By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com
Screening Gotham: Sept. 8-10, 2006
A few of this weekend’s worthwhile cinematic happenings around New York:
–The praise surrounding Ramin Bahrani’s film Man Push Cart reached surreal heights Thursday with his and actor Ahmad Razvi’s appearance on Channel 4’s Live at Five broadcast (left); honestly, it is probably the least the guy deserves for what he has made: An auspicious feature debut, a modest yet painstaking character study and the most sensitively rendered New York film of the year. Razvi portrays a Pakistani pop star-turned-Manhattan push cart vendor trapped in a cycle of mourning for his lost family and immigrant anonymity bequeathed by the city. Leticia Dolera and Charles Daniel Sandoval provide the counterpoints–striving, ambition and potential–just within or just out of Ahmad’s reach. A brilliant, beautiful piece of work, Man Push Cart opens today at the Angelika; tell everyone you know.
–Speaking of strictly New York films, the Pioneer Theater is stocked up with them this weekend. The venue’s feature presentation is the Brooklyn-centric A Cantor’s Tale, while artist Joe Coleman will be on hand for tonight’s screening of a documentary that might be about him, Rest in Pieces: A Portrait of Joe Coleman. Saturday features the film NY (See) and a shorts program from the Lower East Side group Charas, while 9/11 moves front-and-center on Sunday with the docs 9/11 Press For Truth and Vito After. The latter doc, which chronicled the health woes of WTC responders back before it became an anniversary-proximate media cause celebre, will be screening in its New York City premiere; director Maria Pusateri and subject Vito Friscia will participate in a Q&A afterward.
–And speaking of Q&A’s, how much pride do you think Maggie Gyllenhaal takes in her new film Sherrybaby? After spending most of her pregnancy’s final trimester in press whirlwinds and premieres, Gyllenhaal will be at the Sunshine tonight after the 7:30 show to talk about her role as a recovering drug addict making her way back into family and social life after a prison stint. Meanwhile, a few doors down in the same theater, Kiefer Sutherland is also expected for a chat about I Trust You to Kill Me, a documentary about Sutherland’s record label signees Rocco DeLuca and The Burden. But don’t feel like you have to choose or anything; Sutherland and director Manu Boyer will be around after Saturday’s 7:45 screening as well.