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VIRTUAL SYMPOSIUM: SURREALISM BEYOND BORDERS

Koga Harue, Umi (The Sea), oil on canvas, 1929 (The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo / photo courtesy MOMAT/DNPartcom)

Who: MetSpeaks
What: Two-day virtual symposium on Met exhibition “Surrealism Beyond Borders”
Where: Metropolitan Museum of Art Zoom
When: Thursday, January 20, 1:00–5:30; Friday, January 21, 10:00 am – 1:00 pm, free with advance RSVP
Why: While walking through the Met’s must-see “Surrealism Beyond Borders” exhibit, which continues through January 30, I bumped into an old friend of mine who was not impressed by the show, disappointed that it was lacking in big-name familiar works. However, that’s part of the point. While the exhibition does feature works by Max Ernst, Giorgio de Chirico, René Magritte, Salvador Dalí, Leonora Carrington, Wifredo Lam, Dorothea Tanning, and Joan Miró, it explores the development of surrealism around the world, from Belgrade, Mexico City, the Netherlands, Haiti, South Korea, and Portugal to Egypt, England, Colombia, South America, Cuba, and Canada, where surrealism was often part of sociocultural movements toward freedom and justice.

Divided into such sections as “Collective Identities,” “The Work of Dreams,” “Beyond Reason,” “Thoughts in Transition,” “The Fantasy and Phallacy of Elsewhere,” “Bodies of Desire,” and “Automatism,” the show finds commonalities in different cultures in painting and sculpture and broadens the idea of what qualifies as surreal. Marcel Jean’s oil on wood Armoire surréaliste (Surrealist Wardrobe), made while the French artist was living in exile with his wife in Budapest, welcomes visitors with open doors. Koga Harue’s Umi (The Sea) prefigures Thomas Hart Benton. Ramses Younan’s 1939 untitled painting of a twisted Nut, the goddess of the sky, was a direct response to Magritte and Dalí. Ithell Colquhoun called her double-phallic Scylla “a pictorial pun.” There’s also an experimental film by Maya Deren, Cage by Alberto Giacometti, a copy of the 1941 Martinique arts journal Tropiques, Pierre Alechinsky’s depiction of Central Park, and a corner dedicated to surrealism in Chicago in the 1960s, with protest posters, manifestos, and blues music by Elmore James, Buddy Guy, and others. “Surrealism fights for the TOTAL LIBERATION OF MAN!” the Chicago Surrealist Group declared in 1971. The show indeed goes well beyond borders.

In conjunction with the final days of the show, MetSpeaks is hosting a two-day free virtual symposium consisting of four panel discussions with professors, publishers, artists, and art historians exploring various aspects of surrealism, focusing on time and place. Admission is free with RSVP; below is the schedule.

Thursday, January 20
Surrealism and Place, with Lori Cole, Krzysztof Fijalkowski, Talinn Grigor, fahima ife, and Mark Polizzotti, moderated by Joan Kee, 1:00 – 3:00

On Black, Brown, & Beige, with Robin D. G. Kelley and Fred Moten, moderated by Zita Cristina Nunes, 4:00 – 5:30

Friday, January 21
Surrealism and Time, with Sam Durant, Marie Mauzé, Partha Mitter, and Michael Stone-Richards, moderated by Dawn Adès, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm

Closing Discussion, with Dawn Adès, Joan Kee, and Zita Cristina Nunes, 12:00 – 12:45 pm

MOLLY LIEBER & ELEANOR SMITH: GLORIA REHEARSAL (excerpt)

