Subterms
On the Scene: Cannes Film Festival đ«đ·Kyle BuchananReporting from the French RivieraThe standing ovation for âAnnetteâ â an esoteric musical with songs from the band Sparks â lasted so long (over five minutes!), Adam Driver and Leos Carax, its director, both lit up cigarettes in the theater. More
Spending three days camping at a muddy music festival is a British tradition. But event operators fear that few will go ahead this summer, despite a trial last weekend.DONNINGTON PARK, England â At 5 p.m. on Friday, a metal band called Death Blooms walked onstage in a field here and launched into a pummeling track to open Download Festival, Britainâs first large-scale music festival to take place since the Covid-19 pandemic began.A second later, several hundred rain-soaked fans â including two men dressed as bananas â began careering into one another in front of the stage, arms and legs flailing, smiling ecstatically as they formed Britainâs first legal mosh pit in 15 months.After 10 minutes, Jim Ellison, one of the bananas, rushed out of the tent to catch his breath. âItâs so good to be back to normality,â said Ellison, 19. He acknowledged that most wouldnât define normalcy as âa man in a banana costume moshing,â before cutting the interview short as Death Blooms started playing a song called âLife is Pain.ââIâm really sorry,â Ellison said, excusing himself, âbut I love this tune.â He ran straight back into the pit.When the metal band Death Blooms opened Download, a mosh pit quickly formed in front of the stage.Joe Giddens/Press Association, via Associated PressSince the 1970s, music festivals have been a key part of the British summer: events where teenagers get a first taste of parent-free vacations, music fans find community and people generally get very muddy and carefree. But there is widespread concern that few events will go ahead this year despite nearly half of Britainâs population having been fully vaccinated against Covid-19. And organizers say they risk going bankrupt.Last week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that social distancing measures would continue in England until at least July 19 â almost a month after all restrictions were planned to be lifted. Within days, several major festivals were canceled for the second year in a row, with organizers saying they couldnât afford to pay suppliers if there was no guarantee that the events would occur.âThere seems to be a whole body of evidence saying, âYou can do outside events safely,â but for some reason the government wonât let us,â Chris Smith, the director of WOMAD, a world music festival, said in a telephone interview. His event was scheduled for July 22, and Smith was hoping that the government would provide support so the event could go ahead.British festivals range from world-renowned events like Glastonbury â which turns a farm in southwestern England into a temporary city for one week each year â to scrappier productions like Tribfest, an event for cover bands.In 2019, almost 1,000 were held, attracting 5.2 million attendees, according to the Association of Independent Festivals, a trade body. That year, festivals generated 1.7 billion pounds, $2.3 billion, for Britainâs economy.Download was initially canceled in March. This weekendâs hastily arranged special edition was able to go ahead only because it is part of a government trial to see whether and how cultural life can return safely. Previous pilot events â two 3,000-person club nights and a 5,000-capacity rock concert in Liverpool â led to eight cases of potential coronavirus transmission, according to one of the scientists involved, Iain Buchan.Arriving on the first day of Download for a typically rainy and carefree British festival. Joe Giddens/Press Association, via Associated PressDownload 2021 had a significantly reduced capacity: The three-day metal, punk and hard rock festival usually sees over 110,000 hard-rock fans camp in Donnington Park â a set of fields next to a racetrack in Leicestershire, England â to watch bands like Slipknot and Slayer. But for the government trial, only 10,000 fans were allowed, and the lineup featured only British acts to avoid the risks of international travel and quarantines.Attendees had to take a coronavirus test before going in, and agreed to also do one five days after the festival so that scientists could see whether the event caused the spread of coronavirus. But once inside in the grounds, masks werenât required, while headbanging, moshing and drunken conversations at the camp site were prevalent.Melvin Benn, the director of Festival Republic, Downloadâs organizer, said he wasnât concerned about a coronavirus outbreak at the site given the testing system. âI probably need to be more worried about trench foot,â he said while sheltering from a downpour.Attendees also werenât worried about catching Covid. Harry Jackson, 26, a theater technician, said that the only anxiety heâd had around the festival was doing the pre-event test. âI sat there staring at it for half an hour going, âPlease be negative, please be negative, I donât want to miss this,ââ he said. âI consider Download my home,â he added. âItâs my family.âThe organizers of Britainâs other festivals say they can only be sure that their events will go ahead this summer if the government creates an insurance initiative to guarantee their costs if the country delays its reopening again. Austria and Germany have adopted such programs, but the British government has not, despite pressure from politicians.Last month, the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, a cross-party group of lawmakers, said in a report on festivals that there would be a hole in the âlives of music lovers and makers alikeâ this summer as a âdirect result of the governmentâs refusal to back insurance for the sector.âAt least one festival has found a creative solution. Last month, Brainchild â a three-day event for up-and-coming musicians and theater makers that is planned for the beginning of August â asked its 2,500 attendees to agree to be refunded only half their ticket price if the event were canceled so the organizers could start paying acts and equipment suppliers.Only 106 people declined to lose the ÂŁ60, Marina Blake, the festivalâs creative director, said in a telephone interview. âIt was extraordinary,â she said. âIt shows people are so desperate to have something to look forward to,â she added, noting that such an initiative was probably not viable for large events.Ben Barlow, the frontman for Neck Deep, said during the bandâs set that he was glad to be able to perform again.Katja Ogrin/Getty ImagesAt Download, the relief to be back at a festival was palpable. During the pop-punk act Neck Deepâs set, the singer Ben Barlow said, âThis is our first gig in two years, and I never want to wait that long again.ââIf weâre the lab rats, letâs give them a good experiment,â he added, encouraging the heaving crowd to mosh. Barlow looked close to tears several times during the set.On Saturday morning, the scene at Donnington Park was typical for a British music festival. Music fans wandered around bleary-eyed, and two interviewees said theyâd decided to skip the on-site showers and instead freshen up with a combination of wet wipes and hand sanitizer.At 11:30 a.m. James Carroll, 23, stood by a stage, waiting for the dayâs music to start. He was hurting a bit from moshing the day before, he said, but it was nothing that a few cans of beer couldnât sort out. âDay two, straight back on it,â he said.Soon, a band called Lotus Eater took to the stage, its singer screaming into a microphone as his band created a cacophony behind him.Immediately, the mosh pit began again. There were no men in banana costumes this time, but soon there was someone dressed as a Tyrannosaurus rex. More
