Presented by Albert Steg
Before VHS players and then the internet rendered hardcore pornography ubiquitous and banal, American stag films, often produced and exhibited illegally and viewed almost exclusively by men, held considerable power to shock, entertain, arouse and educate. Tonight's program, a series of short subjects from the 1920s through the 1960s, will show that they still retain this power. At times drolly amusing, at others appallingly misogynistic, the films are always 100% American and can be usefully viewed as transgressive cinematic monologues suppressed by the moral standards of their day. More details »

Batsheva has become an enduring favorite of San Francisco Performances audiences. Artistic Director Ohad Naharin’s Max runs the gamut of movement from intimate, controlled and minimal to expansive, and from solo to hypnotic full-company counterpoint. Less theatrical than many of his other works, Max expounds and celebrates the potential of the human body and the possibilities of choreography in a powerful tour de force of formalism and technical mastery.

By Zachary Levy
One of the most poignant American documentaries in years, Strongman tells the intimate story of Stanley "Stanless Steel" Pleskun, who can lift dump trucks and bend pennies with his bare hands, but who struggles to transcend his chaotic New Jersey home life and the toll of his advancing age. The film strips back the layers of muscle to reveal something universally human and quietly dignified about the vulnerabilities in all our lives. (2009, 113 min, digital) More details »

strong>By David Fine
Director in person
Basketball is much more than a game in this high-energy documentary about an Iraqi women’s team. For the young players, most of whom had never been allowed to play any sport, it is a blissful release from the realities of a war-torn nation. They come from all ethnicities and sects—Arab, Kurd, Christian, Sunni, Shiite—but the joy they discover in playing and the deep love they come to feel for the young American man who coaches them reveals an Iraq we do not see on the news. (2011, 82 min, digital) More details »

By Katie Galloway and Kelly Duane de la Vega
When two young friends visit an Austin bookstore to hear a talk on upcoming protests at the 2008 Republican National Convention, they are approached by a charismatic local activist ten years their senior, who quickly becomes their mentor. Six months later, they cross a line that radically changes their lives. The result: eight Molotov cocktails, multiple domestic terrorism charges, and a high-stakes entrapment defense. A dramatic story of idealism, crime, and betrayal, Better This World goes to the heart of the “War on Terror” and its impact on civil liberties and political dissent in the United States after 9/11. (2011, 93 min, digital) More details »

Jaap Blonk in person
Dutch artist Jaap Blonk is a self-taught composer, performer and poet renowned for his powerful stage presence and exuberant approach to improvisation. Recently, a renewed interest in mathematics has led the artist to explore the possibilities of algorhythmic composition in the creation of works which fuse music, visual animation and poetry. Tonight, Blonk presents a very rare performance/projection program featuring live presentations of original graphic scores, live tracks to silent films, an interpretation of Man Ray’s composition Lautgedicht (1924), and examples of Blonk’s solo videos and “interactive animations.” More details »

YBCA celebrates Eiko & Koma’s long history with Bay Area audiences, its venues, its community and its artists with a two-week residency that includes an exhibition/installation documenting their 40-year collaboration and two performance programs -- Fragile, a living performance installation in collaboration with Kronos Quartet and Regeneration, an evening of three iconic performance works. More details »

By Juan José Lozano and Hollman Morris
Impunity documents a highly controversial trial against Colombian paramilitary leaders accused of killing thousands of civilians. When the political and economic interests in the paramilitary war are uncovered, however, the process comes to an abrupt halt, leaving the victims’ families wondering whether they will ever know the truth surrounding the deaths of their loved ones, and whether they will be able to fight the perpetrators’ impunity. (2010, 85 min, digital) More details »

ODC/Dance Downtown 2012

“as always with ODC... anticipate superlative, witty modern dance par excellence.”
– SF Chronicle's Top 10 of 2011

The artistic triumvirate of choreographers Brenda Way, KT Nelson and Kimi Okada continues their tour de force in ODC’s 41st annual home season. Way presents her latest meditation on the woman’s world and its strictures in her premiere of Breathing Underwater, with live music by celebrated avant cellist, Zoe Keating, and the Magik*Magik Orchestra. Nelson has paired up with bike artist Max Chen to premiere Transit, a full-company work featuring three custom built bicycles that rides through the bustling pulse of a day in the city. ODC’s five male dancers shine in Nelson’s first-ever all male work Cut-Out Guy, with high intensity movement matched by the experimental sounds of acclaimed electronic artist Ben Frost. Kimi Okada’s 2010 premiere, I look vacantly at the Pacific...though regret, enjoys an encore as it explores the humorous and often awkward attempts at cross-cultural understanding. More details...

