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

QUEER NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL

Sineglossa’s REMEMBER ME is part of second Queer New York International Arts Festival

Abrons Arts Center and other venues
466 Grand St. at Pitt St.
October 23 – November 3, free – $18 (many shows $10 suggested donation)
212-598-0400
www.queerny.org
www.abronsartscenter.org

In a 2012 Huffington Post blog about the first Queer New York International Arts Festival, artistic codirector André von Ah wrote, “Queerness, in perhaps its barest and most basic concept, is about breaking the rules, shaking things up, and challenging preconceived ideas.” The second QNYIA continues to shake things up with twelve days and nights of performances, panel discussions, film screenings, workshops, and other events at such venues as Abrons Arts Center, the Invisible Dog, La MaMa, Joe’s Pub, and New York Live Arts, but sadly, it will be proceeding without von Ah, who curated this year’s programming with artistic director Zvonimir Dobrović but sadly passed away suddenly last month, still only in his mid-twenties. This year’s festival, which is dedicated to von Ah, opens October 23 with the U.S. premiere of Ivo Dimchev’s P-Project at Abrons Arts Center, the Bulgarian artist’s interactive piece that uses words that begin with the letter P to investigate societal taboos. Italy’s Sineglossa uses mirrored screens in Remember Me, based on Henry Purcell’s opera about Dido and Aeneas. Audience favorite Raimund Hoghe pays special tribute to von Ah with An Evening with Judy, in which he channels Judy Garland, Maria Callas, and others. Poland’s SUKA OFF investigates skin shedding in its multimedia Red Dragon. Brazil’s Ângelo Madureira plays “the dreamer” in his contemporary dance piece Delírio. Croatia’s Room 100 presents the U.S. premiere of its dark, experimental C8H11NO2. Dan Fishback offers a concert reading of The Material World at Joe’s Pub, the sequel to You Will Experience Silence; Fishback will also participate in the October 26 panel discussion “Creating Queer / Curating Queer” at the New School with Carla Peterson, Tere O’Connor, TL Cowan, Susana Cook, and Dobrović. The Club at La MaMa will host the New Music Series, featuring M Lamar, Shane Shane, Enid Ellen, Nath Ann Carrera, and Max Steele. The festival also includes works by Bojana Radulović, Elisa Jocson, Guillermo Riveros, Daniel Duford, Bruno Isaković, Gabriela Mureb, Heather Litteer, CHOKRA, Antonia Baehr, and Antoni Karwowski, with most shows requiring advance RSVPs and requesting a $10 suggested donation.

THE PRIME MINISTERS: THE PIONEERS

Golda Meir meets with Yitzhak Rabin, Abba Eban, and others in archival footage from new documentary on Israeli prime ministers (photo by Milner Moshe / Israel National Photo Library)

THE PRIME MINISTERS: THE PIONEERS (Richard Trank, 2013)
Quad Cinema
34 West 13th St.
Opens Friday, October 18
212-255-2243
www.quadcinema.com
www.theprimeministers-thefilm.com

The Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Oscar-winning team of writer-director-producer Richard Trank and writer-producer Rabbi Marvin Hier (The Long Way Home, Genocide) has followed up the staid, plodding It Is No Dream: The Life of Theodor Herzl with the relatively dull and lifeless The Prime Ministers: The Pioneers. Based on Israeli ambassador Yehuda Avner’s 2010 book, The Prime Ministers: An Intimate Narrative of Israeli Leadership, the film is built around Avner sharing his firsthand accounts of stories from his years of service to the government of the Jewish State, focusing on the War of Independence, the Six-Day War, the War of Attrition, and the Yom Kippur War. Although Avner, who is now eighty-four, is an interesting character, it’s not enough to sustain a nearly two-hour film, which consists solely of archival footage and Avner speaking, with no one else adding their thoughts, remembrances, and opinions. There is some fascinating material on lesser-known Israeli prime minister Levi Eshkol and the indefatigable Golda Meir, but the documentary is more like propaganda that should be shown at the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Museum of Tolerance than a theatrical release. It’s heavy with star power, which actually does it no favors; Sandra Bullock is the voice of Meir, Michael Douglas voices Yitzhak Rabin, Christoph Waltz is Menachem Begin, and Leonard Nimoy is Eshkol. Meanwhile, Lee Holdridge’s sweeping music overstates the case. Up next for Moriah Films is the second part of Avner’s story, The Prime Ministers: Soldiers and Peacemakers, which zeroes in on Rabin, Begin, and Shimon Peres. The Prime Ministers: The Pioneers opens October 18 at the Quad, with four Q&As scheduled for opening weekend with Trank, including one with Avner as well after the 4:45 show on Sunday.

