The 6th Annual Harlem International Film Festival

Celebrating the art of film in the home of the Renaissance, Hi inspires and entertains by honoring films that offer honest, thought-provoking portrayals of our world. Conceived from the belief that we all have unique experiences and perspectives to share, Hi actively seeks and exhibits fresh, entertaining films that possess a universal appeal. Hi is committed to exemplifying the eminence that Harlem represents and is dedicated to showing the best films from around the world. Highlights this year include I Ain’t Scared of You, a tribute to Bernie Mac, These Amazing Shadows, a doc on the history of the Library of Congress Film Registry, and a new narrative jem from Spain, Catalunya Uber Alles.

More info to come!

www.HarlemFilmFestival.com

Thursday, September 8th, 7:00pm

Friday, September 9th, 12:00pm

Saturday, September 10th, 12:00pm

Sunday, September 11th, 12:00pm

Jazzmobile and The Friends of Morningside Park Present: Morningside Park

Morningside Drive @ 113th Street

7:00pm Music:

Jazzmobile Presents: Will Calhoun (Live Jazz)

8:30pm Screening:

Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser

Dir. Charlotte Zwerin, 1988, 90 min.

Filmmakers Bruce Ricker and Charlotte Zwerin utilize Michael and Christian Blackwood's 1968 footage of modern jazz innovator, Thelonious Monk, to create a singular portrait of this Jazz master's life both onstage and off. Charlotte Zwerin brings her editing genius (Gimme Shelter, Salesman) to the fore as she weaves new interviews, archival photos and music through the Blackwoods' verité footage to deliver a comprehensive biography while maintaining the open, meditative space that characterizes Monk's compositions. Of the films she made with Albert and his brother David Maysles, Al says, "Charlotte is gone now, but she is still the best editor I know of."

Teen Filmmakers Summer Film Screening

Monday, August 22nd

RECEPTION - 6:30 pm (refreshments will be served)

SCREENING: 7:30 pm sharp. Q and A to follow.

Please join us for a fun-filled evening of short films produced by this year’s class of emerging teen filmmakers that tackle issues like: Immigration *The Fight for Community Gardening * Racial Identity* Gender and Graffiti* *Bullying*

Please rsvp to: veebravo@mayslesinstitute.org

Saturday, August 27th, 7:00pm

Summer of Music: Harlem Outdoor Music and Screening Series

The Mount Morris Ascension Presbyterian Church

(Following Mount Morris Block Party)  

16-20 Mount Morris Park West

(Southwest corner of West 122nd Street)

7:00pm

The First Corinthian Baptist Church Choir

8:00pm

Rejoice and Shout

Don McGlynn, 2010, 115 min.

"Theologians and clergy members of every religious stripe may debate the existence of God until the cows come home. But as demonstrated by “Rejoice and Shout,” Don McGlynn’s documentary history of African-American gospel music, reasonable arguments are nothing compared with the power of voices lifted in song to invoke the Holy Spirit. Your religion or lack of one doesn’t matter. At some point while watching the film, you may feel that music is God, or if not, a close approximation of divinity."

-- Stephen Holden

The New York Times, June 2, 2011

Brought to you with support from Target.

http://movies.nytimes.com/2011/06/03/movies/rejoice-and-shout-african-american-gospel-music-review.html?scp=1&sq=Rejoice%20and%20Shout&st=cse

Documentary in Bloom

Presented by Livia Bloom

August 15th -21st, 7:30 p.m.

Summer Pasture

Dir. Lynn True, Nelson Walker, and Tsering Perlo, 2010, 85 min.

Preceded by:

Dreams of the Divine: A Trilogy

Dir. Olivia Wyatt, 2011, 27 min. - World Premiere

This powerful short work documents a religious ceremony of the Celestial Church of Christ on Rockaway Beach; a hipster drum performance by the all-girl drum corps Chica Vas in Manhattan; and a Haitian vodou ritual honoring the Ghede family of spirits in Brooklyn. Wyatt’s fluid, mobile camerawork and dexterous editing offers an insider’s view of three New York City communities pulsing with life and conviction.

* Thursday, August 18: Skype discussion with Summer Pasture directors Lynn True and Nelson Walker.

* Friday, August 19: Discussion with Dreams of the Divine: A Trilogy director Olivia Wyatt.

Stalin K Presents: India Untouched

India Untouched

2007, 108 min.

