twi-ny recommended events

SEE IT BIG! RAN WITH TATSUYA NAKADAI IN PERSON

The Fool (Peter) sticks by Hidetaro (Tatsuya Nakadai) as the aging lord descends into madness in Kurosawa masterpiece RAN

RAN (Akira Kurosawa, 1985)
Museum of the Moving Image
35th Ave. at 36th St., Astoria
Saturday, June 15, free with museum admission, 2:00
718-777-6800
www.movingimage.us

Inspired by the story of feudal lord Mori Motonari and Shakespeare’s King Lear, Akira Kurosawa’s Ran is an epic masterpiece about the decline and fall of the Ichimonji clan. Aging Lord Hidetora (Tatsuya Nakadai) is ready to hand over his land and leadership to his three sons, Taro (Akira Terao), Jiro (Jinpachi Nezu), and Saburo (Daisuke Ryû). But jealousy, misunderstandings, and outright deceit and treachery result in Saburo’s banishment and a violent power struggle between the weak eldest, Taro, and the warrior Jiro. Hidetaro soon finds himself rejected by his children and wandering the vast, empty landscape with his wise, sarcastic fool, Kyoami (Peter), as the once-proud king descends into madness. Dressed in white robes and with wild white hair, Nakadai (The Human Condition), in his early fifties at the time, portrays Hidetaro, one of the great characters of cinema history, with an unforgettable, Noh-like precision. Kurosawa, cinematographers Asakazu Nakai, Takao Saitô, and Masaharu Ueda, and Oscar-winning costume designer Emi Wada bathe the film in lush greens, brash blues, and bold reds and yellows that marvelously offset the white Hidetaro. Kurosawa shoots the first dazzling battle scene in an elongated period of near silence, with only Tôru Takemitsu’s classically based score playing on the soundtrack, turning the film into a thrilling, blood-drenched opera. Ran is a spectacular achievement, the last great major work by one of the twentieth century’s most important and influential filmmakers. A restored 35mm print of Ran will be screening at 2:00 on June 15 at the Museum of the Moving Image as part of the continuing “See It Big!” series and will be introduced by former Orion Classics president Michael Barker, with the great Nakadai present as well.

NORTHSIDE FESTIVAL VIDEO OF THE DAY: “CHANNELING” BY THE LUYAS

Montreal-based five-piece the Luyas are on the road in support of their most recent album, last October’s Animator, which features such tracks as “Montuno,” “Fifty Fifty,” and “The Quiet Way,” exploring dreams, death, and the natural environment. “Your name’s mostly water / It is mostly the sea / I wanted to hold you like the beach holds the ocean / Like the wind holds the trees up so slightly,” Jessie Stein sings on “Your Name’s Mostly Water.” Stein, Pietro Amato, Mathieu Charbonneau, Bucky Wheaton, and Sarah Neufeld will be be at 285 Kent at the Northside Festival on June 13 for the Infinite Best showcase, on a bill with Lush Life, Ava Luna, Julian Lynch, and Twin Sister.

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH FILM FESTIVAL: IN THE SHADOW OF THE SUN

Josephat Torner is traveling across Tanzania to stop the dismemberment and killing of albinos for profit

IN THE SHADOW OF THE SUN (Harry Freeland, 2012)
Saturday, June 15, 9:15, IFC Center, 323 Sixth Ave. at West Third St.
Sunday, June 16, 6:00, Film Society of Lincoln Center, Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, Francesca Beale Theater, 144 West 65th St. at Amsterdam Ave.
Festival runs June 13-23
212-875-5601
www.intheshadowofthesun.org
www.ff.hrw.org

