Anthology Film Archives

NEW YORK THEATRICAL PREMIERE RUN!

Distributed by First Run Features.

Covi & Frimmel’s first fiction feature focuses on the relationship between two-year-old Asia, and Patti, a circus woman living with her husband Walter in a trailer park on the outskirts of Rome, who finds Asia abandoned in a park. With the help of Tairo, a teenager who lives with his grandmother nearby, Patti starts to search for the girl’s mother, while caring for her in the meantime. LA PIVELLINA is a film about a cosmos of outcasts in present-day Italy: a moving tale of courage and discrimination, of loss and togetherness, a look behind the corrugated-iron fence of a gated community.

78rpm listening session & talk. Two hours of vintage music performed and loved by immigrants from the Near East, most of it recorded in NYC.

For many of us, the idea of the old, 78rpm record and of the music of the working poor, of blazing string-bands and aching songs of sorrow, brings to mind the words ‘old-time’, ‘roots’, and ‘Americana’. In fact, years before the first recording of the voice of an African-American woman (Mamie Smith’s “Crazy Blues” in 1920) or of southern fiddle music (Eck Robertson’s “Arkansaw Traveler” in 1922), there were already tens of thousands of recordings by immigrants from far and wide, including many by performers hailing from the Balkans and the Middle East.

By 1922 recordings had been made not only in Greek, Turkish, and Armenian, but also Arabic and Kurdish; and by the time Jimmie Rogers, the Carter Family, or Skip James made their monumental sides, others had appeared in Azeri, Persian, and Ladino. Tonight music researcher Ian Nagoski will play some of the greatest performances from the record collections of Middle-Eastern Americans from the first decades of the 20th century and celebrate some of the great performers whose lives and music were every bit as down-home and amazing as those of better-known ‘roots’ and ‘Americana’ performers like Uncle Dave Macon or Charlie Patton.

Nagoski’s 3-CD set on the subject was recently released by the Tompkins Square label.

NEW YORK THEATRICAL PREMIERE RUN!

Distributed by First Run Features.

Covi & Frimmel’s first fiction feature focuses on the relationship between two-year-old Asia, and Patti, a circus woman living with her husband Walter in a trailer park on the outskirts of Rome, who finds Asia abandoned in a park. With the help of Tairo, a teenager who lives with his grandmother nearby, Patti starts to search for the girl’s mother, while caring for her in the meantime. LA PIVELLINA is a film about a cosmos of outcasts in present-day Italy: a moving tale of courage and discrimination, of loss and togetherness, a look behind the corrugated-iron fence of a gated community.

Filmmaker in person!

An anti-social renaissance man for our times, Nick Zedd is a notorious filmmaker, writer, painter, actor, political satirist, and “First Minister of Protocol” for The Cinema of Transgression, the New York filmmakers movement he spearheaded 25 years ago whose reverberations are still being felt in dark corners today. Punk in attitude and ultra-DIY in approach, Zedd’s eye-popping, shocking, and often hilarious films and videos employ the mysterious powers of xenomorphosis, a term he coined to describe what happens when the “domain wall of an alternate universe smashes your reality tunnel and neurological re-engineering occurs.”

Nick returns for a rare visit from his new home in Mexico City to bring us this two-program survey of his classic and contemporary work, as well as to premiere Anthology’s brand-new 16mm preservation of his masterpiece POLICE STATE. Famous for being infamous, Nick Zedd is the underground, and you should come see why.

“Nick Zedd makes violent, perverted art films from Hell – he’s my kind of director!” –John Waters

PROGRAM ONE: POLICE STATE PRESERVED AND OTHER WORKS
THE BOGUS MAN (1980, 11 minutes, 16mm)
Depicts the release of information concerning the cloning of the President of the United States. Starring David McDermott, Lawrence Oliver Cherry, and Rafik.

THRUST IN ME (1984, 8 minutes, Super 8mm-on-DVD)
Co-directed with Richard Kern, THRUST IN ME defies description. Starring Zedd (in dual roles), Margot Damien, and Don Houston.

POLICE STATE (1987, 18 minutes, 16mm)
Preserved by Anthology Film Archives with support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
A prime document of pre-gentrification Lower East Side, POLICE STATE ranks high as one of the most cogent, comedic, and enduring works of the 1980s underground film scene. Starring Zedd, Rockets Redglare, Flip Crowley, and Willoughby Sharp.

WAR IS MENSTRUAL ENVY (1992, 20-minute excerpt, 16mm/DVD triple projection)
A mind-bending multiple-projection blow-out with an emphasis on the exotic featuring the talents of Kembra Pfahler, Annie Sprinkle, Ari Roussimoff, and Steven Oddo.

WHOREGASM (1988, 11 minutes, 16mm/DVD triple projection)
“If this film doesn’t land him in jail, I don’t know what will. The first print was already seized by the Canadian police back in May (‘89)…and Zedd narrowly escaped arrest when he showed it in Tompkins Square Park this summer to an audience of winos and beggars who got so excited they performed a circle jerk in front of the bandshell.” –FILM THREAT 18

ECSTASY IN ENTROPY (1999, 15 minutes, 16mm)
A group of warrior lapdancers struggle to overthrow the authoritarian structures of corporate state capitalism. In between a succulent blowjob, the naked superwomen punch and wrestle in a voluptuous cataclysm of feminine ferocity while a chihuahua named Pinky sniffs at their feet. Stars Annie Sprinkle, Taylor Mead, Brenda Bergman, and Jaiko Suzuki.

WHY DO YOU EXIST? (1998, 11 minutes, 16mm)
A series of close-ups of real urban ‘types’ in which the camera is returned to its Edison-era status as a simple recording device. Featuring Brenda Bergman, Kembra Pfahler, Dr. Ducky DooLittle, Mike Diana, and Little Annie.

TOM THUMB (1999, 3 minutes, DVD)
A trailer for a film that doesn’t exist, shot on digital video in Copenhagen, Denmark.

I OF K9 (2000, 3 minutes, 16mm)
A segment from the Ocularis End of Year Kiss Factory Event movie, starring Will Keenan, and Daryl & Scott Free.

Total running time: ca. 105 minutes.

NEW YORK THEATRICAL PREMIERE RUN!

Distributed by First Run Features.

Covi & Frimmel’s first fiction feature focuses on the relationship between two-year-old Asia, and Patti, a circus woman living with her husband Walter in a trailer park on the outskirts of Rome, who finds Asia abandoned in a park. With the help of Tairo, a teenager who lives with his grandmother nearby, Patti starts to search for the girl’s mother, while caring for her in the meantime. LA PIVELLINA is a film about a cosmos of outcasts in present-day Italy: a moving tale of courage and discrimination, of loss and togetherness, a look behind the corrugated-iron fence of a gated community.

Dovzhenko’s second film, attacked by Soviet critics for being so beautifully rendered as to actually lessen its political impact, remains today a “cinematic poem” as the director named it. Episodic, folkloric, and allegorical, it is a mythic search for hidden treasure by two brothers. Dovzhenko wrote: “I did not so much make the picture as sing it out like a songbird.”

Filmmaker in person!

An anti-social renaissance man for our times, Nick Zedd is a notorious filmmaker, writer, painter, actor, political satirist, and “First Minister of Protocol” for The Cinema of Transgression, the New York filmmakers movement he spearheaded 25 years ago whose reverberations are still being felt in dark corners today. Punk in attitude and ultra-DIY in approach, Zedd’s eye-popping, shocking, and often hilarious films and videos employ the mysterious powers of xenomorphosis, a term he coined to describe what happens when the “domain wall of an alternate universe smashes your reality tunnel and neurological re-engineering occurs.”

Nick returns for a rare visit from his new home in Mexico City to bring us this two-program survey of his classic and contemporary work, as well as to premiere Anthology’s brand-new 16mm preservation of his masterpiece POLICE STATE. Famous for being infamous, Nick Zedd is the underground, and you should come see why.

“Nick Zedd makes violent, perverted art films from Hell – he’s my kind of director!” –John Waters

PROGRAM TWO: RECENT AND NEW VIDEOS
NO PLAGUE LIKE HOME (2007, 28 minutes, Mini-DV)
Electra Elf episode deconstructing the superhero genre as Nimbus attacks implantable microchips and the 9/11 Inside Job, along with the dangers of watching TV.

HOLLOW BE THY NAME (2007, 28 minutes, Mini-DV)
The Mayor is kidnapped by Eclectus and her henchmen, then Electra Elf is cloned by Pantaloon and can’t stop fighting herself, forcing Fluffer to seek the aid of Vatican superhero Pulsar. Starring Rev. Jen, Sue Palchak, Brenda Bergman, and the Dueling Bankheads.

PAINTINGS 2009-11 (2011, 7 minutes, Mini-DV)
Entities painted in oil, exhibited at the Microscope Gallery in January.

NYC/MEXICO (2011, 28 minutes, Mini-DV)
Shot in Teotihuacan at the Pyramid of the Sun, along with scenes in Tequisquiapan, Mexico City, Times Square, and Brooklyn.

THE BIRTH OF ZERAK (2011, 5 minutes, DVD)
Caesarean birth of Zerak Zedd in Mexico City.

Total running time: ca. 100 minutes.

NEW YORK THEATRICAL PREMIERE RUN!

Distributed by First Run Features.

Covi & Frimmel’s first fiction feature focuses on the relationship between two-year-old Asia, and Patti, a circus woman living with her husband Walter in a trailer park on the outskirts of Rome, who finds Asia abandoned in a park. With the help of Tairo, a teenager who lives with his grandmother nearby, Patti starts to search for the girl’s mother, while caring for her in the meantime. LA PIVELLINA is a film about a cosmos of outcasts in present-day Italy: a moving tale of courage and discrimination, of loss and togetherness, a look behind the corrugated-iron fence of a gated community.

One of Dovzhenko’s few completely independent films, from script to screen. ARSENAL is a civil war epic envisioned in unusual, painterly images: a fallen soldier – drunk on the enemy’s laughing gas – his frozen body still baring its teeth long after the battle and his life are over.

