Among the offerings at FilmFest DC is Norway’s Kon-Tiki, nominated for an Oscar this year. Photograph courtesy of Filmfest DC.
Filmfest DC returns for its 27th year— April 11 through 21—and after almost three decades of reviewing more than 300 submissions annually, founder Tony Gittens has a definite idea of what makes a good film: “Ultimately, it comes down to the story. The stories seem to be pretty much about the same thing—people understanding their place in the world, trying to have connections with other people, and finding themselves with obstacles to overcome.”
This year’s roster encompasses 81 features, documentaries, and shorts from around the world. Films are grouped thematically, including an espionage-and-thriller category called Trust No One. Among the festival’s highlights are the US premiere of Underground: The Julian Assange Story, an Australian movie starring Alex Williams as the WikiLeaks founder and Rachel Griffiths as his mother. Also on the roster: Stories We Tell, an autobiographical documentary by Canadian actress turned director Sarah Polley (Away From Her, Take This Waltz); Kon-Tiki, the Oscar-nominated Norwegian drama about Thor Heyerdahl’s groundbreaking voyage across the Pacific Ocean; and The Attack, a Lebanese film about a middle-class man who learns his wife is a suicide bomber. “A number of things have changed in 27 years,” Gittens says. “We’re seeing a lot more variety and more diverse voices. But we have a loyal audience and they’re very knowledgeable. To know we’re making a contribution to the city’s cultural scene is a good feeling.”
Filmfest DC. April 11 through 21. For schedule, venues, tickets, and other details at the festival’s website.
This article appears in the April 2013 issue of The Washingtonian.
Find something to add to your book collection at the Carpe Librum pop-up book sale. Image via Shutterstock.
Monday, April 8
DOUGHNUTS: After months of teasing and pop-up shops, Astro Doughnuts & Fried Chicken is finally open. Skip out of work now if you can—the first 200 customers today will get a free doughnut (with purchase of anything else). The first 50 there for lunch get a free side. 8 AM until the doughnuts are gone.
BOOKS: Carpe Librum, a huge pop-up book sale, returns for the 11th consecutive year. With more than 50,000 used books, CDs, and DVDs, you’ll definitely be able to find something to add to your library. Sales help fund programs for DC Public Schools children. The sale starts today (1030 17th St., NW) and runs through May 15. 10 AM to 7:30 PM.
See fireworks at the Southwest waterfront on Saturday. Photograph via Shutterstock.
Thursday, April 4
PARTY: Fringe Festival is getting started soonish—okay, in a couple of months—but to keep your interest piqued, it’s hosting the annual Gala Gala, complete with open bar, dancing, and Fringe-y weirdness. Don whatever you think most closely approximates “creative Rat Pack attire” and head over to Fringe HQ on New York Ave. Tickets ($50) are available online. 9 PM.
BOOZE AND CRAFTS: Creative types should check out the Renwick Gallery’s Handi-Hour—DC’s only (I think) event that combines arts and crafts with booze. You’ll spend two hours learning how to repurpose old books into cool pieces of art while you sip two free craft beers selected by ChurchKey’s Greg Engert. Tickets ($20) are available online. 5:30 PM.
Friday, April 5
ART: The Corcoran’s Pump Me Up has gotten a lot of people excited about DC’s old punk scene—but it’s also gotten some people riled up about how it kind of glosses over go-go culture. That’s why Contemporary Wing is hosting Mumbo Sauce, a complement/competitor/response to Pump Me Up, featuring go-go show posters and works by BORF, Cool Disco Dan, and many more. The show opens Friday with a reception and music from deejay Stereo Faith. Free. 6 PM.
KARAOKE: DC’s best purveyor of live-band karaoke, HariKaraoke, heads to the Hamilton Friday night. It might be your only chance to sing on a stage that’s been graced by Grammy winners, so bring your A-game. $5. 7 PM.
IMPROV: Washington Improv Theatre is taking over Source Theatre for most of the month to determine which improv troupe is DC’s best. The March Madness-style tournament is down to the sweet 16, so you won’t have to suffer through any bad performers. $12 online or $14 at the door. 10 PM.
