Tag Archives: walter reade theater

NEW YORK ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL: KFC

Youre gonna wanna keep the kiddies far away from Kfc

You’re gonna wanna keep the kiddies far away from Lê Bình Giang’s Kfc

Kfc (Lê Bình Giang, 2017)
Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th St. at Amsterdam Ave.
Thursday, July 6, 10:45
Festival runs June 30 – July 16
212-875-5601
www.filmlinc.org/films/kfc
www.subwaycinema.com

kfc 2 Every year the New York Asian Film Festival tends to have one absolutely crazy, out-there movie that challenges the boundaries of good taste. This year’s entry is Vietnamese writer-director Lê Bình Giang’s utterly bizarre debut, Kfc, a sixty-eight-minute journey into a dark world that makes some of Charles Bukowski’s most cutting-edge tales seem like Disney stories. Expanded from a 2012 short, the film is as vile and disgusting as it is well made and fascinating, consisting of a series of interrelated vignettes depicting extreme violence, rape, torture, murder, arson, cannibalism, necrophilia, and plenty of fried chicken and French fries. (I can’t imagine that Colonel Sanders would approve of the film, which includes several scenes set in what appears to be a real Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Hanoi.) The gruesome special effects (except for the worms, which are real) are by Tony Nguyễn, who plays the dude in the headphones, and they are balanced by the musical theme, Khanh Ly’s version of Trinh Cong Son’s romantic ballad “Quỳnh Hương.” Although there is not a ton of dialogue, what talking there is just happens to be very poorly translated in the subtitles, upping the overall psychotic quotient. And I have to admit that I’m downright worried about the future sanity of a few of the children who have major roles in the film, the original script of which got Lê kicked out of the University of Ho Chi Minh. There’s a reason that the NYAFF page on the movie begins by declaring, “WATCH AT YOUR OWN RISK!” Kfc is screening July 6 at 10:45 (what, they couldn’t wait until midnight?) at the Walter Reade Theater. The festival, which runs through July 16 at Lincoln Center and the SVA Theatre, consists of more than fifty films from China, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Southeast Asia, including a surprise twenty-fifth anniversary screening of a 1992 classic.

NEW YORK ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL OPENING NIGHT: BAD GENIUS

Lynn (Chutimon Cheungcharoensukying) keeps looking over her shoulder as a cheating scandal gets serious in Bad Genius

BAD GENIUS (CHALARD GAMES GONG) (Nattawut Poonpiriya, 2017)
Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th St. at Amsterdam Ave.
Friday, June 30, 7:00
Festival runs June 30 – July 16
212-875-5601
www.filmlinc.org
www.subwaycinema.com

The sixteenth annual New York Asian Film Festival gets under way June 30 with writer-director Nattawut Poonpiriya’s big Thai hit, Bad Genius. The amazingly smart Lynn (NYAFF 2017 Screen International Rising Star Award winner Chutimon Cheungcharoensukying) switches schools for an opportunity to win a coveted scholarship and go to a better college, with the help of her father, a respected teacher (Thaneth Warakulnukroh). She quickly becomes besties with the popular Grace (Eisaya Hosuwan), who is dating snobby rich kid Pat (Teeradon Supapunpinyo). Lynn mentors Grace, who is not a very good student, and is then hired by Pat’s wealthy father (Sahajak Boonthanakit) to tutor his son to improve his low grades. Soon Grace, Pat, and several of Pat’s other friends (Vittawin Veeravidhayanant, Suwijak Mahatthanachotwanich, Narwin Rathlertkarn, Thanawat Sutat Na Ayutthaya, and Thanachart Phinyocheep) are paying substantial money to Lynn, who has devised unique ways to cheat on multiple-choice tests. As she and Bank (Chanon Santinatornkul), another smart scholarship student — whose parents (Uraiwan Puvichitsutin and Somchai Ruedikunrangsi) run a small laundry, which embarrasses him and drives him to improve his, and their, lot — compete for a prestigious Singapore scholarship, lies, betrayal, greed, and deception lead to major troubles for everyone as the crucial standardized STIC tests approach.

