Culture

Environmental Film Festival: our day by day picks

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With crazy weather swings, yet another snow storm and some confused birds flying around, it's perfect timing for the 2014 Environmental Film Festival to give us some silver screen escapism featuring our good friends global warming, endangered indigenous cultures, disappearing animal species and vanishing tropical sanctuaries. Optimists take along your most pessimistic friends. Pessimists look on the bright side, we still have movies!

Our day by day picks for this year's Environmental Film Festival:

Tuesday 3/18 FishingCarpattheRedNeckFishingTournamentinBay,IllinoisCARPE DIEM: A FISHY TALE // (Canada, 2013, 52 min.) Watch out Asian Carpe, we know what you did last summer. Narrated by David Suzuki. Directed by Scott Dobson. Produced by Charlotte Engel.

Embassy of Canada 501 Pennsylvania Ave., NW 6:30 pm, free with registration

Wednesday 3/19 ONCE UPON A FOREST (IL ÉTAIT UNE FORÊT) // (France, 2013, 78 min.) From the Director of March of the Penguins, Luc Jacquet dives into the tropical rainforest of the Peruvian Amazon and Gabon with ecologist/botanist Francis Hallé. In French with English subtitles. Directed by Luc Jacquet. Produced by Yves Darondeau, Christopher Lioud, and Emmanuel Priou.

Embassy of France 4101 Reservoir Rd., NW, Screening is currently booked, check site for updates

 

Thursday 3/20 ANGEL AZUL // (USA, 2014, 72 min.) Explore the connection with the underwater eco-system through the documentation of life-like statues and the algae that overtakes their man-made reefs they spawn. Directed by Marcelina Cravat. Produced by Marcelina Cravat, Kath Delaney and Erik Johnson.

Mexican Cultural Institute 2829 16th St., NW, Screening is currently booked, check site for updates

Friday 3/21 WOVEN LIVES: CONTEMPORARY TEXTILES FROM ANCIENT OAXACAN TRADITIONS // (USA, 2011, 76 min.) Documentary about the development of woven textiles in Zapotec communities of Oaxaca, Mexico. Discussion with filmmaker after the screening. Written, directed and produced by Carolyn Kallenborn. The George Washington University, Marvin Center, Third Floor Amphitheater, 800 21st St., NW, 7pm, free

Saturday 3/22 SLUMS: CITIES OF TOMORROW // (Canada, 2013, 82 min.) Explore the inspiring and tenacious individuals in slums from Mumbai, India to a tent city in New Jersey. In French, English, Arabic, and Hindi with English subtitles. Directed by Jean-Nicolas Orhon. Produced by Christine Falco.

Petworth Neighborhood Library 4200 Kansas Ave., NW, 2pm, free

Sunday 3/23 FIRE AND ICE (USA, 2013, 57 min.) Part of a 4-part series Standing on Sacred Ground, shows how indigenous customs protect biodiversity despite being pushed out by religious groups and threatened by climate change. Directed by Christopher McLeoud.

National Museum of the American Indian Fourth St. & Jefferson Dr., SW, 3pm, free

 

Monday 3/24 THE HADZA: THE LAST OF THE FIRST // (USA, 2014, 71 min.) One of the last remaining hunter-gather groups has lived in the Africa’s Rift Valley for over 50,000 years. Directed by Bill Benenson.

Carnegie Institution for Science, Elihu Root Auditorium 1530 P St., NW, 7pm, $10

Tuesday 3/25

Urban Legacies, Rural Traditions Short film program from journalists showing the social and environmental consequenses of urban industries.

Carnegie Institution for Science, Elihu Root Auditorium 1530 P St., NW 6:30pm, free with registration

Wednesday 3/26 THE BONOBO CONNECTION // (Congo / USA, 2012, 32 min.) One of our closes relatives can only be found in the Democratic Republic of Congo and may be first to go extinct. Narrated by Ashley Judd. Directed and produced by Irene Magafan.

Georgetown University, Edward B. Bunn Intercultural Center 37th & O Sts., NW, 7pm, free

Thursday 3/27 HAPPINESS // (France / Finland, 2013, 80 min.) Winner Cinematography Award for World Cinema Documentary at 2014 Sundance Film Festival, this film shows what happens when eight-year-old monk buys a TV-st. Directed by Thomas Balmès and Nina Bernfeld.

E Street Cinema 555 11th St., NW, 7:30pm, $10

Friday 3/28 STOP! RODANDO EL CAMBIO // (Spain, 2014, 70 min.) Follow the crew along the Spanish countryside, France and Portugal to experience those that have chosen to live a simpler life. In Spanish with English subtitles. Directed by Alba González de Molina Soler and Blanca Ordóñez de Tena.

American University, Forman Theater 201 McKinley Building, 4400 Massachusetts Ave., NW, 6:45pm, free

Saturday 3/29 NATUROPOLIS: NEW YORK, THE GREEN REVOLUTIONNATUROPOLIS: NEW YORK, THE GREEN REVOLUTION // (France, 2013, 89 min.) How do mega-cities like New York incorporate nature and wildlife in urban settings? Directed by Bernard Guerrini.

