Anthology Film Archives - Calendar Events

TENDER SPOTS

Saturday, April 27

(CZUŁE MIEJSCA)

At the end of the 20th century, an ecological disaster has left the air contaminated and exhausted the Earth’s natural resources. Experts estimate that there is enough water and food to ensure humanity’s survival only for another ten years. Against this backdrop, Jan, a TV repairman, tries to win over the glamorous and elusive Ewa.

Introduced by Masha Shpolberg (Bard College).

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MARGARET TAIT PGM 1

Saturday, April 27

“It was in summer 1993 when I first saw films by Margaret Tait. Not in a cinema, but at a 16mm editing table in the Filmmakers Co-op office in London. The room was not dark enough, the image small, but I was inspired and deeply touched by something that is difficult to put into words. Till today I ask myself, what is it that I admire so much in Margaret Tait’s films? They are timeless and speak directly to our inner self, plain and clear and complex at the same time. Her images are simple, nothing special, her camera movements motivated by an inner impulse, often surprising, like her editing. If we see her films, something remains secret, inexplicable but not hidden. Tait said: ‘The cinema I care about is at the level of poetry.’ Perhaps this best explains what defies explanation.

I have selected seven short films for the program to show a range, starting with one of her earliest films, A PORTRAIT OF GA, from 1952 and ending with her last film, GARDEN PIECES, from 1998. The program concludes with one of my own short films, which I filmed during my visit to Orkney in 1995.” –Ute Aurand

PROGRAM 1:
A PORTRAIT OF GA 1952, 5 min, 16mm
AERIAL 1974, 4 min, 16mm
THE LEADEN ECHO AND THE GOLDEN ECHO 1955, 7 min, 16mm
COLOUR POEMS 1974, 12 min, 16mm
CALYPSO 1955, 4 min, DCP
HAPPY BEES 1954, 17 min, 16mm
GARDEN PIECES 1998, 12 min, 16mm
Ute Aurand GLIMPSES FROM A VISIT TO ORKNEY IN SUMMER 1995 2020, 5 min, 16mm, color, silent

Total running time: ca. 70 min.

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MARGARET TAIT PGM 2

Saturday, April 27

“It was in summer 1993 when I first saw films by Margaret Tait. Not in a cinema, but at a 16mm editing table in the Filmmakers Co-op office in London. The room was not dark enough, the image small, but I was inspired and deeply touched by something that is difficult to put into words. Till today I ask myself, what is it that I admire so much in Margaret Tait’s films? They are timeless and speak directly to our inner self, plain and clear and complex at the same time. Her images are simple, nothing special, her camera movements motivated by an inner impulse, often surprising, like her editing. If we see her films, something remains secret, inexplicable but not hidden. Tait said: ‘The cinema I care about is at the level of poetry.’ Perhaps this best explains what defies explanation.

I have selected seven short films for the program to show a range, starting with one of her earliest films, A PORTRAIT OF GA, from 1952 and ending with her last film, GARDEN PIECES, from 1998. The program concludes with one of my own short films, which I filmed during my visit to Orkney in 1995.” –Ute Aurand

PROGRAM 2:
WHERE I AM IS HERE 1963, 35 min, 16mm
“Starting with a six-line script which just noted down a kind of event to occur, and recur, my aim was to construct a film with its own logic, its own correspondences within itself, and its own echoes and rhymes and comparisons, all through close exploration of the everyday, the commonplace, in the city of Edinburgh.” –Margaret Tait

A PLACE OF WORK 1976, 31 min, 16mm
“A close study of one garden and house and what could be seen there and heard there within the space of time from June 1975 to November 1975. An evocation of a place (in Orkney) with lifelong associations and latterly used as a work place. A family home, from which at the time of filming, the family had long gone. My own home in childhood and off and on through the years, eventually returned to and worked in (and on). Filmed in the months before leaving it.” –Margaret Tait

Total running time: ca. 70 min.

