SR Socially Relevant Film Festival New York Series

SR Socially Relevant Film Festival New York Series

Curated by Nora Armani and SR Socially Relevant Film Festival New York Serie

Program of Shorts II

Doc Shorts Competition

Niro and Flicka

(New York Premiere)

Hai Afik, 2014, 30 min, Israel

On his 40th birthday Niro tries to reconcile with his father and wonders if he will find love or if he will remain alone with his music and his donkey for the rest of his life.

Q&A with director Hai Afik.

The Orchard Keepers

Bryony Dunne, 2014, 28 min, Egypt/Ireland

Two Bedouin women embark on a daily journey, against a backdrop of political upheaval, to keep their orchard, an island of green floating in the arid Sinai desert, alive.

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1303390

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/84468915 (The Orchard Keepers)

8:35pm

Documentary Feature Competition (3)

Lighter Than Orange

(New York Premiere)

Matthias Leupold, 2014, 62 min, Germany

Ten North Vietnamese veterans tell about their memories of the war and Agent Orange as well as the struggles they have faced as a consequence of both.

Q&A with director Matthias Leupold.

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1303422

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/72646787

9:50pm

Program of Shorts III

(Doc Shorts Competition)

Rooftops of Jerusalem

(New York Premiere)

Hana Elias, 2014, 8 min, Israel

Holy city, controversial city, contested city. That's how people talk about Jerusalem. But who is paying the price? While Palestinian youth are training Parkour on the rooftops, a group of Jewish boys, celebrating Purim interfere.

Bone to Brain

Rachel Greco, 2014, 20 min, USA

Meet Nicki Muller, a young woman diagnosed with bone cancer at age 13 and brain cancer at age 21. This thought provoking documentary explains the power of art and acceptance.

Q&A with director Rachel Greco.

Lingering Time

Ching Chen Juhl, 2014, 30 min, USA

The 60th anniversary celebration and reunion at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Alumni return with joy and sentiment to a changing country.

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1303431

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2i0AXqjDrk (Rooftops of Jerusalem), https://vimeo.com/119080564 (Lingering Time)

SR Socially Relevant (™) Film Festival New York (2nd edition March 16-22, 2015) is a non-profit film festival showcasing socially relevant films & stories in response to the proliferation of violence & violent forms of storytelling.

The 2nd edition of the festival promises an interesting slate of over 50 films from 33 countries addressing a wide range of social issues. In addition, the festival offers industry panels on Distribution, Storytelling and Diversity Casting (with SAG-AFTRA), and a Masterclass with legendary documentary filmmaker Albert Maysles. For information and full slate of films screening at Tribeca Cinemas, and Industry Panels at The School of Visual Arts MFA SocDoc, please visit http://www.ratedsrfilms.org

Thursday, March 19th, 7:00pm

Doc Watchers Presents: 25 To Life

Curated by Hellura Lyle

Mike Brown, 2014, 81 min.

William Brawner kept his HIV status a secret for over twenty-five years. Now, he seeks redemption from his promiscuous past, as he embarks on a new phase of life, with his wife, who is HIV Negative. We watch as he confronts previous sexual partners and struggles to carve out an open and honest future. 25 To Life is a startlingly fresh look at HIV and AIDS in America. It tackles the tough social issues of sex, race, and manhood and explores the pains and triumphs of William’s life and those around him. His story illuminates the ability of the human spirit to rise above devastating circumstances and discover why life is always worth fighting for.

Screening followed by Q&A with director Mike Brown and producer Leah Thomas and reception.

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1375960

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1564935423769432/

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/98164742

SR Socially Relevant Film Festival New York Series

SR Socially Relevant Film Festival New York Series

Curated by Nora Armani and SR Socially Relevant Film Festival New York Series

(SR Socially Relevant (™) Film Festival New York is a non-profit film festival showcasing socially relevant films & stories in response to the proliferation of violence & violent forms of storytelling.)

Program of Shorts I

Docs Shorts Competition

Plundering Tibet

(New York Premiere)

Michael Buckley, 2014, 24 min, Canada/Tibet

Based on chinese mining operations we learn how Tibet becomes the victim of pollution and a target for disaster.

Umudugudu! Rwanda 20 Years On

(New York Premiere)

Giordano Cossu, 2014, 36 min, France

Former Rwandan genocide killers and survivors must live together again and face the struggle of rebuilding life and living amongst those who may have killed members of their family.

