A NIGHT OF NEO-BENSHI: Flow Chart Cabaret Cinema

STILL FROM IT’S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD

Saturday, July 30 at 7pm — $20

Hudson Hall Opera House, 327 Warren Street, Hudson, NY

Featuring Madhur Anand, Bruce Andrews, Dara Barrois/Dixon (formerly Dara Wier), Jeffrey Lependorf, Sheila Maldonado, Tracie Morris, Sally Silvers, and Wayne Koestenbaum

The Flow Chart Foundation returned to Hudson Hall with a new evening of one-of-a-kind neo-benshi fun. Taking inspiration from early Japanese film interpreters, neo-benshi artists choose scenes from popular films and replace the dialogue with their own unique re-inventions, performed live in front of the screen. From re-imagined classics to new takes on blockbuster movies, it was a singular evening of performance, poetry, and dance, ranging rom the sublime to the ridiculousness.

Featured films included scenes from Anna Karenina; It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World; Matango: Attack of the Mushroom People; A Streetcar Named Desire, The Women; and The Thousand Faces of Dunjia; plus the U.S. premiere of Tracie Morris’ Black Spring.

The evening preceded The Flow Chart Foundation’s first “Gathering,” a free daylong event of presentations, performances, and readings celebrating what would have been John Ashbery’s 95 birthday, as well as the 60th anniversary of his groundbreaking The Tennis Court Oath. The event took place at the nearby Flow Chart Space at 348 Warren Street.

Watch excerpts of A Night of Neo-Benshi below (note; films/performances by Tracie Morris and Jeffrey Lependorf have not been included).