Culture ... and Stuff

First things first. A great big HUGE shout out to the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival (disclosure: Edelman pro-bono client) for hosting me at several films this past weekend.

As anticipated, the short "My Olympic Summer" was thought provoking and excellent, and I will request a Q&A with the Atlanta-based filmmaker for a future post on his work.

Kudos and thanks also to the writer/director of "Bart Got A Room," Mr. Brian Hecker. This is one of the funniest films I've seen in a long time. The big band and techno soundtrack is excellent (hoping to eventually find it on my colleague's soundtrack blog), the writing is superb, and my hope is this film will take off when it hits big screens in April (it is my understanding the film's last festival circuit screening is coming up in Vancouver).

William H. Macy and Cheryl Hines both deserve three cheers for lending their talents to the picture, while the young cast is sure to become the next generation of "it" stars, much like the mostly unknowns from "American Pie" before that film achieved hit status.

I asked Hecker at the festival whether the "American Pie" series was an influence, and he replied that in fact went out of the way not to make such a film. He noted 1x1, and to the AJFF audience at the sold-out festival finale screening, that his hope that John Hughes' and Woody Allen's influence would shine. Hecker succeeds. Wishing him, and "Bart Got A Room," much success.

This coming weekend my girlfriend and I plan to meet at LGA airport and paint the town red on Manhattan Island. Saturday (her "golden" birthday) plans include a swing by the weekend "TODAY Show" set at Rockefeller Center, Fifth Ave. shopping, visiting a few galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (my favorite areas include the American collections, which apparently underwent some big changes) or the MOMA (love the "Starry Night" and the M*A*S*H-style helicopter), riding the elevators at the Empire State Building (disclosure: an Edelman client) and an evening on Broadway at "Avenue Q" (an outstanding production -- can hardly wait to sing-along with Brian and Kate Monster in their up-tempo opening tune).

On the "maybe" list is a trip to take in Frank Lloyd Wright's newly-renovated (just in time for 50th Anniversary) Guggenheim Museum. With thanks to the P.R. office at this, one of my favorite, New York destinations, the Guggenheim has a new show opening as our planes are touching town in Queens. Their description goes something like this:

The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia, 1860–1989, is an interpretative survey exhibition illuminating the dynamic and complex impact of Asian art, literary texts and philosophical concepts on American artistic practices of the late 19th century (ca. 1860-1900), early modern (ca. 1900-1945), postwar avant-garde (1945-1970), and contemporary periods (1970-1989). The exhibition features 270 objects in array of media, including painting, works on paper, books and ephemera, sculptures, video art, installations, film, and a live performance program, representing the work of 108 artists. 

The Third Mind is a masterpiece show featuring works by canonical and lesser-known figures of the late-19th and 20th-centuries. The exhibition and related materials will trace how the classical arts of India, China and Japan and the systems of Hindu, Taoist, Tantric Buddhist and Zen Buddhist thought were known, reconstructed and transformed by American cultural and intellectual forces. The project examines the history of the construction of Asia as an imaginary, the enduring aspirations to know and internalize Asian art and thought among American and Asian-born artists working in the U.S., and the geopolitical conditions that made America’s engagement with Asia unique.

Uncle Frank would be proud. Hoping it won't take too much coaxing to get the Birthday Girl north on the Museum Mile to see this Guggenheim Museum exhibit.

Other "maybe" destinations: Grand Central Station, the new "Top of the Rock" rooftop access at Rockefeller Center, a midnight movie at the Sunshine Cinema screening of "Fast Times At Ridgemont High" (gnarly, dude!), Times Square, Grand Central Station, the United Nations Building, Wall Street, Brooklyn Bridge, Time Warner Center, Central Park, The Dakota, Harlem, ice skating, tea at Tavern On The Green and a visit to a hidden-from-tourists Tex-Mex restaurant a recent NYC to ATL transplant shared is excellent. We'll see -- will be very happy no matter where we sing "Happy Birthday To You" in the city.

