Published on March 27, 2024 at 1:50 pm
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Jacksonville Today Arts and Culture Editor Matt Shaw shares his arts and culture picks for the weekend.
Thursday-Sunday
Sleeping Giant Fest
Sun-Ray Cinema | Five Points
Sun-Ray Cinema’s annual celebration of avant-garde film and music returns, kicking off Thursday night with Chicago’s Whine Cave performing a live score for six short works of abstract, early 20th century cinema, followed by Tilman Singer’s 2024 short Cuckoo and the “Great Resignation comedy” Free Time (with director Ryan Martin Brown in attendance). Friday’s lineup features a variety of films, including the return of Sleeping Giant’s Found Footage Festival and the collage-like archival documentary about the band Nirvana, I Hate Myself and Want to Die, followed by a Q&A with the directors. Other highlights from the fest’s four days of programming include more than an hour of cartoons on Saturday morning (with a cereal bar!), a performance by seminal Jacksonville shoegazers Common Thread (read about the band’s place is Duval music history from the Jacksonville Music Experience) and not one but two screenings of the atmospheric goth horror film The Vourdalak. Tickets and more information.
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Friday
Amplified Avondale
St. Johns Avenue | Historic Avondale
Businesses along Avondale’s main drag, St. Johns Avenue, host a lineup of local musicians and pop-up art experiences for Friday’s Amplified Avondale. Among other scheduled performances, funk band Groove Coalition plays at Tucker Cycles; bluegrass and swing group The Kimballs perform at Mellow Mushroom; and latin jazz artist Michelle Manzo plays Josephine. Plus DJs scattered about. 6-9 p.m. Free to attend. More information.
Saturday
Free Saturday at MOCA
MOCA Jacksonville | Downtown Jacksonville
MOCA guests enjoy free admission every Saturday, and, as the museum is the midst of its 100th-year celebration, this Saturday is as good a day as any to check what’s currently on view. Of note, A Walk on the Wild Side explores an undeniably fertile time (and place) in contemporary art –1970’s New York City – with works by Andy Warhol, Philip Glass, David Bowie, Yoko Ono and Robert Mapplethorpe. Meanwhile, Jacksonville’s Stacked Stars, a site-specific installation created by influential American artist Frank Stella currently fills the museum’s atrium and is certainly worth the cost of admission, which, again, is free. More information.
