Japan | Puerto Rico and the American Dream

THE SIXTH ANNUAL
HANDBALL COURT SUMMER FILMS SERIES
in WHITE PARK
(106th Street between Lexington and Third Avenues)
SATURDAY NIGHTS – AT SUNSET (approx 8PM)

For information: 212.828.0401 or info@medianoche.us

“Political Animals”, this year’s curatorial theme….

MediaNoche presents the free Handball Court Summer Film Series at White Park beginning Saturday, July 12. “Political Animals” is this year’s theme. Curator Judith Escalona brings together a set of fictional films, dramas and comedies, examining the U.S. electoral process. The Candidate (1972), which looks at how a young politician slowly gives up his ideals to be elected, is as relevant today as when it premiered 36 years ago! In the more recent Head of State (2003), a young politician who knows the ropes finds his voice and a way to embrace his ideals. The last film in this set is actually a documentary entitled An Unreasonable Man, a moving portrait of America’s greatest public advocate Ralph Nader that includes a critical view of the entrenched two-party political system.

“Hazardous to your health” groups films dealing with health and the environment. Not to be missed are: Sick Around the World, comparing health coverage in five capitalist democracies, and The Medicated Child, how troubled children are over-prescribed medicines that have unknown long term effects. Lastly, An Inconvenient Truth, screened last year but presented here again, to stress the urgency of global warming.

MediaNoche is a project of PRdream.com. Some program notes were provided by rottentomatoes.com and pbs.org.

“Political Animals”

July 12
THE CANDIDATE (Drama, 1972)
Director: Michael Ritchie
Runtime: 1 hr 54 mins
An idealistic young lawyer and son of a famous governor is pushed into running for the U.S. Senate against the popular incumbent with the assurance that he will lose and not have to give up his integrity or ideals. As the campaign deepens, he finds himself giving in, allowing himself to be manipulated as the polls slowly change and swing in his favor. Soon his backers decide they want him to win after all. By the time Election Day arrives, the young lawyer has become the person he used to speak so vehemently against.

July 19
VOTE FOR ME! (Comedy, 1998)
Director: Nelson Denis, former New York State Assemblyman
Runtime: 1 hr 15 mins
Mad as hell and can’t take it anymore? Become a candidate of the people, fighting for better schools, litter-free streets, more jobs, and less crime! A tenement superntendent Leo Rodriguez decides to make a clean sweep of things in Spanish Harlem by throwing his hat in the ring to help his community. A satirical look at New York City politics – funny and unfortunately based on real events. The names have been changed to protect the guilty!

July 26
HEAD OF STATE (Comedy, 2003)
Director: Chris Rock
Runtime: 1 hr 35 mins
Just weeks before the nation is about to elect a new president, one of the top candidates is killed in a plane crash. Plotting a future run in 2008, U.S. Senator Bill Arnot convinces his staff to pick a replacement who has no chance of winning. But he gets more than he bargained for when he selects Mays Gilliam. At first thankful to be in the spotlight, Mays plays the puppet, but eventually he uses his power to actually say something meaningful. Everyone is shocked to discover that Mays is giving the people exactly what they want.

August 2
BOB ROBERTS (Drama, 1992)
Director: Time Robbins
Runtime: 1 hr 43 mins
Right-wing folksinger Bob Roberts is the anti-Bob Dylan, wowing his supporters with tunes such as “Times Are Changin’ Back” and “Wall Street Rap”. With his clean-cut good looks and squeaky-clean image, Roberts appears as American as apple pie. Yet, he harbors some nasty secrets such as illegal drug trafficking and bank scandals. Roberts’s political trickery fails him when an innocent man is accused of attempting to assassinate the candidate.

August 9
THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN (Comedy, 1992)
Director: Jonathan Lynn
Runtime: 1 hr 52 mins
A small-time con artist goes big time when he hustles his way to the U.S. Congress. Once elected he reaps the usual benefits, and enjoys the perks of power. However, he decides to clean up the Capitol and ends up doing to Congress what Congress has been doing to its constituency all along.

August 16
AN UNREASONABLE MAN (Documentary, 2007)
Directors: Steve Skrovan and Henriette Mantel
Runtime: 2 hrs 3 mins
A close look at how one of the 20th century’s most admired and indefatigable social activists, Ralph Nader, became a pariah among the same progressive circles he helped champion. The film takes the form of an impassioned public debate when it tackles the contentious 2000 and 2004 presidential runs that elicited accusations of splitting the Democratic vote and enabling the election of George W. Bush, making enemies of Nader’s most ardent supporters. Once again, Nader exposes the undemocratic structure imposed by an entrenched two-party system.
Hazardous to your health

August 23
SICK AROUND THE WORLD (Documentary, 2008)
Producer/Director: Jon Palfreman, Correspondent: T.R. Reid
Runtime: 60 minutes
Can the U.S. learn anything from the rest of the world about how to run a healthcare system? Five Capitalist democracies are profiled: England, Japan, Germany, Switzerland, Taiwan. See how they do it!
Viewer comment from healthnet blog: “I watched Frontline’s Sick Around the World documentary last night and really recommend it to all as a sober examination of the healthcare issues that are such a high priority in America today. What I found most insightful about T.R. Reid’s reporting was the clear and practical way he looked at the pros and cons of the national health systems in the U.K., Japan, Germany and Switzerland. Even more impressive was learning how Taiwan went about reinventing their healthcare system by drawing on the best elements of programs around the world.”