(ZEMLYA)
A poetic expression of love for both nature and Ukrainian culture by the man who was alternatively branded a deserter by Ukrainians and a Ukrainian nationalist by Russian Soviets. Dovzhenko champions the progression of life, class struggle, and new attitudes for a town changed by a tractor and a fallen hero.

NEW YORK THEATRICAL PREMIERE RUN!

Distributed by First Run Features.

Covi & Frimmel’s first fiction feature focuses on the relationship between two-year-old Asia, and Patti, a circus woman living with her husband Walter in a trailer park on the outskirts of Rome, who finds Asia abandoned in a park. With the help of Tairo, a teenager who lives with his grandmother nearby, Patti starts to search for the girl’s mother, while caring for her in the meantime. LA PIVELLINA is a film about a cosmos of outcasts in present-day Italy: a moving tale of courage and discrimination, of loss and togetherness, a look behind the corrugated-iron fence of a gated community.

NEW YORK THEATRICAL PREMIERE RUN!

Distributed by First Run Features.

Covi & Frimmel’s first fiction feature focuses on the relationship between two-year-old Asia, and Patti, a circus woman living with her husband Walter in a trailer park on the outskirts of Rome, who finds Asia abandoned in a park. With the help of Tairo, a teenager who lives with his grandmother nearby, Patti starts to search for the girl’s mother, while caring for her in the meantime. LA PIVELLINA is a film about a cosmos of outcasts in present-day Italy: a moving tale of courage and discrimination, of loss and togetherness, a look behind the corrugated-iron fence of a gated community.

NEWFILMMAKERS CELEBRATES LABOR DAY

SPECIAL PROGRAM
About 9/11
Gabe Rodriguez Q TO THE 6 TRAIN (2011, 12 Minutes, Video)
Joshua Page SUPER/HEROES (2011, 22 Miutes, Video)
Thomas Veit BREAKING NEWS (2010, 15 minutes, video)

FIRST SHORT FILM PROGRAM
About Children
Andrew Ahn ANDY (2010, 6 minutes, video)
Christopher Jarvis MY HERO (2010, 7 minutes, 35mm)
Francis Brian Moore FRANCIS ON HIS BIRTHDAY (2010, 16 minutes, video)
Daniel Estrada THE STORYTELLER (2010, 19 minutes, video)

SECOND SHORT FILM PROGRAM
About Acting
Juliette Bennett THE COUPLE (2011, 10 minutes, video)
Ed Casey VOYEUR (2010, 28 minutes, video)
Jessie Kahnweiler STUPID QUESTIONS (2011, 31 minutes, video)
Stephen Scott Scarpulla GREEN APPLES & WANNABES (2011, 35 minutes, video)

FILM OF THE MONTH PRESENTATION
This is the best selling film on NewFilmmakers Online in February.
Melinda Hunt
HART ISLAND
2010, 66 minutes, video.
Hart Island is America’s largest cemetery, where three quarters of a million people have been buried in mass graves on 101 acres of an island in the Bronx. Four families struggle to sort out how their relatives ended up on Hart Island. They confront social stigma, outdated policies, police oversights, and complacency.
–Wednesday, September 7, Special Program at 6:00, First Short Film Program at 6:30, Second Short Film Program at 7:30, Feature Presentation at 9:30.

NEW YORK THEATRICAL PREMIERE RUN!

Distributed by First Run Features.

Covi & Frimmel’s first fiction feature focuses on the relationship between two-year-old Asia, and Patti, a circus woman living with her husband Walter in a trailer park on the outskirts of Rome, who finds Asia abandoned in a park. With the help of Tairo, a teenager who lives with his grandmother nearby, Patti starts to search for the girl’s mother, while caring for her in the meantime. LA PIVELLINA is a film about a cosmos of outcasts in present-day Italy: a moving tale of courage and discrimination, of loss and togetherness, a look behind the corrugated-iron fence of a gated community.

(AUFZEICHNUNGEN AUS DEM TIEFPARTERRE)

A radical look into the mind of the ‘man on the street’. Peter Haindl, a hospital orderly in Vienna, shot these home movies from 1993 to 1999. They were then given to Frimmel, who created this 90-minute compilation.
“While striking various poses around his apartment, Haindl addresses an imaginary public, his speeches ranging from defiant to contrite. … His monologues deal with the usual prejudices, such as those against women and foreigners, and none of them can be reduced to a single coherent point of view. Commonplaces are qualified with contradictions and self-irony, and his tirades occasionally swerve in the direction of serious analysis. The state of pandemonium which characterizes the Austrian soul is depicted as a labyrinth of rhetoric.” –Dominik Kamalzadeh

FILMMAKERS IN PERSON FOR THE SCREENING ON THURS, SEPT 8!

SINGLE FRAME is a series focusing on the increasingly outmoded world of slide-based projection. Whether presented in portfolios, lectures, libraries, or living rooms, the transparent photographic positive known as a slide was for decades a common way to view amateur, artistic, industrial, and educational imagery. From vacation photos and pre-show movie theater ads to gallery installations and multi-projector happenings, the slide is a significant time-based medium worthy of further investigation and illumination.

Tonight we time-travel alongside hosts Robert Munn & Sara Cook of the Depthography Group to witness a 3-D Projection show of Stereoscopic images of World War I. The images are from Mr. Munn’s extremely rare personal collection of 200 glass-plate stereo photographs of the conflict. These 90-plus-year-old, emulsion-on-glass stereo plates were manufactured in France between 1914-18 and present a graphic, uncompromising view of the horrors of trench warfare, and of the brutality and devastation of the world’s first ‘modern’ war. The immersive effect provided by the 3-D projection will be accompanied by Mr. Munn’s provocative live performance on the Theremin, guaranteeing an unforgettable experience.

Munn & Cook are artists who create in a variety of 3-D media, and have been presenting 3-D projection and multi-media events at various venues in NYC and San Francisco since 1992. They have held a continuing series of events at the Gershwin Hotel over the past four years, including the highly successful “World’s Fairs in 3-D” show.

(DAS IST ALLES)

“‘That’s all’: This sentence is often heard in stories told by the villagers in Jesnaja Poljana, Russia. Usually concluding their observations and comments, this lapidary turn of phrase does not indicate that they have nothing to say, but rather expresses the opinion that what they can say about their lives is nothing out of the ordinary. Sweeping views of the village and the surrounding countryside punctuate the conversations; there is no commentary. The narratives gradually tell the history of the village, about the movements of people around the former Soviet Union and the government’s settlement policy of the past few decades.” –Isabella Reicher

This episodic film describes the daily struggle for survival of modern nomads in Italy. Over the period of one year it follows the young Babooska, who runs a traveling circus with her family, on her odyssey through remote areas of the country. It is an unvarnished look behind the scenes of a microcosm on the fringes of society – beyond the usual stereotypes, without commentary, without interviews.

“A road movie without kitschy travel images. It describes, with melancholy and humor, not only the modern nomads’ dying way of life, but also the general human condition of being on a journey between a glorious past and an uncertain future, between despair and the hope that life could always be like a ‘modern, well-heated circus’.” –Günter Pscheider

NEW YORK THEATRICAL PREMIERE RUN!

Distributed by Icarus Films, and co-presented by Cinema Tropical, the Mexican Cultural Institute of New York, and the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar; special thanks to Jonathan Miller & Livia Bloom (Icarus Films), Carlos Gutiérrez (Cinema Tropical), María Elena Cabezut & Aldo Sánchez (Mexican Cultural Institute), Mary Kerr (Flaherty Seminar), and Steve Holmgren.

The most highly praised and awarded Mexican documentary in many years, THE INHERITORS immerses us in the daily lives of children who, with their families, survive only by their unrelenting labor. Polgovsky, director of the similarly acclaimed documentary TROPIC OF CANCER (2004), spent two years filming in many of the poorest rural areas of Mexico, where children barely bigger than the buckets they carry work long hours, in often hazardous conditions, picking tomatoes, peppers, or beans, for which they are paid by weight. Infants in baskets are left alone in the hot sun, or are breast-fed by mothers while they pick crops.

THE INHERITORS also observes other labor routines, including the production of earthen bricks, cutting cane, gathering firewood, ox-plowing fields, and planting by hand, and artistic endeavors such as carving wooden figures and weaving baskets to sell. Documenting a world in which everyone, from the frailest elders to the smallest of toddlers, must work, THE INHERITORS explores how the cycle of poverty is passed on, from one generation to another. The children Polgovsky films have inherited tools and techniques from their ancestors, but they have also inherited their day-to-day hardships and toil.

“The harsh, relentlessly arduous conditions experienced by children toiling in the Mexican countryside are observed with striking vision and cinematic poetry.” –Robert Koehler, VARIETY

“An impressive depiction of the bleak lives of Mexico’s rural population…reminiscent of the early socio-critical works of directors such as Jean Rouch and Fernando Birri.” –BERLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

(DAS IST ALLES)

“‘That’s all’: This sentence is often heard in stories told by the villagers in Jesnaja Poljana, Russia. Usually concluding their observations and comments, this lapidary turn of phrase does not indicate that they have nothing to say, but rather expresses the opinion that what they can say about their lives is nothing out of the ordinary. Sweeping views of the village and the surrounding countryside punctuate the conversations; there is no commentary. The narratives gradually tell the history of the village, about the movements of people around the former Soviet Union and the government’s settlement policy of the past few decades.” –Isabella Reicher

Unless otherwise noted, all films are silent.
ROSE HOBART (1939, 20 min, 16mm, sound)
COTILLION (1940s-1969, 8 min, 16mm, b&w)
THE MIDNIGHT PARTY (1940s-1968, 3.5 min, 16mm, b&w)
THE CHILDREN’S PARTY (1940s-1968, 8 min, 16mm)
CENTURIES OF JUNE (1955, 10 min, 16mm)
AVIARY (1955, 11 min, 16mm, b&w)
GNIR REDNOW (1955, 5 min, 16mm, photographed by Stan Brakhage)
NYMPHLIGHT (1957, 8 min, 16mm)
A LEGEND FOR FOUNTAINS (1957/65, 17 min, 16mm, b&w)
ANGEL (1957, 3 min, 16mm)
The poet of magic realities. Pioneer of recycled (found) images. ROSE HOBART and the Trilogy (COTILLION, MIDNIGHT PARTY & CHILDREN’S PARTY) are some of the earliest collage films created. The others were directed by Cornell (and photographed by Stan Brakhage and Rudy Burckhardt among others) at some of his favorite locations.
Total running time: ca. 105 min.

