MOMA Film
New Directors/New Films 2009
Through April 5
Now in its thirty-eighth year, the renowned New Directors/New Films festival, presented jointly by The Film Society of Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art, introduces New York audiences to the work of emerging or not-yet-established filmmakers from around the world. All of the films in New Directors/New Films are having either U.S. or New York premieres, and many of the screenings are introduced by the filmmakers. This year the festival takes place at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center and at The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 1 at MoMA.
Harmony and Me. 2009. USA. Directed by Bob Byington
MoMA Presents: The Pope's Toilet
April 8–13
It is 1988 in the impoverished town of Melo, Uruguay, and Pope John Paul II is about to pay a visit. Expecting hordes of Brazilian visitors from across the nearby border, the townspeople anticipate a material, if not spiritual, windfall. But while everyone else plans to set up stalls for food and drink, one enterprising smuggler decides that a public pay toilet is a can't-miss scheme. Enlisting the help of his neighbor and using money that his wife had set aside for their daughter's education, he sets his plan in motion—but a series of obstacles puts his marriage and friendships to the test. The Pope's Toilet is the bittersweet debut feature of Enrique Fernández, a writer born in Melo, and César Charlone, the Uruguayan cinematographer of City of God and The Constant Gardener. Special thanks to Film Movement.
The Pope's Toilet. 2007. Uruguay/Brazil/France. Directed by Enrique Fernández and César Charlone
Cinéfondation, Cannes, 2008
April 9–11
Ten years ago the Cannes International Film Festival established Cinéfondation, a nonprofit organization that promotes the work of student filmmakers. In 2008, an international jury headed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien (Taiwan) and including Olivier Assayas (France), Susanne Bier (Denmark), Marina Hands (France), and MoMA Senior Curator Laurence Kardish handed out the Cinéfondation competition awards to filmmakers from schools in Finland, France, Israel, and Korea.
Anthem. 2008. Israel. Directed by Elad Keidan
Mike Nichols
April 14–May 1
"Wit" is not only the title of one of Mike Nichols's recent films; it also succinctly identifies an often elusive trait that this director seems to possess in endless supply. His films are a true pleasure to watch, never threatening to alienate the cinema-going public. The laughs or tears in a Nichols film are always born of something tangible, with authentic actions leading to comprehensible results. He invites us to connect with our own devastating, illuminating humanity. This survey encompasses the scope of Nichols's directing career, from staggering early successes like Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and The Graduate; through his reemergence in the early 1980s with Silkwood; to such recent made-for-cable masterworks as Angels in America and Wit.
The Graduate. 1967. USA. Directed by Mike Nichols
MoMA Presents: ContemporAsian
April 15–20
In the monthly exhibition ContemporAsian, MoMA presents special weeklong engagements of films that otherwise get little theatrical exposure, but which engage the various styles, histories, and changes in Asian cinema. Films in the series include both recent independent gems and little-seen classics. In April, MoMA presents Lu Zhang's Desert Dream, in which a Mongolian man finds himself reluctantly hosting a pair of North Korean refugees. More than a frontier tale of the lone ranger and his lost horizons, Desert Dream is a minimalist paradox that uses epic proportions to map out the numerous borders that corral the desires and realities of self-styled nomads and settlers.
Desert Dream. 2007. Mongolia/China. Directed by Lu Zhang
The Old West: Myth, Character, and Reinvention
Through May 1
This series presents a fascinating selection of films from the collection, spanning 1894 to 1995, that represent the myth of the Old West, America's unofficial national epic. Embodying the American ideal of rugged individualism, Old West icons were (according to author Larry McMurtry) America's first superstars. The films in this exhibition demonstrate how cinematic representations of the Old West both create and adapt to our national mythology, and how cinema—specifically Hollywood, that ultimate destination in the new American West—glorifies this reinvention. This series is held in conjunction with the exhibition Into the Sunset: Photography's Image of the American West. All films are from the U.S.
Modern Mondays
Ongoing
Where is the cutting edge of the motion picture? Discover it first at MoMA. Building upon the Museum's long tradition of exploring cinematic experimentation, Modern Mondays is the new weekly showcase for innovation on screen. Engage with contemporary filmmakers and moving image artists, and rediscover landmark works that have changed the way we experience film and media. On April 6, New York–based artist and filmmaker Carter (b. 1970) introduces the U.S. premiere of his most recent film, Erased James Franco (2008), and takes part in a post-screening conversation with its star, James Franco. Recalling the intellectual gamesmanship of Robert Rauschenberg's 1953 drawing Erased de Kooning, from which it derives its title, Erased James Franco is simultaneously a study of the craft of acting and of the fracturing—and reconstitution—of narrative and identity. On April 13, Los Angeles–based artist Sterling Ruby introduces the premiere of a recent untitled video from 2009, along with other works including Agoraphobic (2001), Found Cushion Act (2005), Transient Trilogy (2005–09), and Dihedral (2006).
Sunday 10:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
Monday 10:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
Tuesday closed
The Museum will be open to the public on Tuesday, April 7 and Tuesday April 14, 2009 from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Wednesday 10:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
Thursday 10:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
Friday 10:30 a.m.–8:00 p.m.
Saturday 10:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
Thanksgiving Day closed
Christmas Day closed
Special exhibitions, audio programs, films, and gallery talks are included in the price of admission.
Adults $20
Seniors
(65 and over with ID) $16
Students
(full-time with current ID) $12
Children
(16 and under) Free
This policy does not apply to children in groups.
Members Free