Release Date: December 19, 2017

National Gallery of Art 2018 Winter Film Program Features Restorations, Premieres, International Shorts, Retrospectives, Gems from the British Film Institute, a Focus on Jackson Pollock, and Special Appearances by Ten Filmmakers and Artists

Film still from The Sacrifice (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1986, subtitles, 149 minutes), Washington premiere of the restoration to be shown at the National Gallery of Art on Sunday, March 18, at 4:00 p.m. Image courtesy Kino Lorber.

Washington, DC—The 2018 winter film program for the National Gallery of Art presents many opportunities in January, February, and March for visitors to enjoy American and Washington premieres, new film series, restorations of films and media art works on the big screen, film shorts, and ciné-concerts. Films are shown in the East Building Auditorium in original formats whenever possible. Seating is on a first-come, first-seated basis unless noted otherwise. Doors open 30 minutes before films begin. Films are subject to change on short notice. For up-to-date information, visit nga.gov/film.

Film series include Affinities, or The Weight of Cinema (January 6–14), an eight-part series that brings together short films from international makers with those of noted American film artist Kevin Jerome Everson and writer Greg de Cuir Jr., introduced by visiting artists: Kelly Gallagher introduces An Affinity for the Interval; Akosua Adoma Owusu introduces An Affinity for Labor; and other Affinities films are introduced by Margaret Rorison, Christopher Harris, Cauleen Smith, and Dirk de Bruyn.

Avant-Garde to Underground: Outliers and Film, Part 1 (February 3–March 16) is the first section of a series organized in conjunction with the exhibition Outliers and American Vanguard Art (nga.gov/press/exh/4049.html) that focuses on two forms of filmmaking: documentary portraits of self-taught artists and works by experimental filmmakers, or makers of so-called underground films. (Part 2 of the series follows in April and May.)

Stan Brakhage's Metaphors on Vision, first published in 1963 by Jonas Mekas as a special issue of Film Culture, stands as the major theoretical statement by one of avant-garde cinema's most influential figures. In celebration of the reissue of Brakhage's treatise, the Gallery presents a series of films central to the development of his work (February 10–11). The British Film Institute (BFI) scholar and curator Thomas Beard introduces each program.

From Vault to Screen: British Film Institute National Archive (February 18–March 31) will showcase five films that represent recent and unending work in preservation and restoration, highlighting restorations of works by Ken Russell and Derek Jarman, among others.

Special appearances by filmmakers and artists include Jem Cohen, who returns to the Gallery on January 20 to present his latest film, Portraits of People and Place. On February 24, George T. Nierenberg introduces two documentaries on the history of tap dance—No Maps on My Taps and About Taps—featuring Gregory Hines and other masters, including Lionel Hampton.

In conjunction with the National Gallery of Art installation of Jackson Pollock's 1943 Mural—the painting's first time ever on view in Washington (nga.gov/press/exh/5049.html)—the Gallery will screen two films about Pollock: Mural: Story of a Modern Masterpiece (2015) and Ed Harris's Pollock (2000).

Other winter film highlights include the 1971 production of King Lear; screenings of classic titles by auteurs Jean Renoir, Andrei Tarkovsky, and Robert Bresson; and a live performance by pianist Gabriel Thibaudeau and percussionist Frank Bockius with the recent restoration of the silent 1924 film Edmund Kean: Prince among Lovers, screening on February 25.

FILM SCHEDULE

I Cannot Tell You How I Feel, followed by Stand in the Stream
Sunday, January 21 at 4:00
Washington premieres
Two new essays by iconoclasts Su Friedrich and Stanya Kahn address the complexities of end-of-life care from radical, visceral perspectives.

