The Unmentionables Film Festival Vol. 1: Menstruation

(The Unmentionables Film Festival is an annual theme-based festival that will focus on a different “taboo” topic each year. The inaugural Unmentionables Film Festival invites audiences to participate in a public discourse and celebration of all things menstrual.)
 

All-Access Pass for The Unmentionables Film Festival ($95)
Save money, receive free festival swag, and ensure that you have priority seating to all festival screenings. Priority seating for pass holders will be held until 15 minutes before show time. Pass holders will also receive tickets for our Live Storytelling event at the Triad (Monday, June 15th @ The Triad) and our special screening of Water Children, which will include a live performance and discussion with film subject, concert pianist Tomoko Mukaiyama (Friday, June 19th @ University Settlement). For more information on the Special Events, visit: www.UnmentionablesFilmFestival.com

Red Tent Market Place
The Red Tent is traditionally a sacred place for women to gather and be supported by each other, as they experience menses and childbirth. Our Red Tent Marketplace will honor the essence of the Red Tent, by creating a celebratory community event that will explore the wondrous world of menstruation. All are invited and encouraged to peruse the marketplace, and interact with vendors, educators, healing practitioners, and organizations, who will offer information about menstrual-related products, practices, and services.

Global Perspectives on Menstruation
In this program, screen three short films will be followed by an informative, and likely revelatory, panel discussion. Meet some of the NGOs, grassroots community groups, filmmakers and entrepreneurs that are working towards solutions to help women around the globe manage their menstrual cycles in ways that are affordable, attainable, hygienic, and convenient.

The Stranger Within: Fibroid Stories
Directed by Roderick Giles & PaSean Wilson-Ashley, USA, 2015
(Screening an excerpt from this work-in-progress)
In The Stranger Within: Fibroid Stories, Beverly Johnson, Rhonda Ross, PaSean Wilson-Ashley, and other women share their personal fibroid stories. The film also explores the varied treatment options, and sheds light on the medical establishment’s practice of performing far too many unnecessary hysterectomies for fibroid tumors. This program will include a dynamic panel discussion with the film’s directors, Dr. Millicent Comrie, and Queen Afua.

EndoTruths: Infertility and Mental Health
Directed by Casey Berna, USA, 2015, 38 min
Endometriosis and Infertility each can be devastating in their own right. But, experiencing both at once, often leaves patients to suffer for years through misdiagnosis and mistreatment from the medical community. In EndoTruths, licensed Patient Counselor and Advocate, Casey Berna, profiles endometriosis patients who share their experiences with the disease. The film will be followed by a panel discussion with an informed and committed team of Endometriosis activists.

Stuanch VII: Grey Gardens Turns the Big 4-0

Once again we bring it all back to the house that Grey Gardens built. “Staunch” is an annual tribute to the documentary film and most of all, to its many, many fans. This time around we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the release of Grey Gardens with a year long celebration in tribute to the late, great Albert Maysles (1926-2015). June 2015-June 2016. Check back for updates.

Friday, June 12th, 7:30pm
Grey Gardens
Dir. Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Ellen Hovde & Muffie Meyer, 1976, 94 min.
Meet Big and Little Edie Beale—high-society dropouts, mother and daughter, reclusive cousins of Jackie O.—thriving together amid the decay and disorder of their ramshackle East Hampton mansion. An impossibly intimate portrait and an eerie echo of the Kennedy Camelot, Albert and David Maysles’s Grey Gardens quickly became a cult classic and established Little Edie as a fashion icon and philosopher queen. The film and the Beales themselves have since inspired fashion lines, songs, a broadway musical, several off-broadway shows, and a 2009 HBO film.

Q&A with Jerry “The Marble Faun” Torre, one of the subjects of Grey Gardens.

Saturday, June 13th, 7:30pm
Grey Gardens

Sunday, June 14th, 7:30pm
The Beales of Grey Gardens
Dir. Albert Maysles & David Maysles, 2006, 91 min.
The 1976 cinema vérité classic Grey Gardens, which captured in remarkable close-up the lives of the eccentric East Hampton recluses Big and Little Edie Beale, has spawned everything from a midnight-movie cult following to a Broadway musical, to a Hollywood adaptation. The filmmakers then went back to their vaults of footage to create part two, The Beales of Grey Gardens, a tribute both to these indomitable women and to the original landmark documentary’s legions of fans, who have made them American counterculture icons.

