American premiere of Nikos Karathanos’s The Birds is a highlight of Greek arts festival in New York (photo by Kiki Papadopoulou)
St. Anns Warehouse, Metrograph, New-York Historical Society, Brooklyn Museum
Through June 16
onassisusa.org
In a classic Odd Couple episode, Oscar and Felix finally get on the same wavelength while on the game show Password when Oscar gives the clue “Aristophanes” and Felix responds, “Ridiculous!” However, there’s nothing particularly ridiculous about “Birds: A Festival Inspired by Aristophanes,” more than a month of film screenings, art exhibitions, panel discussions, a theatrical adaptation of Aristophanes’s The Birds, and more, produced by the Onassis Cultural Center New York and taking place at numerous locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn. “Democracy was under threat when Aristophanes presented his comedy The Birds as part of the Dionysia festival in Athens in the fifth century BC,” explains festival curator Violaine Huisman in a program note, continuing, “Oligarchy was jeopardizing Athenian democracy, while war and constant legal battles raised havoc among citizens. The festival itself offered a chance for the people of Athens to congregate and revel in equal parts, to address state affairs and be entertained — all together.” Sound familiar? The timing is certainly impeccable. The centerpiece of this third annual Onassis Festival begins tonight with the American premiere of Nikos Karathanos’s inventive adaptation of The Birds, presented by St. Ann’s Warehouse and the Onassis Cultural Centre–Athens. The play runs May 2-13 and is accompanied by the free audio and visual lobby and garden exhibit “Nature of Justice: On the Birds.” There will also be events at the Brooklyn Museum, Metrograph on the Lower East Side, and the New-York Historical Society. Actually, looking at some of the photos from the production of The Birds, it does have a “ridiculous” quality to it, but in a good way. απολαμβάνω!
Wednesday, May 2
through
Sunday, May 13
The Birds, American premiere of Nikos Karathanos’s adaptation of the Aristophanes comedy, in Greek with English supertitles, St. Ann’s Warehouse, Brooklyn Bridge Park, $46-$66
Thursday, May 3
through
Sunday, May 13
“Nature of Justice: On the Birds,” multimedia exhibition, curated by Mari Spirito, with works by Machine Dazzle, Louise Lawler, Sofia Stevi, and Theo Triantafyllidis in conjunction with Nikos Karathanos’s adaptation of The Birds, St. Ann’s Warehouse garden and lobby, Brooklyn Bridge Park, free
Saturday, May 5
Pigeon Toes: Bird Walks, led by Paul Sweet of the American Museum of Natural History, Jane’s Carousel, Empire Fulton Ferry State Park, 1 Water St., free with advance registration, 8:00, 11:30, and 3:30 for adults, 10:00 and 2:00 for children six to twelve with adults
Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds is part of Greek festival inspired by Aristophanes
Monday, May 7
“Nature of Justice: A Visual Arts Response to The Birds,” panel discussion and audience Q&A with artist Andreas Angelidakis, independent curator Reem Fadda, and Brooklyn Museum director Anne Pasternak, moderated by Onassis Foundation director of culture Afroditi Panagiotakou, free with advance RSVP, 7:00
Thursday, May 10
“Voices on: Post-Show Artist Talk,” with director Nikos Karathanos and members of the cast, moderated by St. Ann’s Warehouse artistic director Susan Feldman, St. Ann’s Warehouse, free with show ticket, 9:30
Saturday, May 12
Meet the Fledglings, family-friendly programs by the Wild Bird Fund in conjunction with the exhibition “Feathers: Fashion and the Fight for Wildlife,” for ages five and up, New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, museum admission plus $5 per child, 2:00 – 4:00
Friday, May 18
through
Sunday, May 20
“Birds,” screenings of films relating to birds, including Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (Jim Jarmusch, 1999), The King and the Mockingbird (Paul Grimault, 1980), Brewster McCloud (Robert Altman, 1970), and The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock, 1963), Metrograph, 7 Ludlow St., $15
Sunday, May 19
Birdheart, by Julian Crouch and Saskia Lane, family-friendly show with puppets, free with museum admission but advance RSVP required, 4:00
Wednesday, May 23
“Talk: David Levine,” performative lecture in conjunction with the opening of the exhibition “David Levine: Some of the People, All of the Time,” Brooklyn Museum, free with advance RSVP, 7:00
Saturday, June 16
Cool Culture Family Festival, with arts & crafts, storytelling, scavenger hunts, concert by Shine & the Moonbeams, and more, Brooklyn Museum, free with museum admission, 12 noon – 4:00 pm
Tamer El Said’s extraordinary debut feature, In the Last Days of the City, is an elegiac love letter to his deeply troubled hometown, Cairo, as well as a treatise on the responsibilities filmmakers have to their art and to society as a whole. Almost ten years in the making, the film was shot between 2008 and 2010, finishing shortly before the Arab Spring uprising in January 2011 in Tahrir Square, and was not completed and screened until 2016, when it started winning prizes at festivals around the world. It finally receives its New York theatrical release at the Museum of the Modern Art, running April 27 through May 3, where El Said will take part in a postscreening conversation on opening night at 7:00; in addition, on April 30 at 7:00, MoMA’s “Modern Mondays” series will present 
The behind-the-scenes story of the making of Duck Butter, having its final world premiere screening at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 26 before opening at the Village East the next day, turns out to be better than the film itself. That doesn’t mean there isn’t lots to appreciate about the too-intimate drama, which chronicles the ups and downs, fears and desires of two women experiencing a full relationship in a twenty-four-hour period. Director Miguel Arteta (Beatriz at Dinner, Chuck & Buck) and actress Alia Shawkat (State of Grace, Arrested Development) initially wrote a script about an eighteen-month relationship between a man and a woman that featured a twenty-four-hour period in which they get to know each other by having sex once every sixty minutes. One friend advised that they instead make the movie just about the twenty-four hours, so they began looking for a male actor to star opposite Shawkat. After coming up empty, they decided that Laia Costa (Bandolera, Victoria), who had already been cast in a smaller role, was right for the part. They stripped the script down to its bare essentials, allowing the two actresses to improvise most of their dialogue as the main section of the film was claustrophobically photographed by Hillary Spera in about twenty-seven hours, giving it a cinéma vérité feel. 
Don’t be scared off by the title of House Two; it’s not a sequel to a horror film you didn’t see. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t downright frightening. On November 19, 2005, the Haditha Massacre took place, in which a small unit of U.S. Marines shot and killed two dozen Iraqis, including women and children, in a bedroom in a location identified as “House Two.” The Marines were searching for those responsible for setting off an IED nearby. The next year, following a Time magazine story about the incident, Oscar-nominated, Emmy-winning director Michael Epstein decided to make a film about the trial of Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich, who was charged with eighteen counts of murder. In order to get as much behind-the-scenes information as possible without having to surrender it to the court or the military, Epstein actually became an official part of Wuterich’s defense team, gaining full access to its strategy and all those involved, beginning with Wuterich himself. In exchange, the legal team agreed that Epstein would have ownership of all footage he shot and that he could use it in any way he saw fit; thus, he had complete control over the documentary, and the legal team would even indemnify him for any resulting libel claims from them or Wuterich. What Epstein found out about the case is utterly shattering, a widespread conspiracy to cover up the incident — which recalled the 1968 My Lai Massacre in Vietnam — with a shocking revelation of who was ultimately in charge of the whitewashing.
