The A List

Courtesy Film Forum/Janus Film

Jean-Paul Belmondo and Anna Karina in “Pierrot Le Fou” (1965), playing May 8-10.

GODARD’S 1960’s
“Movies should have a beginning, a middle, and an end, but not necessarily in that order,” said Jean-Luc Godard, a founding father of nouvelle vague whose films of the 1960s defined cutting edge by utilizing jump cuts, asynchronous soundtracks, self-narration, and cinema as essay, collage, a self-referential platform, and anarchy. For this five-week run, classics like “Breathless,” “Masculine Feminine,” “Contempt,” and “La Chinoise” share the screen with lesser known movies such as “A Married Woman” and the short “Charlotte et Véronique.” May 2-June 5. French designer Agnès B introduces “Breathless” on May 2 at 8:20 p.m. Film Forum. 209 W. Houston St. 212-727-8112, filmforum.org.

Photo by Marion Ettlinger

Memoirist Felicia Sullivan

Readings

BEHIND THE BOOK
A nonprofit arts organization that promotes a reading culture among low-income students in NYC public schools, Behind the Book works to get kids excited about reading by bringing authors and their books into classrooms to build literacy skills and make reading something young people want to do. As part of their monthly series in the East Village, May’s readers are Felicia Sullivan and Askold Melnyczuk. Sullivan, founding editor of the lit mag “Small Spiral Notebook,” is the author of a newly published memoir, “The Sky Isn’t Visible From Here.” Melnyczuk, founder of “Agni,” is a novelist whose most recent book is the haunting “House of Widows.” May 8 at 7 p.m. Free. KGB Bar. 85 E. Fourth St. behindthebook.org, kgbbar.com.

Art

DOUBLE ALBUM
Daniel Guzmán and Steven Shearer work in a variety of mediums exploring issues of male identity, extended adolescence, rock culture, death, and the seductive ambiguity of self-portraiture. Both men have adopted 1970s and 1980s pop icons and bands as surrogates and personal avatars. Mexican artist Guzmán creates drawings and sculptures that blend current events, magical realism, and cultural idols, while Canadian-born Shearer curates thousands of digital files from which his work is hewn, as well as a painter and sculptor. Through July 6. $12 adults, $8 seniors, $6 students, under 18 free. New Museum. 235 Bowery, 2nd Floor. 212-219-1222, newmuseum.org.

Photo courtesy kurimanzutto, Mexico City

Daniel Guzmán, “Sigue siendo rock and roll para mí” 2005

Courtesy Tribeca Film Festival

Hanging with the hoop girls at the 2007 ESPN Sports Day

Fair

TRIBECA FAMILY STREET FAIR
Drawing more than 300,000 people last year, the Tribeca Film Festival’s Family Street Fair offers a lineup of lively entertainment featuring dancers, stilt-walkers, Broadway performances, arts and crafts, and face painters. Also on-hand are chess games, bubble gum blowing contests, screenings of family and student films, kites, children’s improv, and excerpts from musicals and ballets. Simultaneously, the ESPN Sports Day hosts variety of interactive sports-related games and demonstrations, from tennis to basketball to video games. May 3 from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Free. Greenwich Street between Hubert & Duane Sts. ESPN Sports Day is on N. Moore Street between Greenwich & West Sts.. tribecafilmfestival.org.

Talks

PEN WORLD VOICES
“Public Lives/Private Lives” is the theme of this year’s festival, an annual convergence of more than 50 authors from around the world who gather to discuss global issues. PEN, according to its president, Francine Prose, is an organization for both human rights and writers. Highlights include the Moth storytelling event (May 1 at 7 p.m.) featuring Andy Borowitz, Annie Proulx, and Sebastian Horsley; a discussion between Salman Rushdie, Umberto Eco and Mario Vargas Llosa (May 2 at 7:30 p.m.); and a multimedia “Believer” event featuring a panel of Scandinavian authors as well as music by John Wesley Harding (May 3 at 6 p.m.) April 29-May 4. $10 - 20. Locations vary. pen.org.

Author Marilynne Robinson