CUT TO BLACK

Writer, producer, director, and star Dan Eberle plays the big, silent type in neo-noir CUT TO BLACK

CUT TO BLACK (Dan Eberle, 2013)
Cinema Village
22 East 12th St. between University Pl. & Fifth Ave.
Opens Friday, October 18
212-924-3363
insurgentpictures.com
www.cinemavillage.com

Winner of the Audience Award at the 2013 Brooklyn Film Festival, Cut to Black is a dark, gritty slice of neo-noir from writer, director, producer, and star Dan Eberle. Part brooding Mickey Rourke, part humorless Vin Diesel, Eberle (The Local, Prayer to a Vengeful God) plays brooding, humorless disgraced ex-cop Bill Ivers, a big, hulking man who doesn’t say much as he goes through his lonely daily existence. Running out of money to pay the landlord — whose wife (Alexandra Mingione) he is sleeping with — Ivers is surprised by a visit from an old police friend, Gunther (Beau Allulli), who takes him to meet with his former boss, John Lord (James Alba), who wants Ivers to track down a man who is stalking his biological daughter, Jessica (Jillaine Gill). Ivers at first is hesitant, not wanting to get involved in anything having to do with Lord, a possible gubernatorial candidate, but he can’t say no to 200 G’s. It turns out that Jessica is working as a stripper, and her longtime boyfriend, a sleazeball named Duane (Joe Stipek), owes a fat wad of cash to local gangster Yates (Paul Bowen). Ivers can’t help himself from doing what he thinks is right, so he’s soon in the middle of it all, with all kinds of people wanting him out of the picture. Eberle regular cinematographer James Parsons shoots Cut to Black in sharp black-and-white, offering a unique view of modern-day Brooklyn (as well as Manhattan, Queens, and upstate New York). Eberle might not have a lot of range as an actor, but he dominates the screen with a firm presence, especially when Parsons zooms in on his beaten and battered face. The pacing is relatively slow until the twists start piling up one after another, some predictable, some not, others just plain strange, as Ivers is determined to see things through to the potentially violent end. As low-budget crime thrillers go, Cut to Black packs quite a stylish little punch. The film opens October 18 at Cinema Village, with Eberle and other members of the cast and crew on hand for a Q&A following the 7:15 screening.

CMJ 2013: DAY TWO

No, Jamaican Queens has nothing to do with changing trains on the LIRR. Instead, it’s a Detroit-based duo that has numerous CMJ gigs scheduled this week; you can catch Ryan Spencer and Adam Pressley and their “satanic doo wop” October 16 at Pianos at 6:00 and Webster Hall’s Marlin Room at 9:20, followed on October 17 at Muchmore’s at 3:00 and at Littlefield at 7:00. See below for our other top picks for CMJ Day Two.

KEXP Live Broadcast: Bear Ceuse, 10:00; Cub Sport, 12 noon; Weekend, 2:00; the Helio Sequence, 4:30

“The New Curators,” with Kenna, David Adams, and Matthew Perpetua, NYU Kimmel Center, room 802 Shorin, 12:30

Kanine Records and SESAC’s Trick or Treat Party: the History of Apple Pie, 2:00; the Valleys, 2:45; Joanna Gruesome, 3:30; Beach Day, 4:15; Eagulls, 5:45; Eternal Summers, 6:30, Pianos, 158 Ludlow St.

