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FIFTH ANNUAL LATKE FESTIVAL

Metropolitan Pavilion
125 West 18th St. between Sixth & Seventh Aves.
Monday, December 2, $55-$110, 6:30-9:00
www.greatperformances.com

Of course, there’s nothing quite like grandma’s Hanukkah latkes, burning hot and oh-so-fresh, you and your siblings devouring them nearly as fast as they’re coming out of the kitchen. But it will be a lot more than just potatoes, oil, onions, and salt and pepper on December 2, when the Metropolitan Pavilion plays host to Great Performances’ fifth annual Latke Festival. Fifteen local restaurants will be competing for the People’s Choice award, serving unique variants on the traditional holiday favorite. The decidedly nonkosher menu will consist of Kutsher’s Tribeca’s Peking duck, scallion, and sesame hoisin latke, known as the Big Megillah; Veselka’s latke with braised pork and cherry compote; Mile End’s butternut squash latke and fresh sage; Commerce’s scallion latke with farmer’s cheese, smoked salmon, and caviar; the Butterfly’s aged beef basted latke with sliced prime rib, caramelized onions, horseradish cream, and crispy rosemary; Delicatessen’s sweet potato latke slider with ground brisket, roasted apple, black pepper crème fraîche, and cranberry chutney; La Vara’s latke canaria, made with sweet potato chickpea, taro, and cadiz shrimp; Blue Hill Yogurt’s butternut squash latke with curried butternut yogurt; Stone Park Café’s braised short rib latke with smoked crème fraîche and sour cherry compote; the Vanderbilt’s potato and seaweed latke with sweet Maine shrimp; Benchmark’s caraway-scented latke, with short rib pastrami, truffled sauerkraut, and mustard crème; Toloache’s yucca latke with salmon pastrami and mojo de ago salsa; the Plaza Hotel’s crispy duck fat Yukon gold potato latke with Hudson Valley duck confit and kumquat-pomegranate gelée; Sylvia’s Table’s spaghetti squash latke with dehydrated olives, whipped feta, and sumac (with Great Performances); Garden Court Cafe at Asia Society’s sweet potato and kimchi latke with soy vinegar dipping sauce and perilla leaves; and Mae Mae Café’s potato pancake with maple mascarpone and cranberry bourbon sauce. There will also be breads and sufganiyot from Hot Bread Kitchen and drinks courtesy of Cliffton Dry Hard Cider, GuS (Grown Up Soda), the Brooklyn Roasting Company, and the Shmaltz Brewing Company, along with wine and vodka. The culinary judges who will select the Latke Festival Master include Ben Leventhal, Lee Schrager, Amanda Hesser, Joanne Wilson, Elinor Tatum, Jason Ackerman, Robert Lavalva, Alan Boss, and CBS medical correspondent Jonathan LaPook, who is not on hand to discuss the health concerns of such an eating frenzy. Tickets range from $55 to $110 depending on time of entry and various VIP bonuses and must be purchased in advance.

TWI-NY TALK: ERIC BECKMAN/NYICFF

Eric Beckman founded the New York International Children's Film Festival in 1997

Eric Beckman founded the New York International Children’s Film Festival with his wife in 1997

NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN’S FILM FESTIVAL
Multiple venues throughout Manhattan
[Not for] Children Film Festival Benefit: February 28, $300 – $1,000
March 1-24, $13 (opening-night $20-$40)
All-Access VIP Pass: $400
www.gkids.com

Since its beginnings in 1997, the New York International Children’s Film Festival has been dedicated to bringing more intelligent movies to kids ages three to eighteen. Part of GKIDS (Guerrilla Kids International Distribution Syndicate), NYICFF hosts programs year-round, but its bigger-than-ever sixteenth annual festival is scheduled to take place March 1-24, spread out across such venues as Asia Society, the IFC Center, Tribeca Cinemas, FIAF, the Film Society of Lincoln Center, Scholastic, the DGA Theater, and the SVA Theatre. More than one hundred features, shorts, documentaries, and animated films will be presented from France, Belgium, Canada, India, Japan, the Netherlands, Italy, Taiwan, America, and other nations, in addition to workshops, a filmmaking camp, a prefestival not-for-children benefit (showing films that were submitted to NYICFF but are clearly not for kids), and the opening-night gala, the U.S. premiere of Benjamin Renner’s animated Ernest & Celestine, followed by a catered reception. This year’s jury, which includes such actors, writers, directors, and producers as Geena Davis, Gus Van Sant, Susan Sarandon, Jeffrey Wright, Christine Vachon, and Michael Modine, has also selected such films as Laurent Boileau and Jung Henin’s Approved for Adoption, Enzo D’Alò’s Pinocchio, the English-language premiere of Koji Masunari’s Welcome to the Space Show, and the Spanish-language version of Wreck-It Ralph called ¡Rompe Ralph! Eric Beckman, who cofounded NYICFF in 1997 with his wife, Emily Shapiro, was only too happy to discuss this year’s festival and the state of children’s films in general.

