The North Carolina branch of Girls Rock (a part of the larger Girls Rock Camp Alliance) will be hosting a benefit show tonight at the Duke Coffeehouse. Scientific Superstar plays at 8, Princess and the Criminals at 9 and Blondie cover band Heart of Glass at 10. It’s a $5 suggested donation for a cool organization. Check it out.
The 2010 Strange Beauty Film Festival will kick off tonight at 8:15 PM at Manbites Dog Theater in downtown Durham. The festival features 50 short films that span almost every possible genre including documentary, animation, experimental and musical. Scene 32, a film by production teaching fellow Shambhavi Kaul of the Arts of the Moving Image department, will screen in the first block of films tonight. Kaul’s film was previously shown at the New York Film Festival this past fall. Additionally, at 9:30PM, a compilation of newsreels, famous film clips and home videos put together by Durham filmmaker Tom Whiteside will be in display. The festival continues tomorrow, with screening block #2 at 2PM and block #3 at 8:15 PM.
You can view the entire schedule here and check out a slightly, err, trippy preview of the festival on its homepage.
recess’ Emily Ackerman recently spoke with The Lovely Bones star Saoirse Ronan on a college conference call. Ronan sounded off on the dark roles in which she’s often cast, what is was like to be nominated for an Oscar at such a young age and her thoughts of Hannah Montana and The Hobbit.
Read the full transcript of all the participants’ questions and Ronan’s responses after the jump.
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Elle Mehrmand and Micha Cárdenas will be visiting Duke next week for a performance and artists talk. The duo will present technésexual: a mixed reality performance Monday, Jan. 25 in SoundSense Studio, CIEMAS at 6 p.m. and deliver a talk at the Nasher Wednesday, Jan. 27 at 4 p.m. The performance is part of a larger series entitled mixed relations exploring the relationships between bodies and technology. According to a statement on the piece, previously performed in Bogota:
In technésexual the performers commit playful erotic acts in physical and virtual space simultaneously, using devices to amplify the sound of their heartbeats for the two audiences.
Their visit is sponsored by the Experiencing Virtual Worlds Working Group, ISIS, Art, Art History & Visual Studies and Women’s Studies, and you can find more information on the piece here.
Screen/Society’s Spring 2010 program will officially begin tonight at 7PM in Griffith Theater with the screening of Tongzhi in Love. The film, the first installment of the Kenan Ethics series, follows the dilemmas of being gay in modern China. There will be a post-screening discussion led by Professor of Philosophy David Wong, Assitant Professor of Chinese Literature and Culture Guo-Juin Hong (also affiliated with Arts of the Moving Image and Women’s Studies) and Associate Professor of Women’s Studies and Cultural Anthropology Ara Wilson. Director Ruby Yang won an Academy Award in 2006 for her previous documentary short The Blood of Yingzhou District.
Calendar, the first film of the Accented Cinemas of the Middle East series, witnesses the unraveling of an Armenian marriage at the hands of technology’s inherent dangers. It will screen tomorrow night at 8PM in White Lecture Hall.
Finally, a deeper look into the life of current Nasher exhibited and wildly famous artisit Andy Warhol is offered with part one of Ric Burns’ Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film. It will screen at, you guessed it, the Nasher this thursday at 7PM.
You can find the entire Screen/Society Spring schedule here. You can also read about the series at greater depth in the Spring Arts Preview insert of The Chronicle’s Jan. 27th issue.