Week in Pictures for April 19

See the slide show

Here is a slide show of photographs from the past week in New York City and the region. Subjects include a pretesting pep rally in Washington Heights, an art installation in Rockefeller Center and horses at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.

This weekend on “The New York Times Close Up,” an inside look at the most compelling articles in the Sunday newspaper, Sam Roberts will speak with The Times’s David Barstow, Mark Mazzetti, Michael Barbaro and Eleanor Randolph, as well as John Feinblatt, a mayoral policy adviser.

A sampling from the City Room blog is featured daily in the main print news section of The Times. You may also browse highlights from the blog and reader comments, read current New York headlines, like New York Metro | The New York Times on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

No Charges for Police Commanders Over Actions During Protests

Charlie Grapski via YouTube Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna at an Occupy Wall Street protest in 2011.

During the Occupy Wall Street protests and their aftermath, they were the online-video symbols for those who said the New York Police Department was using excessive force:

Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna, in his white commander’s shirt, walking up to a crowd of people and appearing to pepper-spray protesters at random. And Deputy Inspector Johnny Cardona, who appears to turn around a protester who is walking away and punch him in the face.

Inspector Bologna was found by the Police Department to have violated internal guidelines and was docked 10 vacation days. Both men are facing civil lawsuits in which the city has declined to defend them.

But there will be no criminal charges against either commander, the office of the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., said Friday afternoon.

“The district attorney’s office has concluded, after a thorough investigation, that we cannot prove these allegations criminally beyond a reasonable doubt,” a spokeswoman, Erin M. Duggan, said in a brief statement. “We have informed the Police Department, the complainants, and the city of our decision.”

Video taken Sept. 24, 2011, showing Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna pepper-spraying Occupy Wall Street protesters. The incident was examined by prosecutors.

A former Manhattan prosecutor, Thomas J. Curran, said that it is harder to prosecute police personnel, particularly for conduct in a chaotic situation like a street demonstration, because using force “is part of their job.”

“The use of force would have to be a complete departure from any legitimate police activity,” said Mr. Curran, who is now a defense lawyer. “You’d have to show an intent to assault, and you have to prove that beyond a reasonable doubt, as opposed to using force as allowed pursuant to police activity. It’s very difficult to do.”

Kaylee Dedrick, one of the protesters pepper-sprayed by Inspector Cardona who has since sued him, said in a phone interview, “Part of me expected that he wouldn’t be prosecuted, but I’m still pretty shocked, with all the evidence against him.”

Video taken Oct. 14, 2011, shows Deputy Inspector Johnny Cardona appearing to hit a protester.

Her lawyer, Ron Kuby, who represents several protesters who are suing the inspectors, called the decision “cowardly and despicable.”

Prosecutors said they investigated possible assault charges against Inspector Bologna for his use of pepper spray in a protest in on East 12th Street on Sept. 24, 2011. In a widely viewed video, Inspector Bologna can be seen striding up to a crowd penned behind orange mesh netting, discharging his pepper-spray canister with a sweeping motion, and walking away.

In the episode involving Inspector Cardona, video shot from several angles on Oct. 14, 2011, appears to show the inspector tapping a man, Felix Rivera-Pitre, on the shoulder, and then, after Mr. Rivera-Pitre turns to look at Inspector Cardona and walks away, the inspector grabbing Mr. Rivera-Pitre and punching him in the face.

The police said at the time that Mr. Rivera-Pitre had tried to elbow Inspector Cardona in the face beforehand and was being sought for attempted assault.

Mr. Curran, who said he had spoken to prosecutors in Mr. Vance’s office about the cases, said that in the case of Inspector Bologna, “he used the spray not specifically at any one person but at the crowd, in response to a situation that’s getting out of control.” The department guidelines Inspector Bologna was found to have violated had to do with using pepper spray in a nonarrest situation without sufficient training, which Mr. Curran said was an entirely different thing from committing assault.

In the Cardona case, Mr. Curran said of Mr. Rivera-Pitre, “the evidence that the D.A. saw suggests that he had his arm cocked in a fist form before Cardona hit him.”

Roy Richter, president of the union to which both commanders belong, the Captains Endowment Association, said that declining to prosecute Inspector Bologna was “the right decision” and that Inspector Cardona had been injured by Occupy protesters and “is the true victim of the O.W.S. fiasco.”

Mr. Kuby said he would ask federal prosecutors to review the cases.

The Week in Culture Pictures, April 19

Sara Krulwich/The New York Times Bobby Cannavale in a revival of Clifford Odets’s 1949 drama “The Big Knife” at the American Airlines Theater.

More photographs.

A slide show of photographs of cultural highlights from this week.

Subway Trains Soon to Stop Again at a Gowanus Station

Nicholas Roberts for The New York Times The Smith-Ninth Street subway stop in Brooklyn has been closed to passengers for nearly two years.

Nearly two years after closing for repairs, and one year after it was expected to reopen, the Smith-Ninth Street subway station in Gowanus, Brooklyn, will return to service next Friday at 10:30 a.m., transit officials said.

The station last served passengers in June 2011, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and its absence has drawn the ire of F and G train riders from Gowanus and Red Hook.

The stop, which the transportation authority says is 88 feet high, making it the “world’s highest subway station,” was closed as part of an effort to rebuild the Culver Viaduct, which opened in 1933 as part of the IND system. Station reconstruction work included rehabilitated stairs and platforms and a new metal panel escalator enclosure.

An earlier plan for the roughly $300 million project had called for the station to reopen partly last spring, but remain without Coney Island-bound F train service until the fall.

“This has been a long and complicated project, but we are grateful for the community’s patience while we performed this necessary work,” Thomas F. Prendergast, the authority’s acting executive director and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s nominee to be chairman, said in a recent statement. “This station will be 80 years old this summer and this rehabilitation will see it reach that milestone with a much improved appearance and functionality.”

The authority said that some construction would continue after the station reopened, but that it would not affect service.

Big Ticket | A Reinvented Town House, Sold for $27 Million

Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times Once labeled a “no-style structure,” 12 East 76th Street was completely redesigned in 2008 and just sold for $27 million in a whisper sale.

An Upper East Side town house that in 1981 received the dreaded thumbs-down designation of being “a no-style structure” from the Landmarks Preservation Commission because of an unloved mid-20th-century revamping, sold for $27 million after undergoing a 21st-century rejuvenation, in the most expensive sale of the week, according to city records.

The five-story town house at 12 East 76th Street, built in 1882, attracted such intense interest from buyers seeking a state-of-the-art residence with a classical exterior â€" in the course of a gut renovation that began in 2008, red brick was replaced with Italian limestone â€" that it was never formally listed on the market. It traded after just three viewings, in a whisper sale.

When the fashion mogul Luca Orlandi, founder of the Italian Luca Luca brand, and his wife, Oluchi Onweagba, the Nigerian-born supermodel, bought the town house for $12.35 million in 2008, it was not exactly an eyesore, but it lacked the grace of its historic neighbors on this prime block just off Fifth Avenue. Around 1946, the 18-foot-wide town house had been shorn of its period embellishments, and since 1954 it had been multitasking as a two-family home with a medical office on the street level.

Over the objections of preservationists and Community Board 8, Mr. Orlandi received permission from the city’s landmarks commission in 2010 essentially to demolish the structure and rebuild it using a design from the architect Umberto Squarcia. The front facade is limestone with ample cornices; the rear is brick with stone lintels similar to the original design.

The result is an elegant but decidedly new town house with an elevated entry, five bedrooms, six marble baths, two powder rooms, two wood-burning fireplaces, and a suite for a staff. An elevator connects the basement to the rooftop garden, and the ceilings in the parlor, which has three French windows facing the street, are 14 feet high. The master suite occupies the entire top floor.

Sami Hassoumi of Brown Harris Stevens was the listing broker on behalf of Orlandi Realty; the buyer acquired the property under the shield of a limited-liability company, Mou.

