From art to film to music, Miami Beach’s cultural season kicks up in November. The arts community is gearing up in preparation for December’s 2008 Art Basel Miami Beach, which promises more free outdoor exhibits from Collins Park to Lummus Park. Current exhibitions at Art Center/South Florida, The Jewish Museum, The Wolfsonian-FIU and the Bass Museum of Art will soon give way to the hundreds of artists that participate in Art Basel early next month.
On the big screen, the Miami Beach Cinematheque’s series “New American Independents” features, among many others, Madonna’s directorial debut, “Filth and Wisdom.” There are also four nights of the Short Film Festival. And free films return under the stars at the Movies in the Park series at a Miami Beach park.
The New World Symphony kicks off its new season with a series of orchestral concerts featuring American great, Aaron Copland, and visiting artists from Britain. The Fillmore Miami Beach at the Jackie Gleason Theater brings the best in contemporary music including the legendary Rufus Wainwright and Joe Jackson.
To find out more on what is happening on the Miami Beach cultural scene, catch a new “MB Culture” on MBTV77 (Atlantic Broadband) or online at www.miamibeachfl.gov. For more information about the Miami Beach Cultural Affairs Program, please visit www.mbculture.org or call 305.673.7577.
MIAMI BEACH CULTURAL ARTS CALENDAR
NOVEMBER 2008
ART EXHIBITS/SHOWS
Annual Juried Artists Exhibition *
Continues through Sunday, November 23
Art Center/South Florida, 800, 810 & 924 Lincoln Road
305.674.2728 www.artcentersf.org
Curated by Jacquennette Arnette, ArtCenter director of exhibitions, this show focuses on the artistic momentum of the organization’s newest artists.
Florida Jews in Sports *
Continues through Sunday, November 23
Jewish Museum of Florida, 301 Washington Avenue
305.672.5044 www.jewishmuseum.org
This exhibit, portrayed on miniature playing fields, highlights the impact of more than 150 Floridian Jews in 24 sports for more than 100 years, including players, coaches, team owners and journalists.
Democrazy *
Continues through Sunday, December 7
Wolfsonian-FIU, 1001 Washington Avenue
305.531.1001 www.wolfsonian.org
In this installation, Italian Artist Francesco Vizzoli explores the issues of media, manipulation and politics and how they are expressed through contemporary visual language.
Thoughts on Democracy *
Continues through Sunday, December 7
Wolfsonian-FIU, 1001 Washington Avenue
305.531.1001 www.wolfsonian.org
Posters created by sixty leading contemporary artists and designers highlighting contemporary notions of democracy. The project will culminate with an event celebrating democracy during the prestigious 2008 Art Basel Miami Beach festival.
Treasures from the Bass Museum of Art *
Ongoing
Bass Museum of Art, 2121 Park Avenue
305,673,7530 www.bassmuseum.org
Monumental 16th and 18th –century tapestries =are on permanent display, as well as a stunning altarpiece by Italian Renaissance masters Botticelli and Ghirlandaio.
FILM
Chased By the Dogs (El less wal Kilab) FREE*
Wednesday, November 5, 8:30 p.m.
Miami Beach Cinematheque, 512 Espanola Way
305.673.4567 www.mbcinema.com
Directed by Kamal El Sheiken and based on the Nobel Prize winning novel, “The Thief and the Dogs” by Naguib Mahfouz, this film is part of “The Big Read Project: Egypt-USA film series.” This classic Arabic film tells the story of, a thief who quickly ascend to be the head of his gang. However, his second in command conspires against Hahran to take his position and his wife. In Arabic with English subtitles. (Egypt/1962)
The Pool*
Friday, November 7, 7:45 pm & 9:40 pm
Saturday, November 8, 7:45 p.m. & 9:40 p.m.
Miami Beach Cinematheque, 512 Espanola Way
305.673.4567 www.mbcinema.com
Directed by Chris Smith, and part of the “New American Independents” series, this is the story of Venkatesh a “room boy” at a hotel in Panjim, Goa who sees from his perch in a mango tree a luxuriant garden and shimmering pool hidden behind a wall. In making whatever efforts he can to better himself, Venkatesh offers his services to the wealthy owner of the home. Not content to simply dream about a different life, Venkatesh is inquisitive about the home’s inhabitants-indeed about the world around him-and his curiosity changes the shape of his future. In English and Hindi with English subtitles.
WINNER: Special Jury Prize Sundance Film Festival 2008 (USA/2008)
Movie in the Park
Saturday, November 8, 6:30 p.m.
Flamingo Park, 12th St. at Meridian Ave.