Q&A with director Giordano Cossu.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/413880358788850/

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1303345

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/119217945 (Umudugudu! Rwanda 20 Years On), https://vimeo.com/99806095 (Plundering Tibet)

8:10pm

Documentary Feature Competition (1)

Still Running

Wayne de Lange and Sven Harding, 2014, 5 min, South Africa

Still/Running' vividly chronicles how Wings for Life World Run ambassador, Pieter du Preez, overcame a tragic cycling accident - which left him paralysed from the chest down

All in Her Stride

(New York Premiere)

Fiona Cochrane, 2014, 55 min, Australia

This film depicts elements of Australian actor Leverne McDonnell’s life and documents her facing a terminal diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, with discussion of the topic of euthanasia and her death.

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1303357

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRQu71DXyro

9:15pm

Documentary Feature Competition (2)

Truth Through a Lens

(New York Premiere)

Justin Thomas, 2014, 92 min, USA

This stunning feature length debut follows the evolution of Dennis Flores from Brooklyn street kid, subway train tagger to local community organizing legend in the backdrop of recent social issues.

Q & A with director Justin Thomas and activist Dennis Flores.

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1303374

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/92417120

Actress

Actress

(A Women's History Month Special)

Sponsored by the New York Film and Video Council and the Flaherty

Robert Greene, 2014, 87 min

Brandy Burre had a recurring role on HBO’s The Wire when she gave up her career to start a family. When she decides to reclaim her life as an actor, the domestic world she’s carefully created crumbles around her. Using elements of melodrama and cinema verité, Actress is both a present tense portrait of a dying relationship and an exploration of a complicated woman, performing the role of herself, in a complex-yet-familiar story. It’s a film about starring in the movie of your life. This is what happens when we break the rules.

Q&A with director Robert Greene and subject Brandy Burre followed by a reception sponsored by the New York Film and Video Council.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0sKHSndhDA

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/452033631610601/

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1331507

Mimi and Dona

The 7th Annual ReelAbilities: NY Disabilities Film Festival Presents:

Mimi and Dona

Sophie Sartain, 2014, 66 min.

What happens when love runs out of time? For a 92-year-old mother, Mimi, who has cared 64 years for Dona, a daughter who has an intellectual disability, it means facing the inevitable – she will not outlive her daughter – and finding her daughter a home. This poignant, heartbreaking and, at times, humorous documentary traces this process through the story of a wonderfully quirky and deeply connected mother-daughter duo. The film spotlights the challenges of aging caregivers of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities – some 4.6 million Americans, 75% of whom live at home with family – and details the ripple effects of Dona’s disability on three generations of a Texas family.

Q&A with director Sophie Sartain.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3GE5u3m-5I

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1553808238231888/

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1331503

Part of the 7th Annual ReelAbilities: NY Disabilities Film Festival

March 12-18, 2015

In venues throughout NY

For full festival program and information visit: NY.REELABILITIES.ORG

Girl Rising

Girl Rising

(Sponsored by the Peace Corps and Afropop Worldwide)

100% Free

Richard E. Robbins, 2013, 101 min.

From Academy Award-nominated director Richard E. Robbins, Girl Rising journeys around the globe to witness the strength of the human spirit and the power of education to change the world. Viewers get to know nine unforgettable girls living in the developing world: ordinary girls who confront tremendous challenges and overcome nearly impossible odds to pursue their dreams. Prize-winning authors put the girls’ remarkable stories into words, and renowned actors give them voice.

Panel discussion Yamilée Toussaint, founder of STEM From Dance and Ingrid C DeLeon-Dearborn, an educator with more panelists to be announced, followed by music from Afropop Worldwide.

This event is free but registration is recommended.

https://empowergirls.eventbrite.com

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81x6mYNxqzU

Jazz on Film: A Night at the Cotton Club

Jazz on Film: A Night at the Cotton Club

Hosted by Loren Schoenberg

The Cotton Club played a major role during the 1920’s and 30’s, employing the best African-American artists of the era, while at the same time running a segregated audience policy. We’ll examine this complicated reality as we watch films of the great jazz bands that played there, including Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway.

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1331492

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/600652780071921/

Proyector

Proyector

A showcase of contemporary independent Mexican films blending fiction with non-fiction elements. The themes and characters they present fall outside of the clichés of Mexico portrayed by the media. Emphasizing form over content, these films break away from commercial production schemes.

Curated by Sebastian Diaz

Malaventura

Michel Lipkes, 2011, 74 min

A day in the life. An old man walks the streets of the city, daily life goes on. Memories beset the man's guilt leads him, the pain takes shape. The old man goes on his way to the end, as life continues its strange path.

International Film Festival Rotterdam; Cine UNAM IFF; Cine Las Palmas de Gran Canaria IFF; Bradford International Film Festival; Cine de Lima Independent FF; New Horizons FF; Special Jury Mention, Morelia IFF; Special Mention FCLM Montreal.

Discussion with Director Michel Lipkes and Cinema Tropical director Carlos Gutiérrez to follow the screening. Mingle with music, complimentary Mexican food, and mezcal tasting.