VARIETY: The Encyclopedia Show DC takes on explosives this month, meaning you’ll learn all about shrapnel, bombs, volcanoes, the Boston Molasses Disaster, and pop in the show’s typically irreverent style. The lineup includes a slam poet, spoken-word artists, a performance artist, a standup comedian, and a reggae singer. $11 online or $15 at the door. 8 PM.
How closely is Ari Roth’s new play, Andy and the Shadows—at Theater J April 3 through May 5—based on his life? “It’s fictional in that it’s about a middle child, and I’m not a middle child,” says Roth, Theater J’s artistic director, now in his 16th season at the company. Otherwise, the story of Andy Glickstein, the son of two Holocaust refugees wrestling with the burdens of his heritage and forging his own path, is deeply personal. Roth has been working on the play since the 1980s, when an early version won the Helen Eisner Award for Young Playwrights. We caught up with him to discuss crafting a play, facing your history, and his tenure with Theater J.
How long have you been working on Andy and the Shadows, and where did the idea come from?
A long time. It started as a young man’s play, and now it’s a middle-aged man looking back at the exhilarating and vulnerable times of rites of passage. Both my parents are Holocaust refugees, and they were orphaned and forced to leave home at impossibly early ages. Values and trauma get passed down in equal measure, so you try to sift through those as you figure out what your purpose is in life and how you’re informed by your history.
Do you think it’s important as a playwright to write about what you know?
Playwrights can become exhausted by only writing about what they know. But I’m obsessed with the word “authentic”—you want playwrights who have extraordinarily fine ears and can capture the truth of something. You can do that either by reporting extremely closely or by summoning experiences that are so intimate, so close to the bone, that they’re arresting in their detail. You want imagination interacting with the raw stuff of real life. That’s what makes theater so exciting.
Writing and rewriting a play is a process you’ve been through a number of times before. Does it get easier?
No, but it doesn’t get harder. This is the best collaborative team I’ve ever been able to assemble at Theater J, and so that’s where the joy is. Daniella Topol is one of the country’s best directors, and we have wonderful actors who really want to work with you and value the interchange: Alexander Strain, Kimberly Gilbert, Jennifer Mendenhall, Colleen Delany.
What do you hope people take away from this play?
I think the play reflects on simple and complex ideas—on the one hand, the love you share with your family and the ways you respond to the people you’re closest to; on the other, how to really listen, examine, and uncover their complexity. The Holocaust has stamped me indelibly. You want to be liberated from your history, but you want to be on intimate terms with it at the same time.
You’re in your 16th season now at Theater J.
It’s longer than I’ve had any job, and longer than we’ve lived anywhere. My wife and I began our life together in New York, and we’ve also been in Cambridge [Massachusetts], Ann Arbor, Tel Aviv, New York again, and now here. Washington has become more and more self-sustaining as a city. Coming here to a relatively small market back in 1997, I thought, “Okay, I’ll try this for a little while and then move on.” But that was then and this is now, and DC is a very rich pasture to play in.
Andy and the Shadows is at Theater J April 3 through May 5. Tickets ($25 to $60) and more information is at Theater J’s website.
An edited version of this interview appears in the April 2013 issue of The Washingtonian.
Discover wines from less-common US locations at Vinoteca on Tuesday. Image via Shutterstock.
Monday, April 1
ANNIVERSARY: Don your finest suit or dress—our little girl Pharmacy Bar is celebrating her quinceañera today. Or just wear whatever you usually do, it’s a bit of a dive anyway. The Adams Morgan institution is serving up $1 Natty Bohs and cutting prices back to 1998 levels all night; there’ll also be a host of old deejays to make you feel all nostalgic. Free. 6 PM.
Tuesday, April 2
WINE: Who says France or Argentina has the best wine? There are plenty of vineyards growing world-class vino right in your backyard. Vinoteca will show you what to look for with USA! USA! USA!, a wine class that focuses on pours sourced from states other than California, Oregon, or Washington. The class includes five wines and food pairings. Tickets ($40) are available online. 7 PM.
Wednesday, April 3
SEX: Everyone has a good (read: funny, embarrassing, awkward) sex story or two, but not everyone has the guts to spill them to strangers. Luckily, comedians exist. Head to Black Fox Lounge for Bare, a night of sex stories about times the performers used their ingenuity to solve a sexual problem. Fingers crossed none of the anecdotes involves a sandwich bag. $8. 8 PM.
