FILM

PUNCH-DRUNK RETROSPECTIVE A Paul Thomas Anderson retrospective at the Museum of the Moving Image features weekend screenings of a selection of the young director’s critically acclaimed films. Highlights include “Boogie Nights,” (1997), which screens Saturday at 4 p.m. In it, a teenage dishwasher, played by Mark Wahlberg, becomes a star of the adult film industry in 1970s and ’80s California. The drama “Punch-Drunk Love” (2002) finds comedian Adam Sandler expanding his range as an executive in search of love. It screens Sunday at 3 p.m. Mr. Anderson’s most recent film, “There Will Be Blood” (2007), is inspired by Upton Sinclair’s “Oil” and is currently in theaters. Saturday–Sunday, times vary, Museum of the Moving Image, 35th Avenue at 36th Street, Astoria, Queens, 718-784-4520, $15 general, $5 members.

ART

HANDFUL OF DUST Born to a Jewish family in eastern Poland, artist Janice Biala left the region in 1913 for New York, where she and her family settled in a Lower East Side tenement. By her adolescent years, she was enrolled in art classes, studies that eventually led her to Paris in search of la vie bohème. In the “City of Lights,” she met art-world luminaries, including Picasso and Matisse, and entered into a romantic relationship with writer Ford Madox Ford — a life-altering union that significantly affected the course of her work. An exhibit of works by Biala concludes this week at the Tibor de Nagy Gallery. The selections span nearly 40 years. “All of Biala’s paintings seem touched by a tough ingenuousness — never sentimental or naïve, but slightly nostalgic in their playful intimacy,” John Goodrich wrote in the December 13 New York Sun.

Through Saturday, 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m., Tibor de Nagy Gallery, 724 Fifth Ave., between 56th and 57th streets, 212-261-5050, free.

CANVASING THE CARIBBEAN “Infinite Island: Contemporary Caribbean Art,” an exhibit of more than 80 works created in the last six years, is on view at the Brooklyn Museum. The show features contributions from 45 artists who represent the complexity and vibrant nature of this culture. The art explores Caribbean societies through video, photography, print and drawings, sculpture, and installation. Highlights include selections by artist Polibio Diaz, who confronts the aesthetic of Greco-Roman codes that have long put blacks of various complexions at odds with each other in the Dominican Republic. Through Sunday, January 27, Wednesday–Friday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m., until 11 p.m. on first Saturdays, Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Pkwy. at Washington Avenue, Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, 718-638-5000, $8 general, $4 students and seniors, free for children under 12.

THE MARTINI HOUR The Museum of the City of New York presents “Manhattan Noon: Photographs by Gus Powell,” a collection of about 30 recent works inspired by poet Frank O’Hara’s 1964 volume, “Lunch Poems.” Mr. Powell photographed New Yorkers during his own lunch break: He found the full range, from lounging construction workers to ladies rushing by in stilettos, all of them lit by the midday sun. Through Saturday, March 15, Tuesday–Sunday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m., Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Ave. at 103rd St., 212-534-1672, $9 general, $20 families, $5 students and seniors, free 10 a.m.–noon on Sunday.

DANCE

FANCY FOOTWORK Instructor Yaffa Garber leads “Israeli Dance for Beginners on Shabbat,” hosted by the 92nd Street Y. Families and children age 6 and above are invited to participate in an afternoon of traditional folk dance — from foot-stomping to arm-twirling — set to contemporary and classic sounds from Israel. Many of the dances reflect the influence of folk styles indigenous to parts of Eastern Europe and the Middle East, but elements of modern ballet, and even salsa and hip-hop, are sometimes detectible in the movements. Comfortable clothing and shoes are recommended. Saturday, 2 p.m., 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Ave. at 92nd Street, 212-415-5500, free.

MUSIC

BROOKLYN YOUTH ROCK A trio of youngsters hailing from Park Slope, Care Bears on Fire, performs its rollicking blend of pop-punk-garage at Union Hall. The set list includes songs from the band’s most recent release, “I Stole Your Animal,” including “Shadow Girl” and “Met You on MySpace.” Clad in black skinny jeans, the group evokes a pint-size version of the Ramones, but the music is surprisingly convincing, considering its members are 12-year-olds. Care Bears on Fire includes bassist Lucio Westmoreland and drummer Izzy Schappell-Spillman. The Mighty Handful also performs. Recommended for concert-goers of all ages. Saturday, 2 p.m., Union Hall, 702 Union St. at Fifth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, 718-638-4400, $10 general, $5 students.

