twi-ny recommended events

TURNING

Antony and the Johnsons and Charles Atlas celebrate sexual identity and personal freedom in beautifully poignant TURNING

TURNING (Charles Atlas, 2012)
IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at West Third St.
Opens Friday, November 16
212-924-7771
www.ifccenter.com
www.turningfilm.com

In 2004, musician and composer Antony Hegarty and film and video pioneer Charles Atlas premiered their multimedia collaboration, Turning, at the Whitney Biennial. The performance featured Antony and the Johnsons playing songs in front of a large screen on which Atlas projected live multiple images of a parade of “beauties” who one at a time slowly turned on a circular platform, standing tall and proud. The production went on an international tour, which Atlas and Antony document in a beautiful, intimate film version that made its U.S. premiere November 11 as part of the DOC NYC festival and now opens theatrically on November 16 at the IFC Center. Atlas, a former filmmaker-in-residence with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and director of the widely hailed The Legend of Leigh Bowery, takes viewers behind the scenes as the cast rehearses, puts on their costumes and makeup, gets pep talks from Antony, and opens up about their lives. Throughout the film, the women — Julia Yasuda, Catrina Delapena, Honey Dijon, Joie Iacono, Joey Gabriel, Kembra Pfahler, Nomi Ruiz, Stacey Marks, Johanna Constantine, Eliza Douglas, and Morisane Sunny Shiroma, who come from very different backgrounds and professional disciplines — share their poignant, emotional stories, addressing deeply personal issues of androgyny, transsexuality, and other aspects of sexual and gender identity. The soundtrack features Antony and the Johnsons — violinist Maxim Moston, cellist Julia Kent, bassist Jeff Langston, guitarist and violinist Rob Moose, drummer Parker Kindred, pianist Thomas Bartlett, horn player Christian Biegai, and accordionist Will Holshouser — performing such hauntingly evocative songs as “Everything Is New,” “For Today I Am a Buoy,” “Kiss My Name,” “Twilight,” and “Spiralling” as the women celebrate the freedom to be themselves in a defiant, public way. “Are you a boy / Are you a girl,” Antony, himself a former member of the underground avant-garde LGBT performance troupe Blacklips, repeats in “I Fell in Love with a Dead Boy.” In the subtly powerful Turning, such labels don’t matter as a group of women face their future with confidence and hope. Antony, Gabriel, Ruiz, Honey Dijon, Shiroma, Douglas, Marks, and Connie Fleming will be on hand for the 7:45 screening on November 16, Atlas and Constantine will attend the 7:45 screening on November 17, Atlas and MoMA curator Klaus Biesenbach will be at the 7:45 screening on November 18, and Antony and performance artist Marina Abramović will be at the IFC Center for the 7:45 screening on November 20.

CASTLES IN THE SKY: MIYAZAKI, TAKAHATA & THE MASTERS OF STUDIO GHIBLI

Hayao Miyazaki’s MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO wonderfully captures the joys and fears of being a child

IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at West Third St.
November 16 – December 20
212-924-7771
www.ifccenter.com
www.studioghibli.net

Last winter, we implored you to set up camp at the IFC Center and see as many films as you possibly could in the exciting series “Castles in the Sky: Miyazaki, Takahata & the Masters of Studio Ghibli,” a month-long collaboration with the GKIDS’ New York International Children’s Film Festival. Well, you’re getting another chance, as the series is back for a return engagement. From November 16 to December 20, the IFC Center will be presenting fifteen of the studio’s eighteen animated works, all but one in 35mm prints, by Hayao Miyazaki (including Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, Porco Rosso, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Ponyo, and others), Isao Takahata (My Neighbors the Yamadas, Pom Poko, the U.S. premiere of Only Yesterday), Hiroyuki Morita (The Cat Returns), Tomomi Mochizuki (the North American premiere of Ocean Waves), and Yoshifumi Kondo (Whisper of the Heart). Most of the films will be shown in both the dubbed English-language version (with various familiar and famous voices) as well as in the far superior original Japanese, with the former scheduled during the afternoon and the latter at 6:00 and later. The Tokyo studio, which was founded in 1985 by Miyazaki, Takahata, and producer Toshio Suzuki, is world renowned for its gorgeous, painterly animation style, elaborate soundtracks, unique characters, and clever, charming story lines that give a fascinating view of childhood fear and wonder and that work for both kids and adults.