Iris

Thursday, May 21st-Wednesday, May 27th, 7:30pm

Iris

Albert Maysles, 2014, 78 min

The latest film from legendary documentarian and Maysles Documentary Center and Cinema founder Albert Maysles (Salesman, Gimme Shelter, Grey Gardens), Iris pairs the late 88-year-old filmmaker (who passed away on March 5) with Iris Apfel, the quick-witted, flamboyantly dressed 93-year-old style maven who has had an outsized presence on the New York fashion scene for decades. More than a fashion film, the documentary is a story about creativity and how a soaring free spirit continues to inspire. Iris portrays a singular woman whose enthusiasm for fashion, art and people are life's sustenance and reminds us that dressing, and indeed life, is nothing but an experiment. Despite the abundance of glamour in her current life, she continues to embrace the values and work ethic established during a middle-class Queens upbringing during the Great Depression. "I feel lucky to be working. If you're lucky enough to do something you love, everything else follows."

"There are few better ways right now to spend 80 movie minutes than to see Iris, a delightful eye-opener about life, love, statement eyeglasses, bracelets the size of tricycle tires and the art of making the grandest of entrances. Directed by Albert Maysles — one half of the legendary documentary team that made Grey Gardens — this is a documentary about a very different kind of woman who holds your imagination from the moment she appears. You can’t take your eyes off Iris Apfel (she wouldn’t have it any other way), but, then, why would you want to?" -- Manohla Dargis, NYT Critics' Pick

Thursday, May 21st: Q&A with producer and daughter of Albert Maysles, Rebekah Maysles, and Nelson Walker, director of photography and co-director of Albert Maysles’ other last work In Transit.

Friday, May 22nd: Q&A with producers Laura Coxson and Jennifer Ash Rudick.

Tuesday, May 26th: Q&A with and editor and co-producer Paul Lovelace

and director of photography Nick Canfield.

Wednesday, May 27th: Subject Iris Apfel in person interviewed by historian Michael Henry Adams (Author of “Harlem Lost and Found”).

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1615786

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/453751584791414/

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo8jwJ_2l0c

Celebrating Malcolm and Yuri

Tuesday, May 19th, 6:30pm

Celebrating Malcolm and Yuri

(In honor of the 94th anniversary of Yuri Kochiyama's birth and Malcolm X's

90th)

6:30pm

Screening

Seven Songs for Malcolm X

John Afomfrah and the Black Audio Film Collective, 1995, 52 min

An homage to the inspirational African-American civil rights leader, Seven

Songs for Malcolm X collects testimonies, eyewitness accounts and dramatic

reenactments to tell the life, legacy, loves, and losses of Malcolm X.

Featuring interviews with Malcolm's widow Betty Shabazz, Spike Lee, and many

other, Seven Songs looks for the meaning behind the resurgence of interest

in the man whose X always stood for the unknown.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zYQ3W-IKSI

Yuri Kochiyama: Passion for Justice

Pat Saunders and Rea Tajiri, 1994, 57 min

Yuri Kochiyama is a Japanese American woman who has lived in Harlem for more

than 40 years with a long history of activism on a wide range of issues.

Through extensive interviews with family and friends, archival footage,

music and photographs, Yuri Kochiyama chronicles this remarkable woman’s

contribution to social change through some of the most significant events of

the 20th century, including the Black Liberation movement, the struggle for

Puerto Rican independence, and the Japanese American Redress movement. In an

era of divided communities and racial conflict, Kochiyama offers an

outstanding example of an equitable and compassionate multiculturalist

vision.

8:30pm - In Malcolm and Yuri’s Name

Cross-Coalition organizing in the 21st Century discussion with Akemi Kochiyama (granddaughter of Yuri), Kevin Louissaint (Liberation Program member/Brotherhood Sister Sol), Gabriel Kilpatrick (Secretary of the Guillermo Morales-Assata Shakur Center/CCNY), Zulu Nation member Queen Benyu Maa’t, Priya Srikumar (CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities), representative of Malcolm X Grassroots Movement.

Sponsored by Maysles Documentary Center, Zulu Nation, Brotherhood Sister Sol, CAAAV:Organizing Asian Communities, the Guillermo Morales-Assata Shakur Center/CCNY, Women Make Movies, Black Audio Collective and Icarus Films.

bpt: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1626876

facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1406550536336270/

The New York African Film Festival (NYAFF)

Sunday, May 17th  2:00 PM

The New York African Film Festival (NYAFF)

The Art of Ama Ata Aidoo                                                                                      

Yaba Badoe, Ghana, 2014, 78 min

The Art of Ama Ata Aidoo explores the artistic contribution of one of Africa's foremost women writers. Director Badoe charts Aidoo's creative journey over seven decades, from colonial Ghana, through the tumultuous era of independence, to a more sober present day Africa where nurturing women's creative talent remains as hard as ever.

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1596913

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/105223124

Sunday, May 17th, 4:00pm

The New York African Film Festival (NYAFF)

Mind of a Chef: Senegal

Claudia Woloshin, USA, Senegal, 2013,  23 min.

Travel to Senegal with Chef Sean Brock to understand how West Africa influenced the ingredients of America.

