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

POETIC AND POLITICAL — THE CINEMA OF RABAH AMEUR-ZAÏMECHE: BACK HOME

Kamel (Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche) and Louisa (Meryem Serbah) are outsiders in their own village in BACK HOME

CINÉSALON: BACK HOME (BLED NUMBER ONE) (Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche, 2006)
French Institute Alliance Française, Florence Gould Hall
55 East 59th St. between Madison & Park Aves.
Tuesday, November 29, $13, 4:00 & 7:30
Series continues Tuesdays through December 13
212-355-6100
www.fiaf.org

FIAF’s Cinésalon series “Poetic and Political: The Cinema of Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche” continues November 29 with Ameur-Zaïmeche’s second feature, Bled Number One (Back Home), the follow-up and kind of prequel to Wesh Wesh and the second part of an unofficial trilogy that concludes with Adhen (Dernier Maquis). Kamel (Ameur-Zaïmeche) has returned home to his isolated village of Loulouj in northeast Algeria after having spent several years in France. Meanwhile, Louisa (Meryem Serbah) has left her husband, Ahmed (Ramzy Bedia), but her parents (Meriem Ameur-Zaïmeche and Larkdari Ameur-Zaïmeche) and brother (Soheb Ameur-Zaïmeche) insist she go back to him, saying she is bringing shame on the family. Both Kamel and Louisa feel like outsiders in their own village, which is balancing precipitously between the past and the future. The desperados, a group of young men who are spreading fundamentalist Muslim views, is battling with the patriots, the longtime members of the community, threatening violence on anyone who doesn’t follow the letter of the Koran. During Zerda, the pre-Islamic ritual of slaughtering and serving a bull in which the women are kept separate from the men, Kamel, in his ever-present orange hat, decides to be with the women instead, and the men, feeling shunned, remind him over and over that he is not to eat with them. The treatment of women in this patriarchal society is a central focus of the film. Louisa wants to break free of the chains that bind her, but she takes a bigger risk every time she strays from accepted, outdated convention. And the more Kamel proves to be his own man, the more the other men want to be rid of him. In fact, the patriots closely watch the town border, refusing entry to anyone they don’t want inside.

The film, which was written by Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche and Louise Thermes, is photographed in a documentary style, with long shots both in time and distance; often what is being said among the characters can’t be heard and is not translated into English, as it is more for setting a realistic pace and a naturalistic flow. The muted, faded greens and blues of the village residences stand in stark contrast to the lush green mountainside and bright blue sky. The few times there is music, it turns out that it is being played live by Rodolphe Burger by the sea; at one point he sings William Blake’s “The Little Vagabond,” about God and the Devil. Bled Number One (“bled” in Algerian means “field” or “terrain”) is a subtle, poetic film laden with sociopolitical undertones, a melancholic yet beautiful work from an auteur who deserves a bigger audience. “To write Bled Number One, I didn’t return at all to Algeria to capture something about today’s youth there. I wrote this story based on my holiday memories,” Ameur-Zaïmeche has said. “But it is also because I felt that things hadn’t really changed, that time passes differently there. You have the time to reflect and be, faced with the elements. . . . A film is a gesture, a burst, a job, an enterprise, an action. An action in life, a pure lesson of life. It is here that we grasp something alive. For it is necessary to remain alive, no matter what else happens.” Bursting with life, Bled Number One is screening at FIAF on November 29 at 4:00 and 7:30; the later show will be followed by a Q&A with ArteEast executive director Jaime-Faye Bean, and both shows will end with a wine and beer reception. “Poetic and Political: The Cinema of Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche” continues December 6 with Smugglers’ Songs before concluding December 13 with Story of Judas.

CAROLEE SCHNEEMANN: FURTHER EVIDENCE — EXHIBIT C

Carolee Schneemann will be at P•P•O•W on December 2 to discuss her current dual exhibition (photo courtesy P•P•O•W Gallery)