Mural: Story of a Modern Masterpiece
Saturday, January 27 a t 2:00
This Emmy-winning film recounts the commission and creation of Jackson Pollock's Mural, its restoration at the Getty Conservation Institute, its recent travels, and the details of its eventual arrival in Iowa City. Special thanks to Ben Hill and the University of Iowa. (Kevin Kelley and Ben Hill for IPTV, 2015, 58 minutes)

Pollock
Saturday, January 27 at 3:30
A passion project for actor-director Ed Harris, Pollock required a decade of concentrated research and labor on Harris's part. One of the more credible artist biopics of recent years, Pollock owes its success in large part to persuasive performances from Harris as the artist himself; Marcia Gay Harden as his partner Lee Krasner; and Amy Madigan as friend, dealer, and ardent champion Peggy Guggenheim. Scenes at the studio in East Hampton are carefully choreographed, with Harris even mimicking Pollock's balletic movements, famously captured by Hans Namuth's camera in his legendary 1950s footage. (Ed Harris, 2000, 35mm, 122 minutes)

Au Hasard Balthazar
Sunday, January 28 at 4:00
Robert Bresson cast 18-year-old Anne Wiazemsky (1947–2017) as the young heroine Marie in Au Hasard Balthazar, arguably the French director's most admired work.

Day for Night (La nuit américaine)
Saturday, February 3 at 4:00
The routine commotion and confusion of a movie set is (ostensibly) the subject of François Truffaut's comedy, La nuit américaine—the French equivalent for "day for night," a term referring to the process of simulating night scenes while actually filming in broad daylight, often done to save money or to avoid a night shoot. In fact, the film is a veiled homage to the art of moviemaking itself, constructed as a series of choreographed anecdotes about how things really get done. "Films are more harmonious than life, films keep rolling forward, like trains in the night"—Truffaut, as the film director Ferrand. (François Truffaut, 1973, subtitles, 116 minutes)

Le Crime de Monsieur Lange
Sunday, February 4 at 4:30
Jean Renoir collaborated with screenwriter Jacques Prévert on Le Crime de Monsieur Lange, a romantic expression of Popular Front camaraderie set in the courtyard of a small Parisian publishing house. Deceitful boss Batala (Jules Berry) absconds when his creditors close in, and the former employees join to form a cooperative. Together, they lucratively publish clerk Amédée Lange's tales of a fictitious cowboy called Arizona Jim. Told in flashback, Le Crime de Monsieur Lange is "a remarkable forerunner of political change, and a sign of stiffening battle lines"—Richard Brody. Restoration supervised by StudioCanal with the support of the CNC, released by Rialto. (Jean Renoir, 1936, subtitled, 90 minutes)

No Maps on My Taps followed by About Tap
George T. Nierenberg in person
Saturday, February 24 at 2:00
The definitive tap-dance documentary No Maps on My Taps has been restored to its original luster. Dance greats like Chuck Green, Bunny Briggs, Howard "Sandman" Sims, and John Bubbles once again shine, and Lionel Hampton accompanies a dancing duel at the legendary Smalls Paradise in Harlem. When Nierenberg made this film, clubs featuring tap dancers were fading, and many venues were moving over to modern dance. Recently, tap dance has been reviving and the graceful elegance of the form is again visible. (George Nierenberg, 1979, 58 minutes). Gregory Hines begins About Tap, cheerfully chatting about tap-dance legends he saw as a child at the Apollo Theater. Nierenberg's follow-up to No Maps on My Taps conjures three prominent American dancers: Steve Condos, Jimmy Slyde, and Chuck Green. (George Nierenberg, 1985, 28 minutes)

Ciné-Concert: Edmund Kean: Prince among Lovers (Kean ou Désordre et génie)
Gabriel Thibaudeau and Frank Bockius in performance
Sunday, February 25 at 4:00
Russian exile actor Ivan Mosjoukine settled in Paris and became a legend of the French silent cinema. In Kean ou Désordre et génie he portrays the troubled career of the fabled British Shakespearean stage actor, Edmund Kean— considered one of the finest actors ever to perform in a visually striking work by avant-garde Russian screenwriter and director Aleksandr Volkov. Recently restored from original negative by Cinémathèque française in collaboration with the Czech Film Archive and the Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée (CNC), the film's beauty and psychological depth dramatically portray Kean's life and loves while reconstructing (within French movie studios) a set based on the legendary Drury Lane in London's West End. (Aleksandr Volkov, 1924, subtitles, 139 minutes)

