twi-ny recommended events

CELEBRATE OUR NEW FILM CENTER WITH US!

Film Society of Lincoln Center
Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center
West 65th St. between Broadway & Amsterdam Ave.
June 10-12, free (some events require advance tickets)
212-875-5610
www.filmlinc.com

The Film Society of Lincoln Center is celebrating the opening of its deluxe new multiscreen theater space, the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center across the street from the Walter Reade Theater on West 65th St., with a series of free events next weekend. Among the many special programs are a screening of Oliver Stone’s revised final cut of Alexander Revisited, followed by a Q&A with the controversial director; rare screenings of Jacques Feyder’s 1926 silent film Gribiche and Victor Von Plessen, Friedrich Dalsheim, and Walter Spies’s 1933 Island of Demons; a live performance by Fall on Your Sword; Duke professor Fredric Jameson discussing “The Future of Film”; USC neuroscientist Antonio Damasio delivering the lecture “I Am a Studio: Notes on Brain, Self, and Cinema”; and the panel discussion “New Faces of NY Independent Film,” with Antonio Campos, Mike Cahill, Ben and Josh Safdie, and others, moderated by Ted Hope. Paul Schrader will give a Film Class on Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Conformist, Jason Reitman and Mike Nichols will examine the latter’s Carnal Knowledge, Jez Butterworth will talk about his 1997 film, Mojo, Marc Downie, Shelley Eshkar, and Paul Kaiser will show works in 3D, Maurice Marable will host Ghetto Film School screenings of The Story and Live, Joseph!, film scholar Sam Ho will introduce Fei Mu’s restored 1940 biopic Confucius, and Kevin Smith will begin his SMoviola series with Martha Coolidge’s charming 1983 comedy Valley Girl, in addition to screenings of George Cukor’s My Fair Lady, Michael Curtiz’s British Agent, Adam Curtis’s It Felt Like a Kiss, and a sneak preview of an upcoming film that was a hit at Sundance. Finally, “NYFF Opening Night Classics Movie Marathon” features such New York Film Festival opening-night selections as Pedro Almodóvar’s Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, Jim Jarmusch’s Down by Law, François Truffaut’s Day for Night, the Coen brothers’ Miller’s Crossing, and Akira Kurosawa’s Ran. Although everything is free, some of the events require advance online ticketing beginning today, June 3, so keep your eye on the above website if you want to be able to catch some of these very special programs.

HOWL! FESTIVAL 2011

This weekend’s Howl! Festival pays tribute to what would have been Allen Ginsberg’s eighty-fifth birthday

Tompkins Square Park
Ave. A to Ave. B between Seventh & Tenth Sts.
June 3-5, free
www.howlfestival.com

The somewhat annual Howl! Festival has moved from the end of the summer to the beginning of the season, kicking off June 3 with the group reading of Allen Ginsberg’s epic 1955 poem “Howl,” with its unforgettable opening: “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness. . . .” Getting under way at 5:00 in Tompkins Square Park, the free gathering, which also will be celebrating what would have been Ginsberg’s eighty-fifth birthday, will include such local literary luminaries as Darian Dauchan, Nicole Wallace, Curtis Jensen, Fay Chiang, Eliot Katz, Bob Rosenthal, John Giorno, Hettie Jones, and others, led by Bob Holman. The party continues on Saturday with the Great Howl! Out Loud Carnival for children (12 noon – 7:00 pm, Sunday also), with arts & crafts, games, miniature golf, face painting, balloon art, and more; the Hot Howl! Disco (1:00 to 4:00), with DJ Johnny Dynell; and live performances (2:00 to 7:00) by International Street Cannibals, Ekayani and the Tom Glide Space, Timbila, Emily XYZ, the Living Theater, LJ Murphy, John S. Hall & Musicians, Church of Betty, Bina Shariff, Vangeline Theater, Ed Sanders & Steven Taylor, Tyler Burba, and Arthur’s Landing, in addition to yoga classes, chanting monks, painting and sculpture, poetry circles, and other activities. On Sunday, Hip Hop Howl! (2:00 – 2:30) will feature a live mixtape showcase, House of Howl! (3:00 – 5:00) will consist of live music and dance under the theme “The High Life,” and Low Life 5: Flaming Queens (5:00 – 7:00) will conclude things with the much-loved two-hour production that this year pays tribute to the East Village’s LGBT artistic community and history, with such performers as Sade Pendavis, Vangeline Theater, the Pixie Harlots, Rachel Klein Theater, Go-Go Harder, and many more, dressed in elaborate costumes.

