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

NEW YORK BOAT SHOW 2014

The New York Boat Show will dock at the Javits Center January 1-5 (photo courtesy NMMA)

Jacob Javits Convention Center
35th St. & 11th Ave.
January 1-5, adults $15, children fifteen and younger free with paid adult admission
212-984-7000
www.javitscenter.com
www.nyboatshow.com

The 109th edition of the world’s first boat show will set anchor at the Javits Center January 1-5, featuring all things nautical. Hundreds of exhibitors will be displaying their wares, including plenty of brand-new products and cutting-edge technology, and there will be special appearances by such seaworthy celebs as Captain Dave Carraro of NatGeo’s Wicked Tuna, Michael Karas and Jen Slaw of Perfect Catch, gator swampmaster Jeff Quattrocchi, and Blackbear the Pirate author Steve Buckley. The five-day festival also offers lots of workshops (seamanship, fishing, motor maintenance), children’s activities (toy boat building, paddle boating in a mini lake), seminars at Fred’s Shed Interactive Learning Center (“Go One-on-One with a Service Technician,” “All Charged Up: Installing and Maintaining a Marine Battery System,” “Don’t Be Fuelish: Propping Your Boat for Performance and Fuel Economy”), demonstrations (“Line Handling & Throwing,” “Danger Bearings,” “Getting Your Captain’s License”), and contests and giveaways. And of course, there will also be boats galore, from luxury yachts, catamarans, bass boats, inboard cruisers, pontoons, trawlers, and houseboats to daysailers, racing sailboats, dinghies, Personal Water Crafts, inflatables, kayaks, and many more. Be prepared to navigate through crowds, as boating is once again on the upswing. “The housing market has improved, consumer confidence has steadily increased the last two years, and consumer spending is on the rise—all factors that are helping to fuel stable growth for the U.S. recreational boating industry and further sales in 2013,” National Marine Manufacturers Association president Thom Dammrich said late last week. “In addition, we’re seeing more and more Americans take to the water, as our participation numbers are at an all-time high—88 million Americans went boating in 2012. This indicates that with experience on the water comes an interest in life on the water and the subsequent purchase of a boat.”

CINEMATIC SITES: NEIGHBORING SOUNDS

Brazilian Oscar hopeful NEIGHBORING SOUNDS examines changing community in changing times

NEIGHBORING SOUNDS (O SOM AO REDOR) (Kleber Mendonça Filho, 2011)
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
1071 Fifth Ave. at 89th St.
Friday, December 27, free with museum admission of $22, 3:00
212-423-3587
www.cinemaguild.com
www.guggenheim.org

Inspired by actual events that took place in his hometown of Recife, Brazil, Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Neighboring Sounds is an engaging slice-of-life examination of class differences and a community in the midst of social and economic change. When Clodoaldo (Irandhir Santos) and Fernando (Nivaldo Nascimento) go door-to-door offering their services as overnight security guards protecting the street, only Francisco (W. J. Solha), an aging, wealthy sugar baron who owns much of the surrounding property, and his grandson João (Gustavo Jahn) refuse to participate in the shady proposal, but Francisco insists that they keep their hands off another of his grandsons, Dinho (Yuri Holanda), who is responsible for a spate of car-stereo robberies. This suburban neighborhood, ever more in the architectural shadow of bigger high rises going up all around them, is filled with little secrets and minor resentments. A mechanic keys an expensive car when the owner is rude to him. Clodoaldo and a maid (Clébia Souza) make use of a fancy gated house he is taking care of while the owners are away. Sisters fight over the size of a flat-screen television. And a co-op board wants to fire their longtime night watchman without a severance package because he has taken to napping on the job. Meanwhile, João, who has two children by the daughter of the family’s maid, has started a relationship with the more acceptable Sofia (Irma Brown), but the privileged João still lives in the past; when he shows an apartment in one of Francisco’s condos, he points out what would be the maid’s room, assuming everyone can afford domestic help. And Bia (Meve Jinkings) finds a different kind of domestic help, buying large quantities of pot from the water guy, finding unique ways to deal with her neighbor’s howling dog, and using household appliances to pleasure herself. A film critic who has previously made documentaries, Filho, who wrote, directed, and coedited (with João Maria) Neighboring Sounds, has populated his debut full-length feature with believable characters caught up in realistic situations, along with just the right dose of black comedy. The film was shot with natural sound at a relaxed pace, inviting viewers into this intriguing fictional tale filled with real-world implications, involving a decaying past and modern issues of safety and surveillance. While João might be the moral conscious of the story, it is Jinkings’s Bia who steals this small gem of a film, her unique methods of daily survival a joy to behold. Neighboring Sounds is screening December 27 at 3:00 as part of the Guggenheim Museum program “Cinematic Sites” and will be introduced at 2:45 by series organizer Paul Dallas; the screening is being held in conjunction with the exhibition “Participatory City: 100 Urban Trends from the BMW Guggenheim Lab,” which continues through January 5, when Wu Tsang’s Wildness will be shown. You can also catch the film on December 31 at 5:15 and January 1 at 8:30 at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center as part of the Film Society of Lincoln Center series “For Your Consideration: Foreign Oscar Hopefuls.”