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/105919866

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1331421

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1549953028590340/

Thanks to the event partners:

The Mexican Cultural Institute of New York, Remezcla, Cinema Tropical, Espiritu Lauro mezcal, Mezcal de las Hormigas, Taco Mix, Brooklyn Documentary Club, Mano a Mano, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) NYU, Consulado General de México en Nueva York, NACLA, Mu media, Axolote Cine, Ajenjo Cine.

Program 1: Micro-Symphonies, the Films of Axolote Cine

A series of the work by Axolote Cine film troupe. Merging between real and oneiric landscapes, these minimal stories offer current views of Mexico.

Upcoming films of Program 1

Calle Lopez – April 2nd, 7:30pm
Mosca – May 7th, 7:30pm
Wadley – June 4th, 7:30pm

Coming in Fall 2015 - Winter 2016

Program 2: Digging Roots of a Denied Civilization

A series of current visions of indigenous Mexico. Stories and characters with a strong connection to nature, serve as a metaphor to explore global themes like identity, family or aging.

Nas: Time is Illmatic

Nas: Time Is Illmatic

(A Black History Month Special)

One9 and Eric Parker, 2014, 74 min.

21 years after the release of Nas’s groundbreaking debut album "Illmatic,"  Nas: Time Is Illmatic takes us into the heart of his creative process. Returning to his childhood home in Queensbridge, Nas shares stories of his upbringing, his influences — from the music of his jazz musician father Olu Dara to the burgeoning hip-hop scene in New York City — and the obstacles he faced before his major label signing at age 20. Featuring interviews with his ‘Illmatic’ producers (Large Professor, Pete Rock, Q-Tip, L.E.S., and DJ Premier) and musical peers (including Pharrell Williams and Alicia Keys), Nas: Time Is Illmatic is a thrilling account of Nas’s evolution from a young street poet to a visionary MC.

Skype Q&A with filmmakers One9 and Eric Parker to follow the screening on Friday, February 20th.
Q&A with producer Martha Diaz to follow the screening on Saturday,  February 21st.

Martha Diaz is a community organizer, educator, media producer, archivist and social entrepreneur. She has been dedicated to advancing social justice, cultivating leaders and artists, and mentoring youth for over 15 years. She was a production assistant for the late Ted Demme, the TV and film producer/director behind Yo! MTV Raps (1988), Life (1999), Blow  (2001)  and  A Decade Under the Influence (2003). In 1999, Diaz produced and directed, H2O [Hip-Hop Odyssey] , a short documentary on the evolution and global impact of Hip-Hop culture. In 2002, Diaz formed the H2O International Film Festival and subsequently developed the Hip-Hop Association [H2A]. For seven years, Diaz served as president and executive director of the H2A; she is currently its chair. Diaz launched H2ONewsreel , the first Hip-Hop media distribution label dedicated to the education field, in collaboration with Third World Newsreel.  As a 2008 NYU Gallatin Graduate student and a Catherine B. Reynolds Fellow, she founded the Hip-Hop Education Center for Research, Evaluation and Training, in partnership with Dr. Pedro Noguera of the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education at NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Behavior.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VNFCnS9c1E

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/923276851040229/

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1257396

Oscar Buzz Presents: Keep On Keepin' On

(Oscar nominated and shortlisted documentaries.)

Al Hicks, 2014, 84 min

Shot over the course of five years by first time filmmaker Al Hicks, Keep on Keepin' On depicts a 23-­year­-old, blind piano prodigy, Justin Kauflin, and music legend and teacher Clark Terry, 89. After a life spent working with and teaching the most totemic figures in jazz history, Terry continues to attract and cultivate budding talents. Keep on Keepin' On highlights Terry’s friendship with the preternaturally gifted Justin Kauflin, who suffers from debilitating stage fright. Not long after Kauflin is invited to compete in an elite Jazz competition, Terry’s health takes a turn for the worse. As the clock ticks, we see two friends confront the toughest challenges of their lives. Terry, now 93, was Quincy Jones’ first teacher, and mentor to Miles Davis. He is among the few performers ever to have played in both Count Basie’s and Duke Ellington’s bands. In the ‘60s Terry broke the color barrier as the first African-American staff musician at NBC – on The Tonight Show.

Kauflin’s work on the film’s score with composer Dave Grusin sets the tone for a story covering decades. Keep on Keepin' On is a film crafted with great affection by Hicks – another former student of Terry’s –  a grace note for his teacher, infused with soulfulness and serendipity. Paula DuPre’ Pesmen (behind the Academy Award winning The Cove and the Oscar nominated Chasing Ice) produced the film with seven time Academy Award nominee Quincy Jones who also counts Terry as his mentor. Jones came on board as producer after walking into the film as one of its subjects, discovering Justin’s talent purely by chance during a visit at Clark’s home. Shortlisted for the 2015 Best Documentary Feature Academy Award.