ODC/Dance will hold a special Opening Night Gala and Post-Party on Thursday, March 15, 2012.

www.odcdance.org

Photo: RJ Muna

By Ali Samadi Ahadi
The Green Wave brings us into the world of ordinary Iranian citizens who risked their lives during the Green Revolution of 2009 in the hopes of a better future. Interweaving online posts, video footage caught by those present, animated sequences, and extensive interviews, the film is an artistic portrait of modern political rebellion, an exposé of government-sanctioned violence, and a vision of hope that continued resistance may galvanize a new future not just for Iran but for the region as a whole. (2010, 80 min, digital) More details »

YBCA celebrates Eiko & Koma’s long history with Bay Area audiences, its venues, its community and its artists with a two-week residency that includes an exhibition/installation documenting their 40-year collaboration and two performance programs -- Fragile, a living performance installation in collaboration with Kronos Quartet and Regeneration, an evening of three iconic performance works. More details »

By Léa Pool
Breast cancer has become the poster child of cause-related marketing campaigns. Countless people walk, run and shop for the cure. Each year, millions of dollars are raised in the name of breast cancer, but where does this money go and what does it actually achieve? Outraged and incendiary, Pink Ribbons, Inc. shows how the devastating reality of breast cancer has become obfuscated by a shiny, pink story of success. (2011, 98 min, digital) More details »

“A visually delicious beast that never comes short of dazzling the senses” (The Huffington Post), Robert Moses’ Kin presents its 17th Annual Home Season, March 30 – April 1. The program will feature: the world premiere of Helen, a trio inspired by the words and music of Carl Hancock Rux, the poetry by E. Ethelbert Miller and Homer’s Iliad; excerpts from the forthcoming Scrubbing the Dog, investigating the residual effects of "scrubbed" or desensitized iconography and beliefs; Biography, inspired by the life and work of author James Baldwin; and the award-winning The Soft Sweet Smell of Firm Warm Things — not seen in its entirety since 2003 — and Speaking Ill of the Dead, Moses' 2007 meditation on war. Don’t miss Robert Moses' Kin whose last season the San Francisco Chronicle hailed as "masterful" and "an enchanted spell."

www.RobertMosesKin.org

Photo: RJ Muna

By Peter Von Bagh
The Midnight Sun Film Festival is held every June in the Finnish village of Sodankylä beyond the Arctic Circle — where the sun never sets. Founded by Aki and Mika Kaurismäki along with Peter Von Bagh in 1985, the festival has played host to an international who’s who of directors and each day begins with a two-hour discussion. To mark the festival’s silver anniversary, festival director Peter Von Bagh edited together highlights from these dialogues to create an epic four-part oral history of cinema drawn from the anecdotes, insights, and wisdom of his all-star cast. Ranging across innumerable topics (war, censorship, movie stars, formative influences, neorealism) these voices, many now passed away, engage in a personal dialogue across the years that’s by turns charming, profound, hilarious and moving. (2011, 149 min total running time, digital, ten minute intermission between parts)

The Century of the Cinema: The twentieth century as told by great filmmakers. The origin stories of films reveal histories lived, stories from childhood, and the early years “before I became a filmmaker.” Featuring, among others: Michael Powell, Abbas Kiarostami, Joseph H. Lewis, Youssef Chahine and Francis Ford Coppola.

The Yearning for the First Cinema Experience: The question that always opens the discussion: What is the first film you saw? So often that “chance” foreshadows the future artist’s identity as a filmmaker. Featuring, among others: Samuel Fuller, Jean Rouch, Agnes Varda, Jerzy Skolimowski and Jafar Panahi.

