Anthology Film Archives

(DIE AMEISE DER KUNST)
In his new film, Sempel documents over 50 people from the worlds of music and art, including Jonathan Meese, Daniel Richter, Bazon Brock, Blixa Bargeld, Neo Rauch, Jonas Burgert, Georg Baselitz, Raha Raissna, and others. Conceived of as a “music painting composition”, the film features Einstürzende Neubauten, Yello, Spooky Tooth, Abwärts, Goldene Zitronen, Antony & The Johnsons, and Peter Broetzmann, alongside pieces by Schubert, Mozart, and Bach, not to mention flamenco. The film, inspired by the artist Jonathan Meese, who proclaims the dictatorship of art to the point of self-violation, meanders through various worlds, from the Old Masters (Goya, Manet, Kirchner, and Degas) through to the present day…and features many animals. From Berlin to Art Basel Miami, NY (Bortolami Gallery), Paris, the Everglades, and Yokohama…

SPECIAL SCREENING - ALL TICKETS $25

The Tenants Association of the Chelsea Hotel presents a rare screening of Andy Warhol’s 1966 masterpiece, CHELSEA GIRLS, introduced by poet and Warhol superstar Rene Ricard.

Rene Ricard is one of the few surviving members of the cast, and was a close friend and associate of Warhol from 1965 until the artist’s death in 1987. In a rare public appearance, Rene Ricard will discuss the making of the film, as well as offering reflections on Warhol’s larger career as painter, author, publisher and wit.

CHELSEA GIRLS was shot in various rooms in the Hotel Chelsea (and the Warhol Factory) over three weeks in the summer of 1966. Rene Ricard lived in the hotel at the time, and he remains a current resident.

Appearing in the film, amongst others, are Nico, Ondine, Brigid Berlin, International Velvet, Mario Montez, Ingrid Superstar, and Marie Menken, with music by the Velvet Underground. Filmed at a cost of $3,000.00, the film grossed $130,000.00 in the first five months of its release, making it perhaps the most successful underground film of all time. It has since earned cult status as one of the most stunning and provocative cultural documents of the 1960s, and is considered by many to be Warhol’s filmic masterpiece. Filmed in black and white and color and shown on two screens simultaneously, the film runs three hours and fifteen minutes.

At the premiere of the film at Jonas Mekas’s Cinematheque, the film sequences were listed on the program accompanied by fake room numbers <http://www.warholstars.org/warhol/warhol1/warhol1f/chelsea2.html> at the Chelsea Hotel. These had to be removed, however, when the Chelsea Hotel threatened legal action.

Today the residents of the Chelsea Hotel are fighting to retain and preserve one of the great cultural landmarks of New York City. The Chelsea Hotel is not only a historic landmarked building, but also a living national treasure, and a vital part of the intellectual and artistic heritage of New York. Residents have incurred great expense fighting evictions and what they consider to be the illegal demolition of over a hundred rooms in the historic hotel.

The Tenants’ Committee is a group of residents represented by noted tenants’ rights lawyer Samuel J. Himmelstein. Atty. Himmelstein and his staff have been working tirelessly on behalf of the Tenants’ Committee. Scoring a great number of important victories thus far. Please contact us for further information or press photos.

(CUCHILLOS DEL VIENTO)
Premiered in Spain at the 2008 Bienale de Flamenco, Sevilla.
Flamenco, passion, and life in Andalucía and around the world. This is a personal collage, in ‘cinema-direct’ style, filmed over two years in Andalucía, intertwined with relatives in Cairo, Istanbul, Japan, and India. Puro and Moderno, old and young, beginners, folks, and masters, gitanos, studios, penias, festivals, ferias, in streets, and fields. Matilde Coral: “My Life is Flamenco, masochistic!”

NEW LATINO FILMMAKERS CELEBRATES CINQUO DE MAYO

Details TBA; visit www.newfilmmakers.com for updates.

“Kazuo Ohno is a legendary Japanese Butoh dancer. He was born under the sign of the Horse. His motto: ‘If you can’t make it, try! Always try! Do the impossible! Don’t think!’ The film features seven songs from Schubert’s ‘Winterreise’, two of which are performed by Blixa Bargeld. Nina Hagen sings “Ave Maria”, and Jonas Mekas a gypsy song, accompanied by his harmonium. Young Butoh students dance in Ohno’s studio, his kitchen. His son Yoshito and his wife Chie are fascinating in their powerful innocence. Kazuo Ohno brings hope in the chaos of this world. But sometimes ‘Be free!’ is frightening.” –BERLINALE
“Wonderful, I had to see the film two times!” –Susan Sontag

(CUCHILLOS DEL VIENTO)
Premiered in Spain at the 2008 Bienale de Flamenco, Sevilla.
Flamenco, passion, and life in Andalucía and around the world. This is a personal collage, in ‘cinema-direct’ style, filmed over two years in Andalucía, intertwined with relatives in Cairo, Istanbul, Japan, and India. Puro and Moderno, old and young, beginners, folks, and masters, gitanos, studios, penias, festivals, ferias, in streets, and fields. Matilde Coral: “My Life is Flamenco, masochistic!”

(DIE AMEISE DER KUNST)
In his new film, Sempel documents over 50 people from the worlds of music and art, including Jonathan Meese, Daniel Richter, Bazon Brock, Blixa Bargeld, Neo Rauch, Jonas Burgert, Georg Baselitz, Raha Raissna, and others. Conceived of as a “music painting composition”, the film features Einstürzende Neubauten, Yello, Spooky Tooth, Abwärts, Goldene Zitronen, Antony & The Johnsons, and Peter Broetzmann, alongside pieces by Schubert, Mozart, and Bach, not to mention flamenco. The film, inspired by the artist Jonathan Meese, who proclaims the dictatorship of art to the point of self-violation, meanders through various worlds, from the Old Masters (Goya, Manet, Kirchner, and Degas) through to the present day…and features many animals. From Berlin to Art Basel Miami, NY (Bortolami Gallery), Paris, the Everglades, and Yokohama…

PASOLINI L’ENRAGÉ
1966/1993, 65 minutes, video. In French and Italian with English subtitles.
Borrowing a title from Jean Paulhan, Fieschi sketches the arc of Pasolini’s still-developing career, following the filmmaker to the places he lived and worked, meeting friends and collaborators (Franco and Sergio Citti, Ninetto Davoli), and listening as he talks about cinema and linguistics, about the relationship between Rome’s urban poor and their counterparts in the Third World, or about the rage he feels towards the ruling classes of the West.
“One of the best entries in the CINEMA OF OUR TIME series.” –Jean-Claude Biette
&
NINETTO THE MESSENGER / NINETTO LE MESSAGER
1995, 28 minutes, video. In Italian and French with English subtitles.
Thirty years later, a second meeting with Ninetto Davoli which fulfills the promise of the first. Davoli rewatches and comments on that initial encounter, moves on to what came next, and then further forward to what was still to come. This triple portrait – of Davoli, of Pasolini, of Fieschi himself – has nothing to do with nostalgia: it is a film about continuity.

“Kazuo Ohno is a legendary Japanese Butoh dancer. He was born under the sign of the Horse. His motto: ‘If you can’t make it, try! Always try! Do the impossible! Don’t think!’ The film features seven songs from Schubert’s ‘Winterreise’, two of which are performed by Blixa Bargeld. Nina Hagen sings “Ave Maria”, and Jonas Mekas a gypsy song, accompanied by his harmonium. Young Butoh students dance in Ohno’s studio, his kitchen. His son Yoshito and his wife Chie are fascinating in their powerful innocence. Kazuo Ohno brings hope in the chaos of this world. But sometimes ‘Be free!’ is frightening.” –BERLINALE
“Wonderful, I had to see the film two times!” –Susan Sontag

THE ACCOMPANIMENT / L’ACCOMPAGNEMENT
1966, 25 minutes, 35mm-to-video. In French with English subtitles.
Unable to complete the soundtrack he’s been hired to write, a composer’s career winds down. Dedicated to Julio Cortázar, Fieschi’s first fiction takes a hard look at counterpoint using a form which unravels as quickly as the nerves of its frazzled hero. Featuring key names in sixties French modernism – Maurice Roche, Claude Ollier, Marcelin Pleynet – iconic appearances by film world contenders – Edith Scob, Koichi Yamada, and, briefly, André Téchiné and Jean Eustache – and an alternately close-miked and ethereal score by Francis Miroglio, who went on to direct Les Nuits de la Fondation Maeght.