Networks of Hate

Rokhaya Diallo, France, 2014, 52 min                                  

When Rokhaya Diallo, an avid user of social media, received a tweet inciting others’ to rape her for her liberal views, the battle against hate speech became personal. Networks of Hate documents her journey for justice.

Q&A with director Rokhaya Diallo to follow screening.

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1596914

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/904345596296630/

The New York African Film Festival

Saturday, May 16th, 4:00pm

The New York African Film Festival (NYAFF)

Portrait of a Lone Farmer

Jide Tome Akinleminu, Denmark, Germany, 2013, 75 min

Portrait of a Lone Farmer is a feature documentary about a Danish-Nigerian family torn apart by geography.  When Jide, for the first time in five years, visits his father’s poultry farm, we see through his camera the unfolding of a story about family, love, and legacy. It is a quiet and stunning portrait of a broken family trying to heal.

Q&A with director Jide Tome Akinleminu to follow screening.

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1596888

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/83983028

Saturday, May 16th, 5:30pm

The New York African Film Festival (NYAFF)

Flying Stars  

Ngardy Conteh George & Allan Tong, Canada, 2014, 50 min

During Sierra Leone’s civil war, rebels amputated countless limbs. Most of the victims are orphans, outcasts in a society that refuses to face its past. For some of them, only the amputee soccer league offers a chance at a better life.The Flying Stars documents the daily challenges facing young men broken by life, trying to overcome a cruel fate.

Q&A with director Ngardy Conteh George to follow screening.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5M72s6vs_s

Ghosts of Amistad

Tony Buba, USA, 2014, 57 min

Ghosts of Amistad follows a group of historians and a film crew to Sierra Leone, as they attempt to interview elders about surviving local memory of the Amistad case.

Q&A with filmmakers following screening.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWlNzRLM3YA

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1596897

Saturday, May 16th, 8:00pm

The New York African Film Festival (NYAFF)

Maybe Dreams Can Come True

Electra Weston, France, Germany, USA, 2014,100 min

In this contemporary mix of narrative, experimental and documentary filmmaking, Chocolat is torn between nurturing her love relationship in the USA and maintaining a booming entertainment career in Europe. Looking for answers to her deepest questions, she uses a small video camera to explore and question her life by interviewing her friends abroad.

Q&A with director Electra Weston to follow screening.

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1596905

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/58760210

The New York African Film Festival (NYAFF)

The New York African Film Festival (NYAFF)

Thursday, May 14th - Sunday, May 17th

Curated by Mahen Bonetti and Hellura Lyle

The New York African Film Festival was established in 1993 with festival co-organizer, the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Screenings feature critically acclaimed releases of feature - and short-format works by African directors of the global diaspora and their counterparts. The New York African Film Festival is presented annually at the Walter Reade Theater by African Film Festival, Inc. and the Film Society of Lincoln Center, and at BAMcinématek and the Maysles Cinema.

Thursday, May 14th, 7:00pm

Pirating Pirates

David Čálek,Kenya, Somalia, Czech Republic, 2014, 85 min

Intending to make a film about the pirate phenomenon in Somalia, the filmmakers of Pirating Pirates had no idea that they’d have to lay their original plans aside. The film takes a surprising turn as they become entangled in a web of lies and deceptions.

Q&A with filmmakers to follow screening.

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1596871

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

Friday, May 15th, 7:00pm

The New York African Film Festival (NYAFF)

You Laugh But It’s True

David Paul Meyer, South Africa,USA, 2011, 84 min

The Daily Show’s new host, Trevor Noah, was born to an interracial couple in South Africa, at a time when such a union was illegal. You Laugh But It’s True reveals the story of an outsider who has somehow figured out a way to relate to everyone through his comedy.

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1596879

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5PZcU9VE2k

Haiti Film Fest 2015

The Haiti Film Fest 2015 (May 8th – 15th)
Presented by the Haitian Cultural Exchange

Reembarque / Reshipment

Gloria Rolando, 2014, 58 min
The voices of prominent historians join the memories of Haitians and their descendants in Cuba to understand a chapter of the complex economic and social history of the Caribbean.

Q&A with scholar Dr. Carolle Charles, filmmaker Pam Sporn and journalist Catherine Murphy.

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1586171

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/666379573489510/

Symphony in Riffs: Benny Carter

The National Jazz Museum in Harlem Presents: Jazz on Film

Symphony in Riffs: Benny Carter

Hosted by Ed Berger with Special Guest Mrs. Hilma Carter

Symphony in Riffs: Benny Carter

Harrison Engle, 1989, 58 min

Benny Carter has such a prolific career, from breaking the color line for Hollywood composers, to being one of the most imitated saxophonists in jazz’s early years, to creating a new sound for jazz big bands in the 1930′s, that his Harlem accomplishments are frequently overlooked. It was Carter’s band that opened the new Apollo Theater in 1934, and in years to come, they were regularly featured at the Savoy Ballroom. We should also mention that Mr. Carter was an early booster of NJMH, a tradition Mrs. Hilma Carter has continued since his 2007 passing. This documentary film from 1988 caught Carter as he leapt undiminished into his 80′s. Hosted by Carter’s biographer and long-time record producer Ed Berger.