This award-winning documentary is the most comprehensive look at the “untouchables” in India. Motivated by ancient religious edicts, no amount of governmental encouragement has been able to stem the tragic custom that separates human beings according to their birth. Those considered untouchable suffer more than isolation, they are forced to fulfill menial tasks in their communities, drink from separate containers, remove their shoes on the street as a sign of respect and perform or exhibit many other outward signs of their perceived inferiority. While the media projects a positive image of a democratic India, filmmaker Stalin K spends four years traveling the country to expose the continued oppression of the Dalits, “the broken people,” in a wide variety of communities, including Sikhs, Christians and Muslims.

Stalin K is a human rights activist and award-winning documentary filmmaker. In recent years, he has become known for his pioneering ‘community media’ work with urban and rural communities, in which local people produce their own videos and radio programs as an empowerment tool.  He is the Director of Video Volunteers, a media and human rights organization.  He is a renowned public speaker and has lectured or taught at over 20 institutions ranging from the National Institute of Design and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in India, to New York University and Stanford and Berkeley in the US.

The Asian American International Film Festival Presents:

Anna May Wong: In Her Own Words

Yunah Hong, 2010, 57min.

Transcending from the silent era into sound film, the legendary Anna May Wong co-starred with the likes of Marlene Dietrich and Douglas Fairbanks. The first Chinese American movie star is captured in this documentary through rich archival footage, interviews with studio colleagues, commentary by filmmakers, scholars and re-enactments of her letters and diary by actress Doan Ly.

Summer of Music: Harlem Outdoor Music and Screening Series

Thursday, August 11th, 7:00pm

In Honor of the Centennial of Romare Bearden’s birth, September 2, 1911

The Studio Museum in Harlem In Collaboration with the Maysles Cinema Presents: 

@ The Courtyard at the Studio Museum - 144 West 125th Street

7:00pm Music:

DJ Ski Hi

(100 years of music)

8:30pm Screening:

Bearden Plays Bearden

Nelson E Breen, 1981, 60 min.

Features conversations with Ntozake Shange and Joseph Campbell, among others, about Romare Bearden and his legacy as well as Bearden’s own observations and time with him in his studio. A painter, collagist, muralist, and set designer whose influence reverberates still, Romare Bearden, one of the founders of the Studio Museum and a featured artist in the current exhibition Spiral: Perspectives on an African-American Art Collective, is widely recognized as one of the most important artists of the twentieth century.

Food and drink will be available for purchase in the Atrium Cafe

One Week Theatrical Engagement Starting August 5th!

August 5-6, 8-11 at 7:30pm, August 7th at 4:00pm

The Interrupters

Dir. Steve James, 2011, 125 min.

Winner of the Special Jury Award at the Sheffield Doc/Fest, The Interrupters tells the moving and surprising stories of three "Violence Interrupters" who try to protect their Chicago communities from the violence they once employed. From acclaimed director Steve James and bestselling author Alex Kotlowitz (There Are No Children Here), this film is an unusually intimate journey into the stubborn persistence of violence in our cities. Shot over the course of a year out of Kartemquin Films, The Interrupters captures a period in Chicago when it became a national symbol for the violence in our cities.  The city was besieged by high-profile incidents, most notably the brutal beating of Derrion Albert, a Chicago High School student, whose death was caught on videotape.

The film's main subjects, Ameena, Cobe and Eddie work for an innovative organization, CeaseFire, which believes that the spread of violence mimics the spread of infectious diseases, and so the treatment should be similar: go after the most infected, and stop the infection at its source. The singular mission of the "Violence Interrupters" — who have credibility on the streets because of their own personal histories — is to intervene in conflicts before they explode into violence. The Interrupters follows these three "Violence Interrupters" as they go about their work, and while doing so reveals their own inspired journeys of hope and redemption. "A gut-wrenching documentary" says Manohla Dargis of The New York Times.   

A Cinema Guild release

Panel discussion following the Friday, August 5th screening with Harlem and Brooklyn based Interrupters. Speakers include Operation S.N.U.G.'s Robin Holmes (Project Director of Operations), Karim Chapman (Outreach Worker Supervisor), Courtney Bennett (Community of Government Relations for The New York Mission Society), local, Harlem based violence interrupters and Achisimach Yisreal, S.O.S. Outreach Worker/ Violence Interrupter, Derick Scott, S.O.S. Crown Heights Outreach Worker and Violence Interrupter Supervisor.