“Now that I’ve had a chance to see THE ACCOMPANIMENT a second time, I’m more impressed than ever with its artistry. The set-ups, the editing, the score – it’s all remarkable.” –Dan Selznick, Universal Pictures

THE GAME OF TRAVELS, PART 1 / LE JEU DES VOYAGES
1987-1999, 45 minutes, video. In French with English subtitles.
Like Rivette in LE PONT DU NORD, Fieschi cuts a hand-plotted route across the outlying regions of French cinema in this, the lunar masterpiece at the heart of his filmography, and the place where all of his interests come together. Part guidebook, part unclaimed property bureau, part fiendish plot, part zoo, THE GAME OF TRAVELS is a twenty-seven part, twenty-hour labyrinth in which slivers of film accumulated over the course of projects and routines are reshaped to form a seismic register of ideas, worries, jokes, and wonders. The majority of the film still awaits public screening, but we have been able to subtitle the first episode especially for this series. This first part sets the tone for what follows, moving from the graves at Père Lachaise to Anouk Grinberg reading Jean Paulhan via Nanni Moretti, André S. Labarthe and Danielle Anezin in the editing room, and a begrudging detour involving Jim Morrison.

Jean-Luc Godard THE NEW WORLD / LE NOUVEAU MONDE (1962, 20 minutes, 16mm. In French with English subtitles.)
Godard’s seldom-seen contribution to the 1963 omnibus film RoGoPaG is a rough draft of ideas he would develop in CONTEMPT and ALPHAVILLE. After sleeping through a massive atomic explosion, a love-struck man wakes to find Paris overrun by pill-popping freaks (one of them played by Fieschi) and realizes that the blast has changed language, reason, and the nature of emotions.

Total running time: ca. 95 minutes.

THE MAKING OF ‘A SUMMER’S TALE’ / LA FABRIQUE DU CONTE D’ÉTÉ
2005, 90 minutes, video. Co-directed by Françoise Etchegaray. In French with English subtitles.
In 1995, Eric Rohmer’s producer and friend Françoise Etchegaray recorded the production of his nineteenth feature, A SUMMER’S TALE. The footage remained on the shelf for several years until Fieschi and editor Martine Bouquin combined Etchegaray’s images with bits of the rushes and the finished film to create a work which is less a making-of than a parallel world populated with its own characters, rites, and myths. Their documentary, which features unforgettable footage of Rohmer, his cast, and his crew reciting Rimbaud, listening to sea shanties, and testing the strength of tree branches, is an endlessly rewarding vampire story about filmmaking and economics.

Kinofest NYC is a film festival that celebrates independent cinema from Ukraine and other post-Soviet countries.
Now in its third year, The Kinofest NYC team is delighted to present this year’s exciting program with a quality selection of new independent feature and short films, many currently on the international film festival circuit and premiering in New York for the very first time!
<http://www.KinofestNYC.com/schedule.html>

7:30 PM THE OTHER CHELSEA : A STORY FROM DONETSK

Please visit  <http://www.KinofestNYC.com/schedule.html>  for details.

MOSSO MOSSO (JEAN ROUCH AS IF…) / MOSSO MOSSO (JEAN ROUCH COMME SI…)
1998, 73 minutes, video. In French with English subtitles.
“One February morning in 1997, on the terrace of the Café Bullier in Montparnasse, Jean Rouch, alias the Pale Fox, dipped his third croissant into a large cup of black coffee. He said: ‘The Dogon taught me an extraordinary rule of life, which has ended up becoming my own: act as if… Act as if what one says were true… And by doing so, I believe we get much closer to reality. What do you think, comrade?’ Nine months later, on the banks of the Niger river, the land of his beginnings, of his ‘first ethnographic unease’, Jean Rouch will act as if he were about to film the first twelve shots of THE MARVELOUS COW before our eyes, with his old friends, and with the ghost of Lam Ibrahima Dia, who passed away several months earlier, and who had dreamed up the story. Let’s hurry: the evening roosters are crowing.” –Jean-André Fieschi
“I’m going to write ‘Mr. Griffith’ on the back of your chair, because you direct like they did during the silent era: ‘Get down! Faster! Get out of the shot!’ Ah, what a blow to cinéma vérité…” –Jean-André Fieschi to Jean Rouch
&
NIGER, NEW IMPRESSIONS OF AFRICA / NIGER, NOUVELLES IMPRESSIONS D’AFRIQUE
1999, 43 minutes, video. In French with English subtitles.
A return to Niger sans Rouch. Fieschi starts in Niamey, where he spends time with Damouré Zika, then moves northwest with Tallou Mouzourane, pushing towards Ayourou and the Malian border, putting together what Roussel called, in a different context, NEW IMPRESSIONS OF AFRICA.

Kinofest NYC is a film festival that celebrates independent cinema from Ukraine and other post-Soviet countries.
Now in its third year, The Kinofest NYC team is delighted to present this year’s exciting program with a quality selection of new independent feature and short films, many currently on the international film festival circuit and premiering in New York for the very first time!
www.KinofestNYC.com/schedule.html <http://www.KinofestNYC.com/schedule.html>

2PM: THE WOMAN WITH THE 5 ELEPHANTS

5PM: POST-SOVIET SHORTS

8PM: LAND OF OBLIVION

Please visit  http://www.KinofestNYC.com/schedule.html for details.

(VAGHE STELLE DELL’ORSA)
With Claudia Cardinale.
Fieschi once wrote that Visconti, Tati, and Renoir all shared the belief that there were only two essential social classes: the aristocracy and the poor. The rarely-screened SANDRA, Visconti’s follow-up to THE LEOPARD, uses the crumbling ruins of the aristocratic world as a backdrop to a modern re-telling of the Elektra myth.
“With a tale so ripe that the actors should be singing, not speaking, the ever-iconoclastic Visconti heads towards a Romantic ideal of emotion as narrative, and repression as the greatest spectacle.” –Jason Sanders, PACIFIC FILM ARCHIVE

THE ACCOMPANIMENT / L’ACCOMPAGNEMENT
1966, 25 minutes, 35mm-to-video. In French with English subtitles.
Unable to complete the soundtrack he’s been hired to write, a composer’s career winds down. Dedicated to Julio Cortázar, Fieschi’s first fiction takes a hard look at counterpoint using a form which unravels as quickly as the nerves of its frazzled hero. Featuring key names in sixties French modernism – Maurice Roche, Claude Ollier, Marcelin Pleynet – iconic appearances by film world contenders – Edith Scob, Koichi Yamada, and, briefly, André Téchiné and Jean Eustache – and an alternately close-miked and ethereal score by Francis Miroglio, who went on to direct Les Nuits de la Fondation Maeght.

“Now that I’ve had a chance to see THE ACCOMPANIMENT a second time, I’m more impressed than ever with its artistry. The set-ups, the editing, the score – it’s all remarkable.” –Dan Selznick, Universal Pictures

THE GAME OF TRAVELS, PART 1 / LE JEU DES VOYAGES
1987-1999, 45 minutes, video. In French with English subtitles.
Like Rivette in LE PONT DU NORD, Fieschi cuts a hand-plotted route across the outlying regions of French cinema in this, the lunar masterpiece at the heart of his filmography, and the place where all of his interests come together. Part guidebook, part unclaimed property bureau, part fiendish plot, part zoo, THE GAME OF TRAVELS is a twenty-seven part, twenty-hour labyrinth in which slivers of film accumulated over the course of projects and routines are reshaped to form a seismic register of ideas, worries, jokes, and wonders. The majority of the film still awaits public screening, but we have been able to subtitle the first episode especially for this series. This first part sets the tone for what follows, moving from the graves at Père Lachaise to Anouk Grinberg reading Jean Paulhan via Nanni Moretti, André S. Labarthe and Danielle Anezin in the editing room, and a begrudging detour involving Jim Morrison.

Jean-Luc Godard THE NEW WORLD / LE NOUVEAU MONDE (1962, 20 minutes, 16mm. In French with English subtitles.)
Godard’s seldom-seen contribution to the 1963 omnibus film RoGoPaG is a rough draft of ideas he would develop in CONTEMPT and ALPHAVILLE. After sleeping through a massive atomic explosion, a love-struck man wakes to find Paris overrun by pill-popping freaks (one of them played by Fieschi) and realizes that the blast has changed language, reason, and the nature of emotions.

Total running time: ca. 95 minutes.

THE MAKING OF ‘A SUMMER’S TALE’ / LA FABRIQUE DU CONTE D’ÉTÉ
2005, 90 minutes, video. Co-directed by Françoise Etchegaray. In French with English subtitles.
In 1995, Eric Rohmer’s producer and friend Françoise Etchegaray recorded the production of his nineteenth feature, A SUMMER’S TALE. The footage remained on the shelf for several years until Fieschi and editor Martine Bouquin combined Etchegaray’s images with bits of the rushes and the finished film to create a work which is less a making-of than a parallel world populated with its own characters, rites, and myths. Their documentary, which features unforgettable footage of Rohmer, his cast, and his crew reciting Rimbaud, listening to sea shanties, and testing the strength of tree branches, is an endlessly rewarding vampire story about filmmaking and economics.

