Tough Cookie Dance

We saw two brief but brilliant dances by the Tough Cookie Dance Co. this past weekend in Brooklyn. Looking forward greatly to their next big show, October 18-19, 2013. https://www.facebook.com/toughcookiedance

Documentary Film: The Oath

Description found online:
Two men who were part of the Al-Qaeda terrorist network look back on their past with strongly mixed feelings in this documentary from director Laura Poitras. Before the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, D.C., made Osama bin Laden and his jihad against the West known to nearly every American, Abu Jandal was one of bin Laden's bodyguards, and he helped recruit Salim Hamdan, who served as bin Laden's personal driver. Jandal was able to escape prosecution and fled to Yemen, where he now makes a living driving a taxi. Jandal still regards America as a sworn enemy, but also views his days in Al-Qaeda with little nostalgia, and he anticipates no hopeful future before him. Jandal also feels deep regret over the fate of Hamdan, who ended up in the United States military prison at Guantanamo Bay and was tried as a terrorist, despite his insistence he was bin Laden's chauffeur and nothing more. Hamdan's family and legal team struggle on his behalf without any illusions about his likely fate, and when Jandal speaks out to the press in his old friend's defense, Hamdan sends him a sharply worded letter asking him to stop. The Oath was an official selection at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10012282-oath/

Music Lecture: Bobby Sanabria & Quarteto Ache

A introduction to the rhythms of Latin music and the introduction of Latin/African/Jazz music in NYC during the 20th century. Two of note: the 5 beats of "shave and a haircut - two bits" and the very fast triplet which is clapped (or accented on drums) on 2, 3.

A large migration in the 1920's of Puerto Ricans, who had been listening to more developed radio programs from Cuba, arrived in NYC and lived in Harlem/East Harlem. American-born musicians also were influenced and became stars of the genre, like Tito Puente.

"American Sabor: From the Palladium to the Bronx" on April 17, 2013 at the New York Public Library of the Performing Arts.

Music: The Harlem Quartet

The Harlem Quartet performed three pieces by three composers at Merkin Hall (Tuesday April 16, 2013).

First: A sleep-inducing Mozart String Quartet No. 15 in D minor, K. 421. It would have been a beautiful piece to take a nap with. The Merkin Hall staff had forgotten to turn on the air conditioning, so it might not have been Mozart's fault. We folded inward as Mozart's delicate phrases repeated and danced around us.

With the air finally turned on, The Adventures of Hippocrates by Chick Corea was a delight. A perfect example of what young listeners must be enjoying in contemporary re-imaginings of classical music.

The last piece was Franz Schubert's Quartet No. 14 in D minor "Death and the Maiden," D. 810. Intricate, dramatic and intriguing -- and only a little but like death or a maiden.

Film: Creative Nonfiction

So maybe this is an acquired taste.  But I want Lena Dunham.  "Lena, You dazzle me with your audacity."  I want her to become as famous as Woody Allen.  I want her to have her own TV show.  Until further notice, I am a fan. -dp

This description from the web:

Creative Nonfiction

"2009. USA. Directed by Lena Dunham. Before Girls and Tiny Furniture there was Creative Nonfiction, a funny and formally ambitious metafictional account about writing and non-romance at a liberal arts school. Dunham, a 2009 New Face, stars. 59 min."

Also this description:

"A young woman purposefully blurs the lines between fiction and real life in this independent comedy drama. Ella (Lena Dunham) is a college student who is edging into a relationship with Chris (David Unger), a sweet but nerdy guy who lives in her dorm. Ella can scarcely take her mind off Chris, even though they both feel uncomfortable acknowledging that they're boyfriend and girlfriend, which means she's been neglecting the screenplay that's supposed to be her semester project for a writing class. Stuck for ideas, Ella begins acting out the story that she's roughed out for the script, and as she spends more time impersonating a disturbed high school student having an obsessive relationship with her teacher, life and art start to merge in strange and unexpected ways. Creative Nonfiction was the first feature film for writer, director and star Lena Dunham, and was chosen as an official selection at the 2009 South by Southwest Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi"

Film: Medicine for Melancholy

Written and directed by Barry Jenkins, this is an exquisite movie. From the first scenes of visual storytelling, you feel the hand of a master at work. The romantic drama slowly and purposefully builds using minimalist dialogue and intensely intimate camera work. Private, personal melancholy (a broken romance) is deftly interlaced with historic issues of blackness/slavery and contemporary issues of San Francisco housing problems. Each issue, on its own, would be enough to elicit melancholy. For our main character Micah, sexual tension and anger rest only a scratch beneath actor Wyatt Cenac's beatific grin and loveable sense of humor.

