Screens

Ongoing. Virtual World, Online. See Sept. 23 listing. Restorative Movement. 10:30-11:30 a.m. & 2-3 p.m. Virtual World, Online. See Sept. 23 listing.

29 Wednesday

Humboldt Open Paint Out. Redwood Art Association Gallery, 603 F St., Eureka. See Sept. 27 listing.

BOOKS

On the Same Page Book Club. 5:30 p.m. Virtual World, Online. Online book club that meets on the first Wednesday of the month on Zoom. Sign up using the Google form at www.forms.gle/bAsjdQ7hKGqEgJKj7.

FOR KIDS

MARZ Project. 12-5 p.m. Virtual World, Online. See Sept. 23 listing.

GARDEN

Sea Goat Farm Garden Volunteer Opportunities. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Abbey of the Redwoods, 1450 Hiller Road, McKinleyville. See Sept. 24 listing.

OUTDOORS

Coastal Cleanup Month. Locations throughout Humboldt County. See Sept. 23 listing. Live from Behind the Redwood Curtain. Ongoing, 3-3:30 p.m. Virtual World, Online. See Sept. 23 listing.

ETC

English Express: An English Language Class for Adults.

Ongoing. Virtual World, Online. See Sept. 23 listing. Nordic Aquafarms Open Zoom Meeting. 12:30 p.m. Virtual World, Online. Nordic Aquafarms representatives offer an open Zoom meeting and Q&A about the landbased aquafarm planned for the Samoa Peninsula. Join Zoom Meeting www.us02web.zoom.us/j/89139034912 Meeting ID: 891 3903 4912 One tap mobile +16699006833. lynette.mullen@gmail.com. www.us02web.zoom. us/j/89139034912. Tabata. 5:30-6:30 p.m. Virtual World, Online. See Sept. 24 listing.

30 Thursday

Humboldt Open Paint Out. Redwood Art Association Gallery, 603 F St., Eureka. See Sept. 27 listing.

LECTURE

Pier Crabbing w/Dana Taylor. 3:30-4:30 p.m. Virtual World, Online. People ages 16 to 26 learn from a video about pier crab fishing hosted by Dana Taylor and two youth. Part of Humboldt County Transition-Age Youth Collaboration Youth Advisory Board’s virtual wellness series. RSVP at least two days prior and get a care package and supplies delivered. Email, call or text. Free. staff@ hctayc.org. 298-5190, 298-5184. Sustainable Futures Speaker Series. 5:30-7 p.m. Virtual World, Online. As part of the Sustainable Futures Speaker Series, Sophia Stamatopoulou-Robbins presents “Waste Siege: The Life of Infrastructure in Palestine,” on the lives of Palestinians. envcomm1@humboldt.edu. www. humboldtstate.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_TPcgxjgURLqnM8rSTUOQ0g. 263653.

SPOKEN WORD

The Writers Lounge via Zoom. 7:30 p.m. Virtual World, Online. See Sept. 23 listing.

EVENTS

Fire Relief Donation Drive. 2-5 p.m. Arcata Veterans Hall, 1425 J St. See Sept. 23 listing.

FOR KIDS

Fortuna Library Recorded Readings. Virtual World, Online. See Sept. 23 listing. MARZ Project. Noon-5 p.m. Virtual World, Online. See Sept. 23 listing. Virtual Junior Rangers. 11:30 a.m. Virtual World, Online. See Sept. 23 listing.

FOOD

Henderson Center Farmers Market. 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Henderson Center, Henderson near F Street, Eureka. See Sept. 23 listing. McKinleyville Farmers Market. 3-6 p.m. Eureka Natural Foods, McKinleyville, 2165 Central Ave. See Sept. 23 listing.

MEETINGS

Ujima Parent Peer Support. 6:30-7:30 p.m. Virtual World, Online. See Sept. 23 listing. Virtual Whiteness Accountability Space. Noon-1 p.m. Virtual World, Online. See Sept. 23 listing.

OUTDOORS

Coastal Cleanup Month. Locations throughout Humboldt County. See Sept. 23 listing. Live from Behind the Redwood Curtain. Ongoing, 3-3:30 p.m. Virtual World, Online. See Sept. 23 listing.

ETC

English Express: An English Language Class for Adults.

Ongoing. Virtual World, Online. See Sept. 23 listing. Restorative Movement. 10:30-11:30 a.m. & 2-3 p.m. Virtual World, Online. See Sept. 23 listing.

Heads Up …

Ink People Center for the Arts, Humboldt County

Library and Word Humboldt, in partnership with KEET-TV, seek submissions of works of visual art and poetry from youth ages 13-18 and adults for “Stand Up and Be Counted: Art and Poetry Inspired by Muhammad Ali.” Entries will be accepted online through Nov. 19, 2021. The exhibition will go live at the Brenda Tuxford Gallery in early 2022. See www.inkpeople.org for details.

