Continuing Ed Presents: American Promise

Friday, January 10th - Sunday, January 12th

Continuing Ed Presents: American Promise

(This on-going series presents films and speakers in order to advance discussion about the future of education and education reform.)

Friday, January 10th, 7:00pm

(Sponsored by Hue-Man Books)

American Promise

Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson, 2013, 142 min.

American Promise spans 13 years as Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson, middle-class African-American parents in Brooklyn, N.Y., turn their cameras on their son, Idris, and his best friend, Seun, who make their way through one of the most prestigious private schools in the country. Chronicling the boys' divergent paths from kindergarten through high school graduation at Manhattan's Dalton School, this provocative, intimate documentary presents complicated truths about America's struggle to come of age on issues of race, class and opportunity.

Q&A with directors Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson and their son and American Promise subject Idris, moderated by Marva Allen of Hue-Man Books.

9:45pm

“Promise's Kept” Book Signing (sponsored by Hue-Man Books.)

To coincide with the POV documentary, the book Promise's Kept: Raising Black Boys to Succeed in School and in Life–Lessons Learned from the 12-Year American Promise Project, by Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson with Hilary Beard publishes on January 14th. Where American Promise raises provocative questions, “Promise's Kept” delivers answers, combining insights Brewster and Stephenson derived from their own experiences with the latest research on closing the black male achievement gap, providing readers with an unprecedented toolkit full of practical strategies from infancy through the teenaged years.

Tickets are $25 for the American Promise screening and signed copy of “Promise's Kept” (retail $18).

www.americanpromise.org

http://www.huemanbookstore.com/

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfA939LmPbU

Butterfly Rising

Thursday, January 9th, 7:30pm

Butterfly Rising

Tanya Wright, 2010, 94 min.

Butterfly Rising is the story of two unlikely women (the town seductress Rose Johnson and grief-stricken singer Lilah Belle) who steal a vintage truck and set out on the open road to meet the legendary Lazarus of the Butterflies. Motivated in part by the death of her younger brother, Tanya also authored the book of the same name.

Tanya Wright plays the role of Crystal Burset on Orange is the New Black and Deputy Kenya Jones in True Blood. Butterfly Rising is her directorial debut (which she also wrote, produced and starred in).
 

Post screening Q&A with director Tanya Wright and book signing to follow.

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPgYSKo6lcs

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/540536

FB: https://www.facebook.com/events/1405236279718933/

The War on Poverty: 50 Years Later

Wednesday, January 8th, 7:00pm

Friends of Appalshop NYC Presents

The War on Poverty: 50 Years Later

Whitesburg Epic

Dir. Bill Richardson. 1971, 8 min

The short film Whitesburg Epic was made by the early trainees and is a premiere example of Appalshop’s early aesthetic and its philosophy of producing media about the region from the region.  It uses “man on the street” reportage to investigate the issues faced by local people on Main Street in Whitesburg, Kentucky, who talk about growing up in a small town, their reactions to the war in Southeast Asia, and the recent massacre at Kent State.  The interviewees include local students, business people, a teacher, and a coal miner on his way home from work. The range of answers to the questions posed by the Appalshop film crew are at the same time specifically local (several people complain about the recent closing of the town’s only movie theater), and national in scope (reflecting society’s different opinions about the Vietnam War). In the 40+ years since the film was shot, it has become a stunningly evocative reflection of the time and of the place it was made.

Stranger with a Camera

Dir. Elizabeth Barret, 2000, 60 min

"A camera is like a gun," says filmmaker Colin Low of the National Film Board of Canada in the Appalshop documentary Stranger With a Camera. The program explores the 1967 killing by Hobart Ison of Canadian filmmaker Hugh O'Connor, who was working on an exhibition film with a New York production company while gathering images of poverty in the Kentucky coalfields. Years later media artist Elizabeth Barret reflects on this tragic encounter between one man with a camera and one man with a gun by focusing on the story as a pivot point for an interrogation of media itself while offering a meditation on Appalachia’s place in the American imagination.

The shooting death of Hugh O’Connor in Jeremiah, Kentucky occurred at the height of the nation’s War on Poverty, a massive program of economic and social reform launched in 1964. Appalachia was a central battleground region as the U.S. government aimed to address poverty that persisted in the midst of the America’s general prosperity. Stranger With A Camera illuminates this backdrop and circumstances of a singular incident, yet it is emblematic of today's unresolved questions and issues concerning income inequality in America.

Discussion with director Elizabeth Barret and Appalshop staff members to directly follow.

Trailer: http://appalshop.org/channel/stranger-with-a-camera-trailer.html

Appalshop was founded in 1969 as the Community Film Workshop of Appalachia, one of a group of workshops around the country established through a War on Poverty funding initiative.  The workshops were intended to train minorities and the economically disadvantaged in the production and use of film so that they could address the needs of their communities.  

50 years after Johnson announces the War on Poverty, we revisit the work of Appalshop through these two films.

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/540532

FB: https://www.facebook.com/events/241550012688002/

Albert Maysles and Oscar Buzz Presents: Cutie and the Boxer

Tuesday, January 7th, 7:30pm

Albert Maysles and Oscar Buzz Presents: Cutie and the Boxer

(Oscar winning documentaries, nominees

and shortlisted films.)

Curated by Jenna Bond Louden

Zachary Heinzerling, 2013, 82 mins.

