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

NORTHSIDE FILM 2012

Ai Weiwei documentary makes no apologies at Northside Festival on Wednesday night

indieScreen, 289 Kent Ave.
Nitehawk Cinema, 136 Metropolitan Ave.
UnionDocs, 322 Union Ave.
June 18-21
www.northsidefestival.com

Now that the music section of the Northside Festival is now over, film takes center stage, with four days of screenings at indieScreen, Nitehawk Cinema, and UnionDocs in Williamsburg. Among the dozens of shorts, documentaries, animated films, and narrative dramas are Adam Sherman’s Crazy Eyes, about family strife and unrequited lust, starring Lukas Haas and Madeline Zima; Ryan O’Nan’s Brooklyn Brothers Beat the Best, a coming-of-age road trip story with an all-star cast in small roles; Pema Tseden’s film-festival favorite, Old Dog, about man and beast; James Yaegashi’s Park Slope-set romantic comedy Lefty Loosey Righty Tighty; Sarah Polley’s Take This Waltz, in which Luke Kirby might come between married couple Michele Williams and Seth Rogen; Alison Klayman’s Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, about the embattled Chinese activist artist; and a special retro screening of Todd Solondz’s indie classic Welcome to the Dollhouse, with many of the presentations followed by Q&As with the filmmakers.

NEW MUSIC SEMINAR

Today the Moon, Tomorrow the Sun will be part of inaugural New Music Seminar, playing Pianos on Monday night (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Webster Hall (and other venues)
125 East 11th St.
June 17-20, registration $399 (students $249)
Individual concerts: free – $45 (most $20 and under)
212-353-1600
newmusicseminar.com

The inaugural New Music Seminar is dedicated to supporting all kinds of music based on talent and merit alone, “without regard to its financial resources or connections.” As its name implies, it’s a mix of live performances from up-and-coming bands in addition to workshops, lectures, panel discussions, and seminars. Taking place June 17-20 at Webster Hall and other venues, NMS ’12 gets under way Sunday afternoon with a pair of Songwriters Hall of Fame presentations, followed by an opening-night party with the Fiery Sensations, Samantha Slithers, Evan Shinners, the Pierces, Hoodie Allen, and others, along with DJ sets by Andy Rourke of the Smiths. Things get going early Monday morning with opening remarks by Tom Silverman of Tommy Boy Records and Michael J. Huppe of SoundExchange, followed by the keynote address delivered by Bob Pittman of Clear Channel and Sean Parker of Founders Fund. Over the next several days, Peter Asher will conduct “BMI Presents the Songwriters Movement,” with demonstrations by Desmond Child, Ammar Malik, Billy Mann, and Sandy Vee; Yancey Strickler will host “Kickstarter: Amanda Palmer’s Kickstarter Million and What We Can Learn from It”; various radio program directors and brand managers will team up for “The Gods of Radio: Going Beyond Simulcasting”; and ReverbNation’s Jed Carlson will address the question “How Do You Start a Buzz?” There will also be a Meet the Authors event on Tuesday featuring the writers of a dozen books about the music business. In addition to the special programs at Webster Hall, which require registration of $249 to $399, there are dozens of individually ticketed and/or free concerts, including Alice Smith at City Winery, Ziggy Marley and Bajah + the Dry Eye Crew at Irving Plaza, the Mingus Big Band and Terence Blanchard at the Jazz Standard, Rosie Flores, Mare Winningham, and Garland Jeffreys at the Living Room, Electric Sun at Cameo, Travis Porter at S.O.B.’s, the Great Apes at Cake Shop, NinjaSonik and the Dirty Pearls at Santos Party House, and Today the Moon, Tomorrow the Sun at Pianos.

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH FILM FESTIVAL: THE INVISIBLE WAR

Kori Cioca shares her shocking story in THE INVISIBLE WAR

THE INVISIBLE WAR (Kirby Dick, 2011)
Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th St. at Amsterdam Ave.
Monday, June 18, 8:45; Wednesday, June 20, 6:30
Series runs through June 28
212-875-5601
www.filmlinc.com
invisiblewarmovie.com