Six blocks to the south, a nine-room co-op in a Rosario Candela-designed building at 2 East 70th Street sold for $13.25 million, the week’s runner-up. This three-bedroom, three-bath residence, No. 4A, was listed at $13.5 million and had belonged for decades to the hostess and philanthropist Elizabeth R. Fondaras, who died last summer at age 96. The apartment’s west-facing corner living room has a fireplace and full Central Park view; its master suite overlooks the gardens of the Frick Museum. The maintenance is $10,250, and the sale included a separate maid’s room on the third floor.

Daniela Kunen of Douglas Elliman was the listing broker for the estate; the buyers were David and Martha Hamamoto, who in December sold their sprawling floor-through residence at 944 Fifth Avenue for the full asking price of $50 million. Mr. Hamamoto, the chairman of the NorthStar Realty Finance Corporation, had indicated that empty nest syndrome was motivating their desire to scale back a bit.

For voyeurs of the residential gymnastics of the celebrity set, the penthouse at 30 Crosby Street previously owned by Lenny Kravitz, who paid $7.1 million in 2000, and owned since 2010 by Alicia Keys, who paid $12.75 million, sold last week for $12.375 million. The titanium-sided triplex, PHB, has 3,000 square feet devoted to terraces and close to 6,000 square feet of interior space, including a master suite with a spa, a dressing room and a terrace, all accessible via a floating glass staircase.

Ms. Keys and her husband, Swizz Beatz, the hip-hop entrepreneur, recently bought Eddie Murphy’s New Jersey estate, whose significant trophy enticement was its home recording studio. The Crosby Street penthouse hit the market in March 2012 at $17.95 million. The carrying charges are $11,564.

It was sold through the Honeycomb Trust, a Los Angeles-based company; the listing broker was Eric Malley of Sotheby’s International Realty. The anonymous buyer used a limited-liability company, TessAnnieK. Could Courtney Love be moving back in?

Big Ticket includes closed sales from the previous week, ending Wednesday.

A British Musical Tradition Will Get Airtime in New York

Performances from the BBC Proms - an eight-week explosion of daily summer concerts, mostly at the Royal Albert Hall in London - will be broadcast by WQXR, the New York classical radio station, for the first time this summer, in an arrangement made possible by the station’s membership in the European Broadcasting Union.

For devoted fans of the proms, which have often offered important new work as well as standard repertory in starry performances, the station’s series is likely to be frustrating. Unlike BBC Radio 3, the BBC’s classical music arm, which broadcasts all 92 of this year’s concerts, WQXR is being selective: it is broadcasting only eight full concerts, on Saturday evenings at 5 p.m., starting on July 20. Highlights from other performances will be broadcast daily at 4 p.m.

The Saturday broadcasts will not be the performances that take place in London the same day. A WQXR spokeswoman said that the station had not yet selected all eight concerts, but three have been scheduled so far. The opening broadcast, on July 20, will include Vaughan Williams’s “Sea Symphony” and works by Britten, Lutoslawski, Rachmaninoff and Julian Anderson, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, led by Sakari Oramo. The July 27 program features the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America, with Valery Gergiev conducting and Joshua Bell as the soloist in the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto. And on Sept. 7, the station will broadcast the Last Night at the Proms, a celebratory concert of short works with the mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato and the violinist Nigel Kennedy as the soloists, and Marin Alsop conducting.

The full Proms schedule includes a Wagner celebration that offers the “Ring” cycle, with Daniel Barenboim conducting, as well as performances of “Tristan und Isolde,” led by Semyon Bychkov; “Tannhäuser,” conducted by Donald Runnicles, and “Parsifal,” led by Sir Mark Elder. Other highlights include an evening of Stockhausen, with “Mittwoch aus ‘Licht’ - Welt-Parlament” and “Gesang der Jünglinge,” a 40th anniversary concert by the Tallis Scholars, and a program by the Nicholas Collon and the Aurora Orchestra devoted to works by Frank Zappa, Conlon Nancarrow and Philip Glass.

Artists in Residence at Park Avenue Armory

The singer-songwriter Somi, the choreographer Faye Driscoll, the Trusty Sidekick Theater Company and the multidisciplinary artists Ralph Lemon and Okwui Okpokwasili and the visual artist Alex Dolan have been named as the Park Avenue Armory’s 2013 artists-in-residence. The residencies were established in 2010 and include space at the armory for the research and creation of new projects.

They are associated with the armory’s Under Construction series, in which artists present works in progress, which they continue to shape based on the responses of the armory’s audiences. This season’s Under Construction programs begins with “The Lagos Music Salon,” a program created by Somi during a 15-month sabbatical in Lagos, Nigeria, on May 17.

Ms. Okpokwasili presents her “Bronx Gothic,” a performance piece that includes movement, spoken word and songs, and combines elements of the West African griot tradition and the 19th-century epistolary novel, on May 30. Other offerings by the resident artists include the Trusty Sidekick Theater Company’s production of “The 7 1/2 Mysteries of Toulouse McLane,” a new immersive work in which the audience is expected to solve a mystery, on Oct. 6.

For NBC, a Promising Entry on Thursdays

At first glance, the odds for success appeared to be stacked against “Hannibal,” NBC’s new drama about Hannibal Lecter. It had a late-spring premiere date, which has often been a dumping ground for network programming, and NBC’s recent track record has not inspired confidence.

But so far, “Hannibal” has persevered in the ratings. It drew 4.4 million total viewers for its series premiere on April 4, 4.4 million for its second episode on April 11 and 3.5 million viewers for its most recent episode on Thursday. The show’s promising start points to a larger trend, namely the television audience’s current appetite for not only the horror genre but also the continued fascination with shows about serial killers, like this season’s greatest drama success, “The Following” on Fox, and Showtime’s “Dexter.”

While “Hannibal’s” overall numbers may not be large, NBC has struggled to fill the 10 p.m. time slot on Thursdays since “E.R.” ended its 15-year run in 2009. In the last four years, no less than 11 series - including dramas like “Prime Suspect,” “The Firm” and “Awake,” among others - have occupied that slot. And all of them failed to gain traction in the ratings. The previous 10 p.m. Thursday offering, “Do No Harm,” barely cracked 2.2 million total viewers for its second episode. It was promptly canceled.

For NBC, a Promising Entry on Thursdays

At first glance, the odds for success appeared to be stacked against “Hannibal,” NBC’s new drama about Hannibal Lecter. It had a late-spring premiere date, which has often been a dumping ground for network programming, and NBC’s recent track record has not inspired confidence.

But so far, “Hannibal” has persevered in the ratings. It drew 4.4 million total viewers for its series premiere on April 4, 4.4 million for its second episode on April 11 and 3.5 million viewers for its most recent episode on Thursday. The show’s promising start points to a larger trend, namely the television audience’s current appetite for not only the horror genre but also the continued fascination with shows about serial killers, like this season’s greatest drama success, “The Following” on Fox, and Showtime’s “Dexter.”

While “Hannibal’s” overall numbers may not be large, NBC has struggled to fill the 10 p.m. time slot on Thursdays since “E.R.” ended its 15-year run in 2009. In the last four years, no less than 11 series - including dramas like “Prime Suspect,” “The Firm” and “Awake,” among others - have occupied that slot. And all of them failed to gain traction in the ratings. The previous 10 p.m. Thursday offering, “Do No Harm,” barely cracked 2.2 million total viewers for its second episode. It was promptly canceled.

For NBC, a Promising Entry on Thursdays

At first glance, the odds for success appeared to be stacked against “Hannibal,” NBC’s new drama about Hannibal Lecter. It had a late-spring premiere date, which has often been a dumping ground for network programming, and NBC’s recent track record has not inspired confidence.

But so far, “Hannibal” has persevered in the ratings. It drew 4.4 million total viewers for its series premiere on April 4, 4.4 million for its second episode on April 11 and 3.5 million viewers for its most recent episode on Thursday. The show’s promising start points to a larger trend, namely the television audience’s current appetite for not only the horror genre but also the continued fascination with shows about serial killers, like this season’s greatest drama success, “The Following” on Fox, and Showtime’s “Dexter.”