From the Williamstown Theater Festival to New York Stage and Film, theatergoers can experience world premieres, concerts and more.Most summers, as tourists pour into New York City to see theater, New Yorkers pour out to see theater elsewhere. This summer, though, they may do so with extra ardor. As the pandemic lifts, the pent-up demand for live, in-person theater is first being met in the Berkshires and in the mid-Hudson region, where companies are putting up tents, arranging outdoor immersive experiences and welcoming audiences to buildings that have been empty for too long.Some of those companies are old and some new: The Williamstown Theater Festival has been at it since 1955, but Great Barrington Public Theater just started in 2019. Shakespeare & Company, as its name implies, goes heavy on classics â starting July 2, Christopher Lloyd plays King Lear â while Barrington Stage Company focuses on musicals and new plays. For mainstream fare (if âThe Importance of Being Earnest,â opening next week, counts as mainstream), look to the Berkshire Theater Group. For something more experimental, try Bard SummerScape or New York Stage and Film.Wherever you go â below, our critics highlight five possibilities â you will still find pandemic precautions in place. (Check each theaterâs website for specific safety policies.) Even so, after a dark time, these summer shows and festivals truly offer something to celebrate. JESSE GREENWilliamstown Theater FestivalAudiences have always been drawn to the Williamstown Theater Festival for its artistry, which is strong, and its geography, which is sublime. Tucked amid the Berkshires on the campus of Williams College, in a corner of western Massachusetts thatâs just a meander away from Vermont, it seems like the kind of spot that would have an open-air stage or two.In an ordinary summer, no such luck. But this year, Williamstown is taking its slate of world premieres outside.The first stop is the front lawn, where the season starts with âCelebrating the Black Radical Imagination: Nine Solo Plays.â Curated by Robert OâHara, a current Tony Award nominee for his direction of âSlave Play,â the production offers three separate programs, each made up of three 30-minute plays: by GuadalĂs Del Carmen, FranceâLuce Benson and NSangou Njikam (July 6 to 10); J. Nicole Brooks, Terry Guest and Ike Holter (July 13 to 18); and Charly Evon Simpson, Ngozi Anyanwu and Zora Howard (July 20 to 25).âRow,â a production of the Williamstown Theater Festival, will take place on the grounds of the Clark Art Institute, which a reflecting pool.Tony Cenicola/The New York TimesDown the road at the Clark Art Institute, from July 13 to Aug. 8, the museumâs vast reflecting pool will become the stage for âRow,â Daniel Goldstein and Dawn Landesâs musical, starring the singer-songwriter Grace McLean, part of the original Broadway cast of âNatasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812.â Directed by Tyne Rafaeli, âRowâ is inspired by Tori Murden McClureâs memoir, âA Pearl in the Storm,â about rowing solo across the Atlantic Ocean.And from July 20 to Aug. 8 around the town of Williamstown, audiences can experience the immersive performance âAlien/Nationâ on foot or by car. The director Michael Arden and his company, the Forest of Arden, who made last summerâs immersive âAmerican Dream Studyâ in the Hudson Valley, teamed up with the playwrights Jen Silverman and Eric Berryman for this one, which uses local history from 1969 as a starting point. (wtfestival.org) LAURA COLLINS-HUGHESBard SummerScapeThe Frank Loesser musical âThe Most Happy Fellaâ boasts one of the most wondrous scores of the 1950s â a decade filled with stiff competition. The show is packed with songs whose styles are mixed and matched with formidable agility, going from operatic arias to dance romps to jazzy croons and back again.Yet âThe Most Happy Fellaâ is less famous than, say, Loesserâs âGuys and Dolls,â and that might have something to do with what some might generously call its baggage. The middle-aged, homely title character, Tony, an Italian immigrant prone to mangling English, falls for, deceives and eventually wins over a younger waitress. This plot has not aged well.This makes the prospect of the director Daniel Fishâs âMost Happy in Concertâ (Aug. 5-7) even more intriguing â especially since his ensemble is made up of seven female and nonbinary performers. (While SummerScape events usually take place on the Bard campus, in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., this yearâs productions will be performed at the Stage at Montgomery Place, an outdoor venue in nearby Red Hook.)Daniel Fishâs upcoming âMost Happy in Concertâ at Bard SummerScape will feature Mallory Portnoy, third from left above, and Mary Testa, above right. They both appeared in Fishâs âOklahoma!â production, above, at Bard in 2015, with, from left: Mitch Tebo, James Patrick Davis, John Carlin and Benj Mirman.Lauren Lancaster for The New York TimesOf course, the experimentally minded director has been there and successfully done that already: In 2015, also at Bard, he took âOklahoma!,â long associated with a certain aw-shucks all-Americanness, and pulled off a âvibrant, essential excavation,â as Ben Brantley put it in his review of the premiere production. The show went on to win the Tony Award for best revival four years later.Now Fish is teaming up again with his âOklahoma!â musical collaborators, Daniel Kluger and Nathan Koci, and the actresses Mary Testa (Aunt Eller) and Mallory Portnoy (Gertie Cummings), who will sing alongside the likes of the âToni Stoneâ star April Matthis and the protean performer Erin Markey. Whether a full production ever happens remains a mystery for now, but the prospect of this director with this cast and this score is enough to light up August. (fishercenter.bard.edu) ELISABETH VINCENTELLIBarrington Stage CompanyLast year, this regional theater in the Berkshires, a proving ground for new musicals, announced a truncated summer season. But state directives meant that its artistic director, Julianne Boyd, had to constrict it even further, moving an indoor show, âHarry Clarke,â outdoors. But summer 2021 promises more shows in more venues, inside and out.Mark H. Dold in last yearâs production of âHarry Clarke,â at Barrington Stage Company.Daniel RaderThis season begins, in a tent on the Barrington Stage Campus, with a celebration of the songs of George Gershwin (June 10-July 3). Directed by Boyd, it stars Allison Blackwell, Alan H. Green, Britney Coleman, Jacob Tischler and Alysha Umphress. The tent will also host âBocaâ (July 30-Aug. 22), an evening of Jessica Provenzâs short comedies about Florida seniors; as well as concert evenings featuring the Broadway stars Elizabeth Stanley (June 28), Jeff McCarthy (July 24) Joshua Henry (Aug. 16), and the husband-and-wife pair Orfeh and Andy Karl (Aug. 23). The couple, who met in the Broadway adaptation of âSaturday Night Feverâ and later appeared together in âLegally Blonde,â call the show âLegally Bound.