PASOLINI L’ENRAGÉ
1966/1993, 65 minutes, video. In French and Italian with English subtitles.
Borrowing a title from Jean Paulhan, Fieschi sketches the arc of Pasolini’s still-developing career, following the filmmaker to the places he lived and worked, meeting friends and collaborators (Franco and Sergio Citti, Ninetto Davoli), and listening as he talks about cinema and linguistics, about the relationship between Rome’s urban poor and their counterparts in the Third World, or about the rage he feels towards the ruling classes of the West.
“One of the best entries in the CINEMA OF OUR TIME series.” –Jean-Claude Biette
&
NINETTO THE MESSENGER / NINETTO LE MESSAGER
1995, 28 minutes, video. In Italian and French with English subtitles.
Thirty years later, a second meeting with Ninetto Davoli which fulfills the promise of the first. Davoli rewatches and comments on that initial encounter, moves on to what came next, and then further forward to what was still to come. This triple portrait – of Davoli, of Pasolini, of Fieschi himself – has nothing to do with nostalgia: it is a film about continuity.

MOSSO MOSSO (JEAN ROUCH AS IF…) / MOSSO MOSSO (JEAN ROUCH COMME SI…)
1998, 73 minutes, video. In French with English subtitles.
“One February morning in 1997, on the terrace of the Café Bullier in Montparnasse, Jean Rouch, alias the Pale Fox, dipped his third croissant into a large cup of black coffee. He said: ‘The Dogon taught me an extraordinary rule of life, which has ended up becoming my own: act as if… Act as if what one says were true… And by doing so, I believe we get much closer to reality. What do you think, comrade?’ Nine months later, on the banks of the Niger river, the land of his beginnings, of his ‘first ethnographic unease’, Jean Rouch will act as if he were about to film the first twelve shots of THE MARVELOUS COW before our eyes, with his old friends, and with the ghost of Lam Ibrahima Dia, who passed away several months earlier, and who had dreamed up the story. Let’s hurry: the evening roosters are crowing.” –Jean-André Fieschi
“I’m going to write ‘Mr. Griffith’ on the back of your chair, because you direct like they did during the silent era: ‘Get down! Faster! Get out of the shot!’ Ah, what a blow to cinéma vérité…” –Jean-André Fieschi to Jean Rouch
&
NIGER, NEW IMPRESSIONS OF AFRICA / NIGER, NOUVELLES IMPRESSIONS D’AFRIQUE
1999, 43 minutes, video. In French with English subtitles.
A return to Niger sans Rouch. Fieschi starts in Niamey, where he spends time with Damouré Zika, then moves northwest with Tallou Mouzourane, pushing towards Ayourou and the Malian border, putting together what Roussel called, in a different context, NEW IMPRESSIONS OF AFRICA.

DANNY LYON AKA DANIEL JOSEPH LYON, BORN BROOKLYN, NEW YORK 1942
FILMMAKER IN PERSON!
In 2008, Anthology presented an exciting series devoted to photographer/filmmaker Danny Lyon’s deeply personal and socially engaged films. Whether making first-person realistic films set in the culture of the American Southwest or documenting his enduring friendships with convicted murderers, Lyon creates memorably empathetic, beautifully lensed portraits of people and places on the fringes of society. This year marks Lyon’s 70th birthday, a major retrospective of his photographs at The Menil Collection in Houston, and the preservation of two of his most significant films. We are thrilled to welcome Lyon in person for a screening of these enthralling works alongside the world premiere of his most recent short video. Expect a lively conversation from an uncompromising artist whose vision only sharpens with age. Happy birthday, Danny!

SHADOWMAN
2011, 22 minutes, video.
Lyon’s existential look at himself, filmmaking, the irony of digital, the death of film, and his musings on the meaning of his lifetime of work. Shot in the Bernalillo, New Mexico graveyard (Lyon’s fifth major scene shot in this spot), the Acoma reservation’s desert, the streets and garages of Manhattan, and the Maine woods and skies.

DEAR MARK
1981, 15 minutes, 16mm. Preserved by Anthology Film Archives with support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Special thanks to George Eastman House for providing original production elements.
A portrait of artist Mark di Suvero made from footage shot over the course of a decade by his friend Lyon. We watch the sculptor at work and at play in the woods of New York State, and in exile in France during his protest against the war in Vietnam. Against the background of Medieval Armor at the Met, Lyon has replaced di Suvero’s voice with that of the singing cowboy, Gene Autry. Wonderfully quirky and playful, DEAR MARK is an inspired homage to di Suvero couched in the form of “Dadaistic comedy”, as the late critic Thomas Albright put it.

LOS NIÑOS ABANDONADOS
1975, 63 minutes, 16mm-to-video. Restoration produced with the support of the Menil Archives, The Menil Collection, Houston, with a Gift from Joan Hohlt and J. Roger Wich Foundation. Restoration produced by Mark Rance (Watchmaker Films); artist and colorist: Adam Hawkes; assistant color correction by Tara Reinecke Walch; technical support by Brooks Walch; audio remastering by Francois Maurin (Three Legged Cat, Los Angeles); re-mixed by Jamie McPhee at The Frame, London.
Focuses on the lives of abandoned children who scavenge in the streets of Santa Marta, a small town in Colombia. A staggering work of vérité that in its imagery and emotion feels like an extension of neo-realist cinema, it finds Lyon’s ever-present camera capturing moments of reality as stark as they are poetic. The filmmakers’ original vision had been to reach a mass audience of Americans by having the film shown on national television, but in 1975 public television rejected the film because it lacked narration. Modern writing about this film does not focus on the poverty of the children but rather Lyon’s statement of the existential freedom of his characters. We will be screening a brand new digital restoration of LOS NIÑOS ABANDONADOS diligently produced by Mark Rance from the original production elements. This film, a highlight of Lyon’s filmmaking and a landmark work of 1970s cinema, has never looked better or felt more gripping.

Total running time: ca. 105 minutes.

(VAGHE STELLE DELL’ORSA)
With Claudia Cardinale.
Fieschi once wrote that Visconti, Tati, and Renoir all shared the belief that there were only two essential social classes: the aristocracy and the poor. The rarely-screened SANDRA, Visconti’s follow-up to THE LEOPARD, uses the crumbling ruins of the aristocratic world as a backdrop to a modern re-telling of the Elektra myth.
“With a tale so ripe that the actors should be singing, not speaking, the ever-iconoclastic Visconti heads towards a Romantic ideal of emotion as narrative, and repression as the greatest spectacle.” –Jason Sanders, PACIFIC FILM ARCHIVE

DANNY LYON AKA DANIEL JOSEPH LYON, BORN BROOKLYN, NEW YORK 1942
FILMMAKER IN PERSON!
In 2008, Anthology presented an exciting series devoted to photographer/filmmaker Danny Lyon’s deeply personal and socially engaged films. Whether making first-person realistic films set in the culture of the American Southwest or documenting his enduring friendships with convicted murderers, Lyon creates memorably empathetic, beautifully lensed portraits of people and places on the fringes of society. This year marks Lyon’s 70th birthday, a major retrospective of his photographs at The Menil Collection in Houston, and the preservation of two of his most significant films. We are thrilled to welcome Lyon in person for a screening of these enthralling works alongside the world premiere of his most recent short video. Expect a lively conversation from an uncompromising artist whose vision only sharpens with age. Happy birthday, Danny!

SHADOWMAN
2011, 22 minutes, video.
Lyon’s existential look at himself, filmmaking, the irony of digital, the death of film, and his musings on the meaning of his lifetime of work. Shot in the Bernalillo, New Mexico graveyard (Lyon’s fifth major scene shot in this spot), the Acoma reservation’s desert, the streets and garages of Manhattan, and the Maine woods and skies.

DEAR MARK
1981, 15 minutes, 16mm. Preserved by Anthology Film Archives with support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Special thanks to George Eastman House for providing original production elements.
A portrait of artist Mark di Suvero made from footage shot over the course of a decade by his friend Lyon. We watch the sculptor at work and at play in the woods of New York State, and in exile in France during his protest against the war in Vietnam. Against the background of Medieval Armor at the Met, Lyon has replaced di Suvero’s voice with that of the singing cowboy, Gene Autry. Wonderfully quirky and playful, DEAR MARK is an inspired homage to di Suvero couched in the form of “Dadaistic comedy”, as the late critic Thomas Albright put it.

LOS NIÑOS ABANDONADOS
1975, 63 minutes, 16mm-to-video. Restoration produced with the support of the Menil Archives, The Menil Collection, Houston, with a Gift from Joan Hohlt and J. Roger Wich Foundation. Restoration produced by Mark Rance (Watchmaker Films); artist and colorist: Adam Hawkes; assistant color correction by Tara Reinecke Walch; technical support by Brooks Walch; audio remastering by Francois Maurin (Three Legged Cat, Los Angeles); re-mixed by Jamie McPhee at The Frame, London.
Focuses on the lives of abandoned children who scavenge in the streets of Santa Marta, a small town in Colombia. A staggering work of vérité that in its imagery and emotion feels like an extension of neo-realist cinema, it finds Lyon’s ever-present camera capturing moments of reality as stark as they are poetic. The filmmakers’ original vision had been to reach a mass audience of Americans by having the film shown on national television, but in 1975 public television rejected the film because it lacked narration. Modern writing about this film does not focus on the poverty of the children but rather Lyon’s statement of the existential freedom of his characters. We will be screening a brand new digital restoration of LOS NIÑOS ABANDONADOS diligently produced by Mark Rance from the original production elements. This film, a highlight of Lyon’s filmmaking and a landmark work of 1970s cinema, has never looked better or felt more gripping.

