saw “linsanity” and loved it. not only is it a well-produced, moving documentary but the man at the center of the film, jeremy lin, is captivating. unquestionable talent, impeccable work ethic, natural leadership skills, fearlessness and passion should have ensured a successful career in professional basketball, but lin had to struggle and prove himself non-stop. it was exhausting to watch it on film so i don’t know how he survived it in real life. the racism was relentless, whether it was the subtle kind that wouldn’t let him play in practice let alone in games, or the blatant kind where audiences shout racial slurs at him or sports commentators make fun of the “chink” in his armor. he talks about learning to laugh at the racial jokes rather than getting upset because he plays an awful game when he’s angry. for a young man in his early 20s to be able to process racism and continue to perform brilliantly is absolutely mind-blowing. many times some of his mannerism and wacky humor reminded me of my 18 yr old son. so proud of him!
Category: reviews
Fringe Fest 2013 Reviews: Garth Fagan Dance
sept 29, 2013: went to see garth fagan yesterday, and loved it! his choreography is athletic, muscular and incredibly precise. the stop-start movements of the dancers require strength and perfect control. it reminded me of still frames in a film, which capture motion when played fast enough but which can express themselves as a series of vivid images when slowed down considerably. fagan dancers can slow down, so that every muscle in their bodies is taut, flexed, throbbing yet fully disciplined. no wonder then that the show opened with “prelude: discipline is freedom.” this was followed by “no evidence of failure” which fagan explained was inspired by his mother and other women in his family who were strong, can-do, multifaceted women. i also loved “gin” which is choreographed by norwood pennewell and based on the separation and transformation that occurs in cotton ginning. fantastic music by aphex twin, yo-yo ma and coleridge-taylor perkinson. finally, we were treated to excerpts from fagan’s lighthouse/lightening rod which is choreographed to original music by wynton marsalis. what a blessing that garth fagan’s dance studio is based here in rochester. the mad love from the audience was pretty obvious. more here.
African-American Musicians, More Than Just Jazz
experienced wonderful chamber music today – it was part of the gateways music festival which is a collaboration with the eastman school of music, houses of worship and the rochester community. the festival celebrates the participation and contributions of classically-trained musicians of african descent. today’s performances took place at the mt olivet baptist church on adam st. there’s lots more to come. check it out here. thx to my friend rachel for posting about the festival on fb!
Mondays at Racine at the Little Theatre
On August 11, 2013, the AAVia Foundation for the Health of Bolivian Children sponsored a visit by documentary filmmaker, and my friend Timothy Malia’s high school buddy, Cynthia Wade for a screening of her Oscar-nominated 2012 film, MONDAYS AT RACINE. Following the film there was a panel discussion related to issues raised by the film: cancer, beauty and self-perception. What I liked was the film’s quietness – it let the women (struggling with cancer) articulate their own stories, in their own particular way. So empowering.
Climates
saw “climates” yesterday and loved it. nuri nilge ceylan is now, officially, one of my favorite directors. here’s a great review in the NYT.
Robert Bresson interview: Au Hasard Balthazar
robert bresson is often called a painter of films. by using non-actors and purging his films of all theatricality, he forces us to go deeper into ourselves and experience emotion with surprising intensity. altho his films are primarily cerebral (meticulously choreographed with a kind of clarity that requires emotional distance), the relentless violence of every day life, of what we call reality, builds up gradually over the course of the film until it becomes unbearable. the ending (in both “au hasard balthazar” and “mouchette”) provides a much needed emotional release, not through the projection of actors but through our own internal response to the film. what better way to unleash that response than to combine the film’s simple, much awaited denouement with divine music (schubert’s piano sonata no. 20). a masterpiece.
ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA
loved nuri bilge ceylan’s “once upon a time in anatolia.” as usual, ceylan’s eye for photography is apparent in every fame of the film. especially breathtaking are gorgeous wide shots of the turkish steppe shot at night, as a group of men (including a police chief, a prosecutor, a doctor and a murderer) travel the countryside looking for the buried body of the murderer’s victim. the shots are partly lit by what seems to be gentle, hardly perceptible moonlight and the harsh yellow headlights of the cars. this is a slippery film, where the focus of the plot and the crystallization of the characters shift ever so subtly. while the characters are shot up-close, filling up the screen with a variety of faces, thoughts and temperaments, the landscape is filmed from a great distance, offering us some solidity and some respite from petty bureaucratic banter. there is something metaphysical, something profoundly lonely about the contrast between the immensity of the steppe and ant-like cars struggling along a narrow, countryside road, full of men on a mission. particularly arresting are scenes shot in a small village where the group stops for food at the mukhtar’s house. it’s a windy night and as they sit together to feast on lamb kebobs, there’s a power outage. they wait in the dark and begin to doze off in different corners of the room (they’ve been up all night). suddenly the mukhtar’s youthful daughter brings small tea glasses balanced on a tray along with an oil lamp. her face is lit by the bright light of the lamp and the men look at her as is she were an apparition, an angel. the scene is so otherworldly and beautiful that it provokes an emotional reaction in the men and in us, the audience. over the course of the film, the doctor emerges as the plot’s anchor. yet this is a nihilistic man who lives on the sidelines of life. he observes keenly and questions rationally but he is not an active protagonist, until the very end of the film. realistic, unhurried, unforced, yet nuanced and perfectly executed. so delightful to savor intelligent filmmaking.
Korkoro
“based on an anecdote about the second world war by the romani historian jacques sigot, the film was inspired by the true life of a romani who escaped the nazis with help from french villagers, and depicts the rarely documented subject of porajmos (the romani holocaust).” korkoro (freedom) is a lush depiction of romani culture – their strong sense of community and intuitive bond with nature. taloche (one of the characters) is an embodiment of transcendental ecstasy. there are some remarkable scenes in the film where taloche’s experience of freedom borders on rapturous insanity. the casting of taloche is an interesting story. tony gatlif, the director, wanted an accomplished musician/acrobat who exuded intense purity. he ended up hiring james thiérrée, a grandson of charlie chaplin, who learned gypsy swing music in 6 months. this is an unusual holocaust film. it takes its time, it’s shot with some emotional distance, it’s subtle, symbolic, controlled. perhaps the fact that gatlif intended for it to be a documentary initially has something to do with it. the combination of controlled, realistic storytelling and unrestrained romani vigor make for a rich film. the musical score, by tony gatlif and delphine mantoulet, is perfectly integrated with the film’s cinematography in a way that i have never seen before – it’s more ambient sound than music. it is estimated that a quarter of the romani population was exterminated by the germans during WWII. it’s worthwhile to remember what happens when racial panic is translated into law. it’s also important to know that roma persecution in europe continues to this day…
BeeEye by Cat Ashworth
went to see BeeEye at the imagine festival at rit on may 4th, 2013. it’s a wonderful video installation by my friend, artist and filmmaker cat ashworth. talking about the disappearance of honeybees, one of the beekeepers called it a “human collapse disorder” rather than a colony collapse disorder. he explained how humans have much to learn from the honeybee, which is primarily community oriented. “bees don’t have egos” he continued. he went on to discuss darwin’s theory of evolution and how it was misrepresented. survival of the fittest has become a dogma, he said, altho that’s an incorrect understanding of what darwin meant. it is the ability to adapt to and coexist with one’s environment which ensures survival, what we should call survival of the kindest, the most symbiotic. excellent videography and terrific musical score by eastman school of music professor and composer carlos sanchez-gutierrez.
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BeeEye by Cat Ashworth – artist’s statement:
“The honeybee reminds us of the interconnectedness of all life. The intricate cellular structure that the honeybee makes in the hive reminds us that all things in life have a pattern. I want the audience to enter the hexagon cell and immerse themselves in the sights and sounds of the honeybee.
I became interested in the honeybee in 2006, when Colony Collapse Disorder was killing off hives all over the world. First I became a beekeeper then I started filming bees and other beekeepers. I started off making a traditional documentary, but as I was editing the material, I discovered I liked just watching the abstract flight patterns the bees made. I decided to take the project in a different direction, and create an artwork that is more abstract.