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CHERNOBYL. CHRONICLE OF DIFFICULT WEEKS

Saturday, April 27

(CHERNOBYL. KHRONIKA TRUDNYKH NEDEL)

This documentary was shot by a team of Ukrainian filmmakers in the weeks immediately following the Chernobyl disaster. Part documentation of the clean-up effort and part essay film, it uses the unique tools of cinema as a medium to reflect on this catastrophe of unprecedented scale. The team was aware that spending so much time in the “zone” and filming directly above the exploded fourth reactor could prove fatal, yet felt a duty to do so anyway. The director, Volodymyr Shevchenko, fought a ten-month battle against the Soviet censors and succumbed to radiation sickness shortly before the film was finally released.

Introduced by Masha Shpolberg (Bard College).

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WHITE GOD

Sunday, April 28

(FEHÉR ISTEN)

An allegorical tale in which an abandoned dog searches desperately for his beloved owner. When his search fails, he joins a canine revolt against the dogs’ human abusers. The film, which skillfully blends melodrama, adventure, and a touch of horror to pose questions about contemporary Hungary, was awarded the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes.

Preceded by:
Almantas Grikevičius
TIME PASSES THROUGH THE CITY / LAIKAS EINA PER MIESTĄ
Lithuania, 1966, 20 min, 35mm-to-DCP. In Lithuanian with English subtitles.
The main protagonist of this film is time itself as it passes through Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. Drawing on both the Soviet avant-garde and French cinéma vérité, it peels back intersecting layers of the city’s history. The white horse wandering the streets becomes a poignant symbol of the way streets and buildings retain the memory of ages past.

Introduced by Lukas Brasiskis (e-flux and Columbia University).

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EC: MOTHER

Sunday, April 28

(MAT)

Based on the novel by Maxim Gorky.

With the simple theme of a working-class mother growing in political consciousness through participation in revolutionary activity, this film established Pudovkin as one of the major figures of the Soviet cinema. A student of Kuleshov and an admirer of Griffith’s films, he was writing his first book of film theory at the same time he was making MOTHER. His expert cutting on movement and his associated editing of unrelated scenes to form what he called a “plastic synthesis” are amply demonstrated here. Although in direct opposition to Eisenstein’s shock montage, Pudovkin used a linkage method advanced far beyond Kuleshov’s theories.

“In the final episode Pudovkin resorts to the now famous simile of the ice-floe breaking up against the bastions of the great bridge with a movement parallel to that of the procession of men and women marching with the Red Flag held high before them, until they are scattered and broken by the cavalry. The ice-floe intensifies the action by its strong forward movement far more than by its obvious symbolism. The purpose of Pudovkin’s technique is to sublimate the action of every part of his film, so that the commonplace is raised to the level of a kind of epic poem.” –Roger Manvell, THE FILM AND THE PUBLIC

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EC: O’NEILL / RICHTER / SHARITS

Sunday, April 28

Pat O’Neill
SAUGUS SERIES 1974, 19 min, 16mmS
AUGUS SERIES is actually seven short films, united by a common soundtrack. Each is an evolving “still life” made up of meticulously assembled but spatially contradictory elements.
“SAUGUS SERIES exhibits the possibilities of the optical printer with considerable self-confidence and élan. The colors are deeply saturated; radically incompatible spaces are meticulously pieced together; moving images are layered in front of each other or masked within ‘negative’ spaces outlined by the absence of an object; a multiplicity of textures and densities and the dynamics of particles in turmoil enliven the imagery.” –P. Adams Sitney, MILLENNIUM FILM JOURNAL

Hans Richter
RHYTHMUS 21 1921, 3 min, 35mm, silent
“Its content is essentially rhythm, the formal vocabulary is elemental geometry, and the structural principle is counterpoint of contrasting opposites.” –Standish Lawder
TWO PENNY MAGIC / ZWEIGROSCHENZAUBER 1929, 2 min, 16mm
Produced as a commercial for a German illustrated magazine, this film is an experiment with visual rhymes.
EVERYTHING REVOLVES, EVERYTHING TURNS / ALLES DREHT SICH, ALLES BEWEGT SICH 1929, 9 min, 16mm
“Richter’s unique and fascinating view of magic and cruelty in a carnival side-show.” –Cecile Starr