Skype Q&A with director Al Hicks and producer Paula DuPre' Pesmen.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjR74w_GFWE

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1532499720349539/

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1257359

Oscar Buzz Presents: Art and Craft

Oscar Buzz Presents: Art and Craft

(Oscar nominated and shortlisted documentaries.)

Sam Cullman, Mark Becker, Jennifer Grausman, 2014, 90 min

Mark Landis has been called one of the most prolific art forgers in US history. His impressive body of work spans thirty years, covering a wide range of painting styles and periods that includes 15th Century Icons, Picasso, and even Walt Disney. And while the copies could fetch impressive sums on the open market, Landis isn’t in it for money. Posing as a philanthropic donor, a grieving executor of a family member’s will, and most recently as a Jesuit priest, Landis has given away hundreds of works over the years to a staggering list of institutions across the United States. But after duping Matthew Leininger, a tenacious registrar who ultimately discovers the decades-long ruse and sets out to expose his philanthropic escapades to the art world, Landis must confront his own legacy and a chorus of museum professionals clamoring for him to stop. Art and Craft starts out as a cat-and-mouse art caper, rooted in questions of authorship and authenticity—but what emerges is an intimate story of obsession and the universal need for community, appreciation, and purpose. Shortlisted for the 2015 Best Documentary Feature Academy Award.

Q&A with directors Sam Cullman, Mark Becker, and Jennifer Grausman in person, and subject Mark Landis via Skype.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gseZBhZqvb0

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/588072824661136/

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1257320

Oscar Buzz Presents: Last Days in Vietnam

(Oscar nominated and shortlisted documentaries.)

Rory Kennedy, 2014, 98 min.

During the chaotic final days of the Vietnam War, the North Vietnamese Army closes in on Saigon as South Vietnamese resistance crumbles. The United States has only a skeleton crew of diplomats and military operatives still in the country. As Communist victory becomes inevitable and the U.S. readies to withdraw, some Americans begin to consider the certain imprisonment and possible death of their South Vietnamese allies, co-workers, and friends. Meanwhile, the prospect of an official evacuation of South Vietnamese becomes terminally delayed by Congressional gridlock and the inexplicably optimistic U.S. Ambassador. With the clock ticking and the city under fire, a number of heroic Americans take matters into their own hands, engaging in unsanctioned and often makeshift operations in a desperate effort to save as many South Vietnamese lives as possible. Nominated for the 2015 Best Documentary Feature Academy Award.

Q&A with director Rory Kennedy.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTWX-BB4aAA

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1603584996532085/

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1252542

Oscar Buzz Presents: Citizenfour

(Oscar nominated and shortlisted documentaries.)

Co-Sponsored by the Center for Constitutional Rights

Laura Poitras, 2014, 114 min

Citizenfour is a real life thriller, unfolding by the minute, giving audiences unprecedented access to filmmaker Laura Poitras and journalist Glenn Greenwald’s encounters with Edward Snowden in Hong Kong, as he hands over classified documents providing evidence of mass indiscriminate and illegal invasions of privacy by the National Security Agency (NSA). Poitras had already been working on a film about surveillance for two years when Snowden contacted her, using the name Citizenfour, in January 2013. He reached out to her because he knew she had long been a target of government surveillance, stopped at airports numerous times, and had refused to be intimidated.

When Snowden revealed he was a high-level analyst driven to expose the massive surveillance of Americans by the NSA, Poitras persuaded him to let her film. Citizenfour places you in the room with Poitras, Greenwald, and Snowden as they attempt to manage the media storm raging outside, forced to make quick decisions that will impact their lives and all of those around them. Citizenfour not only shows you the dangers of governmental surveillance—it makes you feel them. After seeing the film, you will never think the same way about your phone, email, credit card, web browser, or profile, ever again. Nominated for the 2015 Best Documentary Feature Academy Award.

Q&A with attorney Shayana Kadidal.

Shayana Kadidal is senior managing attorney of the Guantanamo Global Justice Initiative at the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York City. He is a 1994 graduate of Yale Law School and a former law clerk to Judge Kermit Lipez of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. In his twelve years at the Center, he has worked on a number of significant cases arising in the wake of 9/11, including the Center's challenges to the detention of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay (among them torture victim Mohammed al Qahtani and former CIA ghost detainee Majid Khan), which have twice reached the Supreme Court, and several cases arising out of the post-9/11 domestic immigration sweeps. He was also counsel in CCR's legal challenges to the "material support" statute (Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, decided by the Supreme Court in 2010), to the low rates of black firefighter hiring in New York City, and to the NSA's warrantless surveillance program. Along with others at the Center, he currently serves as U.S. counsel to WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange. On behalf of plaintiffs including Assange, Glenn Greenwald, and other journalists, he led litigation that ultimately resulted in public release of over 550 previously-withheld documents during the court-martial of Pvt. Bradley (now Chelsea) Manning.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ADUs8iN7NE

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1252365

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/327096357487047/

Under the Influence of Ishmael Reed

Under the Influence of Ishmael Reed

(Co-presented with Tell It Like It Is: Black Independents in New York, 1968-1986

at the Film Society at Lincoln Center, February 6th-20th)

The Only Language She Knows

Carla Blank, 1992, 20 min.

