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EVENTS
AND PROGRAMS
at
the Mechanics' Institute
**** BOX
OFFICE INFORMATION
****
For RESERVATIONS BY PHONE: call
the 'Events Line' at (415) 393-0100
For RESERVATIONS BY EMAIL: rsvp@milibrary.org
Reservations are held at Box Office. Arrive 15 minutes
before event for seat selection
- OPEN SEATING- |
.
AUTHOR
& LITERARY EVENTS
Tuesday,
May 6, 12:30 pm, (café opens at NOON)
Clotilde’s
Edible Adventures in Paris
(Broadway Books)
Clotilde Dusoulier
Co-sponsored
by the Alliance Française of San Francisco
|
If
you adore Parisian cuisine-- whether in undiscovered
bistros, four star restaurants, outdoor markets
or department store food halls – this book
is a an indispensable travel companion for visiting
the City of Light. Even the best picnic spots
are described, the etiquette of eating street
food (never eat while walking) and the best way
to order coffee. Bon Appetit!
Clotilde
Dusoulier is a native Parisian best known
for her
popular blog. She is the author
of an additional book, Chocolate and Zucchini.
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| Members
of MI and AL Free ; Public $10
(French Bistro Lunch available for purchase
in the café)
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Wednesday,
May 14, 6:00 pm
Wrestling
with the Angel of Democracy: On Being an American Citizen
(Trumpeter Books)
Susan Griffin
Co-sponsored
by the League of Women Voters of San Francisco
Photo
credit: Irene Young |
Political
activist, and award-winning writer and poet, Susan
Griffin charts the triumphant moments of American
history and the origins of our democratic ideals
from the Declaration of Independence to the civil
rights and environmental movements. Culling from
personal experiences, the turbulence of our post
9/11 era, and our government's policy-making and
breaking--she describes what each citizen MUST
do to sustain and protect our inalienable rights.
Susan
Griffin is author of nineteen books including
A Chorus of Stones, which was a finalist for the
National Book Award and the Pulizer Prize, The
Eros of Everyday Life, What Her Body
Thought and The Book of Courtesans.
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|
Members
of MI and LWV Free ; Public $10
|
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Wednesday,
June 4, 6:00 pm
The
Billionaire’s Vinegar: The Mystery of the World’s
Most Expensive Bottle of Wine
(Crown)
Benjamin Wallace
|
When
is a single bottle of wine worth $156,000? When
it’s auctioned off as a 1787 Chateau Lafite
Bordeaux and the bottle is engraved with Thomas
Jefferson’s initials. Benjamin Wallace offers
up a heady combination of history, mystery, and
wine lore in his account of a spectacular con
that shook the rarefied world of rare wine collecting.
Benjamin
Wallace has written for GQ, Food
& Wine, and Philadelphia, where
he was the executive editor. He lives in Brooklyn.
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|
Members
Free ; Public $10
|
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Monday,
June 16 : 6:30 pm Mechanics’ Saloon
/ 7:00 pm Performance
7th Annual Bloomsday Celebration
The
Voices of James Joyce:
Readings from Ulysses and Beyond
Directed by Renée Gibbins
|
Renée
Gibbons, Oonagh Kavanagh, Robert Aryes and guest
actors will present dramatic readings from Ulysses,
Finnegan’s Wake, Portrait of
An Artist As a Young Man, Pomespennyeach,
stories from Dubliners; and songs sung
by James Joyce, to express the brilliant, bawdy,
and tender sides of this literary genius. Dress
in your Irish best! Our special Bloomsday menu
will be available throughout the evening. |
|
Members
Free ; Public $10
|
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Tuesday,
June 24, 6:00 pm
The
Political Mind: Why You Can’t Understand 21st
Century American Politics with an 18th Century Brain
(Viking)
George Lakoff
|
|
Linguist
George Lakoff discusses language, politics, the
human brain and how all three connect in his fascinating
study of modern politics. Effective story-telling,
according to Lakoff, touches an emotional chord
in humans that is far more effective than the
dry and “logical” discussion of issues.
Any political movement that hopes to succeed must
approach voters using a language that engages
listeners on that emotional level. The impact
will be seen in this upcoming election!
|
Photo credit: Bart Nagel
|
George
Lakoff, author of
Don’t Think of an Elephant,
Moral Politics, and
Whose Freedom?, is
the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Distinguished
Professor of Cognitive Science at UC Berkeley.