â Aaron Tveit, a current Tony nominee for âMoulin Rouge! The Musical,â will perform at the theaterâs gala.Indoors, the father-and-son Reed and Ephraim Birney star in the lachrymose two-hander âChester Bailey,â starting on Friday. Harriet Harris then appears in âEleanorâ (July 16-Aug. 1), Mark St. Germainâs one-woman play about Eleanor Roosevelt. And the New Yorker writer Alec Wilkinson adapts his article about the conceptual art project, the Apology Line, into a new play, âSister Sorryâ (Aug. 13-29), directed by Richard Hamburger. (barringtonstageco.org) ALEXIS SOLOSKINew York Stage and FilmTheater is not just what you see when itâs finished, itâs what goes on beforehand. New York Stage and Film, an incubator of works in development, provides that âbeforehandâ; something called âThe Hamilton Mixtapeâ showed up there in 2013, two years before it opened as âHamiltonâ on Broadway.Usually held on the campus of Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, the festival looks a little different this year. The pandemic has pushed its events into various venues around town, and the Black Lives Matter movement has pushed it, like all arts organizations, to rethink programming. The new artistic director, Chris Burney, has responded with a promising slate of work from Black, Latinx and Asian American artists.The big draw, on July 31 and Aug. 1, is Michael R. Jacksonâs âWhite Girl in Danger,â a follow-up to his 2020 Pulitzer Prize winner, âA Strange Loop.â Directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz, âWhite Girlâ is a satire of Lifetime Original-style movies as seen from a Black womanâs perspective, but Jacksonâs radically sympathetic worldview suggests more than a little love in the critique.Daveed Diggs, left, and Lin-Manuel Miranda working on âThe Hamilton Mixtapeâ at New York Stage and Film in 2013.Buck Lewis, via New York Stage and FilmJackson is not the only theater artist exploring race and danger in Poughkeepsie this summer. âMexodus,â a âconcept albumâ created and performed by Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson, is about the thousands of enslaved people who instead of heading north on the Underground Railroad went south to Mexico (July 17 and 24). âSouth,â by Florencia Iriondo and Luis DâElias, is a one-woman musical inspired by Iriondoâs experiences as a Latina in the United States (July 23 and 24). And âInterstate,â by Melissa Li and Kit Yan, follows a transgender slam poet and a lesbian singer-songwriter on an eventful cross-country journey (July 25).New York Stage and Film is for artists, yes, but since artists need feedback, itâs for audiences as well. (Most events are âpay what you can.â) Who isnât it for? Critics. We can go, but canât review, which makes it a real vacation for everyone. (newyorkstageandfilm.org) JESSE GREENHudson Valley Shakespeare FestivalThe serenity that descends on visitors upon arrival at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival has everything to do with the landscape as seen from the bluff â breathtaking river, low mountains and sky. Never mind the saber-rattling name of the town, Garrison, or the fact that West Point is across the water, barely downstream. These grounds, at the historic Boscobel House and Gardens, are a soothing setting for pre-performance picnics and a gorgeous backdrop to the stage in the open-air tent as sunset turns to night.âAs You Like It,â at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival in 2016.T Charles Erickson, via Hudson Valley Shakespeare FestivalStill, it is an area with a particular reverence for the Revolutionary War, which makes the festivalâs season opener an enticingly provocative match. âThe Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washingtonâ â directed by Taylor Reynolds and running June 24 to July 30 â is by James Ijames, one of the most exhilarating playwrights the American theater has right now. Set at Mount Vernon as the widowed Martha lies ill, tended to by enslaved people whose freedom is promised as soon as she dies, it is described as a fever dream â and if itâs anywhere near as brilliant as Ijamesâs Sally Hemings-Thomas Jefferson satire âTJ Loves Sally 4 Ever,â it could be unmissable.So itâs helpful that both of the festivalâs live productions this summer will be filmed for streaming. But if you can, do yourself a favor and go in person. âThe Tempest,â directed by Ryan Quinn and running Aug. 5 to Sept. 4, will be the companyâs goodbye to Boscobel, its home of 34 years. The theater isnât going far â just upriver to Philipstown â but if you want to catch that stellar view from the tent, this is last call. (hvshakespeare.org)LAURA COLLINS-HUGHES More
She broke new ground in 1973 with her album âLavender Jane Loves Women,â recorded and distributed by women for women, which sketched out a lesbian separatist utopia.Long before K.D. Lang transformed herself from a country artist into an androgyne pop idol and sex symbol, smoldering in a manâs suit on the cover of Vanity Fair being mock-shaved by the supermodel Cindy Crawford; long before Melissa Etheridge sold millions of copies of her 1993 album, âYes I Am,â and in so doing came out as a gay rock star; and long before the singer-songwriter Jill Sobuleâs âI Kissed a Girlâ hit the Billboard charts, the folk singer Alix Dobkin chopped her hair off, formed a band and recorded âLavender Jane Loves Women.âReleased in 1973, it was the first album recorded and distributed by women for women â arguably the first lesbian record. Ms. Dobkin started her own label, Womenâs Wax Works, to do it.Once a folk star playing Greenwich Village clubs with Bob Dylan and Buffy Sainte-Marie, Ms. Dobkin turned to writing songs like âView From Gay Headâ (âLesbian, Lesbian/Letâs be in No Manâs Landâ). Her lyrics sketched out a lesbian separatist utopia and also poked fun at its vernacular and customs, as she did in âLesbian Code,â which contained lines like âIs she Lithuanian?,â âIs she Lebanese?â and âSheâs a member of the church, of the club, of the committee/She sings in the choir.âHer music was the soundtrack for many young women coming out in the 1970s and â80s, a rite of passage spoofed by Alison Bechdel, the graphic memoirist, in her long-running comic strip, âDykes to Watch Out For.â (A panel titled âAge 21â showed a young woman with cropped hair and pinwheel eyes, smoking a bong and reading Mary Dalyâs âGyn/Ecology,â another feminist touchstone, as the lyrics from Ms. Dobkinâs âThe Woman in Your Life Is Youâ waft around her, a Lavender Jane album cover propped up in a corner.)âI canât tell you how cool it was as a young dyke to see those album covers,â said Lisa Vogel, founder of the Michigan Womynâs Festival, otherwise known as Michfest, where Ms. Dobkin would perform for decades. âTo see someone not trying to pass one bit.âMs. Dobkin died on May 19 at her home in Woodstock, N.Y., after suffering a brain aneurysm and a stroke. She was 80. Her former partner Liza Cowan announced the death.She was a star of the womenâs festivals that were an expression of the alternative economy lesbian feminists were building in the â70s â a byproduct of second-wave feminism â with their own books, publishing companies, record labels and magazines. Michfest was the biggest, an entire city built from scratch each season in Oceana County, complete with health care clinics, crafts, workshops and food for thousands. It was a complete matriarchal society. No men were allowed.When the festivals began in the mid-â70s, there were no safe spaces for lesbians, said Bonnie J. Morris, a historian and archivist of feminist music and the author of âEden Built by Eves: The Culture of Womenâs Music Festivals.