While “Hannibal’s” overall numbers may not be large, NBC has struggled to fill the 10 p.m. time slot on Thursdays since “E.R.” ended its 15-year run in 2009. In the last four years, no less than 11 series - including dramas like “Prime Suspect,” “The Firm” and “Awake,” among others - have occupied that slot. And all of them failed to gain traction in the ratings. The previous 10 p.m. Thursday offering, “Do No Harm,” barely cracked 2.2 million total viewers for its second episode. It was promptly canceled.

Gory Name, Icy Bloom

Even in an environment as man-made as New York City’s, nature stubbornly persists â€" in park woodlands, empty lots, and between the cracks of the sidewalk. In an occasional series, Dave Taft, a senior-level park ranger in New York City with the National Park Service, will be offering close-in portraits of the city’s plants and animals.

Dave Taft The bloodroot emerges from the winter soil in a tight furl. Click to enlarge.

Cherry blossoms get the fanfare this time of year, but watching the less-heralded bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) bloom offers the instinctive thrill of seeing yet another spring unfurl.

Bloodroot blooms are part of an ancient cycle that includes the annual appearance of spring ephemerals in our temperate woodlands. Ephemerals bloom and complete their lives almost entirely before tree leaves expand to block the sun from the forest floor.

Bloodroot’s icy white flowers persist only a day or two in the best circumstances, but April’s famously tempestuous weather may wash away a whole season’s bloom in minutes if the weather is uncooperative. Luckily, the bloodroot doesn’t require much time to complete its business. The brilliant white blooms with their hot yellow stamens emerge from the soil without competition and become beacons for impatient, flower-starved suitors like still cold-clumsy bumble bees, syrphid flies, butterflies, moths and beetles.

Dave Taft During the first warm days of spring, the flower bud pokes up above the rolled leaf. Click to enlarge.

In early April, snow and frost are very real threats to such a fragile flower; consequently, the bloodroot wraps its bud within its single furled leaf until the first semi-warm days of spring, when it pushes past the leaf’s last twist, and opens broadly. That a flower so absolutely white bleeds a haunting orange-red sap is disconcerting to many, but a bruised or picked plant drips with a sticky crimson sap that leaves its mark on would-be pickers, and gives the plant its name. (Stains aside, the plant is rare and should not be disturbed.) This startling, humanlike quality inspired Native Americans and colonists to experiment with pharmaceutical concoctions made from bloodroot.

The second week of April is always a good time to begin looking for bloodroot in our local woodlands, so I recently parked my car at a familiar pullout along one of New York City’s busiest highways and entered a favorite Bronx woodland.

Dave Taft Bloodroot in all its glory. Click to enlarge.

Just yards down the trail, where the sounds of grinding gears and wheels had faded to low grumbling, bloodroot was flowering profusely, its white blooms starkly outlined against the dark brown leaf litter of a winter-gripped woods. Another of spring’s earliest arrivals, a palm warbler, flitted from branch to bare branch, tail bobbing, and keeping me at a comfortable distance while a mourning cloak butterfly tried to drive me off its trail.

If winter was warm, as it was in 2012, the flowers will have advanced, but if, like this year, the winter was snowy and the spring cool, wet and reluctant, you will find the blooms just beginning to open, as I did on my walk. The bloodroot plants here numbered in the hundreds, some with open flowers, but far more in bud, ready, for at least the next week or two, to thrill the next ritual seeker in these Bronx woods.

At a Film Festival, the Works of Grade-School Auteurs

“Basketball vs. Dancing,” as shown at the Movietown Film Festival. Click to watch other selections.

The directors and actors milling around the red carpet at the Movietown Film Festival were as excited as any Hollywood neophytes about to see their work on the big screen for the first time â€" but this crowd of filmmakers sipped their refreshments from juice boxes rather than Champagne flutes.

The films, which screened at Anthology Film Archives on April 9 before an enthusiastic, sometimes rowdy audience of nearly 80 students, parents and educators, were the work of two elementary school classes from the Neighborhood School on the Lower East Side. Both classes, made up of students from the first through fourth grades, had learned the basics of filmmaking during the past school year as part of a Tribeca Film Institute program called Tribeca Teaches.

The work was as adventurous as the young minds who produced it. Short stop-motion animations brought to mind abstract video installations. In “Basketball vs. Dancing,” inspired by Busby Berkeley’s elaborate music and dance numbers from the 1930s, a basketball player is plunged into an identity crisis, his slumber interrupted by dreams of choreographed dance. Upon awakening he declares: “I don’t want to be a basketball player. I want to be a dancer!” Applause erupted.

Other films included a six-part retelling of Albert Lamorisse’s Oscar-winning short film “The Red Balloon”; a dizzying remake of Charlie Chaplin’s slapstick comedy “The Immigrant”; and “Zombie Boxing,” about a pugilistic encounter with construction paper undead.

Chang W. Lee/The New York Times Filmmakers from the Neighborhood School on the Lower East Side watched their own work at a special screening at Anthology Film Archives.

Alexis Neider, who taught the class of first and second graders (many classes at the Neighborhood School combine different ages) with a teaching artist, Sarah Dahnke, said that her class had taken trips to the Museum of the Moving Image and watched genres many students had never seen before, like silent films and stop-motion animation. She said that her students’ tastes had expanded from “cartoons and Pixar” to include Charlie Chaplin and that “they have a much more broad sense of what’s out there in film.”

Ms. Neider and Ms. Dahnke designed their lessons to teach students as much about community as film literacy. Students worked at different jobs on each of their short films, with emphasis placed on each job as a necessary part of their filmmaking community (other Neighborhood School classrooms focused on different professions, like working in a restaurant.)

Ms. Neider said that one of her greatest worries was that students would be upset if they did not appear on-screen, but in the end there were no divas in her classroom.

“They don’t care at all” about being stars, she said. “That always makes me really happy because this is a community and they’re all parts of it, a microcosm.”

Chang W. Lee/The New York Times A young usher handed out programs.

The past school year was the first time Tribeca Teaches worked with elementary school students. The program introduces a teaching artist to classrooms in 19 public schools in New York City and two in Los Angeles. The teaching artist works with the class’s teacher to show students different facets of film work, from camerawork to editing to directing, and helps them make their own movies. Just under 20,000 students have participated since Tribeca Teaches started in 2007. It is complemented by the Tribeca Youth Screening Series, showings intended to foster critical thinking and expose schoolchildren to film genres they might otherwise miss.

Beth Janson, executive director of the Tribeca Film Institute, said she thought Tribeca Teaches was invaluable for a generation constantly bombarded by moving images. “We’re teaching them the skill to engage with what they see,” she said.

The films, which are available online, screened again at the Neighborhood School this week (none of the screenings were open to the general public.)

At Anthology, after the movies ended, the auteurs fielded questions from the audience.

Asked what was hardest about his job, Miles Manica, 7, a cameraman, said, “It was hard to stay still.” Lenexa Perez-Burgos, 7, said her job as a makeup artist was cool because she “got to use real makeup.” Eleven students raised their hands when asked if they would like to be actors or directors one day.

The students also seemed to have learned their lesson about community.

“We were kind of like a team,” said Milo Hoffman, 7. “It’s like you all have a job and you all work together.”

Chang W. Lee/The New York Times The young auteurs held court on the red carpet.

At a Film Festival, the Works of Grade-School Auteurs

“Basketball vs. Dancing,” as shown at the Movietown Film Festival. Click to watch other selections.

The directors and actors milling around the red carpet at the Movietown Film Festival were as excited as any Hollywood neophytes about to see their work on the big screen for the first time â€" but this crowd of filmmakers sipped their refreshments from juice boxes rather than Champagne flutes.

The films, which screened at Anthology Film Archives on April 9 before an enthusiastic, sometimes rowdy audience of nearly 80 students, parents and educators, were the work of two elementary school classes from the Neighborhood School on the Lower East Side. Both classes, made up of students from the first through fourth grades, had learned the basics of filmmaking during the past school year as part of a Tribeca Film Institute program called Tribeca Teaches.

The work was as adventurous as the young minds who produced it. Short stop-motion animations brought to mind abstract video installations. In “Basketball vs. Dancing,” inspired by Busby Berkeley’s elaborate music and dance numbers from the 1930s, a basketball player is plunged into an identity crisis, his slumber interrupted by dreams of choreographed dance. Upon awakening he declares: “I don’t want to be a basketball player. I want to be a dancer!” Applause erupted.