Profile of S.N.U.G: http://www.dnainfo.com/20110118/harlem/program-employs-exgang-members-help-stop-violence-on-harlem-streets

Official film site: http://interrupters.kartemquin.com/

Film trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXmm0MZLGxY

Video interview with director Steve James: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/video/2011/jun/14/steve-james-the-interrupters-video

At the Death House Door

Dir. Steve James and Peter Gilbert, 2008, 94 min.

At the Death House Door follows the remarkable career journey of Carroll Pickett, who served 15 years as the death house chaplain to the infamous "Walls" prison unit in Huntsville, Texas. During that time he presided over 95 executions, including the very first lethal injection done anywhere in the world. After each execution, Pickett recorded an audiotape account of that fateful day. The film also tells the story of Carlos De Luna, a convict whose execution affected Pickett more than any other. Pickett firmly believed the man was innocent and two Chicago Tribune reporters turn up evidence that strongly suggests he was right.

Film trailer: http://www.ifc.com/videos/at-the-death-house-door-trailer.php

Steve James is the award-winning director, producer, and co-editor of Hoop Dreams, which won every major critics award as well as a Peabody and Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award in 1995. The film earned James the Directors Guild of America Award and the MTV Movie Award's "Best New Filmmaker." Recently, Hoop Dreams was selected for the Library of Congress' National Film Registry, signifying the film's enduring importance to American film history, and hailed by critic Roger Ebert as "the great American documentary." James' next documentary, Stevie, won major festival awards at Sundance, Amsterdam, Yamagata and Philadelphia, and was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. The acclaimed feature landed on a dozen "Top Ten Films of the Year" lists for 2003.

James was also an executive producer, story director, and co-editor of the PBS series, The New Americans, which won two Chicago International Television Festival Golden Hugos, and the prestigious 2004 International Documentary Association Award for Best Limited Series for Television. In 2005, James completed the documentary, Reel Paradise, his fourth film to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. James served as producer and editor of The War Tapes, a documentary comprised of video footage shot by American soldiers in Iraq. The film won the top prize at both the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival, and the inaugural 2006 BritDoc Film Festival.

In 2008, he co-produced and co-directed with Peter Gilbert the acclaimed At the Death House Door, which won the top prize at the Atlanta Film Festival, the Inspiration Award at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, and aired on IFC-TV. At the Death House Door is James' fourth film to be officially short-listed for the Academy Award.  James' 2010 documentary No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson had its world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival and aired as part of ESPN Films' 2010 International Documentary Association award-winning series 30 for 30. The film was selected for the IDOCS International Documentary Forum in Beijing, and also played at the Cleveland, Full Frame, Dallas, Nashville and Atlanta film festivals, among others, as well as earning James the Best Director award at the Midwest Film Awards.

This year James will release his sixth film in partnership with Kartemquin Films, The Interrupters. Marking a return to some of the same Chicago neighborhoods featured in Hoop Dreams, The Interrupters investigates the stubborn persistence of violence in American cities. James co-produced the film with acclaimed writer Alex Kotlowitz (There Are No Children Here). The film is his fifth feature to be selected for the Sundance Film Festival, and after premiering theatrically this summer, will be broadcast on PBS FRONTLINE in late 2012.

James' dramatic films include the theatrical feature Prefontaine (1997), which premiered at Sundance, and cable movies Passing Glory (1999) and Joe and Max (2002), which was nominated for an ESPN Espy Award.  

Doc Watchers Inc. Presents: Curated by Hellura Lyle

Charge It To The Game

Joseph Rodman, 2010, 60 min.

Charge It To The Game takes viewers on an emotional journey with those directly affected by gun violence. This revealing documentary includes testimonies of young people who have seen gun violence straight on; mothers who have lost their children; former gang-members who have committed murders; and Brooklyn’s District Attorney.  Charge It To The Game, not only features numerous first-hand accounts of violence, but it also explores solutions for creating a safer future for our young people.

Post-screening Q&A with Producers and Participants & Reception to follow Screening.

Special Video Presentation of Men of Majesty with Co-founder, Shawn Blanchard

Men of Majesty, a service organization in the Holcombe Rucker HS in the South Bronx, is dedicated to the cultivation of true manhood in young men aspiring to such. Their objective is to bridge the gap between adolescence and manhood. They seek to help participants to build within themselves the Seven Pillars of Manhood as defined by Men of Majesty. These pillars are Servant-hood, Leadership, Scholarship, Self-Control, Humility, Integrity, and Spirituality.