twi-ny: What prompted you to form GKIDS and NYCIFF in the first place?

Eric Beckman: NYICFF was formed to fill a void in the marketplace for exciting, meaningful, diverse, nuanced, eye-opening, thought-provoking film for young people. At the time we launched back in the late 1990s, the indie film movement was in full swing, and on any given weekend in New York City you could see maybe one hundred different films for adults — edgy indie films, French art films, romantic comedies, teen sex comedies, high-brow Oscar bait, action pictures, silent film retrospectives, and so on — literally any kind of film you could imagine was on tap for adults. But for kids there would be just one movie playing, which seemed just wrong for a city like New York. So the germinating idea for the festival was that we would bring a hugely exciting world of film to NYC every winter so that for four weeks during the festival, there would be the same kind of cinematic diversity and creativity and range of experience for kids that there is for adults.

twi-ny: How has the festival changed over the years, since its debut in 1997?

Eric Beckman: We’re much bigger (the largest in North America). NYICFF is now an Oscar qualifying festival, we have more films — and perhaps equally important we have a paid staff. We have also secured a reputation as a significant industry event on par with the prestige “adult” festivals in terms of important feature premieres and our record of introducing significant new directors to U.S. audiences and debuting future Oscar nominees. But the core concept is still exactly the same — uncompromising, excellent film for ages three to eighteen, including shorts, features, animation, live action, docs, and experimental films from six continents.

Benjamin Renner’s ERNEST & CELESTINE will open the 2013 New York International Children’s Film Festival

twi-ny: Do you think children’s films themselves have changed over the last sixteen years?

Eric Beckman: Yes and no. The Pixar animated CGI picture has supplanted Pocahontas/Lion King as the model to emulate. And more recently, with companies like Laika and others producing pictures every few years, there has been a wider variety of films out there — which has been great. But the underlying market forces that limit what is available for children have remained, and if anything have gotten stronger. Unlike films for adults, there is no independent circuit for children’s movies, so pretty much everything that is released is engineered to reach a mass audience. Amour at $4 million box office gross is a critical and financial success — but The Pirates! at $31 million is a potential write-down, even though it is a wonderful movie. So this pressure to reach mass audience to achieve $150 million domestic box office continues to affect the types of children’s films that get made in the U.S. — and severely limits the number of independent or foreign titles that can get a release. NYICFF and GKIDS are working to build that indie-for-kids circuit — and we have had some notable success at the Oscars and getting films attention and distribution, a trend we expect to continue.

twi-ny: With everyone, including children, having more access to films of all kinds over the internet, on cable, and on handheld devices, should parents worry more than ever about what their kids are watching?

Eric Beckman: This is a parenting question, so I will take off my film festival director hat for a moment. I have three children, and to be honest I am not overly worried about content. I am more concerned with limiting screen time, making room for reading, exploring art, theater, music, and other activities — and encouraging creative use of technology rather than passive consuming. Yes, there is some terrible stuff out there, but hopefully you raise your kids to make good choices rather than making the choices for them.

twi-ny: You have another prestigious jury this year. What do you look for in a jurist?

Eric Beckman: That is an often-asked question — as clearly Gus Van Sant and James Schamus do not jump to mind when you think of children’s films. But it is exactly that take we are looking for. We reach out to jurors who love and understand and are involved in creating great films. Not great children’s films, but great films period. Our jurors generally fall into one or more of three categories: actors or filmmakers (many of them parents) who we saw were coming to the festival so were already fans and supporters; innovative and provocative filmmakers who support a wider and more interesting range of film being made for young people; and renowned foreign filmmakers whose works first found U.S. audiences through the festival.

twi-ny: On February 28, there’s a specifically “not for children” benefit. What can adults expect from that?

