NYU Skirball Center
566 La Guardia Pl.
Monday, December 14, $20, 7:30
212-352-3101
www.skirballcenter.nyu.edu
www.livinginemergency.com
www.ncm.com/fathom
Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders has teamed up with NCM Fathom to present a special one-night-only program at NYU’s Skirball Center that will be broadcast live via satellite across the country. The evening begins with a screening of the documentary LIVING IN EMERGENCY: STORIES OF DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS (Mark Hopkins, 2009), which tells the story of four volunteer doctors battling the odds in trying to bring free medical care to dangerous areas in Liberia and Democratic Republic of Congo. The documentary, which had its world premiere earlier this year at the Venice Film Festival, will be followed by a panel discussion featuring Sebastian Junger, Dr. Tom Krueger, Sophie Delaunay, and Dr. Chris Brasher, moderated by Elizabeth Vargas, talking about the many issues involved in the international health crisis. MSF, which has just returned to Afghanistan after five years, describes itself as “an international, independent, medical humanitarian organisation that delivers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, healthcare exclusion and natural or man-made disasters.” It should all make for quite a serious, important night; if you can’t get to the Skirball, the event will be broadcast at seventeen area theaters, including in Westchester, Long Island, the Bronx, New Jersey, and Queens.
Sure, to some people holiday movies mean IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE, MIRACLE ON 34th STREET, and A CHRISTMAS CAROL, but for us it’s the one and only HEBREW HAMMER. Adam Goldberg (SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, A BEAUTIFUL MIND) stars in this riotous low-budget laugh-fest that is as hysterically politically incorrect as possible. Goldberg is Mordechai Jefferson Carver, a “circumcised dick” who is hired by the Jewish Justice League, headed by Bloomenbergensteinthal (Peter Coyote), to save Chanukah, which Damian Claus (Andy Dick), Santa’s evil spawn, wants to destroy forever. The Semitic Stud gets help from Mohammad Ali Paula Abdul Rahim (Mario Van Peebles), head of the Kwanzaa Liberation Front, and Bloomenbergensteinthal’s sexy daughter, Esther (Judy Greer), who is a “nice piece of tuchus.” This is one funny self-described Jewxploitation flick that will bring knowing chuckles and guffaws to anyone who has ever attended Hebrew school or has an overbearing mother.
When local official Tange Tanzen (Raizo Ichikawa) comes upon a battle between two schools of sword fighting, including his own, he chooses not to get involved as rogue samurai Yasubei Nakayama (Shintaro Katsu) displays his discipline’s superiority by killing several members of Tange’s school. After Tange is expelled from his school for turning his back on his brothers, Yasubei is expelled from his as well as an act of honor and enmity. Soon the two ronin are helping each other while also falling in love with the same woman, Chiharu (Chitose Maki). But blood and betrayal await them as they set off on new paths that continue to cross. Inspired by the classic story of the 47 Ronin, SAMURAI VENDETTA is an entertaining period piece despite its overt cheesiness, especially the fight scenes shot on a bridge with a ridiculously fake sunset in the background. Although there’s not nearly enough sword play – there are long periods of sentimental melodrama – the finale in the snow is a doozy. The screening will be followed by a reception and book signing with Chris D., author of OUTLAW MASTERS OF JAPANESE FILM.
Over the last decade, writer-director Michael Almereyda (NADJA, HAMLET, THIS SO-CALLED DISASTER) has traveled around the world, bringing with him a handheld digital-video camera, capturing brief moments of unscripted real life of friends, family, and strangers. He has organized these small vignettes into forty-four segments divided into four somewhat thematic sections, coming together as a beautiful whole in PARADISE, an enticing visual poem that had a one-week run at MoMA this past September and now will be screened at the Maysles Institute on December 12, followed by a Q&A with Almereyda and curator Livia Bloom. The film opens with a long shot inside a stunningly blue airport passageway over music by DJ Spooky, welcoming viewers into Almereyda’s travels. He then turns his camera on a succession of children experiencing everyday life in different parts of the globe, including one charming boy who falls into a little pool to the delight of those around him. Each part — ranging from a few seconds to a few minutes — is linked either thematically or visually, including a series of shots involving fire, sparks, and a burning red sunset. Using natural sound and light, Almereyda allows each moment to exist in real time on its own, with no narration and no identifying tags, a sort of abstract meditation on the simple things than can serve as personal paradises.
In 1985, the Cure released a song called “Inbetween Days” that included the line “And I know I was wrong / when I said it was true / that it couldn’t be me and be her / inbetween without you.” On the flip side of the single, “The Exploding Boy,” Robert Smith sang, “I knew if I turned / I’d turn away from you / and I couldn’t look back.” In 2006, South Korean native So Yong Kim made IN BETWEEN DAYS, the tender story of Aimee (Jiseon Kim), a young Korean immigrant on the cusp of her burgeoning sexuality who spends most of her time with her best friend, Tran (Taegu Andy Kang), who is ready for more as well. But as Tran starts hanging out with more Americanized Korean girls, Aimee seems unwilling and unready to share her true feelings, complicating their relationship. IN BETWEEN DAYS is a gentle, touching coming-of-age film that So Yong Kim made with her husband, Bradley Rust Gray, who served as producer, cowriter, 16mm cinematographer, camera assistant, and editing supervisor. Three years later, Gray made what he calls the flip side to IN BETWEEN DAYS, the gentle, touching coming-of-age drama THE EXPLODING GIRL, with Kim serving as one of the film’s producers and editing it with her husband. In THE EXPLODING GIRL, Zoe Kazan stars as Ivy, a young woman who comes home from college break ready to spend time with her best friend, Al (Mark Rendall). While Ivy attempts to see her new boyfriend, Greg, her relationship with Al threatens to unravel as she is unwilling to face her real feelings. Both films are beautifully paced slices of life shot in a cinema verité style that adds to their believability and charm.