The acting is sophisticated and satisfying. Brilliant camera work and unusual colored lenses also make this a movie I'll want to watch again. Bravo. -dp

This description from the web:
"Fate (and alcohol) brings two people together in this independent romantic comedy-drama. Joanne (Tracey Heggins) and Micah (Wyatt Cenac) wake up together one morning after a drunken one-night stand, the result of attending a late-night party at the home of a mutual friend. It becomes clear they don't know each other very well and after sharing breakfast, Joanne isn't interested in getting to know Micah any better."

Music: The Attacca String Quartet plays Haydn 4/11/13

What is a Haydn string quartet?

I decided this:

Haydn is present as an aural representation of intellect and breath.

The structure is repetition, variation and surprise.

The performers are in a matrix of discovery, drama, support and balance.

It is also an intricate lace created from four colored strands; a living history.

Film: In Another Country

 Isabelle Huppert stars in this fractured fairy tale about 1, 2, and then 3 French women who arrive in Korea to fulfill the imagined story-lines of a young writer's fantasy world.

It is a study in acting as Ms. Huppert savors filmic moments of odd or uncomfortable situations. The script proceeds cohesively through each of the three scenarios, offering the audience enough visual material to find their own connections between scenes and across scenarios.

Termed "a comedy" overall, there is still plenty of meat to chew on: the idolization of the foreigner, the rules of fidelity and infidelity, the willingness to dupe another, the poignancy of aging. -dp

 A preview is available here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1989712/

Theater: Utsuyo Kakuryo

"Passing By the Other Shore"

From the HERE web site:

Samurai Sword Soul 10th Anniversary Performance is a mix of samurai drama, Bunraku-style puppetry, contemporary dance, video projection, and exciting samurai sword fighting. In this multimedia performance of spirits and characters, projections and puppets, ninjas and wanderers, the story unfolds with humor, love, revenge, and life-or-death decisions. In Japanese and English, with English subtitles projected.

Samurai Sword Soul is the only Japanese sword fighting theater company in New York. The company has been performing extensively for major festivals, events and TV shows since 2003, and is well-known for its exciting and elaborating fighting choreography.
 

Credits

Producer: Yoshi Amao

Director and Fighting Choreographer: Yoshihisa Kuwayama

Dance Choreographer: Takemi Kitamura

Video Designer: Hazuki Aikawa & Andrey Alistratov (Noka Productions)

Lighting Designer: Tsubasa Kamei

Sound Designer and Live Musician: Seiichiro Koizumi

Performers: Yoshi Amao, Yoshihisa Kuwayama, Takemi Kitamura, Koji Nishiyama, Harunobu Sugita, Akira Ito, Lisa Itabashi, Sachi Tanaka, Yu- Taniguchi, Umihei, Sandy Chase, Jiro Ueno, Asuka Morinaga, Shibata Mariko and Natsuko Hayashi

 

Photo by Motoyuki Ishibashi.

Film: Like Someone in Love

A young woman has two identities: she is a college student by day and a prostitute by night. Two men seem to be in love with her: the elderly college professor who has hired her to visit him through her pimp, and a jealous and violent young man who despises academics and wants to control her by marrying her.

Though neither seem to truly know her, each man behaves "like someone in love." The young man's actions seem predictable - but the elderly professor's devotion to her is surprisingly delightful. 

-dp

From the Lincoln Film web site:

"LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE

ABBAS KIAROSTAMI, 2012
JAPAN/FRANCE | JAPANESE WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES | FORMAT: DCP | 109 MINUTES

Fresh from the triumph of his Tuscany-set Certified Copy (NYFF '10), master filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami travels even further afield from his native Iran for this mysteriously beautiful romantic drama filmed entirely in Japan. Like Someone in Love revolves around the brief encounter between an elderly professor (the wonderful 81-year-old stage actor Tadashi Okuno, here playing his first leading role in a film) and a sociology student (Rin Takanashi) who moonlights as a high-end escort. Dispatched to the old man by her boss—one of the professor's former students—the young woman finds her latest client less interested in sex than in cooking her soup, talking, and playing old Ella Fitzgerald records (like the one that gives the film its allusive title). Eventually, night gives way to day and a tense standoff with the student's insanely jealous boyfriend (Ryō Kase); but as usual in Kiarostami, nothing is quite as it appears on the surface. Are these characters—who conjure in one another the specters of regret and roads not taken—meeting by chance, or is it fate? Is this love, or merely something like it? A Sundance Selects release."