TWI-NY TALK: MOLLY SURNO — CINEMA 16 AT THE MET

Molly Surno is keeping the spirit of experimental and avant-garde film alive by bringing back Cinema 16

Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Ave. at 82nd St.
Friday, June 3, 7:00
Free with recommended admission of $20
212-570-3828
www.mollysurno.wordpress.com
www.metmuseum.org/collegegroup

In 1947, Amos Vogel founded Cinema 16 as an art community where film devotees could see and discuss experimental celluloid works. Vogel, who turned ninety this past April, later cofounded the New York Film Festival with Richard Roud, serving as its first director in 1963; the NYFF still features the “Views from the Avant-Garde” showcase every year. Since April 2008, photographer and curator Molly Surno has taken up the reins of Vogel’s initial call to arms, answering his question “Shall this audience continue unaware of these hundreds of thought-provoking, artistically satisfying, and socially purposeful films?” by bringing back Cinema 16. The L.A.-born, Brooklyn-based Surno puts together monthly programs that combine classic and contemporary avant-garde films with cutting-edge bands providing live scores. On June 3 at 7:00, she is presenting her latest gathering, being held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in conjunction with the exhibition “Guitar Heroes: Legendary Craftsmen from Italy to New York.” Introduced by Met associate curator Jayson Kerr Dobney, the evening, part of the Met’s College Group initiative, will feature films by Andy Warhol, Rudy Burckhardt, Edgar Varèse and Le Corbusier, Gina Carducci, Herbert Kosower, and Francis Thompson and live music by Nick Zinner and Brian Chase of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Shahin Motia of Oneida, and MV Carbon. As she prepared for the event, Surno was able to sneak in a few minutes to discuss experimental cinema and more with twi-ny.

twi-ny: You’ve held previous editions of Cinema 16 at such venues as the Kitchen, Smack Mellon, Galapagos, the Bell House, and MoMA/PS1, but your next edition is taking place June 3 at the Met, in conjunction with the “Guitar Heroes” exhibition. How did that come about? Did the location impact how you curated the program?

Molly Surno: To my amazement the Metropolitan Museum contacted me to do a performance as part of the programming for the “Guitar Heroes” exhibit. Humbled and inspired, I tailored this program entirely to the current show. The band is composed of some of Brooklyn’s most incredible string players, echoing the three centuries of string instruments on display. The films I selected are all based on the idea of a cityscape being a muse for artistic expression. “Guitar Heroes” shows the journey of string instruments from Southern Italy to New York and the way the luthiers drew from their environments. I took that same premise and selected films that used one’s surroundings as the platform for creative influence. Francis Thompson’s film N.Y., N.Y. quite literally examines the day in a life of a New Yorker but through a kaleidoscope-type lens; Andy Warhol’s Screen Test of Salvador Dalí expresses the culture of an artistic community congregating in New York; Gina Carducci’s Stone Welcome Mat journeys from the Sicily of her grandfather’s home super-8 films to her own return to Southern Italy decades later from the eye of a New York–based artist, among other tales of our surroundings informing and motivating creative works.

Francis Thompson’s “N.Y., N.Y.” is among the avant-garde films Molly Surno will be presenting at the Met on June 3

twi-ny: What do you choose first when putting together a program, the films or the musicians?

MS: The selection process entirely depends on the commission. For the Met the “Guitar Heroes” exhibition completely dictated both the musical and film curation.

twi-ny: Where did your love of experimental films come from? Was there a “Eureka!” moment? For us, the Eureka! moment, for example, was taking a class with Amos Vogel back in college. Is he familiar with what you’re doing?

MS: I am actively trying to find my way uptown so that I can meet Amos and potentially do a program together. It’s on the wish list.

twi-ny: Are there certain films out there that you’ve been searching for but have been unable to find or gain access to? Who are the new artists making experimental films today who have a similar spirit to those made by such innovators as Maya Deren, Bruce Conner, Shirley Clarke, and Stan Brakhage?

MS: Certainly films are hard to access because they weren’t preserved properly. For example, I wanted to show some Italian experimental film for this program, but there is so little that was properly archived (or archived at all). There is a community that is vibrant and active around the preservation of experimental films, and through them I have met some incredible contemporary avant-garde artists, including Joel Schlemowitz, Gina Carducci, MM Serra, and Mark Street, to name a few. A few years back I showed a piece by an artist named Ezra Johnson, who also works with animation. His work blows my mind.

twi-ny: You’re constantly surrounded by avant-garde film and music. Do you ever just push it all to the back of your mind and spend a Saturday night checking out The Hangover Part II, Thor, or the latest Twilight or Pirates of the Caribbean flick?