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1586135

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

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

Mosca

Bulmaro Osornio, 2011, 97 min

Mosca is a night shift cab driver, a widower and father of two girls. Between his daily job and the memories of his wife, he tries to figure out his role as a father. Mosca mixes sleep and vigil to put up with her loss. Mosca is the tale of disenchantment of a whole generation; it’s also, and above all, an unusual and powerful love story.

Guadalajara International Film Festival (FICG26); Ambulante 2011; Canadian International Documentary Festival 2011; Segunda Semana de Cine Independiente Mexicano, Buenos Aires; 15º Festival de Invierno Montevideo
Discussion with Dir. Bulmaro Osornio and main character Oscar Torres (Mosca) along with Brooklyn gipsy cab driver and playwright Modesto ‘Flako’ Jimenez. Mingle with music, complimentary Mexican food, and mezcal tasting.

 

Upcoming films of Program 1

Wadley – June 4th, 2015, 7:30pm

Program 2: Digging Roots of a Denied Civilization (Dates TBD, Fall-Winter 2015)

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.

Brilliant Soil – TBD Fall 2015, 7:30pm

Rehje – TBD Fall 2015, 7:30pm

Sylvestre Pantaleón– TBD Winter 2015, 7:30pm
Cuates de Australia– TBD Winter 2015, 7:30pm

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1429345

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Under the Influence of Orson Welles and the Maysles Brothers

Under the Influence of Orson Welles and the Maysles Brothers

In Celebration of the Centennial of Orson Welles' Birth and in Tribute to Albert Maysles

Orson Welles In Spain

Albert and David Maysles, 1966, 10 min

Orson Welles pitches to potential investors his vision of a largely improvised bullfighter movie about an existential, James Dean type, troubadour who set himself apart from other matadors.

F For Fake

Orson Welles, 1975, 88 min

In F for Fake, A free-form sort-of documentary by Orson Welles, the legendary filmmaker (and self-described charlatan) gleefully reengages with the central preoccupation of his career: The tenuous lines between illusion and truth, art and lies. Beginning with portraits of art forger Elmyr De Hory and his equally devious biographer, Clifford Irving, F for Fake is an inspired prank and a clever examination of the essential duplicity of cinema.

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1568543

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

The Spirit Moves: Harlem Swings

The Spirit Moves: Harlem Swings

(Part one of three part series looking at NYC popular dance in non-fiction film.)

Curated by Sophie Windsor Clive

6:00pm

Music and Swing dancing in front of the cinema.

7:30pm

Queen of Swing

John Biffar, 2006, 72 min

Narrated by Bill Cobbs, Queen of Swing takes an inside look at Swing era dancer Norma Miller's influence in the globalization of America's jazz culture and her and her fellow artist's role in racial integration. The documentary features interviews with Bill Cobbs, Frankie Manning, Phoebe Jacobs and Leonard Reed.

Followed by a discussion with a panel of special guests from the Savoy era along with clips from the The Spirit Moves, A History of Black Social Dance on Film, 1900-1986 by the director Mura Dehn.  We have been granted special permission by Eiko and Koma Otake to screen this incredible archive.
9:30pm

Music and dancing in downstairs lounge.

Showrunners

Thursday, April 23rd-Wednesday, April 29th, 7:30pm

Showrunners

(New York Theatrical Premiere Run)

Des Doyle, 2014, 90 min

Showrunners is the first ever feature length documentary film to explore the fascinating world of US television showrunners and the creative forces aligned around them. These are the people responsible for creating, writing and overseeing every element of production on one of the United State’s biggest exports – television drama and comedy series.

Often described as the most complex job in the entertainment business, a showrunner is the chief writer / producer on a TV series and, in most instances, the show’s creator. Battling daily between art and commerce, showrunners manage every aspect of a TV show’s development and production: creative, financial and logistical.

“An intriguing behind the scenes expose of the men and women responsible for tv’s recent revolution”

-Hollywood Reporter

Following the screening on Thursday, April 23rd there will be a skype Q&A with director Des Doyle.

Following the screening on Saturday, April 24th there will be a skype Q&A with showrunner Janet Tamaro (Rizzoli and Isles).

Following the screening on Sunday, April 26th there will be a skype Q&A with showrunner Mike Royce (Everybody Loves Raymond, Men of a Certain Age).

Following the screening on Monday, April 27th there will be a skype Q&A with showrunner Mike Kelley (Revenge, Swingtown, Providence).

Following the screening on Tuesday, April 28th there will be a skype Q&A with showrunner Shawn Ryan (The Shield, Mad Dogs).

