Summer 2017 Program Guide

SUMMER

2017 Program Guide

J U LY / AU G U S T / S E P T E M B E R

SPECIAL SCREENINGS

Friday, July 21 at 7pm

Who’s Crazy?

New Restoration

Friday, July 14 at 7pm

Dawson City: Frozen Time

Dir. Bill Morrison, US, 2017, DCP, 120 min.

This meditation on cinema’s past from Decasia director Bill Morrison pieces together the bizarre true history of a long-lost collection of 533 nitrate film prints from the early 1900s. Located just south of the Arctic Circle, Dawson City was settled in 1896 and became the center of the Canadian Gold Rush that brought 100,000 prospectors to the area. It was also the final stop for a distribution chain that sent prints and newsreels to the Yukon. The films were seldom, if ever, returned. The now-famous Dawson City Collection was uncovered in 1978 when a bulldozer working its way through a parking lot dug up a horde of film cans. Morrison draws on these permafrost-protected, rare silent films and newsreels, pairing them with archival footage, interviews, historical photographs, and an enigmatic score by Sigur Rós collaborator and composer Alex Somers. Dawson City: Frozen Time depicts the unique history of this Canadian Gold Rush town by chronicling the life cycle of a singular film collection through its exile, burial, rediscovery, and salvation.

1

Dir. Thomas White, US, 1966, DCP, 73 min., b/w Long thought to be lost to film scholars, this 1960s semi-improvisational avant garde work centers around asylum inmates who escape their confinement and hole up in a deserted Belgian farmhouse, where they cook large quantities of eggs and condemn one of their own in an impromptu court. The actors don’t have much need for words when they can dance around, light things on fire, and drip hot wax on each other instead. Ornette Coleman and the other members of his trio—David Izenzon and Charles Moffett—recorded their original score for Who’s Crazy? in one take while the film was projected for them, and the effect for the audience is one of watching a frenetic silent film with the greatest possible accompaniment. The soundtrack also features a young Marianne Faithfull. In early 2015, the only surviving copy of the film, a 35mm print struck for the film’s debut at Cannes in 1966, was salvaged from director Thomas White’s garage. Coleman’s soundtrack exists as a hard-to-find LP, but audiences have never before had the opportunity to see what he saw when he composed it. The cast consists of actors from New York’s experimental The Living Theatre troupe, who also performed in Shirley Clarke’s The Connection (speaking of connections, Clarke would later direct the fantastic Ornette: Made in America). This 35mm print of Who’s Crazy? was repaired by John Klacsmann, archivist at Anthology Film Archives.

Saturday, July 22 at 7pm

Afterimage

Dir. Andrzej Wajda, Poland, 2016, DCP, 100 min., Polish w/ English subtitles Afterimage looks at the last years of Władysław Strzeminski, Poland’s best-known interwar artist and theoretician. The film opens with Strzeminski (brilliantly played by Polish superstar Boguslaw Linda), a controversial and visionary artist (who only started painting after he became a double amputee), working in his apartment, only to be interrupted by the unfurling of the Soviet flag outside his window. As Stalinism spread to Poland, the unbending Strzeminski, who was friends with Marc Chagall, Alexander Rodchenko, Kazimir Malevich and was once married to the sculptor Katarzyna Kobro, refused to compromise his art for the sake of the preferred socialist realism style. He eventually became persecuted and expelled from his Chair at the Łodz Academy of Fine Arts, but the evercompelling and charismatic teacher was surrounded by loyal students who emboldened him to fight against the Party while they themselves risked jail for publishing his book (posthumously). Strzeminski, who created the concept of Unism, was a co-founder of the constructivist group Blok and the founder of the Museum of Modern Art in Łodz. After Strzeminski became a persona non grata, his art was “erased” from museum walls, but over the years he has come to symbolize artistic resistance against intellectual tyranny.

Friday, July 28 at 7pm

In the Steps of Trisha Brown

Dir. Marie-Hélène Rebois, France/US, 2016, DCP, 79 min.

The late choreographer Trisha Brown revolutionized the world of contemporary dance. In the Steps of Trisha Brown chronicles the 2016 Paris restaging of her seminal 1979 work Glacial Decoy, featuring costumes and projected slides by the similarly risk-taking artist Robert Rauschenberg. Brown’s work is so complex that it resists standard dance notation, so carrying on her legacy by teaching the surprising, challenging piece to the dancers of the Paris Opera Ballet are Lisa Kraus, former dancer who helped create the original production of Glacial Decoy, and Carolyn Lucas, Associate Artistic Director of the Trisha Brown Dance Company. Kraus, in particular, serves as a bridge between Brown and the young dancers of the Paris Opera Ballet. She not only instructs the troupe, but also teaches them the history of Brown’s work. Interspersed with fascinating, little-seen archival footage from original productions and of Brown herself in rehearsal, In the Steps of Trisha Brown is both a testament to the value of teaching and studying art and dance, and a privileged look at the process of staging a major production of a masterwork.

2

SPECIAL SCREENINGS CONTINUED Friday, August 11 at 7pm

Best of Ottawa Animation 2016 The Best of Ottawa 2016 is a collection of juried short films and fan favorites from the 40th anniversary edition of the Ottawa International Animation Festival, which took place in September 2016.

This year’s highlights include the late-night driving misadventure, Nighthawk, The Absence of Eddy Table, a ravenous romance designed by Nickelodeon’s Dave Cooper, Begone Dull Care 2015, an 8-bit shot-for-shot adaptation of legendary animator Norman McLaren’s 1949 film by almost the same name, and Fired on Mars, the tale of a poor schmuck at the end of his luck a million miles from home. Recommended for mature audiences only.

OIAF 2016 Signal Film

Dir. Andreas Hykade/Theodore Ushev, Germany/Canada, video, 1 min.

