culturalboundaries

Lots of great events happening this summer all around NYC such as films, visual art, design, food and more. Here is a breakdown of the ones that I’ve been able to find, the best part is some are free! Please leave a comment if I’ve left anything out or you want to share something interesting. Friday, June 18th, 2010 Soul of Brooklyn Launch Party Time:  7-11pm Description: Hosted by Brooklyn icon, Ralph McDaniels, The Soul of Brooklyn launch party will premiere the highly anticipated website and guide book that will highlight the unique African Diaspora cultural and business renaissance taking place in the great metropolis of Brooklyn, New York! Featured at the launch will be a special performance by “Blitz the Ambassador”, Brooklyn vendors, food, music, art and give-away items and more! There will also be a Soul of Brooklyn photography exhibition, featuring images by Malik Yusef at MoCADA. For a schedule of all events click: SOULOFBROOKLYN.COM SOUL OF BROOKLYN’S VIDEO:

The 4th Annual Food Film Fesitval Kicks-off from June 23-27th If you’re a foodie the 4ht Annual Food Film Festival offers some of the best of selections of places to eat while experiencing a diverse range of films all on food. Things jump off June 23rd-27th, 2010 in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. Click the link for more details: http://www.nycfoodfilmfestival.com/ HOMO-HARLEM film festival showing from June 21-26, 2010 featured at the Maysles Cinema located at 343 Malcolm X Blvd, bet. 127th & 128th Streets. This is a week long film survey of the artists and personalities who’ve informed the gay aesthetic in Harlem. This event is curated by Michael Henry Adams and Valerie Jo Bradley. Fascinating line-up of films includes: The Polymath, or the Life and Opinions of Samuel R. Delany, Gentleman; As I Remember it: Portrait of Dorothy West; Flag Wars; Tongue Untied: Still In Vogue; Black is…Black Ain’t; The Josephine Baker Story; and Naked White Roses. Check out the Maysles Cinema website for more information.

This spring there are a lot of events occurring around NYC with film, visual art, design, food and more. Here is a breakdown of the ones that I’ve been able to find, and some are all free! Please leave a comment if I’ve left anything out.

Social Dramas and Shimmering Spectacles: Muslim Cultures of Bombay Cinema
May 19 to 27
Celebrate and explore the rich influence of Muslim cultural and social traditions on the cinema of Bombay at Lincoln Center. http://www.filmlinc.com/wrt/onsale/bombay.html

Chaudhvin Ka Chand
M. Sadiq, 1960, India; 169m
Fiza
Khalid Mohamed, 2000, India; 170m
Garm Hawa
M. S. Sathyu, 1973, India; 146m
Jodhaa Akbar
Ashutosh Gowariker, 2008, India; 213m
Mammo
Shyam Benegal, 1994, India; 124m

May 21st and 22nd – Costume Collections: A Collaborative Model for Museums
The Brooklyn Museum and the Costume Institute are hosting a 2-day symposium about their new costume collaboration. I’m looking forward to seeing both exhibitions this spring!

Fredrick Levore at University of the Streets
We hope you can play your part in the audience and enjoy an incredible evening of live music featuring: Michael Feinberg on bass, Daniel Platzman, drums Richard Louie, piano Alex Pope Norris, brass Emily Greene and Tatiana Kochkareva vocals.
Saturday, June 5, 2010 at 7PM-11:30PM; located at 130 East 7th Street (Avenue A) New York City.

COLLABORATION: 
KARIN FONG OF IMAGINARY FORCES
THURSDAY 17 JUNE 2010 6:30–8:00PM
Join Karin Fong, founding member of Imaginary Forces and renown title designer, as she discusses the collaborative nature of designing cinematic experiences in its many roles.
As director and designer for a wide range of projects, spanning the worlds of fashion, entertainment, advertising, live-action direction, video games, experience design and environmental installations, Karin’s work carries a unique stamp whether it features the Marines or stop motion claymation figures.
AIGA/NY event

Black Brooklyn Renaissance: Black Arts and Culture, 1960–2010. The summer season gives ample evidence of the renaissance at work: the Black Brooklyn Drum Call, a concert featuring Toshi Reagon, an exhibition featuring the work of six Black Brooklyn photographers, the Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival along the Dumbo waterfront, the annual Tribute to Our Ancestors of The Middle Passage in Coney Island and so much more. summer event calendar

Venus 2010: Panel Three – The “Hottentot Venus” in Art and Film from NYU Photography and Imaging on Vimeo.

