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

SELECTED SHORTS: MIRANDA JULY PRESENTS IT CHOOSES YOU

Symphony Space, Peter Jay Sharp Theatre
2537 Broadway at 95th St.
Wednesday, November 16, $15-$27, 7:00
212-864-5400
www.symphonyspace.org
www.mirandajuly.com

In her second feature-length film, The Future, writer-director-star Miranda July extensively researched PennySaver ads to develop a major plot point — and even discovered Joe Putterlik, who played an important role in the indie flick. The author of the delightful short-story collection No one belongs here more than you., July has turned her PennySaver adventures into It Chooses You (McSweeney’s, November 15, 2011, $24), a book that details her adventures tracking down some of the people who advertise in the paper, accompanied by photographs by Brigitte Sire. “Tuesday was the day the PennySaver booklet was delivered,” July writes early on. “It came hidden among the coupons and other junk mail. I read it while I ate lunch, and then, because I was in no hurry to get back to not writing, I usually kept reading it straight through to the real estate ads in the back. I carefully considered each item — not as a buyer, but as a curious citizen of Los Angeles. Each listing was like a very brief newspaper article. News flash: someone in LA is selling a jacket. The jacket is leather. It is also large and black. The person thinks it is worth ten dollars. But the person is not very confident about that price, and is willing to consider other, lower prices. I wanted to know more things about what this leather-jacket person thought, how they were getting through the days, what they hoped, what they feared — but none of that information was listed. What was listed was the person’s phone number.” The multimedia performance artist, whose interactive “Eleven Heavy Things” filled Union Square Park back in the summer of 2010, will be at Symphony Space on November 16 for a special presentation of the “Selected Shorts” series, performing selections from It Chooses You with Olga Merediz, Adrian Martinez, and Tom Bloom. July is an endearing, engaging figure, so it should make for a memorable event. The evening will begin with Betty Gilpin reading Hannah Pittard’s “Orion’s Belt.” (July will also be reading from and signing copies of It Chooses You at BookCourt in Brooklyn on November 15 at 7:00.)

ANATOMY OF A BREAKOUT

Sameul L. Jackson will take part in special Drama Desk panel discussion on such recent Broadway breakouts as THE MOUNTAINTOP

Fordham Mainstage at Lincoln Center
Pope Auditorium
113 West 60th St. at Columbus Ave.
Sunday, November 13, $15-$20, 6:30
www.dramadesk.org

The Drama Desk and the Fordham University Theatre Program are teaming up November 13 to present a special panel discussion, “Anatomy of a Breakout,” that examines just what it takes for a play, as well as an individual performance, to break through and become a critical and/or popular success. Editor and critic Randy Gener and Drama Desk vice president Leslie (Hoban) Blake will moderate an illustrious panel that features book writer Douglas Carter Beane, composer/lyricist Lewis Flinn, choreographer/director Dan Knechtges, and actress Liz Mikel of Lysistrata Jones; playwright David Henry Hwang, director Leigh Silverman, and actress Jennifer Lim of Chinglish; Venus in Fur playwright David Ives; actor Samuel L. Jackson of The Mountaintop; and Stick Fly and The Mountaintop director Kenny Leon. Tickets are $15 for Drama Desk members (which includes us) and their guests and $20 for the general public with advanceRSVP. The discussion will take place in front of the backdrop being used for Matthew Maguire’s production of Pierre Beaumarchais’s The Marriage of Figaro for the Fordham University Theatre Company, which continues November 11 and 17-19.

TICKET GIVEAWAY: ALL FOR ONE THEATER FESTIVAL

MONSTER is just one of the solo plays in this year’s inaugural All for One Theater Festival

Theater 80 St. Marks
80 St. Marks Pl. at First Ave.
November 11-20, $20
www.afofest.org
www.theatre80.net

The inaugural All for One Theater Festival gets under way tonight at Theater 80 St. Marks in the East Village, kicking off ten days of solo performances and panel discussions. Among the shows are Over There — Comedy Is His Best Weapon, in which PJ Walsh gets funny about his stint in Afghanistan; unFRAMED, with Iyaba Ibo Mandingo telling the story of his illegal emigration from Antigua; Monster, with Avery Pearson playing sixteen characters in Daniel MacIvor’s chilling tale; the emotional Happiness, written by and starring Heather Harpham; and RASH, in which Jenni Wolfson delves into her time spent as a UN worker in Rwanda. There are also such free panels as “Why Solo Performance Matters,” “Directing the Solo Show,” “How to Best Enter and Utilize the Festival Circuit,” and “Producing and Contracting for Your Solo Show.”