GREGORY CREWDSON: BRIEF ENCOUNTERS

Gregory Crewdson carefully composes his next photograph in BRIEF ENCOUNTERS (courtesy Zeitgeist Films)

GREGORY CREWDSON: BRIEF ENCOUNTERS (Ben Shapiro, 2012)
Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center: Francesca Beale Theater
144 West 65th St. between Broadway & Amsterdam Ave.
November 16-22
212-875-5601
www.filmlinc.com
www.gregorycrewdsonmovie.com

From 2002 to 2008, Gregory Crewdson created a sensational body of work he called “Beneath the Roses,” consisting of intricately arranged large-scale photographs that capture the mysterious underside of small-town, middle-class America. Filmed primarily in the Western Massachusetts community where his family spent their summers while he was growing up, the photographs, all taken at twilight, are powerful, emotional still shots that look like they’re from a movie, usually involving solitary figures on the street or in a tense room, staring out, often with a car nearby, its door or trunk flung open, compelling viewers to come up with their own narrative of what they’re seeing. For ten years, Ben Shapiro followed Crewdson around as he worked on that series and others, and he details the Park Slope-born photographer’s unique creative process in the vastly entertaining and informative documentary Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters. Crewdson, who shoots only at twilight, is obsessive about the shot he gets, agonizing first over the setting itself, then going over every little detail, from the turn of a character’s head to the proper amount of leg to reveal, with a crew that includes a director of photography, a production designer, a casting director, and other jobs usually more associated with film. “My pictures are about a search for a moment — a perfect moment,” he explains. “To me the most powerful moment in the whole process is when everything comes together and there is that perfect, beautiful, still moment. And for that instant, my life makes sense.”

Gregory Crewdson, “Untitled (The Madison),” from “Beneath the Roses,” archival pigment print, 2007 (© Gregory Crewdson)

Crewdson also talks about his past as he drives around Pittsfield searching out locations or looks through a photo album, discussing how he was influenced by his psychologist father and a trip they made to see a Diane Arbus exhibition at MoMA in 1972, when Crewdson was ten. Among those who share their thoughts about Crewdson are writers Russell Banks and Rick Moody, photographer Laurie Simmons, Aperture editor in chief Melissa Harris, and Crewdson’s director of photography, Richard Sands. Shapiro also travels to Rome with Crewdson for his 2010 “Sanctuary” series, taken at the abandoned Cinecittà studio in Rome, furthering his interest in film. Just as it’s fascinating to spend time exploring Crewdson’s photographs, it’s equally fascinating spending time with the man himself, a complex, bigger-than-life character with an intriguing outlook on his medium as well as the world at large. Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters just finished an abbreviated run at Film Forum because of Hurricane Sandy, but the Film Society of Lincoln Center has picked it up and will screen it at the Francesca Beale Theater from November 16 to 22, with Crewdson participating in a Q&A with writer-director Noah Baumbach following the 7:15 show on Friday night.

HAPPINESS IS . . . BRIEF ENCOUNTER

Laura Jesson (Celia Johnson) and Alec Harvey (Trevor Howard) explore an extramarital affair in BRIEF ENCOUNTER

CABARET CINEMA: BRIEF ENCOUNTER (David Lean, 1945)
Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th St. at Seventh Ave.
Friday, November 16, free with $7 bar minimum, 9:30
212-620-5000
www.rmanyc.org

