November 1- May 30
Photo Exhibit
I Was Born Greek
Opening event on November 3 at 4pm with a special
screening of Never on Sunday, starring the inimitable Melina Mercouri
Gallery hours
Mon, Wed, Fri: 10am-6pm; Tues, Thur: 10am-8pm;
Sat: 10am-5pm; Sun: 1-5pm
Wednesdays
November 10, 17, 24 at 2:30pm
Film Series
Refractions of Nikos Kazantzakis:
The Collision of His Words with the Screen
Saturday,
November 13 (time tba)
Film Event
Robert Beavers on Gregory Markopoulos’s Eniaios
Wednesdays
March 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 at 2:30pm
Film Series
A Tribute to Melina Mercouri
Tuesday, November 16 at 6pm
Performance
The Apology of Socrates, presented by Theatron Inc.
The Robert Beavers presentation is supported, in part, by the New York State
Council on the Arts, a state agency. Special thanks to the Melina Mercouri
Foundation, the Foundation for Hellenic Culture, and the Office of the Permanent
Representative of Greece to the United Nations.
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Melina Mercouri. Photo by Bill Yoscary
Nikos Kazantzakis. Courtesy of Kazantzakis Publications
The Donnell Library Center will host two film series, a
photography exhibit, as well as a one-night-only performance of Plato’s The
Apology of Socrates presented by Theatron Inc.
I Was Born Greek is an exhibition of compelling images of Melina
Mercouri by photographer and sculptor Bill Yoscary. Yoscary’s work documents
Ms. Mercouri
from her 1967 Broadway appearance in Ilya Darling through her political
campaign and many years as an activist.
The November film series pays homage to Nikos
Kazantzakis. The tribute,
entitled Refractions of Nikos Kazantzakis: The Collision of His Words
with the Screen, illustrates the impact that this eminent 20th-century writer,
poet, and philosopher has had on a range of film artists. He is best known
for his novels The Greek Passion, Zorba the Greek, and The
Last Temptation of Christ, which inspired the films He Who Must
Die (1957), directed by
Jules Dassin; Zorba the Greek (1964), directed by Michael Cacoyannis; and
Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ (1988). A lecture
by Dr. Peter Bien, an authority on the life and work of Kazantzakis, will
provide a context for the screenings.
Also in November, the Donnell Library Center will present
a day-long celebration and roundtable discussion with filmmaker Robert
Beavers on the long-awaited
screening of the first cycle of avant-garde Greek-American filmmaker Gregory
Markopoulos’s Eniaios. This masterwork, comprised
of 22 cycles and over 80 hours of viewing time, had its highly anticipated
world premiere
in Arcadia, Greece, with three all-night projections this past June.
The March film series is devoted to the enduring legacy
of Melina Mercouri, the late actress, activist, and politician whose commitment
to Greece culminated
in
her role as Greece’s Minister of Culture. Films that will be screened
include Stella (1956), directed by Michael Cacoyannis, and four
films directed by Jules Dassin: Never on Sunday (1960), Phaedra (1962), Topkapi (1964),
and A Dream of Passion (1978).
The Apology of Socrates was written by Plato
to reveal the real genius of Socrates and to right the wrongs inflicted
by his accusers. In
this
presentation by Theatron, directed by
Loukas N. Skipitaris and starring Yannis Simonides, The Apology is
a one-man tour de force that uncovers the man behind the myth. As realized
with a
delicate
mix of humor and authority, we see Socrates not as the larger-than-life
figure we imagine him to have been, but rather as a bit of a nudge, a provocateur,
and a profoundly courageous seeker of truth.
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