Shortlisted for the 2014 Best Documentary Feature Oscar, Cutie and the Boxer is a reflection on love, sacrifice, and the creative spirit, this candid New York documentary explores the chaotic 40-year marriage of renowned “boxing” painter Ushio Shinohara and his artist wife Noriko. As a rowdy, confrontational young artist in Tokyo, Ushio seemed destined for fame, but he is met with little commercial success after he moves to New York City in 1969, seeking international recognition. When 19-year-old Noriko moved to New York to study art, she fell in love with Ushio—abandoning her education to become the unruly artist’s wife and assistant. Over the course of their marriage, their roles shifted. Now 80, Ushio still struggles to establish his artistic legacy, while Noriko is at last being recognized for her own art—a series of drawings entitled “Cutie,” depicting her challenging past with Ushio. Spanning four decades, the film is a moving portrait of a couple wrestling with the eternal themes of sacrifice, disappointment and aging, against a background of lives dedicated to art.

Q&A with director Zachary Heinzerling and subjects Ushio and Noriko Shinohara, moderated by Jenna Bond Louden.

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP8_1hcLpdk

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/551575

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/618052944898140/?notif_t=plan_user_invited

Radio Unameable

Sunday, January 5th, 7:30pm

(A Portion of the Evening’s Proceeds Will Go To WBAI’S Transmitter Fund)

Radio Unnameable

Introduced by Ratso Sloman, Author of "Private Parts" with Howard Stern and "Undisputed Truth with Mike Tyson.

Jessica Wolfson and Paul Lovelace, 2012, 87 min.

Legendary radio personality Bob Fass revolutionized the FM airwaves in the 1960s and '70s with his free-form program “Radio Unnameable,” a cultural hub for music, politics, and audience engagement. For nearly 50 years, he has been heard at midnight on New York City listener-sponsored station WBAI, utilizing the airwaves for mobilization long before today's innovations in social media. Drawing from Fass's extraordinary personal archive of audio recordings, including interviews with Allen Ginsberg and Abbie Hoffman, and performances by Bob Dylan, Arlo Guthrie, and Carly Simon, Radio Unnameable celebrates the profoundly influential career of one of radio's unsung heroes.

Q&A with directors Jessica Wolfson and Paul Lovelace and subject Bob Fass.

The WBAI Transmitter fund set up for listeners to help prevent WBAI radio from complete shutdown. Donate here.

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTyjhlu8QUA

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/540530

FB: https://www.facebook.com/events/640977169297718/

F*ck for Forest

Saturday, January 4th, 4:00pm

Hosted by filmmaker/critic Robert Greene

F*ck for Forest

Michal Marczak, 2013, 86 min.

Berlin’s F*ck For Forest is one of the world’s most bizarre charities. Based on the idea that sex can save the world, the NGO raises money for their environmental cause by selling home-made erotic films on the internet. Meet Danny, a troubled soul, as he accidentally discovers this exuberant, neo-hippy world where sexual liberation merges with global altruism, and joins their already colourful operation. From the streets of Berlin to the depths of the Amazon, together they are on a planet-saving mission to buy a piece of forest and save the indigenous peoples from the sick, sick West.

Q&A with director Michal Marczak.

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/63337246

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/540386

FB: https://www.facebook.com/events/644329752298521/

The Cinema Eye Honors for Nonfiction Filmmaking were founded in late 2007 to recognize and honor exemplary craft and innovation in nonfiction film.  Cinema Eye’s mission is to advocate for, recognize and promote the highest commitment to rigor and artistry in the nonfiction field. The 2014 Cinema Eye Honors will take place at the Museum of the Moving Image on January 8th. Purchase tickets here.

Cinema Eye Honors Spotlight Film Series

The Cinema Eye Honors Spotlight Film Series

Friday, January 3rd - Saturday, January 4th

Friday, January 3rd, 7:00pm

The Last Station

Hosted by filmmaker/critic Robert Greene

Cristian Soto and Catalina Vergara, 2013, 90 min.

“Good morning, grandmas and grandpas. Today I want to share with you the sounds I recorded on a rainy day,” says the radio announcer, the residents of Father Hurtado’s nursing home listening quietly to the daily broadcast. They wait patiently to hear news of those who have passed away, like a tired passenger awaits the arrival of the last train. Poetic and deeply human, The Last Station is an insightful portrait of life in a Chilean nursing home, where residents embark with determination upon their every chore. Hailed around the world as masterful—it’s dimly lit scenes compared to the paintings of Vilhelm Hammershoi and its careful narrative approach reminiscent of Tarkovsky’s work—this film has played at IDFA, Leipzig and Copenhagen, among others. The work of a surprisingly young directorial duo, it reminds us that life, though slow when nearing the end, is lived with the same intensity all the way through. (Hot Docs)

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/52418037

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/540412

FB: https://www.facebook.com/events/644329752298521/

Friday, January 3rd, 9:00pm

Valentine Road

Hosted by filmmaker/critic Robert Greene

Marta Cunningham, 2013, 89 Min.

The seaside town of Oxnard, California, was shattered in 2008 by the shooting death of Lawrence “Larry” King, a 15-year-old biracial, LGBTQ student. The killer? His white, 14-year-old crush, Brandon McInerney. Was this a hate crime—retaliation against unwanted advances—or something more complex, entrenched in the community and society at large? Did flamboyant Larry, who liked to crochet, wear makeup and don heels, push his attacker, an emerging white supremacist, over the edge? It sure made for catchy headlines and drew attention to the plight of LGBTQ teens, as well as the overwhelmed educational and juvenile justice systems. But sensational press coverage only scratched the surface of the real story.Valentine Road delves deeper, to explore the complicated issues of accountability, sympathy and deviance at the heart of a legal defence that posited a murder victim can be the cause of his own murder. (Hot Docs)

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHewBW4UocY

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/540440

FB: https://www.facebook.com/events/644329752298521/