Saturday, April 14, 2007

DAY TWO Saturday, April 14, 2007 3:00 p.m.??? - 10:00 p.m.   Johanson Charles Gallery 1345 Division Street Historical Eastern Market District  Detroit, MI 48207   Lebanon: Bits and Pieces A film by Olga Nakkas France, 1994, 60 minutes, Color, VHS, Subtitled Order No. W99423 LEBANON: BITS AND PIECES is an exquisitely beautiful and profoundly moving exploration of the myths and realities of present-day Lebanon, as reflected through the voices of women. During Olga Nakkas’ childhood, Lebanon was known to the outside world as an exemplary model of peace in the heart of an Arab Middle East dominated by dictators. Following a seven year absence, Nakkas returned to Lebanon with a camera to record the dreams, disappointments and worries of women of her own generation and to meet a younger generation of women whose only memory is that of war. Through these voices, Nakkas’s own voyage of rediscovery is revealed — rediscovery of her country and of herself.   AWARDS, FESTIVALS, & SCREENINGS London Film Festival Human Rights Watch Film Festival WE. featuring the words of Arundhati Roy 64 minutes   We is a fast-paced 64 minute documentary that covers the world politics of power, war, corporations, deception and exploitation. It visualizes the words of Arundhati Roy, specifically her famous Come September speech, where she spoke on such things as the war on terror, corporate globalization, justice and the growing civil unrest. Witty, moving, alarming and quite a lesson in modern history. We is almost in the style of a music video, featuring the contemporary music of Lush, Curve, Love & Rockets, Boards of Canada, Nine Inch Nails, Dead Can Dance, Amon Tobin, Massive Attack, Totoise, Telepop, Placebo and Faithless. The music serves as wonderful background for the words of Ms. Roy and images of humanity in the world we live all in today. "To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never, to forget." - Arundhati Roy     View an excerpt from WE. below. The Fourth Dimension A digital video by Trinh T. Minh-ha Produced by Jean-Paul Bourdier and Trinh T. Minh-ha US, 2001, 87 minutes Acclaimed filmmaker Trinh T. Minh-ha ventures into the digital realm with her stunning new feature, THE FOURTH DIMENSION, an incisive and insightful examination of Japan through its art, culture, and social rituals. As is the case with Trinh's previous films, her new video is a multi-layered work addressing issues around its central theme: the experience of time, the impossibility of truly "seeing," and the impact of video on image-making. THE FOURTH DIMENSION is an elegant meditation on time, travel, and ceremony in the form of a journey. In her first foray into digital video, Minh-ha deconstructs the role of ritual in mediating between the past and the present. She explains, "Shown in their widespread functions and manifestations, including more evident loci such as festivals, religious rite and theatrical performance, 'rituals' involve not only the regularity in the structure of everyday life, but also the dynamic agents in the world of meaning." With its lush imagery, Minh-ha's Japan is viewed through mobile frames, with doors and windows sliding shut, revealing new vistas as it blocks out the old light. “Trinh T. Minh-ha’s newest essayistic work and her first videotape, cuts an intricate key for unlocking this elusive culture. Her tack finds great visual pleasure in the everyday, composing and decomposing the social landscape, while constructing a poetic grid of temporalities, symbolic meaning, and ritual. In THE FOURTH DIMENSION, Trinh’s lyrical narration guides us through ‘Japan’s likeness,’ the perfected framing of the sacramental familiar.” - Steve Seid Beah: A Black Woman Speaks A film by LisaGay Hamilton, Produced by Neda Armian, Jonathan Demme, LisaGay Hamilton, and Joe Viola 2003, 90 minutes A Cidade das Mulheres proudly presents Stella of Oxóssi, lyalorisha of llê Axé Opô Afonjá (a Candomblé temple founded in 1910), who tells the story of Candomblé, the cult of Shango, syncretism, and the future of Candomblé. It is also a tribute to Ruth Landes, the American anthropologist who studied the role of gender in Afro-Brazilian culture in the 1930s and was amazed at the power that religious women held in the city of Salvador. “I think the women help make Brazil great. Will Americans believe that there is a country where women like men, feel secure and at ease with them, and do not fear them?" For best results, give them plenty of sun, frequent watering, and regular fertilization.