Film: Certified Copy

An art critic has written a book that commends objects that are replicas, or certified copies, as equally enjoyable as their originals.

But this philosophy comes up empty handed when applied to relationships: Authentic human connection is missing when a marriage becomes nothing more than a certified copy.

From the Lincoln Film web site:

"

CERTIFIED COPY
COPIE CONFIRME | ABBAS KIAROSTAMI, 2010
FRANCE/ITALY | FRENCH, ITALIAN WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES | FORMAT: 35MM | 106 MINUTES

On paper, Abbas Kiarostami's return to narrative filmmaking after a decade of experimental video projects seems a risky proposition: a French production, filmed on location in Tuscany, with a European cast speaking in a mixture of English, French, and Italian. But in fact, this close-up study of a relationship is a dazzling return to form. An antiques dealer (Juliette Binoche) and a philosopher (British opera star William Shimell) appear to meet for the first time following one of his lectures, but soon we begin to suspect that there is more to this couple than meets the eye. Are they in fact husband and wife engaging in an elaborate charade? Or is Kiarostami showing us the beginning, middle, and end of a marriage in something other than chronological order? Nimbly juggling reality with cinematic illusion, and anchored by Binoche's emotionally naked performance (Best Actress, Cannes), Certified Copy is a stimulating and provocative Kiarostami coup."

Two more films by Abbas Kiarostami

Time moves slowly through these two films.  Time is to be savored in them.  There is little dialogue but plenty of dramatic and exotic visual storytelling.

In "Life…," a man and his son (who are actors playing the parts) travel by car to an area near Kokur which has been devastated by the 1990 earthquake.  Although partially fictionalized, we see the destruction first hand and witness the resilience of the "lucky" people who are literally pulling their lives and few remaining possessions out of the rubble.  "If people could die and then come back to life, I think that they would live better." A wise and entertaining child makes this a candid and heartwarming exploration.

In "The Wind..." a man from Tehran and his film crew buddies arrive in a remove village. They are in a hurry for the 100-year old woman to die in order to capture some special ceremony on film. Instead they are forced to slow down. Over a span of about 3 weeks, they witness many small moments of ordinary life in the village: birth, courtship, small arguments, and holes being dug. The lead character seems to not appreciate these moments, right through to the end of the film when the ultimate death finally arrives. Instead the viewer has to make peace with this pre-industrial society and its own sense of time.
-dp

From the Lincoln Film Society web site:

Life and Nothing More…Abbas Kiarostami | 1992 | 95 mins
In the second part of Kiarostami’s celebrated Koker trilogy, the director’s onscreen alter-ego goes searching for the stars of his previous film, Where is the Friend’s Home?, in the earthquake-devastated rubble of a Northern Iranian village. 

The Wind Will Carry UsAbbas Kiarostami | 1999 | 118 mins
A camera crew imposes upon the people of a remote village, resulting in an uncommon meditation on culture and human activity that is one of Kiarostami’s crowning masterpieces.

http://www.filmlinc.com/films/series/a-close-up-of-abbas-kiarostami

Film: Close-Up

CLOSE-UP 
NEMA-YE NAZDIK | ABBAS KIAROSTAMI
1990
IRAN | PERSIAN WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES | FORMAT: 35MM | 98 MINUTES

This delightful puzzle inspires a study of its own creation. By the end of the movie, a man who is acting the role of "famous film director" and the family who went along with hopes of starring in his next film become part of something nearly like a "fairy tale that comes true."  The imposter becomes the star of this movie and has an opportunity to be heard:  in front of a judge and the documentary camera, he makes an authentic and heartfelt plea for his and all poor people's destitute and low-class social status.  The family, once duped, is eventually enlisted to re-enact their roles.  The real story of fraud becomes the fictionalized (fraudulent?) document of the movie.  Brilliant.  - dp

From the Lincoln Center Film website:

