Writing by Megan Scanlon. Megan works at the American University of Beirut. She has written for the DOC NYC blog and the Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship. Megan is a volunteer at the Bronx Documentary Center where she contributes to documentary programming. Follow her on instagram and twitter    @meganscanlon5

It’s been a real treat over at Stranger Than Fiction to experience and bear witness to the expansive scope and range of Jonathan Demme films. The current retrospective of the director continues to surprise and educate audiences on various experiences of the human condition. His characters’ vulnerabilities are channeled into expansive expressions of strength in the way that the they stand firmly behind their words and their purpose. By tapping into the stirrings of those tender and compelling forces within his characters, Demme links the audience to the things that make us most human.

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Writing by Megan Scanlon. Megan works at the American University of Beirut. She has written for the DOC NYC blog and the Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship. Megan is a volunteer at the Bronx Documentary Center where she contributes to documentary programming. Follow her on instagram and twitter    @meganscanlon5

 

Stranger Than Fiction headed into week three of its Jonathan Demme retrospective last Tuesday, welcoming another packed house for the director’s 2003 film, The Agronomist.

The Agronomist tells the story of Jean Dominique, a journalist whose heart beat for Haiti. As a child, Dominique traveled the country with his father, who wanted him to get to know the people of Haiti. On his son’s identity, his father was clear: “You are not French, British, you are not American, you are Haitian.” On these trips Dominique fell in love with the people, the peasants who worked the land. Inspired, he studied in France to become an agronomist agriculturalist, and returned to Haiti to work with farmers he knew could take care of themselves. A lover of cinema, he also wanted to bring national cinema to Haiti. Films that showed challenges and rebellion were not viewed favorably and in 1965 the Haitian dictatorship permanently banned the cinema club. Not one to be deterred, Dominque breathed new life into Radio Haiti when he purchased it in 1968. The first independent radio station on the airwaves, Radio Haiti broadcasted in Creole and aired local and international news, unlike the government owned stations that broadcasted exclusively in French. For the poor, illiterate, and Voodoo practicing population, Radio Haiti was an informational lighthouse drawing attention to the hegemonic forces that threatened not just to erode, but engulf the peasants’ way of life. Dominque’s role as anchor was literal as he cultivated strength and support for his listeners.  An electric storyteller, beyond the power of his words was the power of his delivery. Together, the passion in his prose was fiery, incisive, and uncontainable. His words resounded for those not given a voice, a choice, and when stories of overthrown dictatorships by oppressed citizens in Iran and Nicaragua were shared, Haitians were quick to understand.

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Writing by Megan Scanlon. Megan works at the American University of Beirut. She has written for the DOC NYC blog and the Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship. Megan is a volunteer at the Bronx Documentary Center where she contributes to documentary programming. Follow her on instagram and twitter    @meganscanlon5

Stranger Than Fiction headed into week two of its six-week Jonathan Demme retrospective on Tuesday night, welcoming another full house of docufiles for Demme’s 1987 performance feature, Swimming to Cambodia. A quick survey of the audience revealed that the room was split between veterans and new recruits of the Spalding Gray monologue, a grand story that revolves loosely around Gray’s role in Roland Joffe’s The Killing Fields, a film about the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia.

At a surface level, “monologue” seems a wholly inadequate description, scarcely containing Gray’s exquisite cosmic theater, and yet, in its capacity for depth, it’s the monologue that gives Gray a space, an outlet, a release for his seismic prose.

Shot in 35 mm, the magic of the flicker adds graininess and texture, tangible, real, infinitesimal imperfections that are dwarfed by the grotesqueness of the content it overlays–the Khmer Rouge. Lead by Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge unleashed a genocide of shockingly horrifying proportions, but as Gray says, “Who needs metaphors and poetry for hell, this happened, kids torn about like fresh bread in front of their mothers, on this earth.”

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STF devotes its 12^th year to a six-week retrospective of documentaries directed by Jonathan Demme. The director will attend each screening for a Q&A. “We’re honored to host Jonathan Demme as we trace the past three decades of his performance and profile films,” said STF Artistic Director Thom Powers. “Whether he’s capturing the artistry of the Talking Heads, Spalding Gray and Neil Young or the activism of Jean Dominique, Carolyn Parker and Jimmy Carter, Demme consistently delivers a thrilling cinematic experience.” Jonathan Demme’s documentary career is also being recognized at DOC NYC this fall, where he will be presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Visionaries Tribute Luncheon on Thurs. Nov. 10.