“Don’t hurry. I’m perfectly happy,” Laura Jesson (Celia Johnson) tells her rather boring husband, Fred (Cyril Raymond), as he returns to his crossword puzzle one night. “How can I possibly say that?” she then thinks to herself. “‘Don’t hurry. I’m perfectly happy.’ If only it were true. Not, I suppose, that anybody’s ever perfectly happy, really. But just to be ordinarily contented, to be at peace. It’s such a little while ago really but it seems an eternity since that train went out of the station, taking him away into the darkness. I was happy then.” In David Lean’s Brief Encounter, one of the greatest romantic films ever made, Laura, a housewife and mother, can’t stop herself from falling for dapper doctor Alec Harvey (Trevor Howard), who is also married. As they explore a potential physical relationship, Laura is wracked with guilt, especially as she keeps bumping into nosy gossip Myrtle Bagot (Joyce Carey). But the two potential lovers are so drawn to each other, filling the holes in each other’s lives, that they consider risking all they have for just one more moment together. Winner of the 1946 Palme d’Or at Cannes, Brief Encounter is told in flashback in Laura’s voice as she goes over every wonderful and terrifying detail in her mind while contemplating whether to spill the beans to the generally oblivious Fred. Written by Noël Coward based on his 1936 one-act play, Still Life, the film features terrifically subtle performances by Johnson and Howard as the daring couple; you can’t help but root for them, despite the possible consequences. Lean, who earned the first of his seven Best Director Oscar nominations for the heartbreaking film, keeps things relatively, well, lean, getting right to the point in less than ninety minutes; he would go on to helm such sprawling epics as The Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, and A Passage to India before his death in 1991 at the age of eighty-three. Brief Encounter is screening on November 16 as part of the Rubin Museum Cabaret Cinema series “Happiness is . . .” and will be introduced by journalist Marie Brenner; the series continues through December 28 with such films as Michael Curtiz’s Casablanca, George Cukor’s Camille, and Vincente Minnellis’s An American in Paris, held in conjunction with the larger Rubin Museum program “Happy Talk.”

PIVOTAL WORKS: THE VILCEK FOUNDATION PROJECT

Vilcek Prize winner Michel Kouakou will present two world premieres November 17-18 at the Joyce SoHo

Joyce SoHo
155 Mercer St. between Houston & Prince Sts.
November 15-18, $15
212-242-0800
www.joyce.org
www.vilcek.org

The Vilcek Foundation, which supports and honors contributions in the sciences, arts, and culture by immigrants, continues its year-long celebration of dance with the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise, taking place November 15-18 at the Joyce SoHo. The program on Thursday and Friday at 7:30 features the four finalists, who were chosen by a panel consisting of Alicia Adams, Bonnie Brooks, Joan Finkelstein, Jane Forde, Larry Keigwin, Larry Rhodes, and Andrea Snyder. Vietnam’s Thang Dao will present Lenore, inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven; France’s Fanny Ara will perform the solo piece Solea; Italy’s Alice Gosti examines pasta and family in the potentially messy Spaghetti Co.; and Sweden’s Pontus Lidberg will be represented by an excerpt of the multimedia WITHIN (Labyrinth Within), which he created for Morphoses and ran at the Joyce in full last week. On November 17 at 7:30 and November 18 at 2:00, Ivory Coast’s Michel Kouakou, winner of the $25,000 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise, will lead his company, Daara Dance, in a pair of world premieres, Shifters and A Drop from Nowhere. There will be receptions following the performances on November 15 and 17.

TWI-NY TALK: ALICIA JO RABINS

Alicia Jo Rabins explores her personal fascination with the Bernie Madoff scandal in enticing one-woman show at Joe’s Pub (photo by Aaron Hartman)

A KADDISH FOR BERNIE MADOFF
Joe’s Pub
425 Lafayette St. by Astor Pl.
Thursday, November 15, $15-$20, 7:00 pm
212-539-8778
www.aliciajo.com
www.joespub.com

On November 8 at Joe’s Pub, multidisciplinary artist and Torah scholar Alicia Jo Rabins presented the world premiere of her one-woman show, the vastly entertaining A Kaddish for Bernie Madoff. After reading about Madoff when his Ponzi scheme fell apart and made all the papers in December 2008, Rabins became obsessed with the man and his story, spending the next several years poring over seventeen books about the case and meeting with people directly and indirectly impacted by the scandal. In the show, Rabins, backed by cellist and musical director Colette Alexander, percussionist David Freeman, and guitarist Lily Maase, sings, plays the violin, and shares personal anecdotes in a warm, involving, and funny way. She incorporates Buddhist sutra, an actual apology letter written by Madoff, and a Jewish prayer into the proceedings as she examines the situation from the points of view of an FBI agent, a credit-risk officer, a whistleblower, a happy investor, a therapist, a lawyer, and a monk. As she prepared for the second performance, taking place November 15, Rabins corresponded with twi-ny about mysticism, money, Madoff, her marriage to musical partner Aaron Hartman, and more.

twi-ny: The role of belief in things unseen (and often dimly understood) plays a large part in both finance and religion. Did you find anything in your background in Jewish studies useful as you explored the financial world and this story? What do you think it ultimately was that led to your fascination with Bernie Madoff?

