Rahway Film Festival

Photo courtesy Rahway Film Festival

Rahway Film Festival (Rahway, NJ) announces its call for entries in all short film categories including animation, documentary and narrative/fiction. They also accept music videos and feature trailers for showcase purposes. Films must be original works, 5-40 minutes in length and may be submitted on the website through May 1. Entrants will be notified via email by early June if their work has been selected for screening. Last year, over 100 submissions were received and 15 films were selected. The festival takes place on Saturday, July 12 (films, workshops) at the Hamilton Stage for the Performing Arts, 360 Hamilton Street.

Kandinsky in Paris

All paintings by Vasily Kandinsky (French, born Russia, 1866-1944). Accompanied Contrast (Contraste accompagné), March 1935, oil with sand on canvas. First and third images courtesy Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. First and third images copyright 2013 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris.

Vasily Kandinsky (1866-1944) was a central figure in the Guggenheim Museum's early development and is represented in its collection with pieces from his expressionist period and subsequent phases of his artwork at the German Bauhaus and in Paris. The museum's founder, Solomon R. Guggenheim, started acquiring works by Vasily in 1929 under the guidance of Hilla Rebay, the museum's first director. More than 150 watercolors and oils were displayed in permanent galleries in the Museum of Non-Objective Painting (as the Guggenheim Museum was formerly named) when it opened in 1939.

The current retrospective, Kandinsky in Paris, 1934-1944, includes paintings from the last years of the artist's career. It's the third show in a project that began in 1982 with Kandinsky in Munich, 1896-1914 and continued in 1983 with Kandinsky: Russian and Bauhaus Years, 1915-1933. Vasily's separable phases were the result of emigrations--from Germany during World War I, from his native Moscow four years after the 1917 Revolution and again from Germany after the closure in 1933 of the Bauhaus, where he taught. In 1939 he became a French citizen, living in the Parisian suburb Neuilly-sur-Seine.

Vasily Kandinsky, 1936.

These phases are distinct stylistically. While in Munich, he studied traditional landscape painting and produced decorative designs, pottery and woodcuts; during this period he created his first abstract expressionist paintings. In Russia, he grew away from the expressionistic elements of his prior art toward an abstract, geometric style and occasionally painted views of Moscow. At the Bauhaus, he explored simplified geometric compositions. 

Dominant Curve (Courbe dominante), April 1936, oil on canvas.

The Paris years were highly creative. Vasily utilized biomorphic imagery (amoebas and other cellular and plant forms derived from scientific observations) in his paintings, synthesizing elements from his earlier phases. Softer, more malleable shapes associated with the work of Paris-based Surrealist artists (Jean Arp and Joan Miró) appear in his paintings. His first Paris pictures date from February 1934, starting with watercolors--he completed 34 of them in addition to 12 oil paintings. By 1940, the year's output was 60 gouache watercolors and 10 paintings. He returned to large canvases, replacing his trademark primary colors with pastels and tightened his compositions into regimented, often whimsical, spaces. "I find an exuberance and a sort of a joyousness in some of the paintings from this period," says curator Tracey Bashkoff. "He reinvents himself when he goes to Paris toward the end of his life, and he begins with a reinvigorated color palette and a new vocabulary of warmth in his work. I find them very optimistic and uplifting."

On view through April 23 at the Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Ave.

Women of Vision

Thousands of grasses and plants were used to create Chicago City Hall's award-winning rooftop. Photo by Diane Cook & Len Jenshel/National Geographic. Copyright 2014 "Women of Vision."

Diane Cook is a landscape photographer who works collaboratively with Len Jenshel. They are regular contributors to National Geographic magazine and have covered New York's High Line, Mount St. Helens, the Na Pali Coast of Hawaii, the U.S.-Mexico border, and green roofs (above image, Chicago City Hall for their story "Up on the Roof," May 2009). Cities and companies around the globe are turning the roofs of skyscrapers into green retreats. "Green roofs are secret gardens in the sky," says Diane. "Revealing those landscapes was magical." 

 In "Women of Vision: National Geographic Photographers on Assignment," Diane's work and that of 10 other women photographers is featured (National Geographic Books, March 4). A selection of 150 photographs that have appeared in the magazine since 2000 were drawn from their various assignments. In addition to Diane, the photographers include Lynsey Addario, Kitra Cahana, Jodi Cobb, Carolyn Drake, Lynn Johnson, Beverly Joubert, Erika Larsen, Stephanie Sinclair, Maggie Steber, and Amy Toensing. Their stories cover a range of topics from wildlife and war to landscapes and social justice. The book accompanies an exhibition of the same name that opened at the National Geographic Museum in Washington, D.C. in October 2013, which will tour in five cities through 2016. 

A lieutenant patrols the women's barracks in Sana'a, Yemen. Photo by Stephanie Sinclair/National Geographic. Copyright 2014 "Women of Vision."

