this week in film and television

CASABLANCABOX

CASABLANCABOX takes a unique view of the making of a Hollywood favorite (photo by Benjamin Heller)

HERE
145 Sixth Ave. at Dominick St.
Wednesday – Sunday through April 29, $30-$45
212-647-0202
www.here.org

Since 2008, creator, director, and designer Reid Farrington has been staging wildly inventive multimedia re-creations of movies using a unique combination of live action and original footage. His past presentations include The Passion Project, based on Carl Theodor Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc, Gin & “It,” which went behind the scenes of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope, and A Christmas Carol, which brought together dozens of adaptations of the Charles Dickens classic. Farrington and his wife, Sara, have now turned their attention to the making of one of the greatest films in Hollywood history, Michael Curtiz’s Casablanca. In the 1942 movie, Humphrey Bogart stars as Rick Blaine, an American nightclub owner in Casablanca who encounters a former lover, Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman), who is in town to meet with her husband, resistance fighter Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid), seeking letters of transit that would allow them to escape the Nazis. Written by Sara Farrington and directed by Reid Farrington, who also designed the sets and the video, CasablancaBox takes the audience in front of and behind the camera, as the actors portray the characters in the film as well as the actors playing that character, and the film is “made” before our eyes. Thus, Roger Casey plays Bogart and Rick, Catherine Gowl plays Bergman and Ilsa, and Matt McGloin portrays Henreid and Laszlo. The proceedings are intricately choreographed by Laura K. Nicoll (who was Joan in The Passion Project), as actors carry flat wooden scrims of varying sizes on which clips from Casablanca are projected; behind them, the actors either mouth the parts, so film dialogue is heard, or they speak the lines, with the film sound turned off. (Travis Wright is the sound engineer, while the black-and-white lighting design is by Laura Mroczkowski.) The Farringtons use backstage discussions to lead into the final dialogue, particularly when Peter Lorre (Rob Hille), who plays the sleazy Ugarte, is worried when he is given new lines (“I won’t be fired. I’m the only actor in Hollywood who can make murderers into lovable little teddy bears,” he convinces himself) and when Henreid’s real life as an escapee of the Nazis affects his performance in several takes of a critical scene.

Light and shadow play a key role in Reid and Sara Farrington’s behind-the-scenes exploration of CASABLANCA (photo by Benjamin Heller)

Meanwhile, director Curtiz (Kevin R. Free) barks orders and gets a massage, a pair of Eastern European refugees (Gabriel Diego Hernandez and McGloin) argue about being extras and playing Nazis merely as background atmosphere, Bogart’s wife, actress Mayo Methot (Erin Treadway), stalks the set, and the four screenwriters — Lenore Coffee (Lynn Guerra), Philip Epstein (Adam Patterson), Howard Koch (Kyle Stockburger), and Julius Epstein (Jon Swain) — argue over key plot points. Trying to hold it all together is Irene (Stephanie Regina), who serves as a kind of stage manager as well as the announcer. (The real stage manager, Alex B. West, deserves kudos as well.) The show also tackles censorship issues, shares an anecdote about Errol Flynn and horses, and delves into how no one knew how the film was going to end. The cast also includes Zac Hoogendyk as Claude Rains and Captain Renault, Patterson as Conrad Veidt and Major Strasser, Stockburger as Sydney Greenstreet and Signor Ferrari, Toussaint Jeanlouis as Dooley Wilson and Sam, and Hoogendyk as Bergman’s husband, Peter Lindstrom, and her lover, Roberto Rosselini. Not all of the behind-the-scenes detail is completely factual, and a few scenes grow repetitive, but the Farringtons accomplish their stated goal to “tell the beautiful, chaotic, and sometimes accidental story of a work of artistic genius.” Inspired by the cinematic style of Robert Altman and what the Farringtons refer to as “theatricalizing the camera,” CasablancaBox is also surprisingly relevant, given the current refugee crisis and the spread of hate crimes around the world. But mostly it’s a lot of fun, a creative look at an American classic.

