New York City celebration of MLK Day includes a screening of KING: A FILMED RECORD…MONTGOMERY TO MEMPHIS at Film Forum
Multiple venues
Monday, January 19
www.mlkday.gov
In 1983, the third Monday in January was officially recognized as Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, honoring the birthday of the civil rights leader who was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968. Dr. King would have turned eighty-six this month, and you can celebrate his legacy on Monday by participating in a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service project or attending one of numerous special events taking place around the city. BAM’s twenty-ninth annual free Brooklyn Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. includes a keynote speech by Dr. Cornel West, live performances by Sandra St. Victor & Oya’s Daughter and the New York Fellowship Mass Choir, the theatrical presentation State of Emergence, the NYCHA Saratoga Village Community Center student exhibit “Picture the Dream,” and a screening of Ken Burns, Sara Burns, and David McMahon’s 2012 documentary The Central Park Five. The JCC in Manhattan will host an Engage MLK Day of Service in Brooklyn: Feeding Our Neighbors community initiative, a screening of Rachel Fisher and Rachel Pasternak’s 2014 documentary Joachim Prinz: I Shall Not Be Silent, and “Thank You, Dr. King,” in which Dance Theater of Harlem cofounder Arthur Mitchell shares his life story, joined by dancers Ashley Murphy and Da’Von Doane.
The Harlem Gospel Choir will play a special matinee at B.B. King’s on MLK Day
The Children’s Museum of Manhattan will teach kids about King’s legacy with the “Martin’s Mosaic” and Mugi Pottery workshops, the “Heroic Heroines: Coretta Scott King” book talk, and Movement & Circle Time participatory programs, while the Brooklyn Children’s Museum hosts the special hands-on crafts workshops “Let’s March!” and “Let’s Join Hands,” screenings of Rob Smiley and Vincenzo Trippetti’s 1999 animated film Our Friend, Martin, and a Cultural Connections performance by the Berean Community Drumline. The Museum at Eldridge Street will be hosting a free reading of Kobi Yamada and Mae Besom’s picture book What Do You Do with an Idea? along with a collage workshop. Also, Film Forum will show the 1970 three-hour epic documentary King: A Filmed Record . . . Montgomery to Memphis at 7:00, and the Harlem Gospel Choir will give a special MLK Day matinee at 12:30 at B.B. King’s in Times Square.
They don’t come much bigger than Orson Welles in his dark potboiler Touch of Evil, as he nearly bursts through the frame as spectacularly dastardly police captain Hank Quinlan. A deliciously devious corrupt lawman, Quinlan is an enormous drunk who has no trouble breaking the rules to get his man. Charlton Heston took a lot of criticism playing Mike Vargas, a Mexican drug enforcement agent newly married to beautiful blonde Susan (Janet Leigh), who soon finds herself menaced by a dangerous gang as a weak-kneed, pre-McCloud Dennis Weaver looks the other way. The film famously opens with a remarkable crane shot that goes on for more than three minutes, setting the stage like no other establishing shot in the history of cinema. And the final scene with Marlene Dietrich as sultry hooker Tana is a lulu as well, highlighted by one of the great all-time movie lines. What goes on in between is a lurid tale of murder and revenge filled with unexpected twists and turns, featuring appearances by such Welles regulars as Joseph Cotten, Akim Tamiroff, Joseph Calleia, and Ray Collins. There was a lot of hype surrounding the film in 1998 when it was restored to match Welles’s original desires, but the final product lives up to its billing. As part of its “Orson Welles 100” festival, honoring the centennial of the always controversial auteur’s birth, Film Forum is screening three different versions of this deeply affecting noir masterpiece: the 108-minute pre-release version on January 14 (with the 7:00 show introduced by Welles historian Joseph McBride), the 93-minute original theatrical edition on January 29, and the 111-minute reconstruction on February 1-2. The Welles festival continues through February 3 with such double features as The Lady from Shanghai and The Third Man, Compulsion and The Long, Hot Summer, and Jane Eyre and Tomorrow Is Forever, multiple versions of Macbeth, and two evenings of Wellesiana rarities hosted by series consultant McBride, author of What Ever Happened to Orson Welles? A Portrait of an Independent Career. 
Writer-director Talya Lavie makes a smashing debut with the outrageously funny black comedy Zero Motivation. Inspired by her own mandatory service in the Israeli army, where she served as a secretary, Lavie skewers both military life and office work as she focuses on a group of woman NCOs who spend most of their time fetching coffee for the male officers, singing, poking fun at one another, and trying to break the Minesweeper record on their aging computers. When Tehila (Yonit Tobi) arrives, Daffi (Nelly Tagar) is positive that the mousy young woman is her replacement and that her request for a transfer to Tel Aviv has finally been approved. Daffi’s best friend, Zohar (Dana Ivgy), refuses to follow orders, continually getting into trouble as she disobeys their commander, Rama (Shani Klein), who is gung ho on joining the men at the big boys’ table, and not just to make sure their cups and plates are full. Irena (Tamara Klingon) is a beautiful blond Russian who develops a curious problem of her own. And Livnat (Heli Twito) and Liat (Meytal Gal) enjoy needling the clueless Daffi and the dour Zohar as often as they possibly can. Not much real work gets done in this office, but with an important inspection on the horizon, the women have to shift into gear, although not all of them are exactly on the same page.
Called “the most revolutionary group in the history of rock ‘n’ roll” by Lester Bangs, 