Who: Molly Lieber & Eleanor Smith, James Lo, Tatyana Tenenbaum
What: Streaming performance and live virtual discussion
Where: Baryshnikov Arts Center online
When: Live Zoom discussion January 19, free with RSVP, 5:00; performance available on demand through January 24 at 5:00, free
Why: Molly Lieber and Eleanor Smith, who have been creating dance works together for more than fifteen years, debuted their latest piece, Gloria, made during the pandemic, outdoors at Abrons Arts Center this past May. The indoor premiere is scheduled for April 8-9 at New York Live Arts. In the meantime, you can catch an extensive rehearsal of Gloria — a name shared by Lieber’s baby — as part of Baryshnikov Arts Center’s excellent digital programming. In the ninety-minute work, Lieber and Smith redefine female objectification, incorporating microphones and mic stands, large mirrors on wheels, and folding chairs as they move about BAC’s rehearsal space, asserting control over their physical form as women. The soundtrack evolves from a long silence, interrupted by screams from Lieber, Smith singing “Getting to Know You” from The King and I, and Lieber mumbling Dan Hill’s “Sometimes When We Touch,” to snippets of patriotic marches, traffic, birds, and Laura Branigan’s 1982 hit, “Gloria.” (The wide-ranging sound design is by James Lo.)

Molly Lieber and Eleanor Smith’s Gloria rehearsal excerpt continues online through January 24 (photo by Maria Baranova)

At one point, Lieber puts the microphone all over Smith’s skin, giving voice to her body. “It’s too much,” Smith repeats later, reflecting on the expectations of others. Lieber and Smith entwine themselves on the floor, take off and put back on their costumes, morph into emotional positions that often evoke sexual contact, and dare the patriarchal system to question who they are and what they want out of life, determined to survive amid all the maelstrom, especially the mass grief caused by the coronavirus crisis. As in such earlier works as Body Comes Apart, Basketball, Rude World, Tulip, and Beautiful Bone, Gloria is emotionally and physically exhausting as Lieber and Smith push each other to the extreme — and then keep going.

The piece was filmed and edited by the extraordinary Tatyana Tenenbaum, whose previous virtual work for BAC includes Holland Andrews’s Museum of Calm, River L. Ramirez’s Ghostfolk, and a celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Merce Cunningham’s Landrover. Gloria is available for streaming through January 24 at 5:00. On January 19 at 5:00, Lieber and Smith will take part in a live discussion over Zoom, joined by Lo and moderated by Tenenbaum.

MARTHA GRAHAM DANCE COMPANY WINTER 2022 STUDIO SERIES: NEW@GRAHAM WITH HOFESH SHECHTER

Hofesh Shechter will present an inside look at his new work for Martha Graham in January 19 livestream

Who: Hofesh Shechter
What: NEW@Graham with Hofesh Shechter
Where: Martha Graham Dance Company online or via Patreon
When: Wednesday, January 19, $25, 7:00
Why: Over the past few months, the Martha Graham Dance Company’s Studio Series has featured “GrahamDeconstructed”: Acts of Light with original cast member Peggy Lyman, New@Graham with Andrea Miller discussing her new work (Scavengers) for the troupe, and a holiday event with Graham 2 that included highlights from Appalachian Spring. Jerusalem-born, London-based choreographer Hofesh Shechter was scheduled to present in-person New@Graham open rehearsals of his new MGDC piece January 18-19 at the Martha Graham Studio Theater at 55 Bethune St., but because of the omicron surge, the event will be livestreamed only on January 19 at 7:00. Shechter will offer an inside look at the work-in-progress commission, set to premiere in April at City Center.

Shechter, who has also choreographed works for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Batsheva Ensemble, Candoco Dance Company, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater 1, Paris Opera Ballet, Royal Ballet, and Royal Ballet Flanders, has said, “I want audiences to be awakened, to experience my work from the gut. Trusting the gut is to me like trusting nature, or God, or a sense of purpose; a source, a spark. Trusting a higher and better force than our limited oppressed cultured minds.” We’ll have to do that virtually January 19 in preparation for the spring in-person season.

The Studio Series continues February 22-23 with an exploration of the reimagining of Graham’s 1952 Canticle for Innocent Comedians by eight choreographers (Sonya Tayeh, Kristina and Sadé Alleyne, Sir Robert Cohan, Jenn Freeman, Juliano Nunes, Micaela Taylor, and Yin Yue), which will also be part of the City Center season.