MAURIZIO CATTELAN: BE RIGHT BACK

MAURIZIO CATTELAN: BE RIGHT BACK explores career of controversial Italian artist and provocateur

MAURIZIO CATTELAN: BE RIGHT BACK (Maura Axelrod, 2016)
Quad Cinema
34 West 13th St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Opens Friday, April 14
212-255-2243
www.quadcinema.com
www.mauriziocattelanfilm.com

Italian artist and prankster extraordinaire Maurizio Cattelan has built his wildly successful career out of controversy, provocation, and mystery, taking on the very art world that has made him a superstar. Documentarian Maura Axelrod includes the same elements in her vastly entertaining film, Maurizio Cattelan: Be Right Back. The title refers to both the beginning of Cattelan’s career, a Milan solo show in which he locked the gallery door and hung a sign on it that said “Torno Subito” (Be Right Back) as well as what might or might not be the end, as he announced his retirement following the brilliant 2011 retrospective at the Guggenheim, “All,” in which he hung all of his works from the Guggenheim ceiling, as if signaling their death. “His career is based on anecdotes and lies and imaginary stories,” Milan gallerist Massimo De Carlo says in the film. “Some people are suspicious that Maurizio is pulling the wool over their eyes and he is some kind of flamboyant artistic con man,” adds art historian Sarah Thornton. “I think he’s probably one of the greatest artists that we have today, but he could also be the worst. It’s gonna be one or the other; it’s not gonna fall in the middle,” cracks one of his collectors. Axelrod also speaks with former Guggenheim artistic director Nancy Spector, former Public Art Fund director Tom Eccles, Cattelan archive director Victoria Armutt, Guggenheim curator Katherine Brinson, gallerists Marian Goodman and Emmanuel Perrotin, art critics Calvin Tomkins and Dodie Kazanjian, and Cattelan’s sister, Giada, former fiancée Victoria Cabello, and current girlfriend Victoria Yee Howe. They share stories about Cattelan’s working methods and proclivities, delving into such pieces as “Daddy Daddy,” a facedown Pinocchio in a pool of water that was inspired by Cattelan’s childhood; “La Nona Ora” (The Ninth Hour), a lifelike sculpture of the pope knocked down by a meteorite; “Another Fucking Readymade,” in which he stole the inventory of another artist’s show and claimed them as his own; “Him,” a rendering of a kneeling child who turns out to be Adolf Hitler; and “L.O.V.E.” (Libertà, Odio, Vendetta, Eternità), a marble sculpture of a giant middle finger in Milan’s financial district. He even staged his own pseudo–Caribbean Biennial, featuring such artists as Wolfgang Tillmans, Elizabeth Peyton, Gabriel Orozco, Pipilotti Rist, Chris Ofili, and Mariko Mori gathered together on the island of St. Kitts. (The critics were not amused.)

“Daddy Daddy” holds one of the keys to the mystery that is Maurizio Cattelan

Meanwhile, the artist speaks profusely on camera, sharing such insights as “I knew what was expected of me and I decided I was going to be something else” and “I’ve always been very good at faking things.” Indeed, about two-thirds of the way through the film, there is a fabulous twist that only art-world insiders are likely to have guessed, as Axelrod takes a page from Orson Welles’s magical F for Fake. Writer, producer, and director Axelrod incorporates home movies, family photographs, playful animation, and new and old footage to try to figure out just what makes Cattelan tick, what he’s really like, but she lets viewers in only so far, like his tiny elevator installation in which no one can fit. Among the many words used to describe the iconoclastic artist and his oeuvre are “tasteless,” “profound,” “funny,” “tragic,” “disrespectful,” “vulnerable,” and “uncanny beauty,” as people also point out that he is anxious, very demanding to live and work with, and, while seeing art as commodity, uses the vanity of collectors against themselves. Of course, all of those are true, in one way or another. His art can be as thrilling as it is offensive, as silly as it is prescient as he explores such themes as failure, alienation, mortality, and personal identity. “You need to go pretty far, otherwise the piece doesn’t exist,” he says. “You need to push your friends and enemies and collaborators further, and you have to be uncomfortable about it. The further you go, the more satisfaction is created by the level of discomfort in which all the participants were put.” The last section of the film details “All,” which a clearly uncomfortable Spector had her doubts about but insisted that “the risk had to be real,” worrying that it would cause the Guggenheim to collapse within itself but they had to proceed. And as far as Cattelan’s retirement is concerned, this past September he installed “America” at the Guggenheim, an eighteen-karat-gold fully functional toilet, the first new piece he has exhibited since “All.” Maurizio Cattelan: Be Right Back opens April 14 at the newly renovated Quad Cinema, with Axelrod participating in Q&As on April 14 (with Spector and New Museum artistic director Massimiliano Gioni) and April 15 at 7:45 and April 16 at 5:30.