Kirby Dick’s The Invisible War is one of the bravest, most explosive investigative documentaries you’re ever likely to see. Dick (This Film Is Not Yet Rated) busts open the military’s dirty little secret, revealing that episodes of horrific sexual abuse such as the Tailhook scandal are not an aberration but a prime example of a rape epidemic that seems to an accepted part of military culture. Dick speaks with many women and one man who share their incredible stories, describing in often graphic detail the sexual abuse they suffered, then faced further abuse when they reported what had happened. Their superiors, some of whom were the rapists themselves, either looked the other way, laughed off their allegations as no big deal, or threatened the victims’ careers. Dick includes remarkable Defense Department statistics — the government admits that approximately one out of every five female soldiers suffers sexual abuse and that there were nineteen thousand violent sex crimes in 2010 alone — even as such military officials as Dr. Kaye Whitley, Rear Admiral Anthony Kurta, and Brigadier General Mary Kay Hertog make absurd claims that they are satisfied with the way they are handling the alarming trend. The central figure in the film is Kori Cioca, a former member of the Coast Guard whose face was broken when she was raped by a superior and now keeps getting denied necessary medical services from the VA. Such courageous women as USAF Airman 1st Class Jessica Hinves, former Marine Officer Ariana Klay, USN veteran Trina McDonald, USMC Lieutenant Elle Helmer, USN Lieutenant Paula Coughlin, and even Special Agent Myla Haider of the Army Criminal Investigation Command also open up about the physical and psychological damage the abuse has left on their lives and careers.

Lieutenant Elle Helmer visits the Vietnam War Memorial in shattering documentary

Inspired by Helen Benedict’s 2007 Salon.com article “The Private War of Women Soldiers,” Dick and producer Amy Ziering (The Memory Thief) have presented a searing indictment of an endemic military culture that has to come to an end, and fast. The Invisible War is screening June 18 and 20 at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival, both of which will be followed by a Q&A with Dick and Ziering, winners of the festival’s Nestor Almendros Award for courage in filmmaking. They will be joined on June 20 by Ariana Klay and her husband, Ben, along with moderator Meghan Rhoad. The festival runs through June 28 at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, highlighting seventeen works divided into five categories: “Health, Development, and the Environment,” “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) and Migrants’ Rights,” “Personal Testimony and Witnessing,” “Reporting in Crises,” and “Women’s Rights,” with this year’s focus on how one individual or a small group of individuals can help make a difference.

NORTHSIDE FESTIVAL 2012: DAY TWO

LIssy Trullie will be looking for love and more at Northside tonight (photo by Cory Kennedy)

The third annual Northside Festival heads into day two with its biggest show, an outdoor concert in McCarren Park featuring of Montreal, Jens Lekman, the Thermals, and Beach Fossils that should be hipster central. But don’t pass up the smaller, cheaper events at such venues as Bar Matchless, Cameo Gallery, Europa, Glasslands, Music Hall of Williamsburg, the Knitting Factory, Public Assembly, and Legion. Tonight’s promising roster includes St. Lucia, French Horn Rebellion, Lissy Trullie, Buke and Gase, and a record release party for These United States. In addition, Northside Art begins, with dozens of artists opening up their studios to visitors, and Northside Entrepreneurship continues with such panel discussions as “Fundraising for Niche Startups: Lessons from Urban Agriculture Innovators,” “Make Things Not War,” and “GZA on the Spirit of Disruption and Brooklyn.”

of Montreal, Jens Lekman, the Thermals, Beach Fossils, McCarren Park, $33.50, 5:00

Northside Art: Katie Nielsen, “Many Conversations” group show at Present Company, opening reception 6:00 – midnight, “Space Half Empty” group show at Fowler Arts Collective, opening reception 7:00 – 10:00

Neon Gold Records present: St. Lucia, French Horn Rebellion, Black Light Dinner Party, Slowdance, Lovelife, Nini Fabi, Chrome Canyon (DJ), Cameo Gallery, $15, 7:00

These United States (album release show), Grand Rapids, Your 33 Black Angels, Knitting Factory, $15, 8:00

The Whatever Blog presents: LUFF, Gold Streets, the Planes, Crazy Pills, Alyson Greenfield, Legion, $5, 8:00

PopGun presents: Lissy Trullie, the Young Rapscallions, Motive, Glasslands Gallery, $10, 8:30

MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ: THE ARTIST IS PRESENT

Performance artist Marina Abramović is present in more ways than one in intimate documentary

MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ: THE ARTIST IS PRESENT (Matthew Akers, 2012)
Film Forum
209 West Houston St.
June 13-26
212-727-8110
www.filmforum.org

