this week in lectures, signings, panel discussions, workshops, and Q&As

THE SEVENTH ART STAND: THIS IS NOT A FILM

Even house arrest and potential imprisonment cannot stop Iranian auteur Jafar Panahi from telling cinematic stories

THIS IS NOT A FILM (IN FILM NIST) (Jafar Panahi & Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, 2011)
Film Society of Lincoln Center
Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center Amphitheater
144 West 65th St. between Eighth & Amsterdam Aves.
Thursday, May 18, free, 7:30
212-875-5050
www.seventhartstand.com
www.filmlinc.org

“You call this a film?” Jafar Panahi asks rhetorically about halfway through the revealing documentary This Is Not a Film. After several arrests beginning in July 2009 for supporting the opposition party, the highly influential and respected Iranian filmmaker (Crimson Gold, Offside) was convicted in December 2010 for “assembly and colluding with the intention to commit crimes against the country’s national security and propaganda against the Islamic Republic.” Although facing a six-year prison sentence and twenty-year ban on making or writing any kind of movie, Panahi is a born storyteller, so he can’t stop himself, no matter the risks. Under house arrest, Panahi has his friend, fellow director Mojtaba Mirtahmasb (Lady of the Roses), film him with a handheld DV camera over ten days as Panahi plans out his next movie, speaks with his lawyer, lets his pet iguana climb over him, and is asked to watch a neighbor’s dog, taking viewers “behind the scenes of Iranian filmmakers not making films.” Panahi even pulls out his iPhone to take additional video, photographing New Year’s fireworks that sound suspiciously like a military attack. Panahi is calm throughout, never panicking (although he clearly does not want to take care of the barking dog) and not complaining about his situation, which becomes especially poignant as he watches news reports on the earthquake and tsunami disaster in Japan.

“But you can’t make a film now anyhow, can you?” Mirtahmasb — who will later be arrested and imprisoned as well — asks at one point. “So what I can’t make a film?” Panahi responds. “That means I ask you to take a film of me? Do you think it will turn into some major work of art?” This Is Not a Film, which was smuggled out of Iran in a USB drive hidden in a birthday cake so it could be shown at Cannes, is indeed a major work of art, an important document of government repression of free speech as well as a fascinating examination of one man’s intense dedication to his art and the creative process. Shortlisted for the Best Documentary Academy Award, This Is Not a Film is screening for free on May 18 at 7:30, followed by a talk, in the amphitheater at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center as part of the Seventh Art Stand, an initiative that refers to itself as “an act of cinematic solidarity against Islamophobia.” The Seventh Art Stand, which shows films in more than four dozen theaters, universities, and community centers across the United States to promote discussion about political issues involving Muslims, will also be presenting films May 11-15 from Sudan, Somalia, Syria, Iran, Iraq, and Yemen at Anthology Film Archives.

LIBERTÉ, EGALITÉ, FANTASY: FRENCH POLITICS ON FILM — INTERNS NIGHT AT FIAF: STRUGGLE FOR LIFE

Marc Châtaigne (Vincent Macaigne) battle the law of the jungle in Struggle for Life

CinéSalon: STRUGGLE FOR LIFE (LA LOI DE LA JUNGLE) (Antonin Peretjatko, 2016)
French Institute Alliance Française, Florence Gould Hall
55 East 59th St. between Madison & Park Aves.
Tuesday, May 9, $14, 4:00 & 7:30 ($3 for interns at 7:30 with code INSIDE)
Series continues Tuesday nights through May 30
212-355-6100
www.fiaf.org

