Press release
DOCUMENTARY FORTNIGHT 2012
BRINGS AN INTERNATIONAL SELECTION OF 27 FILMS TO THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART (NYC)
in The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters from February 16–28, 2012
Festival Includes a Retrospective Dedicated to Paper Tiger Television, Modern Monday Featuring a Discussion with Phil Collins, and a Special Field Guide to the Interactive Documentary
Documentary Fortnight 2012: MoMA’s International Festival of Nonfiction Film and Media
NEW YORK, January 27, 2012--The Museum of Modern Art announces Documentary Fortnight 2012: MoMA’s International
Festival of Nonfiction Film and Media, the 11th annual two-week showcase of recent documentary films examining the relationship between contemporary art and nonfiction practices, and reflecting on new areas of documentary filmmaking.
This year’s festival includes an international selection of feature-length and short films, a majority of which are premieres and are presented by the filmmakers; a retrospective of Paper Tiger Television’s 30 years of media activism; and a "Field Guide" to database documentary practices—an emergent form of interactive narrative and nonlinear nonfiction filmmaking that employs digital and Web-based media.
This exhibition is organized by Sally Berger, Assistant Curator, Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art. The selection committee consists of Sally Berger; Chi-hui Yang, independent curator; and Sam Green, documentary
filmmaker.
The festival opens on February 16 with Jim Hubbard’s United in Anger: A History of ACT UP (2012), the first feature-length documentary to explore ACT UP (the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) from a historical perspective, and The Tiniest Place (2011), Tatiana Huezo Sanchez’s account of the village of Cinquera in El Salvador where the surviving residents restore the village and their lives after the brutal Civil War of 1980–1992. Both filmmakers will be in attendance to introduce and
participate in a post-screening Q&A.
Paper Tiger Television: Thirty Years of Alternative Media showcases the work of nonprofit, all-volunteer video collective Paper Tiger Television (PTTV). One presentation of design for a radical new media created in partnership with The New School’s Vera List Center for Art and Politics and two screening events, taking place on February 24 and 25, explore PTTV’s use of alternative media to address contemporary topics, specifically through short documentaries, community screenings and grassroots advocacy, and the production and distribution of a cable-access television series.
On February 18, two "Guided Tours to the Interactive Documentary" will explore the way interactivity is redefining the digital documentary landscape, from immersive, user-driven, and customized experiences on personal screens, to works of multimedia journalism that push the boundaries of research-driven storytelling, to nonfiction media projects that straddle the world of art and gaming.
Former New York Times senior multimedia producer Zach Wise provides a look at the state of interactive documentary and how the convergence of nonfiction, journalism, gaming, and art worlds is changing storytelling. Ingrid Kopp, New Media Consultant, TFI New Media Fund at the Tribeca Film Institute, and Lauren Cornell, Executive Director, Rhizome, and Adjunct Curator at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, discuss ten innovative projects and how they are altering the larger media/art landscape.
Two special off-site events take place at Light Industry in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and at Nitehawk Cinema in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Director D.A. Pennebaker’s Elizabeth and Mary (1965)—a portrait of twin girls, one partially sighted, one blind—screens at Light Industry on February 21. The festival closes at Nitehawk Cinema on February 28 with the U.S. premiere of
Marija’s Own (2011), Željka Suková’s film about a wild dinner party a granddaughter and her two cousins throws for her deceased grandmother, and Grandma Lo-Fi: The Basement Tapes of Sigríður Níelsdóttir (2011), about a 70 year-old Danish/Icelandic woman who creates lo-fi music using an electronic keyboard and kitchen utensils.
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Hours
Films are screened Wednesday-Monday. For screening schedules, please visit our Film Exhibitions.
Film Admission:
$12 adults; $10 seniors, 65 years and over with I.D. $8 full-time students with current I.D. (for admittance to film programs only.) The price of a film ticket may be applied toward the price of a Museum admission ticket when a film ticket stub is presented at the Lobby Information Desk within 30 days of the date on the stub (does not apply during Target Free Friday Nights, 4:00–8:00 p.m.). Admission is free for Museum members and for Museum ticketholders.
Public Information:
The Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53 Street, New York, NY 10019, (212) 708-9400 - MoMA.org
Hours: Wednesday through Monday: 10:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m. Friday: 10:30 a.m.–8:00 p.m. Closed Tuesdays.
Documentary Fortnight 2012: MoMA’s International Festival of Nonfiction Film and Media
February 16–28, 2012
Screening Schedule
Thursday, February 16
4:30 - El lugar más pequeño (The Tiniest Place)
2011. Mexico. 104 min. Directed by Tatiana Huezo.
The village of Cinquera in the jungles of El Salvador was razed by the brutal National Guard during the Civil War of 1980–1992. In the years of peace that followed, former residents of Cinquera, many of whom had lost their families, returned to start anew.
Director Huezo recounts survivors' harrowing stories over breathtaking images of the reborn village and its inhabitants.
The Tiniest Place provides remarkable insight into a community's triumph over unspeakable tragedy. Copresented with Ambulante and Cinema Tropical. In Spanish; English subtitles.
Followed by a discussion with Tatiana Huezo Sanchez
8:00 - (2 docs)
Gravity Hill Newsreels 2 and 3
2011. USA. 9 min. Directed by Jem Cohen.
Short observations on the events of Occupy Wall Street.
United in Anger: A History of ACT UP.
2012. USA. 94 min. Directed by Jim Hubbard. World premiere.
United in Anger is the first feature-length documentary to explore ACT UP (the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) from a historical perspective, recounting how a small group of men and women of all races and classes came together to change the world and save each other’s lives.
The film follows the planning and execution of exhilarating demonstrations—including Seize Control of the FDA, Stop the Church, and Day of Desperation—with many of the other actions that spurred the U.S. government and mainstream media to responds to the AIDS crisis.
The group’s complex culture emerges, as meetings, affinity groups, and new approaches to civil disobedience mingle with profound grief, sexiness, and unbounded energy.
Followed by a discussion with Jem Cohen, Jim Hubbard, and members of ACT UP.
Friday, February 17
4:30 - Ivan & Ivana.
2011. USA. 80 min. Directed by Jeff Silva. New York premiere.
In his documentary-poem on the Kosovo crisis, Balkan Rhapsodies (which screened at Documentary
Fortnight 2008), director Silva introduced Ivan, a wild, troubled young man traumatized by the war in his homeland.
Five years later, Silva finds Ivan and his wife, Ivana, living in sunny California, having traded Serbia for suburbia. Hopelessly in debt and caught up in the property bubble as it inflates to bursting point, Ivan and Ivana struggle with their relationship and their identities as immigrants, and Ivan becomes suffocated by the American dream. In English, Serbian; English subtitles.
Followed by a discussion with Jeff Silva.
8:00 - El lugar más pequeño (The Tiniest Place)
2011. Mexico. 104 min. Directed by Tatiana Huezo.
(See Thursday February 16, 4:30). Followed by a discussion with Tatiana Huezo Sanchez.
Saturday, February 18
3:00 - A Field Guide to the Interactive Documentary- Guided Tour 1: Zach Wise - The State of Storytelling in the Age of Interactivity.
Award-winning former New York Times senior multimedia producer Zach Wise provides an illustrated look at the state of the interactive documentary landscape, and how the convergence of the nonfiction, journalism, gaming, and art worlds are changing the nature of storytelling.
What new kinds of cross-platform/disciplinary forms are being created? What is the potential of a documentary game or an interactive art-journalism project?
Wise charts recent movements in technology and storytelling with a historical,
cross-disciplinary perspective. Program approx. 120 min.
4:00 - Ivan & Ivana. 2011. USA. 80 min. Directed by Jeff Silva.
(See Friday, February 17, 4:30). Followed by a discussion with Jeff Silva.
6:00 - A Field Guide to the Interactive Documentary- Guided Tour 2: Lauren Cornell and Ingrid Kopp -
10 Interactive Projects You Should Know About.
What is on the leading edge of the profusion of creativity, research, and technological development surrounding the new media/interactive world? What projects are changing the way we interface with art and stories, and how do they actually
work?
Two of New York’s leading minds in the realms of new media art and interactive documentary showcase innovative projects and discuss how they are altering the larger media/art landscape. Featuring Ingrid Kopp, New Media Consultant, TFI New Media Fund at the Tribeca Film Institute, and Lauren Cornell, Executive Director, Rhizome, and Adjunct Curator, The New Museum of Contemporary Art. Program approx. 120 min.
8:00 - Aita.
2011. Spain. 85 min. Directed by José María de Orbe.
In a "haunted" mansion in the north of Spain, two caretakers do their best to keep the slowly crumbling
building safe from the threats of time and vandalism. The centuries-old home is full of memories and mysteries, pondered over by elderly caretaker Luis Pescador and the parish priest, Mikel Goenega.
During the day, schoolchildren visit to learn about local history; at night, the past comes alive and lights up the darkness. In Spanish; English subtitles.
Followed by a discussion with José María de Orbe.
Sunday, February 19
1:30 - Aita.
2011. Spain. 85 min. Directed by José María de Orbe.
(See Saturday, February 18, 8:00). Followed by a discussion with José María de Orbe.
3:00 - Without Gorky
2011. UK. 80 min. Directed by Cosima Spender. U.S. premiere.
By July 1948, the groundbreaking painter of American Abstract Expressionism Arshile Gorky, was plagued with ill fortune: he was undergoing treatment for cancer, a car accident had left his painting arm paralyzed, and his marriage was coming to an end.
At that time, he committed suicide near his family’s home in Sherman, Connecticut. The artist’s granddaughter (filmmaker Spender) investigates the tragedy at the heart of her own family through interviews with her grandmother, her mother, and an aunt.
As the family's pain and anger are revealed, so is a portrait of the secretive Gorky, who struggled with his art and his identity as an Armenian émigré.
Followed by a discussion with Cosima Spender.
4:30 - Nainsukh.
2010. India. 75 min. Directed by Amit Dutta.
The life of the 18th-century artist Nainsukh, perhaps the most famous painter of the Pahari people of northern India, remains shrouded in mystery. Born into a family of painters who worked in the naturalist Mughal style, Nainsukh became a master of the art form, depicting both the ceremony of life at court and the intimate moments of day-to-day life.
Reenactments of 18th-century Indian life, juxtaposed with Nainsukh’s works, create a hypnotic fusion of imagery and sound that conjures up a lost age. In Dogri, Kangri; English subtitles.
5:30 - (2 docs)
The Ground We Stand On. 2011. USA.
30 min. Directed by Julie Orser, Jon Irving. New York premiere.
The members of a Los Angeles family slowly lose their bearings when they are uprooted from their home. First they move into a city park. When officials object, they live in a renovated mobile home. Yet time and again, their resourceful attempts to resettle are thwarted.
Imagining Emanuel.
2011. Norway. 52 min. Directed by Thomas Østbye. U.S. premiere.
Emanuel claims to have stowed away on a boat from Liberia to his new home in Norway, and various authority figures and welfare agencies give testimony as to the veracity of his account.
But how do you really determine who someone is? Shuffling through a variety of documentary techniques, the film attempts to form an image of this person. In Norwegian; English subtitles.
Followed by a discussion with Julie Orser, Jon Irving, and Thomas Østbye.
Monday, February 20
1:30 - (2 docs)
The Ground We Stand On
2011. USA. 30 min. Directed by Julie Orser, Jon Irving.
(See Sunday, February 19, 5:30).
Imagining Emanuel
2011. Norway. 52 min. Directed by Thomas Østbye.
(See Sunday, February 19, 5:30).
Followed by a discussion with Julie Orser, Jon Irving, and Thomas Østbye.
4:00 - Without Gorky
2011. UK. 80 min. Directed by Cosima Spender.
(See Sunday, February 19, 3:00). Followed by a discussion with Cosima Spender.
4:30 - Rouge Parole
2011. Qatar/Switzerland. 94 min. Directed by Elyes Baccar.U.S. premiere.
The Arab Revolution erupted in a country that no one would expect: Tunisia appeared to be a quiet and stable country. The
explosion burst from the chilly Tunisian winter, on Friday December 17th, 2011 when a young man set fire to himself because of hardship and oppression.
Images of his burnt body opened the eyes and hearts of an entire nation. Rouge Parole is the story of a popular revolution,
emotionally told through the silence and the clamor of its heroes. In Arabic (Tunisian dialect); English subtitles.
Followed by a discussion with Elyes Baccar.
8:00 - When the Bough Breaks
2011. China. 148 min. Directed by Ji Dan. North American premiere.
Two girls growing up in poverty on the outskirts of Beijing seek to ensure a better future for themselves and their brother.
Determined to continue their education, the girls square off with their stubborn, troubled parents. The family’s tense exchanges are captured as the young women try to negotiate a path to independence, security, and adulthood.
The film shows how some children are forced to grow up too early, with little support and no adults to lead the way. In Chinese; English subtitles.
Followed by a discussion with Ji Dan.
Tuesday, February 21
Special Off-Site Event at Light Industry
7:00 - Elizabeth and Mary
USA. 1965. 60 mins. Directed by D.A. Pennebaker.
This portrait of twin girls—one of whom is partially sighted, one of whom is blind—is a hidden classic by an American pioneer of direct cinema.
Light Industry:
155 Freeman Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Lightindustry.org.
Light Industry is a venue for film and electronic art in Brooklyn, New York. Developed and overseen by Thomas Beard and Ed Halter, the project has evolved into a series of weekly events, each organized with a different artist, critic, or curator. Conceptually, Light Industry draws equal inspiration from the long history of alternative art spaces in New York as well its storied tradition of cinematheques and other intrepid film exhibitors. Through a regular program of screenings,
performances, and lectures, its goal is to explore new models for the presentation of time-based media. Bringing together the worlds of contemporary art, experimental cinema, new media, documentary film, and the academy (to name only a few), Light Industry looks to foster an ongoing dialogue among a wide range of artists and audiences within the city.
Wednesday, February 22
1:30 - When the Bough Breaks
2011. China. 148 min. Directed by Ji Dan.
(See Monday, February 20, 8:00). Followed by a discussion with Ji Dan.
4:30 - Kalendar.
2008. Ukraine/USA. 10 min. Directed by Naomi Uman. Silent.
Snapshots examine the meaning of each of the months in the Ukrainian calendar.
Ukrainian Time Machine: Video Diary 2-1-2006 to the Present
2011. Ukraine/USA. 83 min. Directed by Naomi Uman.
In 2006, experimental filmmaker Uman returned to the Ukraine, where her great-grandparents had lived a hundred years earlier. While there, she used a 16mm camera to capture rural life (for the film Kalendar) and a video camera to record her personal experiences (which she assembled into Ukrainian Time Machine).
The elder babushky welcomed her warmly, but she struggled to adapt to local customs, learn the language, and raise her own food. Uman’s "reverse immigration" develops into a revealing personal narrative of gender disparity, the history of Judaism, and global immigration. In English, Russian; English subtitles.
5:30 pm - Rouge Parole
2011. Qatar/Switzerland. 94 min. Directed by Elyes Baccar.
(See Monday, February 20, 4:30). Followed by a discussion with Elyes Baccar.
8:00 pm - Wildness.
2012. USA. 74 min. Directed by Wu Tsang. World premiere.
Wildness is a portrait of the Silver Platter, a historic landmark bar in East Los Angeles that has provided an LGBT-friendly home for the Latin immigrant community since 1948. With a magical-realist flourish—the bar itself becomes a character in the film--Wildness captures the creativity and conflict that ensues when a group of young, queer artists of color (Wu Tsang, DJs NGUZUNGUZU, and Total Freedom) organize a weekly performance art party called Wildness at the bar.
What does "safe space" mean? Who needs it? And how does it differ among us? At the Silver Platter, the search for answers to these questions creates coalitions across generations.
Followed by a discussion with Wu Tsang and producer Kathy Rivkin.
Thursday, February 23
1:30 Kalendar
2008. Ukraine/USA. 10 min. Directed by Naomi Uman.
Ukrainian Time Machine: Video Diary 2-1-2006 to the Present.
2011. Ukraine/USA. 83 min. Directed by Naomi Uman.
(See Wednesday, February 22, 4:30).
4:00 - Wildness.
2012. USA. 74 min. Directed by Wu Tsang.
(See Wednesday, February 22, 8:00). Followed by a discussion with Tsang and producer Kathy Rivkin.
4:30 - Polvo (Dust)
2011. USA. 27 min. Directed by Angela Reginato. New York premiere.
This experimental essay film chronicles the disappearance of a French woman's son and American husband from Mexico City during the politically-charged late 1970s.
Composed from rare Super 8 home movies, educational films, and Super 8 footage. The film examines how memory is
shaped. In Spanish; English subtitles.
Argentinian Lesson
2011. Poland. 56 min. Directed by Wojciech Staroń. North American premiere.
Janek, a young Polish boy, is thrust into an unknown world when his family moves to Argentina. While his mother teaches their native tongue to locals of Polish decent, Janek struggles with a new language and an alien landscape, and begins to adjust to 11-year-old Marcia, with whom he experiences the joys of childhood and the woes of impending adulthood.
His filmmaker father captures the young friends’ innocence and the beauty of their shared experiences. Copresented with Ambulante and Cinema Tropical. In Spanish; English subtitles.
8:00 - Taken By Storm: The Art of Storm Thorgerson and Hipgnosis
2011. USA. 95 min. Directed by Roddy Bogawa. New York premiere.
The eccentric ego behind many of rock music’s most iconic album covers—including works by Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Genesis, and Muse—is revealed in Bogawa’s wildly entertaining film.
Now in his late 60s, Storm Thorgerson reflects on his remarkable career with the design firm Hipgnosis and as a stand-alone artist, his school days with Pink Floyd's Roger Waters, the inspirations brought about by college experimentation, and the clash of egos that ended his closest partnership. Major personalities from the world of rock lend their voices in praise of the master of surrealist album artwork.
Followed by a discussion with Roddy Bogawa.
Friday, February 24
1:30 - El Field
2011. Mexico/USA. 84 min. Directed by Daniel Rosas.U.S. premiere.
Every day, in the hours before dawn, in a small desert agricultural town in California, streets come alive with migrant workers who legally cross the U.S.-Mexico border to join harvesting squads.
The camera follows teams of men and women who pick produce by hand alongside heavy agricultural machinery. Shot in California's Imperial Valley and Mexico's Mexicali Valley, this documentary illustrates the contrasts between field and desert, urban and countryside, and men and machine.
El Field presents cross-border relationships as a stunning, complex, and often chaotic symbiosis. Special thanks to Morelia Film Festival. Copresented with Ambulante and Cinema Tropical. In Spanish; English subtitles.
Followed by a discussion with Daniel Rosas.
4:00 - The Great Northwest
2011. USA. 76 min. Directed by Matt McCormick.U.S. premiere.
This experimental documentary centers around a re-creation of a 3,200-mile road trip made in 1958 by four Seattle women who documented their journey in an elaborate scrapbook of photos, postcards, and brochures.
Fifty years later, Portland artist and filmmaker Matt McCormick found that scrapbook, and he set out to follow their route as precisely as possible along the way. Simultaneously observational and voyeuristic, The Great Northwest is a lyrical time capsule that explores how the landscape and roadside culture of the Pacific Northwest has changed over the past half century.
Followed by a discussion with Matt McCormick.
4:30 - The Average of the Average
2011. Denmark. 50 min. Directed by Michael Madsen. U.S. premiere.
Denmark's first 3D documentary by director Madsen (Into Eternity) questions how to represent human life. The story is divided into 13 chapters of small, seemingly mediocre moments, both true and fictitious that defines life in the town of Middlefart from the present to the past: a young girl communicates on her mobile phone to a friend, the mayor visits with a fortune teller, and 3D photographs of Middlefart reveal life in the 1880s. In Danish; English Subtitles.
Followed by a discussion with Michael Madsen.
8:00 - Paper Tiger Television: Thirty Years of Alternative Media: Designs for a Rrradical New Media
Approx. 90 min.