Master Class: Steve James

Identifying and surveying exemplary careers in documentary production through an expansive lens

Curated by Sylvia Savadjian

True Crime New York: The Naked City

From the victimless to the devastatingly brutal, crime is in New York City's bloodstream. A meditation on the complexity of "true" crime in the rotten apple -- from the Central Park Jogger Case to Giuliani Time, Bernie Goetz to Bernie Madoff. Ripped from the tabloid pages to the big screen True Crime New York is  a quarterly film, speaker and performance series.

The Naked City

Dir. Jules Dassin, 1948, 96 mins.

“The Naked City,” an Academy Award winning film, was largely shot on location throughout the streets of New York. Based on the story by Marvin Wald, “The Naked City” follows a police investigation of the murder of a young model.  “The Naked City” offers a beautiful, gritty, timeless, semi-documentary portrait of the city and its people, leading the audience through a  twisty murder investigation and causing hearts to beat faster as detectives race to close the case. Offering the juxtaposition of the “naked,” corrupt, city and an everyday ho-hum cityscape, “The Naked City” is the proto-police procedural, and “Dragnet” and “Law and Order” are its children.  This film (and the story that inspired it) is also where the phrase “8 million stories in a naked city and this is one of them” originated. Indeed.

Thursday, June 30th, 7:30pm

Mothers of Bedford

Jenifer McShane, 2011, 93 min.

Mothering can be difficult at the best of times but imagine trying to raise your children from prison. Mothers of Bedford follows five women incarcerated at New York’s only maximum security prison, Bedford Hills Correctional Facility. While trying to nurture relationships with their children and play central roles in their lives, these women are also facing face the day-to-day struggle of life behind bars. The inmates at Bedford Hills are supported by an innovative children's center that creates a space for positive change in the least likely of settings: prison. Mothers of Bedford is a deeply moving story about these women, their journey and what it means to be a mother. Filmmaker, Jenifer McShane (the mother of two boys), spent five years interviewing and visiting these women inside prison and the families awaiting their return. The result is an unusually compelling and nuanced look at mothers behind bars.

Panel Discussion with dir. Jenifer McShane, Mary Byrne, Lorie Smith Goshin and guests from the film tba

Mary Byrne, PhD, CPNP, MPH, FAAN, holds an endowed professorship at Columbia University. She is Principal Investigator in a long term NIH funded study of maternal-infant outcomes of the prison nursery program at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility. Dr. Byrne was appointed first Director of the newly established Center for Children and Families where she continues to bring together and nurture both research and clinical projects that address children at risk.

Lorie Smith Goshin is an Associate Research Scientist at the Columbia University School of Nursing.  For the past fifteen years she has worked as a health educator and a nurse to care for vulnerable families and children. She is currently a co-investigator on a long-term study of outcomes for women and children who lived together in a prison nursery. She is also the lead investigator on a study of an innovative program in Brooklyn that allows convicted women to reside in a supportive housing setting with their children in lieu of incarceration.

Tuesday,  June 28th- Wednesday, June 29th, 7:30pm

Links:

Film Website: http://www.mothersofbedford.com/

Trailer: http://youtu.be/SbrFOyzwKr0

Third Annual Homo-Harlem Film Series

Curated by Michael Henry Adams

Co-sponsored by State Senator Bill Perkins, Harlem United, Sage Harlem, Men of All Colors Together Harlem Pride, Third World Newsreel and the Maysles Cinema the Homo-Harlem Film Series is Upper Manhattan’s foremost celebration and recognition of the cultural accomplishments of LGBT people of color.

Three Queer Mice

Supafriends/Global Action Project, 2008, 2 min

In Three Queer Mice, based on real stories, this at once quirky and tragic animated remake of the Three Blind Mice nursery rhyme hauntingly reflects the dangers and discrimination queer youth face.

Keisha Knows

Supafriends/Global Action Project, 2010, 8 min

Inspired by the intense love affairs of lesbian pulp-fiction novels, Keisha Knows is an homage to the film noir aesthetic.  Addressing hetero-normativity, Keisha Knows is not just any ordinary love story, but one that explores what is at stake when a community is divided.