“Vines . . . are like internships,” Ulrich (Pascal Tagnati) tells Marc Châtaigne (Vincent Macaigne) in Antonin Peretjatko’s madcap colonialist farce, Struggle for Life. “Don’t drop one till you got another.” Nothing ever goes right for middle-aged schlemiel Châtaigne, who has been assigned by Rosio (Jean-Luc Bideau) of the Ministry of Standards to oversee the construction of an indoor ski resort in the jungles of Guiana; Guia-Snow, Rosio explains, will show South America that France can export a coveted resource, cold weather. Châtaigne’s contact in Guiana is lunatic bureaucrat Galgaric (Mathieu Amalric), who assigns him a driver named Tarzan (Vimala Pons), a grown woman who is interning with the Department of Forestry and Water and is in charge of renovating gardens. Soon Châtaigne and Tarzan are lost in the jungle, encountering a variety of oddballs, including Christian Duplex (Pascal Légitimus), Georges (Thomas De Pourquery), and Damien (Rodolphe Pauly), each of whom is somehow involved in either tearing down or saving the Amazon. Meanwhile, Châtaigne is being hunted by strange and skillful tax minister Maître Friquelin (Fred Tousch). They also meet up with dangerous insects and animals, cannibals, and parking meters. Jerry Lewis’s The Patsy meets Woody Allen’s Bananas in this hit-or-miss satire of French colonialism and government programs, in which interns are given a tremendous amount of power and responsibility, with director-cowriter Peretjatko (La Fille du 14 juillet) leaving no sight gag unturned. Yes, a lot of them are just plain stupid, but a whole bunch are just plain funny as well.

Struggle for Life is screening on May 8 at 4:00 and 7:30 in the FIAF CinéSalon series “Liberté, Egalité, Fantasy: French Politics on Film”; both shows will be followed by a wine and beer reception. And in a nod to interns here in New York City, all current interns pay only three dollars (with the code INSIDE) for the 7:30 show, which will be introduced by journalist and WQXR host Annie Bergen and feature such prizes as an intern survival kit consisting of pastries, wine, a massage, and more. “Liberté, Egalité, Fantasy: French Politics on Film” continues Tuesdays through May 30 with Alain Cavalier’s Pater, Costa-Gavras’s Special Section, and Benoît Forgeard’s Gaz de France.

QUEER / ART / FILM — SUMMER OF RESISTANCE: THE BLACK POWER MIXTAPE 1967-1975

Angela Davis speaks out about the Black Power movement in compelling documentary that kicks off IFC Center Summer of Resistance series

THE BLACK POWER MIXTAPE 1967-1975 (Göran Hugo Olsson, 2011)
IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at Third St.
Monday, May 8, 8:00
212-924-7771
www.ifccenter.com
www.blackpowermixtape.com

From 1967 to 1975, a group of more than two dozen Swedish journalists came to America to document the civil rights movement. More than thirty years later, director and cinematographer Göran Hugo Olsson discovered hours and hours of unused 16mm footage — the material was turned into a program shown only once in Sweden and seen nowhere else — and developed it into The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975, a remarkable visual and aural collage that focuses on the Black Panthers and the Black Power movement, a critical part of American history that has been swept under the rug. Olsson and Hanna Lejonqvist have seamlessly edited together startlingly intimate footage of such seminal figures as Eldridge Cleaver, Bobby Seale, Huey P. Newton, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Stokely Carmichael, including a wonderfully personal scene in which Carmichael interviews his mother on her couch. But the star of the film is the controversial political activist Angela Davis, who allowed the journalists remarkable access, particularly in a jailhouse interview shot in color. (Most of the footage is in black-and-white.) Davis also adds contemporary audio commentary, sharing poignant insight about that tumultuous period, along with Abiodun Oyewole of the Last Poets, singer Erykah Badu, professor, poet, and playwright Sonia Sanchez, Roots drummer Ahmir Questlove Thompson (who also composed the film’s score with Om’Mas Keith), and rapper Talib Kweli, who discusses specific scenes in the film with a thoughtful grace and intelligence. The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 is an extraordinary look back at a crucial moment in time that has long been misunderstood, if not completely forgotten, and has taken on new relevance with the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. The film kicks off the IFC Center series “Queer/Art/Film: Summer of Resistance” on May 8 at 8:00 and will be followed by a discussion with fierce pussy, the New York City-based queer women artists collective. The monthly series, in which activists and political collectives select films to screen and discuss, continues on June 26 with Deborah Esquenazi’s Salem: the Story of the San Antonio Four, chosen by F2L, July 24 with Susana Aikin and Carlos Aparicio’s The Salt Mines & The Transformation, with Bianey Garcia, and August 14 with Niazi Mostafa’s A Glass and a Cigarette, with Tarab NYC.