Other films included a six-part retelling of Albert Lamorisse’s Oscar-winning short film “The Red Balloon”; a dizzying remake of Charlie Chaplin’s slapstick comedy “The Immigrant”; and “Zombie Boxing,” about a pugilistic encounter with construction paper undead.

Chang W. Lee/The New York Times Filmmakers from the Neighborhood School on the Lower East Side watched their own work at a special screening at Anthology Film Archives.

Alexis Neider, who taught the class of first and second graders (many classes at the Neighborhood School combine different ages) with a teaching artist, Sarah Dahnke, said that her class had taken trips to the Museum of the Moving Image and watched genres many students had never seen before, like silent films and stop-motion animation. She said that her students’ tastes had expanded from “cartoons and Pixar” to include Charlie Chaplin and that “they have a much more broad sense of what’s out there in film.”

Ms. Neider and Ms. Dahnke designed their lessons to teach students as much about community as film literacy. Students worked at different jobs on each of their short films, with emphasis placed on each job as a necessary part of their filmmaking community (other Neighborhood School classrooms focused on different professions, like working in a restaurant.)

Ms. Neider said that one of her greatest worries was that students would be upset if they did not appear on-screen, but in the end there were no divas in her classroom.

“They don’t care at all” about being stars, she said. “That always makes me really happy because this is a community and they’re all parts of it, a microcosm.”

Chang W. Lee/The New York Times A young usher handed out programs.

The past school year was the first time Tribeca Teaches worked with elementary school students. The program introduces a teaching artist to classrooms in 19 public schools in New York City and two in Los Angeles. The teaching artist works with the class’s teacher to show students different facets of film work, from camerawork to editing to directing, and helps them make their own movies. Just under 20,000 students have participated since Tribeca Teaches started in 2007. It is complemented by the Tribeca Youth Screening Series, showings intended to foster critical thinking and expose schoolchildren to film genres they might otherwise miss.

Beth Janson, executive director of the Tribeca Film Institute, said she thought Tribeca Teaches was invaluable for a generation constantly bombarded by moving images. “We’re teaching them the skill to engage with what they see,” she said.

The films, which are available online, screened again at the Neighborhood School this week (none of the screenings were open to the general public.)

At Anthology, after the movies ended, the auteurs fielded questions from the audience.

Asked what was hardest about his job, Miles Manica, 7, a cameraman, said, “It was hard to stay still.” Lenexa Perez-Burgos, 7, said her job as a makeup artist was cool because she “got to use real makeup.” Eleven students raised their hands when asked if they would like to be actors or directors one day.

The students also seemed to have learned their lesson about community.

“We were kind of like a team,” said Milo Hoffman, 7. “It’s like you all have a job and you all work together.”

Chang W. Lee/The New York Times The young auteurs held court on the red carpet.

At a Film Festival, the Works of Grade-School Auteurs

“Basketball vs. Dancing,” as shown at the Movietown Film Festival. Click to watch other selections.

The directors and actors milling around the red carpet at the Movietown Film Festival were as excited as any Hollywood neophytes about to see their work on the big screen for the first time â€" but this crowd of filmmakers sipped their refreshments from juice boxes rather than Champagne flutes.

The films, which screened at Anthology Film Archives on April 9 before an enthusiastic, sometimes rowdy audience of nearly 80 students, parents and educators, were the work of two elementary school classes from the Neighborhood School on the Lower East Side. Both classes, made up of students from the first through fourth grades, had learned the basics of filmmaking during the past school year as part of a Tribeca Film Institute program called Tribeca Teaches.

The work was as adventurous as the young minds who produced it. Short stop-motion animations brought to mind abstract video installations. In “Basketball vs. Dancing,” inspired by Busby Berkeley’s elaborate music and dance numbers from the 1930s, a basketball player is plunged into an identity crisis, his slumber interrupted by dreams of choreographed dance. Upon awakening he declares: “I don’t want to be a basketball player. I want to be a dancer!” Applause erupted.

Other films included a six-part retelling of Albert Lamorisse’s Oscar-winning short film “The Red Balloon”; a dizzying remake of Charlie Chaplin’s slapstick comedy “The Immigrant”; and “Zombie Boxing,” about a pugilistic encounter with construction paper undead.

Chang W. Lee/The New York Times Filmmakers from the Neighborhood School on the Lower East Side watched their own work at a special screening at Anthology Film Archives.

Alexis Neider, who taught the class of first and second graders (many classes at the Neighborhood School combine different ages) with a teaching artist, Sarah Dahnke, said that her class had taken trips to the Museum of the Moving Image and watched genres many students had never seen before, like silent films and stop-motion animation. She said that her students’ tastes had expanded from “cartoons and Pixar” to include Charlie Chaplin and that “they have a much more broad sense of what’s out there in film.”

Ms. Neider and Ms. Dahnke designed their lessons to teach students as much about community as film literacy. Students worked at different jobs on each of their short films, with emphasis placed on each job as a necessary part of their filmmaking community (other Neighborhood School classrooms focused on different professions, like working in a restaurant.)

Ms. Neider said that one of her greatest worries was that students would be upset if they did not appear on-screen, but in the end there were no divas in her classroom.

“They don’t care at all” about being stars, she said. “That always makes me really happy because this is a community and they’re all parts of it, a microcosm.”

Chang W. Lee/The New York Times A young usher handed out programs.

The past school year was the first time Tribeca Teaches worked with elementary school students. The program introduces a teaching artist to classrooms in 19 public schools in New York City and two in Los Angeles. The teaching artist works with the class’s teacher to show students different facets of film work, from camerawork to editing to directing, and helps them make their own movies. Just under 20,000 students have participated since Tribeca Teaches started in 2007. It is complemented by the Tribeca Youth Screening Series, showings intended to foster critical thinking and expose schoolchildren to film genres they might otherwise miss.

Beth Janson, executive director of the Tribeca Film Institute, said she thought Tribeca Teaches was invaluable for a generation constantly bombarded by moving images. “We’re teaching them the skill to engage with what they see,” she said.

The films, which are available online, screened again at the Neighborhood School this week (none of the screenings were open to the general public.)

At Anthology, after the movies ended, the auteurs fielded questions from the audience.

Asked what was hardest about his job, Miles Manica, 7, a cameraman, said, “It was hard to stay still.” Lenexa Perez-Burgos, 7, said her job as a makeup artist was cool because she “got to use real makeup.” Eleven students raised their hands when asked if they would like to be actors or directors one day.

The students also seemed to have learned their lesson about community.

“We were kind of like a team,” said Milo Hoffman, 7. “It’s like you all have a job and you all work together.”

Chang W. Lee/The New York Times The young auteurs held court on the red carpet.

Popcast: Coachella, Sand Storms and Sensitive Bros

Chad Batka for The New York Times Grimes performing at the Coachella music festival on Sunday. The festival returns this weekend.

This week: the pop critic Jon Caramanica returns from last weekend’s 2013 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, in Indio, Calif.

Weary of dust, sand and bros, Mr. Caramanica questions the indie paradigm and construct, doubts the value of Britpop reunions, and wonders why there’s so much nostalgia at a festival that’s seemingly about the present. Yet â€" as he revealed in a conversation with the host Ben Ratliff â€" he also felt buoyed by a few things he saw: the look and sound of Grimes, the solid delivery of the Hardwell show in the dance tent, the Burning Man-like play-acting at the Do Lab, and the presence of the mainstream rapper 2 Chainz at a festival where he might seem to be out of place.

Listen above, download the MP3 here, or subscribe in iTunes.

RELATED

Jon Caramanica’s notebook on the 2013 Coachella festival.

More coverage from Coachella in ArtsBeat.

SPOTIFY PLAYLIST
Tracks by artists discussed this week. (Spotify users can also find it here.)

