Last night, SPACE was in listening room mode. Tables, candles, red wine, etc. It was a fitting break from this fog that’s been sitting on Portland for what seems like forever. Brooklyn post-experimental-chamber-punk group Zs (glad we got that out of the way) brought their short East Coast tour to Portland, obliterating any notion of what modern music might be through intense dynamics, repetition, and volume. Locals Mystic Out-Bop Review opened and complemented the headliners well with their own improvised experimental jazz, featuring Kit Demos’ latest toy: an acupuncture machine-turned-synthersizer, which sound not entirely unlike a cracked-out theremin.
We were honored to host the venerable Burmese monks U Pyinya Zawta, U Gawsita and U Agga Nya Na this past week with our screenings of the film Burma VJ Wednesday and Thursday. The monks were leaders of the Saffron Revolution in Burma in 2007 and now live in exile in Utica, New York where they continue their work with the All Burma Monk’s Alliance.
Today the New York Times featured a story and thoughtful multimedia essay about the monks and their life in exile. It was a pleasure to meet them and hear about their struggle for democracy in their homeland. Special thanks to Nickie Sekera from the US Campaign for Burma for helping to connect us with them.
Forbidden Lie$ is the film equivalent of a thinking-person’s beach book . . . it’s smart, thoroughly entertaining and once you’re hooked, almost impossible to put down. The film tells the story of author Norma Khouri who’s first book, Forbidden Love, about the supposed honor killing of a childhood friend in Jordan, was a runaway success that sold over 250,000 copies worldwide. But after an Australian journalist asserts that the book is a well crafted hoax, the story goes off the rails and we’re sent down the rabbithole, chasing the elusive truth about Norma Khouri.
It’s a twisting wild ride, involving fake names, FBI allegations of million dollar fraud, mob connections, and Norma Khouri’s constant, but serpentine insistence that the story she has told is true. When I saw the film at a festival last year, the theater was completely abuzz with hisses and whispers debating Norma’s credibility. We’ll do a quick, informal poll after the screening to see what the SPACE audience thinks . . . is Norma Khouri a “Con” or an “Artist”?
Director Anna Broinowski has made a film that stylistically mirrors Norma’s twisting story and keeps the audience guessing at the truth. “The marriage between con-artist and filmmaker is a match made in heaven: both use a million tiny deceits to manipulate the way we think and feel; both are in the business of making illusions real.”
When Broinowski read Malcolm Knox’s Sydney Morning Herald article exposing Norma Khouri as a hoax in July 2004, she knew she’d found the subject for her next documentary. “I wanted to know what kind of woman could be so brilliant that while on the run from the FBI she could reinvent herself as a Jordanian virgin with a Fatwah on her head, write a best-seller, and convince the best publishing and media minds in the world that she was telling the truth.”
In what is starting to look like an annual tradition, the local label/collective l’animaux tryst (field) recordings‘ Tryst Haunt took over SPACE once again, declaring “SPACE is the place.” Tempera (pictured below in a hut fashioned on the spot by our friends at the Pine Haven Collective) were celebrating the release of a new LP, while the shapeshifting Cursillistas and White Light were unveiling a split record and setting off for a couple weeks on the road (in the form of Matt L and Ian P supporting/opening/double-headlining a spat of shows across the country). A.M. Frank (above) finished off the live music portion of the evening with a rousing take on Suicide’s no wave electro punk chaos, strobes included.
White Light and Cursillistas return to Maine today, with a show (again with Tempera) at BUOY in Kittery. Both artists will also be playing the Arootsakoostik Festival in New Sweden on Saturday.
All photos by Jon Donnell. Check out the full gallery from this show here.
Just shy of a year since their last appearance at SPACE, Northampton’s excellent Winterpills returned to close out a night of local celebration on Saturday, June 13. Technically, it was Bird In The Rafters‘ party, as the evening marked the release of their debut album, Jetlag. They had some help from Seymour and Computer At Sea, who opened the show and whose members jumped in to add some additional noise manipulation to the closing song of their set.
The New York Times ran an op-ed this spring about artists buying $100 houses in a depressed Detroit neighborhood. Turns out one of the artists is SPACE alum Jon Brumit, who entertained us with his impromptu residency “Vendetta Retreat” back in the Summer of 2005. Jon has written on his website about the experience and how it relates to his and his wife’s artistic careers.
Our friend Wendy posted on takepart.com about a chance to chat live with Robert Kenner, the director of Food, Inc.
She says:
“It is simple to participate. At 10am PST on Friday 6/19 login to twitter and put #foodinc in the search bar and hit enter. You are now following the conversation. If you have a question, be sure to put the #foodinc tag in it. This way the question will stay on this thread. We expect a large turnout so please be patient while we try to answer as many questions as possible. We appreciate your support in getting our vital message out to the public.
When Old Town, Maine native, Aron Gaudet finished his first feature film, The Way We Get By, his work was only half done. Gaudet (and filmmaking partner Gita Pullapilly) have crafted a gem of a film that’s been picking up awards at festivals around the country (SXSW, Full Frame, Cleveland . . .) but when your subjects are senior citizens and US troops returning from Iraq, you face a certain marketing challenge. The Way We Get By is a true feel-good film that details the troop greeters at the Bangor International Airport. If it doesn’t immediately catch your attention, give the trailer a watch and we think you’ll understand why it’s been winning the accolades:
The Way We Get By will be on PBS in the Fall but as part of a series of screenings across the state, we’ll be showing the film at SPACE for three screenings: Friday, June 19th at 7:30, Saturday, June 20th at 3:00pm and Sunday, June 21st at 7:30pm.
Our friend artist/designer Timothy Ellis Cole of Partner Projects is hanging a show of his work at the White Heart for a July First Friday opening. You’ve seen his work around town, including many poster designs for SPACE over the last few years. Good work, Tim!