Begone Dull Care 2015 Dir. Paul Johnson, Canada, video, 4 min.

Velodrool

Dir. Sander Joon, Estonia, video, 6 min.

Nocna ptica (Nighthawk) Dir. Špela Cadež, Slovenia/Croatia, video, 9 min.

Suijun-Genten (Datum Point) Dir. Ryo Orikasa, Japan, video, 6 min.

G-AAAH

Dir. Elizabeth Hobbs, UK, video, 1 min.

Frankfurter Str. 99 (99A Frankfurt Street) Dir. Evgenia Gostrer, Germany, video, 5 min.

Squame Dir. Nicolas Brault, Canada, video, 4 min.

The Absence of Eddy Table Dir. Rune Spaans, Norway, video, 12 min.

Fired on Mars

Dir. Nick Vokey/Nate Sherman, USA, video, 6 min.

3

Saturday, August 12 at 7pm

Cinema Novo

Dir. Eryk Rocha, Brazil, 2016, video, 90 min., Portuguese w/ English subtitles A film essay that poetically investigates the eponymous Brazilian film movement, the most prominent in Latin America in the past century, Cinema Novo focuses on the output of its main auteurs: Nelson Pereira do Santos, Glauber Rocha, Leon Hirszman, Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, Ruy Guerra, Cacá Diegues, Walter Lima Jr., and Paulo César Saraceni, among others. “An impressionistic homage to the movement that changed Brazilian film forever.” —Variety

ICA: MYTHS OF THE MARBLE

Thursday, July 13 at 7pm

They Live

Dir. John Carpenter, US, 1988, 35mm, 94 min.

In 1988, at the height of the Reagan administration, John Carpenter released his cult classic, They Live.

In the film, a drifter named John Nada (played by pro wrestler “Rowdy� Roddy Piper) sets off on an all-out class war with an alien elite who, as he discovers with the help of a special pair of sunglasses, have been living in our midst disguised as yuppies. Let loose on the mean streets of Los Angeles, Nada is aided in his quest to rid the earth of these consumption-driven, ecological parasites by fellow construction worker Frank Armitage (played by Keith David). Featuring a trademark Carpenter synth soundtrack and one of the most memorable fight scenes in cinema history, They Live will make you think twice about the subliminal messages that surround us and the machinations of power hiding in plain sight.

The screening is organized in conjunction with the ICA exhibition Myths of the Marble, which considers how the virtual is engaged by contemporary artists as a way to image and imagine the world as a site of possibility and a set of limitations. www.icaphila.org

FREE ADMISSION

Special thanks to Harry Guerro.

4

ARTHOUSE REVISITED

Selected classics of world cinema and independent film as they were meant to be seen, on the big screen.

Saturday, July 15 at 7pm

E La Nave Va (And the Ship Sails On)

Dir. Federico Fellini, Italy, 1984, 35mm, 127 min., Italian w/ English subtitles A motley crew of European aristocrats (and a lovesick rhinoceros!) board a luxurious ocean liner on the eve of World War I to scatter the ashes of a beloved diva.

Fabricated entirely in Rome’s famed Cinecittà studios, Fellini’s quirky, imaginative fable reaches spectacular new visual heights with its stylized re-creation of a decadent bygone era. This 35mm print was provided by Instituto Luce Cinecitta. Special thanks to Marco Cicala at Instituto Luce Cinecitta and Rebecca Meyers of Bucknell University for making this screening possible.

Saturday, July 29 at 7pm and 10pm

Funeral Parade of Roses New Resoration

Dir. Toshio Matsumoto, Japan, 1969, DCP, 105 min., Japanese w/ English subtitles Long unavailable in the U.S., director Toshio Matsumoto’s shattering, kaleidoscopic masterpiece is one of the most subversive and intoxicating films of the late 1960s—a headlong dive into a dazzling, unseen Tokyo night-world of drag queen bars and fabulous divas, fueled by booze, drugs, fuzz guitars, performance 5

art and black mascara. No less than Stanley Kubrick cited the film as a direct influence on his own dystopian classic A Clockwork Orange. An unknown club dancer at the time, transgender actor Peter (from Kurosawa’s Ran) gives an astonishing Edie Sedgwick/Warhol superstar-like performance as hot young thing Eddie. As hostess at Bar Genet, she’s ignited a violent love triangle with reigning drag queen Leda (Osamu Ogasawara) for the attentions of club owner Gonda (played by Yoshio Tsuchiya from Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai and Yojimbo).

One of Japan’s leading experimental filmmakers, Matsumoto bends and distorts time here like Resnais in Last Year at Marienbad, freely mixing documentary interviews, Brechtian film-within-a-film asides, Oedipal premonitions of disaster, his own avant-garde shorts, and even onscreen cartoon balloons, into a dizzying whirl of image and sound. Featuring breathtaking black-and-white cinematography by Tatsuo Suzuki that rivals the photographs of Robert Mapplethorpe, Funeral Parade offers a frank, openly erotic and unapologetic portrait of an underground community of drag queens.

This brand-new 4k restoration from the original camera negative and sound elements brings a key work of Japanese New Wave and queer cinema to a new generation of audiences.

Friday, August 18 at 7pm

Santa Sangre

Dir. Alejandro Jodorowsky, Italy/Mexico, 1989, DCP, 123 min., English/Spanish w/ English subtitles I Blanca Guerra, Guy Stockwell and the filmmaker’s sons Axel and Adan Jodorowsky star in this surreal epic about a young circus performer, the crime of passion that shatters his soul, and the macabre journey back to the world of his armless mother and deafmute lover. Endorsed by John Lennon and embraced by underground culture worldwide, Jodorowsky redefined movies as both art and entertainment while singlehandedly creating the ‘midnight movie’ genre in the 1970s with sensations El Topo and Holy Mountain.