A young man introduces himself as Mohsen Makhmalbaf, among the most celebrated directors of 1990s Iranian cinema, and enters intimately into the life of a family, and enters intimately into the life of a family under the pretext that he's scouting locations for a new film project. Deeply suspicious of the stranger, the father investigates his houseguest, leading to the con man's exposure and arrest. At this stage, Kiarostami and his real-life film crew enter the story to film the Makhmalbaf imposter's trial. Events preceding the young man's arrest are dramatized and reconstructed, but with the real people "playing" themselves. A masterful exploration of the nature of truth and cinematic illusion with a distinctly off-beat sense of humor, Close-Up has been widely hailed as one of Kiarostami's crowning achievements and one of the greatest films of the 1990s. "The greatest documentary on filmmaking I have ever seen."—Werner Herzog

Theater: The Vandal

"A freezing night in Kingston, New York. A woman meets a boy at a bus stop. A play about how we live and the stories we tell ourselves when we're haunted by the people we've loved and lost."

Starring: Zach Grenier, Deirdre O'Connell, and Noah Robbins

Directed by Jim Simpson

Written by Hamish Linklater

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Film: Lore

Lore

A family of 5 German children must make their way to safety after their Nazi parents 
are arrested for war crimes during WW2. A fascinating twist occurs when a young 
man appears, possibly a threat to them and later their rescuer, who is Jewish and has 
been released from a concentration camp.  From their attitudes we learn that the 
children's youth and nnocence have been corrupted by the world of lies taught to them 
by their rigid Germanic-Nazi elders.  In the pain of their conscious awakening lies their 
emotional release.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lore_(film)

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Film: Taste of Cherry

TASTE OF CHERRY
TA'M E GUILASS | ABBAS KIAROSTAMI, 1997
IRAN | PERSIAN WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES | FORMAT: 35MM | 99 MINUTES

In his dust-covered Range Rover, Mr. Badii (Homayon Ershadi) winds up and down the rocky mountain passes in Tehran's outskirts. He is searching for someone to perform a simple task—to come to a specified location the following morning and throw 12 spades of dirt on top of a shallow grave in which he will be lying. It is a job, in a country where religion and politics are so delicately interwoven, for which there are few eager applicants. From this deceptively simple scenario, Kiarostami creates a remarkable contemplation on the small miracles of everyday life and the elusive nature of happiness—a patient, poetic and profoundly beautiful work that confirmed its director as one of the masters of modern world cinema. Winner of the Palme d'Or at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival.

"Mr. Kiarostami, like no other filmmaker, has a vision of human scale that is simultaneously epic and precisely minuscule ... The camera continually draws back for long shots of soldiers marching in formation over the harsh landscape and of workers moving enormous piles of red dirt and rock with heavy equipment. Dogs bark in the distance, the wind blows, flocks of crows circle and descend and rise. You feel the pulse and rhythms of earthly life on a grand scale. —Stephen Holden, The New York Times

SERIES: A CLOSE-UP OF ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

VENUE: WALTER READE THEATER, ELINOR BUNIN MUNROE FILM CENTER

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Joseph Silovsky :: send for the million men

On Thurs. Feb. 7, 2013 at HERE, NYC

In which Joseph Silovsky recounts the tragic story of Sacco and Vanzetti "in no particular order" using a projection screen and a series of objects - funny, self-aware and energetically breaking the 4th wall by speaking directly to the audience. Also- ambitiously tackling the parallel story of Taco and Spaghetti.

Full production scheduled for spring 2014.

http://silovsky.com/sendForTheMillionMen/sendForTheMillionMen.html

Ecstatic Music Festival: Clogs, Sarah Kirkland Snider & Orchestra

On Wed. Feb. 6, 2013

"Sarah Kirkland Snider presents her new work for seven vocalists and chamber orchestra, Unremembered, a 13-song cycle set to poetry (and with accompanying projected artwork) by New-York-based poet/writer Nathaniel Bellows, featuring vocal performances by DM Stith, Shara Worden and Padma Newsome. A cycle about memory, innocence and the ways we cope with an unpredictable world, the poems recall strange and beautiful happenings experienced during a childhood in rural Massachusetts. Newsome will also appear with Clogs, returning to the Ecstatic Music Festival in a trio incarnation with Newsome (vocals, viola), Rachael Elliott (bassoon) and Thomas Kozumplik (percussion). Orchestra for the Next Century, directed by Gary Schneider, will present Snider's work along with new works and arrangements by Newsome, Worden and Stith."

In which Elliot Cole sang in the choir, the rock stars of "classical-pop crossover" sang and presented compositions of their own, and DM Stith plaintively asked "Why in his whole life he will never know Why."