The season kicks off on September 27 with Demme’s acclaimed Talking Heads’ concert film STOP MAKING SENSE.  It continues with SWIMMING TO CAMBODIA (Oct. 4) that introduced new audiences to monologist Spalding Gray; THE AGRONOMIST (Oct 11) about the Haitian radio journalist Jean Dominique; NEIL YOUNG: HEART OF GOLD (Oct. 18) on musician Neil Young performing in Nashville; I’M CAROLYN PARKER: THE GOOD, THE MAD, AND THE BEAUTIFUL (Oct. 25) on a resilient resident of New Orleans’ Lower Ninth as she rebuilds post Hurricane Katrina.  The season concludes on November 1 with JIMMY CARTER MAN FROM PLAINS about the former president Jimmy Carter as he tours with a controversial book about Israel and Palestine.  The season is copresented by The New York Film Academy.

The regular STF fall season takes place at the IFC Center every Tuesday night for six weeks, starting September 27. Each event includes a discussion with the filmmaker or special guests, followed by a gathering at a nearby bar. Full season schedule appears below.

Tickets for Stranger Than Fiction screenings are $17 for the general public and $14 for IFC Center members. A Season Pass, good for admission to all 6 evenings is available for $75 ($60 for IFC members)

Stranger Than Fiction: Fall 2016 Season                  7:00pm Tuesdays at IFC Center, September 27 – November 1

Each show features a Q&A with the director or other special guests

Sept 27 – Opening Night: STOP MAKING SENSE (1984, 100 min)

Oct 4: SWIMMING TO CAMBODIA (1987, 85 min)

Oct 11: THE AGRONOMIST (2003, 91 min)

Oct 18: NEIL YOUNG: HEART OF GOLD (2006, 103 min)

Oct 25: I’M CAROLYN PARKER: THE GOOD, THE MAD, AND THE BEAUTIFUL (2011, 93 min)

Nov 1 – Closing Night: JIMMY CARTER MAN FROM PLAINS (2007, 126 min)

STF is delighted to welcome back the New York Film Academy. to copresent the Fall season.  New York Film Academy students learn to make films by making films. Many films.  Intensive, hands-on Conservatory and MFA programs in Documentary Filmmaking pair rigorous instruction with mentoring in order to support students as they work on a series of their own documentaries.  Short-term workshops follow the same intensive model.

Under the guidance of a world-class faculty, this approach has earned NYFA a slot on The Independent Magazine’s list of the 10 Best Academic Programs For Documentary Filmmakers.  Recent graduates of NYFA’s Documentary program have garnered an Academy Award-nomination, an Emmy Award, and top honors at Toronto, Sundance and other major festivals.  They have excelled in creative positions with Morgan Spurlock, Robert Redford, Alex Gibney, VICE on HBO, Rolling Stone, VICELAND, VICE, Fusion, Wall Street Journal, and many, many others.  Faculty hold at least five Academy Awards, six Academy Award nominations, and over a dozen Emmys.

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If you’ll allow me, I will be brief this week. I’ve spent the last five days laid up, feverish and full of yuck, but I’m on the upward swing and there are some interesting bits of news to report. First and foremost, after weeks of teasing with podcast playlist tweets, Thom Powers’ Pure Nonfiction podcast has gone live, both on the web and iTunes, where you can get a brief hint of the documentary goodness to come. Be sure to hit up the site, subscribe via your favorite podcast service and leave him a review to get the new program some much needed exposure. The first three episodes featuring interviews with Kahane Cooperman, Dawn Porter and the filmmakers behind MAKING A MURDERER roll out this week.

Second on the agenda is the online release of AJ Schnack’s shocking Sundance short SPEAKING IS DIFFICULT, which was published this week by Field of Vision. To compliment the film’s release, The Intercept ran a disconcerting piece by John Thomason titled “What We Know and Don’t Know About Mass Shootings and Gun Deaths,” while The New York Times published Mekado Murphy‘s extensive take on Schnack’s film, noting its potential growth as further violent acts are committed. I also discussed the film with Schnack for IONCINEMA.com after it screened as part of the shorts programs at True/False.

This week at Stranger Than Fiction we’ll be screening David Van Taylor’s timely 2012 documentary ADVISE & DISSENT, the first documentary to go behind the lines and into the trenches of the judicial confirmation wars. The film tracks two opposing lobbyists and two lions of the Senate through three contested nominations, each of which inflames passions and provokes surprising conflicts and shifting alliances. Director Van Taylor will be on hand for a post-screening Q&A and tickets are still available here.

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