Legal frustrations with the films’ owner (and Beatles’ manager) Allen Klein—as well as a failed attempt to direct a 14-hour movie adaptation of Dune starring Orson Welles and Salvador Dali—kept Jodorowsky from making films for 16 years until his triumphant return with Santa Sangre in 1989. “This is a movie like none I have seen before,” wrote Roger Ebert in his

original four-star review, “a wild kaleidoscope of images and outrages, a collision between Freud and Fellini.

It contains blood and glory, saints and circuses, and unspeakable secrets of the night. And it is all wrapped up in a flamboyant parade of bold, odd, striking imagery, with Alejandro Jodorowsky as the ringmaster. Santa Sangre is a movie in which the inner chambers of the soul are laid bare.”

6

SUBVERSIVE ELEMENTS

A monthly series dedicated to experimental film and artists’ moving image.

Thursday, July 20 at 7pm

AS SEEN ON I LOVE DICK Jill Soloway’s brilliant adaptation of the Chris Kraus novel I Love Dick has quickly become one of the most daring and unique streaming television programs of recent years. Like Soloway’s hit Transparent, I Love Dick explores issues of sexuality and gender in ways rarely seen on television. One of the key components of the show, set in an artists’ colony in remote Marfa, Texas, is its reverence for groundbreaking feminist film, video and performance art. Incorporating excerpts from major works by Chantal Akerman, Cheryl Donegan and Marina Abramovic, among others, each episode brings the history of transgressive women artists into the foreground and serves as a radical recontextualization of the female gaze. For those curious about the works highlighted in the show, this program presents five of the films in their entirety.

Fuses

Dir. Carolee Schneemann, US, 1965, 16mm, 22 min.

Removed

Dir. Naomi Uman, US, 1999, 16mm, 6 min.

Leche

Dir. Naomi Uman, US, 1998, 16mm, 30 min.

Chronicles of a Lying Spirit Dir. Cauleen Smith, US, 1992, 16mm, 13 min.

At Land

Dir. Maya Deren, US, 1946, 16mm, 15 min.

7

Thursday, August 10 at 7pm

TWO FILMS BY DAVID BROOKS Utilizing the poetic, diaristic structure commonly associated with filmmakers such as Jonas Mekas and Warren Sonbert, David Brooks created dazzling portraits of the world around him before his tragic death at the age of 24. These two films, newly restored by the Filmmakers Co-op, are considered Brooks’ most important works.

The Wind is Driving Him Towards the Open Sea

Dir. David Brooks, US, 1968, 16mm, 52 min.

“Unseen for decades, David Brooks’ sprawling, lyrical 1968 attempt to come to terms with the world’s small beauties and large disappointments is at once exhilarating and melancholy. Shifting between the city (New York) and the countryside (New England), he shows people making out in the grass or talking philosophy during an overly red sunset, his camera shaking, panning, and zooming as if possessed by too much energy for its desperate quest to end. Dialogue about an alcoholic artist injects a note of failure, making the sights we see seem more precious and fleeting.

Brooks died in a one-car crash when he was 24, the year after this film was made.” –Fred Camper Preceded by:

Winter

Dir. David Brooks, US, 1968, 16mm, 16 min.

Thursday, September 21 at 7pm

Marinetti

Dir. Albie Thoms, Australia, 1969, 16mm, 85 min.

The Futurist Manifesto was written in 1909 by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, kicking off one of the most radical and controversial art movements of the 20th century.

Some 60 years later, Australian filmmaker Albie Thoms created a feature-length experimental film named after its author, proving just how influential and inspiring this text could be. Marinetti’s legacy is only directly called out in the first 15 minutes of the film as off-camera voices (we can assume Thoms’ is one of them) discuss his pioneering artistic and cultural work. That conversation gives way to an improvised psych-jazz soundtrack, quickly morphing into a sequence of recorded scenes utilizing multiple exposures and a variety of camera movements. The film continues at a frenetic pace, eventually incorporating found footage and direct-tofilm animations before concluding. Yet even in these evasions the message is clear. Marinetti, the film, is its own manifesto committed to celluloid, employing a broad range of techniques used in experimental

filmmaking to illustrate the radical possibilities of the moving image. Viewed more closely, Marinetti is both a summation of the history of the experimental film and a call to action for film artists to forge new paths.

Special thanks to Steve Macfarlane (Spectacle Theater) and Sukhdev Sandhu (NYU Colloquium For Unpopular Culture).

Subversive Elements is supported by the DolfingerMcMahon Foundation.

8

45 YEARS OF WOMEN MAKE MOVIES

A year-long celebration of the most significant distributor of independent films by and about women.

Thursday, July 27 at 7pm

Inside the Chinese Closet

Dir. Sophia Luvarà, Netherlands, 2016, DCP, 70 min.

Mandarin w/ English subtitles In a nondescript lounge somewhere in Shanghai, men and women giggle, eyeing prospective partners, visibly nervous about making the first move. This isn’t your average matchmaking event—it’s a “fake-marriage fair,” where gay men and women meet to make matrimonial deals with members of the opposite sex in order to satisfy social and familial expectations of heterosexual unions. Inside the Chinese Closet is the intricate tale of Andy and Cherry looking for love and happiness in vibrant Shanghai. They are both homosexual but their families demand a (heterosexual) marriage and a baby from them, because being single and childless would mean an unacceptable loss of face for their families, particularly in the remote countryside where they live. Will Andy and Cherry deny their happiness and sexual orientation to satisfy their parents’ wishes? The stories of Andy and Cherry mirror the legal and cultural progress in China against the backdrop of a nation still coming to terms with new moral values.