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION — DOCUMENTARY OSCAR HOPEFULS: THE SQUARE

Ahmed Hassan fights for a better future for Egypt in THE SQUARE

THE SQUARE (AL MIDAN) (Jehane Noujaim, 2013)
Film Society of Lincoln Center
Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, Howard Gilman Theater
Sunday, December 22, 4:00, and Monday, December 23, 8:15
Series runs December 20-26
212-875-5601
www.thesquarefilm.com
www.filmlinc.com

“During the early days, we agreed to stay united no matter what,” Ahmed Hassan tells those around him in Jehane Noujaim’s powerful and important documentary The Square. “When we were united, we brought down the dictator. How do we succeed now? We succeed by uniting once again.” But Ahmed, one of several Egyptian revolutionaries who Noujaim follows for two years in the film, finds that it is not that easy to bring everyone together, as the government leaders continue to change and factions develop that favor the military and the Muslim Brotherhood. Putting her own life in danger, Noujaim (The Control Room, Startup.com) is right in the middle of it all as she shares the stories of Ahmed, a young man who is determined to see the revolution through until peace and justice prevail; Magdy Ashour, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood who must choose between his own personal beliefs and that of his power-hungry organization; and Khalid Abdalla, the British-Egyptian star of The Kite Runner and United 93 who becomes an activist like his father, serving as the revolution’s main link to the international community through the media and by posting videos. In The Square, a 2013 New York Film Festival selection, Noujaim also introduces viewers to human rights lawyer Ragia Omran, protest singer Ramy Essam, and filmmaker Aida El Kashef, none of whom is willing to give in even as the violence increases.

Massive crowds of Egyptians occupy Tahrir Square to demand freedom and democracy in THE SQUARE

Documentary offers an inside look at the occupation of Tahrir Square by Egyptians demanding freedom and democracy

In the documentary, Noujaim includes footage of televised political speeches and interviews that contradict what is actually happening in Tahrir Square as elections near. Reminiscent of Stefano Savona’s Tahrir: Liberation Square, which played at the 2011 New York Film Festival, The Square makes the audience feel like it’s in Tahrir Square, rooting for the revolutionaries to gain the freedom and democracy they so covet. The film also features several stunning shots of the massive crowds, most memorably as thousands of men kneel down in unison to pray to Mecca. Among its many strengths, The Square personalizes the revolution in such a way as to reveal that a small group of people can indeed make a difference, although sometimes they just have to keep on fighting and fighting and fighting. The Square is screening December 22 at 4:00 and December 23 at 8:15, both followed by Q&As with Noujaim, as part the Film Society of Lincoln Center series “For Your Consideration: Documentary Oscar Hopefuls,” which runs December 20-26 and consists of all fifteen nonfiction features that have made the Academy Awards short-list, including Cutie and the Boxer, Dirty Wars, Stories We Tell, Blackfish, and 20 Feet from Stardom. The festival will be followed December 27 – January 2 by “For Your Consideration: Foreign Oscar Hopefuls,” comprising such international fare as Wong Kar-wai’s The Grandmaster, Thomas Vinterberg’s The Hunt, Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Neighboring Sounds, and Haifaa Al Mansour’s Wadjda.