NEW YORK THEATRICAL PREMIERE RUN!

Distributed by Icarus Films, and co-presented by Cinema Tropical, the Mexican Cultural Institute of New York, and the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar; special thanks to Jonathan Miller & Livia Bloom (Icarus Films), Carlos Gutiérrez (Cinema Tropical), María Elena Cabezut & Aldo Sánchez (Mexican Cultural Institute), Mary Kerr (Flaherty Seminar), and Steve Holmgren.

The most highly praised and awarded Mexican documentary in many years, THE INHERITORS immerses us in the daily lives of children who, with their families, survive only by their unrelenting labor. Polgovsky, director of the similarly acclaimed documentary TROPIC OF CANCER (2004), spent two years filming in many of the poorest rural areas of Mexico, where children barely bigger than the buckets they carry work long hours, in often hazardous conditions, picking tomatoes, peppers, or beans, for which they are paid by weight. Infants in baskets are left alone in the hot sun, or are breast-fed by mothers while they pick crops.

THE INHERITORS also observes other labor routines, including the production of earthen bricks, cutting cane, gathering firewood, ox-plowing fields, and planting by hand, and artistic endeavors such as carving wooden figures and weaving baskets to sell. Documenting a world in which everyone, from the frailest elders to the smallest of toddlers, must work, THE INHERITORS explores how the cycle of poverty is passed on, from one generation to another. The children Polgovsky films have inherited tools and techniques from their ancestors, but they have also inherited their day-to-day hardships and toil.

“The harsh, relentlessly arduous conditions experienced by children toiling in the Mexican countryside are observed with striking vision and cinematic poetry.” –Robert Koehler, VARIETY

“An impressive depiction of the bleak lives of Mexico’s rural population…reminiscent of the early socio-critical works of directors such as Jean Rouch and Fernando Birri.” –BERLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

This episodic film describes the daily struggle for survival of modern nomads in Italy. Over the period of one year it follows the young Babooska, who runs a traveling circus with her family, on her odyssey through remote areas of the country. It is an unvarnished look behind the scenes of a microcosm on the fringes of society – beyond the usual stereotypes, without commentary, without interviews.

“A road movie without kitschy travel images. It describes, with melancholy and humor, not only the modern nomads’ dying way of life, but also the general human condition of being on a journey between a glorious past and an uncertain future, between despair and the hope that life could always be like a ‘modern, well-heated circus’.” –Günter Pscheider

(AUFZEICHNUNGEN AUS DEM TIEFPARTERRE)

A radical look into the mind of the ‘man on the street’. Peter Haindl, a hospital orderly in Vienna, shot these home movies from 1993 to 1999. They were then given to Frimmel, who created this 90-minute compilation.
“While striking various poses around his apartment, Haindl addresses an imaginary public, his speeches ranging from defiant to contrite. … His monologues deal with the usual prejudices, such as those against women and foreigners, and none of them can be reduced to a single coherent point of view. Commonplaces are qualified with contradictions and self-irony, and his tirades occasionally swerve in the direction of serious analysis. The state of pandemonium which characterizes the Austrian soul is depicted as a labyrinth of rhetoric.” –Dominik Kamalzadeh

FILMMAKERS IN PERSON FOR THE SCREENING ON THURS, SEPT 8!

All films are silent.
BOYS’ GAMES (1957, 5 min, 16mm)
BOOKSTALLS (ca. late-1930s, 11 min, 16mm)
BY NIGHT WITH TORCH AND SPEAR (ca. 1940s, 9 min, 16mm)
NEW YORK–ROME–BARCELONA–BRUSSELS (ca. 1940s, 10 min, 16mm)
VAUDEVILLE DE-LUXE (ca. 1940s, 12 min, 16mm)
MULBERRY STREET (ca. 1957, 9 min, 16mm, b&w, with Rudy Burckhardt)
JOANNE, UNION SQUARE (1955, 8 min, 16mm, with Rudy Burckhardt)
CLOCHES À TRAVERS LES FEUILLES (ca. 1957, 4 min, 16mm)
CHILDREN (ca. 1957, 8 min, 16mm)
Rare Cornell; more magic cinema from the master collagist. Variations of films made by Cornell, plus collage films discovered by archivists after his death.
Total running time: ca. 85 min.

NEW YORK THEATRICAL PREMIERE RUN!

Distributed by Icarus Films, and co-presented by Cinema Tropical, the Mexican Cultural Institute of New York, and the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar; special thanks to Jonathan Miller & Livia Bloom (Icarus Films), Carlos Gutiérrez (Cinema Tropical), María Elena Cabezut & Aldo Sánchez (Mexican Cultural Institute), Mary Kerr (Flaherty Seminar), and Steve Holmgren.

The most highly praised and awarded Mexican documentary in many years, THE INHERITORS immerses us in the daily lives of children who, with their families, survive only by their unrelenting labor. Polgovsky, director of the similarly acclaimed documentary TROPIC OF CANCER (2004), spent two years filming in many of the poorest rural areas of Mexico, where children barely bigger than the buckets they carry work long hours, in often hazardous conditions, picking tomatoes, peppers, or beans, for which they are paid by weight. Infants in baskets are left alone in the hot sun, or are breast-fed by mothers while they pick crops.

THE INHERITORS also observes other labor routines, including the production of earthen bricks, cutting cane, gathering firewood, ox-plowing fields, and planting by hand, and artistic endeavors such as carving wooden figures and weaving baskets to sell. Documenting a world in which everyone, from the frailest elders to the smallest of toddlers, must work, THE INHERITORS explores how the cycle of poverty is passed on, from one generation to another. The children Polgovsky films have inherited tools and techniques from their ancestors, but they have also inherited their day-to-day hardships and toil.

“The harsh, relentlessly arduous conditions experienced by children toiling in the Mexican countryside are observed with striking vision and cinematic poetry.” –Robert Koehler, VARIETY

“An impressive depiction of the bleak lives of Mexico’s rural population…reminiscent of the early socio-critical works of directors such as Jean Rouch and Fernando Birri.” –BERLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

(DAS IST ALLES)

“‘That’s all’: This sentence is often heard in stories told by the villagers in Jesnaja Poljana, Russia. Usually concluding their observations and comments, this lapidary turn of phrase does not indicate that they have nothing to say, but rather expresses the opinion that what they can say about their lives is nothing out of the ordinary. Sweeping views of the village and the surrounding countryside punctuate the conversations; there is no commentary. The narratives gradually tell the history of the village, about the movements of people around the former Soviet Union and the government’s settlement policy of the past few decades.” –Isabella Reicher

This episodic film describes the daily struggle for survival of modern nomads in Italy. Over the period of one year it follows the young Babooska, who runs a traveling circus with her family, on her odyssey through remote areas of the country. It is an unvarnished look behind the scenes of a microcosm on the fringes of society – beyond the usual stereotypes, without commentary, without interviews.

“A road movie without kitschy travel images. It describes, with melancholy and humor, not only the modern nomads’ dying way of life, but also the general human condition of being on a journey between a glorious past and an uncertain future, between despair and the hope that life could always be like a ‘modern, well-heated circus’.” –Günter Pscheider

NEW YORK THEATRICAL PREMIERE RUN!

Distributed by Icarus Films, and co-presented by Cinema Tropical, the Mexican Cultural Institute of New York, and the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar; special thanks to Jonathan Miller & Livia Bloom (Icarus Films), Carlos Gutiérrez (Cinema Tropical), María Elena Cabezut & Aldo Sánchez (Mexican Cultural Institute), Mary Kerr (Flaherty Seminar), and Steve Holmgren.

The most highly praised and awarded Mexican documentary in many years, THE INHERITORS immerses us in the daily lives of children who, with their families, survive only by their unrelenting labor. Polgovsky, director of the similarly acclaimed documentary TROPIC OF CANCER (2004), spent two years filming in many of the poorest rural areas of Mexico, where children barely bigger than the buckets they carry work long hours, in often hazardous conditions, picking tomatoes, peppers, or beans, for which they are paid by weight. Infants in baskets are left alone in the hot sun, or are breast-fed by mothers while they pick crops.

THE INHERITORS also observes other labor routines, including the production of earthen bricks, cutting cane, gathering firewood, ox-plowing fields, and planting by hand, and artistic endeavors such as carving wooden figures and weaving baskets to sell. Documenting a world in which everyone, from the frailest elders to the smallest of toddlers, must work, THE INHERITORS explores how the cycle of poverty is passed on, from one generation to another. The children Polgovsky films have inherited tools and techniques from their ancestors, but they have also inherited their day-to-day hardships and toil.

“The harsh, relentlessly arduous conditions experienced by children toiling in the Mexican countryside are observed with striking vision and cinematic poetry.” –Robert Koehler, VARIETY

“An impressive depiction of the bleak lives of Mexico’s rural population…reminiscent of the early socio-critical works of directors such as Jean Rouch and Fernando Birri.” –BERLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Sound recording and design can help capture a cultural environment, sculpt a sense of place, or evoke a historical period. FLAHERTY NYC kicks off its fourth season with a program of films from the recent 2011 Robert Flaherty Film Seminar, titled SONIC TRUTH, which featured a diverse group of filmmakers working in nonfiction and hybrid media to examine the sound and musical elements of their work.
Sid Laverents MULTIPLE SIDOSIS (10 minutes)
Lillian F. Schwartz PIXILLATION (4 minutes)
Lillian F. Schwartz THE ARTIST AND THE COMPUTER (11 minutes)
Lillian F. Schwartz UFO’S (3 minutes)
Lillian F. Schwartz GALAXIES (3 minutes)
Frank Scheffer FROM ZERO (55 minutes)
Total running time: ca. 90 minutes.

NEW YORK THEATRICAL PREMIERE RUN!

