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

SEYMOUR: AN INTRODUCTION

Pianist Seymour Bernstein speaks with director Ethan Hawke at Steinway & Sons on Sixth Ave. (photo courtesy of Ramsey Fendall)

SEYMOUR: AN INTRODUCTION (Ethan Hawke, 2014)
IFC Center, 323 Sixth Ave. at Third St., 212-924-7771
Lincoln Plaza Cinema, 1886 Broadway between 62nd & 63rd Sts., 212-757-2280
Opens Friday, March 13
www.ifcfilms.com

No, with Seymour: An Introduction, Ethan Hawke hasn’t managed the nearly impossible, filming an adaptation of the J. D. Salinger story about a young man who commits suicide. Instead, Hawke uses the title for his beautifully touching, life-affirming portrait of octogenarian composer and musician Seymour Bernstein. An extraordinary pianist, the Newark-born Bernstein started playing when he was three, began giving lessons when he was fifteen, and, when he turned fifty, decided to stop performing recitals despite great critical success, in order to concentrate on teaching and composing and to avoid his stage fright and the negative aspects of commercial fame. After meeting at a dinner party, Hawke and Bernstein hit it off and agreed to collaborate on the project, which was filmed over the course of two years. Hawke, in his first documentary and third feature as director (following Chelsea Walls and The Hottest State), shows Bernstein holding master classes in auditoriums, teaching in his cramped New York City apartment, talking in a café with former student and current New York Times architecture critic Michael Kimmelman, and selecting just the right piano for a recital Hawke convinces him to give at the Steinway & Sons showroom on West Fifty-Seventh St.; in addition, Hawke speaks with such other Bernstein friends as writer and scholar Andrew Harvey, pianist and lecturer Joseph Smith, and musician and songwriter Kimball Gallagher.

Documentary focuses on master pianist and composer Seymour Bernstein’s love of life and music (photo courtesy of Ramsey Fendall)

Seymour: An Introduction depicts Bernstein as a truly gentle, generous soul who always looks for the positive in people and situations, a perpetual smile on his face. The film focuses on his relationship with the piano more so than his personal life; although he discusses his childhood and his time in the military, he never mentions companions or family outside of his parents. For Bernstein and Hawke, it’s all about the music. “When I was around the age of fifteen, I remember that I became aware that when my practicing went well, everything else in life seemed to be harmonized by that. When my practicing didn’t go well, I was out of sorts with people, with my parents,” Bernstein says near the beginning of the documentary. “So I concluded that the real essence of who we are resides in our talent, in whatever talent there is.” And Bernstein’s talent is extraordinary, a joy to behold, as is his love of life. The endlessly charming and inspiring Seymour: An Introduction opens March 13 at Lincoln Plaza and the IFC Center; the now eighty-seven-year-old Bernstein will be at IFC to talk about the film at the 6:15 and 8:15 shows on Friday night and will be joined by Hawke at the 6:15 and 8:15 shows on Saturday and the 4:15 and 6:15 screenings on Sunday.

REELABILITIES: NY DISABILITIES FILM FESTIVAL

Rory Culkin will be among the special guests at the ReelAbilities film festival, discussing his starring role in GABRIEL

Multiple venues
March 12-18, free – $50 (most film screenings $12-$13)
newyork.reelabilities.org

The seventh annual ReelAbilities film festival will feature more than two dozen programs, focusing on “promoting awareness and appreciation of the lives, stories, and artistic expressions of people with different disabilities.” This year’s festival, running March 12-18, will take place at more than three dozen locations in all five boroughs in addition to Westchester and Long Island. The Finishers, Nils Tavernier’s drama about a teenager with cerebral palsy who is convinced by his father that the two should compete together in an Ironman triathlon in France, is the opening-night selection, with a gala screening at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, while the closing-night film is Carlo Zoratti’s The Special Need, about a twenty-nine-year-old autistic man who is determined to lose his virginity, being shown March 18 at the JCC in Manhattan and followed by a reception. Among the other films are Adam Kahan’s The Case of the Three Sided Dream, a documentary about blind and paralyzed jazzman Rahsaan Roland Kirk; Troy Kotsur’s mockumentary No Ordinary Hero: The SuperDeafy Movie; Richard Kane’s Jon Imber’s Left Hand, which tells the story of the artist who had to switch the hand he paints with because of ALS; and Lou Howe’s Gabriel, which stars Rory Culkin as a teenager dealing with mental illness. (Many of the screenings will be followed by discussions and Q&As with the filmmakers, actors, protagonists, and health professionals.) There will also be such special events as “(In)Visible,” a conversation between blind Michigan Supreme Court justice Richard Bernstein and Jason’s Connections cofounder Jason Harris; a multimedia exhibit at the JCC in Manhattan by the Jack and Shirley Silver Center for Special Needs; the ReelAbilities Comedy Night at the JCC with Anita Hollander, Mary Archbold, Pat Shay, Shannon DeVido, and David Harrell; and a Shabbat Dinner celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, with film screenings and a panel discussion with historian Warren Shaw, Justice Bernstein, photographer Rick Guidotti, and others, moderated by Lawrence Carter-Long.