305.673.7730 www.miamibeach411.com
Watch a feature film under the stars. Call for more information on the movie that will be featured and times and activities planned.
Frozen River*
Sunday, November 9, 8:30 p.m.
Miami Beach Cinematheque, 512 Espanola Way
305.673.4567 www.mbcinema.com
Critical acclaim abounds for Courtney Hunt’s auspicious directorial debut which won the Grand Jury Prize for Drama at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. The plot follows Ray Eddy (Melissa Leo) who is left in a lurch by her degenerate husband. Unable to provide for her two children, she teams up with a street-smart Mohawk woman to smuggle illegal immigrants across the frozen St. Lawrence River. (USA/2008).
Cine-IMPROV! *
Wednesday, November 12, 8:30 p.m.
Miami Beach Cinematheque, 512 Espanola Way
305.673.4567 www.mbcinema.com
A LIVE Comedic Jam served with cinema on the side! Miami’s hottest improv actors perform unscripted theater based on your suggestions, in the art of “long form improv,” rather than the typical comedy you see at the clubs and on TV. Including film dubbing, the “Armando Diaz Experience,” and a live improvised “movie” based on the life experiences of one of our audience members, with stylistic parody, edits, and scenic devices. This month’s theme: AMERICAN INDIES!
My Mexican Shivah (Morirse está en Hebreo)*
Thursday, November 13, 2008 at 8:30 p.m.
Miami Beach Cinematheque, 512 Espanola Way
305.673.4567 www.mbcinema.com
Set in Polanco, a Jewish quarter of Mexico City, and spoken in Spanish, Yiddish and Hebrew, “My Mexican Shivah” is a dramatic comedy about how the death of a man results in the celebration of his life. According to Jewish belief, from the moment a Jew is born, he or she is accompanied by two angels: the angel of light and the angel of darkness. With the passing of Moishe (75), his family and friends gather to sit shivah, the seven-day Jewish mourning ritual. The spirit angels Aleph and Bet, divine accountants, watch over the mourner’s actions and what’s been said about the deceased to calculate which angel will accompany Moishe´s soul to the afterlife. Which angel will win the battle for Moishe´s soul? If the shivah reveals anything, it’s that Moishe´s family and friends loved him with all his flaws and mystery- and most of all his spirit. In Hebrew, Spanish and Yiddish with English subtitles (Alejandro Springall/Mexico/USA/2007).
Momma’s Man’ *
Friday, November 14, 7:45 p.m. & 9:35 p.m.
Saturday, November 15, 7:45 p.m. & 9:35 p.m.
Miami Beach Cinematheque, 512 Espanola Way
305.673.4567 www.mbcinema.com
An MBC Premiere HD DIGITAL Presentation! In collaboration with Emerging Pictures
This is the Miami Theatrical Premiere of a film by Azazel Jacobs. Starring the young director’s parents, legendary avant-garde American filmmaker Ken Jacobs and his wife Flo, Momma’s Man is brought to you by the producers of Half Nelson and Maria Full of Grace. The film chronicles the increasingly anxious dilemma of Mikey, a young husband and father who stops off at his parents’ loft during a business trip to New York and finds himself emotionally unable to leave. Unsure of his own motivations, he makes up excuses about why he’s staying – his flight is delayed; his flight is canceled – but while his doting mother (the director’s real mother) is more than happy to enable his procrastination, his father (the director’s real father) grows suspicious of his son’s changes of plans. Official Selection: Sundance and New York Film Festivals. (USA/2008)
E² Design: The Economies Of Being Environmentally Conscious *
Friday, November 14, 7:00 p.m.
Wolfsonian, 1001 Washington Avenue
305.531.1001 www.wolfsonian.org
e² design is a documentary series about solutions to environmental problems. Narrated by Brad Pitt, the series showcases the innovators, inventors, and architects who are working toward a better, cleaner world for all. The three segments being screened are: “Affordable Green Housing,” “Bogota: Building a Sustainable City,” and “Architecture 2030.”
The Pleasure of Being Robbed *
Sunday, November 16, 8:30 p.m.
Miami Beach Cinematheque, 512 Espanola Way
305.673.4567 www.mbcinema.com
Directed by Joshua Safdie, by turns delightful, exasperating, goofy and opaque, The Pleasure of Being Robbed has been called a “mumblecore” film, but either that’s totally wrong or the term means nothing beyond an inexpensively made indie about people in their 20s. Nobody sits around talking about relationships in Safdie’s film, and in fact most of the talk in the movie consists of lies, misdirections and driving instruction. His main character (Eléonore Hendricks) is either a kleptomaniac or a semi-professional thief, and as such is constantly in motion. Shot guerrilla-style on the streets of New York and Boston, The Pleasure of Being Robbed is both a fresh, original work and one that bears the marks of New Wave-era art cinema.—Andrew O’Hehir, Salon. (USA/2008)
Miami Short Film Festival: Program I ”WORD” *
Tuesday, November 18, 8:00 p.m.
