Museum of the Moving Image reopens to the public on January 15, 2011 with Celebrating the Moving Image, featuring six weeks of special screenings and events.

Featured Works:

Recovered Treasures: Great Films from World Archives

The Museum's breathtaking new main theater and intimate screening room are designed to transport viewers to another world. It is fitting that the inaugural series is also a cinematic journey, with recently restored films from archives in Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic, England, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Mexico, Portugal, Sweden, and the United States. The series is a celebration of transformative cinematic experiences. It also highlights the important ongoing work of film archivists, who use a combination of digital and film technology to keep great movies alive. The series, and the new theater and screening room, offer proof that the availability of films today in many digital formats can't replace the immersive-and social-experience of seeing a film presented theatrically in its original format.

Avant-Garde Masters

Avant-garde filmmakers make films that revel in, examine, and subvert the very medium that they are working in. Their work often focuses on the physical nature of celluloid film, the very material that puts them in danger of deteriorating. Thankfully, there are two major initiatives underway to preserve and restore significant avant-garde films. The National Film Preservation Foundation, with support from the Film Foundation, has an Avant-Garde Masters grant program to fund archives restoring experimental films. And the Academy of Motion Picture Archives, which is best known for awarding mainstream Hollywood filmmaking, devotes considerable resources to restoring well-known and neglected avant-garde films.

The Films of David O. Russell

Teeming with life and unpredictable, David O. Russell's acclaimed new film The Fighter is at once assured and adventurous, a powerful cinematic experience that doesn't fit neatly into any one genre. His debut film, Spanking the Monkey, was a coming-of-age story that ventured into mother-son incest without sacrificing emotional honesty or comedy. Flirting With Disaster is a screwball family comedy that cheerfully explores adoption and adultery, and many other loaded subjects. Three Kings used wild humor to attack the absurdity of modern warfare. And I Heart Huckabees is a playful, irreverent comedy that's completely serious in its exploration of profound existential questions. In short, Russell has firmly established himself as one of the most consistently original and inventive contemporary filmmakers. With all the attention surrounding his latest film, this is a good time to take a look at his remarkable and unconventional career.

Indian Cinema Showcase     

India has the world's largest and most vibrant film industry, producing more movies than Hollywood, and playing to a larger and more diverse audience. While known largely for its song-and-dance-filled Bollywood productions, Indian cinema also produces a wide range of ambitious art films. In the greater New York area, however, a number of the theaters specializing in Indian cinema have closed in recent years. Indian Cinema Showcase is a monthly series that addresses the need for theatrical screenings of the best of new and classic Indian Cinema.

Korean Cinema Now  

In recent years, South Korea has become a hotbed of cinema, with a wide range of films that have achieved critical and commercial success around the world. With directors like Lee Chang-dong, Hong Sang-soo, Im Kwon-taek, Bong Joon-ho, and Park Chanwook, Korean films in a wide range of genres and styles have been among the best recent works from any country. This monthly showcase, which will feature both contemporary and classic films, is co-presented with the Korea Society.

Fist and Sword- Monthly Series

Program information:

Celebrating the Moving Image

Related Articles:
Celebrating the Moving Image by Jonathan Rosenbaum posted Jan. 13, 2011
Un-TV by Leah Churner posted Feb. 10, 2011