The Youth of Maxim
Saturday, March 10 at 3:00
The first of two collaborations between Grigori Kozintsev and Dmitri Shostakovich, The Youth of Maxim was codirected by Kozintsev and dramatist Leonid Trauberg (they had cofounded the Factory of the Eccentric Actor in Saint Petersburg in 1921). The Maxim trilogy, as it's called, "describes the human and political evolution of the title character, a likeable 'guy next door' who steadily grows into a Bolshevik leader . . . a wisecracking, fun-loving guy, playing the guitar and singing, but never betraying his loyalty to the Party"— Peter Rollberg. The musical score by Shostakovich, upbeat and witty, was his third for Kozintsev and quoted popular tunes in a way that evokes his score for the earlier masterwork, The New Babylon. (Grigori Kozintsev and Leonid Trauberg, 1935, 35mm, subtitles, 95 minutes) Presented in conjunction with Post Classical Ensemble.

King Lear
Sunday, March 11 at 4:00
The greatest of all the cinematic adaptations of King Lear, this 1971 production by Grigori Kozintsev is based on a Russian translation by Boris Pasternak, and features the breathtaking black-and-white open-air cinematography of Ionas Gritsius. The film's epic sweep and brilliant use of locations balances the breadth of Shakespeare's tragedy, while an imposing title-role performance by Estonian actor Jüri Järvet is arguably the best Lear ever rendered on stage or screen. Shostakovich's score is spare and haunting, with memorable use of woodwind. (Grigori Kozintsev, 1971, 35mm, subtitles, 139 minutes)

City of the Sun
American premiere
Saturday, March 17 at 2:00
Chiatura, a city in the country of Georgia, once produced nearly half the world's manganese, an element essential for the production of steel. Today the town is almost deserted, yet it sustains a distinctive and robust spirit. Georgian filmmaker Rati Oneli lived there, got to know the locals, and created this quietly poetic portrait of a postindustrial place, forsaken but not lonely. Arseni Khachaturan's cinematography juxtaposes scenes of the town's life with shots of a newly green landscape, and Andrey Dergachev's sound design subtly complements the entire experience. The title is a takeoff on Tommaso Campanella's 17th-century utopian novel The City of the Sun. "I became close with the families. . . . I thought I had the moral right to tell their story"—Rati Oneli. (Rati Oneli, 2017, subtitles, 104 minutes) Presented in conjunction with the Environmental Film Festival.

Five Seasons: The Gardens of Piet Oudolf
Sunday, March 17 at 4:30
Dutch landscape designer Piet Oudolf is a leading figure of the New Perennial movement, a tendency in garden design to plant herbaceous perennials and grasses to convey a naturalistic, even unplanned, look. The philosophy encourages forming a direct link with nature. Tom Piper's new film documents the influential work of Oudolf, who was commissioned to design the landscapes for New York's High Line, only one of many influential public and private commissions. Oudolf leads a journey through five seasons, visiting his iconic works and his far-flung sources of inspiration. (Thomas Piper, 2017, 75 minutes)

The Sacrifice
Washington premiere of the restoration
Sunday, March 18 at 4:00
Filmed on the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea off the Swedish coast, The Sacrifice—now in a restored digital print—was the last film of Russia's contemporary cinematic poet Andrei Tarkovsky (1932–1986). Actor (and Ingmar Bergman regular) Erland Josephson, holding court with his free-spirited family, is celebrating his birthday when news of an impending world disaster is announced over the radio. Using a toned-down palette, The Sacrifice evokes an ailing Earth in a figurative tale of our collective drift toward self-destruction. "The outcome is indeterminate, but the opening condition of fear, and the later weight of prayer, are as palpable as a roll of distant thunder"—Chris Peachment. (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1986, subtitles, 149 minutes)