Preceded by:

Lives: Visible

Dir. Michelle Citron, US, 2017, video, 35 min.

9

Thursday, August 17 at 7pm

BLACK WOMEN’S FILMMAKING IN THE 1970S A shorts program of rarely screened prints by four key directors shows women’s central role in the black filmmaking renaissance of the 1970s and suggests how many stories and talents are still missing: in a recent study of 1,000 popular films, only three were directed by black women.

Diary of an African Nun Dir. Julie Dash, US, 1977, 16mm, 13 min., b/w

Four Women

Dir. Julie Dash, US, 1974, 16mm, 7 min.

A Minor Altercation

Dir. Jackie Shearer, US, 1977, 16mm, 30 min.

Your Children Come Back to You Dir. Alile Sharon Larkin, US, 1979, 16mm, 27 min.

Killing Time

Dir. Fronza Woods, US, 1979, 16mm, 10 min.

Fannie’s Film

Dir. Fronza Woods, US, 1979, 16mm, 15 min.

Saturday, September 9 at 7pm

Johanna d’Arc of Mongolia

Dir. Ulrike Ottinger, Germany, 1989, 35mm, 165 min.

German w/ English subtitles Ulrike Ottinger’s epic adventure traces a fantastic encounter between two different worlds. Seven western women travelers meet aboard the sumptuous, meticulously reconstructed Trans-Siberian Express, a rolling museum of European culture. Lady Windemere, an elegant ethnographer played by the incomparable Delphine Seyrig in her last screen role, regales a young companion with Mongol myths and lore while other passengers—a prim tourist (Irm Hermann), a brash Broadway chanteuse and an all-girl klezmer trio—revel in campy dining car cabaret. Suddenly ambushed by a band of Mongol horsewomen, the company is abducted to the plains of Inner Mongolia and embark on a fantastic camel

ride across the magnificent countryside. Breathtaking vistas, the lavish costumes of Princess Ulun Iga and her retinue, and the rituals of Mongol life are stunningly rendered by Ottinger’s cinematography. Dubbed a female Lawrence of Arabia and just as sweepingly romantic, Johanna d’Arc of Mongolia is a grandly entertaining, unforgettable journey.

Special thanks to Patricia White, Women Make Movies Board Member/Eugene Lang Research Professor of Film and Media Studies at Swarthmore College.

10

7 BEAUTIES: THE FILMS OF LINA WERTMÜLLER AUGUST 24 - SEPTEMBER 2, 2017 NEW RESTORATIONS

Thursday, August 24 at 7pm

The Seduction of Mimi

Dir. Lina Wertmüller, Italy, 1972, DCP, 112 min., Italian w/ English subtitles Giancarlo Giannini gives a wonderfully comic performance as the sad sack Mimi, a Sicilian laborer whose refusal to vote for the Mafia candidate leads him to lose his job, his wife and his home. At rock bottom, he revives his spirits by falling in love with the beautiful radical Fiorella (Mariangela Melato), with whom he starts a new life as a reliable husband and father. But the past comes back to haunt him, piling on comical complexities as he attempts to defend his honor. A blistering satire of Italy in the 1970s, The Seduction of Mimi takes aim at a corrupt government, compromised labor leaders and the Neanderthal sexual politics of men in power, with uproarious results.

Friday, August 25 at 7pm

Love and Anarchy

Dir. Lina Wertmüller, Italy, 1973, DCP, 129 min., Italian w/ English subtitles Giancarlo Giannini won the best acting prize at the Cannes Film Festival for his achingly sensitive portrayal of Tunin, a freckle-faced innocent who became an accidental anarchist. His contact in Rome is Salomè

11

(Mariangela Melato), a prostitute with her own sob story. While they prepare for the assassination, Tunin falls in love with Tripolina (Lina Polito), which threatens the entire operation. A film of operatic emotion and subversive comedy, Love and Anarchy is a powerful statement on the terror of fascism and the ignoble fates of those who challenge it.

Saturday, August 26 at 7pm

All Screwed Up

Dir. Lina Wertmüller, Italy, 1974, DCP, 108 min., Italian w/ English subtitles Arriving with nothing but the clothes on their backs, two Southern country boys—Gigi (Luigi Diberti) and Carletto (Nino Bignamini)—travel north to get work in Milan, join the labor movement and live in a communal home with other migrant workers, including some combative love interests. Their dreams of wealth devolve into a series of slapstick adventures, from an uproarious attempt at petty crime to the daily indignities of life in a restaurant kitchen. A pointed satire that skewers the illusion of upward mobility, All Screwed Up is essential viewing for Wertmüller fans. With exuberant and biting performances, it’s a comedy whose laughs stick in your throat.

Thursday, August 31 at 7pm

Saturday, September 2 at 5pm

Dir. Lina Wertmüller, Italy, 1974, DCP, 115 min., Italian w/ English subtitles Set against the backdrop of the beautiful Mediterranean, and exploring the subjects of sex, love and politics, Swept Away is Wertmüller’s most famous and controversial film. On an elegant yacht cruising off the coast of Sardinia, rich and stunning capitalist Raffaella (Mariangela Melato) enjoys tormenting Communist sailor Gennarino (Giancarlo Giannini). Fate weaves a different scenario and roles become reversed when the two find themselves stranded together on a deserted island. Raffaella must submit to Gennarino in order to survive, which culminates in a dramatic climax when they are rescued and they must determine if their love can survive the harsh realities of civilization.

Dir. Lina Wertmüller, Italy, 1986, DCP, 98 min., Italian w/ English subtitles Mariangela Melato stars as Signora Bolk, a self-made tycoon interested in ecological preservation. Fed up with the terrorists who poach Italy’s rich beauty, she retaliates, hiring a former CIA agent to abduct the number one violator, Giuseppe ‘Beppe’ Catania for ransom. Catania is taken to her villa on a private island where he insists that as a man, he cannot go without sex. She relents and hires two prostitutes to pleasure him. Blindfolded and chained, Beppe realizes that the third woman is none other than the woman who kidnapped him and agrees to pay the $100 million— but only with a twist.

