The exhibition More Than That: Films by Kevin Jerome Everson opens today at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and will be on view through September 18. Artforum is rerunning Ed Halter's piece on Everson from its May 2010 issue for the occasion: "For more than a decade, working in numerous film and video formats, Everson has presented images of the lives of African Americans — and other people of African heritage, worldwide — through his own distinctive practice of cinematic portraiture, a blend of fiction and documentary that analyzes minute aspects of individual personality by homing in on everyday gestures of labor and leisure. Whether shot from real life, rediscovered in archival images, or performed according to Everson's direction, these gestures subsist as parallels and cognates for artmaking. His films suggest not records of reality but, rather, recordings of performance."
"The lineup for the third annual BAMcinemaFest, just announced today, further solidifies the Brooklyn Academy of Music's annual series as the premiere showcase for new American independent cinema," argues the L's Mark Asch.
NOT IN NEW YORK
"Besides premiering a digital restoration of An American in Paris 60 years after its debut and welcoming such movie legends as Kirk Douglas [interview], Mickey Rooney, Leslie Caron and Peter O'Toole, Turner Classic Movies has lined up three rare films for a Discoveries program at its second TCM Classic Film Festival that kicks off Thursday in Hollywood." That's tonight, of course, and the Los Angeles Times' Susan King tells the stories behind the David O Selznick-produced Night Flight (1933), with "John and Lionel Barrymore in their final pairing, plus Clark Gable, Robert Montgomery, Myrna Loy and Helen Hayes," The Constant Nymph, featuring "an Oscar-nominated performance from Joan Fontaine as a teenager hopelessly in love with a handsome composer, played by Charles Boyer," and the "racy 1933 drama" Hoop-La, Clara Bow's final film, "made before Hollywood's self-imposed Production Code guidelines would have curtailed such content." Related read: Imogen Smith's "Ode to Pre-Code" at the Chiseler.
Blogging for TCM, Kimberly Lindbergs maps out an ideal schedule for the festival running through Sunday. Meantime, critics for LA Weekly pick out and write up a dozen highlights. Also, Ernest Hardy has an overview of the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, opening today and running through May 7. As if that weren't enough to keep Angelenos busy, the Southeast European Film Festival is on from today through Monday as well.
"Our massive Pop Cinema program begins tonight," announces International House Philadelphia. "The first ever full survey of the pop art movement in film, we feature three nights of rarely seen films and a panel discussion. Featuring films by Ken Russell, Kenneth Anger, and many more."
The Verzaubert Queer Film Weekend begins tomorrow in Munich. Looking back on the Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Film (BAFICI): Jay Kuehner (Cinema Scope) and Dennis Lim (Artforum).
IN OTHER NEWS
Via Catherine Grant comes news not only of a new issue of Screening the Past but of an entirely revamped site for the esteemed journal as well. Much of Issue 30 is given to a tribute to the late Blake Edwards, "republishing some of most important essays and interviews to have appeared on Edwards over the past 50 years. These include articles by Peter Lehman and William Luhr, Andrew Sarris, Myron Meisel, Alain Masson, Dave Kehr, Charles Barr and many more."
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