Following the screening on Wednesday, April 29th there will be a skype Q&A with showrunner Jeff Melvoin (Northern Exposure, Alias, Army Wives).

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYWRgqRcSO4

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1451749

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1035934499768299/

Groundswell Rising, Protecting Our Children's Air and Water

The Delaware River Keepers Network, Catskill Mountainkeeper, Food & Water Watch, Americans Against Fracking, Grassroots Environmental Education and Damascus Citizens Present:

Groundswell Rising, Protecting Our Children’s Air and Water

Renard Cohen, 2014, 70 min.

Groundswell Rising documents the opposition from both sides of the political spectrum to the ubiquitous practice of fracking for natural gas, and the health and environmental reasons behind it. Groundswell Rising gives voice to ordinary folks engaged in a David and Goliath struggle against Big Oil and Gas. We meet parents, scientists, doctors, farmers and individuals across the political spectrum decrying the energy extraction process known as fracking that puts profits over people. This provocative documentary tracks a grassroots movement exposing dangers to clean air, water, and civil rights. Groundswell Rising shows how fracking has contaminated drinking water and jeopardized health and quality of life. Homeowners near wells suffer from respiratory ailments and property devaluation. Reina Ripple, of Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project, chronicles mounting ailments related to fracking. A former industry employee shows skin lesions and edema obtained while working with fracking waste. Grassroots efforts have achieved bans, moratoriums, and referendums on fracking. Stanford University Professor Mark Jacobson paves the way forward globally with his Solutions Project for 100% renewable energy.Transcending the genre of environmental film, Groundswell's passionate stories inspire and empower.

"Besides the incredible information on fracking's detriment to our health it is also a great look into what it is like to live in a town with fracking in the backyard. This film should be watched by everyone on the side of industry and those considering leasing their land to the gas companies. Plain and simply, it's the human side of this debate."

-- Mark Ruffalo, Actor, Activist

Following the screening on Friday, April 17th there will be a panel discussion with director Renard Cohen, Jessica Roff  (Catskill Mountainkeeper), Eric Weltman (Food & Water Watch) and Pat Carullo (co-founder, Damascus Citizens).

Following the screening on Friday, April 18th there will be a panel discussion with director Renard Cohen, Kathleen Nolan (Catskill Mountain Keeper) and Tracy Carluciio (Delaware River Keepers).

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cpCz0QPMso

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/757371631043766/

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1413656

Doc Watchers Present: Vessel

Doc Watchers Presents: Vessel

Curated by Hellura Lyle

Diana Whitten, 2015, 88 min.

Moved by the plight of desperate women in countries with restrictions on reproductive rights, Dutch physician Rebecca Gomperts founded Women on Waves, which uses laws governing international waters to bring much-needed abortion and contraceptive services to those with no other recourse. Despite a quagmire of legal, religious, political, and logistical obstacles, Gomperts and her impassioned team persevere, coming up with creative work-arounds that enable them to educate and empower women around the world to take charge of their own bodies.

Q&A with director Diana Whitten & reception to follow screening.

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1375976

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/815695771852666/

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/106489346

The Native and the Refugee: Reservations, Sovereignty and Autonomy

The Native and the Refugee: Reservations, Sovereignty, and Autonomy

Presented by Malek Rasamny and Matt Peterson

We invite you to the New York premiere of videos from Matt Peterson and Malek Rasamny's documentary project The Native and the Refugee, connecting struggles taking place on Indian reservations in the United States and those in Palestinian refugee camps in the Middle East. This event will focus on the native dimension of the project, watching and discussing the current situations on indigenous territories across the United States, which remain little known or understood.
 

We Love Being Lakota

Adam Khalil, Matt Peterson, Malek Rasamny, 2015, 12 min

This video was taken during our December visit to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Home of the Oglala Lakota, “the fiercest warrior tribe on the continent”, the film takes a meditative look at Lakota identity in the face of US colonialism, and their relationship to the sacred land they have been pushed out of after two centuries of warfare and theft.

Men's Council of the People of the Way of the Longhouse

Adam Khalil, Matt Peterson, Malek Rasamny, 2015, 12 min

Taking place on the Mohawk territory of Akwesasne--on the borders of New York, Ontario and Quebec--this video juxtaposes footage of a special January gathering at their longhouse, featuring elder Paul Delaronde; archival footage of the Mohawk Warrior Society; and shots of the polluted, decaying industrialized remains surrounding their territory.

INAATE/SE/ (excerpt)

Adam and Zack Khalil, 2015, 10 min

"Adam Khalil and Zack Khalil (both Ojibwe) provide a raw take on their ancestral community within the Sault Ste. Marie area -- documenting the harmony and debauchery of the Indigenous experience today. This experimental film, now in the works, juxtaposes the voice of the romanticizing settler with contemporary Ojibwe perspectives."  -- Gloria Bell, First American Art Magazine

The screening will be followed with a discussion with the filmmakers, and John Kane, Mohawk host of WBAI's "First Voices Indigenous Radio.” More info TBA.