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION — DOCUMENTARY OSCAR HOPEFULS: CUTIE AND THE BOXER

Documentary tells the engaging story of a pair of Japanese artists and the life they have made for themselves in Brooklyn

CUTIE AND THE BOXER (Zachary Heinzerling, 2013)
Film Society of Lincoln Center
Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, Howard Gilman Theater
Sunday, December 22, 2:00, and Tuesday, December 24, 7:00
Series runs December 20-26
212-875-5601
www.filmlinc.com
www.facebook.com/cutieandtheboxer

Zachary Heinzerling’s Cutie and the Boxer is a beautifully told story of love and art and the many sacrifices one must make to try to succeed in both. In 1969, controversial Japanese Neo Dada action painter and sculptor Ushio Shinohara came to New York City, looking to expand his career. According to the catalog for the recent MoMA show “Tokyo 1955-1970: A New Avant-Garde,” which featured four works by Ushio, “American art had seemed to him to be ‘marching toward the glorious prairie of the rainbow and oasis of the future, carrying all the world’s expectations of modern painting.’” Four years later, he met nineteen-year-old Noriko, who had left Japan to become an artist in New York as well. The two fell in love and have been together ever since, immersed in a fascinating relationship that Heinzerling explores over a five-year period in his splendid feature-length theatrical debut. Ushio and Noriko live in a cramped apartment and studio in DUMBO, where he puts on boxing gloves, dips them in paint, and pounds away at large, rectangular canvases and builds oversized motorcycle sculptures out of found materials. Meanwhile, Noriko, who has spent most of the last forty years taking care of her often childlike husband and staying with him through some rowdy times and battles with the bottle, is finally creating her own work, an R. Crumb-like series of drawings detailing the life of her alter ego, Cutie, and her often cruel husband, Bullie. (“Ushi” means “bull” in Japanese.) While Ushio is more forthcoming verbally in the film, mugging for the camera and speaking his mind, the pig-tailed Noriko is far more tentative, so director and cinematographer Heinzerling brings her tale to life by animating her work, her characters jumping off the page to show Cutie’s constant frustration with Bullie.

Ushio Shinohara creates one of his action paintings in CUTIE AND THE BOXER

During the course of the too-short eighty-two-minute film — it would have been great to spend even more time with these unique and compelling figures — the audience is introduced to the couple’s forty-year-old son, who has some issues of his own; Guggenheim senior curator of Asian Art Alexandra Munroe, who stops by the studio to consider purchasing one of Ushio’s boxing paintings for the museum; and Chelsea gallery owner Ethan Cohen, who represents Ushio. But things never quite take off for Ushio, who seems to always be right on the cusp of making it. Instead, the couple struggles to pay their rent. One of the funniest, yet somehow tragic, scenes in the film involves Ushio packing up some of his sculptures — forcing them into a suitcase like clothing — and heading back to Japan to try to sell some pieces. Cutie and the Boxer is a special documentary that gets to the heart of the creative process as it applies both to art and love, focusing on two disparate people who have made a strange yet thoroughly charming life for themselves. Cutie and the Boxer is screening December 22 at 2:00, followed by a Q&A with Heinzerling, and December 24 at 7:00 as part the Film Society of Lincoln Center series “For Your Consideration: Documentary Oscar Hopefuls,” which runs December 20-26 and consists of all fifteen nonfiction features that have made the Academy Awards short-list, including Blackfish, The Act of Killing, Life According to Sam, The Crash Reel, First Cousin Once Removed, and Which Way Is the Front Line from Here? The festival will be followed December 27 – January 2 by “For Your Consideration: Foreign Oscar Hopefuls,” comprising such international fare as Wong Kar-wai’s The Grandmaster, Thomas Vinterberg’s The Hunt, Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Neighboring Sounds, and Haifaa Al Mansour’s Wadjda.

VICE PRESENTS THE FILM FOUNDATION SCREENING SERIES: THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER

Robert Mitchum gets caught up in some dangerous dichotomies in THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER

ONE NITE ONLY: THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER (Charles Laughton, 1955)
Nitehawk Cinema
136 Metropolitan Ave. between Berry St. & Wythe Ave.
Tuesday, December 17, $16, 9:30
718-384-3980
www.nitehawkcinema.com

Robert Mitchum stars in Charles Laughton’s lurid story of traveling preacher/con man/murderer Harry Powell, who has the word “love” tattooed on one set of knuckles and “hate” on the other. While in prison, Powell bunks with Ben Harper (Peter Graves), who got caught stealing $10,000 — but the only person who knows where the money is is Ben’s young son, John (Billy Chapin). When Preacher is released from jail, he shows up on the Harpers’ doorstep, ready to woo the widow Willa (Shelley Winters) — and get his hands on the money any way he can, including torturing John and his sister, Ruby (Gloria Castillo). Laughton’s only directorial effort is seriously flawed — the scenes in the beginning and end with Lillian Gish are wholly unnecessary and detract from the overall mood. Stanley Cortez’s cinematography is outstanding, featuring his unique use of shadows, the battle between light and dark (which plays off of several themes: old versus young, rich versus poor, good versus evil, and men versus women), and some marvelous silhouettes. Based on Davis Grubb’s 1953 novel, the film has made its way onto many best-of lists, from scariest and most thrilling to all-time great and most beautiful. The Night of the Hunter is screening December 17 at 9:30 as part of Nitehawk Cinema’s “One Nite Only” and “VICE Presents: The Film Foundation Screening Series” and will be introduced by fashion photographer and documentary filmmaker Bruce Weber. The screening will be followed by an after-party in the downstairs bar with complimentary Larceny Bourbon drinks. The VICE series continues on January 28 with Barbara Loden’s Wanda and February 25 with Shirley Clarke’s The Connection.