Bank (Chanon Santinatornkul) and Lynn (Chutimon Cheungcharoensukying) face a terrifying future in Nattawut Poonpiriya’s Bad Genius

Over the last ten years, such YA books and movies as Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games trilogy and Veronica Roth’s Divergent series have turned teen angst over the SATs and college admissions into futuristic dystopian nightmares, but with Bad Genius, Poonpiriya’s second film — his debut, Countdown, was part of the 2013 NYAFF — takes a much more straightforward and honest approach to the fears kids experience when faced with taking tests that could impact the rest of their lives. In her film debut, Cheungcharoensukying reveals a subtle depth as Lynn, a brainiac who just wants to be accepted by her peers, while also insisting on excelling at everything she does (including cheating) and helping her divorced father with expenses. She knows exactly what she’s doing, understanding it is wrong, and she can’t stop, but it’s not only about the money. Aside from a few silly scenes and the occasional use of overly dramatic license, Poonpiriya mostly avoids genre clichés as the two-hour Bad Genius evolves into a genuine thriller with a fab chase scene, cleverly keeping the audience on the edge of their seats with unexpected twists and turns. It’s both a primer on how to cheat and how to deal with potentially getting caught. The opening-night selection of the NYAFF, Bad Genius is screening on June 30 at 7:00 at the Walter Reade Theater and will be followed by a Q&A with Nattawut “Baz” Poonpiriya, Chanon Santinatornkul, and Chutimon “Aokbab” Chuengcharoensukying and an after-party. The festival, which runs through July 16 at Lincoln Center and the SVA Theatre, consists of more than fifty films from China, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Southeast Asia, including a surprise twenty-fifth anniversary screening of a 1992 classic.

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH FILM FESTIVAL: THE RESISTANCE SAGA

Pamela Yates’s 500 Years concludes her Guatemalan trilogy; all three films are screening June 11 in the Human Rights Watch Film Festival

WHEN THE MOUNTAINS TREMBLE (Pamela Yates, 1983)
GRANITO: HOW TO NAIL A DICTATOR (Pamela Yates, Peter Kinoy & Paco de Onís, 2011)
500 YEARS (Pamela Yates, 2017)
Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th St. at Amsterdam Ave.
Sunday, June 11, 1:30, 3:15, 5:15, $20
Festival runs through June 18
212-875-5601
ff.hrw.org
www.hrw.org

The 2017 Human Rights Watch Film Festival is paying tribute June 11 to Pamela Yates’s Guatemala trilogy with “The Resistance Saga,” with screenings of all three films, a Q&A with the filmmakers and Mayan activists, and a reception featuring a live performance by Mayan singer Sara Curruchich. The opening-night selection of the twenty-second Human Rights Watch Film Festival, Granito: How to Nail a Dictator is an illuminating, if at times overly self-referential, examination of the power of documentary filmmaking. In 1982, Pamela Yates and Newton Thomas Sigel made When the Mountains Tremble, which told the inside story of civilian massacres of the indigenous Maya people as government forces and guerrilla revolutionaries fought in the jungles of Guatemala; one of the film’s subjects, Rigoberta Menchú, became an international figure and went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize. “When I made that film, I had no idea I was filming in the middle of a genocide,” Yates says at the beginning of Granito, which Yates directed with Peter Kinoy and Paco de Onís. A quarter-century after When the Mountains Tremble, Yates was contacted by lawyer Almudena Bernabeu, who asked Yates to comb through her reels and reels of footage to find evidence of the Guatemalan genocide and help bring charges again dictator Ríos Montt, whom Yates had met with back in 1982. In researching the case, Yates speaks with Menchú, forensic archivist Kate Doyle, journalist liaison Naomi Roht-Arriaza, forensic anthropologist Fredy Peccerelli, Spanish national court judge Santiago Pedraz, victims’ rights leader and genocide survivor Antonio Caba Caba, and Gustavo Meoño, a founding member of the Guerrilla Army of the Poor, each of whom sheds light on the proceedings from various different angles, from digging up bones in mass graves to discussing redacted documents that reveal U.S. involvement in Guatemala. Several of them are risking their lives by both continuing to fight the government and appearing on camera. Yates has now completed the trilogy with 500 Years, her seventh film to be shown at the festival, documenting the Mayan resistance that has led to crucial court cases as racism and corruption are brought to light and the Mayan people seek to regain control of their society. “The Resistance Saga” begins in the Walter Reade Theater at 1:30 with When the Mountains Tremble, followed at 3:15 by Granito: How to Nail a Dictator and 5:15 by 500 Years; tickets for all three films, the Q&A, and the reception/concert are $20.