â âYou werenât welcome to have a double bed in a hotel; there were no Disney Gay Days. Festivals were a way to get together, share information and recharge.âIt was backstage at a womenâs festival in 1983 that Ms. Etheridge first met Ms. Dobkin. âShe was in the tradition of the classic folk troubadour, changing the world through song and cleverness,â Ms. Etheridge said in an interview.âShe made an impact,â she added, âand she did it with humor. Until I heard Alix, I had no idea I would be an out lesbian performer; I just wanted to be a rock star.ââWhen I told her I was thinking of recording an album, she said, âOh, Melissa, thereâs no radio station thatâs going to play a lesbian.â After âYes I Amâ came out â and I came out â she said to me, âDamn it, you proved me wrong. Iâm so grateful.ââAlix Cecil Dobkin was born on Aug. 16, 1940, in New York City. She was named for an uncle, Cecil Alexander Kunstlich, a womanizing, drug-addicted neâer-do-well who cleaned up his act and was killed in the Spanish Civil War. Her parents, Martha (Kunstlich) and William Dobkin, were, like many Jewish intellectuals of the time, Communist Party members and social activists. Alix grew up listening to the folk music of Pete Seeger, and Woody Guthrie, as well as the Red Army Chorus and Broadway show tunes, and singing at home with her parents.Ms. Dobkin at her home in Woodstock, N.Y., in 1980.Liza CowanAlix was 16 when the F.B.I. began investigating her. She had joined the Communist Party that year, but her parents had become disillusioned and left; there were too many F.B.I. informants, her father told her later.The F.B.I. followed Ms. Dobkin until she turned 30, noting in her file that she had become a housewife and mother. The file, which Ms. Dobkin retrieved in 1983 under the Freedom of Information Act, proved useful decades later, when she was writing her memoir, âMy Red Bloodâ (2009). It recorded her many addresses and helpful dates, like that of her wedding in 1965, though it had the venue wrong.Ms. Dobkin studied art at the Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University in Philadelphia, earning a bachelorâs degree, with honors, in 1962. A fellow student and Communist Party member was also a booker at a local nightclub, and he began to manage her, often along with a young comic named Bill Cosby. He found the pair regular work at the Gaslight in Greenwich Village, where she met her future husband, Sam Hood, whose parents owned the place, as well as Mr. Dylan and other folk luminaries. When Ms. Dobkin married Mr. Hood, her career as a performer took a back seat to his as a producer. They divorced amicably in 1971, when their daughter, Adrian, was a year old.Like many women in that transitional time, Ms. Dobkin was frustrated by her role as a housewife and had joined a consciousness-raising group. When she heard Germaine Greer, the feminist author of âThe Female Eunuch,â interviewed on the countercultural radio station WBAI, it was a revelation. She wrote to Ms. Cowan, a producer at the station who had conducted the interview. Ms. Cowan invited her on the program to perform, and the two women fell in love.After they got together, Ms. Dobkin decided she wanted to make music for and by women only. Ms. Cowan would go on to found lesbian magazines like Dyke, A Quarterly. In the mid-â70s, the couple bought a 70-acre farm in rural Schoharie County, in central New York State â not an easy locale to plunk down a gay family.âI remember being called a âhoboâ by the kids in school,â Adrian Hood said, âthough they were trying to say âhomoâ. I craved a normal mom with long hair.âMs. Dobkin in performance in Ulster County, N.Y., in 2017. âShe made an impact,â her fellow singer Melissa Etheridge said, âand she did it with humor.âRetts ScauzilloMs. Dobkinâs tour schedule slowed down a bit in the late â90s, and when Ms. Hood had her own children, Ms. Dobkin took on a new role.âShe was a stay-at-home grandma by choice, which allowed me to work full time,â said Ms. Hood, who is dean of students and director of admissions at a day school in Woodstock. âThat was a huge gift. She was able to express that everyday maternal attention that she missed with me.âIn addition to her daughter, Ms. Dobkin is survived by her brother, Carl; her sister, Julie Dobkin; and three grandchildren. In 2015, a photograph of Ms. Dobkin taken by Ms. Cowan wearing a T-shirt that read âThe Future Is Femaleâ exploded on social media, thanks to an Instagram post by @h_e_r_s_t_o_r_y, an account that documents lesbian imagery. It brought the T-shirt, originally made in the 1970s by Labyris Books, the first feminist bookstore in New York City, back into production â and introduced Ms. Dobkin to a new generation of young women.âIâve prepared all my life for this job,â Ms. Dobkin told the crowd at a womenâs music festival in 1997. âBecause being a Jew and being a lesbian are very similar. Thatâs why I look so much alike. I have so much in common. Itâs OK to be a Jew, itâs OK to be a lesbian â as long as you donât mention it. And what we also have in common is that we were never supposed to survive.â More
From the French Open and the Tokyo Olympics to New York Pride, a look at which global events are canceled, postponed or moving ahead (with altered plans) in 2021.Early last year, as international lockdowns upended daily life, they took with them, one by one, many of the major cultural and sporting events that dot the calendar each year. The N.B.A. suspended its season, the French Open was postponed for several months and the Tokyo Olympics were delayed a year. The future of the Glastonbury Festival and the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival were in doubt. It was a bleak time.Recently, as conditions in many places around the world have slowly begun to improve, and as countries have begun mass vaccination campaigns, some events and cultural staples have made plans to return, albeit with modifications. While few events, if any, have plans to go ahead free of restrictions this year, some are taking a hybrid approach. Others remain postponed or canceled.Hereâs the status of some of the major events around the world.The Tokyo Olympics are set to start on July 23.Shuji Kajiyama/Associated PressSports: The Olympics are full steam ahead.The Tokyo Olympics, which were delayed for a year because of the coronavirus pandemic, are scheduled to begin on July 23 with an opening ceremony. The bulk of the athletic events will begin the next day. The first round of Wimbledon begins on June 28 and will run through mid-July. Officials said they were working toward a spectator capacity of at least 25 percent.The 125th Boston Marathon, which is usually held in May, is now scheduled for Oct. 11, and the 50th New York City Marathon is set for Nov. 7.The 105th Indianapolis 500 will go on as planned on May 30. Officials will allow about 135,000 spectators in â 40 percent of the venueâs capacity. The event was organized with state and local health officials and was approved by the Marion County Public Health Department, race officials said.The French Open, one of the premier tennis competitions, has been postponed one week to a new start date of May 24. The decision was made in agreement with the authorities in France and the governing bodies of international tennis, said