MY ENTIRE HIGH SCHOOL SINKING INTO THE SEA

Students have to fight for their future in Dash Shaw’s MY ENTIRE HIGH SCHOOL SINKING INTO THE SEA

MY ENTIRE HIGH SCHOOL SINKING INTO THE SEA (Dash Shaw, 2016)
Metrograph
7 Ludlow St. between Canal & Hester Sts.
Opens April 14
212-660-0312
metrograph.com
www.gkids.com

Daria and Scooby-Doo meet The Poseidon Adventure and Titanic in graphic novelist Dash Shaw’s first full-length feature animation, the awkwardly titled, awkwardly plotted, yet awkwardly entertaining My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea. In the somewhat semiautobiographical tale, Dash (voiced by Jason Schwartzman) runs the school newsletter with his best friend, Assaf (Reggie Watts); the two consider themselves investigative journalists, even if no one reads their stories. Dash is further frustrated when Assaf shows an interest in Verti (Maya Rudolph), who has different ideas for the newsletter. After publicly embarrassing Assaf, a stunt that disappoints the relatively cool Principal Grimm (Thomas Jay Ryan), Dash discovers that the high school’s new roof, which is under construction, is not up to code. Just as he starts telling everyone that, the school begins breaking apart and falling into the ocean. Dash soon finds himself with Assaf, lunch lady Lorraine (Susan Sarandon), and his archenemy, Mary (Lena Dunham), as they try to stay above water and survive the maelstrom that is swirling all around them. In order to make it, they’ll have to go from the freshman floor, the lowest one, up through the sophomore, junior, and senior floors to potential safety, a clever way of having them grow up fast. But their journey is a gory one as they encounter plenty of dead students and teachers along with lots of body parts.

Survival is the name of the game in animated disaster epic set in high school

Shaw (Cosplayers, Bottomless Belly Buttons) wrote and directed the film, with his partner, Jane Samborski, serving as lead animator, creating much of the DIY-style art in his Brooklyn kitchen; the two previously collaborated on the online series The Unclothed Man in the 35th Century A.D., based on Shaw’s 2009 graphic novel. The cartoon style is all over the place, from sketchy and purposely amateurish to hallucinogenic and surreal, incorporating images of real fire and water; at times it looks like the film is being projected by the iconic 1960s psychedelic Joshua Light Show. (In fact, one of the other animators was Curtis Godino, who has worked with JLS and founder Joshua White; Frank Santoro also contributed to the film.) A cool elevator sequence pays homage to early German animator Lotte Reiniger. The narrative contains ginormous plot holes; try to suspend disbelief and just let the tongue-in-cheek madness play out onscreen. Shaw and Samborski do a good job of capturing the general angst and ennui of high school life, although it does become repetitive during the too-long seventy-seven-minute running time. And a direct reference to Shaw’s publisher is completely gratuitous. The film also features the voices of Alex Karpovsky as slacker Drake, John Cameron Mitchell as jock Brent Daniels, and Louisa Krause as popular girl Gretchen, with music by Rani Sharone of the band Stolen Babes and the haunting solo project Thrillsville. A selection of the New York Film Festival, My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea opens April 14 at Metrograph, with Q&As with Shaw, Samborski, and producer Kyle Martin at the 7:00 shows April 14-16. (The April 14 Q&A will be moderated by Mitchell.)