Distributed by Icarus Films, and co-presented by Cinema Tropical, the Mexican Cultural Institute of New York, and the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar; special thanks to Jonathan Miller & Livia Bloom (Icarus Films), Carlos Gutiérrez (Cinema Tropical), María Elena Cabezut & Aldo Sánchez (Mexican Cultural Institute), Mary Kerr (Flaherty Seminar), and Steve Holmgren.

The most highly praised and awarded Mexican documentary in many years, THE INHERITORS immerses us in the daily lives of children who, with their families, survive only by their unrelenting labor. Polgovsky, director of the similarly acclaimed documentary TROPIC OF CANCER (2004), spent two years filming in many of the poorest rural areas of Mexico, where children barely bigger than the buckets they carry work long hours, in often hazardous conditions, picking tomatoes, peppers, or beans, for which they are paid by weight. Infants in baskets are left alone in the hot sun, or are breast-fed by mothers while they pick crops.

THE INHERITORS also observes other labor routines, including the production of earthen bricks, cutting cane, gathering firewood, ox-plowing fields, and planting by hand, and artistic endeavors such as carving wooden figures and weaving baskets to sell. Documenting a world in which everyone, from the frailest elders to the smallest of toddlers, must work, THE INHERITORS explores how the cycle of poverty is passed on, from one generation to another. The children Polgovsky films have inherited tools and techniques from their ancestors, but they have also inherited their day-to-day hardships and toil.

“The harsh, relentlessly arduous conditions experienced by children toiling in the Mexican countryside are observed with striking vision and cinematic poetry.” –Robert Koehler, VARIETY

“An impressive depiction of the bleak lives of Mexico’s rural population…reminiscent of the early socio-critical works of directors such as Jean Rouch and Fernando Birri.” –BERLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

NEWFILMMAKERS PRESENTS ‘SOLITARY CHILD’

DOCUMENTARY SERIES
Emiliano Dante INTO THE BLUE (2009, 75 minutes, video)

SHORT FILM PROGRAM
Marcus Liberski WAR PAINT (2011, 14 minutes, 16mm)
Sandy Garfunkel PERHAPS TOMORROW (2010, 21 minutes, video)
Eddie Green BURNING BRIDGES (2011, 30 minutes, video)

FEATURE PRESENTATION
Jeff Feldman
SOLITARY CHILD
2011, 93 minutes, video.
Ricky, a high school baseball star, causes an automobile accident only weeks before graduation. Unable to cope with his guilt, he leaves New Jersey and goes to Boston to start a new life away from the responsibilities of his former one.

–Wednesday, September 14, Documentaries at 6:00, Short Film Program at 7:30, Feature Presentation at 8:45.

NEW YORK THEATRICAL PREMIERE RUN!

Distributed by Icarus Films, and co-presented by Cinema Tropical, the Mexican Cultural Institute of New York, and the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar; special thanks to Jonathan Miller & Livia Bloom (Icarus Films), Carlos Gutiérrez (Cinema Tropical), María Elena Cabezut & Aldo Sánchez (Mexican Cultural Institute), Mary Kerr (Flaherty Seminar), and Steve Holmgren.

The most highly praised and awarded Mexican documentary in many years, THE INHERITORS immerses us in the daily lives of children who, with their families, survive only by their unrelenting labor. Polgovsky, director of the similarly acclaimed documentary TROPIC OF CANCER (2004), spent two years filming in many of the poorest rural areas of Mexico, where children barely bigger than the buckets they carry work long hours, in often hazardous conditions, picking tomatoes, peppers, or beans, for which they are paid by weight. Infants in baskets are left alone in the hot sun, or are breast-fed by mothers while they pick crops.

THE INHERITORS also observes other labor routines, including the production of earthen bricks, cutting cane, gathering firewood, ox-plowing fields, and planting by hand, and artistic endeavors such as carving wooden figures and weaving baskets to sell. Documenting a world in which everyone, from the frailest elders to the smallest of toddlers, must work, THE INHERITORS explores how the cycle of poverty is passed on, from one generation to another. The children Polgovsky films have inherited tools and techniques from their ancestors, but they have also inherited their day-to-day hardships and toil.

“The harsh, relentlessly arduous conditions experienced by children toiling in the Mexican countryside are observed with striking vision and cinematic poetry.” –Robert Koehler, VARIETY

“An impressive depiction of the bleak lives of Mexico’s rural population…reminiscent of the early socio-critical works of directors such as Jean Rouch and Fernando Birri.” –BERLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

THE CRIME OF THE SPINNING TOP / EL CRIMEN DE LA PIRINDOLA (1965, 18 minutes, 16mm-to-video)
IMITATION OF THE ANGEL / IMITACIÓN DEL ÁNGEL (1966, 22 minutes, 16mm-to-video)
THE CRIMINAL TOY / LE JOUET CRIMINEL (1969, 37 minutes, 16mm-to-video)
With Jean Marais, Florence Delay Xavier Grandes, Michèle Moretti, Philippe Bruneau, and André Julien.
“Making use of a high-contrast b&w, evoking the spirit of amateur cinema, and punctuated with fleeting, abrupt movement, these films set up an unexpected counterpoint between an everyday world given over to idleness, and a hallucinatory other-world, complicit in crime and conspiracy. A cross between a waking dream and a sibylline drama, the films make an impression through the lyricism of their images – a luminous ball turning around and around, a face above water, a top spinning on a book – and the vibrancy of the editing.” –Erik Bullot
Total running time: ca. 85 minutes.

NEW YORK THEATRICAL PREMIERE RUN!

Distributed by Icarus Films, and co-presented by Cinema Tropical, the Mexican Cultural Institute of New York, and the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar; special thanks to Jonathan Miller & Livia Bloom (Icarus Films), Carlos Gutiérrez (Cinema Tropical), María Elena Cabezut & Aldo Sánchez (Mexican Cultural Institute), Mary Kerr (Flaherty Seminar), and Steve Holmgren.

The most highly praised and awarded Mexican documentary in many years, THE INHERITORS immerses us in the daily lives of children who, with their families, survive only by their unrelenting labor. Polgovsky, director of the similarly acclaimed documentary TROPIC OF CANCER (2004), spent two years filming in many of the poorest rural areas of Mexico, where children barely bigger than the buckets they carry work long hours, in often hazardous conditions, picking tomatoes, peppers, or beans, for which they are paid by weight. Infants in baskets are left alone in the hot sun, or are breast-fed by mothers while they pick crops.

THE INHERITORS also observes other labor routines, including the production of earthen bricks, cutting cane, gathering firewood, ox-plowing fields, and planting by hand, and artistic endeavors such as carving wooden figures and weaving baskets to sell. Documenting a world in which everyone, from the frailest elders to the smallest of toddlers, must work, THE INHERITORS explores how the cycle of poverty is passed on, from one generation to another. The children Polgovsky films have inherited tools and techniques from their ancestors, but they have also inherited their day-to-day hardships and toil.

“The harsh, relentlessly arduous conditions experienced by children toiling in the Mexican countryside are observed with striking vision and cinematic poetry.” –Robert Koehler, VARIETY

“An impressive depiction of the bleak lives of Mexico’s rural population…reminiscent of the early socio-critical works of directors such as Jean Rouch and Fernando Birri.” –BERLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

With Françoise Lebrun, Dyonis Mascolo, Xavier Grandes, and Virginie Mascolo.
An unusual voyage to the world of childhood, this film creates an unusual ambience in which it is impossible to distinguish between living and dreaming. A work of great poetic force, praised by Marguerite Duras and inspired by one of the novels of the Marquis de Sade.
“The material that Arrietta employs is minimal. Admirably transparent, we could almost say empty. We see nothing at the same time as we are engaged in seeing. We comprehend nothing at the same time as we comprehend everything. I believe cinema has not shined this way in a long time.” –Marguerite Duras
With:
VACANZA PERMANENTE
2006, 39 minutes, video. No dialogue.
Total running time: ca. 70 minutes.

(NORTEADO)

“Cinema’s fascination with illegal border crossings between Mexico and the U.S. gets a totally fresh take in this delicately poised film. Focused on how life is lived precariously between desperate attempts to cross over, the story follows Oaxaca-born Andrés as he bides his time in Tijuana. He finds a little work at a convenience store and gets friendly with the two women who run it. As the relationships deepen and their individual stories emerge, the emotional costs of the ties that bind are explored with great sensitivity. The sincerity of the minimal story line is balanced by a liberating humor and breathtakingly beautiful images that give life and dignity to Andrés and his fellow travelers.” –NEW DIRECTORS/NEW FILMS

(LES INTRIGUES DE SYLVIA COUSKI)
With Marie-France, Michèle Moretti, Howard Vernon, Xavier Grandes, and Severo Sarduy.
This film is a musical comedy, or maybe a fairy tale… A story as a pretext for a series of portraits, and a series of portraits as a pretext for an invented story in an invented city (Paris), a city of transvestites trying to relive the Belle Époque of festivities and art.
“[Arrietta’s film] was made in Paris so I thought it was French and I was surprised to see a French film recording the world of the transvestite because this subject has been a tabu [sic] in modern (new) French cinema. Later I found out that Arrietta was Spanish, from Madrid, and that Paris was only one of his stations. French or Spanish – I found Arrietta’s film compelling, informative, entertaining, and beautiful. As I said, its subject is the Paris transvestite scene and it’s depicted with the flair of Jack Smith, the directness of Andy Warhol, and the special tenderness of Arrietta. I salute the Poet.” –Jonas Mekas
&
ECO Y NARCISO  (2003, 18 minutes, video. In Spanish with English subtitles.)
Total running time: ca. 95 minutes.

(EL CALAMBRE)

Julien, a young French comedian, disembarks in Chacahua, a fishing community on Mexico’s pacific coast. His spiritual search, framed by stunning natural scenery, barely conceals his social failure. He is adrift in a world that is completely foreign to him. Then he meets Pablo, a local fisherman who will guide him towards spiritual healing. Relating to this patient, simple man helps Julien come to terms with himself. Based on a short story by celebrated Chinese writer Gao Xingjian, Meyer’s second feature film is a contemplative meditation on anxiety and solitude.