Graphic Books Best Sellers: X-Men Travel Back in Time

“All New X-Men,” written by Brian Michael Bendis and illustrated by Stuart Immonen, enters the graphic books hardcover best-seller list this week at No. 3. Mr. Bendis is no stranger to team books. Since 2004, Mr. Bendis has also been the guiding hand of the Avengers, and has pushed that team of heroes, which includes Captain America, Iron Man and Thor, to new heights of popularity. In fact, the Avengers started to outshine the X-Men, who had previously been Marvel’s top franchise. “All New X-Men,” which collects the first five issues of the new series, is wonderfully entertaining. Time travel stories are old hat, but Mr. Bendis manages to squeeze some delight out of this one. The original X-Men have traveled from the past to the present and are alarmed by what they see: one of them has betrayed their founder, Charles Xavier; one of them has evolved beyond recognition; another of them is dead. Though it may cause problems with the space-time continuum, the younger team opts to stay in the present hoping to right some wrongs. I, for one, am eager to see what happens next.

“Relish,” by the cartoonist Lucy Knisley, also visits the past, but not via time travel. This is an illustrated memoir subtitled “My Life in the Kitchen.” We follow Lucy from childhood to adulthood, each stop along the way punctuated with a celebration of food â€" and, at the end of each chapter, some illustrated recipes. I was particularly taken with chapter 4, “Junk,” in which she discusses her fascination with and appreciation of junk (despite the delicious, healthier and more nourishing food provided by her parents), as well as chapter 5, “Getting Ours,” about a friends-and-family trip to Mexico, mothers who were waylaid by the flu but still keenly aware of what their children were doing and an appreciation of the local food and candy. “Relish” is at No. 8 on the paperback list.

As always, the complete best-seller lists can be found here, along with an explanation of how they were assembled.

Ask an F.D.N.Y. Rescue Paramedic

Next week, the Metropolitan section’s Q. and A. series will feature Syndie Molina, a rescue paramedic at the Fire Department’s Emergency Medical Services Station 4 in Downtown Manhattan.

Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times Syndie Molina

Ms. Molina is hazardous material certified and is trained to enter dangerous situations â€" with more than 70 pounds of gear on her back. When the most challenging emergency calls come in, she responds: to a worker on scaffolding who has had a heart attack; to a person pinned under a subway train; to a building or floor collapse. Recently, she was called uptown to help with the rescue of a man trapped in the muck of the Second Avenue subway project, 75 feet underground.

Curious what actually happens when you call 911? What’s in that 70-pound pack? What scares even her? Share your questions in the comments section below. We’ll pass the best on to Ms. Molina, with some of our own, and publish the answers next week. And if there’s another behind-the-scenes job in the city that interests you, let us know, and we’ll keep it in mind for a future interview.

(Last week, the chief of enrollment for city public schools explained how students were placed in gifted and talented programs and matched with high schools. Previously, Jeffrey Tascarella, the general manager of the NoMad, answered questions about how restaurants really work.)

From Russia With Art: TransCultural Express Getting Ready to Roll

The Brooklyn side of the first installment of TransCultural Express: American and Russian Arts Today, a three-year collaboration between the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Mikhail Prokhorov Fund will include screenings of contemporary Russian films, a literary evening with the Russian authors Masha and Keith Gessen, and an art installation by Irina Korina, between May 31 and June 13.

The Russian side, which takes place mostly in Krasnoyarsk and Novosibirsk, Siberia, includes performances and outreach programs by Illstyle & Peace Productions, a hip-hop dance company based in Philadelphia, April 19-28; an appearance by the writer and humorist Ian Frazier at the Krasnoyarsk Book Fair (Oct. 31 to Nov. 4) and an exhibition by Brooklyn artists at the Krasnoyarsk Biennial, in September. The artists whose work will appear in the exhibition have not yet been named.

The film series, presented as part of the BAMcinématek series at the BAM Rose Cinemas, includes a weeklong run of Andrei Tarkovsky’s “Nostalghia” (1982), as well as “Russian Winter,” a documentary by Petter Rigborn that follows the American singer-songwriter-rapper and music producer John Forté on a nine-week tour of Russia. The screening will be followed by a performance by Mr. Forté. Recent works by Sergei Loznitsa, Alexey Balabanov and Alexander Sokurov are also among the films to be shown.

The appearances by the Gessens, who are siblings, is part of the academy’s Eat, Drink and Be Literary series, and will include readings as well as a discussion, moderated in English by Philip Lopate on June 5, and in Russian by Masha Pyshkina on June 6. Masha Gessen’s most recent book is “The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin.” Keith Gessen is the author of the novel “All the Sad Young Literary Men” and the editor-in-chief of the magazine n+1.

The Mikhail Prokhorov Fund is a charitable foundation that supports culture in Russia. It was started in 2004 by Mr. Prokhorov, a Russian businessman and politician who also owns the Brooklyn Nets basketball team, and his sister Irina Prokhorova.

In the Basement of a School Known for Science, a Holocaust Museum

The Bronx High School of Science has produced more scientific leaders than many countries, including eight Nobel Prize winners in physics and chemistry.

But when New York City’s premier science magnet school decided to honor its legacy, it spent more than a dozen years and $1 million on a project that had no connection to string theory or the periodic table: a Holocaust museum.

The new Holocaust museum and studies center opened Friday in the school’s basement, a testament to the single-minded dedication of school leaders and a high-powered alumni network at a time of shrinking school budgets.

Though Bronx Science started in 1938 as an all-boys school that served primarily Eastern European Jewish families in the Bronx, its nearly 3,000 students today are more likely to be Asian and come from Queens and across the city.

“Why would the Bronx High School of Science invest not in electron microscopes but in a museum of Jewish history when 62 percent of our kids are Asian?” asked Valerie J. Reidy, the principal. “The answer is that we believe education doesn’t only happen in the classroom. Great scientists have to be ethical people, and so what we’re investing in is the future.”

While many schools teach Holocaust courses, few if any have assembled a trove of 900 artifacts, most of which were donated by alumni and local residents or bought at auctions over more than three decades. The 1,000-square-foot museum will include three exhibition galleries, an archive and a classroom. It is just steps away from the boys’ locker room that has been in the spotlight since three students on the boy’s track team were accused this winter of hazing a freshman teammate.

In the exhibition galleries, framed war propaganda posters cover the walls, including one in German that was plastered on the windows of Jewish-owned stores with the message: “Germans Defend Yourselves. Don’t Buy From Jews.” Nazi military helmets, uniforms and a swastika flag are preserved under glass, along with a rusted canister with a skull-and-bones label that held Zyklon B, a poisonous gas used in the concentration camps.

Not everything is so dark. One of the most poignant exhibits is a worn Torah cover that was stitched after the war by Jewish survivors at the former Bergen-Belsen camp. Somehow they found precious gold thread for the Hebrew lettering.

“It was significant because they still had their religion, they still had hope,” said Shoshana Shapiro, 17, a senior who helped research the artifacts.

The Holocaust museum was inspired by the late Stuart Elenko, a teacher who brought an unusual level of passion to his course on the Holocaust. In 1978, Mr. Elenko started displaying Holocaust artifacts in a former microfilm room in the back of the school library. He ran bagel sales to raise money for the collection and recruited students to give tours.

“I think Mr. Elenko’s idea originally was to make history come alive for his students,” said Sophia Sapozhnikov, who currently teaches the Holocaust course. She noted that Mr. Elenko even held mock Nuremberg trials in his classroom to encourage students to explore the meaning of justice and moral responsibility.

But as the collection grew over the years, supported in part by state and city funds, the school ran out of room to display all the items. Many had to be placed in storage. “This is an enormous collection that was inaccessible because it was not organized for research or learning,” said Jill Vexler, the curator at the new museum. “You had to know it to learn from it. What we’ve done is inverted that so you are learning as it is revealed.”

The funding for the museum includes $300,000 from the school’s budget, $150,000 from the City Council, and hundreds of thousands more from alumni. “I see it as a centerpiece for embracing diversity, for learning about the horrors that can come from scapegoating, and stereotyping, and creating common enemies,” Ms. Reidy said.

For instance, Ms. Reidy said, students taking the Holocaust course will be able to retrace the lives of individual refugees through passports and visas at the museum. Foreign language classes can translate war propaganda. Biology classes may research the medical experiments conducted on Jews in the camps. The museum will be open to other schools and community groups by appointment.