Matt Peterson produced a film on the Tunisian insurrection called Scenes from a Revolt Sustained, and is now working on a project about Istanbul and Kurdish autonomy. He was a member of Red Channels and the 16 Beaver Group, and is currently part of a commune in Ridgewood called Woodbine.

Malek Rasamny is a researcher, film programmer, and critic based in New York and Beirut. He was a member of Red Channels, Ground Floor Collective, and LERFE, and has organized events with the the Brecht Forum and Afikra. His writings on film have been featured in the Daily Star, the largest English language daily newspaper in the Middle East.

Adam Khalil is a filmmaker, artist, and media archivist. His practice attempts to subvert traditional forms of ethnography through humor, relation, and transgression. Adam's work has been exhibited at Goldilocks Gallery (Philadelphia), Microscope Gallery (Brooklyn), Museo ExTeresa Arte Actual (Mexico City), Carnival of eCreativity (Bombay), and Fine Art Film Festival Szolnok (Hungary). Khalil is a UnionDocs Collaborative Fellow and Gates Millennium Scholar. In 2011 he graduated from the Film and Electronic Arts program at Bard College.

John Karhiio Kane is a national commentator on Native issues. He hosts two weekly radio shows,  "Let's Talk Native...with John Kane," on ESPN Sports Radio WWKB-AM 1520 in Buffalo, New York and “First Voices Indigenous Radio” on WBAI-FM 99.5 in New York City. Kane appears frequently on TV and radio and is a columnist for “The Two Row Times.” His columns are regularly posted in “Censored News” and the Native Nations Institute’s Indigenous Governance Database at the University of Arizona. John was honored earlier this year with a Community Leader Media Award from the National Federation for Just Communities of Western New York. He is a member of the Native American Journalists Association (NAJA).

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1599457106978709/

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1437924

Hip Hop Culture Across the Middle Passage

The Universal Zulu Nation and A New Black Arts Movement Present

From Mother Afrika To NYC: Hip Hop Culture Across The Middle Passage

Reception (with Food)

7:30pm

Mama C: Urban Warrior in the African Bush

Joanne Hershfield, 2012, 54 min.

The film explores Charlotte O'Neal's, aka Mama C's, decade's long project of coming to terms with who she is an African American raised in Kansas City, KS, the "jazz-capital of the world," who has lived most of her life in Africa, the place from where her ancestors were forced to make the "middle-passage." When she first arrived in Tanzania she tried as hard as she could to "fit in," wearing khangas, carrying my babies on my back, basket on my head, chewing sugar cane sticks." As she writes in one of her published poems, "In my freshly-landed, just-got-off-the-boat enthusiasm of living in Africa, I tried to blend, to melt, homogenize, disappear, erase, the essence of what made me who I am, an African, who grew up in and was molded by the 'hoods' of America, and I almost lost myself, self."

Q&A with Charlotte O'Neal, aka Mama C, followed a spoken word poetry performance from Mama C, Mahina Movement, LC The Poet and Intikana.

Music By The Zulu Nation's Own:

DJ Dr. Shaka Zulu

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qs5xAjNilmM

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1413625

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1564711873787968/

Proyector Presents: Calle Lopez

(A showcase of contemporary independent Mexican films blending fiction with non-fiction elements.)

Curated by Sebastian Diaz

Lisa Tillinger & Gerardo Barroso Alcalá, 2010, 70 min

The small family formed by photographers Gerardo Barroso, Lisa Tillinger and their baby moved to the noisy and full of life López Street, in historic downtown of Mexico City. Everyday-life at the place seemed worthy of a documentary, so they began to follow transients with their camera. The result is a kind of “urban symphony” in black and white, through which street vendors, mendicants and taqueros parade portraying Mexican society as a microcosm.

Margaret Mead Film Festival; Special Jury Prize, Paris International Environmental Film Festival, FIFE.

Discussion with Dir. Lisa Tillinger and Gerardo Barroso, along with Mexican migrant street workers in NYC originally from Mexico City.

Mingle with music, complimentary Mexican food, and mezcal tasting.

Thanks to the event partners:

The Mexican Cultural Institute of New York, Remezcla, Cinema Tropical,Panorama Mezcal, Espiritu Lauro mezcal, Mezcal de las Hormigas, Taco Mix, Brooklyn Documentary Club, Mano a Mano: Mexican Culture Without Borders, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) NYU, Mex and The City, Mu media, Axolote Cine, Ajenjo Cine.