A GRIMM TALE The Metropolitan Opera presents “Hansel and Gretel,” its new English-language production of Engelbert Humperdinck’s fairy tale opera. Humperdinck’s treatment is based on the story of the same name by the Brothers Grimm. Humperdinck originally conceived of the work as a play (and an engagement gift to his fiancée), but later reworked it into a full-scale opera. It had its first staging in 1893 in Weimar, Germany. Mezzo-soprano Alice Coote and soprano Christine Schäfer play the poverty-stricken siblings lost in a forest where unknown menace lurks, and tenor Philip Langridge is cast in the role of the witch bent on fattening the children and making a feast out of them. Conductor Vladimir Jurowski leads the Met orchestra.

Through Thursday, January 31, dates and times vary, Lincoln Center, Metropolitan Opera, between West 62nd and 65th streets, and Columbus and Amsterdam avenues, 212-362-6000, $27–$295.

PHOTOGRAPHY

IN THIS SKIN Photographer Lina Bertucci’s portraits of ink-stained women depict collectors of a different type. While some women go in search of luxury handbags or antiques, gathering rare finds each season, the subjects of Ms. Bertucci’s works have made precious, if defiant, one-offs of their own skin. The women featured range in age from adolescent to senior, but with their steady, fixed gazes, all appear equally at ease. The photographs are compelling for their composition as well, with vivid prints or wallpaper seeming to echo the intricate “sleeves” affixed to the figures in the foreground. Through Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m., Perry Rubenstein Gallery, 527 W. 23rd St., between Tenth and Eleventh avenues, 212-627-8000, free.

READINGS

BUKOWSKI Poet Kathi Georges hosts this installment of the openmic series at the Cornelia Street Café, “Son of Pony.” The author reads selections from the work of outsider writer Charles Bukowski, to whom the evening’s program is dedicated. Bukowski’s writing was heavily influenced by his native Los Angeles; its geography and atmosphere often formed the backdrop for his verse and novels. All are welcome to bring favorite Bukowski poems to share (sign-up begins at 5:45 p.m.). The event also features book giveaways and other prizes.

Friday, 6–8 p.m., Cornelia Street Café, 29 Cornelia St., between West 4th and Bleecker streets, 212-989-9319, $7 includes one drink.

THEATER

BATTLE FOR THE SMALL SCREEN

“The Farnsworth Invention,” with a screenplay by a veteran television writer, Aaron Sorkin, and direction by Des McAnuff, recounts the David and Goliath tale that unfolded around the invention of the small screen. Featured actors include Jimmi Simpson, in the titular role of Philo T. Farnsworth, and Hank Azaria, who plays the president of RCA, David Sarnoff. As head of the radio broadcasting giant in 1929, Sarnoff senses the possibilities to come in the form of television and determines to secure control over the patents and licensing governing the new medium. Farnsworth, a science prodigy credited with inventing television’s key elements, is unprepared for the battle over intellectual property. Friday, 8 p.m., Saturday, 2 and 8 p.m., Sunday, 3 p.m., Tuesday, 7 p.m., through Sunday, March 16, Music Box Theatre, 239 W. 45th St., between Broadway and Eighth Avenue, 212-239-6200, $59.50–$201.50.

PAINTING

OUT WITH A BANG The Knoedler gallery’s exhibit of works by Jules Olitski, “The Late Paintings: A Celebration,” was mounted to honor the artist, who died last February. His paintings became recognizable by their abundance of rich colors and abstract shapes that retained strong delineations and edges. “Even if the world ends with a whimper, Jules Olitski departed with a bang,” David Cohen wrote in the December 20 New York Sun of the art on view. Highlights include “By Love Unlocked: Beauty” (2003), top, and “Temptation: Yellow” (2002).

Through Saturday, Friday, 9:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m., Saturday, 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m., Knoedler & Company, 19 E. 70th St., between Fifth and Madison avenues, 212-794-0550, free.

To submit an event for consideration for the Calendar, please wire the particulars to calendar@nysun.com, placing the date of the event in the subject line.