MS: This might be my favorite question any journalist has ever asked me. Oddly enough, the more experimental films I watch, the harder it is for me to sit through big-budget films. I mean, let’s put it this way: For me, a Saturday night spent among purely escapist entertainment would include The Godfather or The French Connection. . . . That is about as mainstream as I like to get.

BROOKLYN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL: PLOT

IndieScreen, 285 Kent Ave.
Brooklyn Heights Cinema, 70 Henry St.
June 3-12, $10 per screening
Full Festival Pass $200, 4 Pack Pass $25, Opening Night Pass $25
www.brooklynfilmfestival.org

The 2011 edition of the Brooklyn International Film Festival will take place June 3-12 at IndieScreen and Brooklyn Heights Cinema, comprising more than one hundred films from more than two dozen countries. The competitive festival, whose theme this year is “Plot” — which could relate to both story line as well as the controversial plot of land known as the Atlantic Yards — includes such feature films as Kitao Sakurai’s Aardvark (U.S.), Davey Frankel & Rasselas Lakew’s The Athlete (Ethiopia), Julien Donada’s On the Shore (France), Slava Ross’s Siberia, Monamour (Russia), and Massimiliano Verdesca’s W Zappatore and such full-length documentaries as Marjoleine Boonstra’s Among Horses and Men (the Netherlands), Daniel Bishop’s Bed Stuy — Do or Die (England), Maya Derrington’s Pyjama Girls (Ireland), and Katja Esson’s Skydancer (U.S.). Appropriately, Suki Hawley & Michael Galinsky’s Battle for Brooklyn, about the continuing fight over the Atlantic Yards project and potentially bringing the Nets to Brooklyn, kicks things off on June 3, followed by a Q&A with the directors and composers and an after-party at the powerHouse Arena; it will also be shown June 9 at 9:00 in Fort Greene Park in conjunction with Rooftop Films. KidsFilmFest 2011 will take place June 4 at IndieScreen and June 5 at the Long Island Children’s Museum. Among the awards up for grabs are the Grand Chameleon for best film, Best in Category, Best New Director, the Spirit Award, and the Audience Award.

WEEKEND CLASSICS — KUROSAWA: STRAY DOG

Takashi Shimura and Toshiro Mifune are on the hunt in Kurosawa detective story

STRAY DOG (Akira Kurosawa, 1949)
IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at West Third St.
June 3-5, $13, 11:00 am
Series continues through September 11
212-924-7771
www.ifccenter.com

Akira Kurosawa’s thrilling police procedural, Stray Dog, is one of the all-time-great film noirs. When newbie detective Murakami (Toshirō Mifune) gets his Colt lifted on a bus, he thinks he will be fired if he does not get it back. But as he searches for it, he discovers that it is being used in a series of robberies and murders that he feels responsible for. Teamed with seasoned veteran Sato (Takashi Shimura), Murakami risks his career — and his life — as he tries desperately to track down his gun before it is used again. Kurosawa makes audiences sweat as postwar Japan is in the midst of a heat wave, with Murakami, Sato, prostitute Harumi Namiki (Keiko Awaji), and others constantly mopping their brows, dripping wet. Inspired by the novels of Georges Simenon, Stray Dog is a dark, intense drama shot in creepy black and white by Asakazu Nakai and featuring a jazzy soundtrack by Fumio Hayasaka that unfortunately grows melodramatic in a few key moments — and oh, if only that final scene had been left on the cutting-room floor. Stray Dog will be screening at 11:00 am on June 3-5 as part of the IFC Center’s Weekend Classics — Kurosawa series, with half of the proceeds from all festival screenings benefiting Japan Society’s Earthquake Relief Fund. Upcoming screenings includeKagemusha (June 10-12), High and Low (June 17-19), and Dodes’ka-Den (June 24-26).

