Albert Maysles News

Coming up this week, 54 BELOW, the performance venue located just below the legendary Studio 54 at 254 West 54th Street, presents some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz and beyond:

After 5 days featuring 10 new films from around the world; 9 retrospective screenings with artists such as Jennie Livingston, James Toback, Julie Taymor and Frederick Elmes; 9 amazing panels featuring the brightest industry minds; and 8 special events including conversations with Michael Moore, FIRST TIME FEST, The Second Time Around came to a close last night, April 7 with its Closing Night Awards Ceremony which took place at the 42West Nightclub in NYC. Scroll down for photos from throughout the festival!

Following last year's acclaimed first edition, FIRST TIME FEST is back, and it shows that the secondtime is even better. The Second Time Around for FIRST TIME FEST is set for today, April 3 - 7, 2014, and it will be based at their new home. NeueHouse (110 East 25th St.). NeueHouse will be the location for panels, workshops, selected film presentations, parties and the filmmaker lounge. Most screenings, including all the competition films, will take place at the AMC Loews Village 7 (11th St. & Third Ave.)

54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, presents Jeffrey Johnson in Edie Beale LIVE at Reno Sweeney on May 1st, 2014 at 9:30PM. 'Little Edie' Beale, of GREY GARDENS fame, performed a cabaret act at Reno Sweeney Nightclub in New York City over the New Years week of 1978…this is that act.

Tony Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated director Julie Taymor will be the FIRST TIME FEST'S 2014 John Huston Award For Achievement In Cinema recipient, announced FTF Co-Founders Johanna Bennett and Mandy Ward. Ms. Taymor will also be represented in the Fest's 'First Exposure' Retrospective Program where she will attend to present and discuss with the audience her first feature film, Titus.

Following last year's acclaimed first edition, FIRST TIME FEST is back, and it shows that the secondtime is even better. The Second Time Around for FIRST TIME FEST is set for April 3 - 7, 2014, and it will be based at their new home. NeueHouse (110 East 25th St.). NeueHouse will be the location for panels, workshops, selected film presentations, parties and the filmmaker lounge. Most screenings, including all the competition films, will take place at the AMC Loews Village 7 (11th St. & Third Ave.)

The God Box: A Daughter's Story, performed by acclaimed author Mary Lou Quinlan based on her bestselling book, will play the Cherry Lane Theater (38 Commerce Street) on Monday March 3rd at 7PM as a benefit performance for Gilda's Club NYC. Based on Mary Lou Quinlan's New York Times' bestselling book, The God Box, Sharing my mother's gift of faith, love and letting go, the performance explores the laughter and tears of a family in love, in loss, and in triumph. Quinlan is donating 100% of the night's proceeds to Gilda's Club NYC, the free cancer support program founded in memory of comedian Gilda Radner, who died of ovarian cancer in 1989. The God Box: A Daughter's Story is co-written and directed by Martha Wollner of the LAByrinth Theater Company.

Roberto Guerra, an international documentary film director, producer, and cinematographer, born in Lima, Peru, has died. Born in 1942, he graduated from the Universidad Nacional de Ingenieria, Lima with a degree in engineering, and subsequently turned his attention to film, initially producing and directing in Peru.

Jeffrey Johnson will be bringing his critically acclaimed one-man show, Edie Beale LIVE at Reno Sweeney, back to NYC for one night only at the acclaimed 54 BELOW.

The Meeting* hosted by Justin Sayre - the acclaimed comedy/variety show hailed as 'rambunctious, uproarious and unpredictable' by The Wall Street Journal, 'delicious and delightfully droll' by The New York Post, and 'hilarious and sardonic' by The Village Voice - has moved to 54 BELOW for a six month run after four sell-out seasons in New York's West Village. The next show will be on Wednesday, November 20 at 9:30 PM. Justin Sayre and The Meeting*, known for a signature blend of outrageous comedy, politics, culture and everything in between, were named one of the Top 10 nightclub shows of 2011 by Time Out New York, received the 2012 Bistro Award for 'Comedy Artistry' and a 2011 MAC Award nomination for Best Male Comedy Performance.