THE MEDICATED CHILD (Documentary, 2008)
Producer: Marcela Gaviria
Runtime: 60 minutes
The availability of medication for children who are suffering from psychiatric problems is widespread, but how much research has really been done on the long-reaching effects of these drugs? This program in PBS’s FRONTLINE series speaks to a number of experts in the field, revealing some alarming facts and figures about the lack of research into the effects of commonplace drugs such as Ritalin. In particular, the show focuses on the growing numbers of kids who are believed to be suffering from bipolar disorder, questioning whether these diagnoses are correct and looking at the potential long term damage the medications they are taking could cause.

August 30
AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH (Documentary, 2006)
Director: Davis Guggenheim
Runtime: 1 hr 40 mins
According to most of the world’s scientists, we have just ten years to avert a major catastrophe that could send our entire planet into a tailspin of epic destruction involving extreme weather, floods, droughts, epidemics and killer heat waves beyond anything we have ever experienced. Since losing the 2000 presidential election, former Vice President Al Gore has been an outspoken figure against this potential environmental disaster. For Gore we can no longer afford to view global warming as a political issue – it is simply one of the biggest moral challenges facing every person in our times.

CAMILLE ORTIZ IN A SPRING CONCERT

Musica de Camara Inc. presents a concert, “Painted By Sea and Sun”, at the Museum of the City of New York, featuring the soprano Camille Ortiz on Sunday, April 5th, 2009 at 3 pm. The Museum os located at 1220 Fifth Avenue at East 104th Street in New York City. Admission is free. Ms Ortiz will sing works by Jesus Guridi, Enrique Granados, Hugo Wolf, Claude Debussy and Heitor Villa Lobos. She will be joined at the piano by Jeanne-Minette Cilliers.

Camille Ortiz was born in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico and completed her Master’s Degree of Music at the Manhattan School of Music under the tutelage of Joan Patenaude-Yarnell. She appeared in the Festival of Interpretation of Spanish Song in Granada, Spain where she worked with the acclaimed Spanish mezzo soprano Teresa Berganza. In Italy, she sang leading opera roles with the Centro Studi Lirica and at the Scuola di Leonardo da Vinci in Rome, she completed her Italian studies. Among the numerous venues in which she has been presented in concert are the Carlos Chavez Hall at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma of Mexico, the Sala Manuel de Falla in Granada, Spain, the Tenri Cultural Institute and the Bruno Walter Auditorium. She has been the subject of a nationally broadcast television program on the network Telemundo and last season, after participating in a Master Class conducted by the renown soprano Martina Arroyo, Ms. Ortiz won accolades for her opera portrayals in the subsequent concert “Prelude to Performance” at the Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College. A winner of the 2008 Gerda Lissner Foundation Award and a finalist in the coveted 2009 Liederkranz Competition, she is founder-director of ALMA, an organization that promotes Hispanic American classical repertoire.

Currently on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music, South African pianist Jeanne-Minette Cilliers has been called “a pianistic poet” and has garnered rave reviews for her color-rich and imaginative performances. Much in demand as a collaborator, she has performed in Austria, Germany, Israel, Japan, Sweden, South Africa and across the United States. She fosters a strong interest in contemporary music and her recording of Dominick Argento’s “Andre Expedition” will be released next season. Ms. Cilliers has earned both her Bachelor and Master’s Degress of Music with distinction at the University of Michigan, while studying with fellow South African Anton Nel who is a Naumberg Competition Gold medalist. Ms. Cilliers remains the first and only recipient of an Artist Diploma in Vocal Accompaniment from the Manhattan School of Music. Her upcoming schedule of performances include appearances in New York City, San Francisco, Sweden, South Africa and the Caribbean.
Now celebrating its 29th Year, and founded by soprano Eva de La O, Musica de Camara has presented Puerto Rican, Hispanic and non-Hispanic classical musicians in concert in major concert venues such as Alice Tully Hall; Lincoln Center, the Merkin Concert Hall; Kaufman Cultural Center as well as community centers, schools, colleges, churches and museums. The organization also travels to public schools in under-served communities with its Lecture Demonstration Program.

This concert has been made possible in part with the support of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Council, the New York State Senate and Assembly, the East Harlem Chamber of Commerce, the Museum of the City of New York, the Con Edison Company, Bronx Lebanon Hospital, Consultiva Internacional of Puerto Rico, EMK Enterprises, Deloitte LLP, First Republic Bank, Credit Suisse, Fiddler – Gonzalez – Rodriguez PSC, the Delmar Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Puerto Rico and the American Dream

Tag Archives: Japan

THE SIXTH ANNUAL HANDBALL COURT SUMMER FILMS SERIES IN WHITE PARK

MUSICA DE CAMARA PRESENTS SOPRANO CAMILLE ORTIZ IN A SPRING CONCERT