Who: Carolee Schneemann
What: Artist talk in conjunction with two-gallery show
Where: P•P•O•W Gallery, 535 West 22nd St., third floor,
When: Friday, December 2, free, 7:00
Why: Multidisciplinary artist and activist Carolee Schneemann will add an exclamation point to her two-part show, “Further Evidence — Exhibit A” at P•P•O•W and “Further Evidence — Exhibit B” at Galerie Lelong, with “Further Evidence — Exhibit C,” a discussion at P•P•O•W on December 2 at 7:00 with art history and visual studies professor Soyoung Yoon. For more than fifty years, the provocative, groundbreaking Schneemann has been exploring gender identity and the female body through film, photography, and performance, often involving nudity. At P•P•O•W, “Further Evidence — Exhibit A” is highlighted by the 1995-96 multimedia installation “Known/Unknown: Plague Column,” which references a seventeenth-century Viennese column that blamed the bubonic plague on a witch; in her exhibition catalog essay, Yoon writes, “Is there a continuity between this representation of the plague and our more recent imagination about cancer, a link between witch hunts and the current warfare model of cancer treatment?” Also on view at P•P•O•W is “Fresh Blood — A Dream Morphology” from 1981-87, inspired by the form of the letter “V.” Meanwhile, at Galerie Lelong, “Further Evidence — Exhibit B” consists of 1983’s “Precarious,” about the torture of animals, the 2005 collage suite “Caged Cats,” and 2003-4’s “Devour,” which compares domesticity to disaster. Both exhibitions will remain on view through December 3.

PUSHING THE ENVELOPE — A DECADE OF DOCUMENTARY AT THE CINEMA EYE HONORS: DETROPIA

Performance artists find their muse in downtrodden Detroit in Oscar-nominated documentary

SCREENING + LIVE EVENT: DETROPIA (Rachel Grady & Heidi Ewing, 2012)
Museum of the Moving Image
35th Ave. at 36th St., Astoria
Sunday, November 27, $12, 4:30
Series runs through December 23
718-777-6800
www.movingimage.us
www.detropiathefilm.com

In his 1994 autobiography, Hard Stuff, former Detroit mayor Coleman Young wrote, “In the evolutionary urban order, Detroit today has always been your town tomorrow.” That’s precisely the warning that permeates Detropia, the latest documentary by director-producers Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing, who have previously teamed up on such films as The Boys of Baraka, the Oscar-nominated Jesus Camp, and the Peabody-winning 12th & Delaware. Detroit native Ewing and former private investigator Grady examine the current sad state of the once-proud city, which has seen its population plummet, unemployment skyrocket, and its infrastructure being torn away piece by piece. At one point, Mayor Dave Bing, an NBA Hall of Famer who played for the Pistons, talks about downsizing the city as a whole — but not wanting to use that exact word when revealing the plan to the people. Grady and Ewing, along with cinematographers Tony Hardmon and Craig Atkinson (who also served as a producer), follow around such fascinating characters as UAW local 22 president George McGregor, who speaks with union members and retirees and describes in detail the loss of jobs and plants; Crystal Starr, a young video blogger giving her take on the city’s myriad problems; and Tommy Stevens, a former schoolteacher who now runs the popular Raven Lounge and wonders, at an auto show, how Detroit can possibly keep up with China, especially regarding the electric car known as the Volt. In one particularly poignant scene, a group of men tear down an old Cadillac repair shop, saving the metal to resell and burning the rest to keep warm.

The film regularly cuts back to performances at the Detroit Opera House, which is struggling to stay alive, desperate to bring culture to what is quickly becoming a ghost town visited by tourists interested in gawking at the immense decay. Even a performance of Gilbert & Sullivan’s Mikado slyly references the fall of the automobile industry. The soundtrack mixes hip-hop from the Detroit-based Blair French, better known as Dial.81, along with old-time R&B and songs from experimental band Victoire, providing unique sounds to the extraordinary visuals. It’s hard not to watch the film and see Detroit as a microcosm for America, which is trying to pull itself out of a deep, dark recession that won’t seem to go away. Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, Detropia is screening November 27 at 4:30 as part of the Museum of the Moving Image series “Pushing the Envelope: A Decade of Documentary at the Cinema Eye Honors,” followed by a Q&A with Grady and Ewing; the series, which celebrates the upcoming tenth annual Cinema Eye Honors awards, continues through December 23 with such other past Cinema Eye nominees and winners as Alma Har’el’s Bombay Beach, Jeff Malmberg’s Marwencol, Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel’s Leviathan, and the director’s cut of Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act of Killing. The nominees for Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking for the 2017 Cinema Eye Honors are Cameraperson, Fire at Sea, I Am Not Your Negro, OJ: Made in America, and Weiner; the winners will be announced at the Museum of the Moving Image on January 11.