AMY GOODMAN’S DEMOCRACY NOW! COVERING THE MOVEMENTS CHANGING AMERICA

Amy Goodman will be at McNally Jackson on May 9 to discuss Democracy Now! and more

Who: Amy Goodman, David Goodman
What: Author talk and signing
Where: McNally Jackson Books, 52 Prince St., 212-274-1160
When: Tuesday, May 9, free, 9:00
Why: For more than two decades, Democracy Now! cohost and executive producer Amy Goodman has been fighting the good fight, providing award-winning independent journalism that refuses to take the easy way out. Goodman is currently on a national speaking tour that brings her back to her New York City base in conjunction with the release of the paperback edition of Democracy Now! Twenty Years Covering the Movements Changing America (Simon & Schuster, April 2017, $16). In the introduction, Goodman describes how it all started: “Giving voice to the grassroots. When the 1996 election wrapped up, with President Clinton easily reelected, we thought that Democracy Now! would wrap up as well. But there was more demand for the show after the elections than before. Why? There is a hunger for authentic voices — not the same handful of pundits on the network shows who know so little about so much, explaining the world to us and getting it so wrong.” The book features such chapters as “The War and Peace Report,” “The Whistleblowers,” “The Rise of the 99 Percent,” “Climate Justice,” and “The LGBTQ Revolution,” which should give people an idea of what will be discussed when Goodman appears at McNally Jackson on May 9 at 9:00, introduced by her brother and one of her cowriters, David Goodman. (The other cowriter is Denis Moynihan.) On May 12, Goodman will be at 1199 SEIU to receive the 2017 Communicator of the Year Award from the Metro NY Labor Communications Council, introduced by her Democracy Now! cohost, Juan González; the event is open to the public (12 noon, $10-$35).

JULIAN SCHNABEL: A PRIVATE PORTRAIT

Documentary paints private portrait of superstar artist and filmmaker Julian Schnabel

JULIAN SCHNABEL: A PRIVATE PORTRAIT (Pappi Corsicato, 2017)
Quad Cinema
34 West 13th St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Opens Friday, May 5
212-255-2243
www.quadcinema.com
cohenmedia.net

It’s very possible that superstar artist Julian Schnabel is one of the greatest guys in the world, beloved by friends, family, colleagues, and anyone else who comes into contact with him. I met him once briefly and he was very funny and charming. In Italian writer-director Pappi Corsicato’s Julian Schnabel: A Private Portrait, praise upon praise is heaped on Schnabel, a marvelously talented painter, sculptor, and filmmaker, with nary a glib or less-than-glowing word anywhere to be seen or heard. A longtime friend of Schnabel’s, Corsicato followed the artist for two years and was given full access to his personal archives, resulting in a bevy of fab footage and home movies and photos, from Schnabel as a baby to his surfing days to his family life with his kids and grandchildren. Daughters Lola and Stella rave about him, as do sons Vito, Cy, and Olmo, sister Andrea Fassler, friend Carol McFadden, and ex-wives Jacqueline Beaurang Schnabel and Olatz Schnabel. Also glorying in all things Julian are actors Willem Dafoe, Al Pacino, Mathieu Amalric, and Emmanuelle Seigner, artist Jeff Koons, musicians Bono and Laurie Anderson, gallerist Mary Boone, art collector Peter Brant, French novelist and screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière, and the late writer-director Héctor Babenco, who all gush about Schnabel’s ingenuity. (Dick Cavett, Takashi Murakami, Christopher Walken, and Francesco Clemente did not make the final cut.)