The city of Arcata seeks applicants for the Public Safety

Committee. Applicants must live within Arcata city limits or live or work within the Arcata Planning Area. Committee applications may be emailed to bdory@cityofarcata.org, faxed to 822-8018 or dropped off in the city manager’s office at Arcata City Hall between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. For more information, visit www. cityofarcata.org or call 822-5953.

Redwood Art Association Humboldt Open Paint Out

is still accepting participants for the Sept. 27 through Oct. 2 event. Artists are invited to compete for prizes for their vision and interpretation of the landscape painted anywhere in Humboldt County in any medium. This judged event will have the art displayed at Redwood Art Association until Oct. 15. For more info and to register go to www.redwoodart.us or info@redwoodart.us.

The city of Arcata seeks applicants for the Economic

Development Committee. Email applications to citymgr@ cityofarcata.org, fax to 822-8081 or drop off in a sealed envelope labeled “City Manager’s Office” at the City Hall drop boxes. For more information visit www.cityofarcata. org or call 822-5953.

The Humboldt-Del Norte County Medical Society’s

Humboldt-Del Norte PreMedical Education Task Force offers two $1,000 Future Physician scholarships to students planning on attending medical school. Application at www.hafoundation.org/Grants-Scholarships/Scholarships-Apply-Now. l

Does This Still Matter?

HBO’s Scenes From a Marriage remake

By Jennifer Savage

screens@northcoastjournal.com

SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE. I think a lot about the influence of historical context on works of art. Strip away the social and political events of the time and does a painting, a book, a play, a punk rock bank, a movie hold up in that vacuum? What art remains relevant, meaningful, a source of satisfaction without the catalyst of ground needing breaking?

When revered Swedish director Ingmar Bergman released Scenes From a Marriage in 1973, the film world had not yet been inundated with movies about marriages falling apart. The series, starring Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson, resonated around the world, influencing directors for decades to come — think Woody Allen, Noah Baumbach, Richard Linklater — and even allegedly caused Sweden’s divorce rate to skyrocket. In HBO’s remake, directed by Hagai Levi and starring Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac, the story unfolds similarly to the original, but this time the wife is the financial head of the family, her success in the tech industry more lucrative than her husband’s academic pursuits. One needn’t be familiar with the original Scenes to understand this new one — I wasn’t — although who exactly the intended audience is for the modern retelling is unclear. In the 48 years since Bergman’s story of a crumbling marriage garnered global renown, divorce movies have proliferated. Any pleasure to be had viewing Levi’s remake comes from watching Chastain and Isaac ply their craft in beautiful shot after beautiful shot.

The story itself is grim. From the initial scenes, we’re instructed in how Mira (Chastain) and Jonathan’s (Isaac) marriage functions thanks to a plot device that has them interviewed by a grad student researching gender norms and monogamy, and how those factor into making marriage successful. Mira and Jonathan speak kindly to and about each other, but Mira is clearly distracted and Jonathan too eager to engage. Their marriage succeeds, he emphasizes, because they have not given into the capitalistic school of thought that a marriage serves as a means toward happiness and self-fulfillment. Instead they understand that the primary purpose of marriage is security, the creation of a family unit.

For happy couples, the questions put to Mira and Jonathan — how they define themselves and the success of their marriage — may prompt their own reflections, lead to the sort of pleasurable late night conversations couples have when on the same page. Other couples may see themselves reflected in how the surface differs from what swirls beneath and opt not to discuss or continue watching this show at all. This is a story about leaving, after all.

The first episode jumps from the interview to a dinner where Jonathan and Mira describe the encounter to another couple at their house. Kate (Nicole Beharie) and Peter (Corey Stoll) eschew other conventions, both with their willingness to make their disagreements a point of discussion and with their polyamorous arrangement. When Peter and Kate’s arguing grows intolerable, Mira invites Kate upstairs as an attempt to mitigate conflict and restore equilibrium, a habit we see repeatedly during the first two episodes. Her attempt fails however, when Kate refuses to agree with Mira’s assessment that her “arrangement” is making her unhappy or might be harmful to her children. She then makes an unwelcome move on Mira that prompts a return downstairs, where Peter’s shouting wakes up Jonathan and Mira’s little daughter. For a moment, the decorum of Jonathan and Mira’s marriage appeals, especially when the source of Mira’s earlier tension is revealed. We see how, despite the formality overlapping every interaction, warmth and trust flow easily between them, even if the ability to truly speak their feelings does not.

Sadly for our protagonists, the lack of true connection matters more than the kindness they both strive for. Instead of having a real conversation about the complicated decision they face, they speak around it, come at it sideways, each checking in with the other in a “but how do you feel?” back-and-forth. It feels like being at a four-way stop with every driver waving the others on, “No, you go.”

The remake is said to mirror the plot points of the original but if you, like me, are not familiar, I do not want to spoil what happens along the way. It’s no spoiler to say we’re not in for something joyful here, however. Watching Chastain and Isaac provides a master class in acting, but the emptiness of their marriage under-