Julia Weldon, Alphabet Lounge, 104 Ave. C, 7:00

Glenn Tilbrook, with the Fabulous Miss Wendy and Awake, Stage 48, 605 West 48th St., 8:00

Tijuana Gift Shop: Amy Lynn & the Gun Show, 8:30; These Animals, 9:20; Mia Dyson, 10:10; Firehorse, 11:00; Wake Island, 11:50; Pool Cosby, 12:40, Bowery Electric, 327 Bowery

NME showcase: Theo Verney, 8:45; Porcelain Raft, 9:30; Courtney Barnett, 10:15; Eagulls, 11:00; Yuck, 12 midnight, Tammany Hall, 152 Orchard St.

Duck Down/Javotti showcase: Black Moon LIVE backed by Phony Ppl (Enta Da Stage 20-year anniversary set), Cory Mo, DJ Set by Meka of 2dopeboyz, Res of Idle Warship, Smif N Wessun Reggae Jam Session, T’Nah Apex (Pro Era), Talib Kweli, the Underachievers, Children of the Night, F. Stokes, Music Hall of Williamsburg, 9:00

Au Revoir Simone, Highline Ballroom, 431 West 16th St., 10:30

Megafauna, Left Field, 87 Ludlow St., 10:45

RICHIE’S FANTASTIC FIVE — KUROSAWA, MIZOGUCHI, OZU, YANAGIMACHI & KORE-EDA: HIGH AND LOW

A group of men try to find kidnappers in Akira Kurosawa’s tense noir / police procedural

HIGH AND LOW (TENGOKU TO JIGOKU) (Akira Kurosawa, 1963)
Japan Society
333 East 47th St. at First Ave.
Friday, October 18, $12, 7:00
Series runs monthly through February
212-715-1258
www.japansociety.org

On the verge of being forced out of the company he has dedicated his life to, National Shoes executive Kingo Gondo’s (Toshirō Mifune) life is thrown into further disarray when kidnappers claim to have taken his son, Jun (Toshio Egi), and are demanding a huge ransom for his safe return. But when Gondo discovers that they have mistakenly grabbed Shinichi (Masahiko Shimazu), the son of his chauffeur, Aoki (Yutaka Sada), he at first refuses to pay. But at the insistence of his wife (Kyogo Kagawa), the begging of Aoki, and the advice of police inspector Taguchi (Kenjiro Ishiyama), he reconsiders his decision, setting in motion a riveting police procedural that is filled with tense emotion. Loosely based on Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct novel King’s Ransom, Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low is divided into two primary sections: the first half takes place in Gondo’s luxury home, orchestrated like a stage play as the characters are developed and the plan takes hold. The second part of the film follows the police, under the leadership of Chief Detective Tokura (Tatsuya Nakadai), as they hit the streets of the seedier side of Yokohama in search of the kidnappers. Known in Japan as Tengoku to Jigoku, which translates as Heaven and Hell, High and Low is an expert noir, a subtle masterpiece that tackles numerous socioeconomic and cultural issues as Gondo weighs the fate of his business against the fate of a small child; it all manages to feel as fresh and relevant today as it probably did back in the ’60s.

Kingo Gondo (Toshirō Mifune) has some tough decisions to make in HIGH AND LOW

High and Low is screening on October 18 at 7:00 at Japan Society, kicking off the first section of the monthly tribute series “Richie’s Fantastic Five: Kurosawa, Mizoguchi, Ozu, Yanagimachi & Kore-eda,” which honors Ohio-born writer, critic, scholar, curator, and filmmaker Donald Richie, who died in February at the age of eighty-eight. Richie was a tireless champion of Japanese culture and, particularly, cinema, and the series features six works by five of his favorite directors. Richie called High and Low, which will be introduced by series curator Kyoko Hirano and followed by a reception, “a morality play in the form of an exciting thriller. A self-made man (Mifune) is ruined by a jealous nobody ([Tsutomu] Yamazaki in his first important screen role) but goes on to do the right thing and in the end the camera observes more similarities than differences between the two. With a memorable mid-film climax on a high-speed bullet-train.” The series continues in November with Kenji Mizoguchi’s The Life of Oharu, in December with Yasujiro Ozu’s Late Autumn (screening on Ozu’s birthday, which will also mark the fiftieth anniversary of his death), in January with Mitsuo Yanagimachi’s Himatsuri, and in February with Hirokazu Kore-eda’s After Life, appropriately on the one-year anniversary of Richie’s passing. “Thanks to Richie,” Hirano explained in a statement about the festival, “the world knows the greatness of Japanese cinema.”