Cézanne—Portraits of a Life
American premiere
Sunday, March 25 at 4:30
Award-winning filmmaker Phil Grabsky and his cinema production house known as Exhibition on Screen had access to the creators of the landmark exhibition Cézanne Portraits. Filming extensively in Paris and Provence, the team delved deeply into the biography of the great artist. Cézanne's letters are read by Emmy-winning actor Brian Cox. Participating curators include Mary Morton from the National Gallery of Art. (Phil Grabsky, 2018, English and French with subtitles, 85 minutes)

Affinities, or The Weight of Cinema
January 6–14

The idea behind Affinities, or The Weight of Cinema derives from Goethe's classic 1809 novel Elective Affinities. The project, playfully adapting Goethe's artistic-scientific theory of attractions to the practice of exhibiting experimental cinema, is presented in person by filmmaker Kevin Jerome Everson and writer Greg de Cuir Jr., who serve as cocurators. Eight programs of international works of film and video art are arranged along various thematic lines that correspond to their shared interests and concerns. Presentations— or "interventions"— by visiting artists take place between screenings. Additional programs will screen at the National Museum of African American History and Culture on January 11. With thanks to Kevin Jerome Everson; Greg de Cuir Jr.; Jon Goff and Rhea Combs of the National Museum of African American History and Culture; Madeleine Molyneaux; and all  the artists involved. An additional program, An Affinity for Technique, will screen at the National Museum of African American History and Culture on January 11. The event at NMAAHC is also free, but registration is required.

An Affinity for Witnessing
Kelly Gallagher in person
Saturday, January 6 at 2:00
Works assembled for this program explore the idea of bearing testament, the notion that visible evidence is as necessary for the experimental impulse in cinema as it is for the documentary urge. Titles include Ears, Nose and Throat (Everson, 2016), Perfect Film (Ken Jacobs, 1986), Shoot Don't Shoot (William E. Jones, 2012), and From Ally to Accomplice (Kelly Gallagher, 2015). (Total running time 55 minutes)

An Affinity for the Interval
Claudrena Harold in person
Saturday, January 6 at 4:00
Cinematically, "interval" refers not only to durational elements— how long a work is — but also to the space the work creates. Trinh T. Minh-ha posits that interval can be described as "what persists between the meaning of something and its truth." Program includes Oscar at 8903 Empire (Everson, 2016), Considerations (Arthur Jafa, 1982), Bird's Milk (Dineo Seshee Bopape, 2009), Hour Glass (Haile Gerima, 1971), Kuhani (Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, 2013), and Reassemblage (Trinh T. Minh-ha, 1982). (Total running time 85 minutes)

An Affinity for Labor
Akosua Adoma Owusu in person
Sunday, January 7 at 4:00
A question commonly posed when considering labor is who benefits, and who is exploited? In this case, an alternate question might be: what sort of labor constitutes the practice of both making and viewing films? Works include Smooth Surface (Everson, 2015), Marseille après la guerre (Billy Woodberry, 2016), Intermittent Delight (Akosua Adoma Owusu, 2007), and Iseeyou (Simon Gush, 2013), among others. (Total running time 40 minutes)

An Affinity for Constructivism
Margaret Rorison in person
Sunday, January 7 at 5:30
Historically, constructivism was an artistic philosophy specific to the early 20th century that espoused the practice of art for the purpose of positive social change for the many, not just the few. Titles in this program offer a contemporary cinematic rendition of the term in both practice and interpretation. Included are Kinonedelja No. 33 (Dziga Vertov, 1919), Genet parle d'Angela Davis (Carole Roussopoulos, 1970), One Document for Hope (Margaret Rorison, 2016), and We Demand (Everson and Claudrena Harold, 2016), among others. (Total running time 53 minutes)