National Museum of American History, Warner Bros. Theater, 14th St. & Constitution Ave., NW, 2:30pm, free

Sunday 3/30 CALLE LOPEZ // (Mexico, 2013, 80 min.) See daily life on Calle Lopez in downtown Mexico City through the eyes of two photographers, shot in black and white. In Spanish with English subtitles. Directed by Gerardo Barroso Alcalá and Lisa Tillinger

AFI Silver Theatre, 8633 Colesville Rd., Silver Spring, Md., 7:30pm, $12

Etxe...a lesson in language

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Etxe color

Etxe

1. house 2. home 3. place where an activity takes place

In the Basque language, said to be one of the oldest languages in Europe, nouns and adjectives are invariable for number, so etxe means both house and houses. Since the word is usually used within a noun phrase, the ending gives it a definitive number.

Screen shot 2013-09-05 at 11.42.49 PM

When I was in Bilbao, I only learned a small amount of Basque (Euskara). I tried to take a class, but they were all full as there is this chunk of people, mostly middle-aged and older, in the Basque Country that never learned Basque or know very little since it was strictly prohibited under Franco rule (1936-1975). Since Basque is the official language of el País Vasco, one must speak it in order to work for any government related job, and so classes are always full. It's really strange because the younger generations all speak it as it is the language in which school is taught--Spanish is considered a second language now as Basque, post-Franco, is back center stage. Some use it politically, but mostly, if one was around pre- or post-Fascist Spain, they speak it effortlessly, while those that grew up during are struggling to learn in order to work.

I remember I had one adult student in my English class who told me she had moved to the Basque country for her husband, but as she wasn't Basque, and from a different part of Spain, she did not speak it. She was a librarian prior to the move, but since she couldn't speak Basque, she could no longer work as a public librarian in the Basque Country. She told me at her age she would rather learn English and speak with more people than waste time learning Basque.

In the high school I taught at, the 'minorities' were those from countries other than Spain, mostly Latin American countries, they were taught in Spanish, and had to take Basque language classes, something equivalent to our ESL classes. It was very strange, to be in Spain, or what many people consider Spain, and have Spanish being taught as a secondary language.

It's always interesting when different cultures and languages blend, evolve, how they ebb and flow in pervasiveness due to the political climate or cultural tendencies. Though my grandparents spoke Spanish, and their parents spoke Spanish, they never taught my parents Spanish since they were raising kids during a time when it wasn't as acceptable to speak anything other than English. They just wanted to fit into middle-class America and sound like everyone else, and especially have their children sound like everyone else. This is why I ended up going to Spain to learn Spanish.

In San Francisco, for the most part being bi- or multi-lingual is very common and many different languages are heard everywhere. Just this morning I realized the barista at my favorite coffee shop speaks German.

We're lucky to speak whatever language we want, with whomever we want, and be proud of it.

 

über pop + surrealism + lo que sea: Lluís Barba

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Finally going through one of the magazines I picked up in Rio de Janeiro, I stumbled upon the work of Lluís Barba y lo me encanta.

Lluís Barba, based in Barcelona, recently had a show in New York featuring his Self Portrait series of famous artists in art history and just finished up a show in Istanbul. His work references art history, pop culture, surrealism, contemporary photojournalism and paparraz-ism. Barba's overt works become more and more intricate as you spot out the references and therein lies the fun. A critique on society and the problems it creates, be it the gallery world, the artists themselves, or the commodity of culture, is the root of his work. He brings well-known and little-known artists of the past back into the present, with a fresh twist on that which is contemporary. An über-pop dreamscape and a reminder that the world works in mysterious ways, with strange coincidences and outlandish happenings, that is if you are living it right.

"While the classics seek perfection from perfection, contemporaries seek perfection from imperfection. The classics define the work as artistic craftsmanship, and the contemporary mechanization and seriation socializes an important part of art." --Lluís Barba, from his 'about' page

DO: The Dirt on Dorian Grey at Counter Pulse

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Local artist Samantha Giron isn't afraid to bring up the uncomfortable questions: Career or children? Sex or security? Now or Later? Settle or Fly Away? In her dance program The Dirt on Dorian Gray, she blends contemporary, street dance, electronic music and interviews conducted during her research to talk about up the uncomfortable truth: the Peter Pan Syndrome we all have, in one way or another, here in San Francisco.

I've seen her work a few times and I am always amazed by the choreography and sound scores. Every time I leave in deep thought about my own human experience. The show starts this Friday, July 19th at Counter Pulse, one of my venues -- it's intimate setting helps to connect you as a vistor to the performers and other attendants alike. Do check it out.

Buy Tickets here ($15 - $20) The Dirt on Dorian Gray Samantha Giron Dance Project Show runs JULY 19-21, FRI-SUN at 8PM CounterPULSE 1310 Mission Street (at 9th Street in SoMa) San Francisco, CA 94103