JOHN WATERS: MAKE TROUBLE

Tuesday, April 11, Barnes & Noble Union Square, 33 East 17th St., 212-253-0810, free, 7:00
Thursday, April 13, Alamo Drafthouse Downtown Brooklyn, 445 Albee Square West, 718-513-2547, 8:00
www.maketrouble.com

On May 30, 2015, filmmaker, writer, artist, and provocateur John Waters, aka the People’s Pervert and the Prince of Puke, gave the commencement speech at the Rhode Island School of Design, offering his unique advice about life after college, telling the graduating students, “Go out in the world and fuck it up beautifully.” That talk has now been adapted into the eighty-page book Make Trouble (Algonquin, April 11, $14.95), featuring line drawings by Eric Hanson. On April 11, Waters, who has made such films as Hairspray, Female Trouble, and Pink Flamingos, will be at the Union Square Barnes & Noble for a conversation with Christopher Bollen, editor at large at Interview magazine and author of Lightning People and Orient. After the conversation, Waters will sign copies of Make Trouble and just about anything else fans bring, and he will pose for photos as well. Wristbands will be given out beginning at 9:00 that morning to people who have purchased the new book at that B&N. Then, on Thursday, April 13, Waters will head to the Alamo Drafthouse in downtown Brooklyn for a screening of his 1970 cult classic, Multiple Maniacs, preceded by a Q&A with Waters; a copy of Make Trouble comes with every ticket.

BEYOND GODZILLA: ALTERNATIVE FUTURES & FANTASIES IN JAPANESE CINEMA

Gamera marches into Japan Society for conclusion of “Beyond Godzilla” film series

GLOBUS FILM SERIES
Japan Society
333 East 47th St. at First Ave.
Saturday, April 8, $13, 4:00 & 7:00
212-715-1258
www.japansociety.org

Japan Society’s three-weekend, seven-film “Beyond Godzilla: Alternative Futures & Fantasies in Japanese Cinema” Globus Film Series concludes on Saturday, April 8, with two more tokusatsu kaiju eiga (special-effects-heavy monster movies) that are not about that fire-breathing superstar of postwar madness. At 4:00, Kihachi Okamoto (Sword of Doom, Japan’s Longest Day) goes sci-fi with 1978’s socially conscious Blue Christmas, as UFOs land on earth and have an unusual plan. Then, at 7:00, Gamera, who first trashed cities in 1965, returns in the third film in Shusuke Kaneko’s 1990s reboot, Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris, involving a cool cat and special effects by Shinji Higuchi (Shin Godzilla). “Ever since Ishiro Honda’s 1954 Godzilla first rampaged across screens around the world, its title monster has become both Japan’s best-known pop culture export and a universal symbol of mass destruction. But Godzilla has also cast a long, scaly shadow obscuring Japan’s other live-action contributions to the sci-fi/fantasy genre,” guest curator Mark Schilling says in a program note in which he also explains, “I curated a section of classic sci-fi and fantasy films sourced from Toho and elsewhere to show that the Japanese cinematic imagination extended beyond Godzilla in ways entertainingly rich and strange.” The series previously screened such cult classics as The H-Man, Invisible Man, and Latitude Zero (with Joseph Cotten!). On April 28, “Godzilla Legend — Music of Akira Ifukube” will feature Hikashu and guest musicians such as Charan-Po-Rantan performing works by Akira Ifukube, who composed scores for tons of films, including Godzilla, The Burmese Harp, Rodan, 13 Assassins, Frankenstein Conquers the World, King Kong Escapes, and Zatoichi the Fugitive, which Japan Society is showing April 7 in its Monthly Classics series.

TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL 2017 SPECIAL EVENTS

TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL
Multiple locations
April 20-30, free – $365 (most events $23.88 – $43.45)
tribecafilm.com/festival

Tickets are still available for most of the special screenings, talks, and live performances at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival, taking place at such locations as the BMCC Tribeca PAC, the SVA Theatre, the Beacon, Regal Cinemas Battery Park, Radio City, the Town Hall, Cinépolis Chelsea, and the Festival Hub at Spring Studios. The guest list is pretty impressive, including Dustin Hoffman, Barbra Streisand, Philip Glass, Common, Scarlett Johansson, Michael Moore, Kathryn Bigelow, Johnny Lydon, Lena Dunham, Kobe Bryant, Aretha Franklin, Errol Morris, Faith Evans, Zac Posen, Lil’ Kim, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Julian Schnabel, a Flock of Seagulls, Christopher Plummer, Taj Mahal, Jennifer Hudson, Quentin Tarantino, and Bruce Springsteen with Tom Hanks (which is sold out), among many others. Oh, and how about this gathering, celebrating the forty-fifth anniversary of The Godfather: Francis Ford Coppola, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, and Robert De Niro.

Wednesday, April 19
Gala — Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of Our Lives (Chris Perkel, 2017), followed by live performances by Aretha Franklin, Jennifer Hudson, Earth Wind & Fire, Barry Manilow, Carly Simon, and Dionne Warwick, Radio City Music Hall, $56-$281, 7:00

Thursday, April 20
After the Movie: Bowling for Columbine (Michael Moore, 2002), followed by fifteenth anniversary conversation with Michael Moore and others, SVA Theatre 2 Beatrice, $23.88, 7:00

Retrospective Special Screenings: La Belle et la Bête (Jean Cocteau, 1942), with live musical accompaniment by members of the Philip Glass Ensemble, preceded by a conversation with Philip Glass and Errol Morris, Town Hall, $55-$85, 8:00

Friday, April 21
Tribeca Talks: Directors Series — Jon Favreau with Scarlett Johansson, SVA Theatre 1 Silas, rush, 5:00

Special Screenings: The Public Image Is Rotten (Tabbert Fiiller, 2017), followed by a conversation with director Tabbert Fiiller and John Lydon, Tribeca Festival Hub, sixth floor, $23.88, 8:45

Saturday, April 22
Shorts: Blues Planet: Triptych (Wyland, 2017), with live performance by Taj Mahal and the Wyland Blues Planet Band, Tribeca Festival Hub, sixth floor, $23.88, 2:00

Tribeca Talks: Directors Series — Alejandro González Iñárritu, SVA Theatre 1 Silas, rush, 2:30

Special Screenings: The Third Industrial Revolution (Eddy Moretti, 2017), followed by a conversation with director Eddy Moretti and Jeremy Rifkin, Tribeca Festival Hub, sixth floor, limited, 5:00

Special Screenings: House of Z (Sandy Chronopoulos, 2017), followed by a conversation with director Sandy Chronopoulos and film subject Zac Posen, SVA Theatre 1 Silas, $43.45, 8:00

Tribeca Talks: Virtual Reality — Kathryn Bigelow & Imraan Ismail: The Protectors: A Walk in the Ranger’s Shoes, screening and conversation with Kathryn Bigelow and Imraan Ismail, Tribeca Festival Hub, sixth floor, $43.45, 8:15

After the Movie: Awake, a Dream from Standing Rock (2017), followed by a conversation with filmmakers Josh Fox, James Spione, and Myron Dewey and special guests, Cinépolis Chelsea 7, rush, 8:30

Nelson George will team up with Common for a screening, discussion, and live performance at Tribeca on April 23

Sunday, April 23
Tribeca Talks: Master Class — Dolby: Image and Sound Master Class with Imogen Heap, Dolby Cinema at AMC Empire 2, free, 12 noon

Tribeca Talks: Storytellers — Kobe Bryant and Glen Keane with Michael Strahan, BMCC Tribeca PAC, $43.45, 4:30

Tribeca Talks: Podcasts — Live from the Tribeca Film Festival: Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Colossal Podcast!, with Gilbert Gottfried and Frank Santopadre, Regal Cinemas Battery Park 11-4, $43.45, 5:30

Tribeca Talks: Storytellers — Common with Nelson George, screening of Letter to the Free, followed by a conversation with Nelson George and a live performance by Common, Tribeca Festival Hub, sixth floor, $43.45, 8:00

Monday, April 24
Tribeca Talks: Directors Series — Noah Baumbach with Dustin Hoffman, BMCC Tribeca PAC, $43.45, 6:00