In a pointed reminder that intolerance is not just a German problem, the museum includes a white Ku Klux Klan hood. Albert Einstein’s cautionary words are suspended above a life-size photograph of Jews in the Warsaw ghetto being sent to the camps: “The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.”

The Holocaust lessons have spilled over into the students’ lives in recent years. A Korean student pointed out to her classmates that in another part of the world, the Japanese were killing Koreans and Chinese. Another student saw a modern-day parallel in the genocide in Darfur and led efforts to raise $2,000 for Darfur schoolchildren by selling bracelets.

Mariah Maldonado, 18, a senior who has taken the Holocaust course for three years, said that she has become more aware of prejudice and discrimination in the world around her. When her non-Jewish friends ask why she keeps taking the course, she tells them that “there’s always something to relate to.”

“I think it’s really important to recognize how those things happen and can be prevented,” said Ms. Maldonado, who hopes to study human rights at Columbia University in the fall. “Being in the class helped me learn about my own history.”

The Sweet Spot: Late-Night Buzz

David Carr and A.O. Scott break down the late-night landscape. Letterman, Leno, Fallon, Kimmel, Stewart, Colbert. Who else? Who’s your favorite?

Vassar’s Powerhouse Theater Season Announced

New musicals involving Steve Martin and Edie Brickell, the authors Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman, and the composer Lin-Manuel Miranda will be part of the Powerhouse Theater’s season running June 21-July 28, according to the producers, New York Stage and Film and Vassar College.

The lineup includes two fully staged productions of works-in-progress: Seth Zvi Rosenfeld’s “Downtown Race Riot,” about young guys stirring up trouble in Washington Square Park, and Mozhan Marno’s “When the Lights Went Out,” about six New Yorkers during the Northeast blackout of 2003.

The schedule will also include concert readings of two new musicals: “Bright Star,” with music and lyrics by Ms. Brickell and Mr. Martin and a book by Mr. Martin and direction by Tony Award winner Walter Bobbie (“Chicago”), and an unnamed show about superheroes that has been developed by Mr. Chabon and Ms. Waldman (who are married), Peter Lerman, and Simon Rich.

The latter musical, inspired by a superhero supply and costume store in Brooklyn, will be staged by Michael Mayer, the Tony-winning director of “Spring Awakening.” Among the other readings will be “The Hamilton Mixtape,” a new musical about the life of Alexander Hamilton that Mr. Miranda (a Tony winner for “In the Heights”) has been developing; the director will be Thomas Kail.

Tribeca Film Festival: Making ‘G.B.F.’

With “G.B.F.,” playing in the Spotlight section of the Tribeca Film Festival, the director Darren Stein heads back to school.

His 1999 film “Jawbreaker” used the high school setting as the backdrop for darkly comic and vicious shenanigans, with a candy-colored production design and nods to other teen movies of the ’80s and ’90s. “G.B.F.”  also offers a heightened, glossier and more colorful version of high school, but with a lighter touch.

Kate Romero Darren Stein, the director of “G.B.F.”

Michael J. Willett stars as Tanner, an unassuming teen whose life takes a twist when he is outed and becomes his school’s first openly gay student. He draws  the attention of three popular girls, who fight to claim him as a valuable accessory, the Gay Best Friend.

Written by George Northy, the movie blends contemporary pop-culture references with the teen comedy sensibilities of John Hughes and Amy Heckerling. But unlike “Sixteen Candles” or “Clueless,” “G.B.F.” places a gay student at the center.

Along with a cast of young actors (including Paul Iacono from MTV’s “Hard Times of RJ Berger” and Sasha Pieterse from ABC Family’s “Pretty Little Liars”), the film includes cameos from ’90s high school movie stars like Natasha Lyonne and Rebecca Gayheart.

In an interview, Mr. Stein spoke about those casting choices and several of his ideas behind “G.B.F.” Below are edited excerpts from that conversation.

Kate Romero From left, Xosha Roquemore, Michael J. Willett and Sasha Pieterse in “G.B.F.”

Q.

What appeals to you about high school stories?

A.

High school is like a mini-society.  You’re sort of trapped there for four years and you develop as a person: your style, your sexuality, your interests. But you’re still a teenager. It’s an environment where the stakes seem high, but in reality they’re not that high because you’re still living with your parents. It’s a good place to tell a story in a heightened way.

Q.

What was your experience like in school?

A.

I had a pretty unhappy high school experience. I went to a private all-boys school in Los Angeles. It was very sports-oriented and academically oriented, and I wasn’t particularly into either of those things. Meanwhile, I’m going to movies like “Pretty in Pink” and “The Breakfast Club” and “Valley Girl” and “Heathers,” and seeing a world that is very exciting. I loved the music and the fashion and the romance of those worlds, and it was something that I had none of.

Q.

The film satirizes the idea of gay people being used as accessories in school. Do you see some truth to this?

A.

Yes, it is becoming something that is sought after by some girls in high school.

Q.

Why do you think that is?

A.

Bravo. (Laughs). Maybe it started with “Sex and the City” and continued with “The Rachel Zoe Project.” Adolescent girls have access to these people in a way that they hadn’t before in the past. Celebrity females have always had their gay best friends, they just hadn’t done reality TV with them.

Q.

What did you find most interesting about Tanner?

A.

He was such an appealing character because his sexuality was never an issue for him. It was an issue for everyone around him. He was fine reading comic books and having a small circle of friends and not making an issue out of his identity. He was like the kids that slide between the cracks in school and aren’t put in a demographic or group. It’s comedic to see how everyone thinks of him in a different way once he is made over into the G.B.F.

Q.

Tell me about the choice to cast ’90s stars as some of the adults.

A.

It’s fun to cast someone like Natasha Lyonne who’s known for movies like “American Pie” and “But I’m a Cheerleader” in “G.B.F.,” where now she’s on the faculty. It’s an interesting continuum. I knew that I had to give a cameo to one of the girls from “Jawbreaker” (Rebecca Gayheart). When you’re making a film of a certain genre, it’s good to understand the films that have preceded it, to see what the genre was and is and what it might be. I guess I see the teen movie through the lens of other teen movies, in a way.

Q.

The film includes progressive, pro-gay parents, like the character Megan Mullally plays.

A.

Yes, that character is very sweet and warm, even if she’s off her rocker. Some gay kids would kill to have a mom who would take them to pick out eye shadow from Sephora or would want to watch John Cameron Mitchell’s “Shortbus” with them. In a way, this movie is almost post-gay, where the parents don’t have an issue with their kids’ sexuality. But the kids still have some angst about it.

Q.

How do you feel the movie speaks to teenagers and their coming-out experience in high schools today?

A.

What I love about the script is that it uses the gay closet as a metaphor for all the closets high school kids are in, any insecurity or perceived weakness that they think they have. I like the universal aspects of the movie that encourage us to see each other as individuals and not try to assign everyone to a social status.

Q.

I hear you’ve been working on a musical version of “Jawbreaker” for the stage.

A.

Yes, I got a call about six or seven years ago from a producer in New York about making “Jawbreaker” into a musical. I was introduced to a lyricist and a composer. The three of us collaborated and I wrote the book. It was so much fun to go back into that story and bring it into a new time period. I think everything that has heightened villains and tone fits naturally as a musical. We just got the rights secured from the studio and we’re excited about it.

Tribeca Film Festival: Making ‘G.B.F.’

With “G.B.F.,” playing in the Spotlight section of the Tribeca Film Festival, the director Darren Stein heads back to school.

His 1999 film “Jawbreaker” used the high school setting as the backdrop for darkly comic and vicious shenanigans, with a candy-colored production design and nods to other teen movies of the ’80s and ’90s. “G.B.F.”  also offers a heightened, glossier and more colorful version of high school, but with a lighter touch.

Kate Romero Darren Stein, the director of “G.B.F.”

Michael J. Willett stars as Tanner, an unassuming teen whose life takes a twist when he is outed and becomes his school’s first openly gay student. He draws  the attention of three popular girls, who fight to claim him as a valuable accessory, the Gay Best Friend.

