twi-ny recommended events

THE ART OF SCENT 1889-2012

Fragrant exhibition at Museum of Arts and Design take visitors on an olfactory tour of the history of perfume (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Museum of Arts and Design
2 Columbus Circle at 58th St. & Broadway
Through March 3
800-838-3006
www.madmuseum.org

A rather unique exhibit at the Museum of Arts & Design in Columbus Circle, one that truly “stinks,” has been extended through March 3. “The Art of Scent 1889-2012” collects twelve of the world’s most beloved, influential, and (in)famous perfumes, displaying them as if they were sculptures or paintings, firmly establishing them as individual works of art. Designed by the architectural firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the exhibition, the first major museum retrospective to elevate perfume in such a way, consists of a dozen stations along a wall, indentations where visitors put their head in and breathe in the fragrances, accompanied by an illuminated paragraph that appears then disappears, like the smells themselves, detailing the scent’s creator and development. Curated by Chandler Burr, the fragrances are arranged chronologically, following the changing trends in the industry, including the implementation of synthetic materials and modern technology. First up on the aromatic tour is Aimé Guerlain’s 1889 scent Jicky, which combines the terpene alcohol linalool, the chemical compound coumarin, and the flavorant ethyl vanillin; the text explains, “Though subtle in effect, the synthetics were both disorienting and liberating. By freeing olfactory artists from an exclusively natural palette, they turned scent into an artistic medium, and made Jicky one of the first true works of olfactory art.” Museumgoers will react differently to each scent as they get whiffs of Enest Beaux’s Chanel N°5, Pierre Wargnye’s Drakkar Noir, Annie Buzantian and Albert Morillas’s pleasures, Jean-Claude Ellena’s Osmanthe Yunnan, and Daniela Andrier’s disturbing Untitled, lent by such parfumeries as Hermès, Prada, L’Oréal, Clarins, Estée Lauder, Clinique, Guerlain, and other cosmetic companies. A second room delves into further detail about the creation of perfume with video interviews, a multipart evolution of one particular scent, and a table where visitors can dip strips into the actual liquid products and sample the real thing. The deluxe catalog ($285) includes eleven of the perfumes in printed glass vials — only Chanel chose not to participate — with each scent assigned to a different artistic discipline: Francis Fabron’s L’Interdit is considered abstract expressionism, Olivier Cresp’s Angel surrealism, Jacques Cavallier’s L’Eau d’issey minimalism, and Untitled post-brutalism. On February 13, MAD will host the special program “Technology and Innovation in Fine Fragrance,” with Burr and Rochas house perfumer Jean-Michel Duriez leading an interactive discussion in which attendees will be able to sniff-sample raw materials and complex fragrances.

ROBOT THEATER PROJECT

Robot Theater Project includes a pair of one-act plays starring real robots at Japan Society (photos by Tsukasa Aoki and Tatsuo Nambu)

Japan Society
333 East 47th St. at First Ave.
February 7-9, $28, 7:30
212-715-1258
www.japansociety.org

Last month the Resonance Ensemble revived Karel Čapek’s 1920 play, R.U.R., the work that introduced the word “robot” to the world — and a highly influential story that involved machines gaining sentience and threatening humankind. Seinendan Theater Company takes that to the next level this week at Japan Society with Robot Theater Project, a pair of one-act plays written and directed by company founder Oriza Hirata in which real robots play characters onstage. In Sayonara, a woman with a terminal illness is cared for by Geminoid F, described in the cast biographies as “a female type tele-operated android [with the] potential to go beyond an experimental platform and become a commonly used robot in human society.” In I, Worker, a man struggles to deal with the loss of his child while his robot questions the meaning of life; the mechanical being is played by Robovie R3, “a life-sized robot invented to research communications between humans and robots.” While Geminoid F is making its theatrical debut, Robovie R3 previously appeared in Hirata’s Three Sisters, Android Version. The human actors include Bryerly Long, Hiroshi Ota, and Minako Inoue. The two plays, developed in collaboration with Dr. Hiroshi Ishiguro of the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory at Osaka University, will be performed February 7-9 at Japan Society, Sayonara in English and Japanese with subtitles and I, Worker in Japanese with subtitles. Hirata and Dr. Ishiguro will participate in Q&As following the February 8-9 shows. In addition, Hirata will lead an acting workshop, “Exploring Naturalism,” on February 9 at 1:00, delving into his unique “contemporary colloquial theater.”