TICKET GIVEAWAY: Tickets to each All for One Theater Festival show is $20, but we have five pairs of tickets to give away for free. To be eligible to win, just send your name, daytime phone number, and all-time favorite solo show to contest@twi-ny.com. All entrants must be twenty-one years of age or older; the first five responses will win a pair of tickets to the show of their choice.

MARGARET MEAD FILM FESTIVAL: 35th ANNIVERSARY

The thirty-fifth annual Margaret Mead Film Festival is sure to take viewers to places they’ve never been

American Museum of Natural History
Central Park West at 79th St.
November 10-13, $12-$40
212-769-5200
www.amnh.org/mead

“The first Margaret Mead Film Festival, held on Mead’s own seventy-fifth birthday and her fiftieth year at the [American Museum of Natural History], was meant to be a one-time celebration, but it became one of the most enduring legacies in support of visual anthropologists, inspiring generations of anthropologists and filmmakers, including myself,” writes Faye Ginsburg in the brochure for the thirty-fifth annual Margaret Mead Film Festival, running November 10-13 at AMNH. Ginsburg, an anthropology professor and director of the Center for Media, Culture, and History at NYU, will be moderating the panel discussion “How Do We Look?” on November 13 at 4:30, examining the history of the first documentary festival of its kind. Lotte Stoops’s Grande Hotel is the opening-night selection, while Meshakai Wolf’s Flames of God, introduced by Darren Aronofsky, closes things out on Sunday night. In between are such new documentaries as Robert Nugent’s Memoirs of a Plague and Alain LeTourneau and Pam Minty’s Empty Quarter along with retrospective screenings of Jean Rouch’s Jaguar from 1967, John Marshall and Adrienne Miesmer’s N!ai, The Story of a !Kung Woman from 1980, and Gregory Bateson and Mead’s Trance and Dance in Bali from 1952. Many of the screenings will include appearances by the filmmakers and subjects in addition to related live performances, most notably following Katja Esson’s Skydancer on Sunday afternoon. With the continual technological leaps being made these days, the world might appear to be getting smaller and smaller, but it still takes a festival such as the Mead to help open one’s eyes to what is really going on out there.

OTHER ISRAEL FILM FESTIVAL

JCC in Manhattan, 334 Amsterdam Ave. at West 76th St.
Cinema Village, 22 East 12th St. between University Pl. & Fifth Ave.
November 10-17, free-$12
646-505-5708
www.otherisrael.org

The fifth annual Other Israel Film Festival, whose stated goal “is to promote awareness and appreciation of the diversity of the state of Israel, provide a dynamic and inclusive forum for exploration of, and dialogue about, populations in margins of Israeli society, and encourage cinematic expression and creativity dealing with these themes,” begins tonight with an opening-night gala screening of Dani Menkin and Yonatan Nir’s Dolphin Boy at the JCC in Manhattan, about an Arab boy being bullied in northern Israel. The festival continues at the JCC and Cinema Village with screenings of such films as Sabine Lubbe Bakker and Ester Gould’s Shout, Eitan Tzur’s Naomi (Hitpartzut X), Kikuo Kawasaki’s David & Kamal, and Ibtisam Mara’ana’s 77 Steps as well as the U.S. premiere of the Israeli version of The Office television series. In addition, there will be free storytelling by Deborah Da Costa, panel discussions, Q&As, the photography exhibit “Through Others’ Eyes,” and such special guests as Mohammad Bakri, Sigal Emanuel, Caryn James, Ronit Kertsner, Ilan Kutz, Dov Waxman, and Tamar Zandberg.

