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Agenda: Footnote to the New York Film Festival, Richard Serra in San Francisco, Mein Kampf in Akko, Woody Allen on Broadway, and more

by
Stephanie Butnick
October 07, 2011

Agenda is Tablet Magazine’s weekly listing of upcoming cultural events.

East Coast: Eliot Spitzer talks Wall Street Tuesday with ProPublica, the nonprofit investigative journalism outfit, at the Tenement Museum (Oct. 11, 6:30 p.m., free with RSVP). The New York Film Festival continues through next week, with the requisite 10th anniversary screening of The Royal Tenenbaums (Oct. 13, 8:30 p.m., standby only). The Israeli film Footnote, a writerly father-son drama that won best screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival, gets a screening Monday (Oct. 10, 9 p.m., $24, Oct. 11, 6 p.m., $24). Richard Kaplan’s documentary Varian and Putzi: A 20th Century Tale, about the lives of two extremely different Harvard grads (who knew?) during World War II, screens daily next week at the Museum of Modern Art (through Oct. 14, $12 with $25 museum admission).

Alfred Stieglitz, the photographer, gallerist, and active supporter of modern art, gets his due with the exhibit “Stieglitz and His Artists: Matisse to O’Keeffe,” which opened this week at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. (through Jan. 2, 2012). Israeli artist Haim Steinbach’s first solo exhibit, titled “Creature” and featuring small, plastic versions of, well, creatures, shows at Chelsea’s Tanya Bonakdar gallery (through Oct. 22, free). Photographer Richard Rothman signs his awesome-looking book next Friday at the International Center of Photography(Oct. 14, 6 p.m., free). An Austria Pop-Up Store has popped up on Mulberry Street in Manhattan; find out what that actually means before it shuts down Oct. 19 (12 p.m.-9 p.m. daily; open until 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, free). Meanwhile, Archtober, New York’s monthlong celebration of design and architecture, trucks along, while elsewhere, in the pagan department, Halloween festivity has already sprung up.

In Cambridge, Mass., Dava Sobel, Ruth Gruber’s neice, discusses her latest book, on the cosmic Polish cleric Copernicus, at the Harvard Book Store, Monday (Oct. 10, 6 p.m., $5). In Washington, Israeli artist Nira Pereg’s bizarrely sensory film of flamingos in a German zoo is on view at the Hirschorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (through Nov. 13, free). In Philadelphia, adopt an adapted version of the liquor-aided break-fast with a South of France wine tasting Sunday (Oct. 9, 4 p.m., $35).

West Coast: Southern California celebrates homegrown postwar art with a citywide initiative dubbed Pacific Standard Time, and while the schedule of events runs through Yom Kippur the exhibitions–many of which continue through next year–are certainly worth a look. Richard Serra signs books at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Thursday to launch the museum’s retrospective of his work, which runs through Jan. 16, 2012 (Oct. 13, 6 p.m., free). In the Bay Area, Schaller and Weber scion Julie Schaller takes a page from Peter Manseau with her traveling vintage meat cart, lovingly named “The Butcher’s Daughter.” In Oregon, finalists for the National Book Awards—Nicole Krauss was one last year—will be announced Wednesday live from Portland’s new literary arts center (Oct. 12, 9 a.m., streamed online).

Abroad: John Cleese co-stars in Spud, a film remake of the 2005 South African novel of the same name; it screens next week at the 16th annual Schlingel International Film Festival in Chemnitz, Germany. In Israel for Yom Kippur? Here’s a quick overview of what you can expect, food-and-activity wise. (Hint: not much.) The good news is that the Haifa International Film Festival opens next week and runs through Oct. 22, featuring a host of cool-looking films, including the “Jewish Identity: Berlin-Haifa Encounters” series. In Akko, the Israeli Fringe Theater Festival runs Oct. 16 to 19 and includes the Israeli theater premiere of the 1987 creepy comedy Mein Kampf.

Coming Up: Brace yourself: Ethan Coen, Woody Allen, and Elaine May wrote one-act comedies that John Tuturro will direct on Broadway, with performances starting Oct. 20. David Bezmogis, Gary Shteyngart, and Gal Beckerman converge on Toronto to discuss Russian-Jewish stories at the Koffler Center of the Arts (Oct. 23, 11 a.m, $18). Weird Al Yankovic, superman of parody (and not Jewish), plays New York’s Beacon Theater (Oct. 23, 7 p.m., from $58). And because Agenda will be away next week for Sukkot, commemorate the dwelling-based origins of the holiday next weekend with lots of opportunities to poke around places in which you don’t get to live at the 9th annual Open House New York, or wait a week and break bread you’ve made at Park 51 (Oct. 23, 1 p.m., free with RSVP).

Stephanie Butnick is deputy editor of Tablet Magazine and a host of the Unorthodox podcast.

Stephanie Butnick is chief strategy officer of Tablet Magazine, co-founder of Tablet Studios, and a host of the Unorthodox podcast.