Robots and humans interact in moving ways at Japan Society

Update: As the audience enters the Japan Society theater for Sayonara, the first of a pair of one-act plays, two characters are already onstage, sitting in chairs. Although it appears to be two women, one brunette and Asian, the other blonde and Caucasian, it turns out that while the latter is a living, breathing female, Bryerly Long as a young woman dying of a terminal disease, the former is Geminoid F, a remarkably realistic android playing a robot who has been hired by the woman’s father to recite beautiful poetry to make his daughter’s final days peaceful. Geminoid F, who is powered through air pressure via twelve motorized actuators, doesn’t mouth the words exactly, which, along with her vacant eyes, are the only things that give her away as a mechanical being until she is carried off at the end, a long tube connecting her to electronic controls. The interplay between the android and the human is quite moving and believable, with a new scene added involving the nuclear disaster at Fukushima and how robots can help in the aftermath. In I, Worker, Hiroshi Ota (who also plays a small part in Sayonara) and Minako Inoue (who voices Geminoid F) are parents trying to cope with the death of their child. The husband is having more difficulties getting back to a relatively normal existence, which is also the case with the family’s two robots, played by Robovie R3s. While Geminoid F was created to look like a human, Robovie R3 is more in the mode of a futuristic R2D2/Dr. Who type, with fanciful colors and round, wide eyes. Just like the parents, the male robot has lost purpose in his life and is trying to find the will to go on, but I, Worker contains much more humor, supplied by the robots themselves, including how they exit the stage at the end. The two plays work because writer-director Oriza Hirata has created two pieces in which the stories themselves deal with the interchange between humans and robots; he has not cast the androids as real people going through completely real situations, and human actors are not playing robots. The plays would not be successful if they were performed only by robots or only by humans; instead, by bringing the two together, Hirata and robotic scientist Dr. Hiroshi Ishiguro have built a fascinating meta that surrounds the tales, a harbinger of things to come both on- and offstage in our ever-evolving world.

L.A. REBELLION — CREATING A NEW BLACK CINEMA: KILLER OF SHEEP

Charles Burnett’s KILLER OF SHEEP examines black life in postwar America

CHANGING THE PICTURE: KILLER OF SHEEP (Charles Burnett, 1977)
Museum of the Moving Image
35th Ave. at 36th St., Astoria
Friday, February 8, $12, 7:00
718-777-6800
www.movingimage.us
www.killerofsheep.com

In 2007, Milestone Films restored and released Charles Burnett’s low-budget feature-length debut, Killer of Sheep, with the original soundtrack intact; the film had not been available on VHS or DVD for decades because of music rights problems that were finally cleared. (The soundtrack includes such seminal black artists as Etta James, Dinah Washington, Little Walter, and Paul Robeson.) Shot on weekends for less than $10,000, Killer of Sheep took four years to put together and another four years to get noticed, when it won the FIPRESCI Prize at the 1981 Berlin Film Festival. Reminiscent of the work of Jean Renoir and the Italian neo-Realists, the film tells a simple story about a family just trying to get by, struggling to survive in their tough Watts neighborhood in the mid-1970s. The slice-of-life scenes are sometimes very funny, sometimes scary, but always poignant, as Stan (Henry Gayle Sanders) trudges to his dirty job in a slaughterhouse in order to provide for his wife (Kaycee Moore) and children (Jack Drummond and Angela Burnett). Every day he is faced with new choices, from participating in a murder to buying a used car engine, but he takes it all in stride. The motley cast of characters, including Charles Bracy and Eugene Cherry, is primarily made up of nonprofessional actors with a limited range of talent, but that is all part of what makes it all feel so real. Killer of Sheep was added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 1989, the second year of the program, making it among the first fifty to be selected, in the same group as Rebel Without a Cause, The Godfather, Duck Soup, All About Eve, and It’s a Wonderful Life, which certainly puts its place in history in context. Killer of Sheep will be screening on February 8 as part of the Museum of the Moving Image series “Changing the Picture” and “L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema,” focusing on films that look at the real black experience in postwar America, continuing through February 24 with such other films as Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust, Haile Gerima’s Bush Mama, Jamaa Fanaka’s Emma Mae (Black Sister’s Revenge), Zeinabu irene Davis’s Compensation, and Billy Woodberry’s Bless Their Little Hearts.