Paul Sharits
N:O:T:H:I:N:G
1968, 36 min, 16mm. Preserved by Anthology Film Archives with support from the National Film Preservation Foundation.
“Based in part on the Tibetan Mandala of the Five Dhyani Buddhas/a journey toward the center of pure consciousness (Dharma-Dhatu Wisdom)/space and motion generated rather than illustrated/time-color energy create virtual shape/in negative time, growth is inverse decay.” –Paul Sharits
T,O,U,C,H,I,N,G 1969, 12 min, 16mm. Preserved by Anthology Film Archives.
“Starring poet David Franks whose voice appears on the soundtrack/an uncutting and unscratching mandala.” –Paul Sharits

Total running time: ca. 85 min.

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THE TREE

Sunday, April 28

A family voluntarily isolates themselves in their home, which slowly transforms from a sanctuary into a prison. The drama unfolds from the perspective of a mother and her sons, culminating in a tense climax that reveals the mystery of their seclusion.

Introduced by Meta Mazaj (University of Pennsylvania).

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LATE AUGUST AT THE HOTEL OZONE

Monday, April 29

(KONEC SRPNA V HOTELU OZON)

The lingering effects of a nuclear war have wiped out most of humanity. A small group of survivors – all women – roam the Earth in search of a male to continue the human race. LATE AUGUST AT THE HOTEL OZONE is a brilliant, underappreciated gem of the Czechoslovak New Wave.

Introduced by Barbora Bartunkova (MoMA) on Fri, April 26.

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INDIA SONG

Thursday, May 02

In her best-known film, Duras effectively evokes the colonial India of the thirties, contrasting the indolent life of the colonialists with the squalor and suffering that lie just outside their gates and consciousness – though her camera never ventures from the abodes of the wealthy, and the film was in fact shot in Paris. The story concerns a beautiful woman, the wife of a diplomat, who suffers from what Duras has called “colonial sickness.” Despite numerous suitors and affairs, she lives in a private desolation which none can enter. With its offscreen voices, a kind of distant dialogue counterpointed by image and music, INDIA SONG portrays what Richard Roud called an “India of the soul.”

Anthology Film Archives - Calendar Events

TENDER SPOTS

MARGARET TAIT PGM 1

MARGARET TAIT PGM 2

CHERNOBYL. CHRONICLE OF DIFFICULT WEEKS

WHITE GOD

EC: MOTHER

EC: O’NEILL / RICHTER / SHARITS

THE TREE

LATE AUGUST AT THE HOTEL OZONE

INDIA SONG

HER VENETIAN NAME IN DESERTED CALCUTTA

LEBANON: A HUNDRED FACES FOR A SINGLE DAY

SYRIA: THE VISIT + THE NIGHT

AGATHA ET LES LECTURES ILLIMITÉES

GAZA: SCENES OF THE OCCUPATION FROM GAZA + THE KNIFE

L’HOMME ATLANTIQUE

DES JOURNÉES ENTIÈRES DANS LES ARBRES

OCCUPIED PALESTINE, PROG. 1: AL QUDS + RECOLLECTION

JORDAN BELSON / ERIK DAVIS

OCCUPIED PALESTINE, PROG. 2: RETURN TO HAIFA

INDIA SONG

OCCUPIED PALESTINE, PROG. 3: KAFR QASIM

EGYPT: THE GATE OF THE SUN

LOUISE LANDES LEVI

HER VENETIAN NAME IN DESERTED CALCUTTA

CHARLES ATLAS, PROGRAM 1

OCCUPIED PALESTINE, PROG. 2: RETURN TO HAIFA

DES JOURNÉES ENTIÈRES DANS LES ARBRES

LEBANON: A HUNDRED FACES FOR A SINGLE DAY

WAVE 2: ONLY FASCIST MUMMIES DON’T JUMP, PROG. 4

WAVE 2: ONLY FASCIST MUMMIES DON’T JUMP, PROG. 5

WAVE 2: ONLY FASCIST MUMMIES DON’T JUMP, PROG. 6

WAVE 2: ONLY FASCIST MUMMIES DON’T JUMP, PROG. 7