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

TO THE 5 BOROUGHS

Who: Orlando Ferrand, Sabine Heinlein, Vasyl Makhno, Elyssa Goodman, and Oriana Leckert
What: Miss Manhattan and Brooklyn Spaces Present: To the 5 Boroughs
Where: Niagara Bar, 112 Ave. A at Seventh St., 212-420-9517
When: Monday, October 5, free, 7:45
Why: Taking its name from the 2004 Beastie Boys album To the 5 Boroughs, which features such tracks as “Ch-Check It Out,” “Shazam!,” and “An Open Letter to NYC,” To the 5 Boroughs is a free evening of nonfiction readings, hosted by Elyssa Goodman of Miss Manhattan and Oriana Leckert of Brooklyn Spaces, who has been lured across the East River for this event. The three readers are Orlando Ferrand (Apologia: Cuban Childhood in My Backpack, Citywalker), Sabine Heinlein (Among Murderers: Life After Prison), and Vasyl Makhno (Winter Letters, The Gertrude Stein Memorial Cultural and Recreation Park). Why should you go? Because as the Beasties famously declared in “An Open Letter to NYC,” “Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens and Staten / From the Battery to the top of Manhattan / Asian, Middle Eastern, and Latin / Black, White, New York, you make it happen.”

NYFF53 MAIN SLATE: MAGGIE’S PLAN

Greta Gerwig and Ethan Hawke star in New York-set romantic comedy MAGGIE’S PLAN

NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL: MAGGIE’S PLAN (Rebecca Miller, 2015)
Film Society of Lincoln Center
Sunday, October 4, 9:30, and Monday, October 5, 6:00, $25, Alice Tully Hall
Sunday, October 11, 3:00, $20, Walter Reade Theater
New York Film Festival runs through October 11
212-875-5050
www.filmlinc.org

Rebecca Miller channels her inner Woody Allen and Noah Baumbach with the bittersweet romantic comedy Maggie’s Plan, making its U.S. premiere at the fifty-third New York Film Festival. Greta Gerwig is at her loopy best as Maggie, a thirtysomething college arts administrator who, after failing to maintain any relationship for more than six months, decides to become a single mother by impregnating herself with the sperm of an old classmate, Guy (Travis Fimmel), a Brooklyn hipster trying to become a pickle mogul. (He works for the real Brooklyn Brine Co.) Maggie’s married best buds, former boyfriend Tony (Bill Hader) and Felicia (Maya Rudolph), who have just had a baby themselves, debate her decision, but she is determined to forge ahead. As she prepares for the artificial insemination, which she is performing herself, she grows close with older New School adjunct professor John (Ethan Hawke), a ficto-crypto-anthropologist working on his novel. John has two kids of his own but is feeling overwhelmed by his wife, Georgette (Julianne Moore), a wickedly ambitious educator who has just been offered a lofty position at Columbia. Soon Maggie, John, and Georgette are in the midst of a complicated love triangle that is at times as frustrating to watch as it is endearing.

Ethan Hawke and Julianne Moore play a married couple whose relationship is on thin ice in MAGGIE’S PLAN

Miller, the daughter of playwright Arthur Miller, is a novelist and writer-director who has previously made such films as The Ballad of Jack and Rose, which starred her husband, Daniel Day-Lewis, and The Private Lives of Pippa Lee. Inspired by an unpublished novel by Karen Rinaldi, Maggie’s Plan is likely to be Miller’s most popular film, despite the clichéd setup that threatens to be annoyingly obvious and mundane but usually manages to bring out something fresh and charming. The tale evokes such films as Allen’s Manhattan and Baumbach’s Frances Ha, with mumblecore breakout star Gerwig (Nights and Weekends, Hannah Takes the Stairs) again playing a quirky character who seems to live in her own candy-colored fantasy land. Miller even uses cinematographer Sam Levy, who photographed such other Gerwig films as Frances Ha and Mistress America, to shoot Maggie’s Plan. Hawke is in good form as a man caught between two worlds, Hader and Rudolph provide cynical comic relief, and it’s impossible to take your eyes off Gerwig, who once again displays her mesmerizing natural talent, but Moore nearly steals the show as the sensationally dressed and coiffed Georgette, an unrelenting force with a to-die-for Danish-Teutonic accent and an attitude to boot. Maggie’s Plan is screening twice at Alice Tully Hall, first on October 4 at 9:30 with Miller, Gerwig, Moore, Hawke, Rudolph, and Fimmel in person, followed on October 5 at 6:00 with Miller present to talk about the film. In addition, an encore screening has been added on October 11 at 3:00.