Literary giant Ishmael Reed will grace the Maysles Cinema Thursday evening February 5th at 7:30pm to present the short film The Only Language She Knows, his collaboration with writer/poet/actor Genny Lim. The Only Language She Knows was directed by Carla Blank, who will also be on hand, and it was photographed by the late Allen Willis, who, for many years worked at PBS station KQED TV in San Francisco. The film’s music is composed by Francis Wong. Mr. Reed also will read from his intro to the forthcoming anthology that he edited about Black Hollywood, followed by a Q&A with Reed and Blank. Mr. Reed is also in town to present 1980's Black independent film classic Personal Problems, which he penned, and was directed by the late Bill Gunn (of Ganja and Hess which Spike Lee's upcoming Da Sweet Blood of Jesus is based on). Personal Problems will be screened, with a cast reunion, as part of "Tell It Like It Is: Black Independents in New York, 1968-1986" at the Film Society at Lincoln Center (February 6th-20th) on February 7th at 8:00pm ( with Q&A with Ishmael Reed, Dr. Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor, and Sam Waymon) and Tuesday, February 10th at 1:00pm at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center.

Q&A with writer Ishmael Reed and director Carla Blank to following screening and reading.

Ishmael Reed is the winner of the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship (genius award), the renowned L.A. Times Robert Kirsch Lifetime Achievement Award and the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Award. He has been nominated for a Pulitzer and finalist for two National Book Awards and is Professor Emeritus at the University of California at Berkeley; and founder of the Before Columbus Foundation, which promotes multicultural American writing. He also founded PEN Oakland which issues the Josephine Miles Literary Awards. PEN Oakland has been called “The Blue Collar PEN” by The New York Times. Ishmael Reed is the author of over twenty titles including the acclaimed novel “Mumbo Jumbo,” as well as essays, plays and poetry. Titles include: “The Freelance Pallbearers;” “The Terrible Threes;” “The Last Days Of Louisiana Red;” “Yellow Back Radio Broke Down;” “Reckless Eyeballing;” “Flight To Canada;” “Japanese By Spring,” and “Juice!.”

Carla Blank is a director, dramaturge, writer and editor. Besides directing Genny Lim’s mother/daughter kitchen drama, The Only Language She Knows (1992), her film credits include serving as researcher, archivist and interview subject for The Space in Back of You, a 65’ documentary by Richard Rutkowski that evolved out of their collaboration with Robert Wilson on KOOL- Dancing in my Mind, a live performance portrait inspired by legendary Japanese choreographer Suzushi Hanayagi, long time collaborator and dear friend of Blank and Wilson. It premiered at Lincoln Center’s 2012 Dance on Camera film festival. A film is currently in production documenting the story of “The Domestic Crusaders,” a two act play by Wajahat Ali about a Muslim Pakistani American family that Blank directed between 2003 and 2011, as it traveled from a staged reading in a Newark, California restaurant to the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage. She was one of the friends of dancer Sally Gross interviewed in The Pleasure of Stillness (2007) by Albert Maysles and Kristen Nutile.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1504146456476753/

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1252328

Columbia Explores Romare Bearden: A Black Odyssey

(100% Free)

Columbia Explores Romare Bearden: A Black Odyssey

Presents

Improvisation And The Moving Image: Artist On Film

A Film Viewing and Discussion with Krin Gabbard and Diedra Harris-Kelley

When he created his Black Odyssey, Romare Bearden was improvising at the same time that he was carefully constructing works of art he knew would last. We hope to begin a conversation in which Bearden’s achievement is placed in a variety of contexts.  First, to investigate the myths of painterly creation, we will look at clips from films that have attempted to represent the work of the artist. Regardless of how much credence we wish to give to these cinematic representations, we will consider scenes from An Unmarried Woman (1978), New York Stories (1989), Pollock (2000), Basquiat (1996), and The Great Beauty (La Grande Bellezza [2013]), as well as the documentary, Bearden Plays Bearden (2000). In order to explore the Bearden/jazz connection, we will be especially sensitive to the music that filmmakers have associated with the work of painters.  Ultimately, we will explore the improvisational action of artists at work in film, both documentary and fictional.