MAIRA KALMAN: BOOK SIGNING AND POP-UP STORE

my-favorite-things

Who: Maira Kalman
What: Book signing and pop-up store
Where: Julie Saul Gallery, 535 West 22nd St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves., sixth floor, 212-627-2410
When: Saturday, November 19, free admission, 3:30 – 6:00
Why: Artist Maira Kalman will be at Chelsea’s Julie Saul Gallery on Saturday for a special holiday shopping opportunity, signing copies of her books and various items made by M&CO., the design firm founded by her late husband, Tibor Kalman. Kalman, who was born in Tel Aviv and raised there and in the Bronx, will be personalizing copies of Hurry Up and Wait, Girls Standing on Lawns, My Favorite Things, Beloved Dog, and Weather, Weather; vintage watches, Elements of Style tote bags, postcards, Einstein pins, and handkerchiefs will also be available for purchase. As a bonus, the festivities will include sherry and cookies. And while at the gallery, be sure to check out the current exhibits, Andrea Grützner’s “Erbgericht/Guesthouse” and Sally Gall’s “Selections from Aerial.”

ISABELLE HUPPERT: WHITE MATERIAL

Isabelle Huppert is determined to see her coffee crop through to fruition despite the growing dangers in Claire Denis’s WHITE MATERIAL

WHITE MATERIAL (Claire Denis, 2009)
Metrograph
7 Ludlow St. between Canal & Hester Sts.
Saturday, November 19, 10:00
Series runs November 19-21
212-660-0312
metrograph.com

You will never hear us complaining about too much Isabelle Huppert. The sixty-three-year-old French actress has been all over the place recently, having appeared in no fewer than seven films in 2015–16 in addition to touring the world in Krzysztof Warlikowski’s Phèdre(s), which came to BAM this past September, and appearing with Cate Blanchett in Jean Genet’s The Maids at City Center in 2014. In conjunction with the release of her latest two films, Mia Hansen-Løve’s Things to Come and Paul Verhoeven’s Elle, Metrograph is hosting a seven-movie Huppert retrospective this weekend, with the grand actress on hand on the Lower East Side for a Q&A following Hong Sang-soo’s In Another Country and to introduce Curtis Hanson’s L.A. Confidential. The series also includes Michael Haneke’s The Piano Teacher, Catherine Breillat’s Abuse of Weakness, Hal Hartley’s Amateur, and Ursula Maier’s Hom. as well as Claire Denis’s White Material, which takes place in an unnamed West African nation besieged by a bloody civil war between rebels and the military government. Huppert stars as Maria Vial, who steadfastly refuses to leave her coffee plantation, determined to see the last crop through to fruition. Despite pleas from the French army, which is vacating the country; her ex-husband, André (Christophe Lambert), who is attempting to sell the plantation out from under her; and her workers, whose lives are in danger, Maria is unwilling to give up her home and way of life, apparently blind to what is going on all around her.

She seems to be living in her own world, as if all the outside forces exploding around her do not affect her and her family. Without thinking twice, she even allows the Boxer (Isaach De Bankolé) to stay there, the seriously wounded leader of the rebel militia, not considering what kind of dire jeopardy that could result in. But when her slacker son, Manuel (Nicolas Duvauchelle), freaks out, she is forced to take a harder look at reality, but even then she continues to see only what she wants to see. A selection of both the New York and Venice Film Festivals, White Material is an often obvious yet compelling look at the last remnants of postcolonial European domination as a new Africa is being born in disorder and violence. Directed and cowritten (with French playwright Marie Ndiaye) by Denis (Chocolat, Beau Travail), who was born in Paris and raised in Africa, the film has a central flaw in its premise that viewers will either buy or reject: whether they accept Maria’s blindness to the evolving situation that has everyone else on the run. Watching Maria’s actions can be infuriating, and in the hands of another actress they might not have worked, but Huppert is mesmerizing in the decidedly unglamorous role.

DOC NYC: DIVING INTO THE UNKNOWN

Friends attempt to bring back two dead friends in deep, dark waters in Juan Reina’s DIVING INTO THE UNKNOWN

DIVING INTO THE UNKNOWN (Juan Reina, 2016)
Cinépolis Chelsea
260 West Twenty-Third St. at Eighth Ave.
Thursday, November 17, 5:30
212-691-5519
www.docnyc.net
divingintotheunknown.com