Eric Beckman: The NY Int’l [Not for] Children’s Film Festival is a really, really fun and slightly naughty event. Every year NYICFF receives submissions that are so “not for kids” that you have to wonder what the person submitting the film was thinking. This began at the very first festival, with a film made with Barbie dolls that would definitely garner an NC-17 rating. So a few years ago, we decided to show a few of these films at a private cocktail party we were doing for board members, staff, and other friends of the festival. Everyone had so much fun we made it the theme of our fundraiser that year, and thus began the tradition.

The event takes place Feb 28, the night before Opening Night. You will want to reserve your babysitter now! It is at Tribeca Film Center and involves a screening of very inappropriate films that were submitted to the festival, plus food, cocktails, drinking games, prizes (courtside Knicks tickets, racecar driving school, all-access family passes to the festival . . .) and more things that I am not even aware of, since I am not on the benefit committee. The proceeds benefit the festival’s FilmEd program, which assures that economically disadvantaged New York City families have access to the festival’s programs and filmmaking classes. So it is a great event for a great cause.

LIN TIANMIAO: BADGES / BOUND UNBOUND

Lin Tianmiao, “Mother’s!!!,” polyurea, silk, cotton threads, 2008 (photo © Michael Bodycomb)

CHINA CLOSE UP: BOUND UNBOUND
Asia Society
725 Park Ave. at 70th St.
Tuesday – Sunday through January 27, $10 (free Friday 6:00 – 9:00)
212-288-6400
www.asiasociety.org

BADGES
Galerie Lelong
528 West 26th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Tuesday – Saturday through December 15
212-315-0470
www.galerielelong.com

One of the foremost Chinese artists, Lin Tianmiao has been exploring the nature of gender through challenging sculpture, photographs, video, and installation for nearly twenty years, focusing particularly on incorporating what is considered “women’s work” and the role of the mother in her thought-provoking pieces, as seen in two current exhibits in Manhattan. At Asia Society (through January 27), “Bound Unbound: Lin Tianmiao” fills two floors and three galleries with several of Lin’s most intriguing installations. The earliest is her 1995 work “Proliferation of Thread Winding,” an eerie bed with twenty thousand steel needles tied to raw cotton thread that develops into small balls on the floor; a video monitor depicting the act of creating the balls serves as a pillow. It’s a terrific introduction to Lin’s multidisciplinary oeuvre: At first it looks like an extravagant marriage bed, then ends up being a statement on female domestic labor (melding both work and childbirth). Similarly, 1997’s “Bound and Unbound” features dozens of household items wrapped in thread while a film projection shows thread being cut. In “Chatting,” a group of six naked women, all based on Lin’s own body, stand on a pink platform, their box-shaped heads cast downward sadly, connected by thin wires that vibrate as a soundtrack of them talking can barely be heard. Nearby is “Endless,” a trio of three shriveled old men in pink who look so fragile that a mere breath could knock them over.

Lin Tianmiao, “Chatting” (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Although Lin, who spent eight years in New York City with her artist husband, Wang GongXin, before returning to Beijing in 1995, prefers not to be considered a feminist artist, the history and power of gender is central to her work. In “Sewing,” she has wrapped a sewing machine in white cotton thread and projects onto it a video of the act of sewing. In its own walk-in white room, “Mother’s!!!” consists of multiple headless female figures, both children and adults. In 2009, Lin made a major shift following the death of her mother, wrapping synthetic skulls and bones and placing them on exuberantly colored canvases and combining them with tools, giving them such titles as “All the Same” and “More or Less the Same,” inherently invoking that there is no difference between men, women, and children under the skin and noting that death awaits us all. Yet the works are not depressing nor morbid. “I believe that the bone is the only perfect object left in the world,” Lin says in the exhibition catalog. On December 7, Asia Society will host a free holiday celebration from 6:00 to 9:00 with guided tours of “Bound Unbound,” live jazz from pianist A. J. Khaw, trumpeter Jean Caze, and bassist Jon Price, a tea tasting and demonstration, store discounts, and more.