An Affinity for Color
Christopher Harris in person
Saturday, January 13 at 2:00
Color is explored in this program as a visual quality, a variance of temperatures and the ideas they signify, as well as a racial construct through which to view and know the world. Titles include Grand Finale (Everson, 2015), Feeling Seven (Tomislav Gotovac, 2000), Explosion Ma Baby (Pauline Curnier Jardin, 2016), Rainbow's Gravity (Kerstin Schroedinger and Mareike Bernien, 2014), and Ujamii Uhuru Schule Community Freedom School (Don Amis, 1974). (Total running time 58 minutes)

An Affinity for Minimalism
Kevin Jerome Everson in person
Saturday, January 13 at 4:00
Each of the four films assembled in this program could be characterized by reduction, achieving maximum effect through seemingly simple means: 27.12.2013 St. Louis Senegal (Friedl vom Gröller, 2014), Several Friends (Charles Burnett, 1969), Movies of Local People (Chapel Hill) (H. Lee Waters, 1939–1941), and Rams 23 Blue Bears 21 (Everson, 2017). (Total running time 62 minutes)

An Affinity for the Readymade
Cauleen Smith in person
Sunday, January 14 at 4:00
Whereas the use of found footage in the visual arts conjures the notion of the readymade, the films in this program also repurpose visual and audio recordings original to the makers, to build on tradition and to attain new forms in cinema. The program features The Citizens (Everson, 2009), Nice Biscuits #2 (Luther Price, 2005), My Only Idol Is Reality (Martine Syms, 2007), Our Trip to Africa (Peter Kubelka, 1966), and Sugarcoated Arsenic (Everson and Claudrena Harold, 2013). (Total running time 42 minutes)

An Affinity for Collage
Dirk de Bruyn in person
Sunday, January 14 at 5:30
Assembling elements from the archive, films in this program gain shape from collision and multiplication. "This particular affinity is closely related to the readymade and functions as a complication and extension of the former"— Greg de Cuir. Works include A Saturday Night in Mansfield, Ohio (Everson, 2015), Reckless Eyeballing (Christopher Harris, 2004), WAP (Dirk de Bruyn, 2012), and Songs for Earth and Folk (Cauleen Smith, 2013), among others. (Total running time 69 minutes)

Avant-Garde to Underground: Outliers and Film, Part 1
February 3–March 16
The first section of a series organized in conjunction with the exhibition Outliers and American Vanguard Art focuses on two key forms of filmmaking: documentary portraits of outlier artists, and works by experimental filmmakers or makers of so-called underground film. Often self-taught, experimental filmmakers could be called the outliers of the art world, making moving images for the love of the medium rather than for commercial reward or recognition. Several contemporary visual artists represented in the exhibition, including Bruce Conner and Zoe Leonard, have used film as well as painting, sculpture, and photography in their practice. Part 2 of the series follows in April and May, with special guests.

Short Films by Bruce Conner
Saturday, February 3 at 2:00
Represented in the exhibition by his sculpture Rat Purse (1959), Conner is well known as one of the most prolific and influential American experimental filmmakers. Several of his notorious collage and found-footage films in the program include A MOVIE (1958); CROSSROADS (1976), with music by Terry Riley; COSMIC RAY (1961); the autobiographical LOOKING FOR MUSHROOMS (1959–1967, 1996), filmed in Mexico and San Francisco; the memoirlike VALSE TRISTE (1979); the frenetic BREAKAWAY (1966), featuring dancer and choreographer Toni Basil; and AMERICA IS WAITING (1982), with soundtrack by David Byrne and Brian Eno. (Total running time approximately 80 minutes) With thanks to Michelle Silva and the Conner Family Trust for making these titles available.