BEER, DINNER, AND A MOVIE: ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND

Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey battle over how to celebrate Valentine’s Day in ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND

ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND (Michel Gondry, 2004)
Nitehawk Cinema
136 Metropolitan Ave. between Berry St. & Wythe Ave.
Wednesday, February 13, $65, 7:30
718-384-3980
www.nitehawkcinema.com
www.eternalsunshine.com

Going to a hip new overrated Brooklyn restaurant for Valentine’s Day is so, well, 2012. For something completely different this year, Nitehawk Cinema’s monthly Beer, Dinner, and a Movie series is hosting a special presentation on February 13, screening Michel Gondry’s wickedly entertaining Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and serving a three-course meal inspired by the film (and dished out at very specific, related times), featuring drink pairings courtesy of Brooklyn’s own KelSo Beer Co. The brilliant film comes from the warped mind of Charlie Kaufman, the sensational scribe behind Being John Malkovich, Adaptation., and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. (Chris Elliott fans will get a kick out of knowing that Kaufman was a writer for Get a Life, one of the great warped series of all time.) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind stars Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet as a couple looking to erase each other from their memories by . . . ah, don’t worry what it’s about. The less you know, the better. Just be prepared for a visual, metaphysical spectacle that will both exhilarate and depress you, filling you with wonder and amazement. The only thing keeping it from perfection is the ordinariness of the subplot involving Elijah Wood. Kaufman and Gondry (The Science of Sleep) mix in a little Punch-Drunk Love and Groundhog Day, both of which also starred former television comedians in more serious roles, but end up with something wholly original and, quite simply, one of the most romantic movies we have ever seen. As far as the food goes, after a welcoming KelSo pale ale, the dining kicks off with creamy tomato soup, grilled sourdough, and smoked Gouda with KelSo Rauchbier, followed by Blue Point oysters, local striped bass, vermouth, cauliflower, and KelSo pilsner. For dessert there’s Clementine vanilla sorbet, coconut “snow,” and KelSo rye aged pale ale. That frees you up on Valentine’s Day to snuggle with your loved one while everyone else is out eating mediocre food at mediocre restaurants that will not provide nearly the kinds of memories Nitehawk served up the night before.

LEO VILLAREAL: BUCKYBALL / HIVE

“Buckyball”: Mad. Sq. Art, Madison Square Park, through February 15
“Hive (Bleecker Street),” Bleecker St. 6 / Lafayette St. F interchange, permanent
www.villareal.net

Since the late 1990s, Leo Villareal has been creating eye-catching LED artworks using intricate computer programs. Born in New Mexico and based in New York City, where he graduated from NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program, Villareal has created site-specific projects for MoMA PS1, the Tampa Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, and BAM, where his five-part “Stars” continue to dance on the building’s facade. He currently has two more works dazzling New Yorkers, one aboveground, the other in the subway. In Madison Square Park, “Buckyball” is a thirty-foot-tall geodesic dome, containing a smaller dome, that uses math and geometry to produce a whirlwind of light and color. On view through February 15, “Buckyball,” inspired by and named for architect Buckminster Fuller, consists of 180 LED tubes that display 16 million pixelated colors shooting through them in endless random designs developed by Villareal’s unique software programming. “Buckyball” evokes the synapses of the brain as well as a slow-motion gyroscope, with very different effects as day turns into night. Be sure to recline on the special zero-gravity benches that proved the best angle for experiencing the meditative, mind-expanding piece.