Total running time: ca. 105 minutes.

SPECIAL SCREENING! -- TICKETS $10

The Tenants Association of the Chelsea Hotel presents this special screening of rare Bob Dylan footage!

Noted music writer and Dylan biographer extraordinaire Clinton Heylin presents and evening of rare Bob Dylan performance videos. Heylin will introduce and discuss the selections. Heylin is the author of nine books on Bob Dylan including the biography Behind the Shades which the New York Times praised as the finest book on the subject. He has also written books on Orson Welles, Van Morrison, Sandy Denny, and Joy Division.

NEWFILMMAKERS DOUBLE FEATURE NITE

EARLY SHORT PROGRAM
Pete Valente NIGHTWORK & SHAKING THE GLASS (2011, 11 minutes, video)
Martin Lancaster FOCUS (2011, 8 minutes, video)
Sarah Gurfield THE TEN MINUTE DECADE (2011, 9
minutes, video)
Laurel Parmet MOTHER (2012, 12 minutes, 16mm)David Capurso I AM JULIA (2011, 15 minutes, video)

SHORT FILM PROGRAM
Alessia Travaglini SILENZIOSA-MENTE (2011, 5 minutes, video)
Bianca Schreiber SUNDAY (2011, 12 minutes, video)
Scott MacArthur THE BARE SHOW (2010, 11 minutes, video)
Eros Romero DOROTHY (2011, 15 minutes, video)
T. D. White DINNER ON THE RIVIERA (2011, 12 minutes, video)

FEATURE PRESENTATION
Gibrey Allen EXCUSES FOR JEFF (2011, 30 minutes, video)
&
Alfonso Lozada
YESTERDAY IS HERE
2011, 86 minutes, video.
Tomas, a wayward young man drifting in emptiness, finds himself on the verge of eviction. Embarking on a journey with two eccentric strangers, he must come to terms with his fear of change while finding a way to traverse the consequences and lost opportunities that have plagued him in the past.

–Tuesday, May 8, Early Short Program at 6:00, Short Film Program at 7:15, Feature Presentation at 8:30.

SPECIAL SCREENING! -- ALL TICKETS $10

The Tenants Association of the Chelsea Hotel presents this special screening of rare punk performace film and video!

From the Velvets to the Voidoids: The Birth of American Punk. Clinton Heylin, author of the book by the same name, presents his own selection of classic punk performance film and video, with his own unique commentary. This is an important opportunity to view extremely rare performances from the heyday of punk and new wave.

SELECTED SHORT WORKS BY JACQUELINE GOSS

THERE THERE SQUARE (2002, 14 minutes, video, silent)
The desire to own and name land and the pleasures of seeing from a distance color this personal survey of the history of mapmaking in the New World. THERE THERE SQUARE takes a close look at the gestures of travelers, mapmakers, and saboteurs that determine how we read – and live within – the lines that define the United States.
Named one of the top ten best avant-garde works of 2002 by the VILLAGE VOICE.

SO TO SPEAK (2000, 21 minutes, video)
A girl and her teacher learn to use the fixtures of speech. As they move deeper into domestic space, their relative positions shift accordingly. Drawing from writings by and about Helen Keller, Genie the “wild child”, and New Zealand author Janet Frame, SO TO SPEAK is structured as a three-part tour of the house and grounds of language.

THE 100TH UNDONE (2001, 9 minutes, video, b&w, silent)
A love letter of sorts to the individual in the age of biotechnical reproduction, THE 100TH UNDONE takes on the textures of analog media to create a personalized pre-history for future human clones.
“A whip-smart, unsettling, and oddly touching reflection on the genome, cloning advances, and the ‘post-human’ future.” –Ioannis Mookas, THE INDEPENDENT

STRANGER COMES TO TOWN (2007, 28 minutes, video)
Six people are interviewed anonymously about their experiences coming into the U.S. Each then designs a video game avatar who tells their story by proxy. Goss focuses on the questions and examinations used to establish identity at the border, and how these processes in turn affect one’s own sense of self and view of the world.
STRANGER COMES TO TOWN re-works animations from the Department of Homeland Security, combining them with stories from the border, impressions from the on-line game World of Warcraft, and journeys via Google Earth to tell a tale of bodies moving through lands familiar and strange.
Total running time: ca. 75 minutes.

NEW YORK THEATRICAL PREMIERE RUN! FILMMAKER IN PERSON!
Cinematography by Jesse Cain; sound by Holland Hopson; cast and crew: Dani Leventhal and Katya Gorker.

The first feature-length work by acclaimed experimental filmmaker Jacqueline Goss, THE OBSERVERS is a haunting, minimalist landscape film, in which the land and sky of Mt. Washington, New Hampshire form a varying frame for two climatologists as they go about the solitary and steadfast work of measuring and recording the weather. Showcasing the extreme and surprising beauty of the windiest mountain in the world, it is based in part on the Nathaniel Hawthorne story THE GREAT CARBUNCLE.
Shot over the course of a year on 16mm film, THE OBSERVERS is based on the actual work of the Mount Washington Weather Observatory – one of the oldest weather stations in North America, where staff members have taken hourly readings of the wind speed, barometric pressure, and temperature since 1932. In Goss’s film, the ever-present, relentless wind becomes something of an existential force in the lives of the two climatologist protagonists, and a unifying feature of the film itself.
A native of New Hampshire, Goss teaches in the Film and Electronic Arts Department at Bard College, and is known for a series of short videos and web-based works that explore how political, cultural, and scientific systems change the ways we think about ourselves (a selection of these pieces will be screening on Wednesday, May 9). THE OBSERVERS marks an astonishing extension of her work into the realm of feature filmmaking.

Screening with:
Jesse Cain THE LAKES (2010, 9 minutes, 16mm-to-video, b&w)

Anthology Film Archives and the Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York are excited to collaborate again on a very special one-night program of films from the New York area’s diverse community of archives, museums, and libraries. This third annual screening – featuring a singular combination of home movies, documentaries, educational and industrial films, and narrative filmmaking – provides a truly unique opportunity to experience the diversity of the various institutions that care for collections of cultural and historical significance in metropolitan New York. A glimpse into New York’s vault! We hope you will join us for this very special screening.

TEENAGE COSMONAUTS (USSR, 1980) Color, sound, DVD.  Running time 17 minutes, 30 seconds. Documentary film, produced for foreign distribution, on the topic of  the special schools instituted in the Soviet Union to train  youngster in the skills to prepare them to be cosmonauts or to work in related fields. Also featured is footage of design and model-making (of space vehicles and equipment) competitions by these children. English voiceover and titles in Cyrillic. Produced by Ukrainian Newsreel and Documentary Film Studios for the Union of Soviet Societies For Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries. Tamiment Library, New York University

HANDLING THE MENTALLY ILL Ill (1969) Color, silent. Running time approximately 3 minutes. The New York City Police Museum. Training film that teaches about how to deal with dangerous people.

FOOTAGE OF NIKITA KRUSCHEV AND FIDEL CASTRO VISITS TO NEW YORK CITY (circa 1960) B&W, silent, Approximate running time 7:00. The New York City Police Museum

PLACING SAFETY CONES (1969) B&W, silent, 16mm. Running time approximately 10 minutes.  The New York City Police Museum.

[MAIN STREET, USA] (Date unknown) Color, sound, 16mm. Running time 16 minutes. "…this town, is designed for spies - spies who, after completion of their training, will one day infiltrate American society and report their findings to the Soviet government."

ANITA NEEDS ME  (1963) Color, sound, 16mm. Running time 16 minutes. Anita Needs Me is a tour de force–a panting, overheated Bronx tale of lust, guilt, sacrifice, redemption, and...mother. The Kuchars’ response to the French New Wave comes complete with a voiceover narration by George in definitively purple prose, a typically brilliant music soundtrack, and a visual sense to rival any of their contemporaries. Most remarkably, George’s handheld camera work, with its subjective protagonist’s view and Kuchar’s own hand reaching into the frame, is a major precursor of his diary video style–twenty-five years avant la lettre. Preserved by Anthology Film Archives as part of the Avant-Garde Masters Grant program administered by the National Film Preservation Foundation and funded by The Film Foundation.

Archivists Roundtable of Metropolitan New York would like to say a heartfelt thank you to following people and organizations. Anthology Film Archives, Jed Rapfogel, Tim Keane, John Klacsmann; Erika Gottfried Tamiment Library; The New York City Police Museum, Joshua Ruff; and Rachel Bayla Moskowitz.