Miami Beach Cinematheque, 512 Espanola Way
305.673.4567 www.mbcinema.com
The word is to the story what the image is to the film – the basis for the whole tale. This collection of imaginative shorts shares its source of inspiration from the world of literature. Total running time: 68 min. Butterfly Narrative, 6:00, Chris Olsen, USA Crowded with Voices Animation, 5:00, Anya Belkina, USA The Cave: An Adaptation of Plato’s Allegory in Clay NOMINEE, Best Animation, 3:10, Michael Ramsey, USA Alicja Wonderland Experimental, 20:00, Martin Gavreau, Poland/UK A Life’s Passion Documentary, 6:40, Gary Thomas, Canada Proud Iza Narrative, 19:31, Anna Condo, USA
Miami Short Film Festival: Program II “HELL ON EARTH” *
Wednesday, November 19, 8:00 pm
Miami Beach Cinematheque, 512 Espanola Way
305.673.4567 www.mbcinema.com
Visually and viscerally astonishing explorations of psyches, grappling with demons of all kinds – both internal and external. Feverish visions and pulse-pounding thrills await you in this program! Total running time: 68 min. An Unquiet Mind Experimental, 6:00, Chihwen Lo, USA Some of an Equation NOMINEE, Best Experimental Experimental, 7:49, Burke Roberts, Spain/UK A Season to Wither Narrative, 10:48, Leigh Ann Maynard, Canada Permute Animation, 4:25, LydiaFu, Canada Hunger (Gorta) Narrative, 14:00, Mark Lynch, Ireland Room 38 (Quatro 38) Narrative, 25:00, Thomas Edward Hale, Brazil.
Miami Short Film Festival: Program III “BROTHERS & SISTERS” *
Thursday, November 20, 8:00 p.m.
Miami Beach Cinematheque, 512 Espanola Way
305.673.4567 www.mbcinema.com
Our brothers and sisters are often our first and last friends, constants through a lifetime of comings and goings. This quartet of films examines sibling connections, through humor, sorrow, baseball bats and above all, the unwavering fidelity that characterizes blood ties. Total running time: 72 min.
Miami Beach Short Film Festival: Program IIII “COME TOGETHER” *
Friday, November 21, 8:00 p.m.
Miami Beach Cinematheque, 512 Espanola Way
305.673.4567 www.mbcinema.com
These films explore a series of sexual longings and collisions that look at sex and its myriad of possibilities – beautiful, quick, slow, awkward, complicated, dangerous, painful, and tender. Some encounters may never have a second chance; some are all about the second chance. Total running time: 87 min.
The Exiles *
Saturday, November 22, 8:30 p.m.
Miami Beach Cinematheque, 512 Espanola Way
305.673.4567 www.mbcinema.com
From the people who brought you the restored version of Charles Burnett’s Killer of Sheep, THE EXILES chronicles one night in the lives of young Native American men and women living in the Bunker Hill district of Los Angeles. Based entirely on interviews with the participants and their friends, the film follows a group of exiles — transplants from Southwest reservations — as they flirt, drink, party, fight, and dance. In July 1957, filmmaker Kent Mackenzie spent long hours making friends and earning the confidence of these Indians who finally agreed to re-enact scenes from their lives for this picture. All of the actors, some of whom were recruited on the spur of the moment during the shooting, play themselves in the film. Premiering in the Venice Film Festival that year, the film received unanimous critical acclaim, but it was decided that a theatrical distribution of the film could put the materials at risk.
(Kent Mackensie/USA/1961)
Filth and Wisdom (Madonna’s directorial debut) *
Saturday, November 22 - Sunday, November 24, 7:45 p.m. & 9:30 p.m.