Thursday, April 4
ART: FotoWeek DC’s Spring in Focus opens up this week, and hopefully with it we’ll finally get some springlike temperatures. Subjects include the cherry blossoms, which maybe someday will actually bloom. Expect beer, wine, and light food to celebrate. Free. 6:30 PM.
Know of something cool going on around town? E-mail Jason Koebler at jasontpkoebler@gmail.com, or find him on Twitter.
Zaytinya is among the local spots offering a special Easter brunch. Photograph by Chris Campbell.
Thursday, March 28
DANCE: First Liberation Dance Party, then Fatback, and now, after seven years, Nouveau Riche—three of DC’s best regularly scheduled dance nights have all ended forever in the past few months. Head to U Street Music Hall one last time to go nuts for deejays Gavin Holland, Nacey and Steve Starks, who have decided to end the dance night to focus on their solo careers. Tickets ($10) are available online. 9 PM.
BEER: Smith Commons snatched up brewers from Allagash, Firestone Walker Brewing, New Belgium, Flying Dog, and more for its BeerAdvocate Boil. You’ll find more than 30 rare beers on draft as the Craft Brewers Conference sadly comes to a close. Free. 7 PM.
BEER: Flying Dog Brewery is hosting Festival de Cans at 9:30 Club, presumably to show that a beer doesn’t have to be on tap in order to be delicious. Escort, a 17-member disco orchestra, will provide the tunes you require to get your dance on. Tickets ($25) are available online. 8 PM.
Friday, March 29
COMEDY: Wonderland Ballroom hosts its 27th edition of Don’t Block the Box, which is better than your average DC comedy night. This week’s show features Atlanta’s Matty Litwack, Rallo Boykins, Jessica Brodkin, and Stavros Halkias. $3. 7:30 PM.
KARAOKE: Sick of hearing “Sweet Caroline” and “Don’t Stop Believin’” at karaoke? Black Cat has you covered with Punk Rock Karaoke. Just make sure you’re confident enough to jump around like Ian MacKaye—standing listlessly at the mike isn’t gonna cut it. Tickets ($8) are available online. 9 PM.
WAREHOUSE PARTY: If you haven’t yet, buy tickets for Cherry Blast now and thank me later. DC’s best party of the year (in my opinion) always sells out and is one of the rare times you get to hang out in a giant warehouse decked out with art installations, trippy lighting, and live performance art. But you’re mostly there to dance, so do that. Tickets ($10) are available online. 8 PM.
Check out a craft beer bar crawl on Wednesday. Image via Shutterstock.
Monday, March 25
KARAOKE: Karaoke is usually more of a Thursday night event, but if your pipes are just begging to be used, head to Penn Social for District Karaoke. Get there early and you can watch people who take this stuff very seriously compete to be the best karaoke singer. The stage opens to the common folk (meaning you, probably) at 9 PM. Peronis are $4 all night. Free. 7 PM.
Tuesday, March 26
MUSIC: Punk rockers unplug their guitars for the Revival Tour, which is supposed to remind people of sittin’ around the campfire with a couple acoustic guitars. Dave Hause of the Loved Ones, Tomas Kalnoky of Streetlight Manifesto, Chuck Ragan of Hot Water Music, and two other singer/songwriters will perform some of their bands’ most well-known songs slowed down and acoustic at Black Cat. Tickets ($15) are available online. 8 PM.
Wednesday, March 27
BEER: Wednesday might seem like a weird day for a bar crawl, but with the Craft Brewers Conference in town, anything goes. Twenty bucks gets you a wristband; from then on, you’ll get $3 glasses of craft beer at Rocket Bar, Iron Horse, and Penn Social. Brewmasters will be at each bar to discuss their beers, and there’ll be prizes. Tickets are available online. 4 PM to 1:30 AM.
Thursday, March 28
BURLESQUE: Valentine’s Day, thankfully, is firmly in our rearview mirrors—but the Gibson is bringing back the naughty parts with its Lace and Feathers burlesque night. Dancers from Valentine Candy Burlesque will perform as the Gibson’s top-notch bartenders stir up classy cocktails. Free. 7 PM.