Infiltrating the Underground
2008. USA. PTTV Video Collective. 20 min excerpt.
Saturday, February 25
3:00 - Paper Tiger Television: Thirty Years of Alternative Media: Reading Newspapers and Reality TV.
Herb Schiller Reads the New York Times: 712 Pages of Waste, The Sunday Times.
1981. USA. PTTV Video Collective. 28 min.
Reality Unreeled: The Really Real Unreal Reality of Real Reality TV
2010. USA. PTTV Video Collective. 28 min.
Street Art Takeover.
2010. USA. PTTV Video Collective. 8 min.
4:00 - The Great Northwest
2011. USA. 76 min. Directed by Matt McCormick.
(See Friday, February 24, 4:00). Followed by a discussion with Matt McCormick.
6:00 - Paper Tiger Television: Thirty Years of Alternative Media: Reading Sock Ads and TV War Coverage.
Sock Ads: Judith Williamson Consumes Passionately in Southern California.
1988. USA. PTTV Video Collective. 28 min.
TV’s Gulf War: Bill Nichols Analyzes TV’s Coverage of the Gulf War.
1991. USA. PTTV Video Collective. 28 min.
Thai Worker Collective TV Ad
2010. USA. PTTV Video Collective. 1:46 min.
8:00 - The Average of the Average
2011. Denmark. 50 min. Directed by Michael Madsen.
(See Friday, February 24, 4:30). Followed by a discussion with Michael Madsen.
Sunday, February 26
1:30 - (2 docs)
Polvo (Dust)
2011. USA. 27 min. Directed by Angela Reginato.
Argentinian Lesson
2011. Poland. 56 min. Directed by Wojciech Staroń.
(See Thursday, February 23, 4:30).
3:00 - Abendland.
2010. Austria. 100 min. Directed by Nikolaus Geyrhalter.U.S. premiere.
Edited down from 170 hours of material shot in 10 countries over 14 months, Geyrhalter’s remarkable film demonstrates the empowering, unifying, and alienating nature of technology. Abendland is made up of a series of loosely connected events: a tiny, premature infant is nurtured in a hi-tech incubator; Pope Benedict XVI addresses a congregation of priests from an enormous video screen at Saint Peter’s Basilica; two trainee police officers practice apprehending a suspect using a virtual-reality simulator.
Yet underlying much of this study is a theme of exclusion: the film reveals how the technology of the West ensnares immigrants who wish to share in Western freedoms. Copresented with True/False Film Festival. In German; English subtitles. Followed by a discussion with Nikolaus Geyrhalter.
4:30 - El Field
2011. Mexico/USA. 84 min. Directed by Daniel Rosas. (See Friday, February 24, 4:30). Followed by a discussion with Daniel Rosas.
6:00 - !Vivan Las Antipodes!
2011. Germany/Argentina/Netherlands/Chile. 109 min. Directed by Victor Kossakovsky. North American premiere.
This magnificent, poetic documentary looks at places on earth that are antipodal pairs -- diametrically opposite and at the
shortest points between each other: Rios in Argentina and Shanghai in China; Lake Baikal in Russia and Patagonia in Chile; Miraflores, Spain, and the beach at Castle Point, New Zealand.
Kossakovsky turns his camera a kaleidoscopic 180 degrees between each site. Copresented with True/False Film Festival. In
Spanish, Russian, Setswana; English subtitles. Followed by a discussion with Victor Kossakovsky.
Monday, February 27
1:30 - Marija’s Own
2011. Croatia. 61 min. Directed by Željka Suková. New York premiere.
Marija’s funeral burial was interrupted by a storm; six years later her grave remains unadorned. Her granddaughter, filmmaker Željka Suková, decides to give her beloved relative the send-off she deserves. Suková and her two cousins (one portrayed by an actress) throw a wild dinner party, inviting Marija’s elderly neighbors. Dressed in flamboyant frills, the
cousins revel in the memory of their grandmother, while Czech synth-pop band Midi Lidi provide live entertainment.
This irreverent celebration of the late Marija’s life is a colorful, wacky experience. In Croatian/Czech; English Subtitles.
Followed by a discussion with Željka Suková.
4:00 - !Vivan Las Antipodes!
2011. Germany/Argentina/Netherlands/Chile. 109 min. Directed by Victor Kossakovsky.
(See Sunday, February 26, 5:00) - Followed by a discussion with Victor Kossakovsky.
4:30 - (2 docs)
Byun, Objet Trouvé
2011. USA. 7 min. Directed by Marie Losier.
Acclaimed mixed-media artist Chong Gon Byun uses found and discarded objects to create intricate sculptures that explore the clash between post-industrial civilization and the present consumerist culture in his surrealist oeuvre.
Grandma Lo-fi
2011. Iceland. 62 min. Directed by Orri Jónsson, Kristín Björk Kristjánsdóttir, Ingibjörg Birgisdóttir. New York premiere.
The music career of Sigríður Níelsdóttir began when she was 70 years old. Seven years later, she had produced 59 albums and a catalogue of over 600 songs. Through a series of intimate interviews with Sigríður her incredible lo-fi production process is revealed, whereby she created her entire oeuvre with an electronic keyboard and kitchen-based sound effects. A cult personality in her native Iceland, Sigríður is shown to be an unlikely inspiration to younger artists. In Icelandic, English subtitles.
Followed by a discussion with Marie Losier, Orri Jónsson, Kristín Björk Kristjánsdóttir, and Ingibjörg Birgisdóttir.
7:00 - Modern Monday: Phil Collins (NOT the pop star)
In his films, photographs, installations, and live events, Phil Collins explores the nuances of social relations in various locations and global communities. He often subverts the conventions of photojournalism to focus on the inherent contradictions of individual and collective systems of representation.
Dissecting the political and aesthetic implications of popular visual formats, Collins’s works indicate that the meaning of a picture—be it still or moving—resides neither in its form nor in its subject-matter, but rather in the transferences it establishes between the producer, the subject, and the viewer.
For this Modern Mondays discussion, Collins presents a selection of his works, including how to make a refugee (1999), use! value! exchange! (2010) and marxism today (prologue) (2010).
8:00 - Abendland
2010. Austria. 100 min. Directed by Nikolaus Geyrhalter.
(See Sunday, February 26, 3:00) - Followed by a discussion with Nikolaus Geyrhalter.
Tuesday, February 28
Special Off-Site Screenings at Nitehawk Cinema
7:30 - Marija’s Own
2011. Croatia. 61 min. Directed by Željka Suková.
(See Monday, February 27, 1:30) - Followed by a discussion with Željka Suková.
8:00 - (2 docs)
Byun, Objet Trouvé
2011. USA. 7 min. Directed by Marie Losier
Grandma Lo-fi
2011. Iceland. 62 min. Directed by Orri Jónsson, Kristín Björk Kristjánsdóttir, Ingibjörg Birgisdóttir.
(See Monday, February 27, 4:30) - Followed by a discussion with Marie Losier, Orri Jónsson, Kristín Björk Kristjánsdóttir, and Ingibjörg Birgisdóttir.
Nitehawk Cinema: 136 Metropolitan Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Nitehawk.com.
The Nitehawk's theaters feature table-side food and beverage service. Arrive
45 minutes prior to showtime to catch a curated "preshow" of films from the MoMA
collection, including Scopitones. Seating is first come, first served. Guests
can also enjoy a drink at the lobby bar prior to the screenings.
MoMA.org
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DOCUMENTARY FORTNIGHT 2012
BRINGS AN INTERNATIONAL SELECTION OF 27 FILMS TO THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART (NYC)
in The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters from February 16–28, 2012
Festival Includes a Retrospective Dedicated to Paper Tiger Television, Modern Monday Featuring a Discussion with Phil Collins, and a Special Field Guide to the Interactive Documentary
Documentary Fortnight 2012: MoMA’s International Festival of Nonfiction Film and Media
NEW YORK, January 27, 2012--The Museum of Modern Art announces Documentary Fortnight 2012: MoMA’s International
Festival of Nonfiction Film and Media, the 11th annual two-week showcase of recent documentary films examining the relationship between contemporary art and nonfiction practices, and reflecting on new areas of documentary filmmaking.
This year’s festival includes an international selection of feature-length and short films, a majority of which are premieres and are presented by the filmmakers; a retrospective of Paper Tiger Television’s 30 years of media activism; and a "Field Guide" to database documentary practices—an emergent form of interactive narrative and nonlinear nonfiction filmmaking that employs digital and Web-based media.
This exhibition is organized by Sally Berger, Assistant Curator, Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art. The selection committee consists of Sally Berger; Chi-hui Yang, independent curator; and Sam Green, documentary
filmmaker.
The festival opens on February 16 with Jim Hubbard’s United in Anger: A History of ACT UP (2012), the first feature-length documentary to explore ACT UP (the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) from a historical perspective, and The Tiniest Place (2011), Tatiana Huezo Sanchez’s account of the village of Cinquera in El Salvador where the surviving residents restore the village and their lives after the brutal Civil War of 1980–1992. Both filmmakers will be in attendance to introduce and
participate in a post-screening Q&A.
Paper Tiger Television: Thirty Years of Alternative Media showcases the work of nonprofit, all-volunteer video collective Paper Tiger Television (PTTV). One presentation of design for a radical new media created in partnership with The New School’s Vera List Center for Art and Politics and two screening events, taking place on February 24 and 25, explore PTTV’s use of alternative media to address contemporary topics, specifically through short documentaries, community screenings and grassroots advocacy, and the production and distribution of a cable-access television series.
On February 18, two "Guided Tours to the Interactive Documentary" will explore the way interactivity is redefining the digital documentary landscape, from immersive, user-driven, and customized experiences on personal screens, to works of multimedia journalism that push the boundaries of research-driven storytelling, to nonfiction media projects that straddle the world of art and gaming.
Former New York Times senior multimedia producer Zach Wise provides a look at the state of interactive documentary and how the convergence of nonfiction, journalism, gaming, and art worlds is changing storytelling. Ingrid Kopp, New Media Consultant, TFI New Media Fund at the Tribeca Film Institute, and Lauren Cornell, Executive Director, Rhizome, and Adjunct Curator at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, discuss ten innovative projects and how they are altering the larger media/art landscape.
Two special off-site events take place at Light Industry in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and at Nitehawk Cinema in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Director D.A. Pennebaker’s Elizabeth and Mary (1965)—a portrait of twin girls, one partially sighted, one blind—screens at Light Industry on February 21. The festival closes at Nitehawk Cinema on February 28 with the U.S. premiere of
Marija’s Own (2011), Željka Suková’s film about a wild dinner party a granddaughter and her two cousins throws for her deceased grandmother, and Grandma Lo-Fi: The Basement Tapes of Sigríður Níelsdóttir (2011), about a 70 year-old Danish/Icelandic woman who creates lo-fi music using an electronic keyboard and kitchen utensils.
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Hours
Films are screened Wednesday-Monday. For screening schedules, please visit our Film Exhibitions.
Film Admission:
$12 adults; $10 seniors, 65 years and over with I.D. $8 full-time students with current I.D. (for admittance to film programs only.) The price of a film ticket may be applied toward the price of a Museum admission ticket when a film ticket stub is presented at the Lobby Information Desk within 30 days of the date on the stub (does not apply during Target Free Friday Nights, 4:00–8:00 p.m.). Admission is free for Museum members and for Museum ticketholders.
Public Information:
The Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53 Street, New York, NY 10019, (212) 708-9400 - MoMA.org
Hours: Wednesday through Monday: 10:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m. Friday: 10:30 a.m.–8:00 p.m. Closed Tuesdays.
Documentary Fortnight 2012: MoMA’s International Festival of Nonfiction Film and Media
February 16–28, 2012
Screening Schedule
Thursday, February 16
4:30 - El lugar más pequeño (The Tiniest Place)
2011. Mexico. 104 min. Directed by Tatiana Huezo.
The village of Cinquera in the jungles of El Salvador was razed by the brutal National Guard during the Civil War of 1980–1992. In the years of peace that followed, former residents of Cinquera, many of whom had lost their families, returned to start anew.
Director Huezo recounts survivors' harrowing stories over breathtaking images of the reborn village and its inhabitants.
The Tiniest Place provides remarkable insight into a community's triumph over unspeakable tragedy. Copresented with Ambulante and Cinema Tropical. In Spanish; English subtitles.
Followed by a discussion with Tatiana Huezo Sanchez
8:00 - (2 docs)
Gravity Hill Newsreels 2 and 3
2011. USA. 9 min. Directed by Jem Cohen.
Short observations on the events of Occupy Wall Street.
United in Anger: A History of ACT UP.
2012. USA. 94 min. Directed by Jim Hubbard. World premiere.
United in Anger is the first feature-length documentary to explore ACT UP (the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) from a historical perspective, recounting how a small group of men and women of all races and classes came together to change the world and save each other’s lives.
The film follows the planning and execution of exhilarating demonstrations—including Seize Control of the FDA, Stop the Church, and Day of Desperation—with many of the other actions that spurred the U.S. government and mainstream media to responds to the AIDS crisis.
The group’s complex culture emerges, as meetings, affinity groups, and new approaches to civil disobedience mingle with profound grief, sexiness, and unbounded energy.
Followed by a discussion with Jem Cohen, Jim Hubbard, and members of ACT UP.
Friday, February 17
4:30 - Ivan & Ivana.
2011. USA. 80 min. Directed by Jeff Silva. New York premiere.
In his documentary-poem on the Kosovo crisis, Balkan Rhapsodies (which screened at Documentary
Fortnight 2008), director Silva introduced Ivan, a wild, troubled young man traumatized by the war in his homeland.
Five years later, Silva finds Ivan and his wife, Ivana, living in sunny California, having traded Serbia for suburbia. Hopelessly in debt and caught up in the property bubble as it inflates to bursting point, Ivan and Ivana struggle with their relationship and their identities as immigrants, and Ivan becomes suffocated by the American dream. In English, Serbian; English subtitles.
Followed by a discussion with Jeff Silva.
8:00 - El lugar más pequeño (The Tiniest Place)
2011. Mexico. 104 min. Directed by Tatiana Huezo.
(See Thursday February 16, 4:30). Followed by a discussion with Tatiana Huezo Sanchez.
Saturday, February 18
3:00 - A Field Guide to the Interactive Documentary- Guided Tour 1: Zach Wise - The State of Storytelling in the Age of Interactivity.
Award-winning former New York Times senior multimedia producer Zach Wise provides an illustrated look at the state of the interactive documentary landscape, and how the convergence of the nonfiction, journalism, gaming, and art worlds are changing the nature of storytelling.
What new kinds of cross-platform/disciplinary forms are being created? What is the potential of a documentary game or an interactive art-journalism project?
Wise charts recent movements in technology and storytelling with a historical,
cross-disciplinary perspective. Program approx. 120 min.
4:00 - Ivan & Ivana. 2011. USA. 80 min. Directed by Jeff Silva.
(See Friday, February 17, 4:30). Followed by a discussion with Jeff Silva.
6:00 - A Field Guide to the Interactive Documentary- Guided Tour 2: Lauren Cornell and Ingrid Kopp -
10 Interactive Projects You Should Know About.
What is on the leading edge of the profusion of creativity, research, and technological development surrounding the new media/interactive world? What projects are changing the way we interface with art and stories, and how do they actually
work?
Two of New York’s leading minds in the realms of new media art and interactive documentary showcase innovative projects and discuss how they are altering the larger media/art landscape. Featuring Ingrid Kopp, New Media Consultant, TFI New Media Fund at the Tribeca Film Institute, and Lauren Cornell, Executive Director, Rhizome, and Adjunct Curator, The New Museum of Contemporary Art. Program approx. 120 min.
8:00 - Aita.
2011. Spain. 85 min. Directed by José María de Orbe.
In a "haunted" mansion in the north of Spain, two caretakers do their best to keep the slowly crumbling
building safe from the threats of time and vandalism. The centuries-old home is full of memories and mysteries, pondered over by elderly caretaker Luis Pescador and the parish priest, Mikel Goenega.
During the day, schoolchildren visit to learn about local history; at night, the past comes alive and lights up the darkness. In Spanish; English subtitles.
Followed by a discussion with José María de Orbe.
Sunday, February 19
1:30 - Aita.
2011. Spain. 85 min. Directed by José María de Orbe.
(See Saturday, February 18, 8:00). Followed by a discussion with José María de Orbe.
3:00 - Without Gorky
2011. UK. 80 min. Directed by Cosima Spender. U.S. premiere.
By July 1948, the groundbreaking painter of American Abstract Expressionism Arshile Gorky, was plagued with ill fortune: he was undergoing treatment for cancer, a car accident had left his painting arm paralyzed, and his marriage was coming to an end.
At that time, he committed suicide near his family’s home in Sherman, Connecticut. The artist’s granddaughter (filmmaker Spender) investigates the tragedy at the heart of her own family through interviews with her grandmother, her mother, and an aunt.
As the family's pain and anger are revealed, so is a portrait of the secretive Gorky, who struggled with his art and his identity as an Armenian émigré.
Followed by a discussion with Cosima Spender.
4:30 - Nainsukh.
2010. India. 75 min. Directed by Amit Dutta.
The life of the 18th-century artist Nainsukh, perhaps the most famous painter of the Pahari people of northern India, remains shrouded in mystery. Born into a family of painters who worked in the naturalist Mughal style, Nainsukh became a master of the art form, depicting both the ceremony of life at court and the intimate moments of day-to-day life.
Reenactments of 18th-century Indian life, juxtaposed with Nainsukh’s works, create a hypnotic fusion of imagery and sound that conjures up a lost age. In Dogri, Kangri; English subtitles.
5:30 - (2 docs)
The Ground We Stand On. 2011. USA.
30 min. Directed by Julie Orser, Jon Irving. New York premiere.
The members of a Los Angeles family slowly lose their bearings when they are uprooted from their home. First they move into a city park. When officials object, they live in a renovated mobile home. Yet time and again, their resourceful attempts to resettle are thwarted.
Imagining Emanuel.
2011. Norway. 52 min. Directed by Thomas Østbye. U.S. premiere.
Emanuel claims to have stowed away on a boat from Liberia to his new home in Norway, and various authority figures and welfare agencies give testimony as to the veracity of his account.
But how do you really determine who someone is? Shuffling through a variety of documentary techniques, the film attempts to form an image of this person. In Norwegian; English subtitles.
Followed by a discussion with Julie Orser, Jon Irving, and Thomas Østbye.
Monday, February 20
1:30 - (2 docs)
The Ground We Stand On
2011. USA. 30 min. Directed by Julie Orser, Jon Irving.
(See Sunday, February 19, 5:30).
Imagining Emanuel
2011. Norway. 52 min. Directed by Thomas Østbye.
(See Sunday, February 19, 5:30).
Followed by a discussion with Julie Orser, Jon Irving, and Thomas Østbye.
4:00 - Without Gorky
2011. UK. 80 min. Directed by Cosima Spender.
(See Sunday, February 19, 3:00). Followed by a discussion with Cosima Spender.
4:30 - Rouge Parole
2011. Qatar/Switzerland. 94 min. Directed by Elyes Baccar.U.S. premiere.
The Arab Revolution erupted in a country that no one would expect: Tunisia appeared to be a quiet and stable country. The
explosion burst from the chilly Tunisian winter, on Friday December 17th, 2011 when a young man set fire to himself because of hardship and oppression.
Images of his burnt body opened the eyes and hearts of an entire nation. Rouge Parole is the story of a popular revolution,
emotionally told through the silence and the clamor of its heroes. In Arabic (Tunisian dialect); English subtitles.
Followed by a discussion with Elyes Baccar.
8:00 - When the Bough Breaks
2011. China. 148 min. Directed by Ji Dan. North American premiere.
Two girls growing up in poverty on the outskirts of Beijing seek to ensure a better future for themselves and their brother.
Determined to continue their education, the girls square off with their stubborn, troubled parents. The family’s tense exchanges are captured as the young women try to negotiate a path to independence, security, and adulthood.
The film shows how some children are forced to grow up too early, with little support and no adults to lead the way. In Chinese; English subtitles.
Followed by a discussion with Ji Dan.
