By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com
Screening Gotham: Feb. 24-26, 2006
A few of this weekend’s worthwhile cinematic happenings around New York:
–Another winning weekend is shaping up over at the Museum of the Moving Image, where curators have organized a three-day tribute to the late Richard Pryor. The Museum begins the series tonight at 7:30 with a panel discussion featuring Paul Mooney, Lonette McKee and historian Mel Watkins; bits from Pryor’s stand-up performances will be screened throughout. McKee will return tomorrow to chat about Which Way is Up?, while Mooney will be on hand Sunday to present vintage highlights from the short-lived The Richard Pryor Show (to which Mooney contributed his own brilliance as a writer). This is a rare chance to catch Mooney off-Broadway, without Caroline’s cumbersome drink minimum and lousy opening act. I hear Pryor is funny as well.
–The Fourth Annual Red Shift Film Festival moves into Anthology Film Archives, featuring a selection of work by emigrants from the former Soviet Bloc. This year’s theme is “Transit Cinema,” the kind of fascinating qualities of which I shall leave it to the programmers to define:
Today we are embarking on a new mission–to gather and exhibit films and videos made “IN TRANSIT,” by travelers, nomads, pioneers and migrants of all backgrounds. We realize that the outsider, the one who leaves home, who crosses borders or who speaks multiple languages, develops a special way of seeing and relating to the world–a perspective that transcends cultural boundary walls, or tunnels through them–a vision, penetrating and panoramic, which can yield images of unique insight and enduring meaning for everyone.
Come on. Try to tell me you are not intrigued. We are so, so there.
–Hey, here is an idea: Check out all the Best Documentary Oscar nominees this weekend, starting with Marshall Curry’s Street Fight at IFC Center. I am sticking by my July ’05 prediction that Murderball is the film to beat, but Curry’s doc or Alex Gibney and Jason Kliot’s Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room are almost equally sublime intrigues in their own right. Darwin’s Nightmare is now available on DVD for your viewing and clinical depression convenience, as is March of the Penguins. Except for that part about the clinical depression–Penguins threatens something more along the lines of insulin shock. Yes, it will hurt, but at least you’ll be prepared come Oscar night. Deal with it.
Richard Pryor may just be the greatest comedian ever.