Know of something cool going on around town? E-mail Jason Koebler at jasontpkoebler@gmail.com, or find him on Twitter.
Photographs of Dürer’s “Adam and Eve” and “A Blue Roller” courtesy of the National Gallery of art.
When it comes to Albrecht Dürer, some things are apparently worth waiting for. Seven years after the National Gallery of Art first hoped to present “Albrecht Dürer: Master Drawings, Watercolors, and Prints From the Albertina,” the exhibit finally opens March 24 in the East Building. Curator Andrew Robison calls the show “the greatest exhibition of Dürer ever held in this country.”
Dürer, who lived in Germany from 1471 to 1528, spanned the medieval and Renaissance eras in his work, which included paintings, prints, autobiographical texts, mathematical treatises, and more. Robison compares the artist to Leonardo da Vinci in the scope of his accomplishments: “He was a very curious man, and like Leonardo he was very aware of the changing notion of what an artist could be—this transition from being a craftsperson to being a kind of genius with a special sort of inspiration.”
The Albertina Museum in Vienna, Austria, has the world’s most extensive Dürer collection, and more than a decade ago Robison started discussing a collaboration. But the Albertina didn’t want to expose the fragile works to light too soon after its own Dürer retrospective in 2003, so the National Gallery agreed to wait. The exhibit, which explores Dürer as a draftsman, covers the whole of his career, from 91 drawings and watercolors—including masterpieces such as “The Praying Hands”—to 27 engravings and woodcuts.
“Dürer was above all a realist,” says Robison. “He’s interested in real objects, real aspects of nature, real human beings, and that’s what makes him a great portraitist. It’s a very colorful exhibition and a knockout visually. We’ll be able to survey the whole of this very intelligent, very complex, and supremely gifted human being.”
“Albrecht Dürer: Master Drawings, Watercolors, and Prints From the Albertina” at the National Gallery of Art through June 9. More information is at nga.gov.
This article appears in the March 2013 issue of The Washingtonian.
Photograph by Ursa Waz.
The last time monologuist Mike Daisey was in town, it was with a revised version of The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, the play whose earlier incarnation sparked controversy when it was revealed he’d played with some facts. Daisey performs his new work, American Utopias, at Woolly Mammoth March 25 through April 21. The work explores three idealized visions: Disney World, the Burning Man festival, and Occupy Wall Street. We caught up with Daisey to discuss why utopias fail, his close relationship with Woolly Mammoth, and his complex feelings about social media.
How did you come up with the idea for American Utopias ?
The idea came to me about three years ago. It was born out of the desire to talk about communities that are bound by a dream to make a world more perfect than the one they live in. I’d become obsessed with utopian communities in the 19th century, and I became interested in finding modern analogs to this desire to find a community to transform your life. I settled on Disney World and Burning Man. Then the Occupy movement happened, and it became clear it was the same expression of an impulse to see yourself as part of a tribe.
Why do you think utopias are fated to fail?
Well, it’s built into their DNA. All utopias fail, and that’s in a way the major point of a utopia—they fail in the same way that all societies fail and all civilizations fail. The question is, how long do they persist for? The American experiment has only gone on for about 200 years or so, and in many ways it’s a utopian expression of ideas that were enshrined in those original documents. Right now it doesn’t feel like a utopia because we live in it and it has problems every day, but when America ends we’ll look back at it in a different way. Our terms for success are a little irrational. Truthfully, the only way you can claim a utopian society succeeded is if everyone’s totally happy all of the time.
So they set themselves up for failure.
It depends on how you define failure. Burning Man, for instance, is an environment in which there’s very little commercialization, and money isn’t used. That can be interpreted cynically, because you can be condescending about it and say all these people come from a culture filled with those things, so if they go to the desert for a week and a half it doesn’t change anything. But the truth is that being in that environment is kind of startling because it makes you aware for the very first time what it’s like to live, even temporarily, in a society that isn’t as commodified as the one we live in. In large parts a utopian attempt is really an act of faith that we can make things better.
How long did it take you to research and devise the show?