For his feature-length debut, writer-director Juan Reina was all set to make a documentary in Norway about a group of Finnish friends’ daring attempt to break the world record for longest cave dive. But the narrative quickly changed when two of the divers, Jari Huotarinen and Jari Uusimäki, suffered tragic accidents and died, their bodies trapped underwater. Unable to retrieve the bodies because of safety concerns, the authorities closed off the area to any further diving. But the rest of the Finnish team decides that they cannot leave their friends down there and come up with a plan to secretly dive in and bring them back home for proper burials. A kind of mix between a Werner Herzog adventure documentary, a procedural caper film, and a military rescue drama, Diving into the Unknown follows Sami Paakkarinen, Vesa “Vesku” Rantanen, Kai “Kaitsu” Känkänen, Patrik “Patte” Grönqvist, and others as they decide to risk their lives in the waters that killed their fellow divers. “I do everything I can not to die while diving,” Paakkarinen says early on, later adding, “You should never expect that a dive will go well . . . because then it never does.” Grönqvist notes, “It has to be fun. If it’s not fun, there’s no point in doing it.” But during the rescue attempt, he says, “From the outside this might seem foolishly risky. But life in general can be risky. You cannot prepare for everything that could go wrong. You just cannot practice facing a dead friend at one hundred and ten meters.” No matter how many dives they’ve been on together, each new one comes with its own obstacles and dangers; when the men say goodbye to their respective families, they know deep down that they might not return alive. And it’s not just the physical aspects of diving that place them in jeopardy; several discuss the emotional and psychological trauma that could impact their safety, especially when diving to recover two of their closest friends.

Diving into the Unknown is filled with lush photography by Jarkko M. Virtanen and Tuuka Kovasiipi, who capture the vast, snowy landscapes from the Plura lakeside to the Steinugleflåget dry caves, while Janne Suhonen mans the underwater camera, revealing the dark, mysterious waters where anything can happen. Seamlessly edited by Reina and Riitta Poikselkä and featuring a score by Norwegian singer-songwriter KAADA, the film is a gripping tale that delves deep below the surface; in many of the underwater scenes, it looks as if the divers are floating in the air. “I’ve never really been keen on diving myself, but what really interests me are things like how far ambition can drive people, how much people are willing to sacrifice in order to achieve their goals, and if there’s any clear common denominator amongst people willing to risk their lives to do something they love,” Reina, who was initially inspired to make a film about diving after being given the book Divers of the Dark by Suhonen and Antti Apunen, explains in his director’s statement. Diving into the Unknown exposes both the dedicated, faithful brotherhood of these divers as well as the dangerous challenges they take on every time they put on their wetsuits and strap on their equipment. Diving into the Unknown is making its U.S. premiere on November 17 at Cinépolis Chelsea as part of DOC NYC, the largest nonfiction film festival in the world, with Reina and producer Juho Harjula on hand to talk about the work.

TREASURED NOH PLAYS FROM THE DESK OF W. B. YEATS

Living National Treasure Tomoeda Akiyo and Kita Noh Theater Company will be at Japan Society to perform works that inspired W. B. Yeats (photo © Seiichiro Tsuji)

Living National Treasure Tomoeda Akiyo and Kita Noh Theater Company will be at Japan Society to perform noh works that inspired W. B. Yeats (photo © Seiichiro Tsuji)

TRADITIONAL THEATER
Japan Society
333 East 47th St. at First Ave.
Saturday, November 19, $40, 7:30, and Sunday, November 20, $60, 5:00
212-715-1258
www.japansociety.org

In 1913, Ezra Pound introduced W. B. Yeats to the Japanese noh drama, and by 1916, Pound published English translations of fifteen noh plays and Yeats had written At the Hawk’s Well, which was directly inspired by the Japanese form. In honor of the centennial of that literary moment, Japan Society will be hosting two noh programs performed by the Kita Noh Theater Company, led by Tomoeda Akiyo, who was named a Japanese Living National Treasure in 2008. The first program, on November 19, consists of highlights from Nishikigi, Kumasaka, Tamura, Shojo, and Kagekiyo, presented in such styles as maibayashi, shimai, and subayashi, which differ in use of masks, costumes, chants, and music. Williams College music professor Dr. W. Anthony Sheppard will also give a talk about noh’s influence on Yeats. In addition, the related exhibition, “Simon Starling: At Twilight (After W. B. Yeats’s Noh Reincarnation),” a multimedia installation in which Turner Prize winner Starling reinterprets Yeats’s At the Hawk’s Well for the modern era, will stay open until 7:15; the performance will be followed by a Meet-the-Artists reception. On November 20 at 5:00, the second program will feature full versions of Kayoi Komachi and Shojo-midare, from Yeats’s collection, preceded at 4:00 by a lecture by Princeton University professor Dr. Tom Hare. (There will also be an “Image-in-Focus Series: Tomoeda Akiyo” gallery talk at 2:00.) Tickets for both events are sold out, but there will be a waitlist at the box office beginning one hour before showtime.