Anthology Film Archives

Film Screenings / Programs / Retrospectives

JACOB BURCKHARDT

January 25 – January 27

FILMMAKER IN PERSON!
This series shines a spotlight on Jacob Burckhardt, whose eclectic, resourceful, and always charming body of work spans fifty years (and counting) and a variety of different formats and genres. Burckhardt has moved back and forth between distinctly different modes throughout his career. A lifelong New Yorker, his films are almost always rooted in the people and (ever-changing) landscapes of the city. Many of them – reflecting the influence of the city symphonies of his father, the photographer and filmmaker Rudy Burckhardt – are impressionistic, lyrical street films. But Jacob has also consistently been drawn to narrative storytelling – both short and feature length – and to a mode that very few underground filmmakers have explored in such depth: a parodic, profoundly playful, sometimes even cartoonish style, replete with handmade sets and props, ingenious camera effects, and artfully constructed soundtracks.

These four programs sample each of Burckhardt’s different modes, with programs devoted to his two feature films, IT DON’T PAY TO BE AN HONEST CITIZEN and LANDLORD BLUES (the latter screening doubling as a kind of follow-up to this past summer’s “Kill Yr Landlords” series); another devoted to his “comedies”; and one focusing on his poetic documentaries.

Upcoming Screenings

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