Lin Tianmiao, “Badges,” white silk, colored silk thread, painted stainless steel embroidery frame, sound component, 2011-12 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

At Galerie Lelong through December 15, “Badges” features sixty white circles dangling from the ceiling, each bearing an embroidered slang word referring to women. Meanwhile, a robotic voice pronounces each one in an endless stream as the works twist around, making the text hard to read. Ranging in size from a diameter of 31.5 to 47.2 inches and in both English and Chinese, they display such stereotyped terms as “Dyke,” “Floozy,” “Tramp,” “Ho,” “Soccer Mom,” “Trophy Wife,” “Slut,” “Dumb Blonde,” “Home Wrecker,” and “Bimbo.” (Some of the Chinese phrases translate as “a woman who sleeps around,” “a woman who is unattractive both physically and in terms of personality,” “a well-educated woman with a high income and other highly sought after qualities but who has been unable to find a husband,” and “a woman who spends one third of her salary on her phone bill because she enjoys talking on the phone so much.”) Process, form, function, and gender all come together in a compelling display that deserves extended time to marvel in its complex simplicity. The exhibit also includes several of Lin’s more recent “Same” canvases, made of striking green, pink, and yellow with frames featuring wrapped bones. Seen together, “Bound Unbound” and “Badges” establish Lin as a major contemporary artist with fascinating ideas on the role of women in modern society.

GODDESS — CHINESE WOMEN ON SCREEN: ASHES OF TIME REDUX

Maggie Cheung plays a long-lost love in Wong Kar Wai’s ASHES OF TIME REDUX

ASHES OF TIME REDUX (Wong Kar Wai, 2008)
Asia Society
725 Park Ave. at 70th St.
Friday, December 7, $11, 6:30
212-288-6400
www.sonyclassics.com/ashesoftimeredux
www.asiasociety.org

Back in 1993, writer-director Wong Kar Wai’s Ashes of Time was released, a thinking man’s martial arts epic inspired by Jin Yong’s The Eagle-Shooting Heroes novels. With numerous versions in circulation and the original negatives in disrepair, Wong (Chungking Express, In the Mood for Love) decided to painstakingly reedit and restore the film fifteen years later, renaming it Ashes of Time Redux. The plot – which is still as confusing as ever — revolves around Ouyang Feng (Leslie Cheung), a loner who lives in the desert, where people come to him when they need someone taken care of. Every year he is visited by Huang Yaoshi (Tony Leung Ka Fai), who keeps him informed of the world outside jianghu — especially about his lost love (Maggie Cheung). Meanwhile, Murong Yang (Brigitte Lin) has demanded that Ouyang kill Huang for having jilted his sister, Murong Yin (also played by Lin), who in turn hires Ouyang to kill Yang. There’s also a blind swordsman (Tony Leung Chiu Wai), a peasant girl with a basket of eggs (Charlie Young), a poor, rogue swordsman (Jacky Cheung), and a bottle of magic wine that can erase memories. Or something like that. But what’s most impressive about Ashes of Time Redux is Christopher Doyle’s thrilling, swirling cinematography, which sweeps the audience into the film, and Wu Tong’s rearranged score, based on the original music by Frankie Chan and Roel A. Garcia and featuring soaring cello solos by Yo-Yo Ma. The film is screening December 7 as part of the Asia Society series “Goddess: Chinese Women on Screen,” which concludes December 8 with Stanley Kwan’s Center Stage, also starring Cheung.

ASIAN AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Michael Kang’s KNOTS will close the thirty-fifth Asian American International Film Festival

Clearview Chelsea Cinemas (and other venues)
260 West 23rd St. between Seventh & Eighth Aves.
July 25 – August 5, $13 ($75 gala, $18 centerpiece, $20 closing night)
212-989-0017
www.aaiff.org/

The thirty-fifth Asian American International Film Festival, which annually explores the Asian diaspora as portrayed in film, gets under way July 25 with a gala event at Asia Society that features the opening-night presentation of Daniel Hsia’s romantic comedy Shanghai Calling, followed by a reception, tasting tables, an open bar, live and silent auctions, and a gift bag. The festival continues with daily screenings at the Clearview Chelsea Cinema through August 5, including such films as Eliaichi Kimaro’s A Lot Like You, H. P. Mendoza’s I Am a Ghost, Deepa Dhanraj’s Invoking Justice, and Lily Mariye’s Model Minority. The centerpiece selection is Simon Yin’s $upercapitalist, which is set in the Hong Kong business world, while the closing-night film is Michael Kang’s Knots, about a young woman looking for love in all the wrong places. Both the centerpiece and closing-night screenings will be followed by after-parties. In addition, there will be a special LGBTQ Cinema Night at the Clearview on July 27, the Museum of Chinese in America will host a collection of “For Youth by Youth” shorts on August 4 at 1:30, and White Rabbit will screen music videos by Asians and Asian Americans on August 4 at 10:00.