NEW YORK THEATRICAL PREMIERE RUN! FILMMAKER IN PERSON!
Cinematography by Jesse Cain; sound by Holland Hopson; cast and crew: Dani Leventhal and Katya Gorker.

The first feature-length work by acclaimed experimental filmmaker Jacqueline Goss, THE OBSERVERS is a haunting, minimalist landscape film, in which the land and sky of Mt. Washington, New Hampshire form a varying frame for two climatologists as they go about the solitary and steadfast work of measuring and recording the weather. Showcasing the extreme and surprising beauty of the windiest mountain in the world, it is based in part on the Nathaniel Hawthorne story THE GREAT CARBUNCLE.
Shot over the course of a year on 16mm film, THE OBSERVERS is based on the actual work of the Mount Washington Weather Observatory – one of the oldest weather stations in North America, where staff members have taken hourly readings of the wind speed, barometric pressure, and temperature since 1932. In Goss’s film, the ever-present, relentless wind becomes something of an existential force in the lives of the two climatologist protagonists, and a unifying feature of the film itself.
A native of New Hampshire, Goss teaches in the Film and Electronic Arts Department at Bard College, and is known for a series of short videos and web-based works that explore how political, cultural, and scientific systems change the ways we think about ourselves (a selection of these pieces will be screening on Wednesday, May 9). THE OBSERVERS marks an astonishing extension of her work into the realm of feature filmmaking.

Screening with:
Jesse Cain THE LAKES (2010, 9 minutes, 16mm-to-video, b&w)

NEW YORK THEATRICAL PREMIERE RUN! FILMMAKER IN PERSON!
Cinematography by Jesse Cain; sound by Holland Hopson; cast and crew: Dani Leventhal and Katya Gorker.

The first feature-length work by acclaimed experimental filmmaker Jacqueline Goss, THE OBSERVERS is a haunting, minimalist landscape film, in which the land and sky of Mt. Washington, New Hampshire form a varying frame for two climatologists as they go about the solitary and steadfast work of measuring and recording the weather. Showcasing the extreme and surprising beauty of the windiest mountain in the world, it is based in part on the Nathaniel Hawthorne story THE GREAT CARBUNCLE.
Shot over the course of a year on 16mm film, THE OBSERVERS is based on the actual work of the Mount Washington Weather Observatory – one of the oldest weather stations in North America, where staff members have taken hourly readings of the wind speed, barometric pressure, and temperature since 1932. In Goss’s film, the ever-present, relentless wind becomes something of an existential force in the lives of the two climatologist protagonists, and a unifying feature of the film itself.
A native of New Hampshire, Goss teaches in the Film and Electronic Arts Department at Bard College, and is known for a series of short videos and web-based works that explore how political, cultural, and scientific systems change the ways we think about ourselves (a selection of these pieces will be screening on Wednesday, May 9). THE OBSERVERS marks an astonishing extension of her work into the realm of feature filmmaking.

Screening with:
Jesse Cain THE LAKES (2010, 9 minutes, 16mm-to-video, b&w)

NEW YORK THEATRICAL PREMIERE RUN!
Cinematography by Jesse Cain; sound by Holland Hopson; cast and crew: Dani Leventhal and Katya Gorker.

The first feature-length work by acclaimed experimental filmmaker Jacqueline Goss, THE OBSERVERS is a haunting, minimalist landscape film, in which the land and sky of Mt. Washington, New Hampshire form a varying frame for two climatologists as they go about the solitary and steadfast work of measuring and recording the weather. Showcasing the extreme and surprising beauty of the windiest mountain in the world, it is based in part on the Nathaniel Hawthorne story THE GREAT CARBUNCLE.
Shot over the course of a year on 16mm film, THE OBSERVERS is based on the actual work of the Mount Washington Weather Observatory – one of the oldest weather stations in North America, where staff members have taken hourly readings of the wind speed, barometric pressure, and temperature since 1932. In Goss’s film, the ever-present, relentless wind becomes something of an existential force in the lives of the two climatologist protagonists, and a unifying feature of the film itself.
A native of New Hampshire, Goss teaches in the Film and Electronic Arts Department at Bard College, and is known for a series of short videos and web-based works that explore how political, cultural, and scientific systems change the ways we think about ourselves (a selection of these pieces will be screening on Wednesday, May 9). THE OBSERVERS marks an astonishing extension of her work into the realm of feature filmmaking.

Screening with:
Jesse Cain THE LAKES (2010, 9 minutes, 16mm-to-video, b&w)

NEW YORK THEATRICAL PREMIERE RUN!
Cinematography by Jesse Cain; sound by Holland Hopson; cast and crew: Dani Leventhal and Katya Gorker.

The first feature-length work by acclaimed experimental filmmaker Jacqueline Goss, THE OBSERVERS is a haunting, minimalist landscape film, in which the land and sky of Mt. Washington, New Hampshire form a varying frame for two climatologists as they go about the solitary and steadfast work of measuring and recording the weather. Showcasing the extreme and surprising beauty of the windiest mountain in the world, it is based in part on the Nathaniel Hawthorne story THE GREAT CARBUNCLE.
Shot over the course of a year on 16mm film, THE OBSERVERS is based on the actual work of the Mount Washington Weather Observatory – one of the oldest weather stations in North America, where staff members have taken hourly readings of the wind speed, barometric pressure, and temperature since 1932. In Goss’s film, the ever-present, relentless wind becomes something of an existential force in the lives of the two climatologist protagonists, and a unifying feature of the film itself.
A native of New Hampshire, Goss teaches in the Film and Electronic Arts Department at Bard College, and is known for a series of short videos and web-based works that explore how political, cultural, and scientific systems change the ways we think about ourselves (a selection of these pieces will be screening on Wednesday, May 9). THE OBSERVERS marks an astonishing extension of her work into the realm of feature filmmaking.

Screening with:
Jesse Cain THE LAKES (2010, 9 minutes, 16mm-to-video, b&w)

NEW YORK THEATRICAL PREMIERE RUN!
Cinematography by Jesse Cain; sound by Holland Hopson; cast and crew: Dani Leventhal and Katya Gorker.

The first feature-length work by acclaimed experimental filmmaker Jacqueline Goss, THE OBSERVERS is a haunting, minimalist landscape film, in which the land and sky of Mt. Washington, New Hampshire form a varying frame for two climatologists as they go about the solitary and steadfast work of measuring and recording the weather. Showcasing the extreme and surprising beauty of the windiest mountain in the world, it is based in part on the Nathaniel Hawthorne story THE GREAT CARBUNCLE.
Shot over the course of a year on 16mm film, THE OBSERVERS is based on the actual work of the Mount Washington Weather Observatory – one of the oldest weather stations in North America, where staff members have taken hourly readings of the wind speed, barometric pressure, and temperature since 1932. In Goss’s film, the ever-present, relentless wind becomes something of an existential force in the lives of the two climatologist protagonists, and a unifying feature of the film itself.
A native of New Hampshire, Goss teaches in the Film and Electronic Arts Department at Bard College, and is known for a series of short videos and web-based works that explore how political, cultural, and scientific systems change the ways we think about ourselves (a selection of these pieces will be screening on Wednesday, May 9). THE OBSERVERS marks an astonishing extension of her work into the realm of feature filmmaking.

Screening with:
Jesse Cain THE LAKES (2010, 9 minutes, 16mm-to-video, b&w)

NEW YORK THEATRICAL PREMIERE RUN!
Cinematography by Jesse Cain; sound by Holland Hopson; cast and crew: Dani Leventhal and Katya Gorker.

The first feature-length work by acclaimed experimental filmmaker Jacqueline Goss, THE OBSERVERS is a haunting, minimalist landscape film, in which the land and sky of Mt. Washington, New Hampshire form a varying frame for two climatologists as they go about the solitary and steadfast work of measuring and recording the weather. Showcasing the extreme and surprising beauty of the windiest mountain in the world, it is based in part on the Nathaniel Hawthorne story THE GREAT CARBUNCLE.
Shot over the course of a year on 16mm film, THE OBSERVERS is based on the actual work of the Mount Washington Weather Observatory – one of the oldest weather stations in North America, where staff members have taken hourly readings of the wind speed, barometric pressure, and temperature since 1932. In Goss’s film, the ever-present, relentless wind becomes something of an existential force in the lives of the two climatologist protagonists, and a unifying feature of the film itself.
A native of New Hampshire, Goss teaches in the Film and Electronic Arts Department at Bard College, and is known for a series of short videos and web-based works that explore how political, cultural, and scientific systems change the ways we think about ourselves (a selection of these pieces will be screening on Wednesday, May 9). THE OBSERVERS marks an astonishing extension of her work into the realm of feature filmmaking.