Dreams Deferred: The Sakia Gunn Film Project

Dir. Charles B. Brack, 2008, 58 min.

This documentary tells the little known story of Sakia Gunn, a 15 year old student who was fatally stabbed in a gay hate crime in Newark, New Jersey. Sakia held promise as a basketball player and was an "A" student, looking forward to becoming a senior at Newark's West Side High School.  "Dreams Deferred: The Sakia Gunn Film Project" depicts the homophobia that caused this murder and questions the lack of media coverage of the murder of a Black Gay teenager. "This 15 year old black lesbian was murdered, and I didn't know about it", says activist Swazzi Sowo of Black Rap in San Francisco.  The documentary follows the reaction of the Newark community where several rallies and vigils were held, galvanizing the community and prompting several LGBT organizations to form, including the Newark Pride Alliance and Sakia Gunn Aggressives & Femmes, as well as a scholarship fund in her name.  May 23, the day Sakia was murdered, was declared by the city of Newark's Mayor as "No Name Calling Day.”

Sakia Film Website: http://www.sakiagunnfilmproject.com/

Three Blind Mice/Keisha Knows Film Website: http://global-action.org/

Discussion to follow, speakers TBA

Third Annual Homo-Harlem Film Series

Curated by Michael Henry Adams

Co-sponsored by State Senator Bill Perkins, Harlem United, Sage Harlem, Men of All Colors Together Harlem Pride, Third World Newsreel and the Maysles Cinema, the Homo-Harlem Film Series is Upper Manhattan’s foremost celebration and recognition of the cultural accomplishments of LGBT people of color.

Wednesday, June 22nd to Thursday, June 23rd

Schomburg Center for Research In Black Culture

515 Malcolm X Boulevard at 135th street Free!!!!

A Black Man’s Burden: How Internalized Stereotypes Lead to LGBT Demonization featuring the films of Novo Novus Productions

Reception

Screening:

Where Truth Lies

Carlton is an attractive, educated, young black male with funny, caring friends, a beautiful, loving girlfriend...and a handsome, devoted boyfriend (Terrell).  These relationships rattle, however, on the day of his one-year anniversary with Jasmine, when truths unspoken come to light.  Carlton's ability to balance the divergent interests of these three factions is put to the test, as is the sense and sensibility of his friends and lovers.

Drama Queenz

Drama Queenz is a hit comedy web series, now in its second season, about three friends and roommates dealing with life, love, and auditioning in New York City.  Each ten-minute webisode focuses on Jeremiah, a dreamer with ridiculously poor audition luck, Davis, a perfectionist whose hard work produces uneven results, and Preston, a realist whose inhibitions stir-up delightful "drama" for all to enjoy.  Through madcap auditions, burgeoning romances, and heartbreaking realizations, the trio from Queens takes viewers on the zany roller coaster ride that is the actor's life.

Fade In

Fade In is a webisodic documentary series featuring inspiring stories from homeless LGBTQ youth.  These 3-5 minute clips are not only designed to bring awareness to the fact that 35-40% of runaway or homeless youth in New York identify as being LGBTQ, but also to provide and promote a positive light forward for teens struggling with their identities due to personal, social, and familial factors.  Each segment will be based around a different virtue (e.g. beauty, acceptance, compassion, faith) and will feature up to three youths discussing an uplifting story that relates to said virtue.  Through smiles and laughter, tears and heartbreak, these touching stories shine a light on the truths of those forced to live in darkness.  Hosted by the cast of Drama Queenz.

Post Screening Q&A with Novo Novus Productions

Documentary in Bloom

June 13th -19th  7:30 p.m.

Co-Presented by Cinema Tropical

Curated by Livia Bloom

The Lips (aka Los Labios)

Dir. Iván Fund and Santiago Loza, 2010, 100 min.

Winner of the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress, a prize shared by the film's three leads, this subtle and challenging mix of documentary and narrative filmmaking follows three women who deeply inhabit their cinematic roles as social workers interacting with members of an impoverished rural Argentine community. Facing desperate poverty that threatens to overwhelm even the greatest reserves of calm, humor, and empathy, the trio moves into makeshift living quarters and records data on the needs of the community, while still taking time for an occasional night out.

Following Friday’s screening there will be a Q&A with the Lips producer Ivan Eibuszyc followed by a reception sponsored by Sugar Hill Ale.

