All Aboard
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. … Well, not really. The leaves have barely begun to fall of the trees around these parts. But the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science is determined to get us in the holiday mood with a screening of the 2004 computer-animated hit Polar Express. The film (based on the book by Chris Van Allsburg) follows one young boy who embarks on a Christmas Eve trip to the North Pole aboard a magical train. The film shows, in 3D, in the museum’s five-story DynaTheater this Thursday and Friday, Nov. 17 and 18. Both showings get underway at 7pm. Children “of all ages” are encouraged to attend in their pajamas. Tickets are $10 for adults, $6 for seniors and $5 for children ages 5 to 12. (Kids under 2 are free.) Tickets are available online (naturalhistoryfoundation.org/holiday-movies) and at the NatureWorks Discovery Store located inside the museum (1801 Mountain Rd. NW).
Fight the Power
Despite the fact that the proposed New Mexico United soccer stadium was just stopped by voters in a November ballot initiative, the Stop the Stadium organization and the Albuquerque Center for Peace and Justice are presenting another Movie Night featuring a documentary about the struggle against gentrification. The film Citizen Jane: Battle for a City screens Tuesday, Nov. 23 at 6pm at the P&J Center (202 Harvard Dr. SE). Matt Tyrnauer’s 2016 documentary chronicles writer and urban activist Jane Jacobs’ fight to save historic New York City during the ruthless redevelopment era of urban planner Robert Moses in the 1960s. This event is free and open to the public, but donations are always welcome.
Media Manipulation
Nob Hill’s Guild Cinema (3405 Central Ave. NE) presents another boundary-pushing multi-media event. On Thursday, Nov. 18 at 10:45pm, media pioneer 99 Hooker will be bringing the “Shrimp Flavored Shaman” live media performance tour to Albuquerque. It’s described as a “psychedelic reanimation of Edison, 9-11, televangelists, Chancellorsville, snake handers, Britney, lilies of the valley and much much more.” This “live media improvisation” featuring music and image promises to expose viewers to “the subconscious of American media off its meds.” The New York-based 99 Hooker founded rev.99 in 2000. As a “house media band,” rev.99 took up residence at Freddy’s in Brooklyn for years, welcoming and integrating audio and visual artists from around the world. In 2005 rev.99 opened “Visual Music” at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington D.C. Referred to as “psychedelic channel surfing” and “riveting satire,” 99’s media performances have happened across the United States, Europe and Japan—often in small, intimate settings such as Other Cinema (SF), Anthology Film Archives (NYC), Red Room (Baltimore), Namba Bears (Osaka), Forte (Rome) and the Henry Miller Library (CA). Here’s your chance to see some of that mind-blowing audio-visual content in Albuquerque. Tickets are $8 at the door. To get a taste of what you’re in for, check out a trailer at vimeo.com/375267745.
Cinema + Philia
The National Hispanic Cultural Center continues its virtual film series Nuevas Cinefilias, Estaciones Singulares with Alexis Delgado’s This Film Is About Me. This 2019 documentary is a portrait of Renata Felicitas Soskey, serving time in a Galician prison for the brutal murder of her neighbor. As Renata sees it clearly: this film is about her—about her personality, her charisma, her poetry and her unpredictability, and not about her crime or her punishment. Nuevas Cinefilias is held in collaboration with the Seville European Film Festival and features recent Spanish films that innovate, take risks and play with contemporary structure and narratives. This Film Is About Me is available for viewing on the Instituto Cervantes Vimeo channel (vimeo.com/channels/institutocervantes) for 48 hours, starting at 12pm on Nov. 19.