Theater: Monsieur Chopin, written and performed by Hershey Felder

 

Hershey Felder as 

MONSIEUR CHOPIN
A play with music
Directed by Joel Zwick

Monsieur Chopin features the romantic story and music of the Polish pianist-composer Fryderyk Chopin, set in Chopin’s Parisian salon where he will teach a piano lesson that actually took place in March 1848, just days after the February 1848 revolution. As the piano lesson unfolds, Chopin reveals secrets about the art of the piano and composition, as well as secrets about himself. Hershey Felder delves deep into the music and psyche of the man, considered by his contemporaries, and now by history, as the true “Poet of the Piano.” 

In Monsieur Chopin, Hershey features some of the pianist-composer’s most beautiful and enduring music while entertaining us in his unique and theatrical style.

Theater: ADRIFT | A Medieval Wayward Folly at 59E59, Dec. 2023

Devised by Happenstance Theater 
Under the Co-Direction of Mark Jaster and Sabrina Mandell

With Gwen Grastorf, Mark Jaster, Sabrina Mandell, Sarah Olmsted Thomas, and Alex Vernon

A ship of fools adrift at sea.
They ask, “What do we do now?”
After an apocalypse, the search begins.

Characters from the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch and archetypes from the tarot are brought to life in this ingeniously staged production of theatrical alchemy using live music, physical comedy, puppetry, and so much more. This pod of eccentrics will drift into the world to bring delight, share hopes and fears, and find a way forward. 

A dynamic medieval tapestry of pure theater…and it wouldn’t be the Middle Ages without a hellmouth, demons, and angels.

Film: Frederick Wiseman's MENUS-PLAISIRS LES TROISGROS (2023)

 

WINNER!
Best Non-Fiction Film
New York Film Critics Circle Awards 2023

Frederick Wiseman’s 44th documentary takes us to Central France and Troisgros — a Michelin 3-star restaurant owned and operated by the same family for four generations, and destination for gastronomes from around the world. Behind the scenes, we are privy to passionate debates among the head chefs (a father and his two sons) about texture, color, and depth of flavors; visits to a bounteous produce farm, a local vineyard, and a massive cheese cave (where “each cheese has its moment of truth”); and waitstaff meetings focused on individualized customer preferences and food plating at a performance-art level. In his trademark style, Wiseman patiently illuminates the restless creativity of this culinary family as they experiment with dishes, methods, and ingredients — keeping their haute cuisine anchored in tradition while brilliantly evolving.

Film: TOTAL TRUST directed by JIALING ZHANG (2023)

 

WINNER
GRAND JURY PRIZE (International Competition)
DOC NYC 2023

For two decades, China has implemented high-tech security and surveillance to monitor its citizens. In this fascinating and chilling documentary, Jialing Zhang (co-director of ONE CHILD NATION) immerses us in this daily reality: half a billion cameras pointed at the populace, invasive neighborhood watch programs (“Sharp Eyes”), employees monitored for stress levels, and a “social credit” point system that rewards for community service and penalizes perceived societal infractions. With the assistance of dozens of anonymous locals, Zhang focuses on three courageous women fighting for civil liberties and justice, including independent journalist Sophia Xueqin Huang, one of the first Chinese reporters to investigate #MeToo accusations and subsequently arrested for “inciting subversion of state power.” A bracing portrait of a society for whom privacy is all but extinct and a warning for democracies employing surveillance tools in unprecedented ways.

With support from the Richard Brick, Geri Ashur, and Sara Bershtel Fund for Social Justice Documentaries.

Film: Terrence Malick’s DAYS OF HEAVEN (1978)

In 1916, Chicagoan Richard Gere, his little sister Linda Manz, and his lover Brooke Adams (pretending to be his other sister), head for the Texas Panhandle (Alberta, Canada, standing in) to work the wheat fields of prosperous farmer Sam Shepard. An ensuing marriage is only the beginning of a bizarre love triangle, ending with violent death amid a spectacular locust plague, and a BADLANDS-style manhunt for a killer.

Shot almost entirely during the "magic hour" before sundown, with natural light, the arresting images just keep coming: Manz's wise-eyed gaze, a train passing over a lacework bridge, the frosty fields of the prairie, the pearly sweat of the harvesters, a crystal glass at the bottom of a river. Inspired by Vermeer (and reminiscent of Wyeth and Hopper), cinematographer Nestor Almendros cleaned up the cinematography awards at both Cannes and the Oscars, with late-inning relief from Haskell Wexler when Almendros was called to shoot a Truffaut movie.

Legendary auteur/dreamer Malick’s second film (after 1973’s BADLANDS), before a twenty-year break, won him the Best Director prize at Cannes and his first New York Film Critics Circle award.

Directed by Terrence Malick
Starring Richard Gere, Brooke Adams, Sam Shepard, Linda Manz
Cinematography by Néstor Almendros
Music by Ennio Morricone