Tuesday, April 25
Tribeca Talks: Storytellers — Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner, Tribeca Festival Hub, sixth floor, $43.45, 6:00

Tribeca Talks: Directors Series — Paul Feig, BMCC Tribeca PAC, $43.45, 6:00

Special Screenings: Paris Can Wait (Eleanor Coppola, 2016), followed by French food pairings inspired by the film, BMCC Tribeca PAC, $43.45, 8:00

Pen pals Barbra Streisand and Robert Rodriguez will join together in conversation at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 29

Wednesday, April 26
Special Screenings: The Exception (David Leveaux, 2017), followed by a conversation with director David Leveaux and actor Christopher Plummer, BMCC Tribeca PAC, $23.88, 6:00

Special Screenings: From the Ashes (Michael Bonfiglio, 2017), introduced by Michael Bloomberg and followed by a discussion with director Michael Bonfiglio and special guests, Tribeca Festival Hub, sixth floor, rush, 6:00

Thursday, April 27
Gala — Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: The Bad Boy Story (Daniel Kaufman, 2017), followed by a live concert featuring Combs and Mase, Lil’ Kim, and Faith Evans, Beacon, $71-$356, 8:00

Special Screenings — Warning: This Drug May Kill You (Perri Peltz, 2017), followed by a conversation with Dr. Nora Volkow, Dr. Andrew Kolodny, film subject Gail Cole, and producer Sascha Weiss, moderated by director Perri Peltz, SVA Theatre 2 Beatrice, $23.88, 8:45

Friday, April 28
Tribeca Talks: Storytellers — Bruce Springsteen with Tom Hanks, Beacon Theatre, 5:00

After the Movie: Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino, 1992), followed by twenty-fifth anniversary conversation with Quentin Tarantino and members of the cast, Beacon Theatre, $71-$356, 8:00

Special Screenings — Julian Schnabel: A Private Portrait (Pappi Corsicato, 2017), followed by a a conversation with director Pappi Corsicato and Julian Schnabel, SVA Theatre 1 Silas, $43.45, 8:30

The forty-fifth anniversary of THE GODFATHER will be celebrated at Radio City as part of the Tribeca Film Festival, with James Caan, Francis Ford Coppola, Al Pacino, and others

Saturday, April 29
Before the Movie: Aladdin (Ron Clements & John Musker, 1992), twenty-fifth anniversary, preceded by a live performance by Aladdin singing voice Brad Kane, BMCC Tribeca PAC, free, 10:00 am

After the Movie: The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972) and The Godfather Part II (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974), followed by a forty-fifth anniversary conversation with Francis Ford Coppola, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, and Robert De Niro, moderated by Taylor Hackford, Radio City Music Hall, $46-$131, 1:00

Tribeca Talks: Master Class — Production and Costume Design, with Kristi Zea, SVA Theatre 2 Beatrice, free, 3:00

Tribeca Talks: Storytellers — Barbra Streisand with Robert Rodriguez, BMCC Tribeca PAC, $43.45, 6:00

Tribeca N.O.W. Special Screenings — Out of This World: Female Filmmakers in Genre, screening and conversation with filmmakers Nicole Delaney, Vera Miao, and Arkasha Stevenson, Cinépolis Chelsea 7, $23.88, 6:00

After the Movie — Chris Gethard: Career Suicide (Kimberly Senior, 2017), followed by a conversation with Chris Gethard and fellow comedians Pete Holmes, Abbi Jacobson, and others, SVA Theatre 1 Silas, $23.88, 8:15

Sunday, April 30
Tribeca Talks: Master Class — Cinematography, with Ellen Kuras, SVA Theatre 2 Beatrice, free, 4:00 PM

Special Screenings: Dare to Be Different (Ellen Goldfarb, 2017), followed by live tribute to WLIR with a Flock of Seagulls, Dave Wakeling of the English Beat, and the Alarm, Tribeca Festival Hub, sixth floor, rush, 6:00

