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

STRANGER THAN FICTION: THE LOVING STORY

The illegal interracial marriage of Mildred and Richard Jeter and their fight for justice is at center of powerful documentary

THE LOVING STORY (Nancy Buirski, 2011)
IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at West Third St.
Tuesday, February 14, 7:00
212-924-7771
www.ifccenter.com
www.lovingfilm.com

On June 2, 1958, Richard Loving and Mildred Jeter got married in Washington, DC. Shortly after returning to their Virginia home, Loving, a white man, and Jeter, a black and Native American woman, were arrested and imprisoned by the local sheriff, facing prison sentences because interracial marriage was illegal in their home state. Banished from Virginia, they spent nine years fighting in the courts, and their remarkable tale is now being told in the 2012 Oscar shortlisted documentary The Loving Story. First-time director Nancy Buirski, who founded the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, and editor Elisabeth Haviland James weave together never-before-seen archival footage shot by photojournalist Grey Villet, old news reports and interviews, and family home movies with new interviews with the Loving children and lawyers Bernard S. Cohen and Philip J. Hirschkop, who were ready to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary. One of the many fascinating aspects of the film is that Richard and Mildred had no desire to be trailblazers fighting miscegenation laws; they were just a man and a woman who had fallen in love at first sight and wanted to live happily ever after, in a community that fully accepted their situation. They of course have the perfect last name, because The Loving Story is a story of love and romance as much as it is about an outdated legal system, bigotry, and white supremacy. And it is more relevant than ever, given the new administration that has just taken office. Told in a procedural, chronological format, The Loving Story is also absolutely infuriating, since this all happened not very long ago at all, with many of the protagonists and antagonists still alive — and race still being such a central issue in America. An HBO production that won a prestigious Peabody Award, The Loving Story is having a special Valentine’s Day screening at IFC Center as part of the “Stranger Than Fiction” documentary series and will be followed by a Q&A with Buirski, who is likely to also discuss Jeff Nichols’s Loving, the fictionalized retelling with Joel Edgerton as Richard and an Oscar-nominated Ruth Negga as Mildred that was based on her movie. The STF series continues Tuesday nights through March 28 with such other nonfiction films as David Farrier and Dylan Reeve’s Tickled, Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky’s Brother’s Keeper, and Amanda Micheli’s Vegas Baby.

A MAN OF GOOD HOPE

A MAN OF GOOD HOPE looks at the life of a Somalian refugee through music and dance (photo by Keith Pattison)

BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
February 15-19, $24-$80
718-636-4100
www.bam.org

Cape Town’s Isango Ensemble specializes in adapting Western works with a South African sensibility; since 2000, director Mark Dornford-May and music director Pauline Malefane have presented such classics as A Christmas Carol, The Magic Flute, La bohème, and Aesop’s Fables. The troupe has now teamed up with the Young Vic for A Man of Good Hope, based on Jonny Steinberg’s book about Asad, a young man who becomes a refugee because of the civil war in Mogadishu in the early 1990s. “I felt a whim rising. A man who can break a twig and take me with him to another world, I thought, is a man about whom I ought to write a book,” Steinberg explains in a program note about meeting Asad. The protagonist is played by Ayanda Tikolo, Siposethu Juta, Phielo Makitle, Zoleka Mpotsha, and Luvo Tamba at different stages of his life. Directed by May, with musical direction by Malefane and Mandisi Dyantyis, movement by Lungelo Ngamlana, and lighting by Mannie Manim, the show features music and dance built around the marimba. A Man of Good Hope runs February 15-19; on February 18 at 5:30 ($20), Ethiopian American writer Dinaw Mengestu will join Steinberg and Iranian American writer and moderator Roya Hakakian for the PEN America panel discussion “Reflecting on the Refugee Crisis” at BAM Fisher’s Fishman Space.

MARTHA GRAHAM DANCE COMPANY AT THE JOYCE

Anne Souder and Lloyd Mayor perform in Martha Graham’s “Dark Meadow Suite.” (photo by Hibbard Nash Photography)

Anne Souder and Lloyd Mayor perform in Martha Graham’s “Dark Meadow Suite,” which will be part of two-week season at the Joyce this month (photo by Hibbard Nash Photography)

The Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Ave. at 19th St.
February 14-26, $10-$60
212-691-9740
www.joyce.org
marthagraham.org