He is also Senior Fellow at the Rockridge Institute.
Members
Free ; Public $10
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| CINEMALlT
FILM SERIES |
Michael
Fox, Curator |
|
|
ABOUT CINEMALIT: Film
lovers and aficionados enjoy an ongoing feast of classic American
and international films at the Mechanics' Institute. CinemaLit programs,
which are presented nine months a year, were created to complement
and highlight the Mechanics' Institute Library's vast collection of
more than 2500 videos and DVDs including classics, drama, comedy,
foreign films and documentaries. The CinemaLit Film Series is open
to members and the public. Each
program begins with an introduction of the movie, genre and themes
by curator Michael Fox or well-known local film writers and critics
such as David Thomson, Eddie Muller, Joe McBride and others. The
evening concludes with a salon discussion involving the audience
and speakers. Films are shown on large screen in the best available
format, DVD or video.
The
Mechanics' Institute's charming meeting room/cafe space, which seats
up to eighty people, provides an intimate, informal atmosphere for
film viewing, lively conversation and congenial socializing. The
cafe offers light refreshments and freshly popped popcorn.
Location:
Mechanics’
Institute,
57 Post Street (near Market St), San Francisco
Transit: MUNI/BART- Montgomery Station
Time: Every Friday. Mechanics’ Café opens
at 6:00 pm
Program begins at
6:30 pm. A salon style discussion follows the film.
Admission: Tickets available at the door.
MIL members: free ; Public suggested donation $10
For more information and reservations: Call (415) 393-0100
or email us
at rsvp@milibrary.org
/ Reservations are required - Limited seating |
.
.
MAY
- SOUTHERN EXPOSURE :
THE FILMS OF LATIN AMERICA |
Friday,
May 2
Aventurera
(1949)
Directed by Alberto Gout ; starring Ninon Sevilla,
Tito Junco
Left alone after her mother runs off with another man and
her father kills himself, Elena attempts to make a new life
for herself in a new city. Believing he's a friend, Elena
goes to dinner with "Pretty Boy" Lucio, but he drugs
her champagne and sells her to Rosaura, who runs a brothel
out of her nightclub. Elena becomes a sensation as a dancer,
while she nurtures plans of revenge against those who have
conspired against her.
|
|
Friday,
May 9
A
Place in the World (1992)
Directed by Adolfo Aristarain ; starring
Cecilia Roth, Federico Luppi
Mario and Ana live in a remote Argentine valley with their
12-year-old son Ernesto. Mario runs a school and a wool cooperative;
Ana, a doctor, heads a clinic with Nelda, a progressive nun.
Into this idealistic family comes Hans, a jaded Spanish geological
engineer -- surveying the land for the local patron, to see
if it can be dammed for hydro-electric power, which would
drive the peasants from the land into the cities.
|
|
Friday,
May 16
Central
Station (1998)
Directed by Walter Salles ;
starring Fernanda Montenegro, Vincius de Oliviera
Dora, a dour old woman, works at a Rio de Janeiro central
station, writing letters for customers and mailing them. She
hates customers and calls them 'trash'. Josue is a 9-year-old
boy who never met his father. His mother is sending letters
to his father through Dora. When she dies in a car accident,
Dora takes a trip with Josue to find his father. |
 |
Friday,
May 23
Intimate Stories (2002)
Directed by Carlos Sorin ;
starring Javier Lombardo, Antonio Benedicti
Three people and a baby set off on separate journeys along
the same road; their disparate dreams and stories intertwining
amidst the breathtaking deserted route in Patagonia. This
charming, funny and moving film is a tribute to the small
moments of everyday life. Captivating simplicity, gentle humor,
rich humanity and an infectious generosity of spirit.
|
|
Friday,
May 30
Nine
Queens (2000)
Directed by Fabian Bielinsky ; starring
Gaston Pauls, Ricardo Darin
Two grifters meet by chance. Marcos, who seems to have cheated
everyone he knows. He teaches Juan tricks for a day, but needs
more to bribe a judge to release his father from prison. Marcos
gets a call from an aging, ex-associate needing help to sell
a forged set of rare stamps, the Nine Queens, to a businessman
about to be deported (he can't take cash, but could take stamps
out of Argentina). When the con men improvise, Marcos asks
Juan to use his savings to set up the deal. Is Juan about
to be conned? |
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| CinemaLit
Film Series
Guest Speaker Biographies |
| Michael
Fox has written about film for more than 50 regional
and national publications since 1987. He created and authored
the “Reel World” column in SF Weekly for more than
a decade, and hosted the first season of KQED-TV’s short-lived
program on independent film, “Independent View.” He
has sat on juries for the San Francisco International, Mill Valley,
Cinequest and United Nations Association film festivals and the
Independent Television Service (ITVS), and contributes notes to
the San Francisco, Mill Valley and SFILGBT festival programs.