About three years. It went up for performance for the first time in July, but a lot of the shows develop for a number of years before they come to fruition because it turns out they need research that requires trips. I normally work on many different projects at the same time. But I’ve really enjoyed the amount of time it’s taken to come to the stage, because it’s a good time to talk about the Occupy movement.
What did you end up taking away from this project?
The reason I do these monologues is to explore my obsessions. I could do something else that would be easier and better paid—and cause less trouble—but I wouldn’t be able to find the things I’m interested in and have an excuse to spend enormous amounts of time exploring them. It was tremendously useful to go to Disney World with my extended family, for whom it’s their personal mecca—they worship the mouse.
How would you describe your relationship with Woolly Mammoth?
We’re married—no, dating. We’re like long-term collaborators. We really seem to understand each other. I love their audiences. They may not be the largest but they’re the most motivated and open to risk, and that’s a real commodity. Audiences are actually fundamentally the same everywhere—they’re all human beings—but at the same time, and I hope this is okay to say, I find DC audiences really hungry for compelling work. It’s not that they’re underserved by the arts community at all, because they’re getting lots of great work, but I think it’s because of the nature of some of DC. It’s this odd place that does have natives, but many people are serving terms, and for a large number of them DC is not actually the place they might have chosen to live if they felt they were free to live anywhere else. I hope this isn’t jerky to say, but it does sometimes feel like one of the reasons the audiences are so good is because people are hungry. They’re like, “Oh, my God, I had to go to the State Department, my life is in a cube, I have to go to the theater.” Hidden in some parts of DC is this wild desire to find a place to break free.
You’re very active on social media. Do you think it helps you as an artist?
I don’t know. I hope it is. I’m working on a sequel to The Agony and the Ecstasy about how everything’s changed because of smartphones. This level of social interconnectivity is very acidic to barriers, and it’s very hard to find the level of engagement that might be the right level. For most people there’s an instinct to share and aggregate as much as possible, but I actually wonder what it does long-term—not just to artists but to human relations. It’s too early to tell, isn’t it?
American Utopias is at Woolly Mammoth March 25 through April 21. Tickets ($35 to $67.50) are available via Woolly’s website.
An edited version of this article appears in the March 2013 issue of The Washingtonian.
The Corcoran hosts Artini on Friday. Photograph by Kevin Allen.
Thursday, March 21
ART: We know you’ve been Googling weird stuff on your phone, trying to settle bets about whether or not Kristen Stewart is actually in the timeless classic The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas (she is). The artists behind Search Warrant, a new installation at Artisphere, walked around DC and asked strangers to show them their cell phone search history, knowing most of them would be completely bizarre. The results are paired with videos and photos of their searchers, so you can silently judge them. The installation opens with a party tonight, featuring live music and a cash bar. Free. 7 PM.
MUSIC: Fresh off shows at SXSW, English grunge-pop band Swim Deep and local garage rockers Shark Week must be riding high. Given their names, we assume Shark Week is the bane of Swim Deep’s existence, but they’ll play nice with a special show in the lobby of the Warner Theatre. Tickets ($10) are available online. 8 PM.
Friday, March 22
EMBASSY PARTY: For a short period there, France had a bit of an empire going (merci, Napoleon). As a result, its influence is still seen in lots of countries, such as Switzerland, Belgium, Algeria, and Canada. To remember its glory days (or because it’s just a fun thing to do), the French embassy is throwing the Grande Fete de la Francophonie, a huge party featuring art, culture, music, and cuisine from countries where France has had an influence. After 10, things get a bit crazy as a dance floor opens up. Tickets ($38) are available online. 7 PM.
DRINKS: After a couple weeks of preview nights, eight of DC’s top mixologists meet at the Corcoran to see who can pour the most creative, delicious martini. The catch? It has to be inspired by a famous work of art, hence the Artini name. Besides martinis, hors d’oeuvres will be served, and Alive and Able will supply the music. Tickets ($125) are available online. 8:30 PM.
NEW BARS: You might be interested in The Ghost of Piramida, the new documentary by Danish band Efterklang. The doc, which has gotten good reviews, is about the band’s trip to an abandoned Russian mining town and has been screened at the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam—but even if you’re not into that, the screening gives you a chance to check out Black Whiskey, the new whiskey bar from the guys behind Kushi, before it opens to the public. Free. 7 and 9 PM.
