Steve Gebhardt, 78

Steve Gebhardt, Who Made Films With Rock Stars, Dies at 78
by William Grimes, The New York Times, October 30, 2015

Movement Research: Moving right along...but carefully!

Post-Sandy, the intrepid Movement Research folks have postponed their Studies Project event, Jill Johnston and the Critic as Subject, originally scheduled for this afternoon at The New Museum. However, the following events are still on:

• Studies Projects
  November 5, 6:30 pm
  Movement Research Town Hall Meeting
• Studies Projects
  November 6, 6:45 pm
  JUDSON THROUGH THE EYES OF FILMMAKERS
  $10; $8 students/seniors/Friends of MR; $6 Anthology Members
  MR in Partnership with Anthology Film Archives

For complete details on these and other Movement Research programs, click here.

Ballet and a young girl's life

LIFE LESSIONS
a film by Maria Finitzo

A young girl struggling to master the art of ballet learns that life is all
about the choices we make. Life Lessons is a humorous look back at studying
ballet through the eyes of MARIA, an 11-year-old girl caught between her
mother's belief that there was much to be learned in a dance class (and by
God her daughter was going to learn it) and her wish to grow up like the
rest of her friends, spending her Saturdays shopping in downtown La Grange
and hanging out at the bowling alley.

Tuesday, July 10, 7:15pm (part of a screening program beginning at 6pm)

Anthology Film Archives32 Second Avenue (and 2nd Street), Manhattan
(map/directions)


Information and ticketing here

Eight NY artists speak for themselves

"Speaking for Myself" Trailer from Bert Shapiro on Vimeo.

NewFilmmakers New York presents

Speaking For Myself

A new film directed by Bert Shapiro

Tuesday, March 13, 6pm

Against a background of “unseen” Manhattan, Speaking for Myself tells the inspiring story of eight contemporary artists living in New York City. The film pulls back the curtain to reveal the world through the artists’ eyes, their passions, inspirations, hard work and persistence. Featuring a dancer, a concert pianist, an actress, a Noh performer, a multi-instrumentalist, a tabla virtuoso, an organist and a singing poet, this very personal film is a uniquely fascinating and motivating journey, focusing on the work and passions of these varied performing artists.

Directed by award winning filmmaker, Bert Shapiro, with music by Elliott Sharp, it has attracted critical praise from audiences and film professionals.

Artists from the film, as well as the film’s director will be on hand to answer questions.

The artists

Jenny Lin, pianist
Toshinori Hamada, Kabuki actor
Irma Sandrey, actress
Carlos Fittante, choreographer
Renee Anne Louprette, organist
Elliott Sharp, composer
Samir Chatterjee, tabla virtuoso
Tracie Morris, poet

Tickets: $6
 
Anthology Film Archives
32 Second Avenue (at 2nd Street), Manhattan
(directions)

Dance films at NewFilmmakers

NewFilmmakers presents three dance documentaries.

Wednesday, January 6 (6pm-7pm)

at Anthology Film Archives

Joshan Esfandiari Martin's Next (2010, 6 minutes) is a short film about a young dancer. Utilizing its own edit technique (roll edit), the images are in constant lateral flow, connecting her dance with a unique personal life.

In Christine Kellogg's Dancing the Tide (2010, 11 minutes), when the isolation and sorrow of life take over, it's the love, laughter, and support from others that brings us back into the dance. 

Noriko Sakamoto's The Heron and The Geisha: A Life in Dance (2009, 37 minutes) goes behind the curtain and into the studio of a Japanese dance grandmaster. Yoshie Tachibana, the third in a line of traditional dancers, lives in the center of an ancient world made up of admirers, disciples, and artisans. 