officials, who want the tournament played in front of the largest possible number of fans.Coachella was canceled in 2020, and again in 2021.Amy Harris/Invision, via Associated PressMusic: Coachella and Glastonbury are holding off.The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, which typically draws big headliners like BeyoncĂ© and is an annual pilgrimage for the more than 100,000 fans who trek to Southern California, is canceled again this year.In January, organizers for the Glastonbury Festival said it would not take place this summer.The Essence Festival of Culture, which usually draws more than a half million people to New Orleans over the Fourth of July weekend every year, will host a hybrid experience this year over two weekends: June 25-27 and July 2-4.Headliners like Billie Eilish, Post Malone and ASAP Rocky will take the stage at the Governors Ball Music Festival, which is scheduled for Sept. 24-26 at Citi Field in Queens. Organizers say the event will return to its typical June dates in 2022.Burning Man, the annual countercultural arts event that typically draws tens of thousands of people to Black Rock Desert in Nevada, has been canceled again this year because of the pandemic. It will return in 2022, organizers said.After being canceled last year, the Austin City Limits Music Festival, the event in the capital of Texas, is scheduled to return to Zilker Park on Oct. 1-3 and Oct. 8-10.Lady Gaga at the Met Gala in 2019. The event this year is scheduled for September.Karsten Moran for The New York TimesCultural events: Broadway is coming back.A delayed 2021 Met Gala, the annual benefit at the Metropolitan Museum that draws scores of celebrities and fashion-industry elites, will happen on Sept. 13. A second event is scheduled for May 2022.NYC Pride 2021 will move forward in June with virtual and in-person events. The Pride March, which was canceled last year, will be virtual this time. (San Francisco Pride, also in June, is planning similar adjustments, while Atlanta Pride is planning to hold an in-person event in October.)The Lucerne Festival, which offers a range of events featuring classical orchestras, ensembles and more in Switzerland, will run from Aug. 10. In order to keep concertgoers safe, organizers said events will not have intermissions and its venue will have a limited number of available seats. Similarly, the Salzburg Festival in Austria kicks off in mid-July with modifications.The Edinburgh International Festival, a showcase for world theater, dance and music in the Scottish city since 1947, will run Aug. 7-29. Performances will take place in temporary outdoor pavilions with covered stages and socially distanced seating.E3, one of the video game industryâs most popular conventions where developers showcase the latest news and games, will be virtual this year from June 12-15.The New York International Auto Show, which showcases the newest and latest automobiles from dozens of brands, will run Aug. 20-29. The event last year was postponed and eventually canceled because of the pandemic.The Cannes Film Festival in the South of France, one of the movie industryâs most revered and celebrated events, has been postponed to July 6-17 from mid-May. The 2021 edition of the event, which was canceled last year, is currently scheduled to be in person.After more than a year of no theater performances, Broadway shows will start selling tickets for full-capacity shows with some performances starting on Sept. 14. (Some West End shows will resume as early as May 17.)After being virtual last year, New York Comic-Con will return with a physical event Oct. 7-10 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan. The convention will run at reduced capacity to ensure social distancing, organizers said. This yearâs Comic-Con International event, which is normally held in July in San Diego, has been postponed until summer 2022. There are plans for a smaller event called Comic-Con Special Edition however, that will be held in person in November. More
An organizer said this Barcelona event, one of several planned in Europe, was âa small but important step toward normality.â The listeners there basked in being part of an audience again.BARCELONA, Spain â Mireia Serret, a 21-year old student at the University of Barcelona, said that she was not a big fan of the band that played here on Saturday, nor does she normally like large crowds.Nevertheless, Serret had snapped up one of the 5,000 tickets to Europeâs biggest indoor rock concert since the start of the pandemic because âit had just been too long since I was last able to dance and have fun at a concert.âOrganized by a group of Spanish music promoters as part of an initiative called âFestivals for Safe Culture,â the concert in the Palau de Sant Jordi was presented as Europeâs boldest effort to get thousands into an indoor venue, without seating or mandatory social distancing. The sole act was Love of Lesbian, a Spanish indie rock band, which formed before Serret was born. âFor me, this isnât about whether I really like their music, but about being able to feel and live their music, right next to so many other people,â Serret said.The sole act was Love of Lesbian, a Spanish indie rock band.Albert Gea/ReutersTrial concert or festival events have been held in several European countries, including in Germany and the Netherlands, as part of efforts to allow crowds to form again to see live music. The British government will also run a series of test events next month, including one at a nightclub in Liverpool, also without requiring social distancing.Europeâs famed summer music festivals, which draw tens of thousands of fans to open outdoor spaces, are in doubt this year despite the tests. Several major festivals have already canceled their June lineups, including Rock am Ring at the NĂŒrburgring racetrack in Germany and Sonar festival in Barcelona. Sonarâs management pushed their flagship festival to 2022 and is planning two smaller events in October. Still, Roskilde, Denmarkâs biggest, hopes to go on in June with acts including the rapper Kendrick Lamar. The Danish government said last week that it aims to restart pop concerts from May 6 onward with the help of a âcorona passportâ that will allow people to show their status of vaccination, proof of recent negative tests for the virus or documentation they have recovered from Covid-19.At a time when countries like France and Italy have recently put their residents back under lockdown to help stop another wave of infection, the people behind the Barcelona event said their goal was to look ahead.Albert Gea/ReutersLluis Gene/Agence France-Presse â Getty ImagesOne of the organizers, Ventura Barba, the executive director of the Sonar festival, said in an interview that Saturdayâs concert was âa small but important step toward normality.