This was an excellent Symposium and now you can checkout all those inspirational presenters online: Venus 2010: They Called Her “Hottentot,” An Interdisciplinary Symposium on Sarah Baartman.
The event was a great success and we were honored to host such amazing presenters and attendees.
For information, photos, and video from the March 27th symposium, please visit our website at: http://photo.tisch.nyu.edu/object/photo_venusgallery.html
If you would like to purchase or find more information about the accompanying book,
Black Venus 2010: They Called Her “Hottentot” please visit the Temple University Press website at: http://www.temple.edu/tempress/titles/1440_reg.html

Venus 2010: A Poem for Sarah Baartman by Diana Ferrus from NYU Photography and Imaging on Vimeo.

Hibakusha Stories Film Festival

Witness to Hiroshima is a short documentary by my good friend Kathy Sloane a photojournalist from Oakland, California.

Just in time for Mother’s Day, so bring your Mom, friends or anti-nuclear family too!

Hibakusha Stories and Maysles Cinema present:
Docs on Nukes — nuclear narratives through the art of film
Maysles Cinema
343 Lenox Avenue
(Malcolm X Boulevard)
New York, NY, 10027
Between 127th and 128th
2,3,4,5,6, A,B,C,D subways to 125th street
212-582-6050

Witness to Hiroshima
Directed by Kathy Sloane, 2010
Running Time: 15:56 minutes

Japanese citizen Keiji Tsuchiya, using his 12 powerful watercolors, recounts his experiences in Hiroshima as a 17-year-old soldier immediately following the dropping of the atomic bomb, and relates those experiences to his subsequent life-long commitment to saving the Japanese horseshoe crab and its habitat. http://www.witnesstohiroshima.com
Witness to Hiroshina Trailer

Post screening panel discussion with filmmakers, Kathy Sloane and M.T. Silvia and Kathleen Sullivan, PhD, Program Director of Hibakusha Stories.And Special Sneak Preview
Atomic Mom
Directed by M.T. Silvia, 2010
Running Time: 87 minutes

Atomic Mom is a documentary about two women, both mothers, who have opposite experiences of the atomic bomb. After decades of silence, a daughter’s quest for truth leads to the exchange of an olive branch between an American Scientist and a Hiroshima Survivor.
http://www.atomicmom.org

Spring is in the air  along with a slew of international film festivals. Check out EL-Play about an Afro-Colombian female soccer player film showing at El Museo del Barrio is part of the Havana Film Festival New York. TEZA, by filmmaker Haile Gerima is showing at Lincoln Center and Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute. TEZA is set in Germany and Ethiopia, and examines the displacement of African Intellectuals, both at home and abroad.

If you truly want to know more about the practice make sure to view, “The Buddha, A film by David Grubin which airs on PBS and is narrated by Richard Gere who tells the story of the complex and beautiful life of Prince Siddhartha of India, what we today call the Buddha.

Asia Society features a China Past, Present, Future on Film. This collection of films provides a glimpse into reemergence of work by independent filmmakers in China.
Gai Shanxi and Her Sisters a documentary by Ban Zhongyi, in Mandarin with english subtitles. Watch excerpts online.

Shirin Neshat

Known for her hauntingly beautiful explorations of Islamic and gender relations, Iranian-born visual artist Shirin Neshat is perhaps the most famous contemporary artist to emerge from the country of Iran. Women Without Men is Shirin’s feature-film debut, this film was the winner of the Silver Lion for the best director at the 2009 Venice Film Festival. As a devotee of her work, she exquisitely frames women in a world where they are normally shielded from public view. For more on her work check out, Gladstone Gallery .