Villareal used a honeycomb as inspiration for “Hive (Bleecker Street),” an LED sculpture commissioned by the MTA for the Bleecker St./Lafayette St. subway station. On a low ceiling by the new transfer point between the F and the 6, colored lights fill hexagonal tubes, almost like a living, breathing subway map with its own unique route. “Hive” was influenced by British mathematician John Horton Conway’s zero-player cellular automaton Game of Life, which evolves on its own as it deals with underpopulation, overcrowding, and unpredictability, sort of like the New York City subway system itself. Be sure to ride the escalator up to see the work slowly unfurl before you. While “Buckyball” will remain on view in the park through February 15, “Hive” is a permanent work that is part of the MTA’s Arts for Transit and Urban Design program.

NO MORE STIGMA: THE OTHER CITY

Documentary looks at the other side of the nation’s capital

THE GET DOWN CAMPAIGN’S NO MORE STIGMA FILM SERIES PRESENTS THE OTHER CITY (Susan Koch, 2010)
Maysles Cinema
343 Malcolm X Blvd. between 127th & 128th Sts.
Thursday, February 7, $10, cocktail reception 6:30, screening 7:30
212-582-6050
www.mayslesinstitute.org
www.theothercity.com

Washington, DC, might be famous as a city filled with wealthy politicians, international ambassadors, ruthless lobbyists, and tourists visiting some of the finest cultural institutions and historical monuments in the world, but lurkng in the shadows is a very different story. As revealed in Susan Koch’s surprising documentary The Other City, the District of Columbia is in the midst of an HIV/AIDS epidemic that is actually on par with what many African nations are experiencing. Although Koch includes frightening statistics about the crisis — between three and five percent of D.C. residents are living with HIV or AIDS, primarily blacks and Hispanics as well as a growing number of women and teenagers — she focuses on a handful of fascinating protagonists who serve as a microcosm for this rampant epidemic that Washington has turned a blind eye to for three decades. J’Mia Edwards, who got infected by a boyfriend who knew he was HIV+ and didn’t tell her, is a single mother of three doing everything she can to keep her family from becoming homeless, but the red tape suffocates her at every step. Ron Daniels, who got infected from a reused needle, is a recovering addict who every day hands out medical supplies, AIDS tests, and love and hope from a van on the street. Jose Ramirez, who contracted AIDS from his much older lover, shares his story with young Latino immigrants in schools and at La Clinica del Pueblo while also handing out condoms in places where gay men go to have unprotected sex. Koch also visits the Courage to Change Group, former prisoners with HIV/AIDS who meet regularly for emotional support, and Joseph’s House, where HIV/AIDS victims such as Jimmy go to die in peace, surrounded by loved ones and dedicated caregivers. Among those adding their opinions are New York Times columnist Frank Rich, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, playwright and activist Larry Kramer, and journalist and documentary coproducer/writer Jose Antonio Vargas, whose reporting in the Washington Post inspired Koch to make the film. The Other City is a devastating look at a horrific crisis going on right under the noses of those who can do the most to do something about it. In honor of African American HIV Awareness Day, The Other City will be having a special screening at the Maysles Institute on February 7 as part of the Get Down Campaign’s No More Stigma Film Series, a self-described “bi-monthly series on sex, sexual identity, and sexual health awareness” curated by Kim J. Ford; there will be a cocktail reception at 6:30 hosted by Richard E. Pellzer II and Ulysses Williams, followed by the film at 7:30.

TWI-NY TALK: KATHRYN KOLBERT & MELISSA SILVERSTEIN

ATHENA FILM FESTIVAL
Barnard College
117th St. & Broadway
February 7-10, $12 per screening, $65 all access pass ($20 for students)
www.athenafilmfestival.com