One of the themes of the twenty-fourth edition of the Human Rights Watch Film Festival is Traditional Values and Human Rights, and it is exemplified by the frightening yet inspiring documentary In the Shadow of the Sun. In January 2007, Josephat Torner, one of an estimated 170,000 albinos living in Tanzania, told his wife and kids that he was setting off for two months to travel the country to educate local communities about albinism in the wake of a series of dismemberments and killings brought on by witch doctors claiming that the body parts of albinos will bring people wealth and success. “This is what our lives have become,” Torner tells director, producer, editor, and cameraman Harry Freeland at the beginning of the film. “One of the many things we have had to learn is to live in danger.” Two months turned into years as Torner battled Tanzanians’ fears that albinos were white ghosts or demons, forcing them to live in camps or hiding them from public view. Freeland also focuses on Vedastus Chinese Zangule, a teenager who wants to go to school to become an electrician, but his efforts to get an education are continually thwarted by red tape and discrimination. Torner becomes a mentor to the open and honest Vedastus, trying to help him achieve his goals against the odds. The documentary, which features beautiful vistas in Tanzania, particularly on Ukerewe Island, where a community of albinos live as if in exile from the mainland, is narrated by Torner and Vedastus, both of whom are determined not to give up. Torner continually risks his life, going into the neighborhoods where maimings and killings have taken place, trying to prove to the men, women, and children who live there that albinos are just people, not monsters to be exploited as good-luck charms. Meanwhile, more albinos are murdered as Torner continues his journey.

Documentary examines the public misperception of albinism in Tanzania

In the Shadow of the Sun is a powerful, shattering examination of discrimination and racism in the twenty-first century as well as a testament to the strength and determination of the individual spirit; Freeland (Waiting for Change) lets these two extraordinary figures, Torner and Vedastus, tell their intermingling stories with both grace and a kind of poetry while sharing the many faces of albinism, showing both the inherent cruelty and beauty of humanity as well as the importance of education. In the Shadow of the Sun is screening June 15 at the IFC Center and June 16 at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, followed by Q&As with Freeland. The Human Rights Watch Film Festival runs June 13-23, comprising nineteen narrative and nonfiction works that examine such themes as Women’s Rights, LGBT Rights, Journalism, Human Rights in the United States, and Crises and Migration, including the New York and/or U.S. premiere of such films as Raoul Peck’s Fatal Assistance, Shaun Kadlec and Deb Tullmann’s Born This Way, Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act of Killing, and Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin’s Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer.

VIDEO OF THE DAY: “THANKSGIVING” BY STEPHEN KELLOGG

After a tumultuous 2012 that included the birth of his fourth child, the loss of his grandmother and mother-in-law, the renovation of his house, an inspirational TEDx talk (titled “I Can’t Get No [Job] Satisfaction”), and the Hi-Ate-Us Tour, after which he and his longtime band, the Sixers, went on hiatus, self-effacing American singer-songwriter Stephen Kellogg has encapsulated his unique world view in his beautiful new solo album, Blunderstone Rookery (Elm City, June 18, 2013). Kellogg is bold and blunt throughout the record’s eleven tracks, evoking Lyle Lovett, Bruce Springsteen, Justin Townes Earle, and his personal favorite, Tom Petty, on guitar-driven songs that examine love, heartbreak, hopes, dreams, home, and family. “What can I possibly say? / I’m not even sure if I think you should stay / It’s like I don’t know where to start / Do I set it on fire just to protect my heart?” he asks on the opening number, “Lost and Found.” Kellogg gets swampy for the blues-infused “The Brain Is a Beautiful Thing,” channels Petty and the Boss on “Forgive You, Forgive Me,” goes country on “Crosses,” and adds a horn section on “Good Ol’ Days,” on which he declares, “Sometimes the best thing that can happen is / you take a punch in the face.” But at his heart, the thirty-six-year-old Kellogg is a positive, upbeat guy who loves and celebrates the gift of life and family, as evidenced by the ten-minute acoustic opus “Thanksgiving,” with Kellogg explaining, “In America, this is home / Stories, everybody’s got one / This is mine, you will have your own / Nothing like the real thing, nothing like it.” The Connecticut-based Kellogg has been telling the stories that populate Blunderstone Rookery on YouTube, sitting down by a fire and reading the lyrics to each song as if they were chapters in a book. Kellogg will be at Rockwood Music Hall on June 14 ($20, one-drink minimum, 7:00) for a special Countdown to Blunderstone show with special guest Seth Giler. In addition, earlier that day, at 3:00, he will take part in a Livestream Session, spinning the whole record, answering fan questions, and playing live.