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH FILM FESTIVAL: THE BLOOD IS AT THE DOORSTEP

The family of Dontre Hamilton fight for justice in The Blood Is at the Doorstep

The family of Dontre Hamilton fights for justice in The Blood Is at the Doorstep (photo by Jennifer Johnson)

THE BLOOD IS AT THE DOORSTEP (Erik Ljung, 2017)
Friday, June 9, 7:00, IFC Center, 323 Sixth Ave. at West Third St.
Saturday, June 10, 8:45, Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater, 165 West 65th St. between Eighth Ave. & Broadway
Festival runs June 9-18
ff.hrw.org/film
www.thebloodisatthedoorstep.tv

Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland, Philando Castile, Alton Sterling, Freddie Gray — the list of unarmed black men, women, and children who died during or shortly after altercations with mostly white police officers keeps growing. Erik Ljung tells the story of a lesser-known victim, Dontre Hamilton, in The Blood Is at the Doorstep, making its New York premiere this weekend at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival. On the afternoon of April 30, 2014, the thirty-one-year-old Hamilton, who suffered from schizophrenia, was resting in a public park when he was roused by police officer Christopher Manney, who, after a confrontation, shot Hamilton fourteen times, killing him. The Hamilton family wasn’t notified until after midnight, more than eight hours later, then spent more than a year seeking information, and justice, trying to find out why Dontre had been killed and what was going to happen to the officer responsible. Ljung, who serves as director of photography as well, follows Dontre’s mother, Maria, and his brothers, Nate Hamilton and Dameion Perkins, as they demand answers, remaining peaceful yet strong. Ljung meets with Dontre’s father, Nathaniel Hamilton Sr., who is divorced from Maria but is still in his children’s lives, and Michael Bell, a white man who talks in detail about the murder of his son at the hands of Kenosha, Wisconsin, police officer Alberto Gonzales. Also sharing their views are Hamilton family attorney Jonathan S. Safran, District Attorney John T. Chisholm, and Milwaukee police chief Ed Flynn, who is quick to defend Manney’s actions while painting a false picture of Dontre as a repeat violent offender with a dangerous mental illness. Ljung, who has done work for VICE News, Al Jazeera, PBS, and other outlets, and editor Michael T. Vollman add footage from news reports, showing how the story played out in the media as public information trickled in over months and months.

Director and photographer Erik Ljung examines the death of Dontre Hamilton in Human Rights Watch film (photo by Jennifer Johnson)

