9 posts tagged “art”
Strange Culture is playing at the Roxie and the Rafael through Thursday, September 27th. It will be at the
Cinema Village in New York from October 5th to 18th (check the website for other places it will be shown).
It tells the story of artist Steve Kurtz's arrest in 2004 weaving together documentary, segments with Tilda Swinton and other actors, and animation. I saw Kurtz talk about his art at SFMOMA in March and saw the film at the San Francisco International Film Festival in May (photos).
Lucy Gray interviewed Kurtz and director Lynn Hershman Leeson in March and interviewed her again recently.
DocFest opens at the Roxie on Friday and runs through October 10th and the Mill Valley Film Festival opens at the Rafael and other theaters on October 4th and runs through October 14th. I'll be writing about both festivals.
He spoke at SFMOMA last night. I'll update this with more on what he said. Until then, some photos (I have many more to go through).
Update: It is now at both the Opera Plaza and Balboa. Co-direcotr Richard Berge will do a Q&A after the 4 pm Saturday, June 9th show at the Opera Plaza, after the 6:30 pm show at the Balboa and he will introduce the 8 pm show. On Sunday, June 10th, he will do a Q&A after the 3:50 pm show at the Balboa and introduce the 6:30 pm show. Subscribe to the Balboa's newsletter for updates.
The documentary, based on the book of the same name by Lynn Nicholas, focuses on the massive theft of art by the Nazis which continues to have an impact today. It doesn't ignore the impact of the Allies telling the story of the military's Monuments Men (including Taper) who worked to protect the culture of the cities in the path of the war.
Michael Guillén interviewed Berge and Cohen. Cohen, Nicholas, and Taper were also on Forum this morning. Co-producer Robert Edsel has a blog on issues related to the film. There are more video clips from the film online.
Cohen was executive producer of Wonders are Many which also screened at SFIFF, and Newnham directed Sentenced Home which has been airing this week on Independent Lens on PBS.
Book: Show us a book everyone should read before they die.
Submitted by Rob.
When I have more time, I'll write a post with lots of links on him (and update his rather sparse wikipedia entry - there is a bio and some older links here. lawrenceweschler.net currently just seems to have a painting of him). There is video of a speech he gave at UC Berkeley in 2004.
The 2007 Chicago Humanities Festival (where he is the artistic director) will be on A Climate of Concern and take place October 27 to November 11th.
The Ghosts of Abu Ghraib begins showing on HBO February 22nd and will repeat many times through the end of March. For people without HBO, it will be out on DVD in June.
We've all read about Abu Ghraib and seen the photos, but this documentary puts it together with a stong narrative in a way that hasn't happened before.
I went to a screening of Ghosts last month sponsored by HBO and the World Affairs Council which was followed by a discussion between director Rory Kennedy and Mark Danner who wrote Torture and Truth: America, Abu Ghraib, and the War on Terror (some of the
essays from the book are online - scroll down to 2005 and 2004).
Some of the most compelling parts of the documentary are interviews with some of the prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Kennedy said it wasn't easy to do the interviews. They originally were going to be interviewed in Jordan, but the men weren't allowed into the country. The same thing happened in Turkey, but they were able to convince the government to allow the interviews to take place. All of the men's identities are hidden except for one who insisted on showing his face despite the danger.
I wish Ghosts was being released in theaters. It will be powerful on television, but there is an even greater impact seeing it on a large screen with an audience.
But a documentary like this should have been done by CBS, ABC, or NBC. Yes, 60 Minutes broke the story along with the New Yorker, and the others have covered it. But the death of the long form documentary on the networks has left the full story untold.
Errol Morris is also working on a documentary on Abu Ghraib which focuses more on the photographs and the history of photography in war. He said in Chicago in November he hoped to complete it in time for Cannes and it should receive a theaterical release this fall or next year.
There is a webcast (and mp3) of a conversation between Botero and Robert Haas as well as a later discussion of art and violence. There will be a panel on March 7th on Torture, Human Rights and Terrorism (which probably will be online).
Some interviews with Rory Kennedy
www.sf360.org/features/2007/02/rory_kennedy_an.html
www.indiewire.com/people/2007/01/park_city_07_in_13.html
www.kqed.org/epArchive/R702051000
www.docsthatinspire.com/?p=29
Take action:
http://www.amnestyusa.org/stoptorture/index.do
http://hrw.org/doc/?t=torture
http://www.aclu.org/safefree/torture/torturefoia.html
http://www.witnesstorture.org
http://www.witness.org/index.php?option=com_rightsalert&Itemid=178&task=view&alert_id=49
The 10th Post-postcard art sale continues at The Lab (full details on the site) through Sunday.
All art is between $1 and $30 (with most in the lower range).
her to buy other pieces.
and probably some other things I didn't get a chance to see. This photo has her email.
Show us change.
Submitted by quornflour.
Art in Chicago (it is also available as a book).
And some election photos.
I had planned on writing a longer post with some of my criticisms of the rather stiffling format of the docs of Ric Burns. You'd think this would be the subject to break out of it (just like Jazz should have been for Ken).
But it does show a Warhol different than the Soup Can/15 minutes of fame which is the only one most people know. And in the current climate, Warhol raises important issues about celebrity, fame, art, appropriation (among other things).
I also hope that people will seek out Mary Jordan's documentary on Jack Smith who influenced
Warhol (it is mentioned in the PBS doc that he was an avid follower of the experimental film scene).
Update: They now have the story online (it is a direct link to the video player - I'm not sure how long it will be available).
There isn't anything on the Nightline website yet (or Jake Tapper's blog ), but this is from their email newsletter:
Since it has become the most popular search engine around, chances are pretty good you use Google regularly to look up just about anything on the planet. And as you search, you may have noticed that the Google masthead changes occasionally. From Halloween to St. Patrick's Day to Father's Day, there's someone crafting playful art out of the Google name on that masthead for different occasions. Tonight, Jake Tapper introduces you to the artist, the Google Doodler.
There was also a story on Dennis Hwang on the BBC website, and there is an archive of his work.