The Martha Graham Company will explore various aspects of magical thinking in three separate programs in its winter season at the Joyce, taking place February 14-26. Program A consists of a world premiere by Annie-B Parson, inspired by Graham’s Punch and the Judy and with text by playwright Will Eno, and Pontus Lidberg’s Woodland, both of which were created for the company, and Graham’s Dark Meadow Suite and Maple Leaf Rag. Program B comprises a new work by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui dealing with Sufi mysticism, Nacho Duarte’s Rust, and Graham’s Primitive Mysteries and Diversion of Angels. Program C features the new Parson and Cherkaoui works in addition to Graham’s Clytemnestra Act II and Maple Leaf Rag. There will be an All-City Panorama University Partners Showcase on February 18 at 2:00, with Graham classics Helios, Panorama, Plain of Prayer, Prelude to Action, and Steps in the Street performed by high school and college dancers from around the country, and the February 22 show will be followed by a Curtain Chat. The company, which began life as the Martha Graham Studio in 1926, is currently made up of dancers So Young An, PeiJu Chien-Pott, Laurel Dalley Smith, Abdiel Jacobsen, Lloyd Knight, Charlotte Landreau, Jacob Larsen, Lloyd Mayor, Ari Mayzick, Marzia Memoli, Anne O’Donnell, Lorenzo Pagano, Ben Schultz, Anne Souder, Leslie Andrea Williams, Konstantina Xintara, and Xin Ying, under the artistic direction of former principal dancer Janet Eilber.

COMEDY ON FILM: WHAT MAKES THE FRENCH LAUGH? APNÉE

Céline (Céline Fuhrer), Thomas (Thomas Scimeca), and Maxence (Maxence Tual) take a bath together in riotously silly anarchic French farce

CINÉSALON: APNÉE (Jean-Christophe Meurisse, 2016)
French Institute Alliance Française, Florence Gould Hall
55 East 59th St. between Madison & Park Aves.
Tuesday, February 14, $13, 4:00 & 7:30
Series continues Tuesdays through February 21
212-355-6100
fiaf.org

FIAF’s “Comedy on Film: What Makes the French Laugh?” series continues on Valentine’s Day with Jean-Christophe Meurisses’s Apnée, a riotous, ludicrous, hysterical, and often cringeworthy absurdist fable about an anarchic trio of friends/lovers who flit about France doing anything they want, unaware of the consequences of their actions. Céline (Céline Fuhrer), Thomas (Thomas Scimeca), and Maxence (Maxence Tual) are all id, no ego and superego, as they live in their own reality, separate from the rest of what is considered conventional society. Wearing wedding dresses, they try to get married; seeking to relax, they take a bath together in a storefront window; in search of a family, they storm in on an older, empty nest couple. Indeed, they are like three children who don’t know any better, who haven’t reached basic levels of adulthood, but at their core, they just want to be happy, and what’s wrong with that? Writer-director Meurisses’s feature debut, which was nominated for Best First Film at the Cannes Film Festival (the Golden Camera) and the Lumière Awards as well as the Queer Palm, is extremely silly, essentially a series of crazy vignettes, some that work a whole lot better than others, with lovely cinematography by Javier Ruiz Gomez, from Céline, Thomas, and Maxence (well, body doubles, anyway) ice skating naked while wearing Mexican wrestler masks to the three of them dressed in white in a rowboat on a beautiful lake. Apnée — the title refers to both sleep apnea as well as the French phrase “la plongée en apnée,” or “free-diving” — is screening February 14 at 4:00 and 7:30 in Florence Gould Hall, with the later show introduced by actor Edward Akrout; both screenings will be followed by a party and prize drawing. “Comedy on Film: What Makes the French Laugh?” concludes February 21 with Quentin Dupieux’s Reality, with writer and photographer Calypso introducing the 7:30 show.

TICKET ALERT — AGNÈS VARDA: VISUAL ARTIST

French legend Agnès Varda will discuss her life and career as a visual artist at FIAF

French Institute Alliance Française, Florence Gould Hall
55 East 59th St. between Madison & Park Aves.
Tuesday, February 28, $30, 7:30
Series continues Tuesday nights through March 21
212-355-6100
fiaf.org

Over the years, FIAF has shown many films by Nouvelle Vague master Agnès Varda, the celebrated auteur behind such classics as Vagabond, Cléo from 5 to 7, The Gleaners and I, Jacquot de Nantes, and The Beaches of Agnès. Now the French Institute Alliance Française is bringing Varda herself to Florence Gould Hall for the special talk “Agnès Varda: Visual Artist,” taking place on February 28 at 7:30, moderated by art dealer Olivier Renaud-Clément. The Belgium-born, France-based Varda, who was married to Jacques Demy for nearly thirty years, will be focusing not only on her film career but her upcoming gallery show at Blum & Poe, which runs March 2 to April 15. The discussion also kicks off FIAF’s CinéSalon series “Agnès Varda: Life as Art,” which consists of Varda’s Daguerréotypes on March 7, with the 7:30 screening followed by a talk with Varda and curator Laurence Kardish, Jacqot de Nantes on March 14, and Lola on March 21. This is a very special chance to see the remarkable eighty-eight-year-old Varda, so get your tickets now.

