Anthology Film Archives - Calendar Events

THE OBSERVERS

Wednesday, May 16

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)

THE OBSERVERS

Wednesday, May 16

NEWFILMMAKERS

Thursday, May 17

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.

THE BLOOD OF A POET

Friday, May 18

(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

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

Friday, May 18

(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

THE BLOOD OF A POET

Saturday, May 19

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

Saturday, May 19

ORPHEUS

Saturday, May 19

(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.”

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

Sunday, May 20

ORPHEUS

Sunday, May 20

THE TESTAMENT OF ORPHEUS

Sunday, May 20

(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.”

AUDIO VÉRITÉ: CECIL TAYLOR

Tuesday, May 22

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.

AUDIO VÉRITÉ PRESENTS: CECIL TAYLOR

Tuesday, May 22

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.

NEWFILMMAKERS

Wednesday, May 23

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.

THREE SHORT FILMS BY ATEYYAT EL ABNOUDY

Wednesday, May 23

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.

THREE SHORT FILMS BY ATEYYAT EL ABNOUDY

Thursday, May 24

SOLUS PGM 1

Friday, May 25

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.

L’ÂGE D’OR

Saturday, May 26

(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 PGM 2

Saturday, May 26

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.

CULTURES OF RESISTANCE

Saturday, May 26

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 PGM 3

Saturday, May 26

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!

Charles Chaplin PGM 1

Sunday, May 27

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.

Charles Chaplin PGM 2

Sunday, May 27

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

Charles Chaplin PGM 3

Sunday, May 27

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.

NEW YORK WOMEN IN FILM AND TELEVISION

Tuesday, May 29

In January 2010, Anthology began hosting monthly screenings organized by New York Women in Film and Television. These screenings include works by NYWIFT members as well as from women filmmakers around the world. Films included in the series must be directed, co-directed, produced, written, edited, or shot by women. Whenever possible, the filmmakers are present for a Q&A following the screening, as well as an after-party with cash bar and complimentary food.
The preeminent entertainment industry association for women in New York City, NYWIFT supports women calling the shots in film, television, and digital media. NYWIFT energizes the careers of women in entertainment by illuminating their achievements, providing training and professional development activities, and advocating for equity. NYWIFT’s membership comprises more than 2,000 women and men working both above and below the line, and is part of a
network of 40 Women-in-Film organizations worldwide, representing more than 10,000 members.

Screening details TBA – please visit: www.nywift.org for program updates.

NEW YORK WOMEN IN FILM AND TELEVISION: THE BROOKLYN TO BETHLEHEM PROJECT

Tuesday, May 29

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.

MEMBERS-ONLY SCREENING: Budd Boetticher's ARRUZA

Tuesday, May 29

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