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/60083225

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1387417

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1415851175393954/

Upcoming films of Program 1

Mosca – May 7th, 2015, 7:30pm
Wadley – June 4th, 2015, 7:30pm

Program 2: Digging Roots of a Denied Civilization (Dates TBD, Fall-Winter 2015)

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.

Brilliant Soil – TBD Fall 2015, 7:30pm

Rehje – TBD Fall 2015, 7:30pm

Sylvestre Pantaleón– TBD Winter 2015, 7:30pm
Cuates de Australia– TBD Winter 2015, 7:30pm

Freeway: Crack in the System

(U.S. Theatrical Premiere Run, Director's Cut)

Marc Levin, 2015, 103 min

Freeway: Crack In The System tells the true story behind the crack scourge, featuring exclusive interviews with characters who lived it. Their stories reveal a crack in the system that implicates the centers of power in our government, their mass incarceration policies and militarization of police, the spread of gangs and guns, and the loss of entire generations to the war on drugs. At the center of the story stands the reformed King of Crack, Freeway Rick Ross, once just a clever kid from South Central with dreams of becoming the next tennis great and his eyes fixed on the good life. Freeway Rick—not to be confused with the rapper, Rick Ross, who took his name and identity—built a drug empire that spread crack cocaine across the country, ruining millions of lives but profoundly influencing street culture in its wake. The stories of Rick and his “Freeway Boys” inspired the lyrics of N.W.A., Above The Law, and Mix Master Spade, as well as the worlds portrayed in films and video games that dramatize the drug trade.

Throughout the film are interviews with Freeway Rick and his crew, including his mother Anne Ross, former girlfriend and drug dealer Marilyn Stubblefield, and former dealers Cornell Ward, Ollie Newell, and Norman Tillman. For the first time, we hear from a key Nicaraguan trafficker, Julio Zavala, who worked with the CIA-backed Contras. Former LA Sheriffs Deputy in the Narcotics Unit, Roberto Juarez, and top undercover DEA agent, Mike Levine, tell of the devastating spread of crack and the hunt for Freeway Rick and his crew. More so, they reveal the government complicity and police corruption behind the scenes during the crack era. Hearings on Capitol Hill led by Senator Kerry investigated the shocking connection between the CIA and the influx of cocaine during the Reagan/Bush administration. At the same time, harsh new laws sent thousands of young men to prison for years with little chance for rehabilitation.
Not until the fateful meeting between an unlikely source, Coral Baca, and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gary Webb of the San Jose Mercury News, did the full story, “Dark Alliance,” come to light. The resulting controversy was explosive, especially in the African American community. At first celebrated as a hero, Webb soon found himself discredited by major media, which led his paper to back away from the story, ultimately destroying his career and leading to his untimely death. His story is featured in the Focus Features fiction film, “Kill the Messenger,” starring Jeremy Renner, which came out this past fall. Quincy Jones, III conducted the last major interview with Gary Webb just days before his death, which is featured for the first time in Freeway: Crack in the System. Remaining at the center of it all, Freeway Rick describes learning to read in prison, one phonic at a time while serving his life sentence, until he could read the law books that would set him free. Now, he goes to schools and juvenile detention facilities to talk with students and inmates about the importance of literacy. As he works to take back his life, he is also attempting to take back his name from Rick Ross the rapper, who has made millions glamorizing street life and the drug trade.

Q&A with Director Marc Levin in person and Freeway Rick Ross via Skype following the screenings Thursday, March 26th, which is sponsored by Jineea Butler and the Hip Hop Union.

The Q&A on Friday, March 27th is sponsored by the Justice League NYC and speakers will include Director Marc Levin, Carmen Perez (Co-Founder, Justice League NYC), Mysonne Linen, (Justice League NYC) and Rameen Aminzadeh (Justice League NYC).

The Q&A on Saturday, March 28th will include activist Joseph “Jazz” Hayden and activist/advocate Larry White.

The Q&A on Sunday will be sponsored by the Universal Zulu Nation and will include Zulu Nation and Hip Hop founding father Afrika Bambaataa, Queen Kenya, Attorney King Downing and will be moderated by Dr. Shaka Zulu.

Freeway: A Crack in the System is presented by Al Jazeera America, Blowback Productions in association with Royal Studios, Novus Content and Continental Media.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYAIYcu8glI

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1353801

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/927411993957520

Albert Maysles Tribute and Maysles Documentary Center Open house

11:00am - 11:00pm

(This is a free event but registration is required.)
11:00am
Introduction

Meet Marlon Brando

Albert Maysles, David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin,1965, 29 min

Meet Marlon Brando is a delightful, unusually candid portrait of the world-famous movie star: A tongue-in-cheek confrontation with the press. While television journalists interview him about his most recent film, Brando counters their futile questions with wit and insight, a man unwilling to sell himself. "It's a wonderful show," one woman comments about the new project. "Did you see it?" he asks. "No, I haven't seen it yet." "Then how do you know?"