Alicia Jo Rabins: I was fascinated to find that, as you said, there is this overlap between the bewilderment and allure of esoteric mysticism and esoteric finance. They both traffic in ultimate intangibles — the idea of energy and the idea of money. But more simply, I was fascinated by the simplicity of Madoff’s scheme, the fact that it wasn’t a complicated series of equations no one could have seen through but a simple lie that the SEC could have easily stopped at any point if they had checked to see if his hedge fund had ever actually executed any of the trades their records described. So it seemed to me that the whole story was more about the financial world’s desire to believe in Madoff than Madoff’s desire to deceive.

Alicia Jo Rabins will be back at Joe’s Pub on November 15 for an encore performance of A KADDISH FOR BERNIE MADOFF (photo by Jason Falchook)

twi-ny: Regarding that desire to deceive, in the show you explore whether Madoff is a villain or just someone who got caught up in a situation that spiraled out of control. What do you think is the truth?

Alicia Jo Rabins: I think the gray area between those two is the interesting part of the story. That, plus the shared responsibility of those who should have known better but didn’t (I’m not talking about ordinary investors but about fund managers, financial advisers, the SEC, and huge banks), and why exactly no one stopped him for decades, is the area this piece explores. I suppose the piece itself, with all its contradictory viewpoints, is my answer to that question!

twi-ny: The opening performance produced a rousing ovation, and you will be performing it again at Joe’s Pub on November 15. How do you think the first show went?

Alicia Jo Rabins: I loved performing that first show — it felt incredible, and somewhat surreal, to be in a room with an audience after two years of working on this piece!

twi-ny: What are the future plans for it? It deserves to be seen by a lot more people!

Alicia Jo Rabins: Well — thanks! I’m already talking to a few producers about bringing the show out west and to Europe, in both museums and theaters — so I feel like the production will have a touring life, which would be wonderful.

twi-ny: Over the last four years, in addition to your Madoff obsession, you’ve gotten married, had a child, and released a pair of Girls in Trouble records. Has it been hard balancing all of these elements?

Alicia Jo Rabins: Oh yes, the balance is a constant struggle, and if it weren’t for my friends, my families, and Aaron’s unflagging support, there’s no way I’d be able to do all this. (And many days I can’t.)

twi-ny: What does Aaron think of your Madoff fixation?

Alicia Jo Rabins: I’ll have to ask him and get back to you. I can say that he did find it quite amusing that at one point our bookshelf had a full shelf of pregnancy and childbirth books, above a full shelf of my Torah teaching books, above a full shelf of books about Bernie Madoff.

VIDEO OF THE DAY: “VIOLENT SEA” BY SONDRA SUN-ODEON

Brooklyn-based musician and composer Sondra Sun-Odeon seems to float across multiple dimensions in her ethereal debut solo album, Ætherea. Sun-Odeon, who is also part of the psych duo Silver Summit, took a year to record Ætherea, playing all the guitars and piano and getting help from Helena Espvall on cello, Leyna Marika Papach on violin and viola, and Ben McConnell on percussion. Songs such as “Violent Sea,” “Samarkand,” “Golden Bird,” and the otherworldly double-shot finale of “Witches” and “Hair” are filled with a dark mystery that slowly wind through fascinating musical interludes and haunting vocals, while “The Apple” is a mesmerizing nine-plus-minute instrumental that seems to still be going long after it’s over. Sun-Odeon will be celebrating Ætherea with a record release party November 14 in the back room at Public Assembly, playing with a full band, including strings. CC Carana and Bee and Flower are also on the bill.