James Castle: Portrait of an Artist
Introduction by Jeffrey Wolf
Saturday, February 24 at 4:30
Born deaf in 1899 in rural Idaho, James Castle mined the local landscape of his family's homesteads and his own deeply private world to produce an astonishing body of drawings, collages, and constructions that eventually gained worldwide recognition. Jeffrey Wolf's acclaimed documentary reveals Castle's life and creative process as told by family members, art historians, curators, artists, collectors, and members of the deaf community. (Jeffrey Wolf, 2008, 53 minutes)

Benjamin Smoke
Saturday, March 3 at 2:00
A lyrical portrait of the late musician Benjamin Smoke (1960 – 1999), "a genuine underground figure, an outsider whose difficult life was channeled and transformed by the music that he made, and whose music transformed others. It is a film about the struggle with AIDS and the effects of addiction, but it is also something of a comedy. It depicts a neighborhood in transition, reflecting the colliding forces that are creating America's 'New South'"—Jem Cohen. (Jem Cohen and Peter Sillen, 2000, 16mm, 73 minutes)

Creator of the Jungle
Friday, March 16 at 2:00
Just outside the Catalan village of Argelaguer, a man known as Garrell has been working for decades on a labyrinthine maze of tree houses, tunnels, and waterfalls in a wooded area near a highway. He works at his intricate project incessantly, and invites passersby to tour the premises. Filmmaker Jordi Morató met Josep Pujiula Garrell, the self-described "Tarzan of Argelaguer," when he was already working on the third incarnation of his elaborately convoluted structure (early versions were destroyed by fire or vandalism). Morató's footage extends over a period of years, documenting the artist and his unique creation as it rises again from the ashes. (Jordi Morató, 2014, subtitles, 77 minutes)

Stan Brakhage: Metaphors on Vision
February 10–11

Stan Brakhage's classic Metaphors on Vision, first published in 1963 by Jonas Mekas as a special issue of Film Culture, stands as the major theoretical statement by one of avant-garde cinema's most influential figures, a treatise on mythopoeia and the nature of visual experience written in a style as idiosyncratic as Brakhage's art. Long out of print, Metaphors on Vision has recently been republished by Anthology Film Archives and Light Industry. To celebrate this definitive new edition edited by scholar P. Adams Sitney, the National Gallery of Art presents a series of films central to the development of Brakhage's work. Film scholar and curator Thomas Beard introduces each program.

Stan Brakhage: Program 1
Thomas Beard in person
Saturday, February 10 at 2:00
The first program in Metaphors on Vision consists of Anticipation of the Night (1958, 16mm, 40 minutes), Window Water Baby Moving (1959, 16mm, 12 minutes), The Dead (1960, 16mm, 11 minutes), and Mothlight (1963, 16mm, 3 minutes)

Stan Brakhage: Program 2
Thomas Beard in person
Saturday, February 10 at 4:00
Dog Star Man depicts Brakhage's magical trek up a snowy slope with his dog as he beholds mystical visions of nature, woman, child, and the cosmos itself. (1961–1964, 16mm, 75 minutes)

Stan Brakhage: Program 3
Thomas Beard in person
Sunday, February 11 at 4:00
Scenes from Under Childhood, in four sections, is Brakhage's visualization of how his children might have witnessed the world, "the inner world of fetal beginnings, the infant, the baby, the child— a shattering of the 'myths of childhood' through revelation of the extremes of terror and joy of that world darkened to most adults by their sentimental remembering of it . . . inspired by the music of Messiaen"—Stan Brakhage. (1967–1970, 16mm, 138 minutes)

From Vault to Screen: British Film Institute National Archive
February 18–March 31

Established in 1935, the British Film Institute (BFI) National Archive holds one of the largest film and television collections in the world. Dating from the earliest days of cinema to the live capture of current television content, the collection contains nearly a million titles. The archive cares for a variety of obsolete formats so that future generations may study the United Kingdom's film heritage. These five titles represent recent and unending work in preservation and restoration.
With special thanks to Hannah Prouse and the staff of the BFI.