With Xavier Grandes, Severo Sarduy, Jonas Mekas, and Hollis Mekas.
The marginal denizens of Saint-Germain-des-Prés organize a party in honor of an unknown beauty whose arrival everyone waits for in vain.
“TAM TAM is a premonitory film. It speaks only of earthquakes, floods, catastrophes. In one scene, Severo Sarduy, who invented his dialogue himself, says: ‘It appears that this black cloud which surrounds Neptune is not due, as you might think, to carbon dioxide, but to the fall-out from a giant explosion produced by an accumulation of energy.’ It may be that the earth is doomed to the same fate.” –A.A.
&
GRENOUILLE
1983, 30 minutes, 16mm-to-video. In French with English subtitles.
Total running time: ca. 95 minutes.

“Dipping a toe into (early) Errol Morris docu waters, Yulene Olaizola sustains a strange, unsettling mood.” –VARIETY

Yulene Olaizola’s debut film is a thought-provoking portrait of two lonely and strangely intertwined friends. For years, Olaizola’s grandmother Rosa told stories of a handsome young lodger. Living under (and on top of) her roof in the 1980s, he painted strange pictures on the walls and played an important role in Rosa’s emotional life. But this picture of a pleasant, harmless and creative young man slowly gives way to a shocking end.

(AÑO UÑA)

“The serious artistic drive to meld fine photography with cinema is married to a charming tale of young almostlove in Jonás Cuarón’s sweet and memorable debut. The project represents a year’s worth of photos Cuarón took of spontaneous events and day-to-day activities. The fictional narrative about 14-year-old Diego and visiting American college girl Molly gradually emerged out of organizing the photos into sequences, with all but one of the original subjects recording the soundtrack’s voiceover dialogue. … [A] thoughtful, tender but quite hip look at two young people with too much separating them for a match to ever be possible.” –Robert Koehler, VARIETY

THE CRIME OF THE SPINNING TOP / EL CRIMEN DE LA PIRINDOLA (1965, 18 minutes, 16mm-to-video)
IMITATION OF THE ANGEL / IMITACIÓN DEL ÁNGEL (1966, 22 minutes, 16mm-to-video)
THE CRIMINAL TOY / LE JOUET CRIMINEL (1969, 37 minutes, 16mm-to-video)
With Jean Marais, Florence Delay Xavier Grandes, Michèle Moretti, Philippe Bruneau, and André Julien.
“Making use of a high-contrast b&w, evoking the spirit of amateur cinema, and punctuated with fleeting, abrupt movement, these films set up an unexpected counterpoint between an everyday world given over to idleness, and a hallucinatory other-world, complicit in crime and conspiracy. A cross between a waking dream and a sibylline drama, the films make an impression through the lyricism of their images – a luminous ball turning around and around, a face above water, a top spinning on a book – and the vibrancy of the editing.” –Erik Bullot
Total running time: ca. 85 minutes.

The debut feature from writer-director Castro is an understated and sensitive drama about a family that gathers at their mother’s home on the anniversary of her death. They are overwhelmed with grief and a shared sentiment of haunting absence. At the center of it all is Uncle Manuel, a remarkable man who holds the clan together by doing all he can to help, which includes raising his brother’s children and assisting his trade unionist brother-in-law. Amid lost dreams, the family struggles to survive with one another, but most importantly, with themselves.

With Caroline Loeb, Dyonis Mascolo, Javier Grandes, Pascal Greggory, Isabel Garcia Lorca, Marilu Marini, Jeffrey Carey, and Paquita Paquin.
Barbara, a young girl, lives in an immense house with Louis, her divorced father, and her governess, Anne. The little girl is frequently assailed by nightmares, repeatedly dreaming of a fireman who comes in through the window of her bedroom while she sleeps. Louis dismisses Anne, believing that Barbara’s terror is being provoked by the terrifying stories she tells her…
“[FLAMMES was at first] an amorous triangle between father, daughter, and governess…and suddenly I had the vision of the fireman. … As soon as he appeared, with the madness he provoked, I had the impression of venturing into a very different story: an immoral tale…” –A.A.

Beto is the custodian of a house in Mexico City, left empty for several years, in which he used to work as a domestic helper. The solitude of the last ten years coupled with the monotony and routine of his job have led him to develop a pathological fear of the world outside, to the point of limiting his contacts to only two people: the owner of the house, for whom he has a feeling of deep gratitude and respect that is translated into obedience; and Lupe, a friend, a confidante, and a lover. News that the house is to go on sale causes a dilemma for Beto, who doesn’t know whether he should dare to set forth and live or seek a way of remaining in his confinement.

(LES INTRIGUES DE SYLVIA COUSKI)
With Marie-France, Michèle Moretti, Howard Vernon, Xavier Grandes, and Severo Sarduy.
This film is a musical comedy, or maybe a fairy tale… A story as a pretext for a series of portraits, and a series of portraits as a pretext for an invented story in an invented city (Paris), a city of transvestites trying to relive the Belle Époque of festivities and art.
“[Arrietta’s film] was made in Paris so I thought it was French and I was surprised to see a French film recording the world of the transvestite because this subject has been a tabu [sic] in modern (new) French cinema. Later I found out that Arrietta was Spanish, from Madrid, and that Paris was only one of his stations. French or Spanish – I found Arrietta’s film compelling, informative, entertaining, and beautiful. As I said, its subject is the Paris transvestite scene and it’s depicted with the flair of Jack Smith, the directness of Andy Warhol, and the special tenderness of Arrietta. I salute the Poet.” –Jonas Mekas
&
ECO Y NARCISO  (2003, 18 minutes, video. In Spanish with English subtitles.)
Total running time: ca. 95 minutes.

(MÁS QUE A NADA EN EL MUNDO)

Alicia, a seven-year-old girl, lives in an apartment with her mother. When the mother, after a sentimental setback, goes into a depression that makes her sleep for days on end, Alicia and her friend Lucía decide that an old man who lives next door is to blame; he has a gruesome aspect and is surely a vampire trying to possess her mother. So, Alicia decides to go into the neighbor’s apartment to put an end to the curse. Hailed by VARIETY as an “affecting feature debut”, this film by co-writer/director team Becker and Solar features a powerful performance by Elizabeth Cervantes in the role of the afflicted single mother.

Two interlaced stories unfold over the course of the same long, hot day in the once lush and now decadent resort town of Acapulco. The first involves the beautiful and cool Fernanda, who is forced to deal with the sudden emergence of the ex-lover, Chino. Her boyfriend, Gonzalo, must now compete with the intense sexual tension Fernanda and Chino share. The second story concerns Jamie, an office worker with hidden indiscretions, attempting suicide in a beach-front hotel until a precocious and equally dishonest teenage girl disrupts the plan. They will all converge in a stark and harrowing portrayal of moral ambiguity, in the debut feature by filmmaker Gerardo Naranjo, director of the recent Cannes favorite MISS BALA.

With Caroline Loeb, Dyonis Mascolo, Javier Grandes, Pascal Greggory, Isabel Garcia Lorca, Marilu Marini, Jeffrey Carey, and Paquita Paquin.
Barbara, a young girl, lives in an immense house with Louis, her divorced father, and her governess, Anne. The little girl is frequently assailed by nightmares, repeatedly dreaming of a fireman who comes in through the window of her bedroom while she sleeps. Louis dismisses Anne, believing that Barbara’s terror is being provoked by the terrifying stories she tells her…
“[FLAMMES was at first] an amorous triangle between father, daughter, and governess…and suddenly I had the vision of the fireman. … As soon as he appeared, with the madness he provoked, I had the impression of venturing into a very different story: an immoral tale…” –A.A.

(RABIOSO SOL, RABIOSO CIELO)

Co-presented by MIX NYC.

“One of the most consistent, revelatory cinematic visions anywhere in the world today.” –Michael Koresky, REVERSE SHOT

This is the third and final installment of a trilogy by Hernández, who has been described by Armond White as “Mexico’s finest, yet critically neglected, auteur.” An epic gay romance, the film is a passionate exploration of love, sex, and destiny that tells the story of Kieri and Ryo, two young men whose love is set to a test in a mythical struggle in which loss and death are but inevitable phases in the journey towards happiness. Winner of the Teddy Award for Best Feature at the 2009 Berlin Film Festival, Hernández’s film is a ravishing meditation on the power of desire.

With Xavier Grandes, Severo Sarduy, Jonas Mekas, and Hollis Mekas.
The marginal denizens of Saint-Germain-des-Prés organize a party in honor of an unknown beauty whose arrival everyone waits for in vain.
“TAM TAM is a premonitory film. It speaks only of earthquakes, floods, catastrophes. In one scene, Severo Sarduy, who invented his dialogue himself, says: ‘It appears that this black cloud which surrounds Neptune is not due, as you might think, to carbon dioxide, but to the fall-out from a giant explosion produced by an accumulation of energy.’ It may be that the earth is doomed to the same fate.” –A.A.
&
GRENOUILLE
1983, 30 minutes, 16mm-to-video. In French with English subtitles.
Total running time: ca. 95 minutes.

With Françoise Lebrun, Dyonis Mascolo, Xavier Grandes, and Virginie Mascolo.
An unusual voyage to the world of childhood, this film creates an unusual ambience in which it is impossible to distinguish between living and dreaming. A work of great poetic force, praised by Marguerite Duras and inspired by one of the novels of the Marquis de Sade.
“The material that Arrietta employs is minimal. Admirably transparent, we could almost say empty. We see nothing at the same time as we are engaged in seeing. We comprehend nothing at the same time as we comprehend everything. I believe cinema has not shined this way in a long time.” –Marguerite Duras
With:
VACANZA PERMANENTE
2006, 39 minutes, video. No dialogue.
Total running time: ca. 70 minutes.