Sunday’s screening will also be followed by a Q&A with Lips producer Ivan Eibuszy.

Links

Trailer: http://youtu.be/PLZUhYpf-ng

Cinema Tropical Website: http://www.cinematropical.com/

The Beales of Grey Gardens

Dir. Albert Maysles & David Maysles, 2006, 91 min.

The 1976 cinema vérité classic Grey Gardens, which captured in remarkable close-up the lives of the eccentric East Hampton recluses Big and Little Edie Beale, has spawned everything from a midnight-movie cult following to a Broadway musical, to a Hollywood adaptation. The filmmakers then went back to their vaults of footage to create part two, The Beales of Grey Gardens, a tribute both to these indomitable women and to the original landmark documentary’s legions of fans, who have made them American counterculture icons.

7:00pm

Grey Gardens

Dir. Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Ellen Hovde & Muffie Meyer, 1976, 94 min.

Meet Big and Little Edie Beale—high-society dropouts, mother and daughter, reclusive cousins of Jackie O.—thriving together amid the decay and disorder of their ramshackle East Hampton mansion. An impossibly intimate portrait and an eerie echo of the Kennedy Camelot, Albert and David Maysles’s 1976 Grey Gardens quickly became a cult classic and established Little Edie as a fashion icon and philosopher queen. The film and the Beales themselves have since inspired fashion lines, songs, a broadway musical, several off-broadway shows, and a 2009 HBO film.

Q&A with co-Director Albert Maysles

Reception to Follow Sponsored By Sugar Hill  Ale

STAUNCH FAMILIES: A Grey Gardens Celebration III

Curated by Rebekah and Sara Maysles

Back Walking Forward

Dir. Kavery Kaul, 2011, 40 min.

Back Walking Forward tells an inspiring story about the aftermath of brain injury. A car accident left Eric with traumatic brain injury. Modern medicine enables most brain injury patients to survive coma, but what happens after that? On the unpredictable road to recovery, an active young man suddenly bound to a wheelchair, unable to start college, Eric struggles to relearn life skills, as he searches for a place in a once-familiar world. His family must redefine happiness, as they too search for a "new normal". They wander the borderland between hope and despair. Will Eric walk again?

Followed by a Q&A with director Kavery Kaul, with the film subjects Eric, Susan and Isaac Michalowski in attendance

Kavery Kaul is an award-winning director and producer of documentaries that have been shown in theaters and on television, in the U.S. and internationally. Born in India and brought up in the U.S., her bicultural background crosses many borders. Often her films are driven by characters who challenge assumptions about who they are. They bridge worlds and break down the barriers separating "them" and "us". Kavery explains, "I was drawn to Eric --- his truths and untruths, the profound and the poignant, and his understanding of what's really important in life. In Back Walking Forward, I wanted to enter his inner world and trace his family's quest for a new normal in the face of such enormous uncertainty."

5:30pm

Grey Gardens

Dir. Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Ellen Hovde & Muffie Meyer, 1976, 94 min.

Meet Big and Little Edie Beale—high-society dropouts, mother and daughter, reclusive cousins of Jackie O.—thriving together amid the decay and disorder of their ramshackle East Hampton mansion. An impossibly intimate portrait and an eerie echo of the Kennedy Camelot, Albert and David Maysles’s 1976 Grey Gardens quickly became a cult classic and established Little Edie as a fashion icon and philosopher queen. The film and the Beales themselves have since inspired fashion lines, songs, a broadway musical, several off-broadway shows, and a 2009 HBO film.

Special Bonus Material TBA

STAUNCH FAMILIES: A Grey Gardens Celebration III

Beyond This Place

Dir. Kaleo La Belle, 2011, 93 min.

Kaleo La Belle, director and narrator of Beyond This Place, finally heard from his dad the day he turned 34. Born on a hippie commune in Maui to Cloud Rock La Belle and mother Marj, little Kaleo’s given name was “Ganja.” Cloud Rock, a spectacularly unrepentant deadbeat father who claims he’s been “stoned for 40 years,” suddenly invites his son to pedal with him on a 500-mile journey through the Pacific Northwest. Frustrated with his old man’s total lack of responsibility, and wounded by his abandonments, Kaleo asks Cloud Rock pointed questions about his motivation. But the old guy refuses to be drawn in. The only things he’s interested in are pursuing his own happiness, LSD, and cycling. “My life is not about disappointing a child. It’s about becoming a man. I love my freedom,” he grinningly tells his son. In an effort to comprehend this maddening person, Kaleo goes on a quest, interviewing commune members still living off the grid in Maui, his mentally ill brother Starbuck, and his mom in suburban Detroit. Simultaneously funny and devastating, Beyond This Place is a heartfelt journey of body and soul.