Swept Away

Friday, September 1 at 7pm

Seven Beauties

Dir. Lina Wertmüller, Italy, 1975, DCP, 116 min., Italian w/ English subtitles Nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Director, Seven Beauties stars Giancarlo Giannini as Pasqualino Frafuso, known in Naples as “Pasqualino Seven Beauties.” A petty thief who lives off of the profits of his seven sisters while claiming to protect their honor at any cost, Pasqualino is arrested for murder and later sent to fight in the army after committing sexual assault. The Germans capture him and he gets sent to a concentration camp where he plots to make his escape by seducing a German officer.

Summer Night

Saturday, September 2 at 8pm

Ferdinando and Carolina

Dir. Lina Wertmüller, Italy, 1999, DCP, 108 min., Italian w/ English subtitles In the dazzling court of 18th-century Naples, young King Ferdinando will reluctantly agree to wed Carolina, the sweet 16 year-old daughter of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria. As the monarchies of Europe hold their breath, something unexpected happens.

King Ferdinando and Carolina share one common interest—a rollicking, orgiastic celebration of the senses, and plunge with gusto into the silken bed sheets to uphold their regal duties. As the court continues on with magnificent splendor, the sovereigns continue to reign, oblivious to the revolutionary tides that are on the verge of tearing France apart and overtaking all of Europe.

12

MOUSTAPHA ALASSANE: PIONEER OF THE GOLDEN AGE OF NIGERIEN CINEMA SEPTEMBER 14 - SEPTEMBER 16, 2017

This first North American retrospective of Moustapha Alassane (1942–2015), a pioneer of populist cinema in newly independent Niger in the 1960s and 1970s, is presented in association with La Cinémathèque Afrique de l’Institut français. A fabulist who sheathed the sharp sting of his political satire within playful stories of water genies, pugilistic frogs, cowboys, and brave fishermen, Alassane parodied colonialist attitudes toward black Africans, the corrupt despotism of local officials, and the shallow materialism of Niger’s youth in a series of animated, fictional, and ethnographic films that remain beloved and influential today. The lure of cinema, with its magical play of shadow and light, inspired Alassane to give up his career as a mechanic and turn toward making art for the masses. His earliest animated films were simple projections of cardboard cutouts, but his work quickly matured, leading to friendships and collaborations with Zalika Souley, one of Africa’s preeminent actresses, the French documentarian Jean Rouch and the Canadian animator Norman McLaren.

Alassane’s films are vital and imaginative records of Nigerien traditions and rituals. Organized by Joshua Siegel, Curator, Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art, with Amélie Garin-Davet, French Embassy 13

in New York. Special thanks to Mathieu Fournet and Véronique Joo’Aisenberg. All images and written descriptions courtesy of MoMA. Co-presented with Scribe Video Center

Thursday, September 14 at 7pm

F.V.V.A.

Dir. Moustapha Alassane, Niger/Burkina Faso, 1972, 35mm, 68 min., French, Hausa w/ English subtitles With Zalika Souley, Djingarey Maiga, Sotigui Kouyaté, Ai Keita. Ali is a modest clerical worker who becomes obsessed with the trappings of earthly success: a woman, a house, a car, and money. As his finances grow ever shakier, he seeks the guidance of a crafty marabout and turns to a life of crime.

Followed by:

Shaki

Dir. Moustapha Alassane, Niger, 1973, 16mm, 25 min., French, Hausa w/ English subtitles As he observes the coronation of the Shaki king in the Oyo State of western Nigeria, Alassane reflects on the syncretic intermingling of Aborisha, Islamic, and Christian religious traditions.

Friday, September 15 at 7pm

La Bague du Roi Koda (The Ring of King Koda)

Dir. Moustapha Alassane, Niger, 1962, 16mm, 24 min., French, Hausa w/ English subtitles In this Zharma legend, the cruel, despotic King Koda tests the loyalty of one of his subjects, a fisherman named “Finger of God,” by ordering him to safeguard one of his rings for an entire year. Failure to do so will lead to the fisherman’s beheading.

Followed by:

Aoure

Saturday, September 16 at 5pm

Friday, September 15 at 9pm

Dir. Moustapha Alassane, Niger, 1977, 16mm, 14 min., French, Hausa w/ English subtitles A princess tests the fidelity of her would-be lover through a series of heroic trials.

Dir. Moustapha Alassane, Niger, 1962, 35mm, 30 min., French, Hausa w/ English subtitles In this hybrid of fiction and documentary, Alassane chronicles the married life of a young Zharma (ethnic Muslim) couple living in the Niger River valley.

Bon Voyage Sim

Dir. Moustapha Alassane, Niger, 1966, 16mm, 5 min., French, Hausa w/ English subtitles Monsieur Sim, the president of the Republic of Toads, receives a scoundrel’s welcome from his citizenry after returning from a luxury holiday abroad (disguised as a diplomatic mission).

Followed by:

Le Retour d’un aventurier (The Return of an Adventurer)

Dir. Moustapha Alassane, Niger, 1966, 16mm, 34 min., French, Hausa w/ English subtitles With Ibrahim Yacouba, Zalika Souley, Abdou Nani, Djingarey Maiga. One of Alassane’s most celebrated films, this homage to the American Western follows a band of wannabe outlaws who ransack a Nigerien village.