AKIKO YANO SOLO: REVEALING HER MAGIC

TRANSFORMING KOTOBA (“J-WORDS”) INTO MUSIC
Japan Society
333 East 47th St. at First Ave.
Friday, June 3, $28, 8:15
212-715-1258
www.japansociety.org
www.akikoyano.com

A child piano prodigy in her native Japan, New York City-based jazz musician and singer Akiko Yano has released more than two dozen records since her debut, 1976’s Japanese Girl, collaborating with such producers and performers as Pat Metheny, Marc Ribot, T-Bone Burnett, Thomas Dolby, Lowell George and Little Feat, Hayao Miyazaki, John Zorn, Hiromi, and Ryuichi Sakamoto, whom she married and has a daughter with. (They divorced in 2006.) Her most recent release is 2010’s Ongakudo, a solo project that features twelve cover songs and three new originals. The fifty-six-year-old Yano, a regular at Joe’s Pub, bends, twists, expands, and contracts Japanese words in her songs, incorporating poems and folktales into her storytelling. She’ll be at Japan Society on June 3, performing solo and discussing her working process in a special one-time-only presentation. (Half of all ticket sales will go to the Japan Earthquake Relief Fund, which to date has raised more than eight million dollars.)

DTW OFF-SITE — YANIRA CASTRO | A CANARY TORSI: PARADIS

Yanira Castro’s PARADIS is first site-specific dance project to be held at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (photo by Kevin Kwan)

Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Desert House in the Steinhardt Conservatory and the Cherry Esplanade
1000 Washington Ave.
June 2-4, $20, 8:00/8:30
www.dancetheaterworkshop.org
www.acanarytorsi.org

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden is already one of New York City’s paradises, but on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, choreographer Yanira Castro will make it even more so. The Puerto Rican-born, Brooklyn-based Castro, who specializes in site-adaptable dance installations, is bringing her a canary torsi “organism” to the Desert House in the Steinhardt Conservatory and then on to the Cherry Esplanade for Paradis, the first site-specific dance project held at the century-old botanic garden. Inspired by the last part of Jean-Luc Godard’s 2004 film Notre Musique, the piece incorporates audience movement into the choreography, performed by nine dancers (Peggy Cheng, Simon Courchel, Shayla-Vie Jenkins, Luke Miller, Peter Schmitz, Stuart Singer, Darrin Wright, Pamela Vail, and Kimberly Young), with live piano accompaniment by Michael Dauphinais and sound design by Stephan Moore. Presented by Dance Theater Workshop, Paradis is the follow-up to last fall’s Wilderness, a performance and audio installation that took place at the Invisible Dog Art Center in Brooklyn. Paradis is scheduled for June 2 at 8:00, June 3 at 8:30, and June 4 at 8:00, and tickets are only $20, which is pretty cheap for your own piece of paradise.

Yanira Castro | a canary torsi celebrate the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in PARADIS (photo by Yi-Chun Wu)

Update: Yanira Castro’s Paradis does indeed turn out to be a piece of paradise. The audience of approximately sixty people first meets in the visitor center (be sure to go to the 1000 Washington St. entrance), then is led to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Steinhardt Conservatory, where they surround the outside of the Desert House. Inside, Peter Schmitz, dressed all in white with white face paint, stands still before slowly making his way around the cactus plants and trees, using herky-jerky motion, then moving faster, stopping to mime eating an apple, then erupting in off-key song, dancing and singing to tinny, lo-fi, scratchy piano music that pipes out of security guards’ walkie-talkies. Expanding his work with Castro on Wilderness, Schmitz evokes Adam in the Garden of Eden as well as Frankenstein’s monster and the Supreme Being as he learns to walk, talk, and eat. At the end of the solo, the audience is led in the dark to the wide expanse of the resplendently green Cherry Esplanade, where they come upon Michael Dauphinais playing the piano (sounding much better in person than over the walkie-talkies), playing an evolving score that is impacted by the presence of the crowd. Four huge spotlights illuminate the lawn as Peggy Cheng, Simon Courchel, Shayla-Vie Jenkins, Luke Miller, Stuart Singer, Darrin Wright, Pamela Vail, and Kimberly Young emerge in the distance, frolicking across the grass and eventually weaving through the crowd, who can sit or stand wherever they want. After being selected to follow a particular dancer, the audience segments into groups that end up watching a deeply intimate, thrillingly erotic duet. Inspired very directly by the “Paradis” section of Jean-Luc Godard’s Notre Musique, Castro’s Paradis feels like it grew organically out of the ground (or descended from the heavens), like the lovely trees and flowers that cover the garden’s fifty-two lush acres. No mere spectacle, the piece invites the viewer to become part of a magical experience, a fitting tribute to the beauty of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and the endless imagination of Castro and her company.