Miami Beach Cinematheque, 512 Espanola Way
305.673.4567 www.mbcinema.com
Madonna’s directorial debut, Filth and Wisdom, is a hilariously sexy tale of three roommates who must delve into mischievous and naughty behavior in pursuit of bigger and brighter futures. A Ukrainian immigrant, A.K. (Eugene Hutz), finances his dreams of ‘trans-continental superstardom’ with his band, Gogol Bordello, by turning tricks as a role-playing cross dresser. As A.K. literally whips the privileged of London into shape, he also secretly pines for the object of his affection, Holly (Holly Weston), an aspiring ballerina looking for her big break while moonlighting as a slippery stripper. Meanwhile, Juliette (Vicky Mclure) steals medicine from her pharmaceutical job in hopes of quenching her dreams of helping Africa’s youth. Filth and Wisdom is every bit as erotic and playful as it is poignant and touching, revealing the universal struggles we all face in our pursuits of happiness. Official Selection: Berlin Film Festival (USA/2008).
Ballast *
Friday, November 28 & Saturday, November 29, 7:45 & 9:35 p.m.
Miami Beach Cinematheque, 512 Espanola Way
305.673.4567 www.mbcinema.com
BALLAST is one of those rare films that maximize the medium through an aesthetic of understatement. Every frame is deliberately and beautifully composed, every cut artfully and economically executed—not only to transmit a quietly gripping story but to reveal characters’ layered emotional experiences and the specific textures and sensations of their locales. In the cold, winter light of a rural Mississippi Delta township, a man’s suicide radically transforms three characters’ lives and throws off-balance what has long been a static arrangement among them. With circumstances thrusting them into proximity, a subtle interdependence and common purpose emerge for Marlee and Lawrence as they navigate grief, test new waters, and tentatively move forward. Winner: Best Director, Sundance Film Festival. (Lance Hammer/USA/2008).
Que Viva Mexico *
Sunday, November 30, 7:45 p.m.
Miami Beach Cinematheque, 512 Espanola Way
305.673.4567 www.mbcinema.com
A blend of the ethnographic, the political, the scenic and the surreal, Qué Viva México! is nothing short of brilliant; a highly stylized (silent with limited subtitles) documentary on the people and volatile social climate of Mexico. It remains superior to the legion of films it strongly influenced: Orson Welles’ It’s All True, Alejandro Jodorowsky’s El Topo and the works of Sergio Leone. With sequences devoted to the Eden-like land of Tehuantepec, the savage majesty of the bullfight, the struggles of the noble peasant and the hypnotic imagery of the Day of the Dead, Qué Viva México! is a vivid tapestry of Mexican life which, thanks to Grigory Alexandrov and Nikita Orlov’s careful restoration, takes its rightful place alongside Eisenstein’s other legendary works. (Sergei Eisenstein/Mexico/Russia/1931)
DANCE
Letters to America *
November 14-15 & 21-22, 8:00 p.m.
Colony Theater, 1040 Lincoln Road
305.674.1040 www.miamicontemporarydance.net
Letters to America is a WORLD PREMIERE by award winning choreographer Ray Sullivan. In this full evening of incredible dance, the stunning and stellar dancers of Miami Contemporary Dance Company use their incredible talents to express the feelings of hope and humanity surrounding stories of immigration to the United States.
Free To Love: “Silencio” FREE *
Friday, November 21, 7:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.
Bass Museum of Art, 2121 Park Avenue
305.673.7530 www.bassmuseum.org
This theatrical dance event by Danilo de la Torre and David Rohn, presented by Miami’s new performance group, HOMO SAPIENS, celebrates the triumph of love and the human spirit over institutional constraints imposed by the military, politics, and religion. A hypothetical U.S. Detention Center is the setting for exploring a complex, cross-cultural “love that dare not speak its name.”
MUSIC
Rufus Wainwright
Saturday, November 8, 8:00 p.m.
The Fillmore Miami Beach at The Jackie Gleason Theater, 1700 Washington Avenue
New World Symphony “Copland and the American Sound” *
Saturday, November 8, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, November 9, 3:00 p.m.
Lincoln Theater, 541 Lincoln Road
305.673.3331 www.nws.edu
Through Aaron Copland studied abroad and experimented with brash, “modern-sounding” music. He pursued a new path with this Third Symphony – and with it became the all-but-official founder of the quintessential American sound. Marked by generous warmth and unadorned eloquence, Copland’s Third conjures vast American landscapes and a collective, folk-inspired spirit.
The Black Crowes
Wednesday, November 12, 8:00 p.m.
The Fillmore Miami Beach at The Jackie Gleason Theater, 1700 Washington Avenue
New World Symphony “Musical Xchange” * FREE
Saturday, November 15, 7:30 p.m.
Lincoln Theater, 541 Lincoln Road
305.673.3331 www.nws.edu
Get to know the New World Symphony Fellows and the music they with this fun, informal concert featuring informed commentary by the performers.