The Blood Is at the Doorstep reveals that not much is changing with regard to the epidemic that has led to the formation of such movements as Black Lives Matter, countered by Blue Lives Matter. At one point, a small group of peaceful protesters gather in front of Chisholm’s house, a wall of police there, just waiting for trouble. At another protest, outside agitators such as Khalil Coleman and Curtis Sails take things in a direction that Nate Hamilton is not happy about, while Milwaukee Police Association president Mike Crivello defends Manney to the fullest. Meanwhile, Maria Hamilton hosts a Mothers for Justice tea party, where black women talk about their sons who have been killed by police officers, comparing how many bullets were fired into their sons’ bodies. The only public official who seems to be listening to the Hamiltons at all is Mayor Tom Barrett, who at least takes some action. It’s one of the most divisive issues of the twenty-first century; millions of Americans can watch the exact same video of a shooting and reach completely different conclusions about what actually happened. There is no footage of the death of Dontre Hamilton, but there is plenty of evidence, more than enough to have viewers make up their own mind — and wonder whether this national crisis will ever end. The Blood Is at the Doorstep is screening June 9 at 7:00 at IFC Center and June 10 at 8:45 at the Walter Reade Theater; both shows will be followed by a Q&A with Ljung, Maria Hamilton, and her sons, Nate Hamilton and Dameion Perkins.

NEW YORK JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL — WILLIAM KENTRIDGE: TRIUMPHS AND LAMENTS

Documentary follows ambitious William Kentridge project along Tiber River in Rome

WILLIAM KENTRIDGE: TRIUMPHS AND LAMENTS (Giovanni Troilo, 2016)
Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th St. at Amsterdam Ave.
Tuesday, January 17, 6:00, and Thursday, January 19, 4:15
New York Jewish Film Festival runs January 11-24
212-875-5601
www.nyjff.org
www.filmlinc.org

South African multimedia artist William Kentridge has made animated short films, designed and directed operas, performed one-man shows, delivered the Norton Lecture at Harvard, and exhibited works (including drawing, video, sculpture, and installation) around the world. Italian director and photographer Giovanni Troilo documents one of Kentridge’s grandest, most ambitious projects in William Kentridge: Triumphs and Laments, having its world premiere at the New York Jewish Film Festival this week. For more than a dozen years, Kentridge and site-specific artist and curator Kristin Jones were involved in planning “Triumphs and Laments: A Project for Rome,” a mural and live procession along a more-than-five-hundred-yard stretch of the Tiber River celebrating the history of the Eternal City. But Kentridge adds his own subtle sociopolitical twist, as he has done throughout his career with such works as his series of films about Soho Eckstein and Felix Teitlebaum. “The glories of imperial Rome were only possible through unbelievable and unbearable acts of cruelty, enacted on a massive scale,” he explains in the documentary, noting that he will link such disparate characters as Romulus and Remus with Pier Paolo Pasolini among the ninety figures. “Every colonial empire is there only through enormous acts of violence. The great things that were built, they’re always on the back of other people.” Part of Tevereterno, “a multidisciplinary cultural project for the revival of Rome’s Tiber River,” founded by artistic director Jones in 2001, “Triumphs and Laments” becomes enmeshed in a labyrinth of bureaucracy as an ever-more-emotional Jones fights for permits amid an ever-changing local government while Kentridge battles to get every detail just right, from the large-scale stencil drawings to the pacing of the procession. Wearing his trademark black pants and white button-down shirt, Kentridge is shown driving around his hometown of Johannesburg, describing his process in his studio, taking a boat ride along the Tiber, listening to longtime collaborator Philip Miller’s orchestration, and continually worrying about the potential realization of the project, up to the very last minute. At one point Jones and Kentridge bump into the mayor, who is riding his bike in the area; the chance meeting seems serendipitous until scandal forces the municipal head from office.

A fascinating theorist with an unpredictable sense of humor, Kentridge explains that his main goal is to “try to find the triumph in the lament and the lament in the triumph,” saying that “it only works if it’s possible to have an irreverence for the history.” Troilo also speaks with Miller, co-composer Thuthuka Sibisi, and others who offer their thoughts about working with Kentridge and the specifics of the project, one that will be temporary, since the procession is a one-time-only event and the stencils will eventually fade away, much like parts of Roman history. Kentridge, who was the subject of a major retrospective, “Five Themes,” at MoMA in 2010, is always a joy to watch, and that is as true as ever here in Rome, as he conducts another unique and unusual work as only he can. William Kentridge: Triumphs and Laments is screening on January 17 and 19 at the Walter Reade Theater, with producer Andrea Patierno participating in Q&As following each show. The twenty-sixth annual New York Jewish Film Festival, a joint production of the Jewish Museum and the Film Society of Lincoln Center, continues through January 24 with more than three dozen programs, from new fiction and nonfiction films to special tributes to Valeska Gert and the duo of Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder and a master class with Israeli documentarian Tomer Heymann.