FIRST FRIDAYS! “ALL THE LADIES SAY” UNDERGROUND HIP-HOP ANNIVERSARY

1040 Grand Concourse at 167th St.
Friday, October 2, free, 6:00 – 10:00
718-681-6000
www.bronxmuseum.org

Ten years ago, the Bronx Museum partnered with Full Circle Prod Inc. to promote B-girl culture, leading to, among other things, East Harlem-raised pioneering break dancer Ana “Rokafella” Garcia’s 2010 documentary on female hip-hop culture, All the Ladies Say. On October 2, the Bronx Museum and Rokafella are teaming up again with a special free First Fridays! presentation celebrating the fifth anniversary of the film. The evening will include performances by Lah Tere and Queen Godis from Momma’s Hip Hop Kitchen and DJ KS360, live painting by Lady K Fever, and a dance-off between Brooklyn B-girl Mantis and Connecticut B-girl N’tegrity. The event starts at 6:00, but be sure to get there early to check out the excellent exhibit “¡Presente! The Young Lords in New York” and the new show “Trees Are Alphabets.”

FIRST SATURDAY: HISPANIC HERITAGE

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, October 3, free, 5:00 – 11:00
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

The Brooklyn Museum’s October free First Saturday program pays tribute to National Hispanic Heritage Month — which actually runs September 15 to October 15 — on October 3, kicking things off with a performance by Garifuna traditionalist Aurelio Martínez, who is not only a singer-songwriter but was the first black member of Honduras’s National Congress. Known simply as Aurelio, he will be highlighting songs from his latest record, 2014’s Lándini, which includes such tracks as “Sañanaru,” “Milaguru,” and “Durugubei Mani.” (You can sample the songs here; Aurelio will also be playing a free show at the David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center on October 15.) First Saturday also features live performances by Danza Fiesta: Baile y Teatro Puertorriqueno, DJ duo iBomba (DJ Beto and DJ Ushka), the Gregorio Uribe Big Band, the Humberto Ramírez Quintent, Nuyorican Poets Cafe, and Cave Canem poets Willie Perdomo, Elizabeth Acevedo, and Rio Cortez. In addition, Richard Aste and Edward J. Sullivan will lead a curator talk on the new exhibition “Impressionism and the Caribbean: Francisco Oller and His Transatlantic World,” art workshops will teach participants how to paint still lifes like Francisco Oller, you can settle in for a game of dominoes, Raquel Cepeda will read from and discuss her most recent book, Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina, with her husband, Sacha Jenkins, and children are invited to sing and dance to Spanish and English songs with ¡Acopladitos! And the galleries are open late so you can check out such other exhibitions as “The Rise of Sneaker Culture,” “Kara Walker: ‘African Boy Attendant Curio (Bananas),’” “KAWS: ALONG THE WAY,” and “Zanele Muholi: Isibonelo/Evidence.”