Of course, Schnabel is an extraordinary artist with wide-ranging interests; Corsicato explores such Schnabel films as Basquiat, Before Night Falls, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, and Berlin as well as such exhibitions as 1988’s “Reconocimientos: Pinturas del Carmen (The Recognitions Paintings: El Carmen),” retrospectives at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía and the Brant Foundation, and a pair of 2014 shows in São Paulo. The film goes back and forth between Montauk and Manhattan, where Schnabel lives and works, including an extended look at his pink Palazzo Chupi in the West Village. Watching Schnabel paint on his large canvases or using broken plates (often in his pajamas) and set up the exhibitions are the best parts of the film, although he never does quite delve into specifics about the artistic choices he makes. The rest of the film is a sugary love letter that he himself contributes to; although he gave full control to Corsicato, who has previously made video documentaries about Koons, Richard Serra, Robert Rauschenberg, Anish Kapoor, Gilbert & George, and others, it is telling that Schnabel is credited as an executive producer. In the end, Julian Schnabel: A Private Portrait feels like a vanity project, lacking any kind of cinematic tension or narrative conflict; it’s the type of movie one might show at an intimate celebration, not on screens to strangers. So even if Schnabel is an all-around terrific, creative human being, that doesn’t mean a film about his life is entertaining and illuminating, at least not in this case. Julian Schnabel: A Private Portrait opens May 5 at the Quad, with Corsicato participating in a Q&A at the 8:10 show Friday night.

CHOCOLATE FEST 2017

Plenty of chocolate will be on the menu at annual Chocolate Fest at the 92nd St. Y

92nd St. Y, Buttenwieser Hall
1395 Lexington Ave. at 92nd St.
Sunday, May 7, $35, 7:00
www.92y.org

Since September 2005, culinary historian Alexandra Leaf has been running Chocolate Tours of NYC, but on May 7 she will be keeping her adventures inside in one place, at the 92nd St. Y, for the annual Chocolate Fest. The evening will include tastings of all things chocolate from around the world, alongside cheese and choc-tails. Among the offerings are freshly made chocolate from Amazona Cocoa, Chocolate Fashionista couture-on-a-stick from Drizzle, exotic selections from Joys of Chocolate’s Adrienne Hensen, Aztec hot chocolate from MarieBelle, ganache-in-a-glass from Truffle Shots, the first New York City public tasting of Selva Maya from Bonnat, Pralina di Cavour from DeMartini Cioccolato, handmade toffee from Laurie and Sons, and peanut butter cups from Tumbador. There will also be samplings from Conexión Chocolate, the Atlantic Confectionery Company, Chocolat Moderne and Lucy’s Whey, Liddabit Sweets, Marie Brizard, Penny Lick Ice Cream, Raaka Chocolate, and serendipiTea and appearances by Megan Giller and Rabbi Deborah Prinz. The Chocolate Show continues on hiatus, so this is the next best thing.

BROOKLYN MUSEUM FIRST SATURDAY: BANG ON A CAN MARATHON

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, May 6, free, 5:00 – 11:00
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

The May edition of the free First Saturday program at the Brooklyn Museum focuses on the Bang on a Can All-Stars, the innovative new-music ensemble that held its first marathon concert in 1987. On May 6, the group will be at the Brooklyn Museum for its thirtieth anniversary, performing from 2:00 to 10:00. (Suggested admission is $16 before 5:00 and free after.) “Thirty years ago we started dreaming of the world we wanted to live in,” founding members David Lang, Michael Gordon, and Julia Wolfe said in a statement. “It would be a kind of utopia for music: all the boundaries between composers would come down, all the boundaries between genres would come down, all the boundaries between musicians and audience would come down. Then we started trying to build it. Building a utopia is a political act – it pushes people to change. It is also an act of resistance to the things that keep us apart.” In addition to the marathon, there will be pop-up teen apprentice gallery discussions in “Life, Death, and Transformation in the Americas”; a Found Sound Nation interactive workshop in which you can record in the Mobile Street Studio; David Parker’s Turing Tests, a Brooklyn Dance Festival presentation featuring dancers from the Bang Group, with a score by Dean Rosenthal; a hands-on art workshop in which participants can make their own musical instrument and then join the Orchestra of Original Instruments in the Biergarten, with Bang on a Can All-Star guitarist and instrument designer Mark Stewart; and pop-up poetry and conga drumming curated by Jaime Lee Lewis, with Jennifer Falu, Hadaiyah Bey, Ahlaam Abduljalil, and Jamie Falu. In addition, you can check out such exhibits as “Iggy Pop Life Class by Jeremy Deller,” “Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty,” “Infinite Blue,” “A Woman’s Afterlife: Gender Transformation in Ancient Egypt,” “We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–85,” and, at a discounted admission price of $12, “Georgia O’Keefe: Living Modern.”