Cornell Cinema

Cornell Cinema presents the documentary 'Shut Up and Look,' profiling acclaimed alumni artist Richard Artschwager ’44, Sept. 6 at Cinemapolis and Sept. 10 on campus.

Indian cuisine

Cornell Plantations offers an Indian cooking class in its Garden to Table Series, a gardening lecture and other events this week.

Local chef Julie Jordan (Wegmans Market Café, Cabbagetown Café) demonstrates the layering of ingredients to flavor nutritious Indian dishes in “From the Ground Up: Herbs and Spices of Vegetarian Indian Cooking,” Sunday, Sept. 8, 1-4 p.m. in the Nevin Welcome Center. Includes a tour of the Robison Herb Garden and Pounder Vegetable Garden. Advance registration required. $50; $45 for members/Cornell students.

On Sept. 11, Bill Hendricks of Klyn Nurseries discusses the revival of popular Victorian-era plants, evolving gardening practices and other trends in “New and Trendy Plants for Today’s Gardens,” Plantations’ William J. Hamilton Lecture, 7:30 p.m. in Statler Auditorium. Free.

Also at Plantations:

• Guided 5K running tours, Sept. 6 and 20 (and continuing every other Friday) at noon, a moderate jog with stops along the way to interpret plants and landscapes with Plantations staff. Free and open to all; meet at the garden overlook on Tower Road across from Stocking Hall.
• A Fall Plant Sale, Sept. 7, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. at the Plant Production Facility, 397 Forest Home Drive.

Information, registration: www.cornellplantations.org, 607-255-2400.

Art and politics

Cornell Library’s Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections (RMC) hosts a workshop and roundtable discussion, “China, Turkey and the Shifting Politics of Art Repatriation,” Sept. 10 at 4:30 p.m. in 2B48 Kroch Library (enter through Olin Library). Open to the public.

Topics include looting and restitution of Chinese art from the Opium War to the 1911 revolution, repatriation of ancient art in Turkey, Chinese relics in modern China and the interpretive evolution of Yuanmingyuan Zodiacs from Qianlong to Jackie Chan.

The panelists are associate professor of anthropology Magnus Fiskesjö; Annetta Alexandridis, associate professor of classical art and archaeology in the history of art and visual studies;  Ph.D. candidate in the field of Asian studies Annetta Fotopoulos; and Laurent Ferri, curator of pre-1800 collections in RMC.

Excerpts from the film “Chinese Zodiac” will be shown. Information: rareref@cornell.edu

American Cinema

To accompany a University Course in American cinema with performing and media arts and American studies professor Sabine Haenni, Cornell Cinema highlights 13 classic films on Wednesday nights this fall, including Alfred Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest” Sept. 11.

The series samples film noir, comedy, horror, Western (“High Noon,” Sept. 18), a musical (“West Side Story,” Oct. 23), silent shorts (Sept. 25) and everything in between, from the original 1932 “Scarface” (Oct. 9) to “The Big Lebowski” (Dec. 4-6). Information: http://cinema.cornell.edu

Also showing: “Shut Up and Look,” a documentary about the late “artist’s artist” Richard Artschwager ’44, launches Cornell Cinema’s Art Docs Downtown series Sept. 6 at Cinemapolis, and screens Sept. 10 in Willard Straight Theatre. Details at http://cinema.cornell.edu/Fall2013/richard_artschwager_shut.html

Guitar lessons

The Student Union Board presents Group Folk Guitar Lessons, Monday evenings beginning Sept. 9 in the Willard Straight Hall International Lounge. 

Phil Shapiro teaches the course, with eight one-hour lessons for beginners and acoustic guitarists seeking to improve their playing.

Beginners meet at 7 p.m. and intermediate players at 8 p.m. Registration is at the first lesson; bring a guitar. Intermediate lessons include fingerpicking exercises and an introduction to improvisation. Open to the Cornell community and the public.

The course costs $60, payable at the first lesson. Information: Phil Shapiro, 607-844-4535, pds10@cornell.edu, or http://www.shapiroandshore.com/guitarclass.html

Ke$ha tickets

Student tickets for pop star Ke$ha, performing Sept. 29 in Barton Hall, sold out on the first day of online sales Sept. 4.

After limited ticket sales for the general public ($33 each) Sept. 5-6, additional student tickets ($25 each) may be released next week, the Cornell Concert Commission announced. All tickets are general admission and only available online, at http://cornellconcerts.universitytickets.com

‘Connecting Stories’

The Latino Civic Association’s ¡Cultura! Program, Teatrotaller at Cornell and La Poderosa Media Project are inviting all Tompkins County residents (including the Cornell community) to join in an international project this year (2013-14) and learn to write short film scripts.

Community members are welcome to create, collaborate and share their own stories with a group of young people from Santiago, Chile. A free screenwriting workshop for English, Spanish and Spanglish speakers will be held Saturdays from Sept. 21 to Nov. 21.

Participants will learn to find a story to tell, develop characters and dialogues, and write a script, to be filmed in the spring in Chile and the United States. The films will be distributed internationally.

An information meeting is Friday, Sept. 6, at 4 p.m. at Tompkins County Worker’s Center, 115 The Commons, above Autumn Leaves Bookstore.

“Connecting Stories” is facilitated by Jorge García Nunez, a filmmaker, Ithaca College assistant professor of Latin American studies and curriculum director of La Poderosa’s language and visual arts programs. Information: info@lapoderosa.org, 512-527-4341.

‘Fictions of Dignity’

Associate professor of English Elizabeth S. Anker illuminates the relationship between literature and human rights in her 2012 book “Fictions of Dignity: Embodying Human Rights in World Literature” (Cornell University Press). She will discuss the book at a Chats in the Stacks book talk, Sept. 11 at 4:30 p.m. in 106G Olin Library. Free.

Anker’s book analyzes four novels by Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy, Nawal El Saadawi and J.M. Coetzee, revealing how lives are denied protections based on their race, gender, class, disability or even species. She has also written on animal rights and phenomenology, and the 9/11 novel. Information: http://olinuris.library.cornell.edu/booktalks