DCTV PRESENTS STRAY DOG

Ron “Stray Dog” Hall takes his wife, and viewers, on a marvelous ride into the heart of America in Debra Granik’s charming documentary

STRAY DOG (Debra Granik, 2014)
DCTV (Downtown Community Television Center)
87 Lafayette St.
Wednesday, March 11, $10, 7:00
212-966-4510
www.dctvny.org
www.straydogthemovie.com

Shortly after meeting Ron “Stray Dog” Hall at the Biker Church in Branson, Missouri, writer-director Debra Granik (Down to the Bone) cast the Vietnam vet as Thump Milton in her second feature, the Oscar-nominated Winter’s Bone. Upon learning more about him, she soon decided that he would be a great subject for a documentary, so she took to the road, following him across the country in the engaging and revealing Stray Dog. Nearly always dressed in black, including his treasured leather jacket covered in medals and patches — when he puts it in a suitcase for a trip, it’s a ritual like he’s folding the American flag — Hall is a wonderfully grizzled old man with a fluffy white beard. At home, he is learning Spanish online so he can communicate better with his new wife, Alicia, a Mexican immigrant, and her two sons (who still live across the border). He visits with his teenage granddaughter, who is making some questionable decisions about her future. In Missouri, he owns and operates the At Ease RV Park, where he gives breaks to fellow vets who can’t always afford to pay the rent. And when he goes on the road, participating in the Run for the Wall, joining up with thousands of other bikers heading for the annual service at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC, he stops along the way at other ceremonies honoring soldiers who have gone missing, are POWs, or were killed in action in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and other wars.

Hall is a gregarious, gentle man who people instantly flock to and gather around — a scene in which two of his cats sit on each of his knees is absolutely heartwarming — but he is also haunted by some of the things he did in Vietnam, suffering from nightmares that sometimes have him screaming out loud while sleeping in bed. And he wears one of his mottoes right on his arm: “Never Forgive Never Forget.” At one point he sits comfortably on a couch and says, “Just kind of being free, don’t hurt nobody, do what you want to do — a nice thing, ain’t it? You know, I’d rather live as a free man for a year than a slave for twenty.” Granik simply follows Hall as he experiences life with his surprisingly refreshing point of view; no one ever turns to the camera to make any confessions, and no talking heads are brought on board to evaluate what we’re seeing. Granik just lets this beautiful piece of Americana unfold at its own pace while also touching on such hot-button topics as immigration reform, gun control, the economic crisis, and PTSD, making no judgments as we follow the captivating exploits of a man who is part Buddha, part Santa, and all patriot. Stray Dog, which made its New York premiere this past October at the 52nd New York Film Festival, will be screening March 11 at 7:00 at DCTV, followed by a Q&A with director Granik, editor and producer Tory Stewart, and cinematographer Eric Phillips-Horst.

CARRIE MAE WEEMS: FIELD OF VIEW AND OTHER MINOR CONSIDERATIONS

Carrie Mae Weems, “The Considered,” 2012 (photo courtesy the Performa Institute

Who: Carrie Mae Weems
What: “Field of View and Other Minor Considerations”
Where: NYU Steinhardt, Einstein Auditorium, Barney Building, 34 Stuyvesant St., 212-366-5700
When: Thursday, March 26, free with advance RSVP, 6:30
Why: As part of the Performa Institute Portrait of the Artist series, Portland, Oregon–born photographer and video artist Carrie Mae Weems will deliver a lecture on her life and career, “Field of View and Other Minor Considerations,” with a focus on her artistic process and production. Weems, who had a terrific retrospective at the Guggenheim last year, “Three Decades of Photography and Video,” is a fascinating person, so this should be a very special evening. “My work has led me to investigate family relationships, gender roles, the histories of racism, sexism, class, and various political systems,” she writes in her online biography. “Despite the variety of my explorations, throughout it all it has been my contention that my responsibility as an artist is to work, to sing for my supper, to make art, beautiful and powerful, that adds and reveals; to beautify the mess of a messy world, to heal the sick and feed the helpless; to shout bravely from the roof-tops and storm barricaded doors and voice the specifics of our historic moment.”