The third annual Athena Film Festival returns to Barnard College this week, consisting of four days that celebrate women and leadership with film screenings, workshops, panel discussions, and other special events. Created by Kathryn “Kitty” Kolbert, director of the Athena Center for Studies at Barnard, and Melissa Silverstein, founder of Women and Hollywood, the festival runs February 7-10, presenting such shorts, features, and documentaries, primarily by and about women, as Sara Lamm and Mary Wigmore’s Birth Story: Ina May Gaskin and the Farm Midwives, which examines birthing methods from the 1970s to the present; Cecilia Peck’s Brave Miss World, about a former Miss World fighting for victims of physical and sexual abuse; Margarethe von Trotta’s Hannah Arendt, a biopic about the highly influential political philosopher and writer; and Bonnie McFarlane’s Women Aren’t Funny, in which stand-up comedian McFarlane and her comedian husband, Rich Vos, explore the world of women in comedy. Most of the screenings will be followed by Q&As with the filmmakers, subjects, and experts in the field, including Fishman, Peck, McFarlane, Fran Drescher, and many others. Among the free, ticketed talks are “A Hollywood Conversation with Gale Anne Hurd,” honoring this year’s winner of the Laura Ziskin Lifetime Achievement Award, and “In Her Voice: Women Directors Talk Directing,” with directors Gini Reticker, Agnieszka Vosloo, Aviva Kempner, Courtney Hunt, Jodie Markell, and Emily Abt. This year’s Athena Award winners are director and distributor Ava DuVernay, film critic Molly Haskell, Film Society of Lincoln Center executive director Rose Kuo, and Paley Center for Media president and CEO Pat Mitchell. Kolbert and Silverstein recently discussed the festival and its growing impact via e-mail.

Kitty Kolbert and Melissa Silverstein (below right) are cofounders of the Athena Film Festival

Kitty Kolbert (above) and Melissa Silverstein (below) are cofounders of the Athena Film Festival

twi-ny: The third annual Athena Film Festival begins on February 7. What did you learn from the first two years, and how has that affected this year’s event?

KK & MS: We learned that there was a real hunger for a conversation about women’s leadership and that film is a wonderful media to jump-start that conversation. We learned how important it is for women and girls to have role models and also for men to see women leading in a wide variety of circumstances. We also learned that talking about women’s leadership should not be like taking medicine, so we look for movies that get the point across with humor and with inspiration.

twi-ny: What has been the general reaction of the film industry to the festival? Do you see the overall attitude toward women, in all aspects of the business, changing, or is it still an old (white) boys network?

KK & MS: There are women working at all levels of the business, but most of the top leaders and decision makers continue to be men. Amy Pascal [of Sony] is still the only female studio chief. It’s changing but very slowly.

twi-ny: Melissa, a few weeks ago you wrote on “Women and Hollywood” about the sexist treatment of Kathryn Bigelow in the media over various Zero Dark Thirty controversies, explaining that it “smells like shit.” It’s one thing to help develop more woman writers, editors, directors, actors, producers, techs, etc., but what can be done about the media’s role in all of this?

MS: One of the things we need to do is to keep talking about these issues. Kathryn Bigelow is a unique situation, and her experience lends to a much-needed conversation about the status of women directors in Hollywood. When there is only one woman and she gets treated the way she does people notice.

meliss silverstein

twi-ny: This year’s Laura Ziskin Lifetime Achievement Award is going to Gale Anne Hurd. Are women like Ms. Hurd and the late Ms. Ziskin anomalies in the film world, or do you see a new generation of such talented women on the horizon?

KK & MS: Producing is one of the places where you see amazing women making movies at all levels of the business. Gale Anne is one of the best, and she has had an amazingly prolific career making films that break stereotypes. She’s at the top of her class and other producers both male and female should learn from her, especially how she has been able to transition between TV and film because that is vital nowadays.

twi-ny: Kitty, along those lines, do you envision a time when leadership programs for women, such as the Athena Center, will be unnecessary?

KK: We have a very long way to go. In the U.S., women are leaders in only 18-22% of most industries. Among Fortune 500 companies and in Hollywood it is much less. And of course it varies considerably across the globe. I certainly believe that there will be plenty of work ahead for the next several generations.

twi-ny: What are some of the films at this year’s festival that you’re most looking forward to?

KK & MS: We have a particularly strong lineup this year. We are so unique because we have films that have wide distribution, such as Beasts of the Southern Wild and Brave, to films that many people would not be able to see. We hope your readers will come spend the weekend with us.