NORTHSIDE FESTIVAL 2013

Danish punks Iceage headline MHOW show on opening night of Northside Festival

Northside Festival
Multiple venues in Greenpoint and Williamsburg
June 13-20
www.northsidefestival.com

Now in its third year, the Northside Festival features four days of indie music followed by four days of films, along with a two-day conference that examines the future of technology and business. Greenpoint and Williamsburg will be more alive than usual with the sounds of bands filling the streets and clubs June 13-16. Eighty-dollar badges are still available for the music events, or you can get individual tickets to the shows, which will be held at such locations as Union Pool, the Glasslands, the Trash Bar, the Gutter, Bar Matchless, Europa, Saint Vitus, Cameo, the Music Hall of Williamsburg, and many more. In addition, more than thirty films will be screened at Nitehawk Cinema, Williamsburg Cinemas, Videology, UnionDocs, and other locations. Below are our recommendations, organized by day; keep checking back for updates and changes.

Thursday, June 13
Monarch presents Julia Haltigan (8:00), Wyatt (8:45), Cole Williams (9:35), Aabaraki (10:20), Kendra Morris (11:15), Bar Matchless, $10

Iceage, A Place to Bury Strangers, Lower, Bennio Qwerty, and Bambara, Music Hall of Williamsburg, 8:00, $15

Pitchfork presents: Foreplay (8:30), Majical Cloudz (9:15), very special guests (10:00), Body/Head (Kim Gordon & Bill Nace) (11:00), Saint Vitus, $15

JD Samson presents Pat Party: with DJ sets by JD Samson, Amber Valentine, Will Automatic, and Sveta, Union Pool, 9:00, free

A musical number by drag persona Ruby Roo, including scenes from I Love Lucy and more, Sugarland, 12 midnight, free

Friday, June 14
Surprise guest at the Jameson Black Barrel Lounge at Villain, 3:00

Dear Georgiana (7:30), the Sundelles (8:15), and Sonny & the Sunsets (9:00), Knitting Factory Brooklyn, $12

Sally (8:30), Vivienne Eastwood (9:30), Radical Dads (10:30), and Black Wine (11:30), Legion, $8

Whatever Blog presents Libel (9:00), Butchers and Bakers (9:30), the Meaning of Life (10:00), Lazyeyes (10:30), and Shilpa Ray (11:00), the Gutter, $5

Gigawatts presents Sham-Poo (9:00), Le Rug (10:00), SHAPES (11:00), and the So So Glos (12 midnight), Public Assembly, $10

Saturday, June 15
Zachary Cale (4:00), Mappa Mundi (5:00), and Whale Belly (6:00), Pete’s Candy Store, free

Whatever Blog presents the Veda Rays (8:00), Low Fat Getting High (9:00), American Darlings (10:00), Dead Stars (11:00), and Clouder (12 midnight), Legion, $5

New York Night Train presents the Gories and Daddy Long Legs, Brooklyn Bowl, 8:00, $12

Metal Sucks presents Scale the Summit, Mouth of the Architect, Inter Arma, and Sannhet, Saint Vitus, 8:00, $15

PopGun presents DJ sets by Flying Horse and Ladyhawke and live performance by French Horn Rebellion, Glasslands, 11:30, $15

Sunday, June 16
Stereoactive NYC & Hillytown present JPK (1:00), Lisa/Liza (2:00), Owel (3:00), Coalsack in Crux (4:00), Leda (5:00), Ball of Flame Shoot Fire (6:00), Cultfever (7:00), Weird Children (8:00), Sunset Hearts (9:00), MiniBoone (10:00), Shark? (11:00), Clouder (12 midnight), Spike Hill, free

Rocks Off presents Subhumans, Adolescents, Drunken Rampage, the Krays, Music Hall of Williamsburg, 7:00, $15

Monarch presents sami.the.great (8:15), Heloise & the Savoir Faire (9:00), Something in Spanish (9:40), Hank & Cupcakes (10:25), Bright Light Bright Light (11:15), and My Midnight Heart (12:15 am), Public Assembly, $10