Tuesday, February 21
Special Off-Site Event at Light Industry
7:00 - Elizabeth and Mary
USA. 1965. 60 mins. Directed by D.A. Pennebaker.
This portrait of twin girls—one of whom is partially sighted, one of whom is blind—is a hidden classic by an American pioneer of direct cinema.
Light Industry:
155 Freeman Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Lightindustry.org.
Light Industry is a venue for film and electronic art in Brooklyn, New York. Developed and overseen by Thomas Beard and Ed Halter, the project has evolved into a series of weekly events, each organized with a different artist, critic, or curator. Conceptually, Light Industry draws equal inspiration from the long history of alternative art spaces in New York as well its storied tradition of cinematheques and other intrepid film exhibitors. Through a regular program of screenings,
performances, and lectures, its goal is to explore new models for the presentation of time-based media. Bringing together the worlds of contemporary art, experimental cinema, new media, documentary film, and the academy (to name only a few), Light Industry looks to foster an ongoing dialogue among a wide range of artists and audiences within the city.
Wednesday, February 22
1:30 - When the Bough Breaks
2011. China. 148 min. Directed by Ji Dan.
(See Monday, February 20, 8:00). Followed by a discussion with Ji Dan.
4:30 - Kalendar.
2008. Ukraine/USA. 10 min. Directed by Naomi Uman. Silent.
Snapshots examine the meaning of each of the months in the Ukrainian calendar.
Ukrainian Time Machine: Video Diary 2-1-2006 to the Present
2011. Ukraine/USA. 83 min. Directed by Naomi Uman.
In 2006, experimental filmmaker Uman returned to the Ukraine, where her great-grandparents had lived a hundred years earlier. While there, she used a 16mm camera to capture rural life (for the film Kalendar) and a video camera to record her personal experiences (which she assembled into Ukrainian Time Machine).
The elder babushky welcomed her warmly, but she struggled to adapt to local customs, learn the language, and raise her own food. Uman’s "reverse immigration" develops into a revealing personal narrative of gender disparity, the history of Judaism, and global immigration. In English, Russian; English subtitles.
5:30 pm - Rouge Parole
2011. Qatar/Switzerland. 94 min. Directed by Elyes Baccar.
(See Monday, February 20, 4:30). Followed by a discussion with Elyes Baccar.
8:00 pm - Wildness.
2012. USA. 74 min. Directed by Wu Tsang. World premiere.
Wildness is a portrait of the Silver Platter, a historic landmark bar in East Los Angeles that has provided an LGBT-friendly home for the Latin immigrant community since 1948. With a magical-realist flourish—the bar itself becomes a character in the film--Wildness captures the creativity and conflict that ensues when a group of young, queer artists of color (Wu Tsang, DJs NGUZUNGUZU, and Total Freedom) organize a weekly performance art party called Wildness at the bar.
What does "safe space" mean? Who needs it? And how does it differ among us? At the Silver Platter, the search for answers to these questions creates coalitions across generations.
Followed by a discussion with Wu Tsang and producer Kathy Rivkin.
Thursday, February 23
1:30 Kalendar
2008. Ukraine/USA. 10 min. Directed by Naomi Uman.
Ukrainian Time Machine: Video Diary 2-1-2006 to the Present.
2011. Ukraine/USA. 83 min. Directed by Naomi Uman.
(See Wednesday, February 22, 4:30).
4:00 - Wildness.
2012. USA. 74 min. Directed by Wu Tsang.
(See Wednesday, February 22, 8:00). Followed by a discussion with Tsang and producer Kathy Rivkin.
4:30 - Polvo (Dust)
2011. USA. 27 min. Directed by Angela Reginato. New York premiere.
This experimental essay film chronicles the disappearance of a French woman's son and American husband from Mexico City during the politically-charged late 1970s.
Composed from rare Super 8 home movies, educational films, and Super 8 footage. The film examines how memory is
shaped. In Spanish; English subtitles.
Argentinian Lesson
2011. Poland. 56 min. Directed by Wojciech Staroń. North American premiere.
Janek, a young Polish boy, is thrust into an unknown world when his family moves to Argentina. While his mother teaches their native tongue to locals of Polish decent, Janek struggles with a new language and an alien landscape, and begins to adjust to 11-year-old Marcia, with whom he experiences the joys of childhood and the woes of impending adulthood.
His filmmaker father captures the young friends’ innocence and the beauty of their shared experiences. Copresented with Ambulante and Cinema Tropical. In Spanish; English subtitles.
8:00 - Taken By Storm: The Art of Storm Thorgerson and Hipgnosis
2011. USA. 95 min. Directed by Roddy Bogawa. New York premiere.
The eccentric ego behind many of rock music’s most iconic album covers—including works by Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Genesis, and Muse—is revealed in Bogawa’s wildly entertaining film.
Now in his late 60s, Storm Thorgerson reflects on his remarkable career with the design firm Hipgnosis and as a stand-alone artist, his school days with Pink Floyd's Roger Waters, the inspirations brought about by college experimentation, and the clash of egos that ended his closest partnership. Major personalities from the world of rock lend their voices in praise of the master of surrealist album artwork.
Followed by a discussion with Roddy Bogawa.
Friday, February 24
1:30 - El Field
2011. Mexico/USA. 84 min. Directed by Daniel Rosas.U.S. premiere.
Every day, in the hours before dawn, in a small desert agricultural town in California, streets come alive with migrant workers who legally cross the U.S.-Mexico border to join harvesting squads.
The camera follows teams of men and women who pick produce by hand alongside heavy agricultural machinery. Shot in California's Imperial Valley and Mexico's Mexicali Valley, this documentary illustrates the contrasts between field and desert, urban and countryside, and men and machine.
El Field presents cross-border relationships as a stunning, complex, and often chaotic symbiosis. Special thanks to Morelia Film Festival. Copresented with Ambulante and Cinema Tropical. In Spanish; English subtitles.
Followed by a discussion with Daniel Rosas.
4:00 - The Great Northwest
2011. USA. 76 min. Directed by Matt McCormick.U.S. premiere.
This experimental documentary centers around a re-creation of a 3,200-mile road trip made in 1958 by four Seattle women who documented their journey in an elaborate scrapbook of photos, postcards, and brochures.
Fifty years later, Portland artist and filmmaker Matt McCormick found that scrapbook, and he set out to follow their route as precisely as possible along the way. Simultaneously observational and voyeuristic, The Great Northwest is a lyrical time capsule that explores how the landscape and roadside culture of the Pacific Northwest has changed over the past half century.
Followed by a discussion with Matt McCormick.
4:30 - The Average of the Average
2011. Denmark. 50 min. Directed by Michael Madsen. U.S. premiere.
Denmark's first 3D documentary by director Madsen (Into Eternity) questions how to represent human life. The story is divided into 13 chapters of small, seemingly mediocre moments, both true and fictitious that defines life in the town of Middlefart from the present to the past: a young girl communicates on her mobile phone to a friend, the mayor visits with a fortune teller, and 3D photographs of Middlefart reveal life in the 1880s. In Danish; English Subtitles.
Followed by a discussion with Michael Madsen.
8:00 - Paper Tiger Television: Thirty Years of Alternative Media: Designs for a Rrradical New Media
Approx. 90 min.
Infiltrating the Underground
2008. USA. PTTV Video Collective. 20 min excerpt.
Saturday, February 25
3:00 - Paper Tiger Television: Thirty Years of Alternative Media: Reading Newspapers and Reality TV.
Herb Schiller Reads the New York Times: 712 Pages of Waste, The Sunday Times.
1981. USA. PTTV Video Collective. 28 min.
Reality Unreeled: The Really Real Unreal Reality of Real Reality TV
2010. USA. PTTV Video Collective. 28 min.
Street Art Takeover.
2010. USA. PTTV Video Collective. 8 min.
4:00 - The Great Northwest
2011. USA. 76 min. Directed by Matt McCormick.
(See Friday, February 24, 4:00). Followed by a discussion with Matt McCormick.
6:00 - Paper Tiger Television: Thirty Years of Alternative Media: Reading Sock Ads and TV War Coverage.
Sock Ads: Judith Williamson Consumes Passionately in Southern California.
1988. USA. PTTV Video Collective. 28 min.
TV’s Gulf War: Bill Nichols Analyzes TV’s Coverage of the Gulf War.
1991. USA. PTTV Video Collective. 28 min.
Thai Worker Collective TV Ad
2010. USA. PTTV Video Collective. 1:46 min.
8:00 - The Average of the Average
2011. Denmark. 50 min. Directed by Michael Madsen.
(See Friday, February 24, 4:30). Followed by a discussion with Michael Madsen.
Sunday, February 26
1:30 - (2 docs)
Polvo (Dust)
2011. USA. 27 min. Directed by Angela Reginato.
Argentinian Lesson
2011. Poland. 56 min. Directed by Wojciech Staroń.
(See Thursday, February 23, 4:30).
3:00 - Abendland.
2010. Austria. 100 min. Directed by Nikolaus Geyrhalter.U.S. premiere.
Edited down from 170 hours of material shot in 10 countries over 14 months, Geyrhalter’s remarkable film demonstrates the empowering, unifying, and alienating nature of technology. Abendland is made up of a series of loosely connected events: a tiny, premature infant is nurtured in a hi-tech incubator; Pope Benedict XVI addresses a congregation of priests from an enormous video screen at Saint Peter’s Basilica; two trainee police officers practice apprehending a suspect using a virtual-reality simulator.
Yet underlying much of this study is a theme of exclusion: the film reveals how the technology of the West ensnares immigrants who wish to share in Western freedoms. Copresented with True/False Film Festival. In German; English subtitles. Followed by a discussion with Nikolaus Geyrhalter.
4:30 - El Field
2011. Mexico/USA. 84 min. Directed by Daniel Rosas. (See Friday, February 24, 4:30). Followed by a discussion with Daniel Rosas.
6:00 - !Vivan Las Antipodes!
2011. Germany/Argentina/Netherlands/Chile. 109 min. Directed by Victor Kossakovsky. North American premiere.
This magnificent, poetic documentary looks at places on earth that are antipodal pairs -- diametrically opposite and at the
shortest points between each other: Rios in Argentina and Shanghai in China; Lake Baikal in Russia and Patagonia in Chile; Miraflores, Spain, and the beach at Castle Point, New Zealand.
Kossakovsky turns his camera a kaleidoscopic 180 degrees between each site. Copresented with True/False Film Festival. In
Spanish, Russian, Setswana; English subtitles. Followed by a discussion with Victor Kossakovsky.
Monday, February 27
1:30 - Marija’s Own
2011. Croatia. 61 min. Directed by Željka Suková. New York premiere.
Marija’s funeral burial was interrupted by a storm; six years later her grave remains unadorned. Her granddaughter, filmmaker Željka Suková, decides to give her beloved relative the send-off she deserves. Suková and her two cousins (one portrayed by an actress) throw a wild dinner party, inviting Marija’s elderly neighbors. Dressed in flamboyant frills, the
cousins revel in the memory of their grandmother, while Czech synth-pop band Midi Lidi provide live entertainment.
This irreverent celebration of the late Marija’s life is a colorful, wacky experience. In Croatian/Czech; English Subtitles.
Followed by a discussion with Željka Suková.
4:00 - !Vivan Las Antipodes!
2011. Germany/Argentina/Netherlands/Chile. 109 min. Directed by Victor Kossakovsky.
(See Sunday, February 26, 5:00) - Followed by a discussion with Victor Kossakovsky.
4:30 - (2 docs)
Byun, Objet Trouvé
2011. USA. 7 min. Directed by Marie Losier.
Acclaimed mixed-media artist Chong Gon Byun uses found and discarded objects to create intricate sculptures that explore the clash between post-industrial civilization and the present consumerist culture in his surrealist oeuvre.
Grandma Lo-fi
2011. Iceland. 62 min. Directed by Orri Jónsson, Kristín Björk Kristjánsdóttir, Ingibjörg Birgisdóttir. New York premiere.
The music career of Sigríður Níelsdóttir began when she was 70 years old. Seven years later, she had produced 59 albums and a catalogue of over 600 songs. Through a series of intimate interviews with Sigríður her incredible lo-fi production process is revealed, whereby she created her entire oeuvre with an electronic keyboard and kitchen-based sound effects. A cult personality in her native Iceland, Sigríður is shown to be an unlikely inspiration to younger artists. In Icelandic, English subtitles.
Followed by a discussion with Marie Losier, Orri Jónsson, Kristín Björk Kristjánsdóttir, and Ingibjörg Birgisdóttir.
7:00 - Modern Monday: Phil Collins (NOT the pop star)
In his films, photographs, installations, and live events, Phil Collins explores the nuances of social relations in various locations and global communities. He often subverts the conventions of photojournalism to focus on the inherent contradictions of individual and collective systems of representation.
Dissecting the political and aesthetic implications of popular visual formats, Collins’s works indicate that the meaning of a picture—be it still or moving—resides neither in its form nor in its subject-matter, but rather in the transferences it establishes between the producer, the subject, and the viewer.
For this Modern Mondays discussion, Collins presents a selection of his works, including how to make a refugee (1999), use! value! exchange! (2010) and marxism today (prologue) (2010).
8:00 - Abendland
2010. Austria. 100 min. Directed by Nikolaus Geyrhalter.
(See Sunday, February 26, 3:00) - Followed by a discussion with Nikolaus Geyrhalter.
Tuesday, February 28
Special Off-Site Screenings at Nitehawk Cinema
7:30 - Marija’s Own
2011. Croatia. 61 min. Directed by Željka Suková.
(See Monday, February 27, 1:30) - Followed by a discussion with Željka Suková.
8:00 - (2 docs)
Byun, Objet Trouvé
2011. USA. 7 min. Directed by Marie Losier
Grandma Lo-fi
2011. Iceland. 62 min. Directed by Orri Jónsson, Kristín Björk Kristjánsdóttir, Ingibjörg Birgisdóttir.
(See Monday, February 27, 4:30) - Followed by a discussion with Marie Losier, Orri Jónsson, Kristín Björk Kristjánsdóttir, and Ingibjörg Birgisdóttir.
Nitehawk Cinema: 136 Metropolitan Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Nitehawk.com.
The Nitehawk's theaters feature table-side food and beverage service. Arrive
45 minutes prior to showtime to catch a curated "preshow" of films from the MoMA
collection, including Scopitones. Seating is first come, first served. Guests
can also enjoy a drink at the lobby bar prior to the screenings.
MoMA.org
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
2011 ARCHIVES
Press release - MoMA.org
MoMA’S 10th ANNUAL DOCUMENTARY FORTNIGHT FESTIVAL SHOWCASES
20 NEW INTERNATIONAL NONFICTION FILMS, FEBRUARY 16–28, 2011
Festival Opens with International Premiere of Gillian Wearing’s Debut Film
and Includes a Thematic Selection of Contemporary Chinese Cinema
Documentary Fortnight 2011:
MoMA’s International Festival of Nonfiction Film and Media
February 16–28, 2011
The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters
NEW YORK, February 2, 2011--Documentary Fortnight 2011: MoMA’s International Festival of Nonfiction Film and Media, running February 16 through 28 in The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters, celebrates its 10th anniversary with 20 feature-length documentary films representing 14 countries; two performance events; and thematic programs focusing on independently made contemporary Chinese documentaries and the legacy of New Day Films, the first distributor to be run by and for filmmakers.
Doc Fortnight opens on February 16 with the international premiere of Gillian Wearing‘sSelf Made (2010, Great Britain), the debut feature by the Turner Prize–winning artist. For the documentary, which considers personal identity, the individual in society, and how we construct our social selves, Wearing placed an advertisement in newspapers throughout Newcastle and London, asking readers if they would like to act in a film either as themselves or cast as a fictional character. Among the hundreds who responded, seven were selected to attend method acting workshops with renowned acting teacher Sam Rumbelow. Participants used their experiences and emotions to shape their characters, and then acted in their own mini movies. The film interweaves scenes of these processes; the result is an uncanny mix of reality, story, and fantasy. A discussion with Wearing and Rumbelow follows the screening.
The centerpiece of this year‘s festival is the New York premiere of Nostalgia for the Light (2010, Chile), from renowned filmmaker Patricio Guzmán, who is widely respected for his political documentaries about Chile. In Nostalgia for the Light, Guzmán uses an observatory in Chile‘s geographically unique Atacama Desert, where zero humidity allows astronomers an unobstructed view of the galaxy, to examine the confluence of astronomy and history. The Atacama desert also becomes the stage for a number of thought-provoking circumstances, such as a climate that has preserved mummified bodies over the 10,000 years of the human existence there, and the story of two 70-year-old women who come to sift the sands in hopes of finding remains of loved ones who were murdered during the brutal Pinochet regime. An official selection of the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, this 90-minute documentary has drawn critical acclaim. A discussion with Guzmán follows the screening.
The closing night film of the festival, The Arbor (2010, Great Britain), by artist filmmaker Clio Barnard, is based on the true story of the late playwright Andrea Dunbar (1961–1990) and her daughter Lorraine. The script was shaped around interviews with Lorraine Dunbar and family members, then partially filmed using an innovative technique known as ―verbatim theater;‖ actors lip-synch the documentary recordings of the people they‘re playing. Dunbar‘s daughter comes to terms with her own struggles when reintroduced to her mother‘s letters and plays in this saga of alcoholism, drugs, prostitution, sexual abuse, and violence in the run-down neighborhood of Bradford, England. A discussion with Barnard follows the screening. The Arbor will begin its theatrical run in New York at Film Forum on April 27.
The International Film Selections in Documentary Fortnight 2011 feature several premieres, including the U.S. premiere of Gereon Wetzel‘sEl Bulli: Cooking in Progress (2010, Germany), which follows chef Ferran Adrià and his team of experts for six months as they concoct new dishes for the 30-course menu of the world famous El Bulli restaurant. Two films having their New York premieres at the festival areAlmost Married (2010, Italy), by director Fatma Bucak, which is the personal story of her return to Turkey after some years away to tell her very traditional father that she plans on marrying an Italian; and Xu Xin‘s absorbing six-hour documentary Karamay (2010, China), about the devastating 1994 fire in the Karamay Friendship Theater that killed 323 people, 288 of whom were school children. Xu Xin will be on hand to discuss the film after the screening.
Other International Selections include I Wish I Knew (2010, China), from acclaimed director Jia Zhangke, who was recognized with a MoMA retrospective for his work last year; El Ambulante, (The Peddler, 2010, Argentina) from director Eduardo de la Serna, about a resourceful itinerant filmmaker who travels around the country making fiction films with the residents of various towns; Un Dia Menos (One Day Less, 2009, Mexico), a film about an elderly couple anticipating a visit from their family that beautifully captures the love and tensions of a couple and the solitary struggles they must face; and the U.S. premiere of Criada (2009, Argentina) by filmmaker Matías Herrera Córdoba, which shows the daily life of 53-year-old Hortensia, who was taken from her family at a young age and became a maid in Catamarca, in a type of modern day slave labor.
CHINESE INDEPENDENT CINEMA:
Four independently made Chinese films are featured in this year‘s Documentary Fortnight, including Karamay (2010, China). The majority of the film is shot in black-and-white, without music, creating a stark background against which the tragic consequences of a system of political hierarchy are portrayed. The film premiered at the 34th Hong Kong International Film Festival (2010), after which it was banned in China. It will be screened with one intermission.
Also included in the festival is Disorder (2009, China), a masterful work by director Huang Weikai, made from street scenes shot by amateur photographers and compiled into a seamless film. Huang will attend the screenings of his film at MoMA. Fortune Teller (2010, China), by filmmaker Xu Tong, is divided into sections with paired chapter headings that reflect today‘s urban China similar to Qing Dynasty popular fiction. Tape (2010, China), directed by avant-garde dancer Li Ning, documents his five-year struggle to balance life as a choreographer with a dance troupe of committed college students and his responsibilities as a son, husband, and father.
NEW DAY FILMS:
In 1971, when a group of American filmmakers discovered that their feminist films were being rejected by mainstream educational distributors, they joined together to form New Day Films, an independent documentary distribution cooperative. Today the cooperative is thriving and members‘ award-winning films are in public demand. Five programs of films show the wide range of relevant topics they have examined.