Image credits, for the Guggenheim images with this post:

Jackson Pollock
Seven Red Paintings, ca. 1950Oil on canvas, in six parts, and enamel on canvas, each, minimum: 50.8 x 20.3 cm, maximum 54.6 x 33 cm; overall dimensions variable. Private Collection, Berlin© 2009 The Pollock-Krasner Foundation/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New YorkPhoto: Jochen Littkemann, Berlin

Georgia O'Keeffe
Abstraction, 1917 Watercolor on paper, 40 x 27.6 cm Collection of Gerald and Kathleen Peters, Courtesy Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Restoration Completion
Photograph by David Heald© Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York

Good Sports at Atlanta Jewish Film Festival

Last Sunday a packed theatre in north Atlanta experienced the documentary "Run For Your Life," which is an excellent film about the man who made the New York City Marathon (disclosure: an Edelman client) what it is today.

During the next couple of days, I'm looking forward to at least two more screenings during the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival (disclosure: a pro-bono client of Edelman, the P.R. firm where I work).

Tomorrow night, during the "Short Programs No. 2" session, one film titled "My Olympic Summer" should be enriching. This 12 minute short by an Atlantan -- Daniel Robin -- apparently portrays how his parents' marriage evolved for the better as world events unfolded at the 1972 Olympic Games of Munich (apparently the Olympic Village hostage crisis brought his mom and dad closer in some way -- an review from a critic in U.K. sheds some light). It will be interesting to draw comparison of this personal story to the Oscar winning documentary "One Day In September," which is among my top documentaries and top Olympic film rankings.

For fun, and completely out of the Olympic realm, also planning to screen "Bart Got A Room" as I am itching to see William H. Macy (will he or won't he nail his performance as the Jewish parent of a teenager with the same skill that he had as a Minne-SO-tan in "Fargo" a few years back?).

Hope to see some of you Atlantans in the audience.

Shalom, Atlanta Jewish Film Festival

A few of my Edelman colleagues are working with the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, which kicked off activities in "The ATL" earlier this week with a fun party at Fox Sports Grill followed by a premiere screening at Regal Cinemas at Atlantic Station. After wrapping up an afternoon of press interviews with client Cirque du Soleil (this Edelman client pitched their big top at the same site), I enthusiastically joined the film festival fun for their opening night.

This year's Festival includes the "first time outside France" debut of "Hello, Goodbye," a romantic comedy starring Gérard Depardieau (a.k.a. The Big ... French ... OAF! from "Greencard") as a Paris gynecologist whose wife requests a holiday in Israel to celebrate their new "empty nest" status from the marriage of their only son.

Upon arriving in Tel Aviv, it's clear she is looking for a longer-term relocation (and renewed faith for them both, after decades of swearing off their Jewish roots), and chaos ensues (well, sort of) after all their belongings from the move are lost at sea. It was a sweet story with a few cringe-inducing scenes involving the 50+ Depardieau character signing up for a date with a mohel (ouch!). If you can find it, this film is worth a look.

I'm looking forward to several other films in the festival, starting with the new documentary "Run For Your Life" regarding the creator of the New York City Marathon (disclosure: Edelman client). Apparently an Olympian is supposed to appear at the Q&A for the screening during the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival (will post more when confirmed). The trailer hints that Olympic champion Frank Shorter (listen to this outstanding Shorter recording from NPR), and Olympic commentator Jim McKay, are among those with cameos on the big screen.

There is also a William H. Macy comedy titled "Bart Got A Room" that looks priceless.

These days a flood of great films are on my "to be screened" list, starting with "Gran Torino" and the Golden Globe winner "Slumdog Millionaire," about which my sister raved. "The Wrestler" is probably one to watch, too. Over the holidays I stumbled onto "Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles," which is excellent (it took me back to Beijing and some of the fun Chinese bureaucracy we grew to love while in the Olympic city.

Happy screenings to you!