Samedi

by Leon Perniciaro

Festival season is nearing an end, but there’s plenty in the city to get your mind back right: watch a documentary on the side effects of progress; or another documentary on workers’ self-management in Argentina, sponsored by OccupyNOLA; hear James Miller talk about his fight to save UNO’s athletic program, listen to HR Hegnauer read selections from her newest poetry, watch a 1994 drama about a priest choosing between religion and his secret gay life; or hear Amy Elizabeth Smith talk about her adventures in Latin America with Jane Austen’s novels.

Surviving Progress – A Documentary Film Screening

7:30 pm, Monday, May 28

Zeitgeist, 1618 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd, $8

We may very well be in the process of destroying ourselves. This documentary explores the concept of progress and its (at-times) devastating impact on humanity and the environment, from mass extinction to deforestation to the Counting Crows – all the terrible things we’ve let happen in our quest for progress (They paved paradise, indeed). We hear from leading experts like Jane Goodall and Stephen Hawking, who not only discuss the pitfalls of our own society, but draw comparisons to some that have collapsed in the past. The showing repeats Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

The Take – A Documentary Film Screening and Discussion

7 pm, Wednesday, May 30

Loyola University, Monroe Library, Seminary Room 4

The OccupyNOLA Solidarity Economy Group and the slightly-less-pretentiously-named ZigZag Discussion Group host a screening of The Take, the 2004 classic documentary on worker’s self-management in Argentina. The owners shut the factories down, but the workers said, “No bueno,” and opened them back up. If you know the word “anarcho-syndicalism,” or if you just pretend you do, this is the documentary for you.

Where the Water Kept Rising: A College Athletic Director’s Fight to Save a New Orleans Sports Institution – A Signing and Discussion by James W. Miller

5:30 pm, Thursday, May 31

Garden District Book Shop, 2727 Prytania St

James Miller discusses the most important career decision of his life, leaving his job as a well-paid executive with the National Football League in 2003 to become the moderately-well-paid Athletic Director at the University of New Orleans. By August of 2005, he had only just managed to get the program off the ground before catastrophic events (we forget exactly what happened) destroyed everything he’d worked for.

17 Poets -- A Poetry Reading with HR Hegnauer
8 pm, Thursday, May 31

Gold Mine Saloon, Dauphine and St. Peter Sts.

Book and web designer HR Hegnauer reads selections from Sir, her latest chapbook of prose poetry. This particular book is about memory, remembering and forgetting (and some other stuff that we, well, can’t quite remember right now). Given the author’s publication history (such as being included in the Anthology of Trans Genderqueer Poetry), issues of sexuality are also bound to come up.

Priest – A Film Screening and Discussion

7:30 pm, Friday June 1

Parker Church, 1130 Nashville

The Lyceum Project will screen Priest, the 1994 drama about, well, a priest who tries to balance his religious devotion and sexual purity with his secret gay life (and secret gay lover). The priest must choose one life over another when he learns that one of his parishioners is being molested by her father. With such a pleasant topic, we’re sure this film will have a happy ending. Sadly, the movie is not the 2011 post-apocalyptic Priest that looked awesomely awful. Hopefully there is kung-fu in this one too, though.

All Roads Lead to Jane Austen: A Year Long Journey with Jane – A Book Reading and Signing with Amy Elizabeth Smith

1 pm, Saturday, June 2

Garden District Book Shop, 2727 Prytania St

It is a truth universally acknowledged that an author with a year to kill and every Spanish translation of Jane Austen’s novels should go on an adventure through Latin America. Or, at least, that’s what Amy Elizabeth Smith did. Hear the author discuss her six-country tour, organizing reading groups and finding love south of the Tropic of Cancer.