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By Frederic Choffat and Vincent Lowy
In 2009, in a small theater in Geneva, Switzerland, Marcel Ophuls and Jean-Luc Godard met for an intimate and sometimes contentious dialogue in front of a live audience. Luckily for us, it was filmed. Ophuls' film The Sorrow And The Pity triggers Godard to discuss his personal and fragmented childhood memories about his escape to Switzerland during World War II, while Ophuls recalls the controversy surrounding the release of his film in France. Throughout their meeting, the two directors debate about national and ethnic identities, what it means to be Jewish, the role of the director, and auteur theory. (2010, 44 min, digital)

Double feature with John Casavetes by André S. Labarthe.

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By André S. Labarthe
John Cassavetes, at the dawn of his career, is the subject of this rare portrait. When we first meet him in 1965, he has made three films: the ground-breaking independent Shadows and two disastrous Hollywood projects. While driving a convertible through the canyons of Hollywood he discusses Faces — his response to his Hollywood experience — and we meet the crew and see the start of editing. Three years later, with Faces finally completed, Cassavetes is a different man, more mature and introspective. With Gena Rowlands looking on, he discusses American society, and contrasts Shadows, a film about adolescence and hope, with Faces, a film about middle age and disenchantment. (1969, 50 min, digital)

Double feature with Marcel Opuls and Jean-Luc Godard: The Meeting in St-Gervais by Frederic Choffat and Vincent Lowy.

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David Gatten in person.
David Gatten has been producing a cycle of films that take inspiration from the library of William Byrd II, an American colonial writer, planter and government official whose vast collection introduced many important works of European philosophical and political thought to North America. Focusing on specific volumes from the library, letters and personal papers, Gatten’s series, to eventually be called Secret History of the Dividing Line, A True Account in Nine Parts, probes the relationship between printed words and images, philosophical ideas, historical records and biography. More details »

By Peter Von Bagh
The second installment of our screenings from the Midnight Sun Film Festival continues with two additional compilations. (2011, 112 min total running time, digital)

Eternal Time: Filmmakers weave personal tales about the films and colleagues who have left the most permanent memories. Featuring, among others: Victor Erice, Wim Wenders, Pedro Costa, Claude Chabrol and Emir Kusturica.

Drama of Light: The leading character of the festival is light: from the light of the film projector to the light of the midnight sun. We talk about actors, including first-hand accounts of what it meant to direct Bogart, Monroe, and many others. Featuring, among others: Monte Hellman, Robert Wise, Bob Rafelson, Milos Forman and Roy Ward Baker.

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April 12-15
Triangle of the Squinches, is set to a commissioned score by legendary musician Mickey Hart and features an innovative kinetic set by cutting-edge architect Christopher Haas.

April 18-22
Alonzo King’s Scheherazade is a re-envisioning of the ancient collection of Persian, Sanskrit, and Arabic stories of 1,001 Nights. The new score by tabla master Zakir Hussain re-interprets the original music by Rimsky-Korsakov, incorporating traditional Persian as well as Western instruments.

For more information, please visit our website.

Saturday, April 14 and Saturday, April 21 VIP events
A limited number of $250 tickets are available for two exclusive evenings. VIP ticket holders will enjoy a pre-performance reception in an intimate tent setting within the Yerba Buena courtyard and premium, reserved performance seating in the Novellus Theater, followed by a post-performance party with Alonzo King and dancers.

All tickets purchased for the evening of April 19 will benefit the Women’s HIV Program at UCSF. For more information about VIP tickets for this event, call 415.353.2521.

Photo: RJ Muna

By François Weyergans
Robert Bresson (1901-1999) was one of cinema's great artists. Completing 13 feature films in a career that spanned more than four decades, Bresson directed masterpieces such as A Man Escaped, Pickpocket, Diary of a Country Priest, and The Trial of Joan of Arc. Directors from Godard to Tarkovsky, from Fassbinder to Scorsese, have cited him as a major influence on their work. Filmed mostly in Bresson’s country home in 1965, this extremely rare on-camera interview features the director describing his singular approach to filmmaking: from the inspiration behind his films, to his ideas on the use of sound, actors, editing and music. (1965, 64 min, digital)

Double feature with Chantal Akerman by Chantal Akerman by Chantal Akerman.

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By Chantal Akerman
A self-portrait by Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman. The first part opens with Akerman in her apartment, reading from a text directly to the camera, describing the often humorous problems she encountered making this film. The second lets Akerman’s films speak for her, taking clips from her extensive filmography and linking them anonymously until they form a new film. There are scenes from Jeanne Dielman, her best-known film, but also glimpses of several other works — her forays into experimental film, comedic shorts, musicals, and narrative features. (1996, 64 min, digital)

Double feature with Robert Bresson: Without a Trace by François Weyergans.