In honor of New Day‘s 40th anniversary, four features and six shorts from the cooperative will be shown.The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, (2009. U.S.A.), directed by Rick Goldsmith and Judith Ehrlich, carefully traces the story of Daniel Ellsberg, the Pentagon analyst who leaked the Defense Department‘s Pentagon Papers, documents that held classified information on the history of the Vietnam War.Ask Not (2008, U.S.A.), directed by Johnny Symons, exposes the tangled political battles that led to the contentious ―don‘t ask, don‘t tell‖ law and examines the societal shifts that have occurred since its passage in 1993. Current and veteran gay soldiers reveal how ―don‘t ask, don‘t tell‖ affects soldiers during their tours of duty, as they struggle to maintain a double life, uncertain of whom they can trust.
Founding New Day members Liane Brandon, Jim Klein, Julia Reichert and Amalie R. Rothschild, and many of the filmmakers will be present at the screenings to talk about their experiences.
PERFORMANCES:
Greetings on Behalf of the People of Our Planet! An Illustrated Lecture on the Voyager Spacecraft and Several Other Topics by Dave Cerf and Sam Green
Sunday, February 27, 5:00 p.m., 90 min.
Three short "live documentaries" combine film, live narration, and sound mixing. In the New York premiere of "The Voyager Spacecraft," the performers use the materials of the Golden Record—a collection of photographs, natural sounds, and music compiled by astronomer Carl Sagan for a time capsule inside the unmanned interstellar Voyager Spacecraft in 1977. For "The Worlds Largest Shopping Mall," images of the South China Mall outside of Guangzhou, China, a huge mall without customers, are juxtaposed with reflections on globalization. "The Universal Language" tells of Esperanto, an artificial language created by an Eastern European Jew more than 100 years ago in the hope of ending war and cultural conflict—surprisingly, the movement still exists, and its members continue to study the language and to meditate on the meaning of hope.
Modern Mondays
Monday, February 28, 7:00 p.m., 90 min.
An Evening with Nao Bustamante: Melted, Plotting Out a Cross Genre Narrative
Bustamante marks some of her many performance and video works ranging from vulnerable anti-heroines to the dominant and sturdy protectors. The artist‘s appearance on Bravo‘s recent reality television show, Work of Art: the Next Great Artist, led to her creation of Tierra y Libertad -Kevlar® 2945 (2011), a typical Edwardian garment, worn by the women that fought in the early part of the Mexican Revolution between 1910-1920, reproduced in Kevlar®, a fabric of the 21st century, then tested on a ballistic range. Other works to be excerpted are: Silver & Gold (2009), her ‗filmformance‘ evoking legendary filmmaker Jack Smith; Find Yourself Through Me (2005), a digital portrait involving audience members; and America, the Beautiful (1995) on the blond sex kitten archetype.
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Public Information:
Film Admission: $10 adults; $8 seniors, 65 years and over with I.D. $6 full-time students with current I.D. (For admittance to film programs only.) The price of a film ticket may be applied toward the price of a Museum admission ticket when a film ticket stub is presented at the Lobby Information Desk within 30 days of the date on the stub (does not apply during Target Free Friday Nights, 4:00–8:00 p.m.). Admission is free for Museum members and for Museum ticketholders.
The Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53 Street, New York, NY 10019, (212) 708-9400
Hours: Wednesday through Monday: 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Friday: 10:30 a.m.-8:00 p.m. Closed Tuesday.
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Screening Schedule
Documentary Fortnight 2011
February 16–28, 2011
INTERNATIONAL FILM SELECTION:
Self Made. 2010. Great Britain. Directed by Gillian Wearing. Turner Prize–winning artist Wearing placed an advertisement in newspapers and job placement offices throughout Newcastle and London: If you were to play a part in a film, would you play yourself or a fictional character? Hundreds of people responded, seven of whom were selected to participate in an experiment. They attended acting workshops with method-acting teacher Sam Rumbelow using real experiences to shape their characters, and then each acted in their own mini-movie. The film interweaves scenes of these various stages, creating an uncanny mix of reality, story, and fantasy. 88 min. World premiere. Introduction and discussion with Wearing and Rumbelow.
Wednesday, February 16, 8:00. T1
Peace. 2010. Japan/USA/South Korea. Directed by Kazuhiro Soda. Toshio Kashiwagi drives disabled and elderly people to appointments with his affordable taxi service. His wife, Hiroko Kashiwagi, is a professional caregiver who also runs a nonprofit home-helper agency for the elderly and disabled. While Hiroko visits 91-year-old cancer patient Shiro Hashimoto to help in his daily routines, her husband returns home to feed the hungry stray cats outside their door. As government funding for these services dwindle, the hungry stray cats encounter a "thief" and the elderly man recalls being drafted into WWII for the price of a postcard. In Japanese; English subtitles. 75 min. U.S. premiere. Introductions and discussions with Soda.
Thursday, February 17, 8:00. T1
Monday, February 21, 4:00. T2
The Desert of Forbidden Art. 2010. Russia/Uzbekistan/USA. Written, produced, and directed by Amanda Pope, Tchavdar Georgiev. Painter and archeologist Igor Savitsky collected forbidden Russian avant garde art works beginning in the late 1950s, created a museum in Uzbekistan to house them, and discovered an unknown school of artists established after the Russian Revolution of 1917 influenced by the Islamic culture. His daring story is vividly told through archival photographs, interviews with people from the region today and the diaries and letters of Savistky and the artists read by Ben Kingsley, Sally Field, and Ed Asner. The film brings attention to this endangered priceless collection. 80 min. NY premiere. Introductions and discussions with Pope and Georgiev.
Friday, February 18, 4:30
Saturday, February 19, 5:00. T1.
El Bulli: Cooking in Progress. Germany. Directed by Gereon Wetzel. For six months of the year, heralded chef Ferran Adrià and his team of experts concoct new dishes for the 30 course menu of the world famous El Bulli. Restaurant. Here we watch their behind-the-scenes process, an artistic laboratory of tasting, smelling, designing and carefully recording each new idea, then selecting their top choices. In Spanish; English subtitles. 108 min. U.S. premiere.
Friday, February 18, 8:00
Saturday, February 19, 2:00. T1
Where Are You Taking Me? USA/Uganda. Directed by Kimi Takesue. Observational-style cinematography captures the rhythms of everyday life throughout Uganda's urban Kampala and the rural North. Takesue observes through her camera, her subjects respond by looking back: ―My work often expresses the process of ‗looking‘ cross-culturally, and the interplay between the observer and the observed.‖ This interplay creates an intimacy and a challenge to look beneath the surface into the lives of young Ugandans. 72 min. New York premiere. Introductions and discussions with Takesue.
Saturday, February 19, 8:00
Sunday, February 20, 2:30. T1
Criada. 2009. Argentina. Directed by Matías Herrera Córdoba. 53-year-old Hortensia lives in El Puesto, a small town in the northwest of Argentina in a verdant region at the foot of a mountain range between two rivers. Born in Patagonia as a member of the Mapuche indigenous group, she was taken at the age of 13 to Catamarca to become a maid. Since that time she has been part of one family and, like many criadas (raised maids), is not free. This portrait builds in emotional power as she silently goes about her everyday routine. In Spanish; English subtitles. 75 min. U.S. premiere.
Sunday, February 20, 5:30
Monday, February 21, 4:30. T1
Nostalgia for the Light. 2010. France/Germany/Chile. Directed by Patricio Guzmán. Guzmán‘s portrait of Earth among the heavens was shot at 10,000 feet above sea level, in South America‘s Atacama Desert, where astronomers study the night sky and secrets are buried. The arid climate and salt deposits preserve pre-Columbian mummies alongside relics of the political prisoners of the Pinochet regime who were assassinated and buried there. As astronomers consider the night sky and relatives search for loved ones in the desert sands, this hauntingly beautiful film reveals that life here is both eternal and finite. In Spanish; English subtitles. 90 min. New York premiere. Introduction and discussion with Guzmán.
Monday, February 21, 8:00. T1
The Warriors of Qiugang. China. 2010. Directed by Ruby Yang. This portrait of grassroots activism is a rare example of people speaking out against the abuses caused by corporate greed in modern China. When the house and fields of farmer Zhang Gongli, located near the banks of the Huai river in the village of Qiugang, were destroyed by pesticides, he filed a lawsuit against the private chemical factory adjoining his land. The film follows his community's efforts to get media support, solicit help from a local NGO, and bring their concerns to the attention of the national government. In Chinese; English subtitles. 39 min. New York premiere
Screens with My Fancy High Heels below.
My Fancy High Heels. 2010. Taiwan. Directed by Ho Chao-ti. While filming a series of stories about clothing, the filmmaker discovered just how complicated the process of making a pair of shoes was. Her fascinating, surprising film follows the trail of shoes, from women in sophisticated high heels on Manhattan's streets to the manufacturers and young female assembly line workers in China who make them. In Chinese, English; English subtitles. 56 min. U.S. premiere. Introductions and discussions with Ho Chao-ti.
Wednesday, February 23, 7:30
Thursday, February 24, 4:00. T2
Un Dia Menos (One Day Less). 2009. Mexico. Directed by Dariela Ludlow. In the home they built in Acapulco, Carmen and Emetrio, an elderly couple in their 80s and 90s, live from day to day in anticipation of the next visit from their extended family. This intimate story captures their resilience and frailty, and the meaning of existence near the end of life. Ludlow's first feature documentary, shot with beautiful cinematography, poignantly captures the love and tensions of a couple as well as the solitary struggles they must face. 76 min. New York premiere. Introductions and discussions with Ludlow.
Wednesday, February 23, 4:30
Thursday, February 24, 8:00. T1
El Ambulante (The Peddler). 2009. Argentina. Directed by Eduardo de la Serna, Lucas Marcheggiano, Adriana Yurcovich. A film about filmmaking, The Peddler follows a man as he travels to small towns throughout Argentina to make dramatic films with the local townspeople. For the price of meals and a month's accommodations, he works with local authorities, recruits actors, devises a plot, ingeniously creates set pieces, and shoots the film; the entire town becomes involved. Once the film is screened, he packs his bags and heads for another town. In Spanish; English subtitles. 84 min. New York premiere. Introductions and discussions with Eduardo de la Serna. Wednesday, Feb 23, 8:00 pm
Thursday, February 24, 4:30. T1
I Wish I Knew. 2010. China. Directed by Jia Zhangke. 18 people from Shanghai, Taipei, and Hong Kong recall their lives in Shanghai from the 1930s to 2010. After the Chinese Communists‘ victory in 1949, thousands of Shanghainese left for Hong Kong and Taiwan. Leaving meant being separated form home for 30 years, remaining meant suffering through the Cultural Revolution and other Chinese political upheavals. In Chinese; English subtitles. 118 min.
Thursday, February 24, 7:00. T2
Psychohydrography. 2010. USA. Directed by Peter Bo Rappmund. This mesmerizing high-definition digital video is constructed from single-frame photographic images of water as it cascades from mountain stream to aqueduct, city to sea. The filmmaker shot hundreds of field recordings at and around the Eastern Sierra Nevada, Owens Valley, Los Angeles Aqueduct, Los Angeles River, and the Pacific Ocean, and combined them with sound recordings of the sun by Thomas Ashcroft. Rappmund's avant-garde practice is inspired by filmmakers such as Phil Solomon, Stan Brakhage, Thom Anderson, and James Benning. 62 min. U.S. premiere. Discussions with Rappmund.
Screens with Petropolis below.
Petropolis – Aerial Perspectives on the Alberta Tar Sands. 2009. Canada. Directed by Peter Mettler. ―Located beneath 4.3 million hectares of boreal forest in Alberta, Canada, the tar sands are a mixture of sand, clay, and a heavy crude oil called bitumen that is either mined in open pits or extracted from underground by injecting superheated water‖ (Petropolis-film.com). Mettler, one of Canada‘s leading media artists, aerially filmed a mining area the size of England, and his images speak far louder than words. Made for Greenpeace Canada. 43 min.
Friday, February 25, 4:30
Saturday, February 26, 5:00. T1
Countryside 35x45. 2009. Russia. Directed by Evgeny Solomin. In Russia a provincial photographer goes from one Siberian village to another, taking 35 x 45 mm passport photographs of all the inhabitants; all Soviet passports must be replaced by Russian identity papers. The subtle exchanges between the photographer and each of the villagers, even under his great duress to get the job done, creates a wonderful intimacy. In Russian; English subtitles. 43 min. U.S. premiere.
Screens with Almost Married below.
Almost Married. 2010. Italy. Directed by Fatma Bucak. Bucak, an art photographer, takes some great risks when she returns to Turkey after several years away to tell her very traditional father that she plans to marry an Italian. During her stay, she encounters other Turkish women and explores their approach to marriage and romance. In Turkish; English subtitles. 60 min. U.S. premiere.
Friday, February 25, 8:00
Saturday, February 26, 2:00. T1
Katka. 2010. Czech Republic. Directed by Helena Třeštíková. This film follows a young junkie over 14 years—beginning in 1996, when she is in a Sananim therapy community in the town of Nemcice—as she slowly spirals deeper into addiction. Her travails include boyfriends, a pregnancy, theft, prostitution, and physical and psychological deterioration. The film keeps viewers entranced and filled with hope for her recovery. 90 min. U.S. premiere.
Saturday, February 26, 8:00
Sunday, February 27, 2:30. T1
Regretters. 2010. Sweden. Directed by Marcus Lindeen. A radio show, a play that has been translated into four languages, and now a film, the debut feature by Marcus Lindeen, Regretters, tells the story of two different men who longed to be accepted by society. Orlando was one of the first sex patients in Sweden in 1967; Mikael underwent surgery in the mid 1990s. This is their story of transformation. In Swedish; English subtitles. 58 min. New York premiere. Introductions and discussions with Lindeen.
Sunday, February 27, 4:30
Monday, February 28, 4:30. T1
The Arbor. 2009. Great Britain. Directed by Clio Barnard. The work of London-based artist Barnard often confronts the relationship between fiction film language and the documentary. Her debut feature is based on Andrea Dunbar's play about her life in the poor northern-English neighborhood of Bradford. Barnard returned to the town to make sound recordings of people in Dunbar‘s circle, but then asked actors to lip synch to the audio recordings, and integrated this with scenes acted and shot in Dunbar‘s neighborhood. The result is both a documentary and a dramatic reconstruction of Dunbar‘s semi-autobiographical texts. 90 min. Introduction and discussion with Barnard.
Monday, February 28,, 8:00. T1
INDEPENDENT CHINESE DOCUMENTARY:
Fortune Teller. 2010. China. Xu Tong. The film's narrative is divided into sections with paired chapter headings, in the style of popular fiction during the Qing Dynasty. Li Baicheng is a charismatic traditional Chinese fortune-teller who lives in a village near Beijing with his deaf and mute wife Pearl, who he rescued from an abusive family. He cares for her while also telling the fortunes of his clients, most of whom are prostitutes. As the police crack down on both fortune-tellers and prostitutes, Li Baicheng and Pearl are forced to move to his hometown, where he is haunted by his family‘s past and China's history. In Chinese; English subtitles. 157 min.
Friday, February 18, 4 p.m.
Monday, February 21, 7:00. T2
Karamay. 2010. China. Directed by Xu Xin. In December 1994 a fire broke out in the Karamay Friendship Theater in Urumqi, killing 323 people, 288 of whom were school children performing for a special event. Government officials were ushered out, while the children were locked inside. Interviewing over 60 people related to the victims and showing video footage shot at the time of the disaster, the film slowly unravels the details of the incident, and provides a platform for the families to speak and be heard. Denied an official public apology, many of the victim‘s family members have suffered their own physical and emotional trauma. In Chinese; English subtitles. 356 min.; 15 min. intermission. [Also an International Film Selection] New York premiere. Introduction and discussion with Xu Xin.
Saturday, Feb 19, 1:30. T2
Disorder. 2009. China. Directed by Huang Weikai. This portrait of Guangzhou is masterfully compiled from 1,000 hours of amateur footage shot by various cameramen. Huang interweaves scenes of traffic jams, accidents, floods, police violence, protestors, and lost, wandering souls into an epic look at urban life in China, a riveting black-and-white collage of apocalyptic imagery that's both unsettling and surreal. In Chinese; English subtitles. 58 min. Introduction and discussion with Huang.
Friday, February 18, 7:15
Sunday, February 20, 2:00. T2
Tape. 2010. China. Directed by Li Ning. Avant-garde dancer Li Ning documents five years of his struggle to balance life as a choreographer with a dance troupe of committed college students, and his responsibilities as a son, husband, and father. Li Ning‘s life becomes intertwined with the film and with his own obsessions; his life before the camera is driven and chaotic, a public platform and a confessional. Loosely chronological and rife with symbolism, the film is a riveting portrait of an artist‘s attempts at expression and conflicts with societal norms. In Chinese; English subtitles. 168 min.
Sunday, February 20, 5:00
Wednesday, February 23, 4:00. T2
NEW DAY FILMS: A PIONEERING INDEPENDENT DOCUMENTARY DISTRIBUTION COOPERATIVE
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers. 2009. USA. Directed by Rick Goldsmith, Judith Ehrlich. Goldsmith and Ehrlich carefully trace the story of Daniel Ellsberg, a Pentagon analyst in the 1960s under Robert McNamara, and how he came to leak the Defense Department‘s Pentagon Papers, a classified study on America's 25-year involvement in Vietnam that revealed critical truths withheld from the public through several presidencies. This engrossing film, made up of archival broadcast footage and interviews with Ellsberg and others, reveals why Ellsberg made the decisions he did and how the Nixon Administration sowed the seeds of its own destruction by going after both Ellsberg and the nation's press. The film, which was nominated for a 2009 Academy Award, has become freshly relevant amid the ongoing Julian Assange/WikiLeaks saga and renewed debates about government secrecy and the conflict between "national security" and the public's right to know. 94 min. Introduction and discussion with Goldsmith.
New Day Program 1: Friday, February 25, 4:00. T2
ANPO: Art X War. 2010. USA/Japan. Directed by Linda Hoaglund. ANPO refers to the U.S.-Japan Mutual Security Treaty, which permits the continued presence of numerous U.S. military bases in Japan. In 1960, public resentment against the military presence erupted in massive popular demonstrations that were crushed by Japan‘s C.I.A.-backed Prime Minister Kishi. A wide range of Japanese artists depicted this resistance with a rich archive of art and films, including many large-scale paintings long hidden from public view. Contemporary artists continue to draw on their predecessors‘ legacy, depicting problems generated by the bases. Shot in high definition, the film reveals the extraordinary passion behind this wave of paintings, photographs, anime, and documentary and narrative films. In Japanese, English; English subtitles. 89 min. Introduction and discussion with Hoaglund.
New Day Program 2: Friday, February 25, 7:00. T2
THE FOUNDING FILMS, PLUS ONE:
Anything You Want to Be. 1971. USA. Directed by Liane Brandon. One of the earliest and most popular films of the Women's Movement, Anything You Want to Be is about a teenager‘s humorous collision with sex-role stereotypes. It explores the external pressures and the more subtle internal pressures a girl faces in finding her identity. 8 min.
Growing Up Female. 1971. USA. Directed by Julia Reichert, James Klein. This early film of the modern Women's Movement was widely used by consciousness-raising groups to generate interest and explain feminism to a skeptical society. The film looks at female socialization through the lives of six women, ages 4 to 35, and the forces that shape them, including teachers, counselors, advertising, music, and the institution of marriage. 50 min.
It Happens to Us. 1972. USA. Directed by Amalie R. Rothschild. This film presents the personal stories of a wide range of women, rich and poor, young and older, black and white, married and unmarried, on the topic of abortion. Some of their stories evoke experiences from before the 1973 Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision. 30 min.
34x25x36. 2009. USA. Directed by Jesse Epstein. Inside the Patina-V mannequin factory in the City of Industry, CA, the "ideal woman" is crafted out of plastic into a 34 x 25 x 36" figure. The chief designer notes that the roots of his craft lie in French 19th-century wax figures and in medieval religious icons. 9 min.