Joe Jackson with Thea Gilmore
Saturday, November 15, 7:00 p.m.
The Fillmore Miami Beach at The Jackie Gleason Theater, 1700 Washington Avenue
www.livenation.com
New World Symphony “Musicians’ Forum” * FREE
Monday, November 17, 7:00 p.m.
Lincoln Theater, 541 Lincoln Road
305.673.3331 www.nws.edu
Join the New World Symphony Fellows as they create, present and perform their own diverse and unusual programs.
Sounds of the Times: Accents from the British Isles *
Saturday, November 22, 7:30 p.m.
Lincoln Theater, 541 Lincoln Road
305.673.3331 www.nws.edu
Presented by NWS, British composer/conductor/pianist Thomas Adès is a young phenom as well as renaissance man: since his teen years, he has wowed audiences around the globe and has been proclaimed as the next Benjamin Britten. Premiered by the Berlin Philharmonic in 2007, Tevot (Hebrew for “ark” — as in the Ark of the Covenant) is the 37-year-old’s wild musical journey scored for a gigantic orchestra. These Premises Are Alarmed exposes the full range of the orchestra in a mere five minutes. Then catch two U.S. premieres by Irish composer Gerald Barry, whose music has been described as “a barn dance devised by a chaos theorist.” Barbara Hannigan adds grace to the dance with her seamless soprano.
OTHER CULTURAL EVENTS
After “Home Delivery”: Pasts And Futures Of Prefabricated Housing *
Thursday, November 6, 7:00 p.m.
Wolfsonian, 1001 Washington Avenue
305.531.1001 www.wolfsonian.org
A week after the close of the MoMA exhibition Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling, Barry Bergdoll, MoMA’s Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design, reflects on current experiments in digital fabrication, factory fabricated homes, and the house in the era of global warming and the sub-prime crisis. Co-presented with University of Miami School of Architecture. Book signing follows.
Wolf Book Club: Three New Deals: Reflections On Roosevelt’s America, Mussolini’s Italy, And Hitler’s Germany *
Friday, November 7, 7:00 p.m.
Wolfsonian, 1001 Washington Avenue
305.531.1001 www.wolfsonian.org
A groundbreaking work by Wolfgang Schivelbusch that investigates Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal programs in the 1930s and contrasts them to programs of the regimes of Mussolini and Hitler. The work explores the shared elements of these three “new deals,” focusing on their architecture and public works projects, to offer a new explanation for the popularity of Europe’s totalitarian systems.
Damanhur Reception and Music of the Plants *
Thursday, November 13, 7:00 – 10:00 p.m.
Miami Beach Botanical Garden, 2000 Convention Center Drive
305.534.6570 fredda@healingstar.net
Miami artists, educators, environmentalists, community leaders and media gather to welcome special representatives of The Federation of Damanhur, the largest intentional eco-community in the world.
Botanical Books FREE *
Tuesday, November 18, Noon – 1:30 p.m.
Miami Beach Botanical Garden, 2000 Convention Center Drive
www.mbgarden.org
This month’s selection for the Botanical Garden Book Club is Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Palmetto Leaves”.
Raymond Jungles – Lecture and Book Signing FREE *
Miami Beach Botanical Garden, 2000 Convention Center Drive
www.mbgarden.org
Landscape architect Raymond Jungles launches his new book, “The Colors of Nature: Subtropical Gardens”.
A Conversation with Wolfgang Schivelbusch: Three New Deals *
Thursday, November 20, 7:00 p.m.
Wolfsonian, 1001 Washington Avenue
305.531.1001 www.wolfsonian.org
Historian and author Wolfgang Schivelbusch and Alex Lichtenstein, FIU associate professor of History, discuss Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal programs, contrasting them to programs of the regimes of Italy’s Mussolini and Germany’s Hitler. The exchange focuses on architecture and public works projects to offer a new explanation for the prevalence of Europe’s totalitarian systems.
Miami Beach Author Series FREE *
Thursday, November 20, 6:00 p.m.
Miami Beach Botanical Garden, 2000 Convention Center Drive
www.miamibeachhistory.org
Discussion and Book Signing Event. Beth Dunlop author of Miami: Mediterranean Splendor and Deco Dreams, Beach Beauties: Postcards and Photos 1890-1940
The Objectification of Things
Saturday, November 22, 8:00 p.m.
Byron Carlyle Theater, 500 71 Street
www.culture.mdc.edu
Part performance art, part ritual and part techno extravaganza. The purpose is to illuminate the importance and impact mere objects have in our lives and to give something back to them. Too often “things” are dismissed as soulless or inanimate.