CREATIVE VOICES OF ASIA: WAYANG KULIT

Ki Purbo Asmoro will present Javanese shadow-puppet theater at Asia Society

JAVANESE WAYANG KULIT, SHADOW-PUPPET THEATER OF INDONESIA
Asia Society
725 Park Ave. at 70th St.
Friday, March 16, 6:30
212-288-6400
www.asiasociety.org

Master dhalang Ki Purbo Asmoro will make a rare appearance at Asia Society on Friday night, performing wayang kulit, Javanese shadow-puppet theater. Purbo Asmoro, known for combining the traditional with the innovative, will be accompanied by a full Javanese gamelan orchestra made up of members of his Java troupe, Mayangkara, as well as New York City’s own Gamelan Kusuma Laras. The three-hour production begins twenty minutes early with welcoming music and will be presented with live English translation. The audience is encouraged to move around and see the show from both sides of the shadow screen, known as a kelir, so they can experience more of this unique form of storytelling. The puppets might be flat objects, but Purbo Asmoro fills them with emotion, energy, and spirit. The performance is part of the “Creative Voices of Muslim Asia” series, which continues April 26 with “New Sufi Music of Pakistan,” a concert with Arif Lohar and Aroog Aftab. And if you can’t score a ticket to this hot event, you can watch the live webcast here.

PRESIDENT’S FORUM WITH SARAH SZE AND SIDDHARTHA MUKHERJEE

Sarah Sze’s “Random Walk Drawings” are universes unto themselves at Asia Society (photo courtesy Asia Society)

EXPLORING THE CREATIVE PROCESS — A CONVERSATION
Asia Society
725 Park Ave. at 70th St.
Wednesday, March 14, $20, 6:30
Exhibition continues through March 25
212-288-6400
www.asiasociety.org

For more than fifteen years, New York-based visual artist Sarah Sze has been creating fragile, mysterious environments that are their own little worlds. Using found objects and everyday materials, Sze employs her architectural background to build fascinating structures that combine a Rube Goldberg playfulness with what she calls an “anti-monumental” aesthetic, inspired by Japanese gardens and butoh dance. Her show at Asia Society, “Infinite Line,” delves into her creative process through drawing, sculpture, and installation, spread across two galleries. In the smaller room, such drawings and collages as “Guggenheim as a Ruin,” “Funny Feeling,” “Night,” and “Day” are like architectural plans for fantastical cities while recalling traditional Japanese scroll painting. Visitors have to be careful where they walk in the larger gallery — a security guard will make sure you don’t get too close — which is filled with delicate, expansive pieces made of string, stones, laser-engraved paper, Styrofoam cups, a blinking digital clock, bottle caps, colored tape, and other items that examine the intersection of drawing and sculpture through physical space and perspective. The eight “Random Walk Drawings,” which contain such subtitles as “Compass,” “Window,” “Air,” “Water,” and “Eye Chart,” dangle from the ceiling, spread across the floor, emerge from the wall, and even make their way onto the outside balcony overlooking Park Ave. The Boston-born Sze, who has also treated New Yorkers to such outdoor works as “The Triple Point of Water” in the Whitney’s Sculpture Court in 2003, “Corner Plot” at the Scholars’ Gate entrance to Central Park in 2006, and the current “Still Life with Landscape (Model for a Habitat)” bird feeder on the High Line, will be at Asia Society on March 14 for a discussion with her husband, Indian-born author Siddhartha Mukherjee, who won the Pulitzer Prize for his 2010 book, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, moderated by Asia Society president Vishakha N. Desai. The galleries will remain open until 9:00 that night to allow ticket holders to see the show. If you can’t make it to the event, you can watch the live webcast here.