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Alonzo King LINES Ballet BFA at Dominican University of California Showcase
Our third graduating class will be showcased in original works by LINES Ballet Master, Arturo Fernandez, former LINES dancers, Maurya Kerr and Gregory Dawson, Christian Burns, and BNP Artist in Residence, Amanda Miller. Joining them will be the LINES Ballet School Training Program second-year students in original works by Company dancer, Keelan Whitmore.

Tickets are $25 and $15 for students with ID.

By Norberto López Amado and Carlos Carcas
A portrait of one of the world’s premier architects, this elegant film follows Norman Foster’s unending quest to improve the quality of life through design. The film details Foster’s origins, and explores what inspired him to design some of today’s most stunning and innovative architectural structures, such as the Beijing Airport, the Reichstag, and the world’s tallest bridge, in Millau, France. Foster offers some striking solutions to humanity’s increasing demand on urban centers. (2011, 78 min, digital)

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By Olivier Assayas
Hou Hsiao-Hsien is considered by many to be the greatest Taiwanese filmmaker of all time, but does he consider himself a Taiwanese or a Chinese film director? Examining questions of identity and “native land,” Hou returns to the setting of his youth to talk to childhood friends and discuss his films. His body of work, and the emergence of the Taiwanese “Nouvelle Vague,” must be located within the context of an intellectual movement that united Taiwanese writers, journalists and filmmakers at the end of the 1970s. This movement became possible only with the end of censorship, a prerequisite for free discussions, through film and literature, about Taiwan's society. (1996, 91 min, digital) More details »

YBCA welcomes internationally renowned choreographer David Zambrano, a monumental figure in the international dance community for more than a quarter century, with his newest work, Soul Project, a series of virtuosic solos set to live recordings of classic soul tunes by such artists as Aretha Franklin, Ike and Tina Turner and Gladys Knight and The Pips. This performance is part of a debut U.S. tour of Soul Project produced by MAPP International Productions. More details »

By Jonas Mekas
“I originally met Martin Scorsese when he was still a film student at the New York University. He used to come to my film screenings. But our real friendship began when he made his first feature film, Who’s That Knocking at My Door. I was asked to make a film about Marty to introduce a retrospective of his films. As it happened, Marty was shooting The Departed at that time. I asked him if I could follow him for a week or two, and he said yes. So that’s how this film happened. It’s a chamber kind of movie, a personal tribute to a friend.” (Jonas Mekas) (2005/8, 80 min, digital) More details »

By Chad Freidrichs
The Pruitt-Igoe Myth tells the devastating story of the transformation of the American city in the decades after World War II, through the lens of the infamous Pruitt-Igoe housing development and the St. Louis residents who called it home. It began as a housing marvel: Built in 1956, Pruitt-Igoe was heralded as the model public housing project of the future, "the poor man's penthouse." Two decades later, it ended in rubble, its razing an iconic event that the architectural theorist Charles Jencks famously called the death of Modernism. The footage and images of its implosion have helped to perpetuate a myth of failure, a failure that has been used to critique Modernist architecture, attack public assistance programs, and stigmatize public housing residents. The film seeks to set the historical record straight. (2011, 83 min, digital)

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Women's Voices features works written specifically for Kronos Quartet – including the world premiere of a new piece written and performed by composer and musician Vân-Ánh Vanessa Võ, co-commissioned by YBCA and the Kronos Performing Arts Association, as well as three Bay Area premieres: Laurie Anderson’s Flow, Nicole Lizée’s Death to Kosmische, and Derek Charke’s Tundra Songs featuring Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq. More details »

Inspired by physicist Brian Greene’s best-selling book, The Elegant Universe, “Punk Ballerina” (Vanity Fair) Karole Armitage has created a daring, high-speed work of elegance and force. Her response to Greene’s take on string theory is a sonic and pictorial interplay between video and kinetic imagery and live and electronic sounds exploring geometry, patterns in space and structures of rhythm.

Karole Armitage’s reputation as “punk ballerina” rose from her edgy interpretations of classical dance. Her company of dancers brings incredible energy and focus to the stage in dynamic choreography.