Followed by:

Les Cowboys sont noirs (The Cowboys Are Black)

Dir. Serge Moati, France, 1966, 16mm, 15 min., French, Hausa w/ English subtitles Scenes from the production of Alassane’s The Return of an Adventurer, the first African Western. On weekdays, the cowboys are taxi drivers and mechanics; on weekends, they’re hipster cowboys enacting fantasies of tearing up the town.

Samba le grand (Samba the Great)

Followed by:

Toula ou le genie des eaux (Toula, or the Water Genie)

Dir. Moustapha Alassane, Niger, 1973, 35mm, 76 min., French, Hausa w/ English subtitles.

With Sotigui Kouyate, Damouré Zika, Solange Delanne.

In this tale of the clash between technology and faith, based on a story by the Nigerien author and politician Boubou Hama, a water diviner requires the sacrifice of a young girl to appease the gods and bring an end to a devastating drought.

Saturday, September 16 at 8pm

Kokoa

Dir. Moustapha Alassane, Niger, 2001, 16mm, 14 min., French, Hausa w/ English subtitles The festive citizens of the Kingdom of Frogs crowd into an arena to watch their warriors engage in hand-tohand combat and to see Tountia and her musicians perform an enchanting concert.

Followed by:

Moustapha Alassane, Cineaste of the Possible

Dir. Christian Lelong,/Maria Silvia Bazzoli, France, 2008, video, 93 min., French w/ English subtitles In this endearing documentary portrait, Alassane reminisces about magic lanterns, Chinese shadow puppetry, and his own pioneering role in the Golden Age of Nigerien cinema.

14

L.A. REBELLION X2: BURNETT AND WOODBURY DIGITAL RESTORATIONS

Saturday, September 23 at 6pm

Saturday, September 23 at 8pm

40th Anniversary Screening; New Restoration

New Restoration

Killer of Sheep

Dir. Charles Burnett, US, 1977, DCP, 80 min., b/w Combining incredibly lyrical elements with a starkly neo-realist approach, Killer of Sheep chronicles the daily routine of Stan, a sensitive dreamer who is growing detached and numb from the psychic toll of working at a slaughterhouse. Shot in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Watts on a tiny budget, Charles Burnett’s film has since been lauded as a landmark of American cinema.

Killer of Sheep was one of the first 50 films to be selected for the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry and was chosen by the National Society of Film Critics as one of the 100 Essential Films.

15

Bless Their Little Hearts

Dir. Billy Woodberry, US, 1983, DCP, 82 min.

Working from a screenplay by Charles Burnett, Billy Woodberry expertly employs a neo-realist strategy similar to Killer of Sheep and accomplishes an emotionally resonant film that captures the harshness and humor of the lives of working folks. Bless Their Little Hearts is a key example of the work produced by the group of black filmmakers associated with the L.A. Rebellion which includes Burnett, Haile Gerima and Larry Clark.

MAKING/BREAKING THE BINARY: WOMEN, ART & TECHNOLOGY (1968-85)

As part of Making/Breaking the Binary: Women, Art & Technology (1968-85) curated by Kelsey Halliday, we present three programs of film and video held in conjunction with the video works on view at Vox Populi and the exhibition at the Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery at University of the Arts.

Thursday, September 28 at 7pm

The Lens and the Gaze

This program examines how women in film and video in the 1970s challenged the way we look as a new filmic gaze was constructed through the utilization of lenses, mirrors, screens, and 360-degree panning shots. Film theorist Laura Mulvey’s pioneering feature-length video essay with an electronic music score is accompanied by two significant early video art pieces.

Riddles of the Sphinx

Dir. Laura Mulvey, UK, 1977, video, 92 min.

Additional programs in the series:

Thursday, October 5 at 7pm

The Pioneers of Pixels, Feedback, and Glitch This program presents an overview of female animation, experimental film, and video art pioneers. Each artist unearthed new aesthetic realms through their critical experimentation with computer art, image processing, and appropriation. This program features short films and videos by Lillian Schwartz, Vasulkas Inc, Lesley Keen, Barbara Aronofsky Latham, Lynda Benglis, Doris Chase, Dara Birnbaum, Martha Rosler and Max Almy.

Thursday, October 12 at 7pm

New Media and Chance This program highlights two groundbreaking 1970s collaborations between female new media artists and the Merce Cunningham Dance Company.

Preceded by:

360 Degrees

Dir. Hermine Freed, US, 1972, video, 6 min.

Left Side, Right Side

Dir. Joan Jonas, US, 1972, video, 3 min.

Making/Breaking the Binary: Women, Art & Technology (1968-1985) is supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.

16

DOUBLE DRAGON: BRUCEPLOITATION DOUBLE FEATURE

Shortly after the tragic death of Bruce Lee in 1973, a host of martial arts action films began to fill the void by paying tribute or simply crassly imitating the films of the Hong Kong superstar. “Bruceploitation” was born as a subgenre and flourished throughout the 1970s with outlandish plots and a cavalcade of Bruce Lee lookalikes.

Friday, September 29 at 7pm

The Dragon Lives Again

Dir. Kei Law, Hong Kong, 1977, DCP, 96 min.

After his death, Bruce Lee finds himself in hell where he must battle a cast of “underworld” figures including Dracula, James Bond and Clint Eastwood’s spaghetti western character “The Man with No Name.” This absurd adventure is equal parts slapstick comedy and fist-flying Kung Fu blowout.

17

Followed by:

Bruce Lee Fights Back from the Grave

Lee Doo-Yong, Korea, 1976, 35mm, 97 min.

Lightning strikes the grave of Kung Fu legend Bruce Lee, releasing him back into the world ready to battle once again. Bruce Lee Fights Back from the Grave follows Lee imitator Jun Chong (aka Bruce K.L. Lea) as he finds himself in Los Angeles to avenge the death of his brother.

In association with Exhumed Films. Special thanks to Harry Guerro.