New York premiere. Introduction and discussion with Reichert, Klein, Brandon, Rothschild, Epstein.
Saturday, February 26, 1:30. T2 - New Day Program 3 runs 97 min
Deadly Deception: General Electric, Nuclear Weapons and Our Environment. 1991. USA. Directed by Debra Chasnoff. This 1992 Academy Award winner film for Best Documentary Short played a crucial role in a successful grassroots campaign to pressure GE out of the nuclear weapons industry. 27 min.
Taken for a Ride. 1996. USA. Directed by Jim Klein, Martha Olson. ―Ever wonder why the U.S. has the worst mass transportation system in the industrialized world? Using historical footage and investigative research, this film tells how GM fought to push freeways into the inner cities of America, and push public transportation out" (New Day Films). 52 min.
Introduction and discussion with Chasnoff and Klein.
Saturday, February 26, 4:30. T2 - New Day Program 4 runs 79 min.
No Dumb Questions. 2001. USA. Directed by Melissa Regan.
Three sisters, ages 6, 9, and 11, struggle to understand why and how their Uncle Bill is becoming a woman. They love their Uncle Bill, but aren‘t quite sure how they will feel when he becomes their new Aunt Barbara. With just weeks until Barbara's first visit, the sisters navigate the complex territories of anatomy, sexuality, personality, gender, and fashion, with funny, touching, and distinctly different reactions. 24 min.
Ask Not. 2008. USA. Directed by Johnny Symons.
The film exposes the tangled political battles that led to the ―don‘t ask, don‘t tell‖ law, and examines the societal shifts that have occurred since its passage in 1993. Current and veteran gay soldiers reveal how the policy affected them during their tour of duty, as they struggled to maintain a double life, uncertain of whom they could trust. The film also explores how gay veterans and youth organizers turned to forms of personal activism to overturn the policy. Due in part to the efforts portrayed in the film, the law was recently repealed, and the filmmaker was invited by the White House to the presidential signing ceremony. 73 min.
Introduction and discussion with Regan and Symons.
Saturday, February 26, 7:30. T2 - New Day Program 5 runs 97 min.
PERFORMANCES:
Greetings on Behalf of the People of Our Planet!
An Illustrated Lecture on the Voyager Spacecraft and Several Other Topics by Dave Cerf and Sam Green
Sunday, February 27, 5:00. T2
Three short "live documentaries" combine film, live narration, and sound mixing. In the New York premiere of "The Voyager Spacecraft," the performers use the materials of the Golden Record—a collection of photographs, natural sounds, and music compiled by astronomer Carl Sagan for a time capsule inside the unmanned interstellar Voyager Spacecraft in 1977. For "The Worlds Largest Shopping Mall," images of the South China Mall outside of Guangzhou, China, a huge mall without customers, are juxtaposed with reflections on globalization. "The Universal Language" tells of Esperanto, an artificial language created by an Eastern European Jew more than 100 years ago in the hope of ending war and cultural conflict—surprisingly, the movement still exists, and its members continue to study the language and to meditate on the meaning of hope. Approx. 90 min.
Modern Mondays/An Evening with Nao Bustamante:
Melted, Plotting Out a Cross Genre Narrative
Monday, February 28, 7:00. 90 min. T2.
Bustamante marks some of her many performance and video works ranging from vulnerable anti-heroines to the dominant and sturdy protectors. The artist‘s appearance on Bravo‘s recent reality television show, Work of Art: the Next Great Artist, led to her creation of Tierra y Libertad - Kevlar® 2945 (2011), a typical Edwardian garment, worn by the women that fought in the early part of the Mexican Revolution between 1910-1920, reproduced in Kevlar®, a fabric of the 21st century, then tested on a ballistic range. Other works to be excerpted are: Silver & Gold (2009), her filmformance‘ evoking legendary filmmaker Jack Smith; Find Yourself Through Me (2005), a digital portrait involving audience members; and America, the Beautiful (1995) on the blond sex kitten archetype.
Documentary Fortnight 2011 is organized by Sally Berger, Assistant Curator, Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art. The festival‘s selection committee consists of Sally Berger; Debra Zimmerman, Executive Director, Women Make Movies; and Chi-hui Yang, independent curator.
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MoMA’S 10th ANNUAL DOCUMENTARY FORTNIGHT FESTIVAL SHOWCASES
20 NEW INTERNATIONAL NONFICTION FILMS, FEBRUARY 16–28, 2011
Festival Opens with International Premiere of Gillian Wearing’s Debut Film
and Includes a Thematic Selection of Contemporary Chinese Cinema
Documentary Fortnight 2011:
MoMA’s International Festival of Nonfiction Film and Media
February 16–28, 2011
The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters
NEW YORK, February 2, 2011--Documentary Fortnight 2011: MoMA’s International Festival of Nonfiction Film and Media, running February 16 through 28 in The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters, celebrates its 10th anniversary with 20 feature-length documentary films representing 14 countries; two performance events; and thematic programs focusing on independently made contemporary Chinese documentaries and the legacy of New Day Films, the first distributor to be run by and for filmmakers.
Doc Fortnight opens on February 16 with the international premiere of Gillian Wearing‘sSelf Made (2010, Great Britain), the debut feature by the Turner Prize–winning artist. For the documentary, which considers personal identity, the individual in society, and how we construct our social selves, Wearing placed an advertisement in newspapers throughout Newcastle and London, asking readers if they would like to act in a film either as themselves or cast as a fictional character. Among the hundreds who responded, seven were selected to attend method acting workshops with renowned acting teacher Sam Rumbelow. Participants used their experiences and emotions to shape their characters, and then acted in their own mini movies. The film interweaves scenes of these processes; the result is an uncanny mix of reality, story, and fantasy. A discussion with Wearing and Rumbelow follows the screening.
The centerpiece of this year‘s festival is the New York premiere of Nostalgia for the Light (2010, Chile), from renowned filmmaker Patricio Guzmán, who is widely respected for his political documentaries about Chile. In Nostalgia for the Light, Guzmán uses an observatory in Chile‘s geographically unique Atacama Desert, where zero humidity allows astronomers an unobstructed view of the galaxy, to examine the confluence of astronomy and history. The Atacama desert also becomes the stage for a number of thought-provoking circumstances, such as a climate that has preserved mummified bodies over the 10,000 years of the human existence there, and the story of two 70-year-old women who come to sift the sands in hopes of finding remains of loved ones who were murdered during the brutal Pinochet regime. An official selection of the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, this 90-minute documentary has drawn critical acclaim. A discussion with Guzmán follows the screening.
The closing night film of the festival, The Arbor (2010, Great Britain), by artist filmmaker Clio Barnard, is based on the true story of the late playwright Andrea Dunbar (1961–1990) and her daughter Lorraine. The script was shaped around interviews with Lorraine Dunbar and family members, then partially filmed using an innovative technique known as ―verbatim theater;‖ actors lip-synch the documentary recordings of the people they‘re playing. Dunbar‘s daughter comes to terms with her own struggles when reintroduced to her mother‘s letters and plays in this saga of alcoholism, drugs, prostitution, sexual abuse, and violence in the run-down neighborhood of Bradford, England. A discussion with Barnard follows the screening. The Arbor will begin its theatrical run in New York at Film Forum on April 27.
The International Film Selections in Documentary Fortnight 2011 feature several premieres, including the U.S. premiere of Gereon Wetzel‘sEl Bulli: Cooking in Progress (2010, Germany), which follows chef Ferran Adrià and his team of experts for six months as they concoct new dishes for the 30-course menu of the world famous El Bulli restaurant. Two films having their New York premieres at the festival areAlmost Married (2010, Italy), by director Fatma Bucak, which is the personal story of her return to Turkey after some years away to tell her very traditional father that she plans on marrying an Italian; and Xu Xin‘s absorbing six-hour documentary Karamay (2010, China), about the devastating 1994 fire in the Karamay Friendship Theater that killed 323 people, 288 of whom were school children. Xu Xin will be on hand to discuss the film after the screening.
Other International Selections include I Wish I Knew (2010, China), from acclaimed director Jia Zhangke, who was recognized with a MoMA retrospective for his work last year; El Ambulante, (The Peddler, 2010, Argentina) from director Eduardo de la Serna, about a resourceful itinerant filmmaker who travels around the country making fiction films with the residents of various towns; Un Dia Menos (One Day Less, 2009, Mexico), a film about an elderly couple anticipating a visit from their family that beautifully captures the love and tensions of a couple and the solitary struggles they must face; and the U.S. premiere of Criada (2009, Argentina) by filmmaker Matías Herrera Córdoba, which shows the daily life of 53-year-old Hortensia, who was taken from her family at a young age and became a maid in Catamarca, in a type of modern day slave labor.
CHINESE INDEPENDENT CINEMA:
Four independently made Chinese films are featured in this year‘s Documentary Fortnight, including Karamay (2010, China). The majority of the film is shot in black-and-white, without music, creating a stark background against which the tragic consequences of a system of political hierarchy are portrayed. The film premiered at the 34th Hong Kong International Film Festival (2010), after which it was banned in China. It will be screened with one intermission.
Also included in the festival is Disorder (2009, China), a masterful work by director Huang Weikai, made from street scenes shot by amateur photographers and compiled into a seamless film. Huang will attend the screenings of his film at MoMA. Fortune Teller (2010, China), by filmmaker Xu Tong, is divided into sections with paired chapter headings that reflect today‘s urban China similar to Qing Dynasty popular fiction. Tape (2010, China), directed by avant-garde dancer Li Ning, documents his five-year struggle to balance life as a choreographer with a dance troupe of committed college students and his responsibilities as a son, husband, and father.
NEW DAY FILMS:
In 1971, when a group of American filmmakers discovered that their feminist films were being rejected by mainstream educational distributors, they joined together to form New Day Films, an independent documentary distribution cooperative. Today the cooperative is thriving and members‘ award-winning films are in public demand. Five programs of films show the wide range of relevant topics they have examined.
In honor of New Day‘s 40th anniversary, four features and six shorts from the cooperative will be shown.The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, (2009. U.S.A.), directed by Rick Goldsmith and Judith Ehrlich, carefully traces the story of Daniel Ellsberg, the Pentagon analyst who leaked the Defense Department‘s Pentagon Papers, documents that held classified information on the history of the Vietnam War.Ask Not (2008, U.S.A.), directed by Johnny Symons, exposes the tangled political battles that led to the contentious ―don‘t ask, don‘t tell‖ law and examines the societal shifts that have occurred since its passage in 1993. Current and veteran gay soldiers reveal how ―don‘t ask, don‘t tell‖ affects soldiers during their tours of duty, as they struggle to maintain a double life, uncertain of whom they can trust.
Founding New Day members Liane Brandon, Jim Klein, Julia Reichert and Amalie R. Rothschild, and many of the filmmakers will be present at the screenings to talk about their experiences.
PERFORMANCES:
Greetings on Behalf of the People of Our Planet! An Illustrated Lecture on the Voyager Spacecraft and Several Other Topics by Dave Cerf and Sam Green
Sunday, February 27, 5:00 p.m., 90 min.
Three short "live documentaries" combine film, live narration, and sound mixing. In the New York premiere of "The Voyager Spacecraft," the performers use the materials of the Golden Record—a collection of photographs, natural sounds, and music compiled by astronomer Carl Sagan for a time capsule inside the unmanned interstellar Voyager Spacecraft in 1977. For "The Worlds Largest Shopping Mall," images of the South China Mall outside of Guangzhou, China, a huge mall without customers, are juxtaposed with reflections on globalization. "The Universal Language" tells of Esperanto, an artificial language created by an Eastern European Jew more than 100 years ago in the hope of ending war and cultural conflict—surprisingly, the movement still exists, and its members continue to study the language and to meditate on the meaning of hope.
Modern Mondays
Monday, February 28, 7:00 p.m., 90 min.
An Evening with Nao Bustamante: Melted, Plotting Out a Cross Genre Narrative
Bustamante marks some of her many performance and video works ranging from vulnerable anti-heroines to the dominant and sturdy protectors. The artist‘s appearance on Bravo‘s recent reality television show, Work of Art: the Next Great Artist, led to her creation of Tierra y Libertad -Kevlar® 2945 (2011), a typical Edwardian garment, worn by the women that fought in the early part of the Mexican Revolution between 1910-1920, reproduced in Kevlar®, a fabric of the 21st century, then tested on a ballistic range. Other works to be excerpted are: Silver & Gold (2009), her ‗filmformance‘ evoking legendary filmmaker Jack Smith; Find Yourself Through Me (2005), a digital portrait involving audience members; and America, the Beautiful (1995) on the blond sex kitten archetype.
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Public Information:
Film Admission: $10 adults; $8 seniors, 65 years and over with I.D. $6 full-time students with current I.D. (For admittance to film programs only.) The price of a film ticket may be applied toward the price of a Museum admission ticket when a film ticket stub is presented at the Lobby Information Desk within 30 days of the date on the stub (does not apply during Target Free Friday Nights, 4:00–8:00 p.m.). Admission is free for Museum members and for Museum ticketholders.
The Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53 Street, New York, NY 10019, (212) 708-9400
Hours: Wednesday through Monday: 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Friday: 10:30 a.m.-8:00 p.m. Closed Tuesday.
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Screening Schedule
Documentary Fortnight 2011
February 16–28, 2011
INTERNATIONAL FILM SELECTION:
Self Made. 2010. Great Britain. Directed by Gillian Wearing. Turner Prize–winning artist Wearing placed an advertisement in newspapers and job placement offices throughout Newcastle and London: If you were to play a part in a film, would you play yourself or a fictional character? Hundreds of people responded, seven of whom were selected to participate in an experiment. They attended acting workshops with method-acting teacher Sam Rumbelow using real experiences to shape their characters, and then each acted in their own mini-movie. The film interweaves scenes of these various stages, creating an uncanny mix of reality, story, and fantasy. 88 min. World premiere. Introduction and discussion with Wearing and Rumbelow.
Wednesday, February 16, 8:00. T1
Peace. 2010. Japan/USA/South Korea. Directed by Kazuhiro Soda. Toshio Kashiwagi drives disabled and elderly people to appointments with his affordable taxi service. His wife, Hiroko Kashiwagi, is a professional caregiver who also runs a nonprofit home-helper agency for the elderly and disabled. While Hiroko visits 91-year-old cancer patient Shiro Hashimoto to help in his daily routines, her husband returns home to feed the hungry stray cats outside their door. As government funding for these services dwindle, the hungry stray cats encounter a "thief" and the elderly man recalls being drafted into WWII for the price of a postcard. In Japanese; English subtitles. 75 min. U.S. premiere. Introductions and discussions with Soda.
Thursday, February 17, 8:00. T1
Monday, February 21, 4:00. T2
The Desert of Forbidden Art. 2010. Russia/Uzbekistan/USA. Written, produced, and directed by Amanda Pope, Tchavdar Georgiev. Painter and archeologist Igor Savitsky collected forbidden Russian avant garde art works beginning in the late 1950s, created a museum in Uzbekistan to house them, and discovered an unknown school of artists established after the Russian Revolution of 1917 influenced by the Islamic culture. His daring story is vividly told through archival photographs, interviews with people from the region today and the diaries and letters of Savistky and the artists read by Ben Kingsley, Sally Field, and Ed Asner. The film brings attention to this endangered priceless collection. 80 min. NY premiere. Introductions and discussions with Pope and Georgiev.
Friday, February 18, 4:30
Saturday, February 19, 5:00. T1.
El Bulli: Cooking in Progress. Germany. Directed by Gereon Wetzel. For six months of the year, heralded chef Ferran Adrià and his team of experts concoct new dishes for the 30 course menu of the world famous El Bulli. Restaurant. Here we watch their behind-the-scenes process, an artistic laboratory of tasting, smelling, designing and carefully recording each new idea, then selecting their top choices. In Spanish; English subtitles. 108 min. U.S. premiere.
Friday, February 18, 8:00
Saturday, February 19, 2:00. T1
Where Are You Taking Me? USA/Uganda. Directed by Kimi Takesue. Observational-style cinematography captures the rhythms of everyday life throughout Uganda's urban Kampala and the rural North. Takesue observes through her camera, her subjects respond by looking back: ―My work often expresses the process of ‗looking‘ cross-culturally, and the interplay between the observer and the observed.‖ This interplay creates an intimacy and a challenge to look beneath the surface into the lives of young Ugandans. 72 min. New York premiere. Introductions and discussions with Takesue.
Saturday, February 19, 8:00
Sunday, February 20, 2:30. T1
Criada. 2009. Argentina. Directed by Matías Herrera Córdoba. 53-year-old Hortensia lives in El Puesto, a small town in the northwest of Argentina in a verdant region at the foot of a mountain range between two rivers. Born in Patagonia as a member of the Mapuche indigenous group, she was taken at the age of 13 to Catamarca to become a maid. Since that time she has been part of one family and, like many criadas (raised maids), is not free. This portrait builds in emotional power as she silently goes about her everyday routine. In Spanish; English subtitles. 75 min. U.S. premiere.
Sunday, February 20, 5:30
Monday, February 21, 4:30. T1
Nostalgia for the Light. 2010. France/Germany/Chile. Directed by Patricio Guzmán. Guzmán‘s portrait of Earth among the heavens was shot at 10,000 feet above sea level, in South America‘s Atacama Desert, where astronomers study the night sky and secrets are buried. The arid climate and salt deposits preserve pre-Columbian mummies alongside relics of the political prisoners of the Pinochet regime who were assassinated and buried there. As astronomers consider the night sky and relatives search for loved ones in the desert sands, this hauntingly beautiful film reveals that life here is both eternal and finite. In Spanish; English subtitles. 90 min. New York premiere. Introduction and discussion with Guzmán.
Monday, February 21, 8:00. T1
The Warriors of Qiugang. China. 2010. Directed by Ruby Yang. This portrait of grassroots activism is a rare example of people speaking out against the abuses caused by corporate greed in modern China. When the house and fields of farmer Zhang Gongli, located near the banks of the Huai river in the village of Qiugang, were destroyed by pesticides, he filed a lawsuit against the private chemical factory adjoining his land. The film follows his community's efforts to get media support, solicit help from a local NGO, and bring their concerns to the attention of the national government. In Chinese; English subtitles. 39 min. New York premiere
Screens with My Fancy High Heels below.
My Fancy High Heels. 2010. Taiwan. Directed by Ho Chao-ti. While filming a series of stories about clothing, the filmmaker discovered just how complicated the process of making a pair of shoes was. Her fascinating, surprising film follows the trail of shoes, from women in sophisticated high heels on Manhattan's streets to the manufacturers and young female assembly line workers in China who make them. In Chinese, English; English subtitles. 56 min. U.S. premiere. Introductions and discussions with Ho Chao-ti.
Wednesday, February 23, 7:30
Thursday, February 24, 4:00. T2
Un Dia Menos (One Day Less). 2009. Mexico. Directed by Dariela Ludlow. In the home they built in Acapulco, Carmen and Emetrio, an elderly couple in their 80s and 90s, live from day to day in anticipation of the next visit from their extended family. This intimate story captures their resilience and frailty, and the meaning of existence near the end of life. Ludlow's first feature documentary, shot with beautiful cinematography, poignantly captures the love and tensions of a couple as well as the solitary struggles they must face. 76 min. New York premiere. Introductions and discussions with Ludlow.
Wednesday, February 23, 4:30
Thursday, February 24, 8:00. T1
El Ambulante (The Peddler). 2009. Argentina. Directed by Eduardo de la Serna, Lucas Marcheggiano, Adriana Yurcovich. A film about filmmaking, The Peddler follows a man as he travels to small towns throughout Argentina to make dramatic films with the local townspeople. For the price of meals and a month's accommodations, he works with local authorities, recruits actors, devises a plot, ingeniously creates set pieces, and shoots the film; the entire town becomes involved. Once the film is screened, he packs his bags and heads for another town. In Spanish; English subtitles. 84 min. New York premiere. Introductions and discussions with Eduardo de la Serna. Wednesday, Feb 23, 8:00 pm
Thursday, February 24, 4:30. T1
I Wish I Knew. 2010. China. Directed by Jia Zhangke. 18 people from Shanghai, Taipei, and Hong Kong recall their lives in Shanghai from the 1930s to 2010. After the Chinese Communists‘ victory in 1949, thousands of Shanghainese left for Hong Kong and Taiwan. Leaving meant being separated form home for 30 years, remaining meant suffering through the Cultural Revolution and other Chinese political upheavals. In Chinese; English subtitles. 118 min.