For forty years, Belgrade-born performance artist Marina Abramović has been presenting cutting-edge, often controversial live works that redefine what art is. For her highly anticipated major career retrospective at MoMA in 2010, “Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present,” which was titled and curated by Klaus Biesenbach, the longtime New Yorker had something extraordinary planned: For the run of the show, from March 14 through May 31, she would spend the entire time the museum was open sitting across from strangers, gazing into each other’s eyes for as long as the visitor wanted. Documentary cinematographer Matthew Akers takes viewers behind the scenes of that remarkable show in his directorial feature debut, also called Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present. Given unlimited access to both Abramović and MoMA, Akers follows the sixty-three-year-old artist as she prepares for the exhibition; heads to a country retreat where she trains several dozen men and women who will “re-perform” some of her older works; and reconnects with former partner and lover Ulay, with whom she first performed many of the pieces in the show. Abramović is seen relaxing in a tub, chopping vegetables, and taking a rare turn behind the wheel of a car, performing relatively menial tasks compared to her art, in which she flagellates herself, carves a star into her stomach, runs into walls, gets slapped by and slaps Ulay, and allows visitors to do whatever they want to her using various objects. The film is at its best when Abramović and Ulay open up about their relationship, get emotional over seeing the old van they used to live in, and discuss their final performance, “The Great Wall Walk,” when they started at opposite ends of the Great Wall of China and walked toward each other over the course of three months, then broke up. While various art critics and curators, including Biesenbach and the Whitney’s Chrissie Iles, sing Abramović’s praises, the film never delves into the more serious meaning behind her art and avoids examining its controversial nature, save for one brief news report decrying its use of nudity. But the long scenes in which Abramović and visitors look into each other’s eyes are absolutely mesmerizing; the elegant Abramović is always steady and stalwart, her concentration intoxicating, inspiring, and more than a little frightening, the opening of her eyes a work of art in and of itself, while the person opposite her tears up, smiles, or pats their heart softly, thanking her for the intense, emotional connection occurring between them, which is essentially what all art is about. Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present opens June 13 at Film Forum for a two-week run prior to its debut on HBO on July 2, with director Akers on hand to talk about the project at the 7:50 screening opening night.

TODD HAYNES IN PERSON WITH FAR FROM HEAVEN

Todd Haynes’s FAR FROM HEAVEN reveals the dark underside of suburbia

FAR FROM HEAVEN (Todd Haynes, 2002)
Museum of the Moving Image
35th Ave. at 36th St., Astoria
Thursday, June 14, $20, 7:00
718-777-6800
www.movingimage.us
www.farfromheavenmovie.com

Douglas Sirk and Thomas Mann would be proud. In Todd Haynes’s wonderfully retro Far from Heaven, Oscar-nominated Julianne Moore is amazing as 1950s housewife Cathy Whitaker, who thinks she has the perfect idyllic suburban life — until she discovers that her husband (Dennis Quaid) has a secret that dare not speak its name. Mr. & Mrs. Magnatech they are not after all. When she starts getting all chummy with the black gardener (Dennis Haysbert), people start talking, of course. Part Imitation of Life, part Death in Venice, and oh-so-original, Haynes’s awesome achievement will have you believing you’re watching a film made in the 1950s, propelled by Elmer Bernstein’s excellent music, Edward Lachman’s remarkable photography, and Mark Friedberg’s terrific production design. Far from Heaven is screening at the Museum of the Moving Image on June 14 at 7:00, with Haynes in person to talk about the film in conjunction with the opening of the exhibition “Persol Magnificent Obsessions: 30 stories of craftsmanship in film,” which focuses on artifacts from works by Ed Harris, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Alfred Hitchcock, Douglas Trumbull, Ennio Morricone, Dean Tavoularis, Clint Eastwood, Haynes, and others.

ADAM CAROLLA BOOK PARTY AND WEBINAR

Carolines on Broadway
1626 Broadway between 49th & 50th Sts.
Tuesday, June 12, $22 (plus two-drink minimum), 8:00
Stand-up: June 14-16, $53
212-757-4100
www.carolines.com
www.adamcarolla.com

“Let’s talk houses,” Adam Carolla writes in the introduction to his new memoir, Not Taco Bell Material (Crown Archetype, June 12, $25). “As a kid the places I called home were cracked stucco, dirt lawns, and furniture raccoons wouldn’t fuck on. But there’s another way of looking at homes. They are where you create memories with your family, good and bad, and the pad you launch from when you start your own life. . . . This book will be a journey from the plethora of dumps I was raised in, through the shithole apartments I rented in my twenties, to the homes I purchased and personally renovated when I found some success.” And what a series of dumps and shitholes they were. In his follow-up to the New York Times bestseller In Fifty Years We’ll All Be Chicks, the former star of The Man Show and current host of The Car Show and The Adam Carolla Show begins each new chapter with a photo and statistics about the house he was living in at that time as he leads readers on a very personal and funny trip down memory lane. He writes about his extremely strange family, toiling in construction, his up-and-down professional career, and the many celebrities he has worked with. He adds “Tan Gent” sidebars along the way that allow for additional rants and raves. Carolla will be celebrating the release of the book with a special presentation, signing, and webinar June 12 at Carolines with Artie Lange that will be broadcast live online to the first ten thousand people who sign up for the free event here. Carolla, who has also starred in the films Ace in the Hole and The Hammer, will follow that up with three nights of stand-up at Carolines June 14-16.