(NORTEADO)

“Cinema’s fascination with illegal border crossings between Mexico and the U.S. gets a totally fresh take in this delicately poised film. Focused on how life is lived precariously between desperate attempts to cross over, the story follows Oaxaca-born Andrés as he bides his time in Tijuana. He finds a little work at a convenience store and gets friendly with the two women who run it. As the relationships deepen and their individual stories emerge, the emotional costs of the ties that bind are explored with great sensitivity. The sincerity of the minimal story line is balanced by a liberating humor and breathtakingly beautiful images that give life and dignity to Andrés and his fellow travelers.” –NEW DIRECTORS/NEW FILMS

At the furthermost bounds of a frozen sea, a boat approaches land. Human silhouettes emerge from it. From their immutable world, the ice, the stones, and the animals of Greenland witness the arrival of scientists who come each summer to study them. LES HOMMES offers an uncanny experience: while offering the opportunity for a sustained observation of nature, it also invites the viewer to adopt the perspective of the natural order itself, communicating a sense of the gaps that separate geologic and human time, the scientific gesture from animal subjectivity, the love of nature from vegetal indifference.

(EL CALAMBRE)

Julien, a young French comedian, disembarks in Chacahua, a fishing community on Mexico’s pacific coast. His spiritual search, framed by stunning natural scenery, barely conceals his social failure. He is adrift in a world that is completely foreign to him. Then he meets Pablo, a local fisherman who will guide him towards spiritual healing. Relating to this patient, simple man helps Julien come to terms with himself. Based on a short story by celebrated Chinese writer Gao Xingjian, Meyer’s second feature film is a contemplative meditation on anxiety and solitude.

“Dipping a toe into (early) Errol Morris docu waters, Yulene Olaizola sustains a strange, unsettling mood.” –VARIETY

Yulene Olaizola’s debut film is a thought-provoking portrait of two lonely and strangely intertwined friends. For years, Olaizola’s grandmother Rosa told stories of a handsome young lodger. Living under (and on top of) her roof in the 1980s, he painted strange pictures on the walls and played an important role in Rosa’s emotional life. But this picture of a pleasant, harmless and creative young man slowly gives way to a shocking end.

HORSE DREAM (2004, 10 minutes)
AFTER THE RAIN (2003, 8 minutes)
ON THE EARTH (2005, 13 minutes)
HERE (2005, 13 minutes)
THE ROUND EYES (2006, 6.5 minutes)
THE BEAM (2010, 2 minutes)
THE CELLAR (2010, 13 minutes)
Plus:
THE SCREENING: TRAILER (2010, 2 minutes)
and other surprises!
Total running time: ca. 75 minutes.

NEWFILMMAKERS WELCOMES THE DIGITAL FILM ACADEMY

SPECIAL PROGRAM
With The Digital Film Academy
Check www.newfilmmakers.com for more details.

FIRST SHORT FILM PROGRAM
Jason Kent Carpenter AGENT 6 (2011, 9 minutes, video)
George Baslev THE CLEANERS (2011, 9 minutes, video)
Larin Sullivan THE JOB (2011, 13 minutes, video)
Juan Carlos Guerra SENTIDO OBLIGATORIO (2010, 15 minutes, video)

SECOND SHORT FILM PROGRAM
Josh Accardo TUCK DAVIS (2011, 32 minutes, video)
Brandon Boudreaux DOWN AND ACROSS (2010, 33 minutes, video)

FEATURE PRESENTATION
Keith Rocheleau
KINGS & NINES
2011, 67 minutes, video.
A conman is forced by crooked law enforcement officers to hustle an underground gambling ring, but he has plans of his own.

–Tuesday, September 20, Special Program at 6:00, First Short Film Program at 8:00, Second Short Film Program at 9:00, Feature Presentation at 10:15.

Two interlaced stories unfold over the course of the same long, hot day in the once lush and now decadent resort town of Acapulco. The first involves the beautiful and cool Fernanda, who is forced to deal with the sudden emergence of the ex-lover, Chino. Her boyfriend, Gonzalo, must now compete with the intense sexual tension Fernanda and Chino share. The second story concerns Jamie, an office worker with hidden indiscretions, attempting suicide in a beach-front hotel until a precocious and equally dishonest teenage girl disrupts the plan. They will all converge in a stark and harrowing portrayal of moral ambiguity, in the debut feature by filmmaker Gerardo Naranjo, director of the recent Cannes favorite MISS BALA.

(MÁS QUE A NADA EN EL MUNDO)

Alicia, a seven-year-old girl, lives in an apartment with her mother. When the mother, after a sentimental setback, goes into a depression that makes her sleep for days on end, Alicia and her friend Lucía decide that an old man who lives next door is to blame; he has a gruesome aspect and is surely a vampire trying to possess her mother. So, Alicia decides to go into the neighbor’s apartment to put an end to the curse. Hailed by VARIETY as an “affecting feature debut”, this film by co-writer/director team Becker and Solar features a powerful performance by Elizabeth Cervantes in the role of the afflicted single mother.

Beto is the custodian of a house in Mexico City, left empty for several years, in which he used to work as a domestic helper. The solitude of the last ten years coupled with the monotony and routine of his job have led him to develop a pathological fear of the world outside, to the point of limiting his contacts to only two people: the owner of the house, for whom he has a feeling of deep gratitude and respect that is translated into obedience; and Lupe, a friend, a confidante, and a lover. News that the house is to go on sale causes a dilemma for Beto, who doesn’t know whether he should dare to set forth and live or seek a way of remaining in his confinement.

SULLIVAN’S BANKS / SULLIVANS BANKEN
1993-2000, 38 minutes, 35mm.
During the twilight of his career, legendary Chicago architect Louis Sullivan – called the ‘Father of Modernism’ – constructed the eight banks that are showcased here. Collectively referred to as Sullivan’s Jewel Boxes, these banks are located in ordinary small towns across America’s heartland.
&
LOOS ORNAMENTAL
2008, 72 minutes, 35mm.
The film shows 27 still-existing buildings and interiors by Austrian architect Adolf Loos (1870–1933) in order of their construction. Loos was one of the pioneers of European Modernist architecture. His vehement turn against ornamentation on buildings triggered a controversy in architectural theory.
Total running time: ca. 115 minutes.

The debut feature from writer-director Castro is an understated and sensitive drama about a family that gathers at their mother’s home on the anniversary of her death. They are overwhelmed with grief and a shared sentiment of haunting absence. At the center of it all is Uncle Manuel, a remarkable man who holds the clan together by doing all he can to help, which includes raising his brother’s children and assisting his trade unionist brother-in-law. Amid lost dreams, the family struggles to survive with one another, but most importantly, with themselves.

(AÑO UÑA)

“The serious artistic drive to meld fine photography with cinema is married to a charming tale of young almostlove in Jonás Cuarón’s sweet and memorable debut. The project represents a year’s worth of photos Cuarón took of spontaneous events and day-to-day activities. The fictional narrative about 14-year-old Diego and visiting American college girl Molly gradually emerged out of organizing the photos into sequences, with all but one of the original subjects recording the soundtrack’s voiceover dialogue. … [A] thoughtful, tender but quite hip look at two young people with too much separating them for a match to ever be possible.” –Robert Koehler, VARIETY

(GOFF IN DER WÜSTE)

Documents 62 buildings – from small petrol stations to representative museums – designed by Bruce Goff (1904-82), the great unknown of a distinctively American form of architecture. As such, it is the first comprehensive filmic catalogue of nearly all his surviving creations. Goff is the great unknown of a distinctively American form of architecture. His constructions and designs run contrary to the ideals of the well-known International Style movement. Sparking legendary controversies during his lifetime, his work has paved the way for new, as yet unimaginable avenues in architecture. This film, the seventh in Emigholz’s series, PHOTOGRAPHY AND BEYOND, was shot over 40 days during a 9,200-mile journey across the US, and constitutes an open-minded look at the spaces Bruce Goff created.

(RABIOSO SOL, RABIOSO CIELO)

Co-presented by MIX NYC.

“One of the most consistent, revelatory cinematic visions anywhere in the world today.” –Michael Koresky, REVERSE SHOT

This is the third and final installment of a trilogy by Hernández, who has been described by Armond White as “Mexico’s finest, yet critically neglected, auteur.” An epic gay romance, the film is a passionate exploration of love, sex, and destiny that tells the story of Kieri and Ryo, two young men whose love is set to a test in a mythical struggle in which loss and death are but inevitable phases in the journey towards happiness. Winner of the Teddy Award for Best Feature at the 2009 Berlin Film Festival, Hernández’s film is a ravishing meditation on the power of desire.

RICHARD KERN WILL BE HERE IN PERSON FOR BOTH SHOWS ON FRIDAY, SEPT 23!

Richard Kern’s controversial, unconventional, and darkly comedic short films earned him immediate distinction in the 1980s underground film circuit. A prime figure in the “Cinema of Transgression” group of that era, Kern is likely more recognized today for his erotic photographs, books, and videos. Looking back it is clear that Kern’s Super-8 films were an attack on the entrenched avant-garde and a close-up examination of highly subversive behavior. Starring the likes of Lydia Lunch, Nick Zedd, David Wojnarowicz, Karen Finley, Lung Leg, Henry Rollins, and Kembra Pfahler, featuring original soundtracks by musicians such as Foetus and Sonic Youth, and widely distributed on VHS during the burgeoning days of alternative and punk music, Kern’s films remain shocking, sexy, disturbed, debauched, violent, and really quite wonderful. These eye-opening works still rattle the senses.

In conjunction with a group show featuring his photographs at the gallery Maccarone (630 Greenwich Street; www.maccarone.net), opening on September 9, and to celebrate Anthology’s preservation of a number of his works, we present this two-program survey of Kern’s most notable films. Along with a few surprises!

“[Kern’s] angry, sick, amusing, abusing, sexy, idiotic, nihilistic, voyeuristic, psychotic shorts and twisted music videos provided the fulcrum around which the Cinema of Transgression revolved.” –FILM THREAT

PROGRAM 1:
GOODBYE 42ND STREET (1983, 4 minutes, Super8mm-to-16mm)
Newly preserved, with support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
Kern films the storefronts of famous 42nd Street: the fast-food stands, the sex shops, the grindhouse and porn theaters, and interrupts the visit with random acts of violence.

THE KING OF SEX (1987, 5 minutes, Super8mm-to-HD video)
Featuring Nick Zedd. Music by Killdozer.
A man demonstrates his virility.