Screening with:
Jesse Cain THE LAKES (2010, 9 minutes, 16mm-to-video, b&w)

NEWFILMMAKERS PRESENTS A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT WINE AND THE NEW FEATURE ‘SOLITARY CHILD’

DOCUMENTARY SERIES
Nobutaka Aozaki THE LIFE IN UNDERGROUND – NEW YORK (2011, 8 minutes, video)
Mark Rogovin BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT (2011, 8 minutes, video)
Tom Dowler 24 HOURS AT THE SOUTH STREET DINNER (2011, 25 minutes, video)

SHORT FILM PROGRAM
Dylan Paffe THE BRIDGE (2011, 10 minutes, video)
Catherine Licata WILLIAM GOES DOWN (2011, 13 minutes, video)
Nathan Marcus MENTAL PATIENCE (2011, 14 minutes, video)
Tess Sweet I LOVE YOU LIKE CRAZY (2011, 22 minutes, video)

FEATURE PRESENTATION
Jeff Feldman
SOLITARY CHILD
2011, 93 minutes, video.
Ricky, a high school baseball star, causes a car accident just weeks before graduation. Unable to cope with his guilt, he goes to Boston to start a new life. He then returns to New Jersey, only to find that his family has him on a collision course with his past.

–Thursday, May 17, Documentary Series at 6:00, Short Film Program at 7:30, Feature Presentation at 9:00.

(LE SANG D’UN POÈTE)
“Adolescent angels wandering about, black boxers with perfect bodies taking flight, school-children in capes killing each other with snowballs, a mirror becomes a swimming pool, and the hallways of a furnished hotel turn into a labyrinth.” –Georges Sadoul

(LA BELLE ET LA BÊTE)
With Jean Marais and Josette Day; score by Georges Auric.
“[P]erhaps the most sensuously elegant of all filmed fairy tales. As a child escapes from everyday family life to the magic of a storybook, so, in the film, Beauty’s farm, with its Vermeer simplicity, fades in intensity as we are caught up in the Gustave Dore extravagance of the Beast’s enchanted landscape. …Jean Marais is a magnificent beast.” –Pauline Kael

(LE SANG D’UN POÈTE)
“Adolescent angels wandering about, black boxers with perfect bodies taking flight, school-children in capes killing each other with snowballs, a mirror becomes a swimming pool, and the hallways of a furnished hotel turn into a labyrinth.” –Georges Sadoul

(LA BELLE ET LA BÊTE)
With Jean Marais and Josette Day; score by Georges Auric.
“[P]erhaps the most sensuously elegant of all filmed fairy tales. As a child escapes from everyday family life to the magic of a storybook, so, in the film, Beauty’s farm, with its Vermeer simplicity, fades in intensity as we are caught up in the Gustave Dore extravagance of the Beast’s enchanted landscape. …Jean Marais is a magnificent beast.” –Pauline Kael

(ORPHÉE)
With Jean Marais.
Orpheus and Eurydice, with Death waiting on the corner. Cocteau said, “Orpheus could only exist on the screen. A drama of the visible and the invisible, ORPHEUS’s Death is like a spy who falls in love with the person being spied upon. The myth of immortality.”

(LA BELLE ET LA BÊTE)
With Jean Marais and Josette Day; score by Georges Auric.
“[P]erhaps the most sensuously elegant of all filmed fairy tales. As a child escapes from everyday family life to the magic of a storybook, so, in the film, Beauty’s farm, with its Vermeer simplicity, fades in intensity as we are caught up in the Gustave Dore extravagance of the Beast’s enchanted landscape. …Jean Marais is a magnificent beast.” –Pauline Kael

(ORPHÉE)
With Jean Marais.
Orpheus and Eurydice, with Death waiting on the corner. Cocteau said, “Orpheus could only exist on the screen. A drama of the visible and the invisible, ORPHEUS’s Death is like a spy who falls in love with the person being spied upon. The myth of immortality.”

(LE TESTAMENT D’ORPHÉE)
To Cocteau, “poet” meant the creative artist, and the Orpheus of Greek mythology – the god of the lyre, song and poetry – was Cocteau’s personal muse. For Cocteau the plight of the poet was an unending search for truth and immortality, a life of suffering and martyrdom during which the poet must experience many deaths.”

Tonight we tip our hats to the unparalleled musical legend of our time, Cecil Taylor. A tireless innovator, poet, and performer who has led the charge of the avant-garde since the 1950s, the titanic Taylor shows no signs of fatigue or decline. Well into his eighth decade, Taylor is as strong and uncompromising as ever, if not more so. A number of Taylor’s unique performances have been documented over the years, and tonight we’ll present a selection of largely unseen or widely unknown portraits and pieces.

This program is presented in partnership with ISSUE Project Room, Harlem Stage, and the Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University as part of the “Celebrating Cecil Taylor” festival. Funding for the festival is made possible by NYSCA and the NEA.

Tonight we tip our hats to the unparalleled musical legend of our time, Cecil Taylor. A tireless innovator, poet, and performer who has led the charge of the avant-garde since the 1950s, the titanic Taylor shows no signs of fatigue or decline. Well into his eighth decade, Taylor is as strong and uncompromising as ever, if not more so. A number of Taylor’s unique performances have been documented over the years, and tonight we’ll present a selection of largely unseen or widely unknown portraits and pieces.

This program is presented in partnership with Harlem Stage, Issue Project Room,  and the Jazz Studies Department of Columbia University as part of the “Celebrating Cecil Taylor” festival. Funding for the festival is made possible by NYSCA and the NEA.

NEWFILMMAKERS CELEBRATES THE BEGINNING OF SUMMER

DOCUMENTARY SERIES
Marvelyne Engel THE DROP (2010, 7 minutes, video)
Ernie Bokaer SON OF MACISTA (2010, 7 minutes, video)
Timothy Farrell THE WALKING HOSPITAL (2011, 24 minutes, video)
Dobb Schreiber THE YOGA CHAMPIONS (2011, 30 minutes, video)

SPECIAL PROGRAM
With Women’s Filmmakers Group curated by Lili White.
Details TBA; visit www.newfilmmakers.com for updates.

FEATURE PRESENTATION
Connor White
CLOUDS STILL HANG
2011, 100 minutes, video.
Atwater is a recent graduate with everything he could ever want: the girl, the job, the life. Yet he feels trapped. Deciding to quit his job and escape from it all, he becomes distracted by booze, ex-hook-ups, and a voyeuristic obsession with a tormented cook.

–Wednesday, May 23, Documentary Series at 6:00, Special Program at 7:30, Feature Presentation at 9:15.

Presented by ArteEast.

A crucial figure in Egyptian cinema, internationally-acclaimed Ateyyat El Abnoudy belongs to a minority of Egyptian filmmakers who remained dedicated to the documentary genre throughout their entire career. Though she is mostly renowned for her feminist feature-length films from the 1980s onwards, including PERMISSIBLE DREAMS (1983), GIRLS STILL DREAM (1995), and DAYS OF DEMOCRACY (1996), this program presents three of El Abnoudy’s earlier works. Made within the boundaries of a budding genre, these three films demonstrate El Abnoudy’s early experimentation, and illustrate her subtle visual language and unobtrusive approach to capturing mundane daily activities performed by the working class in both rural and urban settings during the 1970s. All three are masterpieces of observational documentary filmmaking.

The screening will be followed by a recorded interview with Ateyyat El Abnoudy!

This program is presented as part of ArteEast’s series MAKING THE REAL: PRACTICES OF DOCUMENTATION; for more info, visit: www.arteeast.org.

All films are in Arabic with English subtitles.

HORSE OF MUD (1971, 12 minutes, 16mm-to-video, b&w)
In one of her earliest and most poignant works, El Abnoudy examines the primitive process of brick-making, revealing the monotonous choreography of a nonetheless meaningful social task.

SAD SONG OF TOUHA (1972, 12 minutes, 16mm-to-video, b&w)
El Abnoudy’s second film is a fascinating portrait of Egyptian street performers. The filmmaker captures the essence and unique quality of this subculture unified as much by the performers’ talents as their marginal social stature, while reflecting on the notions of performance, showmanship, and artistry.

THE SANDWICH (1975, 12 minutes, 16mm-to-video, b&w)
As children play and help prepare a meal, we witness everyday life in a small rural town that seems to have escaped the passage of time – an illusion that is shattered in the film’s final frames.

Total running time: ca. 60 minutes.

Presented by ArteEast.

A crucial figure in Egyptian cinema, internationally-acclaimed Ateyyat El Abnoudy belongs to a minority of Egyptian filmmakers who remained dedicated to the documentary genre throughout their entire career. Though she is mostly renowned for her feminist feature-length films from the 1980s onwards, including PERMISSIBLE DREAMS (1983), GIRLS STILL DREAM (1995), and DAYS OF DEMOCRACY (1996), this program presents three of El Abnoudy’s earlier works. Made within the boundaries of a budding genre, these three films demonstrate El Abnoudy’s early experimentation, and illustrate her subtle visual language and unobtrusive approach to capturing mundane daily activities performed by the working class in both rural and urban settings during the 1970s. All three are masterpieces of observational documentary filmmaking.

The screening will be followed by a recorded interview with Ateyyat El Abnoudy!