THE 2022 JUDITH CHAMPION NEW VOICES READING SERIES

Works by Vivian J. O. Barnes, Danny Tejera, and Susan Xu are part of Second Stage’s Judith Champion New Voices Reading Series

Who: Second Stage Theater
What: Staged readings of new plays
Where: Tony Kiser Theater, 305 West 43rd St. between Eighth & Ninth Aves.
When: January 18, 24, 31, free with RSVP, 6:30
Why: Second Stage Theater’s 2022 Judith Champion New Voices Reading Series is set to take place January 18, 24, and 31, featuring professionally produced staged readings of three works by emerging artists. “We’re thrilled to be presenting the second year of our New Voices series — and to do so in person at the Tony Kiser Theater,” Second Stage president and artistic director Carole Rothman said in a statement. “Supporting early career writers is central to Second Stage’s mission, and I can’t wait for the Second Stage audience to be the first to experience these great plays by Danny, Vivian and Susan.”

First up is Danny Tejera’s Toros on January 18, about three twentysomethings and a dog hanging out in a garage in Madrid, directed by David Mendizábal, followed on January 24 by Vivian J. O. Barnes’s The Sensational Sea Mink-ettes, about a dance team preparing for homecoming, directed by Cristina Angeles, and concluding on January 31 with Susan Xu’s Yellow Dream$, a dark comedy about diversity, directed by May Adrales. “Support what is most important to you,” series underwriter Judith Champion added in a statement, “and one thing that is important to me is to nurture new playwriting talent so that theater flourishes for future generations.”

A CELEBRATION OF DR. KING

The life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. will be celebrated at BAM on MLK Day (photo courtesy SuperStock)

Who: Dr. Imani Perry, Nona Hendryx, Craig Harris & Tailgaters Tales, Sing Harlem, Kyle Marshall, Reggie Wilson, others
What: Thirty-Sixth Annual Brooklyn Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Where: BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, Harvey Theater at BAM Strong, BAM Rose Cinemas, and online
When: Monday, January 17, free with RSVP, 10:30 am
Why: No one pays tribute every year to the life and legacy of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. quite the way BAM does on MLK Day. On January 17, the Brooklyn institution will be hosting another impressive gathering, both in person and online, featuring a keynote address by Dr. Imani Perry, author and professor of African American studies at Princeton, entitled “Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community”; live performances by Nona Hendryx with Craig Harris & Tailgaters Tales and Sing Harlem; and the eight-minute video King, a recording of a solo by dancer and choreographer Kyle Marshall that incorporates text from Dr. King’s “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech, delivered on April 3, 1968, the day before his assassination.

Kyle Marshall’s King is part of BAM MLK tribute (photo by Steven Speliotis)

“We’re thrilled to welcome the community back as we uplift one another and unite in celebration of Dr. King’s enduring legacy and its relevance today,” BAM co-interim resident Coco Killingsworth said in a statement. ”Brooklyn’s beloved tradition was established a year after Dr. King’s birthday was recognized as a national holiday, and thirty-six years later, his convictions remain an indelible force for equality, dignity, and justice. This year we are expanding our celebration to include more programs and events at a moment when we so deeply need to channel Dr. King’s legacy, leadership, and lessons.”

The day also includes a 1:00 screening in BAM Rose Cinemas of Stanley Nelson and Traci A. Curry’s 2021 documentary Attica, about the 1971 uprising at the prison; a 3:00 community presentation at the Harvey Theater at BAM Strong of Reggie Wilson’s Power, a dance that explores the world of the Black Shakers; the BAMkids workshop “Heroes of Color HQ” for children five to eleven, focusing on underrepresented historical figures; and a digital billboard showing “Salvation: A State of Being,” with contributions by seven Black visual artists (Adama Delphine Fawundu, Genevieve Gaignard, Jamel Shabazz, Frank Stewart, Roscoè B. Thické III, Deborah Willis, and Joshua Woods) honoring author and activist bell hooks, who passed away on December 15 at the age of sixty-nine.