ARTISTIC UPRISING: A CALL FOR REVOLUTIONARY LOVE

artisticuprising-vday

Who: Ryan Amador, Donna Auston, BETTY, R. Emery Bright, Great Caesar, Staceyann Chin, Kate Clinton, Julissa Contreras, Michael Cunningham, Lea DeLaria, Eve Ensler, Laura Flanders, Dan Fogler, Alixa Garcia, Suzanne Gardinier, Valarie Kaur, James Lecesne, Amy León, Mickey Love, Ian Pai, Mack Royal, Ally Sheedy, Casey Spooner, Elizabeth Streb, New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer, Thenmozhi Soundararajan, Imani Uzuri, more
What: V-Day protest gathering as part of annual One Billion Rising campaign
Where: Washington Square Arch, north side of Washington Square Park at Fifth Ave.
When: Tuesday, February 14, free, 6:00 – 9:00
Why: On Valentine’s Day, you can join the solidarity movement to end the exploitation of women at what is expected to be a huge gathering in Washington Square Park led by V-Day, the nonprofit organization cofounded by Eve Ensler. On February 14 from 6:00 to 9:00, a group of activists and artists will lead “a day of revolutionary love & resistance,” continuing the protests that included the Women’s March on Washington on January 21 and the airport protests against the Muslim ban. According to its Facebook page, “The event is being called in a response to the current racist, misogynist, xenophobic political climate where the rights of women, refugees, immigrants, Muslims, LGBTQIAGNC people, African Americans, the indigenous, and the poor are at serious risk.” There will be performances and speeches by writers, actors, musicians, dancers, and others, and audience members will get a chance to take the stage too and let loose as part of Where We Meet’s Ranting Box. The protest will take place on Valentine’s Day in two hundred countries around the world, so people can feel the love around the globe as they rise up, disrupt, incite, mobilize, arouse, awaken, inspire, resist, connect, and come together “to hold our governments and other patriarchal institutions accountable.”

SPEED SISTERS

SPEED SISTERS follows first all-woman racecar team in Middle East

SPEED SISTERS (Amber Fares, 2016)
Cinema Village
22 East 12th St. between University Pl. & Fifth Ave.
Opens Friday, February 10
212-529-6799
www.cinemavillage.com
speedsisters.tv

Documentarians are always in search of unusual stories, and producer-director Amber Fares has found a real winner in Speed Sisters. The Lebanese Canadian cofounder of SocDoc Studios heads to the Middle East to share the tale of five brave and ambitious Palestinians who have formed the region’s first all-women racecar driving team. Noor Dauod, Marah Zahalka, Betty Saadeh, Mona Ali, and captain Maysoon Jayyusi defy gender stereotypes by participating in professional races driving heavily modified regular cars. Competing against men, they roar around makeshift tracks in Ramallah, Jenin, Jericho, and other locations, racing against the clock to put up the fastest time as they follow complicated courses with very specific rules. The film is photographed by Fares and Lucy Martens (Out of the Ashes, Voices from Inside: Israelis Speak) and edited by Rabab Haj Yahya (Bed and Breakfast, Beyond Blue and Gray) for maximum impact, putting viewers right in the middle of the exciting action. Rather than being shunned by their patriarchal society, the women are cheered on by fans and their male colleagues, led by Palestinian Motor Sport and Motorcycle Federation founder Khaled Qaddoura, as well as most, though not all, of their family members. Each of the women feels the need for speed, but they also have different motivations. “I don’t race for the trophies; I do it for the release,” Mona explains, while Noor says, “In the car, everything I need to feel is there. The car completes me.”

Marah Zahalka gets ready for action in Amber Fares’s high-octane SPEED SISTERS

The five women discuss their hopes and dreams in addition to their fears, often concerned for their safety as they go through Israeli checkpoints monitored by armed military guards; at one point, Betty gets hit in the lower back by a tear-gas canister, leaving a scary bruise, a sharp contrast to scenes in which she carefully applies nail polish and puts on lipstick right before a race. Fares doesn’t delve too deeply into Mideast politics, but she doesn’t let it take a backseat either; the powderkeg that is the never-ending battle over settlements in the West Bank and the ongoing troubled relationship between Israel and Palestine is ever present, always bubbling under the surface, as the women burn rubber and the soundtrack pulsates with songs by Palestinian indie bands. “How much will we let the occupation affect our lives?” Marah says. “What are we supposed to do, stop living?” Speed Sisters opens February 10 at Cinema Village, with Fares and producer Jessica Devaney (My Neighbourhood, Home Front) participating in Q&As following the 7:15 screenings February 10, 11, and 12.