He also teaches courses in documentary film at the Osher Lifelong
Learning Institute at San Francisco State’s downtown campus. |
|
| |
Terrance
Gelenter
is a nationally syndicated film critic, lecturer and interviewer.
Among his many interviewees are Billy Wilder, Sidney Lumet,
James Ellroy, and Isabel Allende. He is founder of Paris
through Expatriate Eyes, a firm specializing in designing
and escorting literary and cultural tours of Paris. The CinemaLit
title is used with permission of Terrance Gelenter.
|
| Matthew
Kennedy teaches anthropology at the City College
of San Francisco and film history at the San Francisco Conservatory
of Music. He is a film critic for Bright Lights Film Journal
online and has written three books on classic Hollywood: Marie
Dressler: A Biography, Edmund Goulding's Dark Victory,
and Joan Blondell: A Life between Takes. For more information,
please visit his website. |
|
| |
Eddie
Muller
is film-noir expert and author of Dark City: The Lost World
of Film Noir, Dark City Dames, and co-author of Grindhouse:
The Forbidden World of Adults Only Cinema. His mystery
novels include The Distance and Shadow Boxer. |
| David
Thomson’s
writing has appeared in Film Comment, Movieline, The New Republic
and Vanity Fair. He is a regular contributor
to Esquire and The New York Times. He is
the author of A Biographical Dictionary of Film, Showman: The
Life of David O. Selznick, Rosebud, the award winning
biography of Orson Welles, Beneath Mulholland and Nevada. |
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SALONS
AND SPECIAL PROGRAMS
ART
EXHIBITION &
The
Color of Spring
Paintings by Jucivaldo Tavares
| Exhibit
Hours: M-F weekdays 10:00 am - 5:00 pm ,
4th floor Meeting Room and Hallway
|
| |
Tavares
is an emerging artist from Salvador da Bahia, Brazil,
whose bold vivacious painting gives expression to
work marked by a profound harmony between the composition
and the colors.
"My
type of Abstractionism comes out of an emotional,
realistic movement of life. Through composition
and vibrant colors I express all of my sentiments.
Everything I see and feel inspires me to create
shapes, lines and contrast, a colorful circle that
explores art and completes my composition."-
J.T.
"Composition
yearns for a realism of strong color. Flowers, with
diverse lines and form, highlight the beauty of the
landscape with a defined contrast. I see colorful
brushstrokes of emotion residing in nature; I hope
to fill your knowledge with the desire to search for
your essence in the painting. Like an endless dream.
"- Jucivaldo Tavares
Jucivaldo
Tavares completed his first studies
at MAM, Museum of Modern Art, in Salvador da Bahia,
Brazil, 1996. He later continued with Advanced Studies
at MAM in São Paulo, 1999 and received his
MA at the University of São Paulo, 1998-2004.
Tavares’ art has been seen and exhibited around
the world including Canada, Italy, United States,
Germany, Austria, Chile, Switzerland, Costa Rica,
Portugal, Spain, Finland, Sweden, Great Britain,
Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Luxembourg, Argentina
and Holland.
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Thursday,
May 22
5:30 pm Refreshments : 6:00 Meeting
|
Members'
Meeting
Meet and enjoy conversation
with fellow members, staff and Board of Trustees
in our cafe, followed by an informative meeting
about new directions and developments at the Institute.
|
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Free
to members and guests
4th floor Members Lounge / Meeting Room
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| Volunteer
Opportunities:
Volunteers are needed for our Events and CinemaLit
Film Series.
Call Laura Sheppard, Director of Events at (415) 393-0114
or Pamela Troy, Events Assistant/CinemaLit Coordinator at (415)
393-0116. |
Revised: May 2, 2008
|