FOLLIES OF GOD BOOK LAUNCH WITH JAMES GRISSOM

Rescheduled book launch for James Grissoms FOLLIES OF GOD will take place March 10 at the Corner Bookstore (photo by Mike Chiodo)

Who: James Grissom
What: Book launch for Follies of God: Tennessee Williams and the Women of the Fog (Knopf, March 3, 2015, $30)
Where: The Corner Bookstore, 1313 Madison Ave. at 93rd St., 212-831-3554
When: Tuesday, March 10, free, 6:00
Why: The epigraph to James Grissom’s Follies of God is a quote from Tennessee Williams: “I have been very lucky. I am a multi-souled man, because I have offered my soul to so many women, and they have filled it, repaired it, sent it back to me for use.” Later, in the first chapter, Grissom writes, “No play written by Tennessee Williams, however, got its bearings until a fog rolled across the boards, from which a female form emerged. ‘I do not know why this is,’ Tenn confessed to me, ‘but there is a premonitory moment before a woman, an important, powerful woman, enters my subconscious, and this moment is announced by the arrival of fog. Perhaps it is some detritus of my brain belching forth both waste and a woman. . . . I have not seen the fog in years.’” In the book, Grissom delves into Williams’s inspirations, his creative process, and the actresses who played the dramatic roles in his works, including Lillian Gish, Maureen Stapleton, Jessica Tandy, Geraldine Page, Julie Harris, and Katharine Hepburn, in addition to female relatives and others. The book launch was supposed to take place February 27 at the Corner Bookstore but was moved to March 5 because of the weather, so you have another chance to learn more about this fascinating tome about one of America’s greatest playwrights.

WIM WENDERS: THE SALT OF THE EARTH

Sebastião Salgado is shown photographing the planet — and trying to save the world — in THE SALT OF THE EARTH

THE SALT OF THE EARTH (Wim Wenders & Juliano Ribero Salgado, 2014)
MoMA Film, Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Saturday, March 7, 7:45
Series runs March 2-17
Tickets: $12, in person only, may be applied to museum admission within thirty days, same-day screenings free with museum admission, available at Film and Media Desk beginning at 9:30 am
212-708-9400
www.sonyclassics.com
www.moma.org

Over the course of his storied five-decade career, German-born auteur and photographer Wim Wenders has alternated between making documentaries, primarily about other artists (Pina Bausch, Yasujirō Ozu, the Buena Vista Social Club) and fiction films, often unique takes on the road movie in which photographs play a key role (Paris, Texas; Alice in the Cities, Kings of the Road). In his latest work, Wenders has found one subject that combines his many interests, as he follows the remarkable adventures of Brazilian photographer and environmentalist Sebastião Salgado, who has traveled the world taking stunning pictures of the land and native peoples. In The Salt of the Earth, which was nominated for a Best Documentary Feature Oscar and won the Un Certain Regard special jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival and the César at France’s national film awards, Wenders teams up with Salgado’s son, filmmaker Juliano Ribero Salgado (Suzana; Nauru, an Island Adrift), as they accompany Salgado on his journeys and talk about his work, which consists predominantly of black-and-white photographs in such social justice series as “Workers” and “Migrations” and his most recent, the nature-themed“Genesis,” which was just shown at ICP. In the documentary, Salgado is shown rolling around on a shore to get a picture of a polar bear in the Arctic Circle, heading down into the mines of Brazil, meeting the Yali in Papua New Guinea, and sitting on a mountain, contemplating the future of the planet.

Sebastião Salgado talks about his life and work in Oscar-nominated documentary directed by his son and Wim Wenders

Salgado is not only photographing parts of the world devoid of technological modernity but is also involved, with his wife and curator, Lélia Wanick Salgado, in returning to nature, having planted more than two million trees to rebuild part of the Atlantic Forest on his family’s land in Brazil and starting Instituto Terra, a nonprofit community organization dedicated to restoring the ecosystem. “A photographer is literally somebody drawing with light, a man writing and rewriting the world with light and shadows,” Wenders narrates in the film. “Little did I know that I was going to discover much more than just a photographer.” Using a semitransparent mirror, Wenders also conducts interviews with Salgado, who is seen in front of a screen, looking at his photographs while discussing them. Other times the only thing on camera is Salgado’s bald head against a black background, as he peers into the camera to share his tale, including his relationship with his wife and children. “If you put many photographers in one place, they’ll all take very different pictures,” Salgado says. “Each one forms their way of seeing according to their history.” As The Salt of the Earth ably displays, Salgado has a fascinating history. The Salt of the Earth is being shown at MoMA on March 7 at 7:45 as part of a two-plus-week Wenders retrospective in advance of the film’s March 27 theatrical release; Wenders, who just received the Golden Bear for lifetime achievement at the Berlin Film Festival, and Juliano Ribero Salgado, whose next film will be a psychological thriller, will introduce the work and participate in a postscreening discussion. The series continues through March 17 with such other Wenders films as The American Friend, Wings of Desire, Until the End of the World, Tokyo-Ga, The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick, and other well-known gems and rare early shorts, with Wenders at the museum for Q&As and introductions at all screenings through March 7.