â Barba forecast that the Barcelona concert would break even, but he stressed that it was ânot a commercial project,â nor could it be replicated for festivals that operate over several days and with other financial constraints. Ticket sales accounted for 36 percent of the Barcelona concertâs budget of about âŹ250,000, with 30 percent covered by public authorities, 24 percent from private sponsors and 10 percent from the promoters themselves.A hospital team helped test the concertgoers for Covid-19 before the event, using as their model a smaller concert last December in another Barcelona venue, the Sala Apolo. At the Apolo, the audience of 500 people was tested before the show, as well as another 500 people who acted as a control group, and everybody got tested again eight days later. The Apoloâs concertgoers all tested negative, while two people in the control group tested positive, according to Josep Maria Llibre, a specialist in infectious diseases from the Germans Trias i Pujol hospital northeast of Barcelona who is also monitoring the Palau concert.Ahead of Saturdayâs concert, six people tested positive, according to the organizers. However, the medical team is using neither a control group nor postconcert testing, relying instead on public medical records to track whether any concertgoers will later get Covid-19.Dr. Llibre said the decision was made both for financial and practical reasons. He acknowledged in an interview that the tracking method used Saturday would be less accurate than that used at the Apolo, but he argued it could still help show that a safely-organized concert âis not a super-spreading event,â contrary to what some might presume. âIn the case of concerts, there has been very little or no data, but it has been empirically assumed that it is a very high risk to have people dancing together,â he said.The Palau can welcome 17,000 people, but the 5,000 ticketholders were not allowed into its stands and instead were kept divided within three areas of the dance floor, while having to wear FFP2 face masks (the European standard) provided by the organizers.Healthcare workers prepare to collect swab samples from concertgoers before the show.Albert Gea/ReutersOn Saturday, some concertgoers said they felt fully reassured by the safety protocols, but a few others said they had briefly hesitated before going.âIf I had not been vaccinated already, I really would have thought twice about coming here,â said Cristina Delgado, a doctor. But Ana, her sister, who was also vaccinated because she works in health care, felt differently. âI was going to come whatever, because I want to save culture and return us to normal life,â she said.InĂ©s Villasuso, a 24-year old nurse, also said that âit would have been better to get everybody tested again later, to have scientific evidence that can really convince the authorities that such a big event can be held safely.â But she and her twin sister, Eva, agreed that the concert outstripped their expectations. âIt felt like living a total dream,â Eva said.In an interview before the concert, JuliĂĄn Saldarriaga, a member of Love of Lesbian, said that the bandâs decision to perform had received very broad support, but also generated âsome criticism, from people who have called us irresponsible or who say that we only care about money.â But for his band, he said, âwe really saw this as an opportunity to take part in the recovery of culture.âRather than featuring a supporting act, the concert was preceded by a series of videos about Covid-19, shown on the big stage screen and interspersed with hits from the distant past â like âCome Togetherâ and âHere Comes the Sun,â by The Beatles â whose themes warmed up the crowd.To comply with the safety protocols, on Saturday, concertgoers visited one of three smaller Barcelona music venues to get a rapid antigen test for Covid-19. The cost was included in the âŹ23 ticket price.Christiana Guldager, a photographer, said that she cried before her test at the Razzmatazz nightclub. âIâve been dancing so often in that place that it made me feel very emotional to find it instead converted into a mini-hospital,â she said.Santi Balmes, the lead singer, invited the crowd to deliver the chorus of a song. Lluis Gene/Agence France-Presse â Getty ImagesLater that night in the Palau, emotions also ran high. The dance floor was lit up by cellphones as well as white face masks. When Santi Balmes, the lead singer, invited the crowd to deliver the chorus of a song, he got a powerful response. âWoohoo, you still remember how to sing!â Balmes shouted back. As he brought the concert to a close, Balmes told the crowd, âthe band is not important: What is important is the experience and the experience is incredible.âPablo GarcĂa, 27, an illustrator, agreed. âOf course I never stopped listening to music, but you really need to be at a concert to feel the bass right inside your heart.âAlex Marshall contributed reporting from London. More
#masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyA Movie Festival for One, on a Tiny Nordic IslandSwedenâs Goteborg Film Festival has taken social distancing to the extreme, offering one attendee a week on a barren island, with only the competition films for company.Lisa Enroth, an emergency nurse, will spend a week in an isolated lighthouse keeperâs cottage, watching the 70 movies in competition at the Goteborg Film Festival.Credit…Ines Sebalj for The New York TimesFeb. 1, 2021As they do at the opening of any star-studded film festival, photographers scrambled for position, training their lenses on the spot where audience members would alight. But when the first â and only â guest of honor arrived, she was clad not in a tuxedo or sparkly gown, but in jeans and an orange puffer jacket (designer unknown). There was no red carpet beneath her feet, only bare frozen ground. And instead of sauntering into a plush cinema buzzing with celebrities, she climbed into a speedboat and zipped off across the frigid water to a tiny island where she would settle in for the first premiere.As festivals around the world grapple with the pandemic, the Goteborg Film Festival, which opened in Swedenâs second largest city on Jan. 29, hasnât so much accepted social distancing as escalated it. Over the course of the coming week, it will hold screenings in two urban venues for just one festival attendee. And it has also sent a single viewer to a tiny, barren island in the North Atlantic to watch the 70 films in competition â alone.Hamneskar, a rocky outcrop some 25 miles from Goteborg, was nicknamed Pater Noster by sailors who would recite the Lordâs Prayer as they neared its treacherous waters.Credit…Ines Sebalj for The New York TimesSome festivals, like Veniceâs in September, have faced the pandemic as diminished versions of their normally glitzy selves, with alternately seated theaters and mandatory temperature checks. Others, like Sundance and the Berlinale, now pushed until March 2021, have gone entirely digital, offering streaming access to films and other events. Some organizers are postponing their festivals, crossing their fingers that further down the line pandemic regulations will allow for a more usual festival experience: On Jan. 27, the Cannes festival announced that it would take place in July, rather than its customary May.But at Goteborg, the Nordic countriesâ most important festival, organizers have made an unusual virtue of necessity. âSo many people who have been home alone, unable to meet friends or family, have turned to cinema for company and comfort,â said the festivalâs artistic director, Jonas Holmberg. âWe wanted to experiment with that, to isolate that feeling, and take it to the extreme. So we thought, âWhy donât we isolate the person on a small island with nothing but films?