Thursday, February 24, 7:00. T2
Psychohydrography. 2010. USA. Directed by Peter Bo Rappmund. This mesmerizing high-definition digital video is constructed from single-frame photographic images of water as it cascades from mountain stream to aqueduct, city to sea. The filmmaker shot hundreds of field recordings at and around the Eastern Sierra Nevada, Owens Valley, Los Angeles Aqueduct, Los Angeles River, and the Pacific Ocean, and combined them with sound recordings of the sun by Thomas Ashcroft. Rappmund's avant-garde practice is inspired by filmmakers such as Phil Solomon, Stan Brakhage, Thom Anderson, and James Benning. 62 min. U.S. premiere. Discussions with Rappmund.
Screens with Petropolis below.
Petropolis – Aerial Perspectives on the Alberta Tar Sands. 2009. Canada. Directed by Peter Mettler. ―Located beneath 4.3 million hectares of boreal forest in Alberta, Canada, the tar sands are a mixture of sand, clay, and a heavy crude oil called bitumen that is either mined in open pits or extracted from underground by injecting superheated water‖ (Petropolis-film.com). Mettler, one of Canada‘s leading media artists, aerially filmed a mining area the size of England, and his images speak far louder than words. Made for Greenpeace Canada. 43 min.
Friday, February 25, 4:30
Saturday, February 26, 5:00. T1
Countryside 35x45. 2009. Russia. Directed by Evgeny Solomin. In Russia a provincial photographer goes from one Siberian village to another, taking 35 x 45 mm passport photographs of all the inhabitants; all Soviet passports must be replaced by Russian identity papers. The subtle exchanges between the photographer and each of the villagers, even under his great duress to get the job done, creates a wonderful intimacy. In Russian; English subtitles. 43 min. U.S. premiere.
Screens with Almost Married below.
Almost Married. 2010. Italy. Directed by Fatma Bucak. Bucak, an art photographer, takes some great risks when she returns to Turkey after several years away to tell her very traditional father that she plans to marry an Italian. During her stay, she encounters other Turkish women and explores their approach to marriage and romance. In Turkish; English subtitles. 60 min. U.S. premiere.
Friday, February 25, 8:00
Saturday, February 26, 2:00. T1
Katka. 2010. Czech Republic. Directed by Helena Třeštíková. This film follows a young junkie over 14 years—beginning in 1996, when she is in a Sananim therapy community in the town of Nemcice—as she slowly spirals deeper into addiction. Her travails include boyfriends, a pregnancy, theft, prostitution, and physical and psychological deterioration. The film keeps viewers entranced and filled with hope for her recovery. 90 min. U.S. premiere.
Saturday, February 26, 8:00
Sunday, February 27, 2:30. T1
Regretters. 2010. Sweden. Directed by Marcus Lindeen. A radio show, a play that has been translated into four languages, and now a film, the debut feature by Marcus Lindeen, Regretters, tells the story of two different men who longed to be accepted by society. Orlando was one of the first sex patients in Sweden in 1967; Mikael underwent surgery in the mid 1990s. This is their story of transformation. In Swedish; English subtitles. 58 min. New York premiere. Introductions and discussions with Lindeen.
Sunday, February 27, 4:30
Monday, February 28, 4:30. T1
The Arbor. 2009. Great Britain. Directed by Clio Barnard. The work of London-based artist Barnard often confronts the relationship between fiction film language and the documentary. Her debut feature is based on Andrea Dunbar's play about her life in the poor northern-English neighborhood of Bradford. Barnard returned to the town to make sound recordings of people in Dunbar‘s circle, but then asked actors to lip synch to the audio recordings, and integrated this with scenes acted and shot in Dunbar‘s neighborhood. The result is both a documentary and a dramatic reconstruction of Dunbar‘s semi-autobiographical texts. 90 min. Introduction and discussion with Barnard.
Monday, February 28,, 8:00. T1
INDEPENDENT CHINESE DOCUMENTARY:
Fortune Teller. 2010. China. Xu Tong. The film's narrative is divided into sections with paired chapter headings, in the style of popular fiction during the Qing Dynasty. Li Baicheng is a charismatic traditional Chinese fortune-teller who lives in a village near Beijing with his deaf and mute wife Pearl, who he rescued from an abusive family. He cares for her while also telling the fortunes of his clients, most of whom are prostitutes. As the police crack down on both fortune-tellers and prostitutes, Li Baicheng and Pearl are forced to move to his hometown, where he is haunted by his family‘s past and China's history. In Chinese; English subtitles. 157 min.
Friday, February 18, 4 p.m.
Monday, February 21, 7:00. T2
Karamay. 2010. China. Directed by Xu Xin. In December 1994 a fire broke out in the Karamay Friendship Theater in Urumqi, killing 323 people, 288 of whom were school children performing for a special event. Government officials were ushered out, while the children were locked inside. Interviewing over 60 people related to the victims and showing video footage shot at the time of the disaster, the film slowly unravels the details of the incident, and provides a platform for the families to speak and be heard. Denied an official public apology, many of the victim‘s family members have suffered their own physical and emotional trauma. In Chinese; English subtitles. 356 min.; 15 min. intermission. [Also an International Film Selection] New York premiere. Introduction and discussion with Xu Xin.
Saturday, Feb 19, 1:30. T2
Disorder. 2009. China. Directed by Huang Weikai. This portrait of Guangzhou is masterfully compiled from 1,000 hours of amateur footage shot by various cameramen. Huang interweaves scenes of traffic jams, accidents, floods, police violence, protestors, and lost, wandering souls into an epic look at urban life in China, a riveting black-and-white collage of apocalyptic imagery that's both unsettling and surreal. In Chinese; English subtitles. 58 min. Introduction and discussion with Huang.
Friday, February 18, 7:15
Sunday, February 20, 2:00. T2
Tape. 2010. China. Directed by Li Ning. Avant-garde dancer Li Ning documents five years of his struggle to balance life as a choreographer with a dance troupe of committed college students, and his responsibilities as a son, husband, and father. Li Ning‘s life becomes intertwined with the film and with his own obsessions; his life before the camera is driven and chaotic, a public platform and a confessional. Loosely chronological and rife with symbolism, the film is a riveting portrait of an artist‘s attempts at expression and conflicts with societal norms. In Chinese; English subtitles. 168 min.
Sunday, February 20, 5:00
Wednesday, February 23, 4:00. T2
NEW DAY FILMS: A PIONEERING INDEPENDENT DOCUMENTARY DISTRIBUTION COOPERATIVE
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers. 2009. USA. Directed by Rick Goldsmith, Judith Ehrlich. Goldsmith and Ehrlich carefully trace the story of Daniel Ellsberg, a Pentagon analyst in the 1960s under Robert McNamara, and how he came to leak the Defense Department‘s Pentagon Papers, a classified study on America's 25-year involvement in Vietnam that revealed critical truths withheld from the public through several presidencies. This engrossing film, made up of archival broadcast footage and interviews with Ellsberg and others, reveals why Ellsberg made the decisions he did and how the Nixon Administration sowed the seeds of its own destruction by going after both Ellsberg and the nation's press. The film, which was nominated for a 2009 Academy Award, has become freshly relevant amid the ongoing Julian Assange/WikiLeaks saga and renewed debates about government secrecy and the conflict between "national security" and the public's right to know. 94 min. Introduction and discussion with Goldsmith.
New Day Program 1: Friday, February 25, 4:00. T2
ANPO: Art X War. 2010. USA/Japan. Directed by Linda Hoaglund. ANPO refers to the U.S.-Japan Mutual Security Treaty, which permits the continued presence of numerous U.S. military bases in Japan. In 1960, public resentment against the military presence erupted in massive popular demonstrations that were crushed by Japan‘s C.I.A.-backed Prime Minister Kishi. A wide range of Japanese artists depicted this resistance with a rich archive of art and films, including many large-scale paintings long hidden from public view. Contemporary artists continue to draw on their predecessors‘ legacy, depicting problems generated by the bases. Shot in high definition, the film reveals the extraordinary passion behind this wave of paintings, photographs, anime, and documentary and narrative films. In Japanese, English; English subtitles. 89 min. Introduction and discussion with Hoaglund.
New Day Program 2: Friday, February 25, 7:00. T2
THE FOUNDING FILMS, PLUS ONE:
Anything You Want to Be. 1971. USA. Directed by Liane Brandon. One of the earliest and most popular films of the Women's Movement, Anything You Want to Be is about a teenager‘s humorous collision with sex-role stereotypes. It explores the external pressures and the more subtle internal pressures a girl faces in finding her identity. 8 min.
Growing Up Female. 1971. USA. Directed by Julia Reichert, James Klein. This early film of the modern Women's Movement was widely used by consciousness-raising groups to generate interest and explain feminism to a skeptical society. The film looks at female socialization through the lives of six women, ages 4 to 35, and the forces that shape them, including teachers, counselors, advertising, music, and the institution of marriage. 50 min.
It Happens to Us. 1972. USA. Directed by Amalie R. Rothschild. This film presents the personal stories of a wide range of women, rich and poor, young and older, black and white, married and unmarried, on the topic of abortion. Some of their stories evoke experiences from before the 1973 Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision. 30 min.
34x25x36. 2009. USA. Directed by Jesse Epstein. Inside the Patina-V mannequin factory in the City of Industry, CA, the "ideal woman" is crafted out of plastic into a 34 x 25 x 36" figure. The chief designer notes that the roots of his craft lie in French 19th-century wax figures and in medieval religious icons. 9 min.
New York premiere. Introduction and discussion with Reichert, Klein, Brandon, Rothschild, Epstein.
Saturday, February 26, 1:30. T2 - New Day Program 3 runs 97 min
Deadly Deception: General Electric, Nuclear Weapons and Our Environment. 1991. USA. Directed by Debra Chasnoff. This 1992 Academy Award winner film for Best Documentary Short played a crucial role in a successful grassroots campaign to pressure GE out of the nuclear weapons industry. 27 min.
Taken for a Ride. 1996. USA. Directed by Jim Klein, Martha Olson. ―Ever wonder why the U.S. has the worst mass transportation system in the industrialized world? Using historical footage and investigative research, this film tells how GM fought to push freeways into the inner cities of America, and push public transportation out" (New Day Films). 52 min.
Introduction and discussion with Chasnoff and Klein.
Saturday, February 26, 4:30. T2 - New Day Program 4 runs 79 min.
No Dumb Questions. 2001. USA. Directed by Melissa Regan.
Three sisters, ages 6, 9, and 11, struggle to understand why and how their Uncle Bill is becoming a woman. They love their Uncle Bill, but aren‘t quite sure how they will feel when he becomes their new Aunt Barbara. With just weeks until Barbara's first visit, the sisters navigate the complex territories of anatomy, sexuality, personality, gender, and fashion, with funny, touching, and distinctly different reactions. 24 min.
Ask Not. 2008. USA. Directed by Johnny Symons.
The film exposes the tangled political battles that led to the ―don‘t ask, don‘t tell‖ law, and examines the societal shifts that have occurred since its passage in 1993. Current and veteran gay soldiers reveal how the policy affected them during their tour of duty, as they struggled to maintain a double life, uncertain of whom they could trust. The film also explores how gay veterans and youth organizers turned to forms of personal activism to overturn the policy. Due in part to the efforts portrayed in the film, the law was recently repealed, and the filmmaker was invited by the White House to the presidential signing ceremony. 73 min.
Introduction and discussion with Regan and Symons.
Saturday, February 26, 7:30. T2 - New Day Program 5 runs 97 min.
PERFORMANCES:
Greetings on Behalf of the People of Our Planet!
An Illustrated Lecture on the Voyager Spacecraft and Several Other Topics by Dave Cerf and Sam Green
Sunday, February 27, 5:00. T2
Three short "live documentaries" combine film, live narration, and sound mixing. In the New York premiere of "The Voyager Spacecraft," the performers use the materials of the Golden Record—a collection of photographs, natural sounds, and music compiled by astronomer Carl Sagan for a time capsule inside the unmanned interstellar Voyager Spacecraft in 1977. For "The Worlds Largest Shopping Mall," images of the South China Mall outside of Guangzhou, China, a huge mall without customers, are juxtaposed with reflections on globalization. "The Universal Language" tells of Esperanto, an artificial language created by an Eastern European Jew more than 100 years ago in the hope of ending war and cultural conflict—surprisingly, the movement still exists, and its members continue to study the language and to meditate on the meaning of hope. Approx. 90 min.
Modern Mondays/An Evening with Nao Bustamante:
Melted, Plotting Out a Cross Genre Narrative
Monday, February 28, 7:00. 90 min. T2.
Bustamante marks some of her many performance and video works ranging from vulnerable anti-heroines to the dominant and sturdy protectors. The artist‘s appearance on Bravo‘s recent reality television show, Work of Art: the Next Great Artist, led to her creation of Tierra y Libertad - Kevlar® 2945 (2011), a typical Edwardian garment, worn by the women that fought in the early part of the Mexican Revolution between 1910-1920, reproduced in Kevlar®, a fabric of the 21st century, then tested on a ballistic range. Other works to be excerpted are: Silver & Gold (2009), her filmformance‘ evoking legendary filmmaker Jack Smith; Find Yourself Through Me (2005), a digital portrait involving audience members; and America, the Beautiful (1995) on the blond sex kitten archetype.
Documentary Fortnight 2011 is organized by Sally Berger, Assistant Curator, Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art. The festival‘s selection committee consists of Sally Berger; Debra Zimmerman, Executive Director, Women Make Movies; and Chi-hui Yang, independent curator.
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Press release
MoMA - The Museum of Modern Art
MoMA-NYC FILM PRESENTS WEEKLONG SERIES OF DOCUMENTARIES
FEATURING ARTISTS ASSOCIATED WITH JUXTAPOZ MAGAZINE
“All the Wrong Art:” Juxtapoz Magazine on Film
February 7–14, 2011
The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 2
New York, January 13, 2011--The Museum of Modern Art presents “All the Wrong Art:” Juxtapoz Magazine on Film, a series consisting of seven new and recently released documentary features on artists associated with the San Francisco–based arts and culture journal Juxtapoz, accompanied by conversations between these artists, filmmakers, and special guest speakers. Running February 7 through 14, 2011, the series is organized by Ron Magliozzi, Assistant Curator, Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art.
Juxtapoz was founded in 1994 by painter Robert Williams as an answer to the dominant critical aesthetic of the New York art scene, which he saw as favoring abstraction and minimalism over representational forms of art. The publication aligned itself with Surrealist traditions of figurative art, contemporary pop culture, and the graphic tradition of EC comic books, psychedelic rock posters, sideshow freak banners, and Zap comics. Giving voice in the beginning to a generation of illustrators, painters, sculptors, and alternative media artists working in genres that were variously described as “Lowbrow” and “Pop Surrealist,” the magazine has grown its egalitarian mandate from its Southern California roots to an international community working in wide-ranging forms of street, gallery, and commercial art.
The seven programs include the East Coast premieres of Robert Williams Mr. Bitchin’ (2010); Tattoo the World (2010) on body art master Don Ed Hardy; The Treasures of Long Gone John (2007), on the legendary art collector and independent record producer; and a new film on sculptor and rock musician Elizabeth McGrath (Miss Derringer). Also featured are Dirty Hands (2008), Harry Kim’s portrait of artist David Choe; Auto-morphosis (2008), Harrod Blank’s film on the extreme transformation of automobiles into artworks; and Who is Bozo Texino? (2005), director Bill Daniel’s study of tramp culture and railroad graffiti art. Publisher Gwynn Vitello and founding editors Williams, Craig R. Stecyk, and Greg Escalante will take part in the presentation of films and video, which will also include work by Chris Mars, Ron English, Mark Ryden, Marion Peck, and others.
SCREENING SCHEDULE
“All the Wrong Art:” Juxtapoz Magazine on Film
February 7–14, 2011
Titus Theater 2
Monday, February 7, 7:00 p.m.
Modern Monday with Robert Williams
Robert Williams Mr. Bitchin’
USA. 2010. East Coast premiere with artist Robert Williams.
Presented by producers Nancye Ferguson and Doug Blake and preceded by a conversation between Williams and Carlo McCormick, culture critic and senior editor of Paper magazine.
Wednesday, February 9, 7:00 p.m.
Ed Hardy: Tattoo the World
USA. 2010. East Coast premiere. Ed Hardy in conversation with New York artist Ruth Marten and director Emiko Omori. 75 min.
With:
Excerpt from In Smog and Thunder: The Great War of the Californias
USA. 2003. Sandow Birk and Sean Meredith.
Thursday, February 10, 7:00 p.m.
The Treasures of Long Gone John
USA. 2007. East Coast premiere. With Long Gone John and director Gregg Gibbs. 97 min.
With SHORT:
Sweet Wishes. USA. 2010. Directors Mark Ryden and Marion Peck. 3 min.
Friday, February 11, 7:00 p.m.
Who is Bozo Texino?
USA. 2005. Director Bill Daniels in conversation with New York graphic designer Gary Fogelson. 56 min.
Saturday, February 12, 7:30 p.m.
Bloodbath
USA. 2011. East Coast premiere. Elizabeth McGrath in conversation with Debbie Harry and director Cecil B. Feeder.
With SHORT:
A Rung Lower
USA. 2008. Directed by Chris Mars. 6 min.
Sunday February 13, 5:00 p.m.
Auto-morphosis
USA. 2008. Director Harrod Blank in conversation with New Jersey based artist Hoop. 77 min.
With:
Excerpt Into the Zone-The Story of the Cacophony Society
USA. 2011. With director Jon Alloway
Monday February 14 , 7:00 p.m.
Modern Monday with David Choe
Dirty Hands: The Art & Crimes of David Choe. USA. 2008. David Choe in conversation with New York artist Ron English and director Harry Kim. 92 min.
MoMA-NYC webpage-http://uat.moma.org/visit/calendar/films/1140
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MoMA - The Museum of Modern Art
MoMA-NYC FILM PRESENTS WEEKLONG SERIES OF DOCUMENTARIES
FEATURING ARTISTS ASSOCIATED WITH JUXTAPOZ MAGAZINE
“All the Wrong Art:” Juxtapoz Magazine on Film
February 7–14, 2011
The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 2
New York, January 13, 2011--The Museum of Modern Art presents “All the Wrong Art:” Juxtapoz Magazine on Film, a series consisting of seven new and recently released documentary features on artists associated with the San Francisco–based arts and culture journal Juxtapoz, accompanied by conversations between these artists, filmmakers, and special guest speakers. Running February 7 through 14, 2011, the series is organized by Ron Magliozzi, Assistant Curator, Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art.
Juxtapoz was founded in 1994 by painter Robert Williams as an answer to the dominant critical aesthetic of the New York art scene, which he saw as favoring abstraction and minimalism over representational forms of art. The publication aligned itself with Surrealist traditions of figurative art, contemporary pop culture, and the graphic tradition of EC comic books, psychedelic rock posters, sideshow freak banners, and Zap comics. Giving voice in the beginning to a generation of illustrators, painters, sculptors, and alternative media artists working in genres that were variously described as “Lowbrow” and “Pop Surrealist,” the magazine has grown its egalitarian mandate from its Southern California roots to an international community working in wide-ranging forms of street, gallery, and commercial art.
