Cinema Eye Honors

• by Thom Powers, April 02, 2009

On March 29, 2009, the Cinema Eye Honors were presented at the Times Center in the New York Times building. Early in the show, co-host AJ Schnack took the stage with POV’s Yance Ford wearing outfits from the nominated film about Mobile’s Mardi Gras, ORDER OF MYTHS. Read more coverage of the Cinema Eye ceremony in NY Press, IFC News and Shooting People.

Co-hosts Thom Powers and AJ Schnack helpfully pose on either end so that photo editors can crop them out to focus on MAN ON WIRE’s Philippe Petit; Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed.

D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus presented the night’s final award for feature documentary. Hegedus is coming to STF on April 14 for her film AL FRANKEN: GOD SPOKE.

Documentary legend Albert Maysles presented the director award.

Morgan Spurlock presented the Audience award.

WALTZ WITH BASHIR’s art director David Polonsky took the stage repeatedly to collect four awards on behalf of the film’s team. He had something fresh and witty to say for each one.

UP THE YANGTZE director Yung Chang collected the Debut and Audience awards.

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ENGLISH SURGEON COMES TO STF

• by Thom Powers, April 02, 2009

STF’s spring season kicks off with THE ENGLISH SURGEON. Posing after the Q&A: Thom Powers in his best English tweed (by way of a Vietnamese tailor); director Geoffrey Smith; and Henry Marsh, the surgeon who describes himself as a narcissist but comes off as an altruist - proving they’re not incompatible.

Read a full report of the film on the Britical blog, excerpted here:

After the film, Marsh gets up on stage for a brief Q & A. I want to ask him why, of all people, we see him in the film riding his bike without a helmet - but I decide this is a bit cheeky. Later, I chat with him in the bar, and, discovering that he trained the surgeon who treated my Mother, forget to enquire. I head home on the subway and remember something: he had admitted, unprompted, that surgeons are by necessity risk-takers, and, he laughed, “narcissists”. Maybe that’s the clue to the helmet thing. More importantly, though, his honest acknowledgement indicates a duality possessed by very few: the professional All Powerful God-in-a-white-coat half we know all too well. But in Henry Marsh we witness also that which is rare: a thing comprised of humility, empathy, responsibility. He clearly feels it is his duty as both a doctor and a human being to look an absolutely horrifying situation right in the face and not turn away. And after that, to just “get on with it”, to do whatever you can, however small, and however imperfectly, to make it better.

After the screening, the crowd packed into 99 Below for drinks late into the night. Among the revelers were Josh Levin of Gallant Films; Hilla Medalia, director of TO DIE IN JERUSALEM and the forthcoming AFTER THE STORM; and filmmaker RUTH SOMALO, whose doc about singer James Blunt TIL YOU’RE TOLD TO STOP will soon be hitting the festival circuit.

  Director Geoffrey Smith with Simon Kilmurry, the head of POV where THE ENGLISH SURGEON will eventually be shown on PBS.

 

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STF SWINGS

• by Thom Powers, March 20, 2009

Written by Hugo Perez

What Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Mansion and Andy Warhol’s Factory were to the international jet-set of the 1960s, Larry Levinson’s infamous sex-club Plato’s Hideaway was to working class New York in the late seventies and early eighties. Jon Hart and Matthew Kauffman’s documentary AMERICAN SWING captures the rise and fall of this truly unique New York establishment and the equally compelling story of Larry Levinson, the self-proclaimed King of Swing who founded Plato’s Hideaway as a place where middle class husbands and wives could let their hair down and swing. 

Photo L to R: STF guest host Hugo Perez, American Swing subjects Adam and Captain John and producer Matthew Kauffman

ARGUING THE WORLD

• by Thom Powers, March 12, 2009

Written by Hugo Perez

A brief surf of cable news shows and their speaking-points, sound-byte oriented talking-head experts might lead one to ask where public intellectual discourse has gone in our media saturated 21st century world.  This week’s STF presentation ARGUING THE WORLD is a swansong to the golden age of New York public intellectual life through a portrait of several of its most influential participants: Daniel Bell, Nathan Glazer, Irving Howe, and neo-con godfather Irving Kristol.  New York doc veterans Director Joseph Dorman and Editor Jonathan Oppenheim joined the STF audience for a discussion of the circumstances that made the City College of the 1930s the cradle of public intellectual discourse for the remainder of the 20th Century, and how the changing nature of our society and media-scape perhaps no longer allow for public intellectuals to have the prominence and influence that they once did.  As is traditional, the conversation continued at STF hangout 99 Below where Dorman and Oppenheim were joined by a slew of familiar faces from the New York documentary scene: Jean Tsien, Jenni Livingston, Pola Rapaport, Martina Radwan, and others.  Several hours later, fueled by good conversation and perhaps the special pear schnapps STF drink special, one left thinking that perhaps the prognosis for intellectual discourse was not as bleak as one thought.

SPECIAL STF DISCOUNT TO CINEMA EYE HONORS

• by Thom Powers, March 06, 2009

There are a limited number of discounted tickets being made available to the STF community for the March 29 presentation of the Cinema Eye Honors. Last year, the first Cinema Eye Honors was one of the my favorite documentary events of 2008. This year’s edition promises to be even better, moving to the gorgeous Times Center in the New York Times building.

Top documentary makers and film industry leaders will gather to celebrate excellence and innovation in the nonfiction films of 2008. Awards
presenters include Laurie Anderson, Albert Maysles, D.A. Pennebaker and Morgan Spurlock. The diverse array of nominated films include MAN ON WIRE, WALTZ WITH BASHIR, and MY WINNIPEG. More than a typical awards show, the night will feature music DJ-ed by composer and musician Ion Furjanic (composer of MANDA BALA and JESUS CAMP) and other surprises.

The ticket price includes a post-ceremony reception with hors d’oevres and an open bar at the nearby venue, ARENA (135 West 41st St).

Tickets are normally priced at $75, but if you enter the access code “STF”, you’ll pay only $50. CLICK HERE TO ORDER TICKETS