Being nominated for and winning a Golden Globe must be pretty cool. It probably ranks right up there with being nominated for an Oscar. We wouldn’t know, but Tribeca’s Downtown Community Television Center instructor Jennifer Redfearn would. Her film, Sun Come Up, was nominated for best documentary short. The film follows the relocation of some of the world’s first climate change refugees, the Carteret Islanders – a community living on a remote island chain in the South Pacific Ocean.
92YTribeca is screening the film on February 10. After the screening, director/producer Jennifer Redfearn will be joined by a panel, bringing together scientists, students, educators, and activists for a discussion surrounding our rising seas and shifting coastlines. The evening will be moderated by filmmaker, environmentalist and Chicken & Egg Pictures and Working Films founder Judith Helfand.
Clockwise from left: Cristina Cacioppo, Ed Halter, Jed Rapfogel, Florence Almozini, Jake Perlin, Thomas Beard, Harris Dew, Scott Foundas, Livia Bloom /Photo Credit
Our very own Cristina Cacioppo, film programmer at 92YTribeca, was highlighted in The Village Voice‘s Year in Film feature on New York City’s “young guns” of the local film repertory scene. The article gave a shout out to 92YTribeca’s Labyrinth sing-alongs, which were a big success. “...people come to support one another, and that’s been a part of building the feeling of the place,” Cristina explained. “For sing-alongs, I’ll even ask the audience what they want to see. And I’ll have people write titles. It’s like, “OK, if you want this, we’ll try it.”
Louis Armstrong And Downtown Manhattan Together At Last!
Our thoughtful friends at Downtown Express sent around a clever video holiday card with fun photographs of the downtown neighborhood, all set to Louis Armstrong’s “Cool Yule.” Watch it here!
Speaking of Louis Armstrong, this seems like the perfect time to tell you about Eat, Drink and Think Like...Louis Armstrong at 92YTribeca in March. Coincidentally, this is just in time for another holiday season – Mardi Gras!
Attack of the muppets!? Ha no, just kidding, don’t be alarmed. It was just our sold out The Muppet Movie Sing-Along at 92YTribeca. Check out more photos on 92YTribeca’s Flickr page.
Zazie dans le métro is a French novel written by author Raymond Queneau in 1959. In 1960, it was adapted into a film, directed by Louis Malle. If you are unfamiliar with obscure French films from the 60s, Rotten Tomatoes offers the following synopsis of Zazie:
A sassy young girl embarks on a madcap Parisian adventure when she visits her transvestite uncle and takes a raucous sightseeing tour of the city. In true slapstick fashion, she encounters various nutty characters and unusual situations, culminating in a food fight in a cafe.
Anyone wishing to hold their own during the next pretentious conversation about French film in the 60s will do well to see this one. Or if you just want to see a great film about a sassy young girl who embarks on a madcap Parisian adventure when she visits her transvestite uncle, this is the film to see. 92YTribeca is screening the film on Saturday, November 20.
Tom Blunt on stage at 92YTribeca for Meet The Lady
Tom Blunt‘s Meet The Lady series at 92YTribeca blends the intimacy of a film screening with the giddy momentum of a variety show. At the last show, Blunt arrived to “Meet The Lady: Fortunetellers!” dressed as his favorite lady: country has-been K.T. Oslin. Looking out at the audience, Tom noticed that nary an audience member had followed suit in dressing up and remarked: “Most of you have come as yourselves, and I think that’s completely adequate.”
They soon kicked off “Meet the Lady: The Game,” where two audience members come up with rapid-fire stories about vintage found photos of ladies, off the tops of their heads.
The importance of fortunetellers in pop culture came up; they were usually at the margins of society, as well as always being weird women, Tom informed. He then showed clips from a famous werewolf movie from 1941 - important because the werewolf’s fortune is actually told by a man, but most people remember it as being told by a woman, since a woman fitting the “fortuneteller” mold also appears in the film. Talk then turned to Nancy Reagan and the media scandal around her visits to a fortuneteller. Thankfully, Nancy Reagan herself was in the house to read from her autobiography and to defend herself.
Video: Anchorman: The original audition tapes for ESPN
In 2004, Will Ferrell starred in Anchorman, a film about Ron Burgundy: “San Diego’s top rated newsman in the male dominated broadcasting of the 1970’s.” At the time, Slate called it “messy, crude, and brilliant.”
On November 4, a panel of film critics (Jessica Winter, Scott Foundas, R. Emmet Sweeney, Nick Dawson and Christian Lorentzen) will screen the film at 92YTribeca and argue the question: “Was Anchorman an important turning point in contemporary cinema?”
What do you think? Start the discussion early, and leave your comments below.
The Gotham Independent Film Awards Nominees Announced
Chris Rock and Natalie Portman at The 2009 Gotham Independent Film Awards / Photo Credit
The Gotham Independent Film Awards, the first honors of the film awards season, have announced their nominees; congratulation to all of them. But a special note to films screened at 92YTribeca this year. Those include Summer Pasture, nominated for Best Film Not Playing in a Theater Near You, Sweetgrass, nominated for Best Documentary and Holy Rollers, nominated for Breakthrough Director.
As the New York Pressinformed last year, 92YTribeca is “one of the few venues in the city to routinely show new, challenging independent cinema.”