As Dr. King said on April 3, 1968: “Something is happening in our world. The masses of people are rising up. And wherever they are assembled today, whether they are in Johannesburg, South Africa; Nairobi, Kenya; Accra, Ghana; New York City; Atlanta, Georgia; Jackson, Mississippi; or Memphis, Tennessee — the cry is always the same: ‘We want to be free.’ And another reason that I’m happy to live in this period is that we have been forced to a point where we are going to have to grapple with the problems that men have been trying to grapple with through history, but the demands didn’t force them to do it. Survival demands that we grapple with them. Men, for years now, have been talking about war and peace. But now, no longer can they just talk about it. It is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence in this world; it’s nonviolence or nonexistence. That is where we are today.”

FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA’S THE CONVERSATION

Gene Hackman traps himself in a corner in Francis Ford Coppola’s gripping psychological thriller The Conversation

THE CONVERSATION (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)
Film Forum
209 West Houston St.
January 14-27
212-727-8110
filmforum.org

While changing the face of Hollywood cinema with The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, American auteur Francis Ford Coppola snuck in yet another 1970s masterpiece, the dark psychological thriller The Conversation, which will be screening January 14-27 at Film Forum in a new 35mm print supervised by Coppola himself for this engagement. Gene Hackman gives a riveting performance as Harry Caul, an audio surveillance expert who has been hired to record a meeting between two people (Cindy Williams and Frederic Forrest) in Union Square in San Francisco. Thinking that he might have stumbled onto a murder plot, Caul soon finds himself in the middle of a dangerous conspiracy that threatens the lives of all those involved. The Conversation is a gripping, taut examination of obsession, paranoia, and loneliness as well as an exploration of language and communication. Caul might spend most of his time listening in on the intimate conversations of others, but he is an intensely private individual who is extremely uncomfortable in his own skin.

A recorded conversation between a mysterious couple (Talia Shire and Frederic Forrest) triggers a possible conspiracy in Coppola masterpiece

A deeply religious man who also plays the saxophone, Caul has trouble relating to other people; Hackman is particularly outstanding in a party scene where Caul is forced to talk shop with fellow surveillance expert Bernie Moran (Allen Garfield), who wants to know Caul’s secrets, but the always nervous Caul isn’t about to share everything. The film, winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes and nominated for three Oscars — Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Sound (Walter Murch and Art Rochester) — also examines how people hear what they want to hear and see what they want to see, and it takes on even more meaning in a twenty-first century dominated by public and private surveillance, from store security cameras and government monitoring to Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. The supporting cast, which also features Harrison Ford, Robert Duvall, Teri Garr, and John Cazale, is exceptional, as is Bill Butler’s cinematography, but this is Hackman’s show all the way, leading to one of the great endings in the history of cinema.

“I’ve always been especially proud of The Conversation, partly because it was from my own original story and screenplay,” Coppola said in February 2020. “I count it among the most personal of all my films and I’m happy the movie became the very thing it was about — invasion of privacy and its erosive impact on both victims and perpetrators. This was my goal when I conceived it almost fifty years ago, and to my surprise, the idea still resonates today.”

CINEMATTERS: NY SOCIAL JUSTICE FILM FESTIVAL 2022

Emily and Sarah Kunstler’s Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America opens third annual Cinematters: NY Social Justice Film Festival (photo courtesy Off Center Media)

CINEMATTERS: NY SOCIAL JUSTICE FILM FESTIVAL
Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan online
Carole Zabar Center for Film
January 13-17, $15 per film, $5 for shorts block, $40 all-access pass
mmjccm.org

From the Covid-19 pandemic to the murder of George Floyd to the January 6 insurrection, the last two years have revealed the ever-growing gap and animosity between the two Americas. The third annual Cinematters: NY Social Justice Film Festival, being held virtually January 13-17 by the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan, consists of five features, four shorts, a weekend of service, and a racial justice workshop that explores what has become of the modern-day United States.