THE CHOCOLATE SHOW

The Chocolate Show will be at the Metropolitan Pavilion through Sunday

Metropolitan Pavilion
125 West 18th St. between Sixth & Seventh Aves.
November 10-13, $30-$35
www.chocolateshow.com

If you’re like us, there’s virtually no problem that a good dose of chocolate can’t make better. Every night before we hit the sack, we partake in some high-quality chocolate, usually of the very dark variety. There will be just about every kind of variety you can think of at the fourteenth annual New York Chocolate Show, serving up delectable delights November 10-13 at the Metropolitan Pavilion. More than fifty exhibitors from around the world will be selling their wares — and, occasionally, offering free samples, so bring along a little plastic bag to take some goodies home (and so they don’t melt in your pocket). Scanning the current list, we didn’t see a lot of our favorites, although the always dependable Guittard will be there, along with Chocolate Christophe Roussel, Maison Boissier, and Vincent Guerlais from France, Jer’s Chocolates from California, and D.C.’s Divine Chocolate. More familiar names include Valrhona, Jacques Torres, François Payard, and Michel Cluizel. The four-day event also features demonstrations and workshops, book signings, a Kids Zone, and the always extravagant fashion display, which pairs master chocolatiers with clothing designers to create unique haute couture incorporating cacao, with this year’s theme based on Broadway musicals. We usually get the biggest kick out of Martin “Chocolatina” Howard’s contribution; he’ll be creating a “Playbill Dress” with 24-Hour Catwalk’s Michael Plosky.

Håkan Mårtensson admires his deluxe chocolate creations for Fika (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Update: The 2011 edition of the Chocolate Show might not have a bevy of familiar names, but it does have a lot of fresh newcomers giving away plenty of free samples and offering good deals. We suggest starting out at E. Guittard, whose large booth features multiple dishes stocked with varying degrees of dark chocolate from South American countries. (We went home with the Sur Del Lago and Ambanja Bittersweet bars.) You can then cleanse the palate with a shot of rich, historical melted chocolate from American Heritage before continuing on your cacao adventure; among the standouts are the Nib-a-Licious bar from the Grenada Chocolate Company, Håkan Mårtensson’s explosive gingerbread truffles, Liddabit Sweets’ sea salt caramels, 5th Avenue Chocolatiere’s cold cocoa covered truffles (being handed out by a third-generation youngster), Maria Luisa Rodriguez’s orange zest Jazz Brownies, Pacari’s Ecuadorian salt & nibs bar, Rogue Confections’ holiday-designed Belgian circles, ChocoBolo’s chocolate cake (formerly known as the Best Chocolate Cake in the World), Co Co. Sala’s crunch bar, and Comptoir du Cacao’s flaky pralines. But don’t miss Salt of the Earth Bakery, whose chocolate-chip cookies, made with E. Guittard chocolate and Maldon sea salt, are phenomenal, rivaled only by their well-named OMG caramel and Fleur de sel de l’Ile de Re salt brownie.

IN FOCUS: FORTISSIMO FILMS — LAST LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE

LAST LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE is part of twentieth-anniversary MoMA tribute to Fortissimo Films

LAST LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE (RUANG TAK NOI MID MAHASAN) (Pen-ek Ratanaruang, 2003)
MoMA Film
Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Saturday, November 12, 5:00, and Friday, November 18, 4:00
Series runs November 10-21
Tickets: $10, 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.moma.org

Japanese actor Tadanobu Asano (Taboo, Ichi the Killer, Zatoichi), Australian-born Hong Kong cinematographer Christopher Doyle (Hero, In the Mood for Love, Chungking Express), and Thai cowriter-director Pen-ek Ratanuruang (6IXTYNIN9, Fun Bar Karaoke) combine their immense talents in the stunningly eloquent and marvelously offbeat black comedy Last Life in the Universe. Asano stars as Kenji, a librarian with OCD, a yakuza brother, and a propensity to consider various ways of killing himself. About to jump off a bridge, he sees a traffic accident, leading to a bizarrely touching Harold & Maude–like relationship with the young and beautiful Noi (Sinitta Boonyasak), who tends to be a little bit wild. As they try to make a simple life for themselves, danger lurks right around the corner in this nearly perfect, sadly overlooked film. Last Life in the Universe is screening at MoMA on November 12 & 18 as part of the “In Focus: Fortissimo Films” series, paying tribute to the company that has been distributing international independent releases for twenty years. The festival, which runs through November 21, opens November 10 with Taiwanese director Wei Te-sheng introducing his latest, Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale, and continues with such global favorites as Wisit Sasanatieng’s Tears of the Black Tiger, Wong Kar-wai’s Happy Together (introduced by Doyle on November 11), Zhang Yuan’s Beijing Bastards, Zhang Yang’s Shower, and the Pang brothers’ creepy horror flick The Eye.