Grooms (8:30), Pop. 1280 (9:30), and the Soft Moon (10:30), 285 Kent, $15

CABARET CINEMA — THE FLIP SIDE: TOUCH OF EVIL

Orson Welles plays it big in noir masterpiece TOUCH OF EVIL, screening at the Rubin on June 14

TOUCH OF EVIL (Orson Welles, 1958)
Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th St. at Seventh Ave.
Friday, June 14, free with $7 bar minimum, 9:30
212-620-5000
www.rmanyc.org

A deeply affecting noir masterpiece, Touch of Evil is one of Orson Welles’s finest, and strangest, outings, as he nearly bursts through the frame as spectacularly dastardly police captain Hank Quinlan in this dark potboiler. A deliciously devious corrupt lawman, Quinlan is an enormous drunk who has no trouble breaking the rules to get his man. Charlton Heston took a lot of criticism for playing Mike Vargas, a Mexican drug enforcement agent newly married to beautiful blonde Susan (Janet Leigh), who soon finds herself menaced by a dangerous gang as a weak-kneed, pre-McCloud Dennis Weaver looks the other way. The film famously opens with a remarkable crane shot that goes on for more than three minutes, setting the stage like no other establishing shot in the history of cinema. And the final scene with Marlene Dietrich as sultry hooker Tana is a lulu as well, highlighted by one of the great all-time movie lines. What goes on in between is a lurid tale of murder and revenge filled with unexpected twists and turns, featuring appearances by such Welles regulars as Joseph Cotten, Akim Tamiroff, Joseph Calleia, and Ray Collins. There was a lot of hype surrounding the film when it was restored in 1998 to match Welles’s original desires, but the final product lives up to its billing. Touch of Evil is screening June 14 as part of the Rubin Museum’s Cabaret Cinema series “The Flip Side,” held in conjunction with the same-named exhibition, which focuses on art and text on the back of Tibetan objects, and will be introduced by Welles’s oldest daughter, Chris Welles Feder. The series continues June 21 with Charles Chaplin’s Monsieur Verdoux, introduced by silent-film historian and curator Ken Gordon, and concludes June 28 with Johnathan Lynn’s Clue, introduced by Au Revoir Simone member Annie Hart.

NEW FISH CITY: A SEAFOOD FEAST ON THE WATERFRONT

Brookfield Place Winter Garden
220 Vesey St. between West St. & the Hudson River
Thursday, June 13, free (all dishes $10 and under), 11:30 am – 2:00 pm, 5:00 – 9:00
www.brookfieldplaceny.com

Brookfield Place Plaza, formerly known as the World Financial Center, will be hosting a seafood extravaganza on June 13, as local restaurants and food trucks come together for New Fish City, giving visitors the chance to sample a range of seafood dishes, all of which will be available for ten dollars and less. [ed. note: Because of the weather, this event has been moved indoors to the Winter Garden.] Among the participants, with some of what they’ll be serving, are Red Hook Lobster Pound (lobster BLT), Brooklyn Oyster Party (raw oysters), Handsome Hank’s (fish and chips), Kutsher’s Tribeca (hot smoked salmon salad on house-made onion roll), PJ Clarke’s (tuna tartare taco), Back Forty West (green gazpacho with oyster shooters), L&W Oyster Co. (Montauk pearl oysters, shrimp cocktail), Cull & Pistol (oysters, crab claws), Cheeky Sandwiches (fried shrimp or oyster po-boy), Luke’s Lobster (lobster, crab, or shrimp roll), Harry’s Italian Pizza Bar (Caesar salad with anchovies), AsiaDog (curry lobster dog), Littleneck (halibut ceviche), Palo Santo (smoked bluefish slider), Esca (whole roasted fish with salsa verde), and BLT Bar & Grill (big eye tuna taco). New Fish City will be open for lunch from 11:30 to 2:00 and for dinner from 5:00 to 9:00, with the evening session joined by a pop-up beer garden.