This program is presented as part of ArteEast’s series MAKING THE REAL: PRACTICES OF DOCUMENTATION; for more info, visit: www.arteeast.org.

All films are in Arabic with English subtitles.

HORSE OF MUD (1971, 12 minutes, 16mm-to-video, b&w)
In one of her earliest and most poignant works, El Abnoudy examines the primitive process of brick-making, revealing the monotonous choreography of a nonetheless meaningful social task.

SAD SONG OF TOUHA (1972, 12 minutes, 16mm-to-video, b&w)
El Abnoudy’s second film is a fascinating portrait of Egyptian street performers. The filmmaker captures the essence and unique quality of this subculture unified as much by the performers’ talents as their marginal social stature, while reflecting on the notions of performance, showmanship, and artistry.

THE SANDWICH (1975, 12 minutes, 16mm-to-video, b&w)
As children play and help prepare a meal, we witness everyday life in a small rural town that seems to have escaped the passage of time – an illusion that is shattered in the film’s final frames.

Total running time: ca. 60 minutes.

SOLUS
An independent film collective and platform for filmmakers working in Super-8mm, 16mm, 35mm, DV, and HD, SOLUS has the dual aim of showing Irish short and avant-garde films abroad and international short and avant-garde films in Ireland. The collective has provided programs for international exhibition in New York, St. Petersburg, Marseilles, Mauritania, Trinidad, Cairo, Tunis, and Luxor.
In 2009, SOLUS produced the Irish/Arabian Avant-Garde Film Tour which brought the work of over 20 filmmakers and artists from Muslim and Arabic-speaking countries to 8 venues around Ireland, running concurrently with the screening of work by 15 emerging and established Irish and international filmmakers in three North African venues. In 2008/09, SOLUS curated programs of new shorts from the Balkans, North Africa, Egypt, and the U.S. for Dublin Electronic Arts Festival (D.E.A.F.).
The three programs we’ll be presenting at Anthology represent the impressive range of projects SOLUS is responsible for.
For more info, visit: www.moiratierney.net/solus.htm
Special thanks to Moira Tierney and Alan Lambert.

PROGRAM 1
This is a program that samples international strategies of re-thinking city living, reclaiming territories, negotiating urban spaces, and perceiving the relationships they create. The show includes films from Egypt, Ireland, Mauritania, Senegal, and the U.S., including an Irish-Mauritania co-production (the first ever, to our knowledge!). Special mention goes to the Maison des Cinéastes in Nouakchott, Mauritania (www.lamaisondescineastes.org), and to our friends in Alexandria, Egypt, whose online videos kept us up-to-date during the recent, fantastic Arab Spring.

Ronan Coyle CHRYSALIS (Ireland, 2009, 2 minutes, video)
Rubberbandits HORSE OUTSIDE (Ireland, 2010, 4 minutes, video)
Les filles du bled KO MI DEBO (Mauritania, 2009, 4 minutes, video)
Alan Lambert OUROBOROS II (Ireland, 2007-11, 2 minutes, video)
Ahmed Talek Ould Taleb Lehiar LA-BAS DANS LA CAPITALE (Mauritania, 2008, 3 minutes, video)
Ahmed Ghoneimy THE GOOD BOY (Egypt, 2009, 7 minutes, video)
Hugh Mcgrory MAZE (Ireland, 2003, 3 minutes, Super-8mm/video)
Felix Samba N’diaye LES MALLES (Senegal, 1989, 14 minutes, 16mm)
Moira Tierney NOUAKCHOTT ROCKS (Ireland/Maritania, 2010, 21 minutes, Super-8mm/video)
Total running time: ca. 65 minutes.

(THE GOLDEN AGE)

Conventional attempts at plot description wither in the face of L’ÂGE D’OR. Buñuel writes of it, “The story is a sequence of moral and surrealist aesthetics. The sexual instinct and the sense of death form the substance of the film. It is a romantic film performed in full surrealistic frenzy.”

SOLUS
An independent film collective and platform for filmmakers working in Super-8mm, 16mm, 35mm, DV, and HD, SOLUS has the dual aim of showing Irish short and avant-garde films abroad and international short and avant-garde films in Ireland. The collective has provided programs for international exhibition in New York, St. Petersburg, Marseilles, Mauritania, Trinidad, Cairo, Tunis, and Luxor.
In 2009, SOLUS produced the Irish/Arabian Avant-Garde Film Tour which brought the work of over 20 filmmakers and artists from Muslim and Arabic-speaking countries to 8 venues around Ireland, running concurrently with the screening of work by 15 emerging and established Irish and international filmmakers in three North African venues. In 2008/09, SOLUS curated programs of new shorts from the Balkans, North Africa, Egypt, and the U.S. for Dublin Electronic Arts Festival (D.E.A.F.).
The three programs we’ll be presenting at Anthology represent the impressive range of projects SOLUS is responsible for.
For more info, visit: www.moiratierney.net/solus.htm
Special thanks to Moira Tierney and Alan Lambert.

PROGRAM 2: CHILDRENS’ FILMS
The first four of these films were shot during Super-8mm workshops given by the Film Flamme association in Marseille and by Moira Tierney in Dublin, Fermanagh, and Toulouse. The children were at total liberty to proceed as they desired; adult input consisted of technical support and post-production (the films were primarily edited in-camera; post production consisted of assembling the images and sound according to the childrens’ instructions). The fifth film was shot by children in the Gaeltacht (Irish-speaking area) of County Cork, Ireland, during a workshop led by Donal Ó’Céilleachair.

LA DREAM TEAM (2007, 3 minutes, Super-8mm)
LIBERTY KIDS (2006, 5 minutes, Super-8mm)
BELLEFONT 31! (2011, 20 minutes, Super-8mm)
COLLECTIVE FILM (2010, 22 minutes, Super-8mm)
FÉILEACÁN SOLAS (2008, 5 minutes, 35mm/video)
Total running time: ca. 60 minutes.

SPECIAL SCREENING!
In 2003, on the eve of the Iraq War, acclaimed filmmaker Iara Lee embarked on a journey to better understand a world increasingly embroiled in conflict and, as she saw it, heading for self-destruction. After several years, traveling over five continents, she encountered growing numbers of people who committed their lives to promoting change. From Iran, where graffiti and rap became tools in fighting government repression, moving on to Brazil, where musicians reach out to slum kids and transform guns into guitars, and ending in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, where photography, music, and film have given a voice to those rarely heard, CULTURES OF RESISTANCE explores how art and creativity can be ammunition in the battle for peace and justice.

Anthology is proud to present this feature-length documentary, a film produced by Caipirinha Productions. Ultimately, the film’s philosophy became part of a larger initiative, also called Cultures of Resistance (CoR). Founded on the conviction that culture and education are crucial components of the struggle to oppose war and promote peace, justice, and sustainability, the CoR Network was established as a global solidarity foundation. Together, these entities work to support a far-reaching collection of activists and agitators, educators and artists, insurgent musicians, vanguard gardeners, gourmands, and guerrilla filmmakers. For more info, visit: www.culturesofresistance.org.

SOLUS
An independent film collective and platform for filmmakers working in Super-8mm, 16mm, 35mm, DV, and HD, SOLUS has the dual aim of showing Irish short and avant-garde films abroad and international short and avant-garde films in Ireland. The collective has provided programs for international exhibition in New York, St. Petersburg, Marseilles, Mauritania, Trinidad, Cairo, Tunis, and Luxor.
In 2009, SOLUS produced the Irish/Arabian Avant-Garde Film Tour which brought the work of over 20 filmmakers and artists from Muslim and Arabic-speaking countries to 8 venues around Ireland, running concurrently with the screening of work by 15 emerging and established Irish and international filmmakers in three North African venues. In 2008/09, SOLUS curated programs of new shorts from the Balkans, North Africa, Egypt, and the U.S. for Dublin Electronic Arts Festival (D.E.A.F.).
The three programs we’ll be presenting at Anthology represent the impressive range of projects SOLUS is responsible for.
For more info, visit: www.moiratierney.net/solus.htm
Special thanks to Moira Tierney and Alan Lambert.

PROGRAM 3:
St. Clair Bourne
THE BLACK AND THE GREEN
1983, 45 minutes, video.
This film, one of St. Clair Bourne’s most rarely seen, chronicles a fact-finding trip to Belfast made by five American civil rights activists, including the Reverend Herbert Daughtry. Drawing a parallel between the civil rights movement and the troubles in Northern Ireland, the film documents the activists’ discovery that many Catholics in Ireland had been influenced by the civil rights movement. As the WASHINGTON POST reported at the time, “In the Belfast ghetto, the delegation members are strangers in a familiar land of crushed tenements, graffiti-stained walls, and heavily armed law officers.”
Reverend Daughtry and Sandy Boyer, both of whom are featured in the film, will be here in person for the screening!

LAUGHING GAS (1914, 16 min, 16mm)
DOUGH AND DYNAMITE (1914, 33 min, 16mm)
A WOMAN (1915, 20 min, 16mm)
Total running time: ca. 75 minutes.