NEW YORK ART FAIR WEEK 2015: FREE FAIRS

Héctor Zamora’s O ABUSO DA HISTÓRIA will be shown at Moving Image art fair (courtesy Luciana Brito Galeria)

This year’s March edition of New York Art Fair Week — the city will be overrun with fairs again in May — features no fewer than a dozen shows, including Volta, Scope, Art on Paper, the Independent, Pulse, Spring/Break, and the granddaddy of them all, the Armory Show. If you want to see each one of them, it’s gonna cost a pretty penny, upwards of two hundred bucks total. But there are five fairs that offer free admission and a respite from the craziness that goes on at the ticketed shows.

Who: Nearly three dozen video artists, including Charlie Ahearn, Peggy Ahwesh, Oliver Bevan, Raphael Couto, Tuomas A. Laitinen, Pink Twins, and Héctor Zamora
What: Moving Image
Where: Waterfront Tunnel, 269 Eleventh Ave. between 27th & 28th Sts.
When: March 5-8, free
Why: Moving Image is a video art fan’s dream, lining the passageway in the Waterfront Tunnel in Chelsea with a multitude of innovative short works. On Saturday at noon, Sean Elwood will moderate the panel discussion and networking session “How Do Artists Secure Funding for Film and Video Artwork?” with Chris Doyle, Guy Richards Smit, Patrik Söderlund, and Eve Sussman, followed at 2:00 by “Moving Image: Instant Upload” with Alex McQuilkin, Alice Gray Stites, Amy Taubin, Rachael Rakes, and Zoë Salditch, moderated by Andrea Monti and Elle Burchill.

Sabrina Barrios will be among the artists exhibiting at the (un)Scene

Who: More than eighty visual, tech, and performance artists, including Carlos Betancourt, Sabrina Barrios, Will Kurtz, Chris Ofili, Matt Lombard, Eunjin Kim, Carolee Schneeman, Frederico Uribe, Monika Weiss, Matthew Silver, and Kelly McLaughlin
What: The (un)Scene Art Show
Where: 549 West 52nd St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
When: March 4-8, free
Why: Renamed from last year’s (Un)Fair designation, the (un)Scene Art Show seeks to “celebrate passion rather than fashion.” This year’s edition features numerous “Happenings,” including such live performances as Moon Ribas’s Waiting for Earthquakes, Jade Fusco’s Talking Tapestry, TunanuT’s Group Love, Nicole Woolcott’s Paper Pieces, Kate Brehm’s The Proofs, and Danielle Russo Dance Company’s Since thou was precious in my sight. There will also be an art and dance party hosted by Brock Enright, such panel discussions as “The Radical Eye: Why Artists Must Curate” with Anne Harris, “The (un)TALK” with Raoul Middleman, and “The Art Pollution Crisis (Three-Step Detox Program)” with Alex Melamid, and other events.

Who: Artists who are not represented by a New York City gallery
What: Clio Art Fair: The Anti-Fair for Independent Artists
Where: 508 West 26th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
When: March 5-8, free
Why: The Clio Art Fair lets their artists run wild without worrying about art market constraints and rules; there was a charming freshness to last year’s inaugural edition that the others lack, caring about the art and the artists ahead of the sale and actually enjoying itself, which rubs off on visitors.

Takahiro Hirabayashi will be among the artists showing at New City (courtesy Gallery Kogure)

Who: Nearly three dozen artists from eight Japanese galleries
What: New City Art Fair
Where: hpgrp Gallery New York, 529 West 20th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
When: March 5-8, free
Why: Now in its fourth year, New City concentrates on Japanese contemporary art. Programs include studio visits with Spoon & Tamago and a presentation by Pola Museum Annex.

Who: Polly Apfelbaum, BTHY, Fransje Killaars, Pushpamala N., Dona Nelson, Diana Shpungin, and Sarah Tritz
What: Salon Zürcher
Where: Salon Zürcher New York, 33 Bleecker St. between Lafayette & Bowery
When: March 5-12, free
Why: In its third edition, Salon Zürcher will highlight work by seven women artists shown by seven international galleries, including India, the United States, France, and the Netherlands.