Written by George Northy, the movie blends contemporary pop-culture references with the teen comedy sensibilities of John Hughes and Amy Heckerling. But unlike “Sixteen Candles” or “Clueless,” “G.B.F.” places a gay student at the center.

Along with a cast of young actors (including Paul Iacono from MTV’s “Hard Times of RJ Berger” and Sasha Pieterse from ABC Family’s “Pretty Little Liars”), the film includes cameos from ’90s high school movie stars like Natasha Lyonne and Rebecca Gayheart.

In an interview, Mr. Stein spoke about those casting choices and several of his ideas behind “G.B.F.” Below are edited excerpts from that conversation.

Kate Romero From left, Xosha Roquemore, Michael J. Willett and Sasha Pieterse in “G.B.F.”

Q.

What appeals to you about high school stories?

A.

High school is like a mini-society.  You’re sort of trapped there for four years and you develop as a person: your style, your sexuality, your interests. But you’re still a teenager. It’s an environment where the stakes seem high, but in reality they’re not that high because you’re still living with your parents. It’s a good place to tell a story in a heightened way.

Q.

What was your experience like in school?

A.

I had a pretty unhappy high school experience. I went to a private all-boys school in Los Angeles. It was very sports-oriented and academically oriented, and I wasn’t particularly into either of those things. Meanwhile, I’m going to movies like “Pretty in Pink” and “The Breakfast Club” and “Valley Girl” and “Heathers,” and seeing a world that is very exciting. I loved the music and the fashion and the romance of those worlds, and it was something that I had none of.

Q.

The film satirizes the idea of gay people being used as accessories in school. Do you see some truth to this?

A.

Yes, it is becoming something that is sought after by some girls in high school.

Q.

Why do you think that is?

A.

Bravo. (Laughs). Maybe it started with “Sex and the City” and continued with “The Rachel Zoe Project.” Adolescent girls have access to these people in a way that they hadn’t before in the past. Celebrity females have always had their gay best friends, they just hadn’t done reality TV with them.

Q.

What did you find most interesting about Tanner?

A.

He was such an appealing character because his sexuality was never an issue for him. It was an issue for everyone around him. He was fine reading comic books and having a small circle of friends and not making an issue out of his identity. He was like the kids that slide between the cracks in school and aren’t put in a demographic or group. It’s comedic to see how everyone thinks of him in a different way once he is made over into the G.B.F.

Q.

Tell me about the choice to cast ’90s stars as some of the adults.

A.

It’s fun to cast someone like Natasha Lyonne who’s known for movies like “American Pie” and “But I’m a Cheerleader” in “G.B.F.,” where now she’s on the faculty. It’s an interesting continuum. I knew that I had to give a cameo to one of the girls from “Jawbreaker” (Rebecca Gayheart). When you’re making a film of a certain genre, it’s good to understand the films that have preceded it, to see what the genre was and is and what it might be. I guess I see the teen movie through the lens of other teen movies, in a way.

Q.

The film includes progressive, pro-gay parents, like the character Megan Mullally plays.

A.

Yes, that character is very sweet and warm, even if she’s off her rocker. Some gay kids would kill to have a mom who would take them to pick out eye shadow from Sephora or would want to watch John Cameron Mitchell’s “Shortbus” with them. In a way, this movie is almost post-gay, where the parents don’t have an issue with their kids’ sexuality. But the kids still have some angst about it.

Q.

How do you feel the movie speaks to teenagers and their coming-out experience in high schools today?

A.

What I love about the script is that it uses the gay closet as a metaphor for all the closets high school kids are in, any insecurity or perceived weakness that they think they have. I like the universal aspects of the movie that encourage us to see each other as individuals and not try to assign everyone to a social status.

Q.

I hear you’ve been working on a musical version of “Jawbreaker” for the stage.

A.

Yes, I got a call about six or seven years ago from a producer in New York about making “Jawbreaker” into a musical. I was introduced to a lyricist and a composer. The three of us collaborated and I wrote the book. It was so much fun to go back into that story and bring it into a new time period. I think everything that has heightened villains and tone fits naturally as a musical. We just got the rights secured from the studio and we’re excited about it.

Tribeca Film Festival: Making ‘G.B.F.’

With “G.B.F.,” playing in the Spotlight section of the Tribeca Film Festival, the director Darren Stein heads back to school.

His 1999 film “Jawbreaker” used the high school setting as the backdrop for darkly comic and vicious shenanigans, with a candy-colored production design and nods to other teen movies of the ’80s and ’90s. “G.B.F.”  also offers a heightened, glossier and more colorful version of high school, but with a lighter touch.

Kate Romero Darren Stein, the director of “G.B.F.”

Michael J. Willett stars as Tanner, an unassuming teen whose life takes a twist when he is outed and becomes his school’s first openly gay student. He draws  the attention of three popular girls, who fight to claim him as a valuable accessory, the Gay Best Friend.

Written by George Northy, the movie blends contemporary pop-culture references with the teen comedy sensibilities of John Hughes and Amy Heckerling. But unlike “Sixteen Candles” or “Clueless,” “G.B.F.” places a gay student at the center.

Along with a cast of young actors (including Paul Iacono from MTV’s “Hard Times of RJ Berger” and Sasha Pieterse from ABC Family’s “Pretty Little Liars”), the film includes cameos from ’90s high school movie stars like Natasha Lyonne and Rebecca Gayheart.

In an interview, Mr. Stein spoke about those casting choices and several of his ideas behind “G.B.F.” Below are edited excerpts from that conversation.

Kate Romero From left, Xosha Roquemore, Michael J. Willett and Sasha Pieterse in “G.B.F.”

Q.

What appeals to you about high school stories?

A.

High school is like a mini-society.  You’re sort of trapped there for four years and you develop as a person: your style, your sexuality, your interests. But you’re still a teenager. It’s an environment where the stakes seem high, but in reality they’re not that high because you’re still living with your parents. It’s a good place to tell a story in a heightened way.

Q.

What was your experience like in school?

A.

I had a pretty unhappy high school experience. I went to a private all-boys school in Los Angeles. It was very sports-oriented and academically oriented, and I wasn’t particularly into either of those things. Meanwhile, I’m going to movies like “Pretty in Pink” and “The Breakfast Club” and “Valley Girl” and “Heathers,” and seeing a world that is very exciting. I loved the music and the fashion and the romance of those worlds, and it was something that I had none of.

Q.

The film satirizes the idea of gay people being used as accessories in school. Do you see some truth to this?

A.

Yes, it is becoming something that is sought after by some girls in high school.

Q.

Why do you think that is?

A.

Bravo. (Laughs). Maybe it started with “Sex and the City” and continued with “The Rachel Zoe Project.” Adolescent girls have access to these people in a way that they hadn’t before in the past. Celebrity females have always had their gay best friends, they just hadn’t done reality TV with them.

Q.

What did you find most interesting about Tanner?

A.

He was such an appealing character because his sexuality was never an issue for him. It was an issue for everyone around him. He was fine reading comic books and having a small circle of friends and not making an issue out of his identity. He was like the kids that slide between the cracks in school and aren’t put in a demographic or group. It’s comedic to see how everyone thinks of him in a different way once he is made over into the G.B.F.

Q.

Tell me about the choice to cast ’90s stars as some of the adults.

A.

It’s fun to cast someone like Natasha Lyonne who’s known for movies like “American Pie” and “But I’m a Cheerleader” in “G.B.F.,” where now she’s on the faculty. It’s an interesting continuum. I knew that I had to give a cameo to one of the girls from “Jawbreaker” (Rebecca Gayheart). When you’re making a film of a certain genre, it’s good to understand the films that have preceded it, to see what the genre was and is and what it might be. I guess I see the teen movie through the lens of other teen movies, in a way.

Q.

The film includes progressive, pro-gay parents, like the character Megan Mullally plays.

A.

Yes, that character is very sweet and warm, even if she’s off her rocker. Some gay kids would kill to have a mom who would take them to pick out eye shadow from Sephora or would want to watch John Cameron Mitchell’s “Shortbus” with them. In a way, this movie is almost post-gay, where the parents don’t have an issue with their kids’ sexuality. But the kids still have some angst about it.

Q.

How do you feel the movie speaks to teenagers and their coming-out experience in high schools today?