SHANGHAIED (1915, 30 min, 16mm)
POLICE (1916, 34 min, 16mm)
THE FIREMAN (1916, 32 min, 16mm)
Total running time: ca. 100 minutes.

ONE A.M. (1916, 34 min, 16mm)
EASY STREET (1917, 19 min, 16mm)
THE IDLE CLASS (1921, 32 min, 16mm)
Total running time: ca. 90 minutes.

NYWIFT’s Member Screening Series provides members with the opportunity to show their work in a theatrical setting. There will by a Q&A following the screening, and an after-party with cash bar and complimentary food at Dempsey’s Pub, 61 2nd Avenue, between 3rd and 4th Streets.

Join us for the BROOKLYN TO BETHLEHEM PROJECT, a screening of two films produced and directed by NYWIFT member Fran Tarr – BETHLEHEM TO BROOKLYN: BREAKING THE SURFACE and its sequel, BROOKLYN BRIDGES: TO BETHLEHEM & BACK.

BETHLEHEM TO BROOKLYN: BREAKING THE SURFACE (2009) passionately conveys the resiliency of both American and Palestinian teens struggling with adverse circumstances in their daily lives, who didn’t join a jihad or gang; they join a writing group!

BROOKLYN BRIDGES: TO BETHLEHEM & BACK (2011) is the natural follow-up to BETHLEHEM TO BROOKLYN, illustrating that teens may be on opposite sides of the world, living opposite lives, but deep down, they are all the same. Using words and art to combat the violence these teens are living with every day, BROOKLYN BRIDGES shows the true difference peace on a grass roots level can make in the lives of children in the Middle East and the United States.

Fran Tarr is a writer, artist, and educator. For 14 years she was the Education Director for the Women’s Project, and she has been Education Coordinator at the prestigious Atlantic Theater Company since 1995. Under her direction, the WP program grew from two schools in 1995 to 80 schools by 2008; the Atlantic’s Students & Educators program continues to expand each school year.

NYWIFT programs, screenings and events are made possible, in part, by public funds from New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, New York State Council on the Arts, the New York State Legislature, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Foundation.

FREE FOR AFA MEMBERS!
Starting this spring we will be offering special, once-a-calendar AFA Members-Only screenings, featuring sneak-previews of upcoming features, programs of rare materials from Anthology’s collections, in-person filmmaker presentations, and more! The benefits of an Anthology membership have always been plentiful: free admission to over 100 Essential Cinema programs, reduced admission to all other shows, discounted AFA publications. But with these screenings – free and open only to members – we’re sweetening the pot even further.

For this calendar's installment, we present a very rare screening of Budd Boetticher's ARRUZA:

Budd Boetticher
ARRUZA
1972, 75 minutes, 35mm. Print courtesy of the Moving Image Archives at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.
Eight years in the making, Boetticher’s portrait of his longtime friend, the famous bullfighter Carlos Arruza, was a labor of love that the renowned director of westerns (SEVEN MEN FROM NOW [1956], RIDE LONESOME [1959], COMANCHE STATION [1960]) pursued despite contending with illnesses, bankruptcy, jail time, and lucrative offers from Hollywood. The result is an astonishing work of poetry, immediacy, and violence that fearlessly wrestles with the filmmaker’s own ambivalence about the titular matador’s triumphs prior to his death by automobile accident at the age of 46.

Free for Anthology members, this rare screening is not to be missed – if you’re not already an AFA member, now's the time to join!

“ARRUZA is not much given to mythologizing, and its interest in the bullring has more to do with the camera’s field of view than with anybody’s depth of interpretation. And what is held by the cameras of Lucien Ballard and Carlos Carbajal, Boetticher’s cinematographers, often in shots of breathtaking duration, becomes virtually an essay in the rewards of seeing clearly and seeing whole. ARRUZA avoids almost all false rhetoric, including the false rhetoric of too much plainness. For this, and for the genuine complexities revealed in its spare and lovely style, it may belong among the last great examples of classical filmmaking.” –Roger Greenspun, NY TIMES

NEWFILMMAKERS PRESENTS ‘MY LIFE AS ABRAHAM LINCOLN’

DOCUMENTARY SERIES
Scott Bison ROCKY FLAT: LEGACY (2011, 23 minutes, video)
Gun Holmstrom THE POWER TO HEAL (2011, 29 minutes, video)

SHORT FILM PROGRAM
David Yaloz ETHAN (2011, 8 minutes, video)
Pierre-Emmanuel Plassart HARMONY (2011, 10 minutes, 35mm)
Van Nguyen HELL GRACE (2011, 19 minutes, video)
Ryan Geiger NO GOING BACK (2011, 19 minutes, video)

FEATURE PRESENTATION
Shari Berman
MY LIFE AS ABRAHAM LINCOLN
2010, 91 minutes, video.
Cindy has apparently killed her fiancé on their wedding day. Her psychiatrist encourages her to move forward with her life. As she tries to sort things out for herself, Cindy spirals into a wacky world of bizarre situations that become increasingly influenced by a murder mystery she is writing.

–Wednesday, May 30, Documentary Series at 6:00, First Short Film Program at 7:15, Feature Presentation at 8:30.

TONGUE TIED SIGHT SONGS: THE WORKS OF PETER ROSE
An artist who readily moves between film, video, performance, and installation, Peter Rose has been producing wide-ranging, thought-provoking works since the late 1960s. Both formally inventive and mischievously articulate, they propose raptures of vision and riddles of language that position his work as entirely unique within the contemporary American avant-garde.

“Rose’s work is timeless…in every sense of the word. They continue on in retrospect. His movies are hard to shake…intensely powerful, personal, lucid, and relentless.” –Joe Baltake, PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS

This project is made possible in part with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts’ Electronic Media and Film Presentation Funds grant program, administered by The ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes (www.NYSCA.org; www.eARTS.org).

PROGRAM 1: TONGUE TIES
TONGUE TIES offers a circumnavigation of the subject of language. By turns it is a reflexive riff on reading, an homage to the passing of film; a hyperdimensional performance piece, an Edenic parable, a Zen koan, an arch ideological satire, and a performance piece about communication. There are reflections on time and language and there are explorations of the places where speech and power seem to intersect. I offer a nod to Tom Phillips’s “A Humument”, the Firesign Theatre, the Four Horseman, Sid Caesar, early Woody Allen, Julian Jaynes, and Ludwig Wittgenstein who, in one of his more jovial moments, announced that “Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.” Much of this work is a voluble illustration of that dictum.

SECONDARY CURRENTS (1982, 16 minutes, 16mm)
SPIRITMATTERS (1985, 5 minutes, 16mm, silent)
METALOGUE (1996, 3 minutes, video)
THE GIFT (1993, 6 minutes, video)
DIGITAL SPEECH (1984, 13 minutes, video)
BABEL (1987, 17 minutes, video)
PRESSURES OF THE TEXT (1983, 17 minutes, video)
Total running time: ca. 76 minutes.

TONGUE TIED SIGHT SONGS: THE WORKS OF PETER ROSE
An artist who readily moves between film, video, performance, and installation, Peter Rose has been producing wide-ranging, thought-provoking works since the late 1960s. Both formally inventive and mischievously articulate, they propose raptures of vision and riddles of language that position his work as entirely unique within the contemporary American avant-garde.

“Rose’s work is timeless…in every sense of the word. They continue on in retrospect. His movies are hard to shake…intensely powerful, personal, lucid, and relentless.” –Joe Baltake, PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS

This project is made possible in part with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts’ Electronic Media and Film Presentation Funds grant program, administered by The ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes (www.NYSCA.org; www.eARTS.org).

PROGRAM 2: SIGHT SONGS
SIGHT SONGS is a suite of films and videos that concern themselves with dimensional explorations of time and space, with occulting the usual visual modalities and constructing other kinds of vision using the tools of cinema. These works explore multi-temporalities of movement, the raptures of vision, the American landscape, the machineries of the sky, the corridors of the underground, and the powers of darkness – in no particular order. In contrast to TONGUE TIES, they lack almost all traces of language and appeal to the formal, the specular, and the kinetic.

THE MAN WHO COULD NOT SEE FAR ENOUGH (1981, 33 minutes, 16mm)
PNEUMENON (2003, 5 minutes, video)
ODYSSEUS IN ITHACA (2006, 5 minutes, video)
OMEN (2000, 10 minutes, video)
INCANTATION (1970, 8 minutes, 16mm)
STUDIES IN TRANSFALUMINATION (2008, 5 minutes, video)
THE INDESERIAN TABLETS (2011, 15 minutes, video)
Total running time: ca. 81 minutes.

Buñuel’s unsentimental view of Mexico’s poor, with equal parts of cruelty and surrealism. A sort of sequel to LAND WITHOUT BREAD.

Please note: our Essential Cinema screenings of LOS OLVIDADOS have in the past been unsubtitled, but for this round of the cycle we will be showing the film with English subtitles!