Last Angel of History
Dir. John Akomfrah, 1997. 45 min.
This cinematic essay posits science fiction (with tropes such as alien abduction, estrangement, and genetic engineering) as a metaphor for the Pan-African experience of forced displacement, cultural alienation, and otherness. Includes interviews with DJ Spooky, Goldie, Derek May and George Clinton.

Sunday,
July 13
1:00 pm

Phantom India
Dir. Louis Malle, 1969. 7 episodes, each 50 mins. Total 363 mins.
Traveling in India with only a cinematographer and a sound recordist, Louis Malle recorded what he observed-- often without knowing he was seeing or why it drew him, yet inspired by this striking, ancient land. Culled from 30 hours of footage (none of which Malle developed or watched until after he'd returned home to France), Phantom India's seven episodes are grouped by themes or locations, with the director's own voiceover on the soundtrack. Working with Suzanne Baron--editor of Malle's My Dinner with André, Jacques Tati's Mon Oncle, Volker Schlöndorff's The Tin Drum, and Jean Rouch's Les Maîtres Fous, among other films--long scenes in Phantom India, often five or ten minutes in length, unfold without interruption. Their rhythm reflects the freedom and spontaneity of Malle's trip, and the film that emerges is highly instinctive and sometimes controversial, as well as political, spiritual and deeply thoughtful.

The Killing of a Chinese Cookie
Dir. Derek Shimoda, 2008. 75 min.
For nearly a century, people have turned to this prophetic dessert for advice, inspiration and even winning lottery combinations. While the cookie has ben a source of fascination and a Chinese cuisine staple in North America, it remains nearly non-existent in China. The Killing of a Chinese Cookie examines the heated debate over the true origin of the fortune cookie, the mixing of eastern and western cultures that produced it, and the cookie's rise from a simple pastry to a pop culture phenomenon.

Tuesday,
July 15 7:30 pm
* and *
Wednesday, July 16
7:30 pm

A Propos de Nice
Dir. Jean Vigo, 1930. 22 min.
Jean Vigo's first film is a study of Nice, the celebrated French resort town to which tuberculosis had confined both him and his wife. Inspired by cinematic city portraits like Walter Ruttman's Berlin: Symphony of a Great City and Alberto Cavalcanti's Paris classic Rien que les heures, Vigo worked with his neighbor, Russian émigré cinematographer Boris Kaufman (the brother of Dziga Vertov and Mikhail Kaufman). Shooting clandestinely on scraps of film saved from his job as an assistant cameraman, Vigo pushed Kaufman through town in a wheelchair with a camera hidden on his lap to obtain much of the film's beautiful photography. Though the project began with a detailed script written by the two couples, this was soon abandoned. Instead, Vigo juxtaposed the seaside idyll's extravagant, wealthy elite with their counterparts in the little-seen, impoverished local underbelly to create one of cinema's most poetic and political works.

News From Home
Chantal Akerman, 1977. color, 85 mins.
Gorgeous empty alleyways, scowling strangers, and sprawling, seedy urban decay make Chantal Akerman's vision of New York City one of the era's finest. She visits the downtown streets and subways that were brought to life in narrative films such as Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets, Abel Ferrara's Driller Killer, and James Toback's Fingers, while letters from her mother in Belgium add intimate detail to the soundtrack. Rare English subtitles on this newly-released Eurpoean DVD version provide rare translation of this crucial element of the film, a displaced and distant audio foil to the director's distinct visual experience in America.

Sun Ra: Space is the Place
Dir. John Coney, 1974. 85 min.
Like Ra himself, Space is the Place is one of a kind: part Blaxploitation film, and all polemic parable — a mythopoetic manifesto, made by people who believed in Ra's mystical message as much as they appreciated his Afro-psychedelica.

"Imagine Sweet Sweetback Goes to Mars. John Coney's feature has caped crusader Sun Ra, benignly enigmatic throughout, fighting a war of mind control against the satanic, supernatural pimp known as the Overseer." -J. Hoberman, Village Voice

Also see selections from Sun Ra’s very own home videos!

Tuesday, July 22
7:30 pm

L'opéra Mouffe
Dir. Agnès Varda, 1958. 17 min.
Pregnant with her first child, New Wave auteur Agnès Varda records her neighborhood on the rue Mouffetard in glorious black and white. Varda contemplates her body's changes and life in Paris with characteristic insight, sensuality and humor. Young lovers, street vagrants, and the vibrant local vegetable market are all captured with her keen eye for texture and detail in this rich, sensual, and rarely-seen film.

The Gleaners and I
Dir. Agnès Varda, 2000. 82 min.
Rather than a "road movie" [this is] a "wandering-road-documentary," explained Agnès Varda of personal exploration of the practice and history of "gleaning" in many different regions of southern France. Resourceful, opinionated interviewees wrest food and art from trash and refuse, acts which Varda sees as part of a long tradition dating back to the 1500s, when King Henry IV legalized "the right to glean." Varda finds further historical evidence of gleaning in celebrated rural paintings by Jean François Millet ("The Gleaners," 1857) and Vincent Van Gogh, and she speaks with her countrymen and women about their versions of the practice. In a perfect counter-point to Varda's early ruminations and travels in L'opéra Mouffe, this in turn prompts the filmmaker's ruminations on her country, the process of aging, and her place in the world.

Friday,
July 25
8:30 pm

Tuesday, July 29
7:30pm
* and *
Wednesday, July 30
7:30 pm

Four Rare Short Films by Jean Painlevé:

The Love Life of the Octopus
Les Amours de la pieuvre, 1928, 13 mins.

The Sea-horse
L'hippocampe, 1933, 13 mins.

The Vampire
Le Vampire, 1939, 9 mins.

Freshwater Assassins
Assassins d'eau douce, 1947, 25 mins.
Elegant, formal and fearless, these four lilting, rarely-seen documentaries by Jean Painlevé take an experimental approach to scientific exploration. Filming non-human environments that sometimes appear otherworldly, and at other moments are remarkably familiar, Painlevé explored everywhere from bat caves to the grottos of sea horses, creating over 200 nature films over the course of his career. In the whimsical, humorous and sometimes savage moments between the inhabitants of seemingly inhospitable landscapes, Painlevé captures the sublime.

Jean Painlevé: A Dream for Marine Biology
Dir. François Lévy-Kuentz, 2005. 52 mins. (US Premiere)
Jean Painlevé's life was every bit as fascinating as his films, as this wonderfully-researched and entertaining documentary reveals. The son of the France's prime minister, learn of the way his childhood rebellion against his powerful father slowly morphed into his career; the techniques that he employed to capture rare scientific moments that are still used today; and the technological innovations he designed and inspired in the fields of scuba diving, marine biology, and cinematography. This film also examines the changing reactions to Painlevé's work by the film and science communities over time, and the many friends—from Luis Buñuel to Alexander Calder, May Ray, and Jean Vigo—that he collaborated with, providing live ants or bizarre scientific specimen upon request.

Tuesday, August 5
7:30 pm
* and *
Thursday, August 7
7:30 pm