FAMILY MATINEES Saturday, September 2 at 2pm

The Seventh Art Stand: Short Films From and About the Middle East for Young Audiences Cinema is an empathy machine, and this collection of short narrative and documentary films takes young people deep inside the lives of their counterparts from Iran, Syria and Yemen. Meet the children of these countries, and you’ll come away with a deeper understanding of our shared bonds as the human family.

Saturday, July 15 at 2pm

A Letter to Momo

Dir. Hiroyuki Okiura, Japan, English, 2011, DCP, 120 mins.

From the creators of Ghost in the Shell comes a wonderfully expressive and beautifully hand-drawn animated tale that combines bursts of whimsy and kinetic humor with deeply felt emotion and drama.

Saturday, August 19 at 2pm

Kids Flix 1

Selected from the 2016 New York International Children’s Film Festival, Kid Flix 1 features Audience Award winners. Recommended ages: 3 to 7.

18

IN COLLABORATION SCRIBE VIDEO CENTER’S PRODUCERS’ FORUM Tuesday, July 18 at 7pm

ACORN and The Firestorm Philadelphia Premiere

Dirs. Reuben Atlas and Sam Pollard, USA, 2017, 86 min.

With Director Sam Pollard in person

Sunday, July 16 at 12pm

EXHUMED FILMS PRESENTS: 3-Dementia!

Join Exhumed Films as we present a mind-boggling marathon featuring some of the greatest 3-D films of all time, projected from original 35mm prints! Some of the most infamous and beloved 3-D titles in history were released during the 1970s and 1980s resurgence of three-dimensional movies; the majority have not seen the light of the projector bulb in over 30 years! We will spotlight a few of the most famous films from the era, as well as some extreme rarities.

Filmmaker Worth Keeter, who directed two of the features in our marathon, will be on hand to introduce his movies and discuss the heyday of 3-D mania!

Friday the 13th Part III 3-D Dir. Steve Miner,1982, 35mm, 95 min.

Treasure of the Four Crowns Dir. Ferdinando Baldi, 1983, 35mm, 97 min.

Rottweiler

Dir. Worth Keeter, 1983, 35mm, 89 min.

Hit the Road Running Dir. Worth Keeter, 1983, 35mm, 92 min.

Revenge of the Shogun Woman

19

For 40 years, ACORN, a nationwide communityorganizing group, sought to empower marginalized communities. The group became a focus of controversy in the 2008 presidential election when a pair of young conservatives and amateur journalists created a national scandal via a hidden camera. A comprehensive non-fiction political thriller, Atlas and Pollard’s blow-byblow account of the ACORN scandal encapsulates the conflicts and contradictions of our political present.

Tuesday, September 12 at 7pm

Horace Tapscott Musical Griot Dir. Barbara McCullough, USA, 2017, 72 min.

With Director Barabara McCullough in person

Winner of Best Feature Documentary Audience Award at the Pan African Film Festival, Horace Tapscott Musical Griot is an insightful testament to the importance of Black music, art, and activism to the history of Los Angeles. Horace Tapscott (1934-99), an important and underappreciated jazz musician as well as community activist, was blacklisted in the 1960s due to his political affiliations, which led the LAPD to shut down his performances during the Watts Rebellion of 1965. The film shares Tapscott’s story in the manner of a griot, or West African storyteller who maintains the oral history of a culture.

This screening is co-sponsored by the Philadelphia Jazz Project and the University of Pennsylvania Cinema & Media Studies program.

Dir. Mei Chun Chan, 1977, 35mm, 98 min.

$10, $8 Students/Seniors, $5 Scribe and IHP members

$40 General Public, $30 Members & Residents

Producers’ Forums are supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, Philadelphia Cultural Fund, and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.

Saturday, August 19

Mustard Seed Film Festival Mustard Seed Film Festival is the first and only South Asian film festival in Philadelphia. The festival screens contemporary, socially engaged films by South Asian directors that highlight marginalized voices and focus on themes salient to the South Asian citizen, immigrant and diasporic experience. Mustard Seed seeks to increase access to South Asian films, but also offer alternative visions of South Asia and South Asian cinema, bring together communities of various origins and identities, and promote cross­cultural dialogue and exchange.

Thursday, August 3 ­— Sunday, August 6

The 6th Annual BlackStar Film Festival

The 6th Annual BlackStar Film Festival returns to Lightbox Film Center this August 3-6! The festival is a celebration of cinema focused on work by and about people of African descent, indigenous communities, and those who otherwise identify as black from around the world. This year’s theme is resistance and will feature approximately 60 films from 5 continents from emerging, established and mid-career filmmakers working in narrative, documentary and experimental modes. Join us By Indie Means Necessary!

Titles and screening times will be announced soon! For more info, visit blackstarfest.org or on social platforms @blackstarfest and #BSFF17.

20

SPECIAL EVENTS

Thursday, July 6 at 6pm

Intersection Opening Reception Join us for a wine and cheese reception to celebrate the opening of our new art exhibit Intersection: an exhibition illustrating abstractly or literally the point at which two things meet. Featuring DVAA and International House Philadelphia artists. Exhibition will be on view from June 30 – September 10 in the East Alcove Gallery of International House.

21

Friday, September 29 at 6pm

Oktoberfest

Despite its name, this annual folk festival held in Munich, Germany since 1810 takes place in September and spotlights everything Bavarian, including and especially beer. Join us for an authentic German cultural experience featuring traditional cuisine such as wurstl, brezen, and sauerkraut, plus a sampling of German beers, polka music and dancing. Wear your lederhosen!

myrepublicbank com • 888 875 2265 Pennsylvania:

New Jersey:

Abington • Center City • Mayfair • Media Plymouth Meeting • Torresdale • Wynnewood

Berlin • Cherry Hill • Glassboro • Haddonfield Marlton • Moorestown • Voorhees • Washington Twp.

