Music: De Materie (The Matter) by Louis Andriessen 2016 at the Armory, NYC

Composer: Louis Andriessen
Director: Heiner Goebbels
Stage and Lighting Designer: Klaus Gruenberg
Costume Designer: Florence von Gerkan
Sound Designer: Norbert Ommer
Dramaturg: Matthias Mohr
International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE)
Conductor: Peter Rundel
ChorWerk Ruhr

There seems to be a growing interest among artists to merge science and art in performances. In De Materie we observe or have explained: chemistry (behavior of gases in dirigibles and smoke hazes), physics (three double pendulums swinging simultaneously), mathematical principles (ideas of perfection of lines and open shapes that extend into infinity), and biology (herding instincts of sheep). The history of two famous women are touched upon: Marie Curie, devoted to her husband and to their discoveries of radioactive particles, and Hadewijch, the 13th century mystic enraptured with God. A 17th century scientist explains why he believes in the existence of "atoms" - some smallest indivisible units of matter, the building blocks of the material world. 

The set design took advantage of the mathematical principles of randomness. The audience could create innumerable connections between what was seen and heard, forming their own patterns and relationships of rhythm and cause-and-effect. Were those sheep also listening to the music, moving on the beat? 

It was entertaining because we, the audience, like to be busy with our observing brains. A floating dirigible gives us something to experience, something to take our breath away. The sheep give us endless moments of anticipation. But overall, I wonder if either science or spirit or art are actually enhanced by placing them beside each other. For me, it still feels like a puzzle where the pieces have been pressed together but the picture remains disjointed. It was a beautiful entertainment, rich in tone and visually engaging. Perhaps I'm asking too much if it has not deepened my understanding of either science or spirit.  -- dp

Film: Guillaume Nicloux's "Valley of Love." Starring Isabelle Huppert and Gérard Depardie. 2016

Needing to come to terms with the suicide of their adult son, Isabelle and Gérard meet each other at Death Valley. It is many years after their divorce and they are fulfilling the final wish of their son. Though they don't understand the purpose of their actions and only hope for the impossible - that their son might come back to life - they slowly experience transformation. Anguish chips away at their defenses; they gradually reveal the intimate details of their current lives. We sense that they need each other despite their emotional roadblocks.
This is a brilliant film that captures the wide range of ambiguity that's left after messy human relationships have ended. The heat, wind, sun, tedium, fear: every scene can be understood as an outward, physicalized expression of this couple's emotional pain, their state of slow timeless endurance, their desperate expectations of the magical. The director has created a beautiful and safe place for the audience to experience catharsis.  -- dp

Film: Cameraperson by Kirsten Johnson, 2016

Bits of footage from Kirsten Johnson's long career as a cameraperson for numerous films, shot around the world, have been edited together to make her own feature film called Cameraperson. It is largely a roller coaster ride through intimacy - with people and places - that have experienced extreme violence or life's most difficult decisions or corruptions. It has the sense of "revisiting" at a later time, when spring has returned and the fields are planted once again. The memory of trauma lies hidden in the place - but we can guess only barely hidden in the heart and mind of the Cameraperson.

Theater: FLY by Crossroads Theatre Company at the New Victory Theater, NYC

 Found this description on Youtube:

The year is 1944: Allied forces liberate Rome; British and US troops storm the beaches of Normandy; and, on an airfield in Alabama, four brave young men join the first black military aviators in United States history. FLY, a theatrical action-adventure, beautifully employs dance and video projection to illuminate the tremendous courage and resilience of the Tuskegee Airmen. From training to combat, experience the anguish, fears and triumphs of a brotherhood who fought for freedom abroad—and at home. Thrilling, inspired and uplifting, FLY soars.

http://www.crossroadstheatrecompany.org/shows/fly

Film: Dégradé by filmmakers Tarzan and Arab Abu Nasser, released 2015

From a review by Amir Bogen, 5/21/15: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4659147,00.html

"Dégradé" is the first feature film of twin brothers Ahmed and Mohamed Abu Nasser, known as filmmakers Tarzan and Arab Abu Nasser,
…

It's a small film which takes place in one location – a beauty parlor in Gaza, which is visited by women of different ages from different sectors. It's a "small and colorful piece of heaven," where a future bride sits alongside a cynical divorcee, a young pregnant woman, a religious woman covered from head to toe, the beauty parlor's owner who came from Russia, a rebellious hairdresser and an elderly bitter woman played by Nazareth-born Palestinian actress Hiam Abbass. The film's cast also includes actresses Maisa Abd Elhadi and Manal Awad.

Together they create an emotionally charged microcosm which is discharged in conversations about politics, religion and of course men, as opposed to the men who discharge their differences of opinion by firing their Kalashnikov rifles on the street.

This difference between the sexes is emphasized when the hairdresser's lover, the son of a local clan, steals a lion from the infamous Gaza zoo, an act seen by the local Hamas leaders as a spit in the face. They launch a war against him and his family, turning the street into a very dangerous and noisy place.

Based on a true story. 'Dégradé'

The Abu Nasser brothers say the film is based on a true story. "There was a powerful family that had a lion from the zoo, and the government attacked this family to take it," Tarzan explained in an interview. "When Hamas came to power in 2006, they looked to take out all of the various clans to assert their control, looking for reasons each time."

"They killed like 15 members of the family," Arab added.

The viewers experience all these events from within the beauty parlor, where the women are asked to stay until danger is past. But the danger doesn’t pass for hours, and with the gunfire and blast sounds outside, the women share intimate moments inside, in which they discuss their love stories, their approach towards life, secularism versus religiousness and Gaza's deterioration. Granted, Israel is often mentioned in a negative context, but the discussion focuses on the Hamas government and the Palestinian society which is being torn under its rule.

"Women in Gaza are like all other women in the world, although their suffering is very unique," the 26-year-old brothers said in an interview to the local media. "We need women in order to bring about change in Gaza. They are our heroes because despite the ongoing war, they represent life.

"The movie includes battles outside the beauty salon, but inside they continue with their love stories. They want to remain beautiful, hoping for a date or marriage. While people are shooting at each other on the street, putting on lipstick becomes an act of protest: Holding on to humanity no matter the circumstances, keeping hope alive."

While the film's characters mostly discuss their personal life, their distress is clear and so is the harsh criticism directed at Hamas and the street gangs. "All they bring is violence. They don't let us live peacefully," the women charge, pointing an accusing finger at the religious woman, who declares: "Just because I look like this doesn’t mean I voted for them."