject-object power dynamic and turns it around. Among the other women providing important insight are psychoanalyst Dr. Sachiko Take-Reece, writer Jodi Lampert, UCLA Film and Television Archive director May Hong HaDuong, intimacy coordinator Ita O’Brien, producer-director Amy Ziering, cinematographer Nancy Schreiber, author Maya Montanez Smukler, film theorist Laura Mulvey, filmmakers Julie Dash, Eliza Hittman, Catherine Hardwicke, and Penelope Spheeris, and foley artist and activist Lara Dale, who said no to sexual exploitation, effectively ending her career as an actress. Two snippets from a “Sex and Power Talk Discussion” at the California Institute of the Arts feel extraneous, but every other minute of Brainwashed is riveting.
The film is insightfully edited by Cecily Rhett and smartly shot by Shana Hagan, with a compelling score by Sharon Farber; Menkes purposely hired women to head the major departments, something she points out that Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow did not do on The Hurt Locker.
Reflecting on her 2007 feature Phantom Love, Menkes says, “All of my own narrative fiction films have been centrally concerned with expressing the abject feminine — and the wound that is carried deep inside.” We still have a long way to go to heal that wound, but Brainwashed sets us on a path to affect the way we see and interpret cinema. As actor and comedian Charlyne Li tells us, “There’s a saying that people say that if people were to get rid of all the sexual predators that there would be no film industry.”
Brainwashed opens October 20 at DCTV’s Firehouse Cinema, with Q&As with Menkes at the 7:00 screenings on October 20 (moderated by critic and podcaster Violet Lucca) and October 21 and with Geise and director and programmer Dara Messinger on October 22.