Scenes from Yemen, her decade-long project on child marriage and from Texas's polygamist families in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are among Stephanie Sinclair's images. One of National Geographic's conflict photojournalists, she's known for gaining unique access to sensitive gender and human rights issues throughout Yemen, India, Afghanistan, Nepal, and Ethiopia. "The worst day is not when my safety is at risk; it's when I can't get the pictures I want," says Stephanie. "You have a chance to get voices heard, so every day counts. I go in with an open mind and photograph from that viewpoint." While on assignment in Sana'a, Yemen ("Days of Reckoning," September 2012), Stephanie gained access to the women's elite counterterrorism unit, capturing a lieutenant patrolling the barracks. These women are essential in conservative cultures where men cannot frisk female suspects and they train running drills alongside the men.

 For her child marriage project, Stephanie traveled to Afghanistan, Ethiopia, India, Nepal, and Yemen ("Too Young to Wed," June 2011). Shown here is Yemeni Nujood Ali, who in 2008 got a divorce at the age of 10 after a forced marriage. Photo by Stephanie Sinclair/National Geographic. Copyright 2014 "Women of Vision."

"Women of Vision" is part of the magazine's 125th anniversary celebration and was curated (both the book and exhibition) by senior photo editor Elizabeth Krist, who had the challenging task of choosing images that best represent the broad portfolios of these 11 photographers. "To be a photo editor at National Geographic is a privilege like no other," writes Elizabeth in the curator's note. "We enter the lives of our photographers through their images. We experience their work in its rawest, freshest form, as they map out a story, frame by frame. I feel an intense gratitude to our photographers at National Geographic for opening the world to us without our having to suffer the hardships of time zone changes, malaria, hostile warlords, or excruciating temperatures. In return, we support their work from idea to publication, doing our best to help create a meaningful narrative. As we distill the images down--from as many as 65,000 frames shot, to 40 or 50 in the final show for the editor--we share the exhilaration of seeing the story begin to take shape."

A leopard's (Legadema) spotted coat provides camouflage in the dense forest of Botswana's Okavango Delta. Photo by Beverly Joubert/National Geographic. Copyright 2014 "Women of Vision."

Beverly Joubert is a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, filmmaker, photographer, conservationist, and co-founder of the Big Cats Initiative. Together with Dereck Joubert, she has been documenting African wildlife for more than 30 years. Well known for their work in Botswana, they utilize film and photography to raise awareness of the importance of conservation of large predators and other key wildlife species (rhinos and elephants). In partnership with National Geographic Society, explorers-in-residence develop programs and carry out fieldwork in their respective areas of study, which leads to conservation initiatives as well as relevant stories. The Jouberts recently expanded into conservation tourism with their company Great Plains, forming community/conservation partnerships in Botswana and Kenya that aim to acquire hunting or endangered habitats and return these land tracts to nature. Beverly's image, above, for their story "Lessons of the Hunt" (April 2007) highlights the elusive nature of leopards. In Botswana's Okavango Delta, the Jouberts followed Legadema, as they called her (Setswana for "light from the sky") for nearly five years from her first days as an eight-day-old cub. "In a still photograph, you have to be able to tell the whole story and hope that the emotion and information is portrayed in that one image," says Beverly. "Each day out in the field is completely different--a uniquely new story."

A tourist's gauzy costume veils gondolas and buildings on Venice's San Marco Basin. Photo by Jodi Cobb/National Geographic. Copyright 2014 "Women of Vision."

As a former staff photographer and present freelancer for National Geographic, Jodi Cobb has worked in more than 65 countries for 30+ years, primarily in the Middle East and Asia. Her assignments have taken her to uprisings in the West Bank, into China right after it was reopened to the West and to Saudi Arabia. In 1995 she became the first photographer to document Japan's geisha and in 2003 she gained recognition for her story on 21st century slaves, about human trafficking. For her assignment "Vanishing Venice" (August 2009), Jodi covered the effects of Venetian tourism during Carnival, the declining resident population and the flooding caused by sinking foundations and rising tides. "Venice was the story that refreshed my soul," says Jodi. "It was a joy. It was about the power of the image, the pleasure of photography." 

The women photographers of National Geographic continue to tell memorable stories through their pictures, documenting the world in striking images.

Sun Valley Film Festival

Mission Blue documents Sylvia Earle, scientist and explorer, over 3 years. Directors: Fisher Stevens, Robert Nixon. Writers: Mark Monroe, Jack Youngelson. Photo courtesy Sun Valley Film Festival. 

The Sun Valley Film Festival, held March 13-16 in Sun Valley, Idaho, will offer up a film slate of over 50 features and shorts, along with new programs, events and concerts. Idaho Governor C.L. Otter will open the festival and introduce the opening night film, Arie Posin's The Face of Love, starring Ed Harris and Annette Bening. "We're so pleased that the Sun Valley Film Festival is returning for its third year this March, and I am pleased to be introducing the opening night screening," said Governor Otter. "The state of Idaho has a proud filmmaking heritage."

The Festival's films include 11 narrative and 15 documentary feature-length works from 11 countries as well as over 40 short films. Festival partner National Geographic Channels will be presenting 3 world premieres. "Our goal is to bring in the best films, innovative programs and high energy events to Sun Valley," said SVFF executive director Teddy Grennan. "With a solid lineup of new films from around the world, a talent-packed Screenwriters Lab and guests from all over the country, Sun Valley Film Festival 'take 3' is going to be another hit."