The seven programs include the East Coast premieres of Robert Williams Mr. Bitchin’ (2010); Tattoo the World (2010) on body art master Don Ed Hardy; The Treasures of Long Gone John (2007), on the legendary art collector and independent record producer; and a new film on sculptor and rock musician Elizabeth McGrath (Miss Derringer). Also featured are Dirty Hands (2008), Harry Kim’s portrait of artist David Choe; Auto-morphosis (2008), Harrod Blank’s film on the extreme transformation of automobiles into artworks; and Who is Bozo Texino? (2005), director Bill Daniel’s study of tramp culture and railroad graffiti art. Publisher Gwynn Vitello and founding editors Williams, Craig R. Stecyk, and Greg Escalante will take part in the presentation of films and video, which will also include work by Chris Mars, Ron English, Mark Ryden, Marion Peck, and others.
SCREENING SCHEDULE
“All the Wrong Art:” Juxtapoz Magazine on Film
February 7–14, 2011
Titus Theater 2
Monday, February 7, 7:00 p.m.
Modern Monday with Robert Williams
Robert Williams Mr. Bitchin’
USA. 2010. East Coast premiere with artist Robert Williams.
Presented by producers Nancye Ferguson and Doug Blake and preceded by a conversation between Williams and Carlo McCormick, culture critic and senior editor of Paper magazine.
Wednesday, February 9, 7:00 p.m.
Ed Hardy: Tattoo the World
USA. 2010. East Coast premiere. Ed Hardy in conversation with New York artist Ruth Marten and director Emiko Omori. 75 min.
With:
Excerpt from In Smog and Thunder: The Great War of the Californias
USA. 2003. Sandow Birk and Sean Meredith.
Thursday, February 10, 7:00 p.m.
The Treasures of Long Gone John
USA. 2007. East Coast premiere. With Long Gone John and director Gregg Gibbs. 97 min.
With SHORT:
Sweet Wishes. USA. 2010. Directors Mark Ryden and Marion Peck. 3 min.
Friday, February 11, 7:00 p.m.
Who is Bozo Texino?
USA. 2005. Director Bill Daniels in conversation with New York graphic designer Gary Fogelson. 56 min.
Saturday, February 12, 7:30 p.m.
Bloodbath
USA. 2011. East Coast premiere. Elizabeth McGrath in conversation with Debbie Harry and director Cecil B. Feeder.
With SHORT:
A Rung Lower
USA. 2008. Directed by Chris Mars. 6 min.
Sunday February 13, 5:00 p.m.
Auto-morphosis
USA. 2008. Director Harrod Blank in conversation with New Jersey based artist Hoop. 77 min.
With:
Excerpt Into the Zone-The Story of the Cacophony Society
USA. 2011. With director Jon Alloway
Monday February 14 , 7:00 p.m.
Modern Monday with David Choe
Dirty Hands: The Art & Crimes of David Choe. USA. 2008. David Choe in conversation with New York artist Ron English and director Harry Kim. 92 min.
MoMA-NYC webpage-http://uat.moma.org/visit/calendar/films/1140
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MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight, 2010 (Feb. 17 - March 3)
Press release
Documentary Fortnight, 2010:
MoMA’s International Festival of Nonfiction Film
February 17–March 3, 2010
Established in 2001, MoMA’s annual two-week showcase of recent nonfiction film and video takes place each February. This selection of international feature and short documentaries represents the wide range of creative categories that extend the idea of the documentary form.
This year’s program includes Gideon Koppel’s Sleep Furiously, a sweeping portrait of time’s passage in the Welsh hamlet of Trefeurig, and Alla Kovgan and David Hinton’s Nora, based on the true story of dancer Nora Chipaumire, who returned to her native Zimbabwe and brought her history to life through performance.
In addition to a juried selection, the festival also includes thematic programs that focus on film initiatives from around the world. A spotlight on the International Documentary Festival of Amsterdam’s Jan Vrijman Fund, which supports filmmakers in developing countries, features Iranian filmmaker Massoud Bakshi’s Tehran Has No More Pomegranates!; the Appalshop in Whitesburg, Kentucky, which began in 1968 as an experiment in community-based filmmaking and economic growth, brings us films that celebrate Appalachian culture and an Indonesian video exchange project; and UnionDocs Collaborative in New York City, a new program for nonfiction media research and group production, showcases their collective’s most recent innovative projects.
Many of the filmmakers will be present throughout the festival to introduce and discuss their films.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Programs in chronological order:
The End of the Remake Trilogy
Wednesday, February 17, 2010, 4:30 p.m. , Theater 1, T1
(U.S. premiere. Followed by a discussion with Christoph Draeger)
Thursday, February 18, 2010, 7:00 p.m. , Theater 2, T2
(U.S. premiere. Followed by a discussion with Christoph Draeger)
The Mirror
2009. Italy/Canada. Directed by David Christensen.
In the far northwest corner of Italy, in a quiet valley dominated by steep hills, river gorges, and snow-capped mountain peaks, the tiny hamlet of Viganella is dying. The mayor, Pierfranco Midali, who in his late forties is one of the younger people in the village, doesn’t want to see his village fade away. So, he decides to try to revive Viganella by building a giant mirror on the mountain behind the village to reflect sunlight into the town square. Over the course of a year, we follow Pierfranco as he tries to realize his dream. Will the mirror revive the community, or will it be a quickly forgotten tourist curiosity, ineffectually illuminating the village's last days? In Italian, German; English subtitles. 85 min.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010, 8:00 p.m. , Theater 1, T1
(U.S. premiere. Followed by a discussion with David Christensen)
Thursday, February 18, 2010, 4:00 p.m. , Theater 2, T2
(U.S. premiere. Followed by a discussion with David Christensen)
45365
2009. USA. Directed by Bill Ross, Turner Ross.
Set against the quaint, familiar backdrop of a small town in western Ohio, 45365 reveals the inner workings of a community and the ways in which its people interact and socialize. From the patrol car to the courtroom, the playground to the nursing home, the parade to the prayer service, the film explores their relationships and interactions—with each other and with their environment. 45365 captures the complexity and ambiguity of the lives and landscapes that make up a single community, providing a fresh look at everyday life in Middle America. 90 min.
Thursday, February 18, 2010, 4:30 p.m. , Theater 1, T1
(New York premiere. Followed by a discussion with the filmmakers)
Friday, February 19, 2010, 7:00 p.m. , Theater 2, T2
(New York premiere. Followed by a discussion with the filmmakers)
The Miscreants of Taliwood
2009. Australia. Directed by George Gittoes.
The Miscreants of Taliwood takes us on an extraordinary journey to a forbidden zone: the remote tribal belt of Pakistan's northwest frontier. To enter this world, the director dressed in local costume and agreed to become an actor in the low budget Pashto tali movie industry. Teaming up with Pashto action and comedy stars, they make an over-the-top action drama, played out in what must be one of history's craziest film locations—just a cave or two away from the reputed hiding place of Osama Bin Laden. 90 min.
Thursday, February 18, 2010, 8:00 p.m. , Theater 1, T1
(New York premiere. Followed by a discussion with George Gittoes)
Friday, February 19, 2010, 4:00 p.m. , Theater 2, T2
(New York premiere. Followed by a discussion with George Gittoes)
Appalshop 1:
Media Representation
Friday, February 19, 2010, 4:30 p.m. , Theater 1, T1
(Followed by a discussion with Elizabeth Barret, film archivist Caroline Rubens, and Appalachian Media Institute’s lead trainer Natasha Watts)
Sunday, February 21, 2010, 4:00 p.m. , Theater 2, T2
Appalshop 2:
Appalachian Treasures
Friday, February 19, 2010, 8:00 p.m. , Theater 1, T1
(Followed by a discussion with Herb Smith)
Sunday, February 21, 2010, 1:30 p.m. , Theater 2, T2
Houston We Have a Problem
2009. USA. Directed by Nicole Torre.
Houston We Have a Problem steps inside the energy capital of the world to reveal the hard truths about oil—from the mouths of Texas oilmen themselves. For decades American presidents have cried the woes of our nation’s addiction to foreign oil, and hollow campaign promises project an independent, sustainable future. Yet the truth is that American energy policy has traditionally been a strategy of defense, not offense. We are a divided nation fighting a cold war on energy, and both Wall Street and Main Street have no idea what to do. We will see a new form of Wildcatting in alternatives, and learn that many oilmen believe that being shackled to cheap oil is only destroying our empire. Many old-timers realize that the oil industry must change, advising that it is going to take everything to meet America’s future energy needs. This film examines the unbridled exploits of the crude and makes it crystal clear that we must change our addiction in order to save ourselves. 84 min.
Saturday, February 20, 2010, 1:00 p.m. , Theater 2, T2
(New York premiere)
Saturday, February 20, 2010, 3:00 p.m. , Theater 2, T2
(New York premiere)
Daylong Symposium:
Community and Collaborative Filmmaking—Media Arts Centers
Appalshop at 40: Experiments in Place-Based Media
Saturday, February 20, 2010, 2:00 p.m. , Theater 1, T1
Strange Things (Bagay Dwol)
2010. USA. Directed by Alexandria Hammond.
In the midst of Haiti’s mountains and historic relics there lies an orphan epidemic. Over 500,000 children are forced to survive on their own, many of them wandering the streets day and night. Local residents call them the “soulless,” treating them like untouchable spirits from the underworld. Shot in the northern city of Cap-Haitian over a period of two years, Strange Things is a powerful documentary that follows the evolution of three young street boys who will be adults all too soon. Through their eyes, we come to understand Haiti’s current state of crisis and the reasons behind its abandoned youth problem, and we are left inspired by the strength and courage of these young boys who do what it takes to survive. In Creole, English; English subtitles. 73 min.
Saturday, February 20, 2010, 5:00 p.m. , Theater 2, T2
(Followed by discussion with Alexandria Hammond)
Deep Dish TV:
Waves of Change
Saturday, February 20, 2010, 5:15 p.m. , Theater 1, T1
UnionDocs Collaborative:
Inductive Thread
Saturday, February 20, 2010, 8:00 p.m. , Theater 1, T1
Community and Collaborative Filmmaking:
Directors and Subjects—Chang, Johnson, Lockhart, Simms
Sunday, February 21, 2010, 2:30 p.m. , Theater 1, T1
Wednesday, February 24, 2010, 7:00 p.m. , Theater 2, T2
PROGRAM: 2 SHORT docu's
Ingelore
2009. USA. Directed by Frank Stiefel.
Ingelore, a deaf Jewish woman born in Germany in 1924, was so isolated by her disability that she did not speak a word until age six—or complete a sentence until twelve. Ingelore is her compelling account of a lonely childhood, played out against the terrifying rise of the Third Reich. After her brutal rape by Nazi cadets when she was a teenager, her family vowed to escape to America. A mix of first-person narrative, archival footage, and simple, understated reenactments, Ingelore is a remarkable, uplifting story of personal freedom, told from a truly unique perspective. New York Premiere. 40 min.
Nora
2008. USA. Directed by Alla Kovgan, David Hinton.
Nora Chipaumire, a dancer who was born in Zimbabwe in 1965, returns to the landscape of her childhood and takes a journey through vivid memories of her youth. Using performance and dance, she brings her history to life in a swiftly moving poem of sound and image. Shot entirely on location in Southern Africa, Nora includes a multitude of local performers and dancers of all ages, from young schoolchildren to aged grandmothers. Much of the music was specially written for the film by legendary Zimbabwean composer Thomas Mapfumo.35 min.
Sunday, February 21, 2010, 5:30 p.m. , Theater 1, T1
(Followed by a discussion with Frank Stiefel and Alla Kovgan)
Monday, February 22, 2010, 4:00 p.m. , Theater 2, T2
(Followed by a discussion with Frank Stiefel and Alla Kovgan)
PROGRAM: 2 SHORT docu's
The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner
2009. USA. Directed by Daniel Junge.
Shortly after leaving office as Washington States most popular governor, Booth Gardner was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease; now, two decades later, it is slowly deteriorating his body toward an ugly demise. After a career of successful legislative battles, he embarks on a politically heated, personally motivated campaign to legalize physician-assisted suicide. New York premiere. 37 min.
The Matilda Candidate
2009. Australia. Directed by Curtis Levy.
The Matilda Candidate follows the hilarious journey taken by filmmaker Curtis Levy as he runs for election to the Australian Senate on a single-issue platform: that the song “Waltzing Matilda” should be the national anthem. Levy fervently believes that Australia has what it takes to be an independent republic, free from the British Commonwealth, and during the making of the film he uncovers convincing evidence for “Waltzing Matilda” becoming Australia’s “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Unfortunately his efforts are somewhat undermined by his own campaign manager, who unexpectedly turns out to be a monarchist. U.S. premiere. 57 min.
Monday, February 22, 2010, 4:30 p.m. , Theater 1, T1
(Followed by a discussion with Curtis Levy)
Thursday, February 25, 2010, 7:00 p.m. , Theater 2, T2
(Followed by a discussion with Daniel Junge)
Documentary Fortnight, 2010:
MoMA’s International Festival of Nonfiction Film
February 17–March 3, 2010
Established in 2001, MoMA’s annual two-week showcase of recent nonfiction film and video takes place each February. This selection of international feature and short documentaries represents the wide range of creative categories that extend the idea of the documentary form.
This year’s program includes Gideon Koppel’s Sleep Furiously, a sweeping portrait of time’s passage in the Welsh hamlet of Trefeurig, and Alla Kovgan and David Hinton’s Nora, based on the true story of dancer Nora Chipaumire, who returned to her native Zimbabwe and brought her history to life through performance.
In addition to a juried selection, the festival also includes thematic programs that focus on film initiatives from around the world. A spotlight on the International Documentary Festival of Amsterdam’s Jan Vrijman Fund, which supports filmmakers in developing countries, features Iranian filmmaker Massoud Bakshi’s Tehran Has No More Pomegranates!; the Appalshop in Whitesburg, Kentucky, which began in 1968 as an experiment in community-based filmmaking and economic growth, brings us films that celebrate Appalachian culture and an Indonesian video exchange project; and UnionDocs Collaborative in New York City, a new program for nonfiction media research and group production, showcases their collective’s most recent innovative projects.
Many of the filmmakers will be present throughout the festival to introduce and discuss their films.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Programs in chronological order:
The End of the Remake Trilogy
Wednesday, February 17, 2010, 4:30 p.m. , Theater 1, T1
(U.S. premiere. Followed by a discussion with Christoph Draeger)
Thursday, February 18, 2010, 7:00 p.m. , Theater 2, T2
(U.S. premiere. Followed by a discussion with Christoph Draeger)
The Mirror
2009. Italy/Canada. Directed by David Christensen.
In the far northwest corner of Italy, in a quiet valley dominated by steep hills, river gorges, and snow-capped mountain peaks, the tiny hamlet of Viganella is dying. The mayor, Pierfranco Midali, who in his late forties is one of the younger people in the village, doesn’t want to see his village fade away. So, he decides to try to revive Viganella by building a giant mirror on the mountain behind the village to reflect sunlight into the town square. Over the course of a year, we follow Pierfranco as he tries to realize his dream. Will the mirror revive the community, or will it be a quickly forgotten tourist curiosity, ineffectually illuminating the village's last days? In Italian, German; English subtitles. 85 min.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010, 8:00 p.m. , Theater 1, T1
(U.S. premiere. Followed by a discussion with David Christensen)
Thursday, February 18, 2010, 4:00 p.m. , Theater 2, T2
(U.S. premiere. Followed by a discussion with David Christensen)
45365
2009. USA. Directed by Bill Ross, Turner Ross.
Set against the quaint, familiar backdrop of a small town in western Ohio, 45365 reveals the inner workings of a community and the ways in which its people interact and socialize. From the patrol car to the courtroom, the playground to the nursing home, the parade to the prayer service, the film explores their relationships and interactions—with each other and with their environment. 45365 captures the complexity and ambiguity of the lives and landscapes that make up a single community, providing a fresh look at everyday life in Middle America. 90 min.
Thursday, February 18, 2010, 4:30 p.m. , Theater 1, T1
(New York premiere. Followed by a discussion with the filmmakers)
Friday, February 19, 2010, 7:00 p.m. , Theater 2, T2
(New York premiere. Followed by a discussion with the filmmakers)
The Miscreants of Taliwood
2009. Australia. Directed by George Gittoes.
The Miscreants of Taliwood takes us on an extraordinary journey to a forbidden zone: the remote tribal belt of Pakistan's northwest frontier. To enter this world, the director dressed in local costume and agreed to become an actor in the low budget Pashto tali movie industry. Teaming up with Pashto action and comedy stars, they make an over-the-top action drama, played out in what must be one of history's craziest film locations—just a cave or two away from the reputed hiding place of Osama Bin Laden. 90 min.
Thursday, February 18, 2010, 8:00 p.m. , Theater 1, T1
(New York premiere. Followed by a discussion with George Gittoes)
Friday, February 19, 2010, 4:00 p.m. , Theater 2, T2
(New York premiere. Followed by a discussion with George Gittoes)
Appalshop 1:
Media Representation
Friday, February 19, 2010, 4:30 p.m. , Theater 1, T1
(Followed by a discussion with Elizabeth Barret, film archivist Caroline Rubens, and Appalachian Media Institute’s lead trainer Natasha Watts)
Sunday, February 21, 2010, 4:00 p.m. , Theater 2, T2
Appalshop 2:
Appalachian Treasures
Friday, February 19, 2010, 8:00 p.m. , Theater 1, T1
(Followed by a discussion with Herb Smith)
Sunday, February 21, 2010, 1:30 p.m. , Theater 2, T2
Houston We Have a Problem
2009. USA. Directed by Nicole Torre.
Houston We Have a Problem steps inside the energy capital of the world to reveal the hard truths about oil—from the mouths of Texas oilmen themselves. For decades American presidents have cried the woes of our nation’s addiction to foreign oil, and hollow campaign promises project an independent, sustainable future. Yet the truth is that American energy policy has traditionally been a strategy of defense, not offense. We are a divided nation fighting a cold war on energy, and both Wall Street and Main Street have no idea what to do. We will see a new form of Wildcatting in alternatives, and learn that many oilmen believe that being shackled to cheap oil is only destroying our empire. Many old-timers realize that the oil industry must change, advising that it is going to take everything to meet America’s future energy needs. This film examines the unbridled exploits of the crude and makes it crystal clear that we must change our addiction in order to save ourselves. 84 min.
Saturday, February 20, 2010, 1:00 p.m. , Theater 2, T2
(New York premiere)
Saturday, February 20, 2010, 3:00 p.m. , Theater 2, T2
(New York premiere)
Daylong Symposium:
Community and Collaborative Filmmaking—Media Arts Centers
Appalshop at 40: Experiments in Place-Based Media
Saturday, February 20, 2010, 2:00 p.m. , Theater 1, T1
Strange Things (Bagay Dwol)
2010. USA. Directed by Alexandria Hammond.
In the midst of Haiti’s mountains and historic relics there lies an orphan epidemic. Over 500,000 children are forced to survive on their own, many of them wandering the streets day and night. Local residents call them the “soulless,” treating them like untouchable spirits from the underworld. Shot in the northern city of Cap-Haitian over a period of two years, Strange Things is a powerful documentary that follows the evolution of three young street boys who will be adults all too soon. Through their eyes, we come to understand Haiti’s current state of crisis and the reasons behind its abandoned youth problem, and we are left inspired by the strength and courage of these young boys who do what it takes to survive. In Creole, English; English subtitles. 73 min.
Saturday, February 20, 2010, 5:00 p.m. , Theater 2, T2
(Followed by discussion with Alexandria Hammond)
Deep Dish TV:
Waves of Change
Saturday, February 20, 2010, 5:15 p.m. , Theater 1, T1
UnionDocs Collaborative:
Inductive Thread
Saturday, February 20, 2010, 8:00 p.m. , Theater 1, T1
Community and Collaborative Filmmaking:
Directors and Subjects—Chang, Johnson, Lockhart, Simms
Sunday, February 21, 2010, 2:30 p.m. , Theater 1, T1
Wednesday, February 24, 2010, 7:00 p.m. , Theater 2, T2
PROGRAM: 2 SHORT docu's
Ingelore
2009. USA. Directed by Frank Stiefel.
Ingelore, a deaf Jewish woman born in Germany in 1924, was so isolated by her disability that she did not speak a word until age six—or complete a sentence until twelve. Ingelore is her compelling account of a lonely childhood, played out against the terrifying rise of the Third Reich. After her brutal rape by Nazi cadets when she was a teenager, her family vowed to escape to America. A mix of first-person narrative, archival footage, and simple, understated reenactments, Ingelore is a remarkable, uplifting story of personal freedom, told from a truly unique perspective. New York Premiere. 40 min.