Tribeca N.O.W. Special Screenings: The New York Times’ Op-Docs (2017), followed by a conversation with filmmakers Andrea Meller, Megan Mylan, Marisa Pearl, and Gina Pollack, SVA Theatre 2 Beatrice, $23.88, 6:15

Tribeca Talks: Podcasts — Live from the Tribeca Film Festival: Slate’s Trumpcast, with Jamelle Bouie and Virginia Heffernan, hosted by Jacob Weisberg, SVA Theatre 1 Silas, $43.45, 8:15

POLK AWARDS: HOOLIGAN SPARROW

Hooligan Sparrow risks her freedom and her life for protesting for women’s rights in China

HOOLIGAN SPARROW (Nanfu Wang, 2016)
BAMcinématek, BAM Rose Cinemas
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
Wednesday, April 5, $14, 7:30
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
hooligansparrow.com

The 2016 Human Rights Watch Film Festival kicked off last year with Nanfu Wang’s alarming debut feature documentary, Hooligan Sparrow, for which she won the annual Nestor Almendros Award for courage in filmmaking. On April 5, it will have a special screening and Q&A at BAM in honor of its latest accolade, the George Polk Documentary Film Award, an annual presentation from LIU. The film is a brave, disquieting look at Chinese activist Ye Haiyan, better known as Hooligan Sparrow, an advocate for sex workers’ rights, as she leads protests against a school principal who sexually abused six elementary school girls. “If you film us, we’ll smash your camera,” a man tells Wang at the beginning. Later she’s told she will be beaten if she doesn’t hand over her equipment. But she’s determined to keep telling the story any way she can. Sparrow, who gained notoriety for a project in which she offered free sex to migrant workers, is joined by Shan Lihua, Tang Jitian, Jia Lingmin, Wang Yu, and lawyer Wang Jianfen as she battles law enforcement, the government, and brothel owners, her safety and freedom in constant jeopardy. “If I believe something is right and I’m obliged to do it, they can’t stop me by arresting me or even killing me,” she defiantly says. She and her daughter, Lan Yaxin, keep getting evicted from their homes and banned from numerous provinces, but that doesn’t prevent her from protesting with such signs as “All China’s Women’s Federation Is a Farce. China’s Women’s Rights Are Dead” and “You Can Kill Me, But You Can’t Kill the Truth.” Born and raised in a remote Chinese farming village and currently based in New York City, Wang, who directed, produced, photographed, and edited Hooligan Sparrow, never backs down even as she meets with Chinese officials and is followed everywhere she goes, forced to become suspicious of nearly everyone she encounters. “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you,” Joseph Heller wrote in Catch-22. Wang clearly has reason to be paranoid.

The film is executive produced by Andy Cohen and Alison Klayman, who collaborated on the award-winning documentary Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry; the Chinese artist and activist, who had been under long-term house arrest, took up Hooligan’s cause, and he included her belongings in an installation in his 2014 Brooklyn Museum retrospective, “According to What?” Wang, who has three master’s degrees, cowrote the film with Mark Monroe, who wrote the Oscar-nominated documentary The Cove and numerous Sundance winners. Hooligan Sparrow also features a subtly ominous score by Nathan Halpern and Chris Ruggiero that helps keep you on the edge of your seat as Hooligan and her group continue to fight the power, despite each of them being detained and imprisoned at one point or another — and some still are. Hooligan Sparrow is being shown April 5 at 7:30 at BAM, followed by a Q&A with the Brooklyn-based Wang and Polk Awards screening committee co-chair Richard Pearce. “Hooligan Sparrow is a remarkable and courageous work,” Polk Awards curator John Darnton said in a statement. “In filming it, in the face of intimidation by undercover security thugs, Ms. Wang herself turns into a dissident. She begins somewhat nervously, even timidly, and then becomes emboldened before our very eyes, employing wily devices like hidden-camera glasses and secret audio to get the documentation she needs.” The Polk Awards are named for CBS correspondent George Polk, who was brutally murdered while covering the Greek civil war in 1948; last year’s George Polk Documentary Film Award went to Matthew Heineman’s Oscar-nominated Cartel Land.