NYFF53 MAIN SLATE: MOUNTAINS MAY DEPART

Zhang Jinsheng (Zhang Yi) shows his love for Shen Tao (Zhao Tao) in materialistic ways in Jia Zhangke’s MOUNTAINS MAY DEPART

MOUNTAINS MAY DEPART (SHAN HE GU REN) (Jia Zhangke, 2015)
Film Society of Lincoln Center
Monday, September 28, Alice Tully Hall, 6:00, and Tuesday, September 29, Francesca Beale Theater, 9:15
New York Film Festival runs through October 11
212-875-5050
www.filmlinc.org

Master Chinese writer-director Jia Zhangke returns to the New York Film Festival with Mountains May Depart, a melancholic look at love and relationships in which one decision can change the rest of your life, as well as an allegory about China itself and its path in the world. Jia’s wife and muse, Zhao Tao, stars as Shen Tao, a flighty, flakey young woman flirting with coal miner Liangzi (Liang Jin Dong) and burgeoning capitalist Zhang Jinsheng (Zhang Yi) in 1999 China, the country on the cusp of an economic crisis. It’s easy to see the young woman’s romantic decision as a microcosm of China’s economic decisions, as the working class battles the wealthy elite, and the effects of both are profound. The setup is reminiscent of the love triangle at the center of François Truffaut’s Jules et Jim, but Jia takes it much further, continuing the story in 2014, and then into 2025, a bleak future where individual happiness is painfully elusive. Jia (Still Life, The World, 24 City) and his longtime cinematographer, Yu Lik-wai, shoot the three time periods in different screen ratios, exemplifying how much things evolve as Chinese capitalism and globalism take over, affecting — and disaffecting — the next generation. But the past is always snapping at the characters’ heels; much of the film takes place in the Yellow River basin, where ancient structures recall China’s history, and in Jia’s vision of the future, vinyl LPs are back in fashion (although handheld devices are much cooler). Music plays a key role in the film, primarily Sally Yeh’s Cantonese song “Take Care” and the Pet Shop Boys’ cover of the Village People’s “Go West,” the latter a title that gets to the heart of the film.

Mia (Sylvia Chang) takes stock of her complicated life in MOUNTAINS MAY DEPART

Zhao is marvelous as the bittersweet Shen, from singing at the colorful Fenyang Spring Festival Gala as the new millennium approaches to trying to restore her relationship with her son (Dong Zijian), who her husband insisted be named Dollar. Her eyes are filled with emotion as she proceeds on a course that was never what she dreamed. In the third section, Sylvia Chang shines as Mia, a sensitive, divorced teacher from Hong Kong who grows close to Dollar in a future world in which English has eclipsed Chinese, so fathers and sons literally do not speak the same language. Navigating the four physical sufferings of Buddhist thought — birth, old age, sickness, and death, Jia avoids showing many key moments in the lives of the characters, often leaving it up to the audience to uncover what has happened over the years and decades, which has a certain grace, although the ambiguous ending is more than a bit frustrating, even if it makes sense as a parable for China as a whole. But it’s all encapsulated in the briefest of kisses in a helicopter that will both brighten and break your heart. And keep an eye out for the guy with the Guangdong Broadsword. Mountains May Depart is screening at the New York Film Festival on September 28 at 6:00 and September 29 at 9:15, with Jia and Zhao in person to talk about the film. In addition, Jia will take part in a free HBO Directors Dialogue at the Howard Gilman Theater on September 29 at 6:00, and Walter Salles’s documentary, Jia Zhangke, a Guy from Fenyang, is being shown at the festival on September 30 and October 1.

PUBLIC ART FUND TALKS AT THE NEW SCHOOL: JEPPE HEIN

Jeppe Hein will be at the New School on September 29 to discuss his interactive Brooklyn Bridge Park installation (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Jeppe Hein will be at the New School on September 29 to discuss his three-part interactive Brooklyn Bridge Park installation (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

PUBLIC CONTEXT, PRIVATE MEANING
The New School, Tishman Auditorium
63 Fifth Ave. between 13th & 14th Sts.
Tuesday, September 29, $10, 6:30
www.publicartfund.org