Reception to follow screening.
Registration is required.

For more information and to register for this event please click here.

https://calendar.columbia.edu/sundial/webapi/get.php?vt=detail&br=default&id=75802

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1597750390458738/

Liszt's Dance with the Devil

6:30pm

Reception

7:30pm

Liszt's Dance with the Devil

Ophra Yerushalmi, 2014, 60 min.

Liszt's Dance with the Devil, a film by pianist-turned-filmmaker Ophra Yerushalmi focuses on the inner duel between the virtuoso and the composer, the seduction of glamour and the quest for spirituality that took place throughout Franz Liszt's entire life. Featuring brilliant pianists and literary luminaries, through music and words, this film is filled with revelations about a great Romantic on the cusp of modernity. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky discusses translations and transcriptions following a performance of Beethoven's Fifth for the piano. Another highlight is Nike Wagner's taking-on both Liszt and Wagner, her ancestors.

Screened in Budapest, Paris, Rome, Utrecht, Tel-Aviv as well as in Ottawa, Baltimore, Las Vegas,Taos and Boston, the film was first shown in downtown New York at The Provincetown Playhouse. Director Ophra Yerushalmi is very pleased to come full circle with a screening uptown at the Maysles Cinema.
Liszt's Dance with the Devil was called "A HIT" in the Newsletter of the American Liszt Society -- "...one could see the subject treated with knowledge, artistry, taste and humor. Somehow the film captured through images the elusive and complex personage of Liszt...a total surprise, a very happy one".
Following the screening there will be a Q&A with Director Ophra Yerushalmi.
 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1525592631052277/

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1117392

Raoul Peck: Aprés the Earthquake

(Thursday, January 22nd-Sunday, January 25th)

Curated by Michelle Materre and the Creatively Speaking Film Series

Co-sponsored by the Haiti Cultural Exchange, The DDPA (Durban Declaration & Programme of Action) Watch Group, The BDC (Black Documentary Collective), The Haitian Creole Language Institute and Harlem Karibe

(Reflecting back on Haiti’s devastating earthquake 5 years later with a look at the

documentaries and fiction verite from globally recognized and Haitian born

master filmmaker Raoul Peck. A portion of the proceeds will go to Ciné Institute, Haiti's only film school, fostering a new generation of Haitian filmmakers.)

Profit and Nothing But!

Raoul Peck, 2001, 52 min

Who said that the economy serves mankind? What is this world where the wealthiest two percent controls everything? A world where this law of the strongest and the richest is imposed on the rest of humanity? Raoul Peck confronts these questions in this researched documentary, and contrasts them against the devastating reality of his native land, Haiti - "a country that doesn't exist, where intellectual discussion has become a luxury." Haiti’s GNP for the next thirty years is roughly equivalent to Bill Gates (current) fortune. The film's stark images of the real lives of the people provide a striking backdrop for talk of 'triumphant capitalism.' This is an extremely timely and relevant exploration of the profit motive and its consequences on our day to day lives, our history, and outlook for the future.

Q&A with Michelle Materre and author and scholar Darrick Hamilton.

Darrick Hamilton is an Associate Professor of Economics and Urban Policy at

Milano – The New School for International Affairs, Management and Urban

Policy, an affiliated faculty member in the Department of Economics at The New

School for Social Research, a faculty research fellow at the Schwartz Center for

Economic Policy Analysis, an affiliate scholar at the Center for American

Progress, and a research affiliate at the Research Network on Racial and Ethnic

Inequality at Duke University.  Also, he is a Co-Associate Director of the Diversity

Initiative for Tenure in Economics program, serving on the Board of Overseers

for the General Social Survey, and a Co-Principle Investigator of the National

Asset Scorecard in Communities of Color.

Tickets: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1171747

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/415316845304300/

6:30pm

Lumumba: The Death of a Prophet

Raoul Peck, 1992, 69 min

Lumumba: The Death of a Prophet offers a unique opportunity to reconsider the life and legacy of one of the legendary figures of modern African history. Like Malcolm X, Patrice Lumumba is remembered less for his lasting achievements than as an enduring symbol of the struggle for self-determination. This deeply personal reflection by acclaimed filmmaker Raoul Peck on the events of Lumumba's brief twelve month rise and fall is a moving memorial to a man described as a giant, a prophet, a devil, and "a mystic of freedom”. It is a film about remembering, it is even more a film about forgetting. Raoul Peck meditates on his own memories as the privileged son of an agricultural expert working for the regime that displaced Lumumba. He examines home movies, photographs, old newsreels and contemporary interviews with Belgian journalists and Lumumba's own daughter to try to piece together the tragic events and betrayals of 1960. Yet, as this film testifies, Lumumba's prophecy will not be silenced until Africa achieves its second independence where the promises of the first can be fulfilled.