The festival opens with Emily and Sarah Kunstler’s Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America, in which civil rights attorney Jeffery Robinson traces the history of racism from slavery to today. The spotlight selection is Iman K. Zawahry’s Americanish, about an immigrant trying to make her way in Jackson Heights. The festival closes with John Maggio’s A Choice of Weapons: Inspired by Gordon Parks, in which such figures as LaToya Ruby Frazier, Spike Lee, Anderson Cooper, Ava DuVernay, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar discuss the life and legacy of photographer Gordon Parks. Also being shown are Christi Cooper’s Youth v Gov, about young activists taking on the US government, and Jeff Adachi and Chihiro Wimbush’s Ricochet, which tells the story of an undocumented immigrant accused of murder in San Francisco. All screenings will be followed by a live Zoom Q&A with the filmmakers and other participants.

“These films are not just entertainment. Cinematters celebrates the power of film as a vehicle for social change, with some of the most important films of the year,” Carole Zabar Center for Film director Isaac Zablocki said in a statement. “These films shine a light on dark areas and bring action where our society needs movement.”

In addition to the screenings, Repair the World Harlem is sponsoring an MLK Weekend of Service with the East Harlem Tutorial Program on January 16-17, and there will be an allyship workshop on Monday at 3:30.

MELTDOWN IN DIXIE (Emily Harrold, 2021)
January 13-17, $5
Live Zoom Q&A January 17, 2:00
www.meltdownindixie.com

When Tommy and Debbie Daras first bought avowed racist Maurice Bessinger’s popular barbecue restaurant in Orangeburg, South Carolina, transforming it into Edisto River Creamery & Kitchen — home of the Double Dog Dare — the couple was not alarmed by the Confederate flag that flew on the tiny far corner of the parking lot, accompanied by a stone monument honoring soldiers who fought for the South in the Civil War. Tommy saw it as part of the area’s history, even as he did not believe in what it stands for.

After the June 2015 mass shooting that killed nine Blacks attending a Bible study class at Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, the Sons of Confederate Veterans put up a much bigger flag, as if in support of the murders, leading Tommy to change his mind; he wanted the memorial gone. But as director and producer Emily Harrold shows in the forty-minute documentary Meltdown in Dixie, racism and fear are alive and well in Orangeburg, a city where more than sixty percent of the residents are people of color and that suffered its own race massacre in 1968 over the integration of a bowling alley. As the Darases and their lawyer, Justin Bamberg, go to the zoning board and the courts to have the flag and memorial removed, they are challenged every step of the way by Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 842 Lt. Commander Buzz Braxton and their attorney, Lauren Martel.

“White supremacy has its roots everywhere; Orangeburg is no different,” Bamberg points out. Meanwhile, Braxton proclaims that Robert E. Lee was “probably the greatest man to ever walk the face of this Earth,” defends his use of the N-word, says the slave trade was good for African Americans, and participates in Civil War reenactments that portray the southern army as heroes and patriots. Harrold gives equal time to both sides of the argument, letting everyone share their views without judgment.

Documentary follows heated battle over Confederate monument in Orangeburg, South Carolina

Meltdown in Dixie gets to the heart of the controversy over Civil War monuments without making it about Democrats vs. Republicans or even whites against Blacks; in many ways, Tommy represents a significant section of America that is caught in between the current reevaluation of history that is going on in schools and small towns across the country. He admits to having had the image of a Confederate flag on his car when he was a professional racer but also says he is following in the footsteps of his father, who he proudly explains didn’t have a racist bone in his body.

“When I bought the creamery, I saw it was in a beautiful park — I said, what’s not to like. But if I could rewind this whole situation, I would have never came to South Carolina in the first place,” he acknowledges. It’s hard to blame him for thinking that.

Meltdown in Dixie is available in a shorts block with Patrice D. Bowman’s Under the Sun After the Wind, Mark Decena’s Heal Thy Neighbor: Denver, and Melissa Gira Grant and Ingrid Raphael’s They Won’t Call It Murder. In conjunction with MLK Day, there will be a live Zoom Q&A on January 17 with Bowman, Harrold, and others, moderated by arts and culture critic Jo Livingstone.