NEW YORK JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL: THE WOMEN’S BALCONY

The women have a bone to pick with a new rabbi in Emil Ben-Shimon’s THE WOMEN’S BALCONY

THE WOMEN’S BALCONY (Emil Ben-Shimon, 2016)
Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th St. at Amsterdam Ave.
Saturday, January 14, 7:00, and Tuesday, January 17, 3:30
New York Jewish Film Festival runs January 11-24
212-875-5601
www.nyjff.org
www.filmlinc.org

Judaism may be matrilineal, but that doesn’t mean that women are treated as equal to men, especially among sects espousing fundamentalist religious beliefs, although women are considered holier than men in Orthodox communities. In Emil Ben-Shimon’s absolutely wonderful debut feature, The Women’s Balcony, that all comes to a head when wives, mothers, girlfriends, and daughters, relegated to a balcony in the back of a small, local shul — as if on a pedestal, farther away from the Torah but closer to G-d — come crashing down when the structure breaks, suddenly putting them on the same level as the men. It’s no coincidence that this happens during an Orthodox bar mitzvah, when a boy becomes a man, which is much different from an orthodox bat mitzvah, when a girl becomes a woman. When a fundamentalist rabbi from a nearby congregation offers to help rebuild the Mizrahi synagogue, the place of women in the shul are far from his main concern, leading to a furious and delightful battle of the sexes. With the elderly Rabbi Menashe (Abraham Celektar) flustered because the accident has left his wife in a coma, Rabbi David (Avraham Aviv Alush) is only too happy to step in, demanding further separation between the men and the women, which causes problems for such couples as gabbai Aharon (Itzik Cohen) and Tikva (Orna Banai); mild-mannered Nissan (Herzi Tobey) and Margalit (Einat Sarouf); and warmhearted shopkeeper Zion (Igal Naor) and Etti (Evelin Hagoel), who have a terrific marriage and equal partnership until things start changing at the shul. Meanwhile, everyone is hoping that Yaffa (Yafit Asulin) finds the right man as she expands her dating search, until she and Rabbi David’s assistant (Assaf Ben Shimon) take an interest in each other, a potential Romeo and Juliet romance.

Not even the Passover seder can bring order to the chaos surrounding the reconstruction of a synagogue in THE WOMEN’S BALCONY

The Women’s Balcony was written by first-time screenwriter Shlomit Nehama, Ben-Shimon’s ex-wife, who was inspired by the religious extremism she saw in an Israeli neighborhood where she had once lived. The film evokes such sweet-natured favorites as Local Hero and Waking Ned Devine as well as Aristophanes’s Lysistrata as the women fight for their rights. Ben-Shimon (Mimon, Wild Horses) maintains an infectious pace throughout, as cinematographer Ziv Berkovich puts the audience right in the middle of the action, accompanied by Ahuva Ozeri and Shaul Besser’s playful, Jewish-flavored score. Naor and Hagoel are outstanding as Zion and Etti, the emotional center of the film, a lovely couple with a bright view of life, at least until exclusion and sexism get in the way. Asulin is excellent as Yaffa, the young woman who is part of the next generation of Judaism — and who is not extremely knowledgeable about her religion. But even when situations are at their most tense, Nehama and Ben-Shimon keep it all lighthearted; if only more religious (and marital) disputes could be handled with such grace and wit.