Q&A with Michelle Materre and filmmaker and curator Shola Lynch.

Shola Lynch is an award-winning American filmmaker who burst on the scene in 2004.  Her second feature documentary Free Angela and All Political Prisoners is a first hand account of the events that thrust Angela Davis into the national spotlight, from a young college professor to a fugitive on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list and premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. This complex film has challenged Lynch and showcases her progress as a promising director and producer. Shola’s first independent feature documentary, CHISHOLM ’72 – Unbought & Unbossed, about Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm’s historic run for president in 1972, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, aired on PBS’s POV series, and garnered two Independent Spirit Award nominations and a prestigious Peabody for excellence. Raised by a Canadian mother and a father from the tiny Caribbean island of Tobago, Shola grew-up in a multicultural and international environment in New York. From the ages of two to six, she regularly appeared on the classic children’s television series Sesame Street. Shola is also the Moving Image and Recorded Sound Curator of the Schomburg Center for Research In Black Culture in Harlem.

Tickets: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1171772

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Raoul Peck: Aprés the Earthquake

OFFSITE LOCATION: The Mount Morris Ascension Presbyterian Church

16-20 Mount Morris Park West (Southwest corner of West 122nd Street)

Raoul Peck: Après the Earthquake

(Thursday, January 22nd-Sunday, January 25th)

Curated by Michelle Materre and the Creatively Speaking Film Series

Co-sponsored by the Haiti Cultural Exchange, The DDPA (Durban Declaration & Programme of Action) Watch Group, The BDC (Black Documentary Collective), The Haitian Creole Language Institute and Harlem Karibe

(Reflecting back on Haiti’s devastating earthquake 5 years later with a look at the

documentaries and fiction verite from globally recognized and Haitian born

master filmmaker Raoul Peck. A portion of the proceeds will go to Ciné Institute, Haiti's only film school, fostering a new generation of Haitian filmmakers.)

Haiti: 5 Years Later

A Public Health Forum

OFFSITE LOCATION: The Mount Morris Ascension Presbyterian Church

16-20 Mount Morris Park West (Southwest corner of West 122nd Street)

This program will include a screening of Raoul Peck's Fatal Assistance

followed by a panel discussion/forum with Peck and public health

officials and experts on where we go from here. Billions of dollars in

aid has been raised since the devastating earthquake and the question

is still being asked -- where did all that money go? After the

earthquake in 2010, foundations from around the world pledged more

than $9 billion to help get the country back on its feet. Only a

fraction of the money ever made it to Haiti. Roughly 350,000 people

still live in camps. Many others simply moved back to the same

shoddily built structures that proved so deadly during the disaster.

5 years later the impoverished nation stands no better equipped to

improve itself. In this forum we will unpack this dilemma with help of

Peck and his earth shattering film Fatal Assistance, expert panelists

and community members, and build together about next steps.

Fatal Assistance

Raoul Peck, 2013, 100 min

Award-winning Haitian-born filmmaker Raoul Peck takes us on a two-year

journey inside the challenging, contradictory, and colossal rebuilding

efforts in post-earthquake Haiti. Through its provocative point of

view, Fatal Assistance offers a devastating indictment of the

international community’s post-disaster idealism. The film dives

headlong into the complexity of the reconstruction process and the

practices and impact of worldwide humanitarian and development aid,

revealing the disturbing extent of a general failure. We learn that a

major portion of the money pledged to Haiti was never disbursed, nor

made it into the actual reconstruction. Fatal Assistance leads us to

one clear conclusion: current aid policies and practice in Haiti need

to stop immediately.

Berlin International Film Festival, 2013

San Francisco International Film Festival, 2013

Human Rights Watch Film Festival, 2013

“Written and directed with intelligence and authority” – Deborah

Young, Hollywood Reporter

“Powerful” – Variety

“Lyrically filmed…shrewd in its analysis” – David D’Arcy, Screen Daily

Followed by a panel discussion with director Raoul Peck, Michelle Materre, La'Shawn Allen Muhammad, the director of training for the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation and Allah Smalls, EMT and Chief of Operations, Bed Stuy Volunteer Ambulance Corp.

La'Shawn Allen Muhammad is an expert in the field of Public Health. She is the director of training for the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation and the CEO and founder of Entrepreneurs of New York. She is also the Deputy Executive Director of Central Brooklyn Economic Development Corporation and the Brooklyn Director of the Long Island African American Chamber of Commerce (LIAACC).

Allah Smalls, EMT and Chief of Operations, Bed Stuy Volunteer Ambulance Corp., was one of the first 145 responders to arrive in Port of Prince after the earthquake, with volunteer Ministers, Wyclef Jean and BSVAC (The Bedford-Stuyvesant Volunteer Ambulance Corps).