YOU KILLED ME FIRST (1985, 12 minutes, Super8mm-to-16mm)
Newly preserved, with support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
Featuring Karen Finley, David Wojnarowicz, and Lung Leg.
During Thanksgiving dinner, a young woman recalls family milestones that helped shape her outlook on life.

THE EVIL CAMERAMAN (1986/90, 12 minutes, Super8mm-to-HD video)
Featuring Jap Anne and Jackie O. Music by Foetus Corp.
Radical change in Kern’s cinema. The filmmaker tries to manipulate his models who suddenly show unexpected resistance.

THE SEWING CIRCLE (1992, 7 minutes, Super8mm-to-HD video)
Featuring Kembra Pfahler.
Kern films the extreme piercing operation made on performance artist and singer of The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black, Kembra Pfahler.

X IS Y (1990, 4 minutes, Super8mm-to-HD video)
Featuring Jackie O and Cristina. Music by Cop Shoot Cop.
A bunch of sexy women play with the preferred toy of primal dominant males: the automatic weapon.

THE BITCHES (1992, 10 minutes, Super8mm-to-HD video, b&w)
Music by Jim Coleman.
Two women, one man, three bitches. Or how to surprise the average porn watcher.

Plus one secret movie!

Total running time: ca. 70 minutes.

SCHINDLER’S HOUSES / SCHINDLERS HÄUSER
2007, 99 minutes, 35mm.
In and around Los Angeles, the houses of Austro-American architect Rudolf M. Schindler are as celebrated as those of Frank Lloyd Wright, with whom Schindler once worked. Here Emigholz documents 40 of Schindler’s buildings.
“I would happily rank SCHINDLER’S HOUSES on the short list of essential modern movies about our city’s physical and social geography.” –Scott Foundas, L.A. WEEKLY
&
MAILLART’S BRIDGES / MAILLARTS BRÜCKEN (1995-2000, 24 minutes, 35mm)
Robert Maillart (1872–1940) revolutionized concrete-based construction. This film shows fourteen roof constructions and bridges that he designed and built.
Total running time: ca. 125 minutes.

RICHARD KERN WILL BE HERE IN PERSON FOR BOTH SHOWS ON FRIDAY, SEPT 23!

Richard Kern’s controversial, unconventional, and darkly comedic short films earned him immediate distinction in the 1980s underground film circuit. A prime figure in the “Cinema of Transgression” group of that era, Kern is likely more recognized today for his erotic photographs, books, and videos. Looking back it is clear that Kern’s Super-8 films were an attack on the entrenched avant-garde and a close-up examination of highly subversive behavior. Starring the likes of Lydia Lunch, Nick Zedd, David Wojnarowicz, Karen Finley, Lung Leg, Henry Rollins, and Kembra Pfahler, featuring original soundtracks by musicians such as Foetus and Sonic Youth, and widely distributed on VHS during the burgeoning days of alternative and punk music, Kern’s films remain shocking, sexy, disturbed, debauched, violent, and really quite wonderful. These eye-opening works still rattle the senses.

In conjunction with a group show featuring his photographs at the gallery Maccarone (630 Greenwich Street; www.maccarone.net), opening on September 9, and to celebrate Anthology’s preservation of a number of his works, we present this two-program survey of Kern’s most notable films. Along with a few surprises!

“[Kern’s] angry, sick, amusing, abusing, sexy, idiotic, nihilistic, voyeuristic, psychotic shorts and twisted music videos provided the fulcrum around which the Cinema of Transgression revolved.” –FILM THREAT

PROGRAM 2:
MANHATTAN LOVE SUICIDES (PARTS 1 AND 3) (1985, 18 minutes, Super8mm-to-HD video, b&w)
“Stray Dogs” (Part 1): The thwarted and destructive loves of an art lover facing his idol. Featuring David Wojnarowicz and Bill Rice. Music by J.G. Thirlwell.
“Thrust In Me” (Part 3): This provocative film probably shows the synthesis of the Cinema of Transgression by illustrating the worst taboos. Featuring Nick Zedd and others. Music by The Dream Syndicate.

SUBMIT TO ME (1985, 12 minutes, Super8mm-to-HD video)
Featuring Lydia Lunch and others. Music by Butthole Surfers.
A series of decadent portraits in which sex, bondage, blood, and violence collide.

PIERCE (1986, 9 minutes, Super8mm-to-HD video)
Featuring Audrey Rose.
A bored young woman decides to let a friend pierce her nipples.

FINGERED (1986, 22 minutes, Super8mm-to-HD video, b&w)
Featuring Lydia Lunch, Lung Leg, and Marty Nations.
The misadventures of a sex phone operator after she meets a sexually depraved psychopath.

MY NIGHTMARE (1993, 5 minutes, Super8mm-to-HD video)
Featuring Susan McNamara. Music by Joe Budenhauser.
Kern ironically makes fun of the photography profession and the advantages it provides with women.

Plus one secret movie!

Total running time: ca. 70 minutes.

(OKTYABR)
Eisenstein celebrates the baroque in OCTOBER, as opposed to the Greek classicism of POTEMKIN, disappointing contemporary audience expectations. “Intellectual cinema” starts here.

THE HOLY BUNCH / DER ZYNISCHE KÖRPER
1986-90, 89 minutes, 35mm.
In reaction to the death of a friend, a group of artists begin to explore their collective past by perusing his notebooks and their own artistic creations. Complexly structured to shift between the past and present, scenes from life and scenes from a novel, THE HOLY BUNCH simultaneously constructs and deconstructs the role of art in the group’s lives and its relationship to human spirit.
&
THE BASIS OF MAKE-UP I (1974-83, 20 minutes, 35mm, silent)
The films in the BASIS OF MAKE-UP series constitute a compendium of Emigholz’s drawings and writings.
“[These films] are the center about which my feature films revolve. I imagine them as an intermezzo between the long films, the database as an interlude. The paradoxical nature of film is taken to an extreme: giving something that is taken away immediately.” –H.E.
Total running time: ca. 115 minutes.

RICHARD KERN WILL BE HERE IN PERSON FOR BOTH SHOWS ON FRIDAY, SEPT 23!

Richard Kern’s controversial, unconventional, and darkly comedic short films earned him immediate distinction in the 1980s underground film circuit. A prime figure in the “Cinema of Transgression” group of that era, Kern is likely more recognized today for his erotic photographs, books, and videos. Looking back it is clear that Kern’s Super-8 films were an attack on the entrenched avant-garde and a close-up examination of highly subversive behavior. Starring the likes of Lydia Lunch, Nick Zedd, David Wojnarowicz, Karen Finley, Lung Leg, Henry Rollins, and Kembra Pfahler, featuring original soundtracks by musicians such as Foetus and Sonic Youth, and widely distributed on VHS during the burgeoning days of alternative and punk music, Kern’s films remain shocking, sexy, disturbed, debauched, violent, and really quite wonderful. These eye-opening works still rattle the senses.

In conjunction with a group show featuring his photographs at the gallery Maccarone (630 Greenwich Street; www.maccarone.net), opening on September 9, and to celebrate Anthology’s preservation of a number of his works, we present this two-program survey of Kern’s most notable films. Along with a few surprises!

“[Kern’s] angry, sick, amusing, abusing, sexy, idiotic, nihilistic, voyeuristic, psychotic shorts and twisted music videos provided the fulcrum around which the Cinema of Transgression revolved.” –FILM THREAT

PROGRAM 1:
GOODBYE 42ND STREET (1983, 4 minutes, Super8mm-to-16mm)
Newly preserved, with support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
Kern films the storefronts of famous 42nd Street: the fast-food stands, the sex shops, the grindhouse and porn theaters, and interrupts the visit with random acts of violence.

THE KING OF SEX (1987, 5 minutes, Super8mm-to-HD video)
Featuring Nick Zedd. Music by Killdozer.
A man demonstrates his virility.

YOU KILLED ME FIRST (1985, 12 minutes, Super8mm-to-16mm)
Newly preserved, with support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
Featuring Karen Finley, David Wojnarowicz, and Lung Leg.
During Thanksgiving dinner, a young woman recalls family milestones that helped shape her outlook on life.

THE EVIL CAMERAMAN (1986/90, 12 minutes, Super8mm-to-HD video)
Featuring Jap Anne and Jackie O. Music by Foetus Corp.
Radical change in Kern’s cinema. The filmmaker tries to manipulate his models who suddenly show unexpected resistance.

THE SEWING CIRCLE (1992, 7 minutes, Super8mm-to-HD video)
Featuring Kembra Pfahler.
Kern films the extreme piercing operation made on performance artist and singer of The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black, Kembra Pfahler.

X IS Y (1990, 4 minutes, Super8mm-to-HD video)
Featuring Jackie O and Cristina. Music by Cop Shoot Cop.
A bunch of sexy women play with the preferred toy of primal dominant males: the automatic weapon.

THE BITCHES (1992, 10 minutes, Super8mm-to-HD video, b&w)
Music by Jim Coleman.
Two women, one man, three bitches. Or how to surprise the average porn watcher.

Plus one secret movie!

Total running time: ca. 70 minutes.

THE BASIS OF MAKE-UP II (1995-2000, 48 minutes, 35mm)
THE BASIS OF MAKE-UP III (1996-2004, 26 minutes, 35mm)
MISCELLANEA I (1988-2001, 20 minutes, 35mm)
“MISCELLANEA is the name I gave to films that have forced themselves upon me wanting to be made during the course of my work on other films – without a commission or funding debates. They are studies on 35mm film and HDV. The films are vessels for collections of film shots, footnotes, remarks, and references, to be regarded as vanguard and memory.” –H.E.
Total running time: ca. 100 minutes.

RICHARD KERN WILL BE HERE IN PERSON FOR BOTH SHOWS ON FRIDAY, SEPT 23!

Richard Kern’s controversial, unconventional, and darkly comedic short films earned him immediate distinction in the 1980s underground film circuit. A prime figure in the “Cinema of Transgression” group of that era, Kern is likely more recognized today for his erotic photographs, books, and videos. Looking back it is clear that Kern’s Super-8 films were an attack on the entrenched avant-garde and a close-up examination of highly subversive behavior. Starring the likes of Lydia Lunch, Nick Zedd, David Wojnarowicz, Karen Finley, Lung Leg, Henry Rollins, and Kembra Pfahler, featuring original soundtracks by musicians such as Foetus and Sonic Youth, and widely distributed on VHS during the burgeoning days of alternative and punk music, Kern’s films remain shocking, sexy, disturbed, debauched, violent, and really quite wonderful. These eye-opening works still rattle the senses.