Nora
2008. USA. Directed by Alla Kovgan, David Hinton.
Nora Chipaumire, a dancer who was born in Zimbabwe in 1965, returns to the landscape of her childhood and takes a journey through vivid memories of her youth. Using performance and dance, she brings her history to life in a swiftly moving poem of sound and image. Shot entirely on location in Southern Africa, Nora includes a multitude of local performers and dancers of all ages, from young schoolchildren to aged grandmothers. Much of the music was specially written for the film by legendary Zimbabwean composer Thomas Mapfumo.35 min.
Sunday, February 21, 2010, 5:30 p.m. , Theater 1, T1
(Followed by a discussion with Frank Stiefel and Alla Kovgan)
Monday, February 22, 2010, 4:00 p.m. , Theater 2, T2
(Followed by a discussion with Frank Stiefel and Alla Kovgan)
PROGRAM: 2 SHORT docu's
The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner
2009. USA. Directed by Daniel Junge.
Shortly after leaving office as Washington States most popular governor, Booth Gardner was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease; now, two decades later, it is slowly deteriorating his body toward an ugly demise. After a career of successful legislative battles, he embarks on a politically heated, personally motivated campaign to legalize physician-assisted suicide. New York premiere. 37 min.
The Matilda Candidate
2009. Australia. Directed by Curtis Levy.
The Matilda Candidate follows the hilarious journey taken by filmmaker Curtis Levy as he runs for election to the Australian Senate on a single-issue platform: that the song “Waltzing Matilda” should be the national anthem. Levy fervently believes that Australia has what it takes to be an independent republic, free from the British Commonwealth, and during the making of the film he uncovers convincing evidence for “Waltzing Matilda” becoming Australia’s “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Unfortunately his efforts are somewhat undermined by his own campaign manager, who unexpectedly turns out to be a monarchist. U.S. premiere. 57 min.
Monday, February 22, 2010, 4:30 p.m. , Theater 1, T1
(Followed by a discussion with Curtis Levy)
Thursday, February 25, 2010, 7:00 p.m. , Theater 2, T2
(Followed by a discussion with Daniel Junge)
An Evening with Alfredo Jaar
Monday, February 22, 2010, 7:00 p.m. , Theater 2, T2
Vlast (Power)
2010. USA. Directed by Cathryn Collins
In 2003, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Russia’s wealthiest man, was arrested at gunpoint on a Siberian runway. Having openly challenged President Vladimir Putin, Khodorkovsky was convicted, his oil company, YUKOS, seized, and his pro-democracy efforts curtailed. He remains defiantly imprisoned. In unprecedented interviews with Khodorkovsky’s family, his associates, and prominent politicians and journalists, director Cathryn Collins reveals how liberty and the rule of law have become casualties in modern Russia. Power takes an unvarnished look at the consolidation of power in an oil-dependent Russia, revealing a frightening picture of repression and retribution reminiscent of Stalin’s regime. In Russian, English; English subtitles. 88 min.
Monday, February 22, 2010, 8:30 p.m. , Theater 1, T1
(U.S. premiere. Followed by a discussion with Cathryn Collins)
Wednesday, February 24, 2010, 4:00 p.m. , Theater 2, T2
(U.S. premiere. Followed by a discussion with Cathryn Collins)
Earth’s Women
2009. South Korea. Directed by Woo-jung Kwon.
Earth’s Women is a story about three women, friends since their college days, who found themselves at hiome in rural communities despite their urban backgrounds. Kang Sun Hee had dreamed of becoming a peasant activist; Byun Eun Joo followed her husband to the country; and So Hee Ju came from a privileged background but had always been fascinated with rural life. The lives they had dreamed of were difficult, and their farm work and engagement in the peasants' movement ultimately meant less time with their children and families. This documentary follows their lives for more than a year—the lives not only of "peasants" but also of "women," two marginalized positions in South-Korea. In Korean; English subtitles. 95 min.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010, 4:30 p.m. , Theater 1, T1
(U.S. premiere)
Saturday, February 27, 2010, 1:00 p.m. , Theater 2, T2
(U.S. premiere)
Sleep Furiously
2008. Great Britain. Directed by Gideon Koppel.
Sleep Furiously is set in Trefeurig, a hill-farming community in Wales where Koppel’s parents—both refugees—found a home years ago. The landscape and people are rapidly changing as the small-scale agriculture that once dominated the area disappears and the generation who inhabited a pre-mechanized world dies out. What was once a community cut off from the world has now learned to adapt to modern times: the quad bike has replaced the pony; the mobile phone has spared people the need to shout across the valley; and exotic creatures like llama are starting to make a claim for residency alongside sheep. 94 min.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010, 8:00 p.m. , Theater 1, T1
(U.S. premiere. Followed by a discussion with Gideon Koppel)
Thursday, February 25, 2010, 4:00 p.m. , Theater 2, T2
(U.S. premiere. Followed by a discussion with Gideon Koppel)
PROGRAM: 1 SHORT & 1 Feature docu
Ivan and Ivan
2009. Russia. Directed by Philipp Abryutin.
In the Magdan region of present-day Russia, Marfa and Ivan are raising their grandson, little Ivan Junior, to live off the land by herding reindeer and fishing. Ivan Junior is a happy nine-year-old who loves his grandfather, his dog, the beautiful hills and rivers, and, of course, his grandmother’s tasty flat cakes and kasha. The elder Ivan loves having his grandson close by, learning and maintaining the traditional culture and language of the Evens people. Ivan and Ivan do everything together. But the time has come for young Ivan to leave all that is dear to him. In Even, Russian; English subtitles. 17 min.
Constantin and Elena
2008. Romania/Spain. Directed by Andrei Dascalescu.
In this bittersweet love story, "sweet" is love after fifty-five years of marriage, "bitter" is the lack of time remaining for the "sweet," and the "story" is everyday life. Dascalescu's film is about the ancestral, pure way of living and loving, a cinematic, observational, sometimes voyeuristic look at a way of life that is almost extinct. In Romanian; English subtitles. 102 min.
Thursday, February 25, 2010, 4:30 p.m. , Theater 1, T1
(U.S. premieres. Followed by a discussion with Andrei Dascalescu)
Friday, February 26, 2010, 7:00 p.m. , Theater 2, T2
(U.S. premieres. Followed by a discussion with Andrei Dascalescu)
The Visitors
2009. USA. Directed by Melis Birder.
Every Friday night about eight hundred people—mostly women and children and almost entirely African American or Latino—gather in Manhattan's Columbus Circle to board buses. The Visitors is a documentary about passengers on a charter bus that leaves New York City every weekend and takes them to visit their loved ones at various upstate New York prisons. This unexpected look at the U.S. prison system through the eyes of the travelers reflects the struggles of "living the prison life" on the outside, and the difficulty of holding onto love despite great distance and even greater odds. Presented in appreciation of Black History Month. 65 min.
Thursday, February 25, 2010, 8:00 p.m. , Theater 1, T1
(New York premiere. Followed by discussion with Melis Birder and Denise Robinson, main character)
Friday, February 26, 2010, 4:00 p.m. , Theater 2, T2
(New York premiere. Followed by discussion with Melis Birder and Denise Robinson, main character)
Addicted in Afghanistan
2009. Afghanistan/Great Britain/The Netherlands. Directed by Jawed Taiman.
There are more than a million drug addicts in Afghanistan, including a shockingly high percentage of children. The feature-length debut of director Taiman focuses on two teenagers, Jabar and Zahir, whose families have been ravaged by drugs. The film sketches an intimate portrait of their lives in the slums of Kabul, where they smoke heroin in their decrepit houses or visit the detox clinic for the umpteenth time. The political situation of their broken country is implicated in their troubles; while Jabar and Zahir blame the Americans for introducing heroin to Afghanistan, Zahir's mother knows better—it was the Taliban that got her addicted. Presented in conjunction with the Jan Vrijman Fund of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), one of the leading documentary events in the world. Each year in November, more than 300 documentaries are screened for a huge number of film lovers and professionals. IDFA's Jan Vrijman Fund supports filmmakers and festivals in developing countries. Its goal is to stimulate local film cultures and to turn the creative documentary into a truly global film art. www.idfa.nl. In Farsi, Dari, Pashto, and Persian; English subtitles. 78 min.
Friday, February 26, 2010, 4:30 p.m. , Theater 1, T1
(U.S. premiere. Presented by Isabel Arrate, coordinator, the Jan Vrijman Fund of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA))
Sunday, February 28, 2010, 1:30 p.m. , Theater 2, T2
(U.S. premiere)
Camp Victory, Afghanistan (work in progress)
USA/Afghanistan. Directed by Carol Dysinger.
Camp Victory, Afghanistan is the story of the American Exit Strategy. Using almost 300 hours of footage shot over the course of three years, the film follows General Sayar of the Afghan National Army (ANA) and the U.S. National Guardsmen sent to mentor him and his men. General Sayar, a man who's been at war his entire life, and Col. Shute, a lifelong Guardsman and the father of two sons serving in Iraq, are assigned to each other. As they struggle to achieve the goals of their respective nations, an unusual relationship develops. With unprecedented access to top-tier U.S. and Afghan military leaders, Camp Victory, Afghanistan is the first film to examine the reality of building a functioning Afghan military—a critical step toward bringing stability to Afghanistan and the linchpin of any U.S. exit strategy. But it is also a story about friendship and the unlikely bonds that form across a great divide, man to man, soldier to soldier. In Dari, Pashto, English; English subtitles. 83 min.
Friday, February 26, 2010, 8:00 p.m. , Theater 1, T1
(Followed by discussion with Carol Dysinger and Col. (Ret) Michael Shute)
News
2009. Chile. Directed by Bettina Perut, Ivan Osnovikoff.
Revealing how every image represents a range of possible interpretations, Perut and Osnovikoff subversively employ the structure of a TV news show to sum up the current events in a manner all their own. A complex audiovisual experiment, the film dishes up a panoply of footage—the recently deceased, waiting patients, horny monkeys, discarded junk, blistering heat, gushing tears, gurgling air bubbles in water, and lots of foot soles—with a great deal of feeling for composition: the camera alternates between extreme close-up and extremely wide shots, avoiding the cliché master shot wherever possible, and tight shots are always shot with a tripod. One interpretation could be that News is trying to sketch the fleeting beauty of existence, in both its crushing virility and its commonplace vulnerability. In Spanish; English subtitles. 80 min.
Saturday, February 27, 2010, 1:30 p.m. , Theater 1, T1
(U.S. premiere. Presented by Isabel Arrate)
Sunday, February 28, 2010, 4:00 p.m. , Theater 2, T2
(U.S. premiere)
1428
2009. China. Directed by Haibin Du.
The Great Sichuan Earthquake took place at 14:28 on May 12, 2008. Days later, victims were reduced to salvaging destroyed pig farms in the mountains, recuperating scrap metals for the equivalent of pennies in profit, and pillaging homes. The director goes beyond the highly mediated official visits to shows us scenes not seen on official TV. Some seven months after the earthquake, when villagers are preparing for the Lunar New Year, and promises made for all to live in houses in winter seem tough to keep, the director goes beyond the highly mediated official visits to shows us scenes not seen on official TV. New Year‘s Day starts as never-ending parade of tourists buying DVDs of the most horrific scenes, souvenir albums of corpses being pulled out of the ruins, and photo-taking in front of Beichuan, the town most severely hit, where tens of thousands of people perished in seconds. In Mandarin; English subtitles. 117 min.
Saturday, February 27, 2010, 3:30 p.m. , Theater 2, T2
(U.S. premiere)
Monday, March 1, 2010, 4:30 p.m. , Theater 1, T1
(U.S. premiere)
PROGRAM: 2 SHORT docu's
The Treasure Cave
2009. Iran. Directed by Bahman Kiarostami.
Residing under one of the most vehemently anti-Western governments in the world, Tehran’s Museum of Contemporary Art possesses a treasure trove of masterworks that—virtually unseen for all but a few of the last three decades—are all but forgotten outside knowledgeable art circles. The film recounts the history of a museum that, despite possessing the most extensive collection of late nineteenth- and twentieth-century Western art outside the West, has been transformed into a place for honoring the martyrs of the revolution and Iran/Iraq war. In Farsi; English subtitles. 43 min.
Statues of Tehran
2008. Iran. Directed by Bahman Kiarostami.
Statues of Tehran provides a brief overview of sculpture in Iran’s capital city, with a focus on two works. One of the first modern works to be erected in Tehran was created in the 1970s by Bahman Mohassess for what was then the Royal Family. Following the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the Iran-Iraq War, the city’s public displays were limited to revolutionary and ideological works, and Mohassess’s sculpture was destined to disintegration and storage. In contrast, Iraj Esskandari’s statue in Enghelab (Revolution) Circus has been standing in a prominent location of Tehran for the last twenty-seven years, a symbol of the revolution and the war. Now this statue is set to be dismantled and replaced by a subway station. Presented by Howard Weinberg, President, New York Film/Video Council, in collaboration with the New York Film/Video Council. This program is supported by the E Ike Eshagian Foundation. In Farsi; English subtitles. 60 min.
Saturday, February 27, 2010, 4:00 p.m. , Theater 1, T1
(U.S. premieres. Followed by discussion with Bahman Kiarostami)
Tehran Has No More Pomegranates!
2007. Iran. Directed by Massoud Bakhshi.
Director Massoud Bakhshi and his crew have hit a wall in their mission to make a film about their hometown, Tehran; now they must explain to their overseers at the Documentary Film Center why the film will never be completed. They decide to investigate the city's past in order to better understand the reason for their predicament. What follows is a sarcastic and comic narrative about Tehran's transformation from a small village into a bustling metropolis increasingly plagued by pollution, overcrowding, inadequate housing, and class gaps. Presented by Tanaz Eshagian, filmmaker, in collaboration with the New York Film/Video Council, and the Jan Vrijman Fund of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA). This program is supported by the E Ike Eshagian Foundation. In Farsi; English subtitles. 68 min.
Saturday, February 27, 2010, 6:30 p.m. , Theater 1, T1
(Followed by a discussion with Massoud Bakhshi)
Tehran without Permission
2009. Iran/France. Directed by Sepideh Farsi.
In Tehran without Permission, Sepideh Farsi uses an unconventional medium to create a highly personal portrait of Tehran, a city she left as a teenager. She writes, “The challenge was to remain unnoticed, in order to shoot as freely as possible, not only to escape the omnipresent surveillance of the authorities, but also to reduce the distance between the one who films and the one who is filmed. Therefore, I decided to shoot the film with a mobile phone.” Farsi invites the spectator to discover Tehran as a city of contradictions where religion and laicism, tradition and modernism, and poverty and wealth co-exist. In Farsi; English subtitles. 83 min.
Saturday, February 27, 2010, 8:30 p.m. , Theater 1, T1
(U.S. premiere)
PROGRAM: 2 SHORT docu's
Chinese Ghost Story
2008. USA. Directed by Dan Boord, Luis Valdovino.
The retelling of Pu Songling’s (Chinese, 1640–1715) “Kon-Sun-Ju-Liang” sets the counterpoint for this tale of the 1869 Transcontinental Railroad. The directors traversed the American West in search of those absent from the nineteenth-century A.J. Russell photograph documenting the joining together of the eastern and western United States. Chinese Ghost Story is a poetic essay in which history and landscape converge to explore the construction of the railroad where 1,300 Chinese laborers lost their lives. There are no stories without places, and places are largely silent to what occurs. New York premiere. In Mandarin, English; English subtitles. 29 min.
China Town
2008. USA. Directed by Lucy Raven.
Many of the laborers who worked on mines throughout Utah and Nevada in the late 1880s were Chinese immigrants, and the area where they lived on the mining sites was called Chinatown. The historic mining town of Ruth still sits at the base of the mine, and most of its several hundred residents work there. Yet nowadays Ruth is another sort of “China town,” sending their ore overseas as a rapidly industrializing and urbanizing China demands increasing quantities of raw materials from around the world. Composed entirely of animated sequences of digital still photographs and ambient sound recorded on location, China Town follows the contemporary recycling of the American landscape and economy into raw mineral wealth for a developing nation.51 min.
Sunday, February 28, 2010, 1:00 p.m. , Theater 1, T1
(Followed by a discussion with Dan Boord, Luis Valdovino, and Lucy Raven)
Monday, March 1, 2010, 8:00 p.m. , Theater 2, T2
(Followed by a discussion with Dan Boord, Luis Valdovino, and Lucy Raven)
Agrarian Utopia
2009. Thailand. Directed by Uruphong Raksasad. Facing seizure of their own lands, two families find themselves farming together on the same field, hoping just to get through another rice-farming season. But no matter how much the world is evolving, how much the country is going through economic, political, and social changes, they still cannot grasp the new ideology of "happiness." How can you dream of utopia when your stomach is still grumbling? In Thai; English subtitles. 122 min.
Sunday, February 28, 2010, 3:00 p.m. , Theater 1, T1
(U.S. premiere)
Monday, March 1, 2010, 4:00 p.m. , Theater 2, T2
(U.S. premiere)
PROGRAM: 2 SHORT docu's
Open House
2009. USA. Directed by Diane Nerwen.
In recent years, Williamsburg, one of the most visibly transformed neighborhoods in New York City, has seen a host of new residential construction and glass-and-steel structures spring up on blocks long defined by factories and modest row houses. While the housing bubble was deflating across the country, forty-story luxury buildings were being erected along the Brooklyn waterfront at an unprecedented rate. Chronicling developers literally tearing apart the neighborhood and frenzied property owners desperate to cash in before the market collapses, Open House reveals an urban renewal project on a scale not seen since Robert Moses’s “slum” clearance of the 1960s. 31 min.
Za Zelazna Brama (Behind the Iron Gate)
2009. Poland/USA. Directed by Heidrun Holzfeind.
Za Zelazna Brama was one of the biggest housing estates built in the center of Warsaw between 1965 and 1972. Based on modern rational principles—the complex consists of nineteen blocks of buildings, each sixteen floors high—it was once considered a symbol of Polish socialist prosperity and technological progress. Today the blocks, with their small, substandard apartments, are regarded by many as an unpleasant reminder of the Communist era. Behind the Iron Gate juxtaposes conversations with the inhabitants with recordings of daily life in and around the blocks, examining the transformation of social life and the adaptation of the modernist architecture to today’s needs. World premiere. In Polish; English subtitles. 55 min.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010, 4:00 p.m. , Theater 2, T2
(Followed by a discussion with Diane Nerwen)
Wednesday, March 3, 2010, 7:00 p.m. , Theater 2, T2
(Followed by a discussion with Diane Nerwen and Heidrun Holzfeind)
Double Take
2009. Belgium/Germany/The Netherlands. Directed by Johan Grimonprez.
Director Johan Grimonprez’s hybrid narrative/documentary feature casts Alfred Hitchcock as a paranoid history professor, unwittingly caught up in a double take on the Cold War period. The master says all the wrong things at all the wrong times, while politicians on both sides desperately clamber to say the right things on live TV. Double Take targets the global political rise of “fear as a commodity,” in a tale of odd couples and double deals. As television hijacks cinema, and the Khrushchev and Nixon debate rattles on, sexual politics quietly take off and Hitchcock himself emerges in a dandy new role on the TV, blackmailing housewives with brands they can't refuse. 80 min.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010, 8:30 p.m. , Theater 1, T1
(New York premiere. Followed by a discussion with Grimonprez)
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Organized by Sally Berger, Assistant Curator, with Maria Fosheim Lund, Director Liaison, Department of Film. The selection committe is Sally Berger; Andrew Ingall, independent curator and Assistant Curator, The Jewish Museum; and Liza Johnson, artist, filmmaker, and Associate Professorof Art, Williams College.
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