Chicago International Movies & Music Festival (CIMMfest No. 5), Chicago's annual festival of film screenings, music concerts and more, presents CIMMpathy for The Stones, a major retrospective celebrating The Rolling Stones' 50 years of music on film. The retrospective includes screenings of ten concert films and documentaries - two never before seen in Chicago - plus music videos and filmmaker Q&As today-Sunday, April 19-21, at Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport.

Chicago International Movies & Music Festival (CIMMfest No. 5), Chicago's annual festival of film screenings, music concerts and more, presents CIMMpathy for The Stones, a major retrospective celebrating The Rolling Stones' 50 years of music on film. The retrospective includes screenings of ten concert films and documentaries - two never before seen in Chicago - plus music videos and filmmaker Q&As Friday-Sunday, April 19-21, at Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport.

GREY GARDENS, a co-production with The 5th Avenue Theatre and ACT is now playing on the mainstage through May 26. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the production shots below.

GREY GARDENS, a co-production with The 5th Avenue Theatre and ACT will play on the mainstage tonight, March 16-May 26 with a press opening of March 21.

An expanded live music component with concerts by Lydia Loveless, Corey Harris, Pontiak and a Funk Rock Soul triple bill with the funky METERS, Greyboy Allstars and JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound; CIMMpathy for The Stones, celebrating The Rolling Stones' 50 years of music on film; a special film section, award ceremony and concert with maverick filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles; an evening of music and movies with the legendary Van Dyke Parks and his filmmaker son, Richard; a Blues film section; 11 World Premiere screenings; and much more highlight the 5th annual Chicago International Movies & Music Festival (CIMMfest No. 5). The four-day festival annually brings together filmmakers, musicians and devotees from around the world for a celebration of movies and music at various venues centered around Chicago's Wicker Park and Logan Square neighborhoods, with a satellite location at the Music Box Theatre, Thursday, April 18 - Sunday, April 21.

ACT - A Contemporary Theatre single tickets go on sale to the public for all 2013 Mainstage shows February 12, 2013. ACT is offering 50 percent off of adult price tickets for all Mainstage preview shows throughout the season for one-day only February 12. ACT also shares a glimpse of the casting for the first half of the upcoming Mainstage season.

ACT has announced some of the casting for the first half of the upcoming Mainstage season. ACT's own Artistic Director Kurt Beattie gets back on the boards alongside Jeff Steitzer, Marianne Owen, Julie Briskman, and Laura Kenny in Assisted Living. In Other Desert Cities the critically acclaimed Marya Sea Kaminski makes her ACT debut going head to head with television actress Pamela Reed (Parks and Recreation, Kindergarten Cop) who is a UW Drama alumni and Washington resident. Many other notable local actors will be returning to ACT or making their debut including Jessica Skerritt, Matt Owen, Lori Larsen, Suzy Hunt, Aaron Blakely, and Kirsten Potter to name a few. See the current listing of committed artistic and production talent below.

As the Sundance Film Festival whirls through Park City, students are getting in on the action. This week, a select group of filmmakers arrive at Park City High School to screen their films (or clips of their work) and to engage students in discussion on everything from AIDs treatment and educational access to film animation and screenwriting. The 2013 Filmmakers in the Classroom program, a joint effort of Sundance Institute and Park City Performing Arts Foundation's (PCPAF) Student Outreach Program, runs January 22 through 25.

Sundance Institute announced today the program of short films selected to screen at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, January 17-27 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah. The 2013 Short Film program is comprised of 65 short films selected from a record 8,102 submissions (427 more than for the 2012 Festival).

GE and CINELAN today announced that viewing and voting for its $200,000 FOCUS FORWARD Filmmaker Competition is open (http://vimeo.com/focusforwardfilms/competition), with 95 semifinalists in the running for Audience Favorite. Five cash prizes, including the Grand Jury Prize of $100,000, will be awarded at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival by a jury that includes Joe Berlinger (Paradise Lost), actress Daryl Hannah (Kill Bill), Barbara Kopple (Harlan County, USA), Sundance Film Festival Senior Programmer Caroline Libresco, José Padilha (Elite Squad), producer Floyd Webb (Daughters of the Dust), and Peter Wintonick (Manufacturing Consent). The finalists for the cash prizes will be announced and featured on the FOCUS FORWARD website (http://focusforwardfilms.com) on Wednesday, November 28.