Q&A with director Kaleo La Belle via Skype

Staunch!: Grey Gardens 3

Curated by Rebekah and Sara Maysles

The 3rd Annual Grey Gardens Staunch Fest is a weekend long celebration of Staunch Families, June 10th-12th, 2011.

"But you see in dealing with me, the relatives didn't know that they were dealing with a staunch character. [...] S-T-A-U-N-C-H. There's nothing worse, I'm telling you. They don't weaken, no matter what." - Little Edith Beale.

   This year's Grey Gardens Staunch Celebration is a weekend exploring "staunch" families on film - families whose members despite everything 'don't weaken, no matter what', for better or worse. For Grey Gardens, in the decaying titular East Hampton mansion, a tight knit mother and daughter pair, while blocking out much of the outside world, over the years have expanded their family to include cats, raccoons, a singing cowboy, an effete pianist, a teenage handyman, a gardener, a local psychic, and a pair of visiting filmmakers. At the center, the bonds of blood between mother and daughter drive a complex relationship filled with regret, longing, anger, but above all, love. Our families, however we may define them, make us who we are - they can cultivate the best and the worst in us, drive us crazy, drive us forward and/or trap us.

Friday, June 10th to Sunday, June 12th

Under the Influence of Le Tigre

Who Took the Bomp? Le Tigre on Tour

Dir Kerthy Fix, 2010, 72 min.

Who Took the Bomp? follows electronic feminist icons Le Tigre on the This Island tour across four continents and ten countries. Supported by a community of devoted fans and led by outspoken Riot Grrrl pioneer Kathleen Hanna (Bikini Kill), Le Tigre confronts sexism and homophobia in the music industry while tearing up the stage via performance art poetics, no-holds-barred lyrics, punk rock ethos, and whip-smart wit in this edgy and entertaining documentary.  Who Took the Bomp? features never before seen live performances, archival interviews, and revealing backstage footage with these trail-blazing artists. "Hysterically funny, shamelessly political and musically intense” says Rolling Stone.  

Post-screening Q&A with:  

Director Kerthy Fix’s credits include Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman with director Jennifer Fox, Hotel Gramercy Park with filmmaker Douglas Keeve, and Who Does She Think She Is?, airing on PBS this year. She also directed and produced Strange Powers: Stephin Merritt and the Magnetic Fields.

Kathleen Hanna is best known for her groundbreaking performances as a member of the seminal 90′s punk band, Bikini Kill, and her more recent multimedia group, Le Tigre.  She is currently making art, giving lectures and writing a new album with her band The Julie Ruin.

Johanna Fateman, a Harlem resident and "zine queen" is best known for her work with Le Tigre. She produces the band Men, is a frequent art and pop culture contributing writer at Art Forum and co-owns Manhattan's Seagull salon.  

Reception to Follow Sponsored By Sugar Hill  Ale

Links:

Le Tigre on Tour ('Deceptacon' video clip from Who Took the Bomp?):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDkLBcGLir0

Le Tigre interviewed in Time Out New York:

http://newyork.timeout.com/things-to-do/this-week-in-new-york/1068935/why-i-love-nyc-le-tigre

DocWatchers and the Central Harlem CSA Present:

Curated by Hellura Lyle

Fresh

Ana Sofia Joanes, 2009, 72 min.

Fresh celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system. Each has witnessed the rapid transformation of our agriculture into an industrial model, and confronted the consequences: food contamination, environmental pollution, depletion of natural resources, and morbid obesity. Forging healthier, sustainable alternatives, they offer a practical vision for a future of our food and our planet. Among several main characters, Fresh features urban farmer and activist, Will Allen, the recipient of MacArthur’s 2008 Genius Award; sustainable farmer and entrepreneur, Joel Salatin, made famous by Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma; and supermarket owner, David Ball, challenging our Wal-Mart dominated economy.

Post-screening Discussion and Reception to Follow

Links:

Trailer: http://youtu.be/KwR44T69_Is

Film Website: http://www.freshthemovie.com/