Category Archives: Film

Dance and music: Sven Kacirek’s new music video “Nutcracker/Pas De Deux”

Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

Here is another new Sven Kacirek video Nutcracker/Pas De Deux again made and produced by the German video artist Agnieszka Krzeminska. As always I love the visuals which really match well with the soundtrack of the video.

For many years, my friend and music colleague Sven Kacirek has been closely collaborating with the choreographer Antje Pfundtner, whose next modern dance production, The Nutcracker, will premiere at Kampnagel in Hamburg, December 12, 2012.

Antje Pfundtner is one of Kacirek’s favorite modern dance choreographers. Previously he composed music for her two dance pieces “Res(e)t” and Tim Acy and Die Kandidaten.  For this occasion Kacirek  re-recorded and re-arranged Tschaikowsky ‘s composition Pas de Deux. The music is mostly electronic with some analog sounds in it. Very ambient, minimal and repetitive.

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Film screening: “Goddess – Chinese Women on Screen” @ Asia Society New York from November 9 to December 8, 2012

Asia Society New York announces the presentation of a film series to celebrate major screen divas in the history of Chinese cinema. The title of the series, Goddess: Chinese Women on Screen, is inspired by one of the selections, the 1934 silent classic The Goddess, featuring Ruan Lingyu—the “Chinese Greta Garbo.” Nine films from China and Hong Kong will be screened in 35mm print format. The series will run from November 9 to December 8, 2012 at Asia Society, 725 Park Avenue (at East 70 Street), New York City.

Clockwise from top left: Gong Li, Ruan Lingyu, Maggie Cheung, Xie Fang, Xue Jinghua, Brigitte Lin.

Chinese cinema has produced some of the most memorable and mesmerizing female screen icons. This film series pays tribute to the most significant divas in the industry’s over 100 years of history, beginning with the silent period. It includes unforgettable performances by Li Lili (1915-2005), Ruan Lingyu (1910-1935), Xie Fang (1935- ), Liu Xiaoqing (1950- ), Brigitte Lin (1954- ), Maggie Cheung (1964- ), Gong Li (1965- ), among others. The series recognizes the achievement of Chinese actresses, surveys the representation of women on screen across generations, and highlights the strength, resilience, beauty, love, and desire of Chinese women. The films in this series are all major Chinese classics, each with at least one woman in a prominent role.

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NY Documentary film screening “The Hand of Fatima” by Augusta Palmer. Finally…!

Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

Augusta Palmer – a filmmaker, painter, scholar, a DooBeeDoo writer and a very good friend of mine – made it possible that her documentary film  The Hand of Fatima (2009, 75 min.) will be screened as part of this fall’s Meet the Maker series at the New York Public Library’s Library of the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center on October 25th at 6pm. She will screen and also discuss her documentary.

The Hand of Fatima  features the writing of music critic Robert Palmer, who is his father, terrific performances from The Master Musicians of Jajouka, a stunning voice-over by the fabulous Ned Sublette, and interviews with Donovan, Anthony DeCurtis, Genesis P. Orridge, Randy Weston and more. Here are few things people have said or written about the film:

“A combination of personal history and glorious music that is deeply compelling.” – New York Magazine

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Film Documentary: American Autumn – an occudoc…OWS ain’t dead!

Date: September 29, 2012 through October 4, 2012
Time: 1:00, 3:15, 5:30, 7:45 and 9:30pm
Venue: Quad Cinema (34 West 13th Street, New York, New York 10011, ph: 212-255-2243)
Ticket: click for Tickets
Written, produced & directed: Dennis Trainor, Jr.
Running time: 1:16
Language: English

In September of 2011, a few hundred protesters began a conversation in Zuccotti Park that now includes several hundred million people. A year later writer & director Dennis Trainor, Jr. delivers American Autumn: an occudoc. The first feature length documentary on the Occupy movement not only offers answers for those who continue to ask: “what does the occupy movement stand for? What are our demands?” – it offers a challenge and an invitation to engage with the movement.

The influence of Occupy is still felt a year later. The Movement changed the conversation by raising issues like wealth inequity, health care reform, predatory bank practices, and the war on unions, among other issues. Occupy has also revolutionized the way dissidents organize their protests. As Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Code Pink observes, there will be no more Saturday afternoon gatherings in a deserted Washington, D.C. where everyone marches in a circle and then leaves. Instead, Occupy brought the protest to the town square and “occupied” the space in a very public way.

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Yellow Dogs (Iran) new video!

The Yellow Dogs formed back in Tehran, Iran in 2006, and are one of the youngest Iranian rock bands out there. The social restrictions in Tehran and the restrictions imposed by the Iranian government forced them underground, and to build their own tiny bohemian practicing room – the “Sagdooni-by their own hands on the rooftop of their drummer Sina’s house. SAGDOONI (farsi for kennel) was where they shaped their own style of independent music. As the Iranian environment cracked down on underground music, they continued making and playing music in their tiny abode shut off from the outside world.

Yellow Dogs were one of the main subjects of the award winning (Cannes & Sao Paulo International film festivals) film, “No One Knows about Persian Cats” – who tells the stories of the underground music scene in Iran. Since their move to the USA one year ago, they have played numerous shows in NYC (including an ongoing monthly gallery/loft party), gone on a national tour, showcased at SXSW and CMJ, recorded an EP “In the Kennel” with producer, Keith Souza (The Battles, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah).

(Read here about the indie rock scene in present Iran.)

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