ââAs the only country in Europe to resist a formal lockdown, Sweden has followed its own path through the pandemic, neither recommending mask use nor shutting down schools until December, when a disproportionately high mortality rate from the disease forced it to change strategy.But much of the country has complied with guidelines issued by the government, and after months of even voluntary social distancing and lockdowns, a wintry week alone on an island with only movies for company might seem the last thing most people would need. Yet when an evocative online video announced the contest, over 12,000 people applied for the solo experience. On Jan. 19, the festival selected Lisa Enroth, a 41-year-old emergency nurse from the town of Skovde, in southern Sweden, as the winner.Some of the films Lisa Enroth will have the opportunity to see while on Pater Noster, from left: âTove,â âConferenceâ (a film from the Social Distances section), âThe Conversations of Donkey and Rabbitâ (a short film from the Lockdown Cinema section), âPleasure,â âIncredible Thoughts of a Woman on a Tierâ (a short film from the Lockdown Cinema section) and âAnother Round.âCredit…via Goteborg Film Festival Like health care workers everywhere, Enroth has found the past several months stressful. âEvery day at the hospital weâve been dealing with so much,â she said. âWith all the patients, and all the new protocols, Iâve never felt so unisolated in my life.âSo when she saw the videoâs call for applications, she didnât hesitate. âAlone in nature, on an island? Plus movies? I was like, âYes, I need this.ââThe hospital agreed to give Enroth time off (âMy boss is a movie buff,â she explained) and on Jan. 30, a boat brought her to Hamneskar, a rocky outcrop some 25 miles from Goteborg that was nicknamed Pater Noster by sailors who would recite the Lordâs Prayer as they neared its treacherous waters. There, she took up residence in the former keeperâs cottage that sits aside the islandâs cast-iron lighthouse, and settled in for the movie marathon.During her time on Pater Noster, Enroth will have access to the 70 films screening at the festival, which include the Finnish Oscar contender âTove,â Thomas Vinterbergâs acclaimed âAnother Roundâ and the Goteborg native Ninja Thybergâs âPleasure,â all of which are competing for best Nordic film. International films in competition include Emma Danteâs âThe Macaluso Sisters,â set in Sicily, and CharlĂšne Favierâs âSlalom,â about elite downhill skiers abused by their coach. There is also a separate section, called Social Distances, featuring films created in response to the pandemic, and one called Lockdown Cinema for short films made in quarantine.Streamed through the festivalâs website and available to the public, all of the films have scheduled premiere times online. But a handful of viewers are also having their own unusually isolated encounters with them. Coinciding with each online premiere, the films will also screen at Goteborgâs Draken movie theater (capacity 708) and the Scandinavium arena (whose 12,000 seats normally host concert goers or hockey fans) for a single viewer who has won a seat through a raffle.A screening for one (in this case, Lova Lakso) at the Draken movie theater in Goteborg.Credit…Ines Sebalj for The New York TimesAt each venue a red carpet leads the viewer to the assigned seat. And although popcorn is not available, other enjoyments may be. âIn some cases,â hints the festival director Holmberg, âit may be possible the filmmaker will be there to present the film.âBy staging one-person viewings in iconic locations, Holmberg hopes to preserve some of the sense of occasion that an in-person festival generates. But here again, the festival organizers are experimenting. âWe want to see, how does being alone affect the film experience? What happens when youâre doing nothing besides watching the film?â he said.Although she will post a daily video diary on a dedicated page of the festival website, Enroth has agreed to eschew all other forms of communication and entertainment â no phone, no books â during her time on Pater Noster. She said that she wasnât worried about getting lonely, but didnât rule out the possibility she may âstart talking to the furniture.â And, like Holmberg, she was also interested to see how her week on the island changes the experience of watching films. âThe first day, itâs just âOh, Iâm alone, watching a movie.â But a few days in, I might be like, âOK, these people are my only company. What if I hate them?ââ she said.But for the self-professed science fiction fan (her favorite movie is âThe Never Ending Storyâ), even that will be a welcome escape. âI love watching movies, because it makes me let go of work and everything else thatâs going on right now,â Enroth said. âItâll be great to be surrounded by someone elseâs reality.ââAlone in nature, on an island? Plus movies?â said Enroth. âI was like, âYes, I need this.ââCredit…Erik Nissen JohansenAdvertisementContinue reading the main story More
#masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixTabitha Jackson became director of the Sundance Film Festival early last year.Credit…George Etheredge for The New York TimesSkip to contentSkip to site indexWith âWarrior Spirit,â a New Leader Pushes Sundance ForwardSince taking over as the film festivalâs director, Tabitha Jackson has had to figure out how to hold a cinema showcase during a pandemic. Her virtual solution starts Thursday.Tabitha Jackson became director of the Sundance Film Festival early last year.Credit…George Etheredge for The New York TimesSupported byContinue reading the main storyJan. 27, 2021Updated 2:28 p.m. ETShortly after Donald J. Trumpâs inauguration in January 2017, Tabitha Jackson, then the director of the Sundance Instituteâs Documentary Film Program, was hosting the annual opening reception for documentary filmmakers at the festival in Park City, Utah. The British Ms. Jackson, who is mixed race and gay, took the stage, knowing many in the audience were unsettled by what had happened and what was ahead.She struggled to find the words to convey what people were feeling. Instead, in a reverse Samson moment, she asked the filmmaker Sandi Dubowski (âTrembling Before G-dâ) to start chopping off her dreadlocks, which she had been growing for 20 years. The crowd went wild.âIt was a release of energy,â she said in a recent interview. âA nonverbal expression of something needing to change around me leading this program and around us as a community. A little warrior spirit and also a slight howl, since we didnât know what was going to come.âMs. Jackson, 50, now finds herself as a leader in another moment of wider uncertainty. She took over as the director of the Sundance Film Festival in February, right before the pandemic truly took hold in the United States, and has spent the past year pivoting over and over again in order to get ready for the 37th edition of the independent cinema showcase.Set to begin Thursday in a mostly virtual setting (in-person screenings will happen in some art-house theaters in 28 cities with lower virus numbers like Atlanta, Houston and Memphis), Sundance 2021 is a lofty experiment. It will allow those who have never been able to share in the snowy ski-town extravaganza â because of either cost or the remote location â to experience it for the first time. With screening times set for each film, and live question-and-answer sessions to follow, Ms. Jackson and her team are trying to recreate the unique energy of Sundance, which has been the premier destination of American independent film for close to four decades.âIt was initially depressing when we realized we couldnât put on the festival in the way we had before,â Ms. Jackson said. âBut as we began to plan, it became liberating when we thought, âWell, what can we do this year that we couldnât do before?