Coming Soon: Cherry Hill – Liberty View Some limitations or restrictions may apply for businesses. 2For Republic Bank Customers.

1

22

JULY Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

16 3-Dementia!, 12pm

Wedne

18 ACORN and The Firestorm, 7pm

AUGUST

6 BlackStar Film Festival

SEPTEMBER

12 Horace Tapscott Musical Griot, 7pm

23

esday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

13 They Live, 7pm

14

20 As Seen On I Love Dick, 7pm

21 Who’s Crazy?, 7pm

28 In the Steps of Trisha Brown, 7pm

4 BlackStar Film Festival

10 The Wind is Driving Him Towards the Open Sea, 7pm

11

17

12 Cinema Novo, 7pm

19

18 Kids Flix 1, 2pm Mustard Seed Film Festival

Santa Sangre, 7pm

24 The Seduction of Mimi, 7pm

5 BlackStar Film Festival

Best of Ottawa Animation 2016, 7pm

Black Women’s Filmmaking in the 1970s, 7pm

29 Funeral Parade of Roses, 7pm & 10pm

3 BlackStar Film Festival

22 Afterimage, 7pm

27 Inside the Chinese Closet, 7pm

15 A Letter to Momo, 2pm E La Nave Va (And the Ship Sails On), 7pm

Dawson City: Frozen Time, 7pm

25 Love and Anarchy, 7pm

26 All Screwed Up, 7pm

31 Swept Away, 7pm

1 Seven Beauties, 7pm

The Seventh Art Stand, 2pm Summer Night, 5pm Ferdinando and Carolina, 8pm

2 9

Johanna d’Arc of Mongolia, 7pm

14

15 Moustapha Alassane Program 2, 7pm Moustapha Alassane Program 3, 9pm

Moustapha Alassane Program 1, 7pm

21 Marinetti, 7pm

22

23 Killer of Sheep, 6pm Bless Their Little Hearts, 8pm

Oktoberfest, 6pm

28 The Lens and the Gaze, 7pm

16 Moustapha Alassane Program 4, 5pm Moustapha Alassane Program 5, 8pm

29 Double Dragon: Bruceploitation Double Feature, 7pm

24

WELCOME TO LIGHTBOX FILM CENTER Lightbox Film Center is Philadelphia’s premier exhibitor of film and moving image art. When you join our independent, nonprofit theater, you gain unparalleled access to hundreds of events each year, ranging from film screenings, live performances, and multidisciplinary works to artist talks and receptions.

You engage with a passionate community of cinephiles, celebrating the projected image as a framework for diverse ideas and perspectives.

To join, visit ihousephilly.org/membership Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/LightboxFilmCenter Follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/LightboxFilmCtr Follow us on Instagram @LightboxFilmCenter

Lightbox Film Center is supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency; and the Philadelphia Cultural Fund.

TICKETS • Advanced tickets can be purchased online at www.ihousephilly.org/calendar for most listed films and events.

• Tickets can be purchased at the Box Office, which is open Tuesday - Saturday from 12 to 8pm and at other select times. Phone: 215.387.5125 x2 •

Unless noted, tickets prices for Lightbox Film Center films are $10 for General Admission, $8 for seniors and students. Ticket prices for Family Matinees are $5 and children under the age of 2 are free.

• Lightbox Film Center Members and IHP Residents enjoy free admission to most films.

GETTING HERE Lightbox Film Center is located in International House Philadelphia at 3701 Chestnut Street in the heart of University City. It is easily reached by public transportation or car. Metered street parking is available on Chestnut and nearby streets. Discounted parking for IHP guests is available at the Sheraton University City parking garage, 3549 Chestnut Street.

Bring your parking receipt to the IHP Front Desk or Box Office for a validation stamp to receive a $2.00 discount on the regular parking rates at the Sheraton garage, which is open 24 hours.

GENERAL INFORMATION • Call 215.387.5125, email info@ihphilly.org or visit www.ihousephilly.org.

Cover Image:

• To rent IHP’s Ibrahim Theater for a film screening or special event: 215.387.2275 or email events@ihphilly.org.

The Seduction of Mimi Thursday, August 24 at 7pm

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON OUR F 25

WWW.LIGHTBOXF

BECOME A MEMBER IHP Members enjoy free admission to most films screened in our state-ofthe-art Ibrahim Theater, plus discounts on films and programs presented with partner organizations throughout the year. For more information on becoming an IHP Member, visit www.ihousephilly.org/membership or call 215.387.5125 and select menu option 2.

All Members enjoy the following benefits: • Free admission to most IHP film screenings • Discounted admission to partner film screenings • Guest passes to film screenings • Discounted admission to concerts, live performances, lectures, & other cultural events • Subscription to our quarterly program guide • 10% discount at our Cafe • Exclusive access to members-only events

MEMBERSHIP LEVELS Student Membership $40 a year with a valid student ID, includes two guest passes.

Young Friends Membership $60 a year for ages 40 and under, includes two guest passes.

Individual Membership $75 a year, includes four guest passes.

Household Membership $140 a year with two adults and two children, includes four guest passes.

FILMS AND UPCOMING EVENTS VISIT:

FILMCENTER.ORG

22 26

WWW.LIGHTBOXFILMCENTER.ORG 1-215-387-5125

Lightbox Film Center is Philadelphia’s premier exhibitor of film and moving image art. The signature arts program of International House Philadelphia, an independent nonprofit organization, Lightbox presents an unparalleled slate of repertory, nonfiction, experimental and international cinema.

Beyond the traditional movie theater experience, Lightbox delivers enriching film programs with artist talks, live music and other multidisciplinary programs.

3701 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104