A.

What I love about the script is that it uses the gay closet as a metaphor for all the closets high school kids are in, any insecurity or perceived weakness that they think they have. I like the universal aspects of the movie that encourage us to see each other as individuals and not try to assign everyone to a social status.

Q.

I hear you’ve been working on a musical version of “Jawbreaker” for the stage.

A.

Yes, I got a call about six or seven years ago from a producer in New York about making “Jawbreaker” into a musical. I was introduced to a lyricist and a composer. The three of us collaborated and I wrote the book. It was so much fun to go back into that story and bring it into a new time period. I think everything that has heightened villains and tone fits naturally as a musical. We just got the rights secured from the studio and we’re excited about it.

Tribeca Film Festival: Making ‘G.B.F.’

With “G.B.F.,” playing in the Spotlight section of the Tribeca Film Festival, the director Darren Stein heads back to school.

His 1999 film “Jawbreaker” used the high school setting as the backdrop for darkly comic and vicious shenanigans, with a candy-colored production design and nods to other teen movies of the ’80s and ’90s. “G.B.F.”  also offers a heightened, glossier and more colorful version of high school, but with a lighter touch.

Kate Romero Darren Stein, the director of “G.B.F.”

Michael J. Willett stars as Tanner, an unassuming teen whose life takes a twist when he is outed and becomes his school’s first openly gay student. He draws  the attention of three popular girls, who fight to claim him as a valuable accessory, the Gay Best Friend.

Written by George Northy, the movie blends contemporary pop-culture references with the teen comedy sensibilities of John Hughes and Amy Heckerling. But unlike “Sixteen Candles” or “Clueless,” “G.B.F.” places a gay student at the center.

Along with a cast of young actors (including Paul Iacono from MTV’s “Hard Times of RJ Berger” and Sasha Pieterse from ABC Family’s “Pretty Little Liars”), the film includes cameos from ’90s high school movie stars like Natasha Lyonne and Rebecca Gayheart.

In an interview, Mr. Stein spoke about those casting choices and several of his ideas behind “G.B.F.” Below are edited excerpts from that conversation.

Kate Romero From left, Xosha Roquemore, Michael J. Willett and Sasha Pieterse in “G.B.F.”

Q.

What appeals to you about high school stories?

A.

High school is like a mini-society.  You’re sort of trapped there for four years and you develop as a person: your style, your sexuality, your interests. But you’re still a teenager. It’s an environment where the stakes seem high, but in reality they’re not that high because you’re still living with your parents. It’s a good place to tell a story in a heightened way.

Q.

What was your experience like in school?

A.

I had a pretty unhappy high school experience. I went to a private all-boys school in Los Angeles. It was very sports-oriented and academically oriented, and I wasn’t particularly into either of those things. Meanwhile, I’m going to movies like “Pretty in Pink” and “The Breakfast Club” and “Valley Girl” and “Heathers,” and seeing a world that is very exciting. I loved the music and the fashion and the romance of those worlds, and it was something that I had none of.

Q.

The film satirizes the idea of gay people being used as accessories in school. Do you see some truth to this?

A.

Yes, it is becoming something that is sought after by some girls in high school.

Q.

Why do you think that is?

A.

Bravo. (Laughs). Maybe it started with “Sex and the City” and continued with “The Rachel Zoe Project.” Adolescent girls have access to these people in a way that they hadn’t before in the past. Celebrity females have always had their gay best friends, they just hadn’t done reality TV with them.

Q.

What did you find most interesting about Tanner?

A.

He was such an appealing character because his sexuality was never an issue for him. It was an issue for everyone around him. He was fine reading comic books and having a small circle of friends and not making an issue out of his identity. He was like the kids that slide between the cracks in school and aren’t put in a demographic or group. It’s comedic to see how everyone thinks of him in a different way once he is made over into the G.B.F.

Q.

Tell me about the choice to cast ’90s stars as some of the adults.

A.

It’s fun to cast someone like Natasha Lyonne who’s known for movies like “American Pie” and “But I’m a Cheerleader” in “G.B.F.,” where now she’s on the faculty. It’s an interesting continuum. I knew that I had to give a cameo to one of the girls from “Jawbreaker” (Rebecca Gayheart). When you’re making a film of a certain genre, it’s good to understand the films that have preceded it, to see what the genre was and is and what it might be. I guess I see the teen movie through the lens of other teen movies, in a way.

Q.

The film includes progressive, pro-gay parents, like the character Megan Mullally plays.

A.

Yes, that character is very sweet and warm, even if she’s off her rocker. Some gay kids would kill to have a mom who would take them to pick out eye shadow from Sephora or would want to watch John Cameron Mitchell’s “Shortbus” with them. In a way, this movie is almost post-gay, where the parents don’t have an issue with their kids’ sexuality. But the kids still have some angst about it.

Q.

How do you feel the movie speaks to teenagers and their coming-out experience in high schools today?

A.

What I love about the script is that it uses the gay closet as a metaphor for all the closets high school kids are in, any insecurity or perceived weakness that they think they have. I like the universal aspects of the movie that encourage us to see each other as individuals and not try to assign everyone to a social status.

Q.

I hear you’ve been working on a musical version of “Jawbreaker” for the stage.

A.

Yes, I got a call about six or seven years ago from a producer in New York about making “Jawbreaker” into a musical. I was introduced to a lyricist and a composer. The three of us collaborated and I wrote the book. It was so much fun to go back into that story and bring it into a new time period. I think everything that has heightened villains and tone fits naturally as a musical. We just got the rights secured from the studio and we’re excited about it.

Book Review Podcast: Perspectives on the Windy City

Ferdinando Scianna/Magnum Photos

This week in The New York Times Book Review, Rachel Shteir reviews three new books about Chicago, told from personal and historical perspectives. About one of the books â€" “The Third Coast: When Chicago Built the American Dream,” by Thomas Dyja â€" Ms. Shteir writes:

Some of this is familiar, but Dyja zooms in on the qualities Chicagoans value and does it better than anyone else I’ve read: informality; the desire to be “regular”; the conviction among artists that “the process was as important as the product.” These attributes created hospitable conditions for such distinctive genres as Modernist architecture, storefront theater, improv comedy, poetry slams, oral history (perfected by the city patron saint Studs Terkel) and outsider art, even as they alienated writers and artists interested in more than functionality and social reform.

On this week’s podcast, Ms. Shteir talks about the Windy City; Meg Wolitzer discusses her new novel, “The Interestings”; and Gregory Cowles has best-seller news. Pamela Paul is the host.

This Week’s Movies: ‘Oblivion,’ ‘The Lords of Salem’ and ‘In the House’

This week’s video includes reviews of “In the House,” “The Lords of Salem” and “Oblivion.” See all of this week’s reviews here.

‘Assembled Parties’ Playwright Tweaks Play in Response to Boston Bombings

In response to the bombings at the Boston Marathon on Monday, the playwright Richard Greenberg revisited the text of his new play, “The Assembled Parties,” and excised several lines that referred to Boston and to a student bomb-maker at Harvard.

The lines, which in the original are spoken in passing and have no bearing on the play’s plot, were deleted before the play opened at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater on Wednesday evening. It had been in previews since March 21.

The play, which Ben Brantley described in The New York Times as “smart, sad and so impossibly well-spoken that you may feel like giving up on conversation” visits an Upper West Side Jewish family, the Bascovs, during Christmas dinners in 1980 and 2000, and stars Jessica Hecht, Jeremy Shamos and Judith Light.

During the opening act, in the play’s original version, Mr. Shamos’s character, Jeff, a college friend of one of the Bascov boys, is asked how he likes Boston. “There is something wrong with Boston, isn’t there?” he replies. He later speaks about a student who attempted to build a bomb as an extra-credit project.

“The Assembled Parties,” which runs through June 2, is the eighth of Mr. Greenberg’s plays to be produced by the Manhattan Theater Club. It is directed by Lynne Meadow, the club’s artistic director. Mr. Greenberg’s “Take Me Out,” which had its New York premiere at the Public Theater and ran 355 performances at the Walter Kerr Theater, won the Tony Award for best play in 2003.