Stephin Merritt Presents: Gatherings at Country Houses
“It seems strange to me that video stores don’t have a section for Gatherings at Country Houses, because to me this is one of the best film genres, defined by its setting like the western, or backstage musical, or space opera. Most of my dreams take place in such environments, which probably explains which movies I’ve picked.”—Stephin Merritt
Want to spend the weekend watching films with Stephin Merritt? 92YTribeca is proud to present the Gatherings at Country Houses film series, Oct 22-24, curated by The Magnetic Fields’ singer-songwriter on the eve of the release of the new documentary Strange Powers.
“The Maine National Guard is giving life-size from-the-waist-up pictures of soldiers to the families of deployed guard members. Guard officials and families say the cutouts, known as Flat Daddies or Flat Soldiers, connect families with a relative who is thousands of miles away. The Flat Daddies are toted everywhere from soccer practice to coffee shops to weddings.”
Using these two-dimensional surrogates as a connecting thread, the documentary tells the stories of four such families, from suburban Minnesota, the Bronx, Las Vegas and rural Maine, as they unfold over the course of a year. Each family represents a unique perspective on the war effort and the difficulties of deployment; together, they weave a nuanced narrative of how military families are coping in post-9/11 America as combat operations enter their tenth year.
Directors Nara Garber and Betsey Nagler will screen their work-in-progress documentary, Flat Daddies, on September 29 at 92YTribeca. Both will be present for a post-screening discussion with IFP‘s Rose Vincelli.
Upcoming Film at 92YTribeca: Leonard Cohen, Songs from the Road (Sep 16); Tom Zé: Astronauta libertado (Sep 22); Irrational Reactions: The Animated Worlds of John R. Dilworth (Sep 23) and the New York City Short Film Festival: Program A, B and C (Sep 24, 25)
“To celebrate the sixtieth birthday of Maria Bethânia, Caetano Veloso’s sister, Salvador de Bahia decreed four days of festivities that culminated in a spectacular concert. This film is considered one of the most authentic documents on film about the life and art of the great female singer.”
—Rome Film Festival
For a truly delirious late summer experience, try the double feature being offered Saturday night at the 92YTribeca. Josef von Stenberg, the master of exotic visuals, directs his muse and sometimes lover Marlene Dietrich in “Dishonored’’ (1931) and “Shanghai Express’’ (1932) neither of which is legally available on DVD in this country.
The lesser-known “Dishonored” casts Dietrich as an Austrian prostitute who is recruited as a spy by the wonderfully-named Gustave von Seyffertitz. The very Irish Victor McLaglen plays the Russian spy bewitched by Agent X-27, but the real point of the movie, which Sternberg also wrote, seems to be showing off Marlene in feathers, veils and sequins. And her firing-squad scene is nothing to sneeze at, either.
The justly celebrated and very pre-Code “Shanghai Express’’ contains Dietrich’s most famous line of dialogue—“It took more than one man to change my name to Shanghai Lily!” This is uttered to a former boyfriend (Clive Brook), a British army doctor she encounters on a train traveling through a turbulent China. Also aboard are Warner Oland (taking a break from Charlie Chan as a villain fond of branding his victims), Seyffertitz, Eugene Pallette and the immortal Anna May Wong, who incidentally played Oland’s vengeful offspring—daddy was Fu Manchu—in “Daughter of the Dragon.’’
Is That 92YTribeca’s Maya Wainhaus In Time Out New York This Week?
Why yes, yes it is.
“It’s still the same quality, just with a younger, downtown twist,” Maya explains, discussing the programming at 92YTribeca where she coordinates the lectures, comedy shows and theater events.
Seven days with…Maya Wainhaus [Time Out New York]
Where Were You The First Time You Heard/Saw Xanadu?
We clearly remember the first time we heard Xanadu. It was 1983 at a friends house, westerns on the kitchen television, and Xanadu filled our ears with what sounded like magic from the bedroom down the hall. It’s one of the few things we can recall at that age. Though the movie bombed at the box office, it retains a special place in many hearts to this day. Ours included. So though all the Sing-Alongs hosted at 92YTribeca have been well received, the upcoming Xanadu Sing-Along scheduled for August 20 is certainly the most anticipated by this blogger.
Do you remember the first time you saw or heard Xanadu? Please tell us about it the comments. You can watch the music video below to help jog your memory.
This weekend, 92YTribeca will host a three-film series showcasing the brilliant cinematography of William Lubtchansky. No one has transformed a Parisian staircase or a mattress in an otherwise empty room into icons of immediately nostalgic romance as well as Lubtchansky. Regular Lovers (one of his two recent B&W collaborations with Phillippe Garrel that are among his best work), which screens on Friday, is the story of a 1968 romance between a pouty poet (Louis Garrel) and an arguably smarter sculptress. It’s brilliantly airheaded and affective, creating hypnotic and nuanced rhythms with images alone. Garrel said of working with Lubtchansky on this film: “We worked together like musicians, really. We had dialogues, like a jazz band that keeps improvising. Whoever felt like playing played first.”
New York Press says of Duelle, the second film in the series: “A rarely screened film by Jacques Rivette is cause for celebration. Go out and see why this Saturday at 6pm at the 92YTribeca.” This first collaboration between Lubtchansky and Rivette is one of the greatest color fantasies in contemporary cinema and a peak point for both filmmakers, yet has only screened in New York in faded-to-pink prints in recent years. To remedy this situation we’ll be screening this unsubtitled imported print with soft titles.
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Why yes, yes it is.
