San Diego Weekend Arts Events: Music Of Vietnam, Black Opera, HRW Film Festival And 'Experiments On Stone'
Speaker 1: 00:00 This weekend in the arts, we have some super bowl alternatives for you, and some of them can even involve sitting on your couch with snacks on our radar. This weekend is an afternoon of Vietnamese music. The human rights watch film festival and the nightly opera streams from the met featuring iconic black singers. Joining me is KPBS arts editor and producer Julia Dixon Evans, and welcome Juliette. Speaker 2: 00:27 Hi Maureen. Thanks for having me. Speaker 1: 00:29 Well now, first up earlier this week, we spoke about one of the filmmakers involved with the human rights watch film festival that film through the night is about a 24 hour childcare center. What can you tell us about the other films in the festival and how can we watch them? Speaker 2: 00:45 Yeah, so there's four other films. We can also cover. One of the upsides to these virtual festivals is how easy it is for more casual viewers to decide last minute to tune in for some portion of it. So first up is missing in Brooks County. It's a film that looks at the human toll of immigration policies in a Texas border County. There's an interior border patrol checkpoint, and many migrants crossing the border have to navigate through the dangerous terrain in the desert to go around it and hundreds die. Every year, we've followed some of the families trying to find missing migrants and some of the human rights workers trying to help Speaker 3: 01:24 The goal with this was to shut down the borders that were easier to cross, to funnel people into the most dangerous terrain. And they knew there was going to be a large death toll, but they assumed that that would prevent more migrants from coming and it didn't. Um, it funneled them into the most dangerous place to cross and they never stopped trying to come. Texas now has surpassed Arizona and the number of migrant deaths, the national Institute of justice came out with a report calling unidentified remains the nation's silent mass disaster, Speaker 2: 01:57 And that's from missing in Brooks County. Another film is talking about trees, which is about a group of filmmakers and friends, trying to pull off a public film screening in Sudan where cinema has been banned for the 30 years prior. Next there's. I am Samuel, which is based in Kenya where anyone identifying as LGBTQ is criminalized, and we follow Samuel, a rural preacher son who finds solace in Nairobi's LGBTQ community and falls in love. There's also a free Q and a at four o'clock on Saturday with the director and human rights advocates. And finally, there's a reckoning in Boston. One of the plot lines in this film follows Kathy Dixon, who is a woman trying to build a community garden and land cooperative. And she struggles against bias racism, gentrification, and a city that keeps trying to shut it down. Dixon and the filmmaker, James Rutenbeck will be part of the closing panel on Saturday night at seven, the human Speaker 1: 03:02 Own rights watch film festivals, screens, five films on demand. Through Tuesday, you can buy tickets for individual films or get a festival pass for full access. Next, the metropolitan opera in New York is offering two weeks of nightly free streams of iconic opera performances featuring black opera singers with Julia. What stands out to you? Speaker 2: 03:26 So the met offer has been doing these nightly streams and for black history month, they're dedicating two straight weeks of selections that feature these black opera singers. And one that caught my eye is Saturday nights. They're acclaimed 1988 production [inaudible] by Strauss with legendary soprano. Jesse Norman is AdNet. She just passed away in 2019. She went on to receive a national medal of the arts Kennedy center honors and five Grammys. I recently watched a scene from this production and I held my breath the entire time watching your thing. Speaker 4: 04:23 [inaudible] Speaker 2: 04:23 Jesse Norman and the met opera is Ariana Alf Naxos. And I don't often recommend streaming arts picks from out of San Diego, but this is a pretty special opportunity. And as I'm going to answer that you have from four 30 on Saturday until three 30 on Sunday to watch. So you could even also watch the Superbowl when you're done. Speaker 1: 04:42 What a combination, the 1988 production of Ariana off Naxos by Strauss performed by the metropolitan opera in New York streams for free Saturday evening on Sunday, San Diego center for world music is hosting an event of the traditional music of Vietnam. Tell us more. Speaker 2: 05:01 Yeah, this is going to be really cool. Cause they're bringing in composer and performer bound on Bo, who is known for her experimental takes on traditional Vietnamese music and instrumentation also dialing in will be ethnomusicologists Alexander Cannon, and they'll dig into Vietnamese folk music and its ties to resilience in the Vietnamese people that will perform several works, including some new pieces inspired by the pandemic. And also earlier work. I especially love her piece three mountain pass, which really shows off her amazing vocals alongside a single instrument, the melodic hang drum and the workspace on 18th century, female Vietnamese poetry Speaker 4: 05:55 [inaudible] [inaudible] Speaker 1: 05:58 That's three mountain pass by [inaudible] who performs and discusses her work online through the center for world music Sunday at 2:00 PM, it's free, but advanced registration is required for more arts events or to sign up for Julia's weekly KPBS arts newsletter go to kpbs.org/arts. I've been speaking with KPBS arts editor and producer Julia Dixon Evans. Julia. Thank you. Thank you. Speaker 5: 06:26 Have a good weekend.