Jeppe Hein invites people to experience his work in tactile ways in “Please Touch the Art,” a three-part installation spread across Brooklyn Bridge Park. For the Public Art Fund project, the Danish artist, who lives and works in Berlin and Copenhagen, has created “Appearing Rooms,” a dancing water sculpture that visitors are encouraged to walk through and play in; “Modified Social Benches,” sixteen brightly colored red and orange uniquely shaped benches that people can sit on and climb; and “Mirror Labyrinth NY,” a circular maze of mirror-polished stainless-steel vertical planks that offers fun and fascinating reflections as you make your way in and around it, including mimicking the downtown Manhattan skyline across the river. (“Appearing Rooms” is on view until October 4, while the other two will remain in the park through April 17 of next year.) “People can use it; they don’t need to know it’s art or not,” Hein explains in a promotional video. “It’s just something twisting everyday life.” On September 29, Hein will give a participatory talk at the New School as part of the Public Art Fund series “Public Context, Private Meaning,” combining performance, audience interactivity, and interview. The Fall 2015 Public Art Fund Talks at the New School continue October 21 with Hank Willis Thomas and November 18 with Fiona Banner.

DORIS SALCEDO SYMPOSIUM AND EXHIBITION

“Plegaria Muda” evokes mass graves in Doris Salcedo exhibition at the Guggenheim (photo by David Heald/Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation)

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
1071 Fifth Ave. at 89th St.
Exhibition: Friday – Wednesday through October 12, $25
Symposium: Friday, October 2, $15, 11:00 am – 6:30 pm
212-423-3587
www.guggenheim.org

Colombian artist Doris Salcedo encapsulated her powerful, emotional oeuvre beautifully and succinctly in a recent interview with Marguerite Feitlowitz: “My work is based on the testimonies of victims of violence, on experiences that are alien to me,” she explained. “I am not a direct witness; I am witness to the witness, a secondary witness. I search for an intimate proximity with the victims of violence that will permit me to stand in for them as I actually make the work, but in such a way that their experience takes precedence over my own.” For three decades, the Bogotá native has been creating installations that examine the social injustice and violence experienced in Colombia and other parts of the world. She uses common domestic objects that each visitor can relate to, building on their evocation of memory and loss. Her current retrospective at the Guggenheim is installed on all four tower levels, allowing museumgoers plenty of time as they go from one section to another to process what they have just seen in one gallery before entering the next. “Plegaria Muda,” roughly translated as “silent prayer,” memorializes both mass gang killings in South Central Los Angeles and murders committed by the Colombian army between 2003 and 2009. The piece is a maze made of pairs of handcrafted tables inverted upon each other, with earth sandwiched between them. Blades of grass rise through the earth, life emerging from dozens of anonymous graves.

“La Casa Viuda” is part of haunting retrospective at the Guggenheim (photo by David Heald/Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation)

For “Atrabilarios,” Salcedo takes shoes left behind by los desaparecidos (individuals “disappeared” by security forces) and places them in wall niches, covering them with rectangles of semitranslucent animal fiber that is hand-stitched into the wall with medical sutures, the shoes fading away like slowly forgotten memories or barely healed scars. “A Flor de Piel” is a large floor piece composed of stitched-together, chemically treated rose petals, forming a kind of burial shroud for a Colombian nurse who was kidnapped, tortured, and killed. Salcedo uses silk thread and nearly twelve thousand burned needles to make “Disremembered,” a collection of barely there tuniclike hair shirts that combine beauty and pain. “Untitled” brings together hospital cots wrapped in animal fiber with stacks of crisply folded white shirts impaled by steel rebar, associating loss and violence with a place meant for healing. And “La Casa Viuda” is a room containing doors, dressers, tables, chairs, and other furniture connected, filled in, or closed off with concrete, a house devoid of people, no longer fit for human occupancy. Individually, the pieces demand silent contemplation and introspection, but as a whole, the exhibition will also make you angry about what is still happening all over the globe, brutal murders and disappearances that seemingly cannot be stopped. The moving exhibition, which also includes a video screening of Salcedo’s public projects, continues at the Guggenheim through October 12; on October 2, the artist will participate in an all-day symposium along with Elizabeth Adan, Carlos Basualdo, Katherine Brinson, Leslie Jamison, Roderick Mengham, Jean-Luc Nancy, and Alexander Nemerov.