What's Happening! The Beatles in the USA

Albert and David Maysles, 1964, 81 min

A humorous, freewheeling and candid account of The Beatles arrival in America in February 1964. The Maysles follow the Fab Four for five days, from the crazed JFK airport reception to unguarded moments inside the Plaza Hotel in preparation for their landmark Ed Sullivan Show appearance to their equally frenzied homecoming. Inspired Richard Lester’s A Hard Day’s Night (1964).

Reception in the downstairs lounge.

Registration is required. Register here

2:00pm

Introduction

With Love From Truman

Albert Maysles, David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin, 1966, 29 min

With Love From Truman portrays an intimate meeting with renowned author Truman Capote. As a reporter interviews him in his beachfront home, Capote shares his "self-regarding" personality through hip philosophy and calculated jokes. He offers insights in an endearingly raspy voice about his latest book, In Cold Blood, which Capote declares to be part of a new genre, the "non-fiction novel."

Salesman

Albert Maysles, David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin, 1968, 91 min

Salesman follows four door-to-door Bible salesmen as they walk the line between hype and despair. Paul "The Badger" Brennan, Charles "The Gipper" McDevitt, James "The Rabbit" Baker, and Raymond "The Bull" Martos, are so nicknamed for their particular selling styles -- on their rounds. First making calls in and around Boston, where the company is based, then in Chicago at a sales conference, and finally in the promising new "territory" of Miami and vicinity.

Reception in the downstairs lounge.

Registration is required. Register here.

5:00pm

Introduction

Ozawa

David Maysles, Albert Maysles, Ellen Hovde, Susan Froemke, Deborah Dickson,1985, 57 min

Backstage look at one of classical music's best- known yet least understood figures. Ozawa has been music director of the Boston Symphony since 1973, and as one of the world's top maestros he appears in such musical capitals as Berlin, Paris and Milan. Yet the first East Asian to succeed in a quintessentially Western art form remains solidly Japanese in temperament and outlook.

Muhammad and Larry

Albert Maysles and Bradley Kaplan, 2009, 52 min

An integral part of ESPN’s “30 For 30” Anniversary Film Series, Muhammad and Larry combines one-of-a-kind, never- before-seen archival footage with newly-produced reflective conversations with boxing experts, luminaries, and those who were at the fight. Maysles intimately documented both Muhammad Ali and Larry Holmes, from sparring matches to private moments at home, as they prepared for their upcoming fight in 1980. Muhammad and Larry takes a closer look at the connection that evolved, inside and out of the ring.

Reception in the downstairs lounge.

Registration is required. Register here.

8:00pm

Introduction

Running Fence

David Maysles, Albert Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin, 1978, 58 min

A celebration of Christo and Jeanne-Claude's vision; first a four-year struggle, then 24 1/2 miles of white nylon fabric, rising from the Pacific and stretching like a white sail across California. Running Fence depicts the long struggle by the artists, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, to build a 24 mile fence of white fabric over the hills of California disappearing into the Pacific. Cost: 3 million dollars.

Cut Piece

Albert and David Maysles, 1965, 8 min

Filmed at New York’s Carnegie Hall, Cut Piece documents one of Yoko Ono’s most powerful conceptual pieces. Performed by the artist herself, Ono sits motionless on the stage after inviting the audience to come up and cut away her clothing in a denouement of the reciprocity between victim and assailant.

Salvador Dali’s Fantastic Dream

Albert and David Maysles,1966, 5 min

Produced by 20th Century Fox, this Maysles Brothers short was intended to help promote the release of Disney’s Fantastic Voyage (1966) for which Salvador Dali was artistic consultant. Shot in and around New York, the film features a cameo by a bikini clad Raquel Welch, star of Fantastic Voyage and Dali’s muse for a series of portraits of Hollywood starlets.

Muhammad and Larry (Excerpt)

Albert Maysles and Bradley Kaplan, 2009, 10 min

An integral part of ESPN’s “30 For 30” Anniversary Film Series, Muhammad and Larry combines one-of-a-kind, never- before-seen archival footage with newly-produced reflective conversations with boxing experts, luminaries, and those who were at the fight. Maysles intimately documented both Muhammad Ali and Larry Holmes, from sparring matches to private moments at home, as they prepared for their upcoming fight in 1980. Muhammad and Larry takes a closer look at the connection that evolved, inside and out of the ring,

Iris (Excerpt)

A Maysles Film, 2014, 10 min

Iris pairs legendary 87-year-old documentarian Albert Maysles with Iris Apfel, the quick-witted, flamboyantly dressed 93-year-old style maven who has had an outsized presence on the New York fashion scene for decades. More than a fashion film, the documentary is a story about creativity and how, even in Iris' dotage, a soaring free spirit continues to inspire.

Reception in the downstairs lounge.

Registration is required.Register here.

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