The Informer
Sunday, February 18 at 4:30
Liam O'Flaherty's 1925 novel The Informer, set in Dublin in the aftermath of the Irish Civil War, has been adapted for the cinema several times (even by O'Flaherty's cousin John Ford in the 1930s). This restoration from the BFI was the first adaption. "O'Flaherty claimed in his autobiography that he wrote The Informer 'based on the technique of the cinema, as a kind of high-brow detective story.' Set in the revolutionary ferment of the newly independent Ireland, among a cadre of poor political activists, this silent version captures the essence of the novel, that atmosphere of a world without possible escape, very like the closed system
of later film noir"— Bryony Dixon. The new BFI-commissioned score by Irish composer Garth Knox includes accordion, flute, Irish pipes, and viola d'amore. (Arthur Robison, 1929, 100 minutes)

Shooting Stars
Saturday, March 3 at 4:00
Shooting Stars is the first film of Anthony Asquith (son of H. H. Asquith, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1908 to 1916), whose most celebrated work was the 1952 adaptation of The Importance of Being Earnest. "Shooting Stars opens in a British movie studio in the 1920s. . . . It's a fascinating behind-the-scenes glimpse and a searing comment on the shallowness of the star system. Demonstrably the original work of rising talent Anthony Asquith—his dynamic cinematographic style and professional approach to the design and lighting was a step change in the quality of British features"— Bryony Dixon. The BFI-commissioned score for 12-piece ensemble is composed by John Altman. (Anthony Asquith, 1928, 103 minutes)

Women in Love
Sunday, March 4 at 4:00
Ken Russell cast the UK's best acting talents in his visually stunning 1969 adaptation of D. H. Lawrence's novel: Glenda Jackson, Alan Bates, and Oliver Reed. Although the action is transposed from the late 19th century to after World War I, many points of Lawrence's novel are preserved, with the two couples formed by sisters Ursula and Gudrun Brangwen and their male companions absorbed in contemporary questions of sexual politics and class relations. The film's original cinematographer, Billy Williams, supervised this new restoration, highlighting the beauty of the compositions, the English countryside, and later on, the vivid radiance of the Swiss Alps. "This restoration will restore Russell to his rightful place in the pantheon of top British directors"—Jeff Robson. (Ken Russell, 1969, 131 minutes)

 Minute Bodies: The Intimate World of F. Percy Smith
Saturday, March 31 at 2:00
"This meditative, immersive film is a tribute to the astonishing work and achievements of naturalist, inventor, and pioneering filmmaker F. Percy Smith. Smith worked in the early years of the twentieth century, developing cinematographic and micro-photographic techniques to capture nature in action. Working in a number of public roles, Smith was prolific and driven, often directing several films simultaneously, on a mission to explore and capture nature's hidden terrains. Minute Bodies is an interpretative edit that combines Smith's original footage with a new contemporary score by Tindersticks to create a hypnotic, alien, yet familiar dreamscape that connects us to the sense of wonder Smith must have felt as he peered through his own lenses"—Stuart Brown. (Stuart Staples, 2016, from footage of F. Percy Smith, 55 minutes)

Wittgenstein
Saturday, March 31 at 4:00
"Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein once stated that philosophy ought to be written as if it were poetry, and a poetic intensity typified his life and his work. No wonder, then, that a creative talent such as Derek Jarman should respond with such characteristic energy to a commission from Channel 4 for a film about the philosopher, written by radical literary theorist Terry Eagleton. Wittgenstein is a bold offbeat biography, personalized in Jarman's unique style to address the politics and sexuality of the great but troubled man. The result is no dry treatise, but a treat for eyes and mind alike. Exceeding the limitations of its miniscule budget, Wittgenstein is full of arresting visuals and bold performances from Tilda Swinton, Michael Gough, and Karl Johnson, who brilliantly captures Wittgenstein in all his torment and drama"—British Film Institute. (Derek Jarman, 1993, 71 minutes)

Press Contact:
Sarah Edwards Holley, (202) 842-6359 or [email protected]