Multiple locations
Most events free
Through April 21
www.nyc.gov/immigrants
The seventh annual Immigrant Heritage Week continues through April 21 with numerous, mostly free events across the city. Art exhibitions include “Our Heritage Through Fashion: A Showcase of NYC’s Russian-Speaking Designers” at the Russian American Foundation, “Photographs of the Mexican Immigrant Community of Staten Island” at Snug Harbor, “Art Without Borders” at El Taller Latino Americano, “Immigrant Women United in Art” at Centro Civico Cultural Dominicano, “Impractical Hats: Indie Crafts Reinvent Everyday Gear” at the Bronx Council on the Arts, “LibertyNeighborhoodStory” at the A.I.R. Gallery, “Immigrant Trail Painting” at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum, and a photo exhibit of “Non-Native New Yorkers” at the Statue of Liberty. On April 20 at 6:00 at the International Center in New York, a group of Tibetan immigrants will discuss their work in “Ancient Art in a Modern City,” while on April 21 at 6:00, the Greek Museum will host “In Search of the American Dream: The Greeks of New York.” Also on Wednesday, “Voices of Liberty” at the Museum of Jewish Heritage invites visitors to share their own personal stories. In addition, there will be family programs at several branches of the New York Public Library.
At NYU’s King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center, the Havana Film Festival will feature New York and U.S. premieres (April 19-20), DCTV will present the Oscar-nominated documentary THE BETRAYAL (April 19), and the Turkish Cultural Center will celebrate “New York Sufi Night with Rumi” through film, performance, and poetry readings (April 20). There will also be film screenings and/or theatrical productions at the YMCA, the Maysles Cinema, the Alwan Foundation, and the CUNY Graduate Center and live dance and/or music at Michael Mao Dance, the American Composers Orchestra’s Langston Hughes Branch, and the Djoniba Dance and Drum Centre as well as a host of walking tours.
Iranian writer-director Bahman Ghobadi (A TIME FOR DRUNKEN HORSES) goes underground in NO ONE KNOWS ABOUT PERSIAN CATS, following the plight of Negar (Negar Shaghaghi) and Ashkan (Ashkan Koshanejad) as they attempt to put together an indie band for a gig in London. Inspired by their dedication—and always out to make a buck himself—fast-talking wheeler-dealer Nadar (Hamed Behdad) takes them to get illegal passports, then introduces them to a series of bands who play in secretive underground spaces where the government and the police don’t bother them, even though it is against the law to play Western-style music. Their quest for musicians leads them to such real groups as Take It Easy Hospital and the Yellow Dogs, who regularly risk their freedom and safety by playing to excited young fans desperate to hear live, modern music. Ghobadi throws in just about every genre imaginable, from heavy metal and punk to classic rock and jazz in a stirring musical journey, turning each song into a video depicting everyday life in Tehran. The film does lapse into overheated and unnecessary heavy-handed melodrama in its final scenes, but it’s still a compelling story of the intrinsic power of music and the desperate need to make connections.
In 1999, L.A.-based French shopkeeper and amateur videographer Thierry Guetta discovered that he was related to street artist Invader and began filming his cousin putting up his tile works. Guetta, who did not know much about art, soon found himself immersed in the underground graffiti scene. On adventures with such famed street artists as Shepard Fairey, Swoon, Ron English, and Borf, Guetta took thousands of hours of much-sought-after video. The amateur videographer was determined to meet Banksy, the anarchic satirist who has been confounding authorities around the world with his striking, politically sensitive works perpetrated right under their noses, from England to New Orleans to the West Bank. Guetta finally gets his wish and begins filming the seemingly unfilmable as Banksy, whose identity has been a source of controversy for more than a decade, allows Guetta to follow him on the streets and invites him into his studio. But as he states at the beginning of his brilliant documentary, EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP, Banksy—who hides his face from the camera in new interviews and blurs it in older footage—turns the tables on Guetta, making him the subject of this wildly entertaining film.
“Mariko Okada: The Discreet Charm of the Adulteress,” the final section of the Japan Society’s three-part “Mad, Bad . . . & Dangerous to Know: Three Untamed Beauties” film series, begins on April 13 with a screening of Yoshishige Yoshida’s fifth collaboration with Okada and continues on April 14 with the fascinating erotic tale THE AFFAIR. In the latter, also known as FLAMES OF LOVE, Okada stars as Oriko, an unhappily married woman who wants a divorce from her cheating husband, Furuhata (Tadahiko Sugano). In a flashback, she shows her displeasure with her widowed mother (Yoshie Minami), who is carrying on a heated affair with young sculptor Mitsuhuru (Isao Kimura); in the current day, she seeks out the Noguchi-like artist to find out about his relationship with her now-dead mother but learns a lot more than she expected. Meanwhile, Furuhata’s sister, Yokio (Shigako Shimegi), tries to get the traditional, old-fashioned Oriko out of the house and partying with her three male friends, who smoke cigarettes, drink beer, and break out in sudden groovy dances at the spur of the moment. But when Oriko—who still wears kimonos and worries about what is considered proper in a society that is changing drastically all around her—spies on Yokio having hot, casual sex with a common worker (KILL!’s Etsushi Takahashi in his film debut), her own hidden sexuality is awakened. Yoshida, who trained at Shochiku under Nagisa Oshima (CREUL STORY OF YOUTH, IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES), incorporates Bergmanesque touches with a Nouvelle Vague sensibility and more than a hint of Teshigahara (WOMAN IN THE DUNES) in this strikingly visual, highly stylized tale, including sweeping, dreamlike flashbacks, gorgeous long shots, and a haunting theme of duality evident in his use of mirrors and windows, light and dark. “Mad, Bad . . . & Dangerous to Know” concludes on April 18 with Yoshida’s WOMAN OF THE LAKE (ONNA NO MIZUUMI) and Yasuzo Masumura’s highly charged TWO WIVES (TSUMA FUTARI), which has never before been screened outside of Japan.