ââMs. Jackson received roars of approval when she asked the filmmaker Sandi Dubowski to cut off her dreadlocks at the 2017 festival, when she led Sundanceâs documentary program.Credit…Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images for Sundance Film FestivalThe decision to not hold the festival in Utah was made in June. But the organization had to change direction yet again in December when rising coronavirus numbers in California prompted the cancellation of a large number of drive-in screenings that had been set for the Rose Bowl.âItâs been a roller-coaster ride, but the rails that are keeping us stable and secure are our purpose around independent filmmaking,â Ms. Jackson said. âWe know why we are doing this.âMs. Jackson joined Sundance in 2013, after spending more than 20 years in London working for the BBC and Channel 4 and producing works like Nick Caveâs â20,000 Days on Earth,â a quasi-documentary that purported to show a singular day in the indie musicianâs life, one filled with invented events filmed at fictitious locations.Those who know her often describe Ms. Jackson as curious, open and possessed of a quick wit. She is also committed to helping filmmakers.âShe could actually host one of the top late-night talk shows, sheâs that funny and witty,â said Diane Weyermann, chief content officer at Participant and a former director of the Sundance documentary program. This year, Participant will debut two films at Sundance: the documentary âMy Name Is Pauli Murrayâ about a nonbinary Black lawyer, activist and poet who influenced both Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Thurgood Marshall, and âJudas and the Black Messiah,â the Warner Bros. film that chronicles the story of Fred Hampton, the chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party.The documentarian Davis Guggenheim (âAn Inconvenient Truthâ) is bringing three films to the festival with his Concordia Studio. He said Ms. Jackson was bringing welcome change to an institution that had not evolved much over the decades.âI like that itâs no longer just a festival for the few â the few people who could go, the few people who could get tickets,â he said. âItâs a brave new world, and sheâs being brave.âWhen she took over the documentary program, Ms. Jackson recognized that she did not want the genre to become âthe preserve of the elite,â open only to those who could spend years raising money and making films.Sly Stone in the opening-night film, âSummer of Soul (⊠Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised),â a documentary about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival.Credit…Mass Distraction MediaIn 2015, Ms. Jackson conducted a question-and-answer session with the first-time filmmaker Nanfu Wang in front of a slew of investors. Ms. Wang was looking for funds to complete her film âHooligan Sparrow,â which follows activists protesting the case of six elementary-school girls who were sexually abused by their principal in China. Ms. Wang had been forced to film surreptitiously and smuggle the footage out of the country in order to complete the movie.Normally, filmmakers have a producer on hand to address the financial needs of their project, but since Ms. Wang didnât have one, Ms. Jackson led the Q. and A. in order to introduce her to the proper financiers. The discussion led to her receiving the funds she needed to finish the work. Ms. Wang will debut her fourth feature documentary, âIn the Same Breath,â which tracks the spread of Covid-19 from Wuhan, China, to the United States, at this yearâs festival.âTabitha speaks like a philosopher,â Ms. Wang said. âI felt like she saw me, not only because I was making this film about the Chinese human rights activists, but she cared as much about my background and how I became who I am today.âThat ethos to try to give voice to those not always permitted to participate is personal to Ms. Jackson. A mixed-race girl adopted by white parents who later divorced, Ms. Jackson was raised in a village in rural England and learned to move between groups.âIâve come to enjoy inhabiting the edge of things, the in-between space,â she said upon receiving an industry award in 2018. âWhat began as a survival mechanism is now my most comfortable place.âThe programming of this yearâs truncated seven-day festival illustrates those in-between places. With 72 features, down from the usual 120, Sundance will highlight movies from a diverse group of creators: 50 percent are female directors, 51 percent are filmmakers of color, 15 percent are directors who identify as L.G.B.T.Q., and 4 percent are nonbinary.âPassing,â starring Ruth Negga, left, and Tessa Thompson, is one of the more anticipated films that will debut at Sundance.Credit…Eduard GrauThe opening-night film comes from Ahmir Thompson, the Roots drummer known as Questlove. Titled âSummer of Soul (⊠Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised),â it is a documentary that tracks the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, an event held to celebrate African-American music that happened the same summer as Woodstock.âTwenty minutes after Tabitha saw the film, she said not only do we want the film, we want it for the opening night and we want it for the U.S. competition,â a producer, Jon Kamen, said. âUsually, you donât know right away. Usually, itâs all a little wishy-washy.âMs. Jackson said she and her team, led by the director of programming, Kim Yutani, had to re-pitch the festival to many creators who were wary that the virtual environment wouldnât be a great way to debut their work. One person they didnât have to convince was the producer Nina Yang Bongiovi, who with her partner Forest Whitaker has had movies in competition at Sundance five out of the last seven years.They will be there this year with âPassing,â from the actress-turned-first-time-director Rebecca Hall. The film, set in 1920 and starring Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga, tracks the story of two African-American women who can âpassâ as white.âWhen I looked at the screen and saw Tabitha and Kim â two inclusive, diverse women â telling me and my team that our film is loved and embraced and to please come be a part of this, that meant a lot,â Ms. Yang Bongiovi said of the Zoom call when the film was accepted.âI like that itâs no longer just a festival for the few,â one filmmaker said of Ms. Jacksonâs leadership.Credit…George Etheredge for The New York TimesDespite the challenges of the past year, there have been some benefits. Ms. Jackson has been able to quarantine for most of the time in Connecticut with the documentary filmmaker Kirsten Johnson (âDick Johnson Is Deadâ), whom she married last year at Sundance, on the first day of the festival. They recently bought a home with the filmmaker Ira Sachs and the artist Boris Torres, who co-parent Ms. Johnsonâs 9-year old twins.That has given Ms. Johnson a ringside seat to Ms. Jacksonâs process.âWhatâs interesting about Tabitha is she has so many perspectives given where she comes from and what her life is,â Ms. Johnson said. âShe is endlessly curious about the permutations of racism around the world and the ways we struggle with identity. I think there is a real sense of how do we keep pushing for this new landscape and not be blinded by simple solutions.âAdvertisementContinue reading the main story More