WALLS AND BRIDGES — THE ANIMAL VISION: IN CONNECTION WITH THE DRAWING CENTER EXHIBIT “ALEXIS ROCKMAN: DRAWINGS FROM ‘LIFE OF PI’”

Alexis Rockman will discuss his fantastical creations he made, such as the above watercolor, for Ang Lee’s LIFE OF PI in special Walls and Bridges program

The Drawing Center
35 Wooster St. between Grand & Broome Sts.
Thursday, October 17, free, 6:30
www.wallsandbridges.net
www.drawingcenter.org

When making his 2012 hit film Life of Pi, director Ang Lee turned to artist Alexis Rockman to create aquatic species for the central part of the narrative, which takes place on the open sea. Rockman’s watercolor drawings are now on view at the Drawing Center, which is the site for the special October 17 program “The Animal Vision,” part of the third annual Franco-American Walls and Bridges festival. New York native Rockman will discuss his hallucinatory work with Belgian philosopher and ethologist Vinciane Despret; the event will be hosted by Rice University English professor Cary Wolfe (Animal Rites: American Culture, the Discourse of Species, and Posthumanist Theory). Rockman’s “Drawings from Life of Pi” continues at the Drawing Center through November 3; in addition, Rockman’s “Rubicon,” consisting of such new paintings as the large-scale “Bronx Zoo” and “Gowanus,” which depict a heavily detailed, surreal animal world, are on view through November 2 at Sperone Westwater. The ten-day Walls and Bridges festival also includes the multimedia presentation “Unrest” October 18 at the Whitney, featuring the live performance “Meurtrière” by Philippe Grandrieux, a screening of Grandrieux’s film White Epilepsy, and a discussion with Grandrieux, Avital Ronell, and Lynne Tillman; “City Shapes,” in which French geographer Michel Lussault and American photographer Matthew Pillsbury discuss the changing urban environment, October 19 at the Aperture Gallery; and the Oh! Oui… company’s music and theater production Stille Nacht October 20 at the Invisible Dog Art Center.

CMJ 2013: DAY ONE

The CMJ Music Marathon begins on October 15, kicking off five days of live music, panel discussions, talks, and other special events. Below are our suggestions for the first day, including the annual New Zealand showcase, Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees, the Gutter Twins), and a gig by the recently reunited Bongos, whose “Numbers with Wings” appears above, from the Maxwell’s farewell concert.

“How to Survive as a Musician in 2013,” with Mike Fordham, Seth Kallen, Travis Morrison, Josh Roth, and Joe Vesayaporn, NYU Kimmel Center, room 905/907, 12:30

What Blog?!: Owel, 1:00; Traumahelikopter, 1:45; Conjjjecture, 2:30; the Box Tiger, 3:15; Beach Day, 4:00; Ghost Wave, 4:45; Milagres, 5:30; Pianos, 158 Ludlow St.

Niall Connolly, 2:00, Rockwood Music Hall, 196 Allen St.

The Outlet Collective: Ula Ruth, 4:30; Whale Belly, 5:10; Poory Remy, 5:50; Tam Lin, 6:30; Cold Blood Club, 7:10, Bowery Electric, 327 Bowery

NZ@CMJ: Tiny Ruins, 6:00; Black City Lights, 6:35; Eden Mulholland, 7:10; Streets of Laredo, 7:45; Ghost Wave, 8:20, (le) poisson rouge, 158 Bleecker St.

Oh My Rockness: Big Ups, 7:00; Greys, 8:00; Ovlov, 9:00; PUP, 10:00; Kirin J Callinan, 11:00; Hunters, 12 midnight, Cameo Gallery, 93 North Sixth St.

The Bongos, 8:00, the Living Room, 54 Ludlow St.

Mark Lanegan, 9:45, Gramercy Theater, 127 East 23rd St.

Banners CMJ Party: Bored Nothing, 9:00; Total Slacker, 9:15; Honduras, 9:45; Spires, 10:00; How Sad, 10:30, Pianos, 158 Ludlow St.

Radical Dads, 12 midnight, Muchmore, 2 Havermeyer St.