BUST MAGAZINE CRAFTACULAR AND FOOD FAIR / DEGENERATE CRAFT FAIR

BUST magazine busts into the Metropolitan Pavilion for Craftacular Fair this weekend

It’s two weeks before Christmas, and the holiday market season is kicking into high gear. There are more markets than ever, from Grand Central Terminal, Union Square Park, and Columbus Circle to Bryant Park, the LIC Flea, and Astoria Market. A pair of unique indoor markets pull into town this weekend, open only Saturday and Sunday. The eighth annual Bust Magazine Holiday Craftacular & Food Fair will take place at the Metropolitan Pavilion on December 14-15, featuring nearly two hundred and fifty vendors in addition to workshops and tutorials (led by S.W. Basics, Textile Arts Center, paper artist Julie Schneider, wedding designer Michelle Edgemont, and others), adoptable pets, and music by DJs Ali Gruber and a Good LHOOQ. Admission is three bucks, and the first three hundred attendees each day will receive a special tote bag filled with cool stuff. Among the vendors are Natural Adornment, Belindabilly, Vintage Robot, Eavesmade, Queen Bee Fibers, and wantnot, along with such eateries as i heart keenwah, Two Boots Pizza, FattyCakes NY, MitchMallows, Better Off Spread, and Vegan Wain Bakery. Things are a whole lot more DIY at the fifth annual Degenerate Craft Fair, being held in the DCTV Firehouse on Lafayette St. More than fifty vendors will be selling items mostly under fifty dollars, including 100cameras, Au Retour, Broderpress, Carrier Pigeon, Cigar Box Guitars, Hi Rise Hive, Instant Rabbit, nico icon, and Three-armed Squid. There will be an opening reception December 14 from 6:00 to 8:00 with music and free beer, while the first fifty guests on December 15 (the fair opens at 11:00 am) get a free tote of stuff.

THE LIFE AND DEATH OF MARINA ABRAMOVIC

Marina Abramović’s life — and death — takes center stage with the help of Willem Dafoe, Antony, Robert Wilson, and others

Park Avenue Armory, Wade Thompson Drill Hall
643 Park Ave. at 67th St.
December 13-21, $135, 7:30
212-933-5812
www.armoryonpark.org

Performance artist extraordinaire Marina Abramović has been undergoing a career renaissance this century, highlighted by an exciting, vibrant 2010 MoMA retrospective, “The Artist Is Present,” and the 2012 documentary about the making of the exhibition. The Serbian-born, New York-based Abramović is a regular at fancy galas, and she even recently performed at Pace Gallery with Jay-Z. So what does the sixty-seven-year-old artist do, just as her life and career have become rejuvenated? Well, she stages her own funeral, of course. Actually, Abramović has decided to hand her biography over to experimental theater maestro Robert Wilson, the man behind such innovative and unique collaborations as The Black Rider with William S. Burroughs and Tom Waits, Einstein on the Beach with Philip Glass and Lucinda Childs, and The Temptation of Saint Anthony with Bernice Johnson Reagon and Geoffrey Holder. In The Life and Death of Marina Abramović, the woman behind the “Rhythm” series and so many other cutting-edge works plays herself and her mother, with Willem Dafoe serving as narrator and songs by Antony Hegarty. Conceived and directed by Wilson, it is another audiovisual spectacle that has already had a documentary made about its creation; “Marina is the landscape, Bob the mind, Antony the heart, Willem the body,” director Giada Colagrande explains. The Life and Death of Marina Abramović will fill the Park Ave. Armory’s Wade Thompson Drill Hall December 12-21; on December 15 at 6:15, armory artistic director Alex Poots will moderate an artist talk with Abramović and Dafoe in the Veterans Room as part of the Malkin Lecture Series.