Honeybees speak in a language different from humans. Much of the practice of beekeeping relies on the power of observation. I tried to keep talking at a minimum in this project, so that the audience can begin to glimpse into a life form that is very different from humans. Although humans and honeybees have had a relationship for thousands of years, the honeybee remains wild, and many of her secrets remain hidden.”
bidder 70 and earth day
april 22, 2013: just saw “bidder 70” a doc about environmental activist tim dechristopher’s bid to save 22,000 acres of land in utah from oil and gas extraction. he was imprisoned for disrupting an auction, even tho the auction was later determined to be illegal. he was released today, on earth day, after completing his 21 month prison sentence. bidder 70 was screened all over the country. tim is doing a Q&A right now on skype. people can ask him questions thru twitter. v cool to be a part of this historic event. tim’s interview on democracy now here.
Teilhard de Chardin’s ‘Planetary Mind’ and Our Spiritual Evolution
yesterday, on april 21st 2013, i went to see “divine milieu: the last confession of teilhard de chardin” at the space theatre in rochester. pierre teilhard de chardin (1881 – 1955) was a french philosopher and jesuit priest, a paleontologist and geologist, who spent most of his life trying to integrate religious experience with natural science, specifically christian theology with theories of evolution. he became enthralled with the possibilities for humankind, which he saw as heading for an exciting convergence of systems, a maximum level of complexity and consciousness towards which the universe is evolving, an “omega point” which will lead to a new state of peace and planetary unity. he saw this unity as being based upon the spirit of the earth: “the age of nations is past. the task before us now, if we would not perish, is to build the earth.” in effect, he is talking about the same inter-connectedness that vandana shiva discusses in terms of food activism and the inextricability of the human-to-human and human-to-earth bond.
in his book “the phenomenon of man” teilhard talks about a collective identity which develops as trade and the transmission of ideas increases. knowledge accumulates and is transmitted in increasing levels of depth and complexity. this leads to a further augmentation of consciousness and the emergence of a thinking layer that envelops the earth. he calls the new membrane the “noosphere” (from the greek “nous,” meaning mind). the noosphere is the collective consciousness of humanity, the networks of thought and emotion in which all are immersed. teilhard was reprimanded, censored and condemned by the church for his ideas.
it was sad that one of the panelists who discussed the play gave the example of the multi-media manhunt for the boston bombing suspect as being representative of teilhard’s collective human network. quite the opposite. we are v far still from achieving true mind and spirit human interconnectedness. i agree with teilhard that “we have reached a crossroads in human evolution where the only road which leads forward is towards a common passion… to continue to place our hopes in a social order achieved by external violence would simply amount to our giving up all hope of carrying the spirit of the earth to its limits.”
teilhad was played by l. john cieslinski who also wrote the play. thank u to my friend Sarita for this excellent treat!
here is a wonderful podcast discussing teilhard’s work from many different perspectives.
the penelopiad in toronto
2/9/2013: saw margaret atwood’s “the penelopiad,” a nightwood theatre production performed at buddies in bad times theatre, in toronto. it’s a feminist take on homer’s odyssey, in which penelope’s story becomes front and center, haunted by the shocking hanging of the 12 maids on odysseus’s return (an event that gets hardly any mention in the overall analysis of the narrative). written, directed, acted and designed by women, it’s a provocative interrogation of human “his-story.”
uncle vanya and matilda
today “uncle vanya” at vaudeville theatre, a reception at the w hotel near leicester square and then matilda, the musical. not sure about matilda, altho i’m told it’s thrilling.
twelfth night and richard III
twelfth night and richard III at the apollo theatre yesterday – a transfer from shakespeare’s globe, “original practices” and all male cast, mark rylance and stephen fry, complete fidelity to the original text. simply magnificent.
sleeping beauty at sadler’s wells theatre
saw this wonderful ballet yesterday, along with two other plays. loved what matthew bourne did with sleeping beauty. he gave agency to aurora, who is an energetic and passionate young woman in love with a working class lad, leo the gamekeeper, before she ever falls asleep. half the fairies are male dancers, including the lilac fairy, and they exude more power and athleticism than leo, the prince character. it’s not the evil fairy who exacts revenge on aurora but her charismatic son, who looks like a cross between the flamboyant freddie mercury and a young antonio banderas. he also falls in love with aurora so there is this rivalry between him and leo. oh yeah, and the lilac fairy is a vampire. smashing.