Nominated for five Israeli Academy Awards, including Banai for Best Supporting Actress, Rona Doron for Best Costume Design, Vered Mevorach for Best Makeup, the late Ozeri (who passed away last month at the age of sixty-eight) and Besser for Best Score, and Alush for Best Supporting Actor, The Women’s Balcony is screening January 14 and 17 at the New York Jewish Film Festival, with Ben-Shimon participating in a Q&A after both shows. The twenty-sixth annual New York Jewish Film Festival, a joint production of the Jewish Museum and the Film Society of Lincoln Center, runs January 11-24, with more than three dozen programs, from new fiction and nonfiction films to special tributes to Valeska Gert and the duo of Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder and a master class with Israeli documentarian Tomer Heymann.

NEW YORK JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL OPENING NIGHT: MOON IN THE 12th HOUSE

Mira (Yuval Scharf) returns home but younger sister Lenny (Yaara Pelzig) is not yet ready to have her back in her life in MOON IN THE 12th HOUSE

MOON IN THE 12th HOUSE (Dorit Hakim, 2016)
Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th St. at Amsterdam Ave.
Wednesday, January 11, 3:30 & 9:00
New York Jewish Film Festival runs January 11-24
212-875-5601
nyjff.org
www.filmlinc.org

The 2017 New York Jewish Film Festival opens with the tender, emotionally wrenching Moon in the 12th House, the debut feature by Dorit Hakim, who won the 1998 Silver Lion for Best Short Film for her eleven-minute Small Change. Hakim, a journalist and filmmaker who was born in Tel Aviv, lived for several years with her husband, Israeli hi-tech success Shlomo Kramer, in Silicon Valley, then moved back to her homeland. For her first full-length work, she reaches deep into her Israeli youth to tell the story of two sisters separated by tragedy when they were girls. Now adults, the vain Mira (Yuval Scharf) works in a glitzy Tel Aviv nightclub, where she does drugs and sleeps with her selfish, mean-spirited boss, Doron (Gal Toren). Her younger sister, twenty-one-year-old Lenny (Yaara Pelzig), has chosen to remain in the family home in the country, taking care of their ailing father (Avraham Horovitz), who is in an assisted living facility after a stroke. Lenny, who goes for a precious swim every day to temporarily escape her overwhelming responsibilities, is also watching her neighbor’s teenage son, Ben (Gefen Barkai), while his artist mother is away. Long estranged, the sisters are reunited when a desperate Mira suddenly shows up on Lenny’s doorstep, but as much as Mira might need her, Lenny is not yet ready to accept her back in her life. “It’s not as easy for me as it is for you,” Mira says, not understanding the sacrifices that Lenny has made, part of the reason why they are estranged.

Lenny (Yaara Pelzig) takes care of her ailing father (Avraham Horovitz) in debut feature by Dorit Hakim

Inspired by events from her life but not wholly autobiographical, Moon in the 12th House is a fragile, delicate film; it feels as if it could break at any moment, echoing how the sisters exist on a psychological precipice. Writer-director Hakim never makes things simple, avoiding clichéd plot twists as details emerge about what tore Lenny and Mira apart. Scharf (Ha-Emet Ha’Eroma, Ana Arabia) and Pelzig (Policeman, Good Family) have a strong chemistry, whether they’re fighting or cuddled together in bed. The film is beautifully photographed by Amit Yasur (The Slut, Next to Her), with a warm, spare soundtrack by Ishai Adar (Mr. Gaga, Bethlehem). Nominated for six Israeli Oscars — Scharf for Best Supporting Actress, Toren for Best Supporting Actor, Yasur for Best Cinematography, Li Alembik for Best Costume Design, Vered Mevorach for Best Makeup, and Adar for Best Music — Moon in the 12th House is screening at the Walter Reade Theater on January 11 at 3:30 and 9:30, with each show followed by a Q&A with Hakim and Scharf. The twenty-sixth annual New York Jewish Film Festival, a joint production of the Jewish Museum and the Film Society of Lincoln Center, runs January 11-24, with more than three dozen programs, from new fiction and nonfiction films to special tributes to Valeska Gert and the duo of Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder and a master class with Israeli documentarian Tomer Heymann.