Things to Do

Where & When: What to Do This Weekend

Lots of international film festivals, an art happy hour, improv comedy and more are in our weekend picks.

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Thursday, January 22: Che, Steven Soderbergh’s four-hour film starring Benicio Del Toro as the Argentine revolutionary, is playing at E Street Cinema. Del Toro will be in attendance for a Q&A following the screenings at 1 and 7. For tickets ($15), click here. UPDATE: Both shows have sold out.

Power Hours, a weekly happy hour at the Corcoran Gallery of Art organized in conjunction with the “Richard Avedon: Portraits of Power” exhibit wraps up today. The $25 cover charge includes wine and hors d’oeuvres; 5:30 PM.

Photographs of past presidents are on display through Friday at the Armour J. Blackburn Gallery at Howard University. The gallery is open from 9 AM to 9:30 PM. Free.

The Fourth Stream, a jazz trio composed of local musicians, performs at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage. Tonight’s performance will feature guest musicians on the violin and flute; 6 PM.

The Virgins, the New York City band made famous by Gossip Girl, is back in town and performing at the Rock & Roll Hotel. Model-turned-singer Lissy Truille opens the show. Doors open at 8. For tickets ($12), click here.

Friday, January 23: Film Neu, the Goethe-Institut’s annual festival showcasing the best of German, Austrian and Swiss cinema, starts tonight with the screening of Jerichow—about a discharged German soldier returning home to claim his mother’s house—at E Street Cinema. A reception will follow at the Goethe-Institut, with beer, wine and food. Tickets for the reception and screening are $25. For more information, click here.

The exhibit “Politics by Design: The Art of Inspiration,” which examines the role of technology and images in the 2008 presidential campaign, closes this weekend at Dissident Display Gallery. For more details, check out the gallery’s Web site.

A Friday-night staple worth revisiting over and over (and over) again, DC9’s Liberation Dance Party is ideal for those looking to dance to the latest in indie pop—or drink like maniacs. There’s an open bar (rail drinks only) from 9 to 10:30. $6 cover charge.

Everyone’s raving about Slum Dog Millionaire, but if you prefer your award-buzz films less happy and more dour, Jonathan Demme’s Rachel Getting Married, starring Anne Hathaway as a reckless, recovering addict, is our pick. The film is at the AFI Silver Theatre. Tickets ($10) can be purchased here.

Saturday, January 24: Politics and Prose hosts a screening of Ralph Steiner’s 1939 film The City at 1. Focusing on family life, the movie contrasts life in small towns and industrialized cities. Georgetown University history professor Joseph McCartin will be in attendance to discuss the film.

Russian Women in the Arts, hosted by the Russian Cultural Center and organized in conjunction with the International Club of DC, celebrates Russian women’s contributions to music, culture, and cuisine, with a cocktail reception, a buffet of Russian delicacies, and a musical performance by Marina V. Tickets ($89) can be purchased here.

Chicago City Limits, the New York City-based improv comedy show, performs at the Barns at Wolf Trap at 7:30. Tickets ($22) can be purchased here.

Sunday, January 25: Part of the Iranian Film Festival, Head Wind looks at government censorship and the struggle for open access to information in Iran. The film shows at 2 in the Freer Gallery’s Meyer Auditorium. Tickets are distributed an hour before showtime.

Role Models: Feminine Identity in Contemporary American Photography” at the Museum of Women in the Arts closes today. The exhibit features the work of female photographers spanning the past 30 years. The exhibit is open from noon to 5; tickets are $10.

The Goethe-Institut hosts a reading of Hilda Stern Cohen’s Words That Burn Within Me: Faith, Values, Survival, a collection of poems written by the late author during her imprisonment in the Lodz ghetto and Auschwitz, at Politics and Prose; 5 PM.

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