An elegant woman in a flowing silk kimono holds a pose, while flower petals gently fall around her. This is the figure of the grandmaster of traditional Japanese dance, Yoshie Tachibana. The graceful poses and gorgeous costumes are what her public fills theaters to watch.There is another side to the mysterious world of classical arts in Japan, and The Heron and the Geisha: A Life in Dance goes behind the curtain and into the studio of a Japanese dance grandmaster. Yoshie Tachibana, the third in a line of traditional dancers, lives in the center of an ancient world made up of admirers, disciples, and artisans. Her students kneel before her, taking her harsh words with stoic calm even as tears run down their cheeks. Her wigmaker, a Tokyo artisan who makes wigs for Kabuki actors, patiently smiles as she instructs him. Her kimono salesman recalls the days when even as a young girl, Iemoto Tachibana had her kimonos custom made for special occasions. Iemoto Tachibana shows what it means to be fully committed to an art form, and how after decades of practice a person becomes a dancer. Her words and her dance reveal an art form, and a view of art, that even the most dedicated connoisseurs can never get to see. (More information on this film)

Admission: $6 for the full evening, which also includes a short film program at 7pm and a feature--Hassan Ildari's dark comedy, Small Potatoes--at 8pm. For complete information on these other films, click here, scroll down to January 26 and click Film Notes.

Anthology Film Archives
32 Second Avenue (at Second Street), Manhattan
(map/directions)

Filmmaker Brack remembers Sakia Gunn

Dreams Deferred: The Sakia Gunn Project -- Charles B. Brack, producer-director. Co-produced with Third World Newsreel. (58 minutes, 2008)

Charles B. Brack opens his hour-long documentary appropriately with clips of brief statements by people--presumably LGBTIQ folks--most of whom do not know who Sakia Gunn was or only vaguely remember what happened to her. Run her name by anyone you know, and most will give similar responses.

Try the same experiment with the name "Matthew Shepard," and you'll quickly see the need for Brack's project, which won the Best in NewFest award in its premiere run.

"It saddened me deeply that this 15-year-old Black lesbian had been murdered on the street, and I hadn't heard about it," said an activist in San Francisco. 

Like the white gay college student in Wyoming--whose grisly torture, brain injury and subsequent death in 1998 got widespread media attention and inspired worldwide protest--Gunn, a resident of Newark, was murdered for being who she was. On a spring night in 2003, after a trip to Manhattan's Christopher Street piers, Gunn--who identified as an "aggressive"--waited with her girlfriends at Newark's Broad and Market Streets bus stop. A couple of men drove up and taunted the kids, propositioning the femmes in the group. Gunn told the men that, as lesbians, they had no interest in them. A fight ensued. Richard McCollough stabbed Gunn, and the teen later died of her wounds.

Dreams Deferred zooms in on the principals involved in the trial of Gunn's 29-year-old murderer, including showing the testimony of Gunn's family members and of the activist Laquetta Nelson, whose group, Newark Pride Alliance, arose in the wake of the tragedy. It is a completely unvarnished, unsentimental portrait in grief and outrage. But, beyond offering these personal statements and some brief views into the milieu of Gunn, her kin and her friends, the film aspires to be a teaching tool. It highlights Gunn's promising life and unacceptable death, yes, but sets her story squarely within the context of American society's homophobia, gender conformity, racism, classicism and sexism as well as our disregard for the needs of youth of color, in particular LGBTIQ youth. Moreover, it does not let queer community off the hook for the ways in which Gunn and other youth like her have been ignored.

This documentary is best approached as a corrective to our collective lack of consciousness and best used to inform about issues, to foster open discussion and to stimulate action.

(Available through Third World Newsreel)

See Dreams Deferred: The Sakia Gunn Film Project at Anthology Film Archives on Wednesday, September 29. Click here for information.

Her dreams deferred

Third World Newsreel and NewFilmmakers present

Dreams Deferred: The Sakia Gunn Film Project

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. This film depicts the homophobia that caused this murder and questions the lack of media coverage of a Black Gay teenager.

Dreams Deferred: The Sakia Gunn Film Project (2008, 58 min.)
(Director: Charles B. Brack)

Wednesday, September 29th, 6PM

Anthology Film Archives (Deren Theater)
32 Second Avenue, at 2nd Street, Manhattan
Admission: $9

UPDATE: Read my review of the film here.

Queer as film

Gay Identity Refracted in Multiple Voices
by Dennis Lim, The New York Times, January 22, 2010