8:00pm

(at the Maysles Cinema)

Reception with cuisine of the Haitian diaspora, provided by Harlem Karibe, and dance party with music from Haitian American DJ -- DJ Fritzo.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/415316845304300/

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1174107

Raoul Peck: Aprés the Earthquake

(Thursday, January 22nd-Sunday, January 25th)

Curated by Michelle Materre and the Creatively Speaking Film Series

Co-sponsored by the Haiti Cultural Exchange, The DDPA (Durban Declaration & Programme of Action) Watch Group, The BDC (Black Documentary Collective), The Haitian Creole Language Institute and Harlem Karibe

(Reflecting back on Haiti’s devastating earthquake 5 years later with a look at the

documentaries and fiction verite from globally recognized and Haitian born

master filmmaker Raoul Peck. A portion of the proceeds will go to Ciné Institute, Haiti's only film school, fostering a new generation of Haitian filmmakers.)

Fatal Assistance

Raoul Peck, 2013, 100 min

Raoul Peck takes us on a two year journey inside the challenging, contradictory and colossal rebuilding efforts in post-earthquake Haiti. Through its provocative point of view, the film dives headlong into the complexity of the reconstruction process and the practice and impact of worldwide humanitarian and development aid, revealing in the most disturbing way the extent of a general failure. This crushing fact based documentary leads to the only plausible conclusion – immediate cessation of current aid policies and practice.

Berlin International Film Festival, 2013

San Francisco International Film Festival, 2013

Human Rights Watch Film Festival, 2013

“Written and directed with intelligence and authority” – Deborah Young, Hollywood Reporter

“Powerful” – Variety

“Lyrically filmed…shrewd in its analysis” – David D’Arcy, Screen Daily

Q&A with director Raoul Peck and Michelle Materre, followed by a reception with cuisine of the Haitian Diaspora provided by Harlem Karibe and a performance from renowned Brooklyn-Born Haitian Singer-Songwriter Melanie Charles.

Tickets: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1171610

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/415316845304300/

Raoul Peck: Aprés the Earthquake

(Thursday, January 22nd-Sunday, January 25th)

Curated by Michelle Materre and the Creatively Speaking Film Series

Co-sponsored by the Haiti Cultural Exchange, The DDPA (Durban Declaration & Programme of Action) Watch Group, The BDC (Black Documentary Collective), The Haitian Creole Language Institute and Harlem Karibe

(Reflecting back on Haiti’s devastating earthquake 5 years later with a look at the

documentaries and fiction verite from globally recognized and Haitian born

master filmmaker Raoul Peck. A portion of the proceeds will go to Ciné Institute, Haiti's only film school, fostering a new generation of Haitian filmmakers.)

Moloch Tropical

Raoul Peck, 2009, 107 min

Filmed in Haiti just prior to the devastating earthquake, the film takes viewers behind the closed doors of a fortress perched on the top of a distant mountain. A democratically elected President and his closest collaborators prepare for a state celebration of the 200th anniversary of the country’s independence to be attended by foreign dignitaries and heads of state. But in the city, a popular uprising is spreading. Although a fictional story set in a modern motif, one is reminded of the reign of Henri-Christophe, one of the major leaders of the Haitian revolution. The film’s location is, in fact, La Citadell Laferriere, the fortress built by Christophe, where the legend is also buried. With dialogue in Creole, French and English, the film stars two Haitian performers, well-known to U.S. audiences – actor Jimmy Jean Louis (TV’s Heroes) and singer Emmeline Michel.

Q&A with Dowoti Desir of the DDPA Watch Group and Michelle Materre.

Dowoti Désir, the Durban Declaration & Programme of Action Watch Group founder and president is a scholar, and social curator of performative and contemporary arts in public spaces. Her book: "Goud kase goud: Conjuring Memory in Spaces of the AfroAtlantic" focuses on the historic sites, monuments and memorials of the Maafa known as the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Her traveling photography exhibition, "Wòch kase wòch: Redlining a Holocaust, Memorials and the People of the AfroAtlantic, " commemorates the International Decade for People of African Descent 2015-2024.

Tickets: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1171571

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Jazz on Film: The Inimitable Clark Terry

Hosted by Loren Schoenberg

The subject of the recently released and widely acclaimed documentary, trumpeter/educator/bandleader Clark Terry personifies the very best that jazz represents. Tonight, we'll trace his career from his earliest days with Count Basie and Duke Ellington, right through to the present day with a series of films that capture the joy and sheer light he radiates every time he plays or sings. This is an evening that will increase your flow of endorphins (among other things)!

Tickets: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1045217

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