Weekend Arts Agenda: ‘Finding Fela’ August 14 2014
The acclaimed documentary comes to Atlanta. And it’s bringing a party.
Acclaimed documentary Finding Fela, about the eponymous African Afrobeat pioneer, will open at Landmark in Midtown on Friday night, kicking off a weekend of festivities and a week-long run at the theater. Opening night will be hosted by Atlanta Africa 2014 and Terry Bello and the International Soul Music Summit; and will see remarks from ambassador Geoffrey Teneilabe and others. An after-party follows, and the weekend consist of a Saturday film festival and Sunday screening and Q&A. It’s a whole slate of activities — which is fitting, as the film is a revelation if it is your first real experience with Fela Kuti’s life. He’s worth the attention. Contact Landmark for a full schedule.
This is not a weekend for one-offs: Events are instead sprawling, Friday-Sunday and beyond. Here’s a look.
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FRIDAY PSA whitespace has the first of two film nights, with a preshow starting at 7:30 p.m. The evening is titled Shorts Shorts: Presentism; but better to go in with the mystery preserved.
FRIDAY-SUNDAY
At Eyedrum this weekend, a group of artists will gather for Existing Conditions to “reactivate” the gallery’s new digs at 88 Forsyth St., which has been largely unused for most of the last 10 years. (Fun fact! After a period of homelessness, Eyedrum had been living right next door to CL.) Participating artists include; Brian Bannon, Bill Taft, Allison Rentz, Morgan Carlisle, Thomas Love, Tom Haney, Ed Woodham, Lauren Peterson and Nick Adams, Jae Matthews, Ashley Anderson, James Sanders, Zac Denton, Kris Pilcher, Crash Hottman. According to the show’s official description, “Their works will create a new way of looking at” all that remains “of a century of commerce, vibrant activity, and subsequent neglect.” Fri., 6-10 p.m.; Sat., 6 p.m.-midnight; Sun., 3-7 p.m.
SATURDAY-SUNDAY
What is even going on at this year’s Piedmont Park Arts Festival? “Up to” 250 different artists (glass blowers, painters, photographers, sculptors, and more), a street market, demos and live music (Battlefield Collective, the Best Brothers, and 10 other bands round out the lineup). It’s the usual! By which we mean it’s a summer weekend and here is a free two-day festival that benefits local causes. Also: coffee by Ursa Minor.
LIVING WALLS
- Joshua Gwyn
- This untitled mural by the Italian artist Moneyless is on the wall outside the Sound Table on Edgewood.
As always this time of year, there really is a lot of Living Walls-related stuff going on. We’ve got your look-back at what this five-year anniversary means for the organization — and the arts scene at large — plus Rodney Carmichael has a roundup of the calendar’s best/brightest. LW organizers are excited for this year’s main event, a co-presentation with the Goat Farm on Sat., Aug. 16, that will include more musical performances and more three-dimensional works. That includes an installation by the artist Bayeté Ross Smith that will probably involve you, me, him, and a tower of boom boxes. Yes, boom boxes. Go: See something.