Batiste Madalena and the Cinema of the 1920s
October 20–March 14, 2009

Presented in conjunction with the gallery exhibition Batiste Madalena: Hand-Painted Film Posters for the Eastman Theatre, 1924–1928, this series features a selection of films for which the artist designed posters. In advance of seeing the films themselves, and influenced by his passion for particular performers, Madalena would work from still photographs and press materials to create one-of-a-kind posters promoting his larger-than-life subjects—all on a scale that could be clearly seen from streetcars passing the theater’s poster vitrines. His work brings unexpected color and a new perspective to the iconic stars and films of silent cinema’s mature period.

Sally of the Sawdust. 1925. USA. Directed by D. W. Griffith

ContemporAsian: Brillante Mendoza's Slingshot
October 23–29

In the monthly exhibition ContemporAsian, MoMA showcases films that get little exposure, but which engage the various styles, histories, and changes in Asian cinema. Presented in special weeklong engagements, the films in the series include both recent independent gems and little-seen classics. In October, MoMA presents Brillante Mendoza's Slingshot. One of the most prolific and acclaimed directors of the Philippine New Wave, Mendoza has created another virtuoso exploration of the volatile Manila slums. The camerawork in this verité portrait of petty thieves and hustlers is fluid, sweeping, and seemingly untethered, as frantic as the overcrowded shacks and ditches it captures, and it brilliantly monitors the emotional temperature of a troubled neighborhood.

To Save and Project: The Sixth MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation
October 24–November 16

The sixth edition of To Save and Project, MoMA's annual film preservation festival featuring preserved films from archives and studios around the world, opens with filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles introducing the Museum's new restoration of his 1971 film Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. Other highlights in October include Marco Ferreri's Dillinger Is Dead (1969), a major rediscovery of Italian cinema starring Michel Piccoli; Leonard Anderson's 1947 musical That Man of Mine, featuring a young Ruby Dee, who will appear after the screening in a discussion with historian Pearl Bowser; Vilgot Sjöman's counterculture sensation I Am Curious (Yellow) (1967); Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat's celebrated wartime drama Millions Like Us (1943); MoMA's recent restoration of Ernst Lubitsch's Lady Windermere's Fan (1925); and Michael Curtiz's Jimmy the Gent (1934), a Warner Bros. pre-code gem starring James Cagney and Bette Davis.

That Man of Mine. 1947. USA. Directed by Leonard Anderson

MoMA Presents: Amos Gitai's News from Home/News from House
October 24–30

With News from Home/News from House, Gitai completes a trilogy that began with House and continued with A House in Jerusalem. This film explores the relationships among a West Jerusalem house's past and present inhabitants, and between Israelis and Palestinians in a society where displacement is the norm. Abandoned in 1948 by its original owner, a Palestinian doctor, the house was later requisitioned by the Israeli government and has been home to Jewish-Algerian immigrants and a university professor, among others. The Department of Film presents this New York theatrical premiere in conjunction with the exhibition Amos Gitai: Non-Fiction.

Amos Gitai: Non-Fiction
October 24–November 2

Amos Gitai is the leading Israeli filmmaker of his generation. Amos Gitai: Non-Fiction celebrates the filmmaker's documentary work with the New York premiere of Gitai's News from Home/News from House, along with the two earlier films in the trilogy, House and A House in Jerusalem, and six other feature-length documentaries. On October 25 at 5:30 p.m., Annette Michelson, a founding editor of the journal October and former professor of cinema studies at New York University, leads a roundtable discussion on Gitai's documentaries. Participants include Edward Dimendberg, associate professor of film and media studies at the University of California at Irvine; Jean-Michel Frodon, editor of the journal Cahiers du cinéma and author of a new book on Gitai; and Michael Sorkin, principal, Michael Sorkin Studios and director of the graduate program in urban design at The City College of New York.

Amos Gitai on the set of Plus tard, 2007

MoMA Presents: Ken Jacobs's Return to the Scene of the Crime
Through October 22

Jacobs's return to a single scene from the 1905 short Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son—which he first disassembled in his 1969 masterpiece of the same name—could easily be titled "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Scene." An avant-gardist's comedy, Return roguishly riffs on thirteen distinct styles, revealing, distorting, interpreting, and even misinterpreting the hundreds of actions in a single scene—as painting, abstraction, allegory, and, ultimately, as ballet. It's a wry, roving, and joyous ode to movies.

Ken Jacobs: Filmmaker Extraordinaire
Through October 22

In this new century Ken Jacobs has wholeheartedly embraced digital techniques, and his recent works—only some of which are presented here—explore the grain and frames of early films through his mastery of a full range of digital pyrotechnics. The exhibition features some of the freshest short films around, along with a daylong screening of the filmmaker's no-budget magnum opus Star Spangled to Death, which, with its fierce political punch and Beat whimsy, is as relevant today as it was when it was commenced in 1956.

Krypton Is Doomed. 2005. USA. Directed by Ken Jacobs

Hollywood on the Hudson: Filmmaking in New York, 1920–39
Through October 19

Hollywood on the Hudson traces the roots of the modern American film industry to New York City between the two world wars, when an industry built on centralized authority began to listen, for the first time, to a range of independent voices, each with their own ideas about what the movies could say and do. This exhibition surveys filmmaking in New York during the hegemony of Hollywood, from D. W. Griffith's return from the West Coast in 1919 to the World's Fair of 1939. Screenings include pioneering sound films shot at the Paramount Studios in Astoria, Queens, and starring Broadway luminaries; films featuring such stars as Louise Brooks, Marion Davies, the Marx Brothers, Gloria Swanson, and Rudolph Valentino; and noteworthy African American and Yiddish films.

Looking at Music
Through December 31

Music was at the forefront of interdisciplinary experimentation in the 1960s, when the mixing of mediums took off. Portable video cameras, electric guitars, and an aura of technical innovation all fostered radical experimentation. This screening series, presented in conjunction with a selection of early media and related drawings, prints, and photographs in the The Yoshiko and Akio Morita Gallery, examines the radical role of music in the early development of media art, and includes documentary and experimental films, and music videos.

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 October 20, Russian artist Olga Chernysheva discusses her artistic practice in the context of Russia today, and shows several of her video works, including The Train and March. On October 27, Bruce LaBruce, whose lively, gay-themed feature narratives helped establish and affirm the punk Homocore movement, introduces the premiere of his latest film, Otto, or Up with Dead People.

Still Moving
Ongoing

MoMA presents a regular series derived exclusively from its film collection, featuring works that have been acquired and preserved by the Museum over the last seven decades. In October, we present films by four directors recently honored by MoMA in its A Work in Progress series, including Alexander Payne (Citizen Ruth) and James Mangold (Walk the Line).

Walk the Line. 2005. USA. Directed by James Mangold

MoMA COURSES
Cruel and Unusual Comedy: Social Commentary in the American Slapstick Film

This course considers how silent era slapstick comedy treats social, cultural, and political subjects that have continued to be central concerns in America to this day. Industrialization, race, ethnicity, gender, public order, violence, and substance abuse have traditionally been among the most vital sources for the "rude" forms of comedy that have entertained mass audiences. Drawing on a body of work that is a particular strength of the Museum's film collection, classes consist of screenings supplemented by historical lectures and classroom discussion. Guest speakers will include performer John Epperson, a.k.a. Lypsinka, and several others.