In conjunction with a group show featuring his photographs at the gallery Maccarone (630 Greenwich Street; www.maccarone.net), opening on September 9, and to celebrate Anthology’s preservation of a number of his works, we present this two-program survey of Kern’s most notable films. Along with a few surprises!

“[Kern’s] angry, sick, amusing, abusing, sexy, idiotic, nihilistic, voyeuristic, psychotic shorts and twisted music videos provided the fulcrum around which the Cinema of Transgression revolved.” –FILM THREAT

PROGRAM 2:
MANHATTAN LOVE SUICIDES (PARTS 1 AND 3) (1985, 18 minutes, Super8mm-to-HD video, b&w)
“Stray Dogs” (Part 1): The thwarted and destructive loves of an art lover facing his idol. Featuring David Wojnarowicz and Bill Rice. Music by J.G. Thirlwell.
“Thrust In Me” (Part 3): This provocative film probably shows the synthesis of the Cinema of Transgression by illustrating the worst taboos. Featuring Nick Zedd and others. Music by The Dream Syndicate.

SUBMIT TO ME (1985, 12 minutes, Super8mm-to-HD video)
Featuring Lydia Lunch and others. Music by Butthole Surfers.
A series of decadent portraits in which sex, bondage, blood, and violence collide.

PIERCE (1986, 9 minutes, Super8mm-to-HD video)
Featuring Audrey Rose.
A bored young woman decides to let a friend pierce her nipples.

FINGERED (1986, 22 minutes, Super8mm-to-HD video, b&w)
Featuring Lydia Lunch, Lung Leg, and Marty Nations.
The misadventures of a sex phone operator after she meets a sexually depraved psychopath.

MY NIGHTMARE (1993, 5 minutes, Super8mm-to-HD video)
Featuring Susan McNamara. Music by Joe Budenhauser.
Kern ironically makes fun of the photography profession and the advantages it provides with women.

Plus one secret movie!

Total running time: ca. 70 minutes.

(STAROYE I NOVOYE)
Known also as THE GENERAL LINE, OLD AND NEW is one of Eisenstein’s least-known films. With it, he developed and perfected his theories of “mise-en-cadre,” using the montage of characters in the foreground and background to conjure meanings, and “overtonal montage,” bringing silent film to its zenith.

TWO PROJECTS BY FREDERICK KIESLER / ZWEI PROJEKTE VON FRIEDRICH KIESLER (2006-09, 16 minutes, video)
Explores two projects by Austrian artist and visionary Frederick Kiesler (1890–1965): the model for ENDLESS HOUSE (1959), which is currently exhibited at the Kiesler Foundation in Vienna; and THE SHRINE OF THE BOOK, designed and built by Frederick Kiesler and Armand Bartos in Jerusalem (1959-65).
MISCELLANEA II (1988-2001, 19 minutes, 35mm)
MISCELLANEA III (1997-2004, 22 minutes, 35mm)
Total running time: ca. 65 minutes.

This film showcases 42 contemporary architectural projects of Austrian origins. As an independent work, it emerged from the material for 57 short films that Emigholz produced for the traveling exhibition (of the same name) conceived in Graz. Unlike the exhibition, which grouped the architecture thematically, this new film assembles the project into a social reality in which modern buildings were constructed for all areas of life.

Beatrice Gibson is a moving-image artist whose work skillfully employs strategies usually encountered in the world of avant-garde music. Her deep fascination with graphic notation, open scores, and other strategies of post-war composition is employed to fascinating effect in these two exciting and innovative works. A NECESSARY MUSIC, winner of the Tiger Award for best short at the Rotterdam Film Festival in 2009, features the distinctive voice of composer Robert Ashley, while THE FUTURE’S GETTING OLD LIKE THE REST OF US includes an appearance by noted pianist John Tilbury, among other actors known to British TV viewers. Gibson’s carefully chosen imagery and emphasis on spoken language have made her one of the most distinctive filmmakers on the festival circuit today.

A NECESSARY MUSIC
2008, 28 minutes, HD Video. Music composed by Alex Waterman; narration by Robert Ashley.
A NECESSARY MUSIC is a science fiction film about modernist social housing. Treating the medium of film as both a musical proposition and a proposal for collective production, A NECESSARY MUSIC employs the residents of New York’s Roosevelt Island as its authors and actors, gathering together texts written by them and using them to construct a script for the film. Casting seventeen residents to enact these lines accompanied by a fictional narration taken from Adolfo Bioy Casares’s 1941 science fiction novel THE INVENTION OF MOREL, the film deploys fiction as a tool to frame and activate its site.

THE FUTURE’S GETTING OLD LIKE THE REST OF US
2010, 48 minutes, 16mm-to-HD Video.
A 16mm film conceived in the format of a TV Play and set in an older people’s care home. Part documentary, part fiction, the script for the film was a collaboration with writer and critic George Clark and was constructed from verbatim transcripts of a discussion group held over a period of five months with the residents of four of Camden’s Care Homes. Taking B.S. Johnson’s 1971 experimental novel HOUSE MOTHER NORMAL as its formal departure point and employing the structural logic of a score, the script is edited into a vertical structure, in which 8 voices or 8 monologues occur simultaneously.

Total running time: ca. 80 minutes.

UNFORTUNATELY, BEATRICE GIBSON WILL NOT BE ABLE TO BE PRESENT FOR THIS SCREENING. HOWEVER, COMPOSER ALEXANDER WATERMAN WILL BE HERE TO INTRODUCE THE PROGRAM IN HER PLACE.

This month’s film, FIGHTING FISH, directed by Annette Apitz, is a drama about a brother and sister in their early twenties who have to overcome their tempestuous past in order to have a chance at real happiness. It’s a story about love, family, and other complications.

Putting his dreams of traveling on hold, 21-year-old David still lives at home, taking care of his little brother and sister. When his wild and beautiful sister Alice returns after a long absence, their complicated past comes back to haunt them. As David falls in love with the new girl in town, Alice is driven to desperate measures to keep her brother close, and her world intact.

Running time: 84 minutes

Film website: http://www.fightingfishfilm.com/

NEWFILMMAKERS PRESENTS ‘WORKS IN PROGRESS’

SHORT FILM PROGRAM
Chris Calicchio ODE TO JOY (2010, 4 minutes, video)
Shannon Brown THE POWER OF WORDS (2010, 4 minutes, video)
Jenna Bush THE GROUND KEEPER (2010, 6 minutes, video)
Navid Azad SQUARE ONE (2011, 18 minutes, video)
Tony Leonardo KAYA (2011, 20 minutes, video)

SPECIAL PROGRAM
The Women’s Filmmaker Group and EYE:AM presents ANOTHER EXPERIMENT by WOMEN. Curated by Lili White.
Agnes Moon DREAM OF ME (2011, 10 minutes, video)
Jessica Bardsley LAND OF MOURNING CALM (2011, 15 minutes, video)
Simone Bailey ELINOR BEAUREGARD (2011, 2 minutes, video)
Laura Bouza 8 WOMEN (2011, 29 minutes, 16mm)
Doris Neidl THE SIN (2011, 4 minutes, video)
Tammy Kinsey TRUST (2011, 8 minutes, video)
Hilda Daniel HATCHET (2011, 1 minute, video)

FEATURE PRESENTATION
Stephen Wallace Pruitt
WORKS IN PROGRESS
2009, 117 minutes, video.
A poignant romantic comedy/drama which follows the lives of two recent small-town college art graduates and a successful, yet unfulfilled insurance professional during a magical summer in the big city.

–Wednesday, September 28, Short Film Program at 6:00, Special Program at 7:15, Feature Presentation at 8:45.

HORSE DREAM (2004, 10 minutes)
AFTER THE RAIN (2003, 8 minutes)
ON THE EARTH (2005, 13 minutes)
HERE (2005, 13 minutes)
THE ROUND EYES (2006, 6.5 minutes)
THE BEAM (2010, 2 minutes)
THE CELLAR (2010, 13 minutes)
Plus:
THE SCREENING: TRAILER (2010, 2 minutes)
and other surprises!
Total running time: ca. 75 minutes.

(BRONENOSETS POTEMKIN)
Eisenstein’s constructivist montage and rigid, super-structured plot share equal weight with a seemingly spontaneous, inflamed emotion.

At the furthermost bounds of a frozen sea, a boat approaches land. Human silhouettes emerge from it. From their immutable world, the ice, the stones, and the animals of Greenland witness the arrival of scientists who come each summer to study them. LES HOMMES offers an uncanny experience: while offering the opportunity for a sustained observation of nature, it also invites the viewer to adopt the perspective of the natural order itself, communicating a sense of the gaps that separate geologic and human time, the scientific gesture from animal subjectivity, the love of nature from vegetal indifference.

(STACHKA)
Eisenstein’s interest in the Freudian father complex drives this psychological scenario in which non-actors step forward to acknowledge the viewer, illustrating Eisenstein’s desire to penetrate to the heart of cinema, sidestepping realism by “being real.” Governmental restrictions made STRIKE the only completed film of a series intended to portray the road to revolution.

(IVAN GROZNY)
“The first time in history a man has committed suicide by cinema,” quipped Dovzhenko. A state-sanctioned production, Ivan’s opulent furs and jewels color the black-and-white machinations by a demonic Czar bent on making his subjects’ lives a living hell – a statement pointed with outrage directly at Stalin.

At the furthermost bounds of a frozen sea, a boat approaches land. Human silhouettes emerge from it. From their immutable world, the ice, the stones, and the animals of Greenland witness the arrival of scientists who come each summer to study them. LES HOMMES offers an uncanny experience: while offering the opportunity for a sustained observation of nature, it also invites the viewer to adopt the perspective of the natural order itself, communicating a sense of the gaps that separate geologic and human time, the scientific gesture from animal subjectivity, the love of nature from vegetal indifference.