Park (Taman-taman) (2024) First Look 2025

Asri and Hasan meet after work in the park and discuss life and things as the sun goes down.

This film shouldn't work as well as it does. It's a film that is basic a series of long static shots from a good distance away from the film's subjects, but it is so perfectly done the film puts us in the park where we are over hearing a long conversation or series of conversations between two people. We are there just listening to to people discuss life in a film that, for most of it's running time feels like life.(only when the film shifts to the lighted booth does it feel contrived).

The film is a blending of fact and fiction. I would be hard pressed to know what is or isn't real. Yes the set up is essentially fake, but at the same time I couldn't tell you where the lines between fact and fiction are. I was fully focused on the screen the whole time because the discussion was more than just eavsdropping. 

While this may not work for you if you need constant motion on screen, this film is recommended for anyone who wants good discussions.

Three by Midi Z: CITY OF JADE, RETURN TO BURMA, and 14 APPLES are playing at the Museum of the Moving Image

 

CITY OF JADE
Midi Z makes a film about his brother and his desire to go to the City of Jade, an unregulated and wide open jade mine that was abandoned by the big corporations because it is in a war torn section of Myanmar.

A bleak look at a way of life alien to most people this is slice of life on the downside. Meandering through the life in and around the mine where poverty and drugs rule the war torn province this is a hypnotic film that sucks us in and carries us along into a deep sadness.

As good as the film is on its own terms it is a film that will really hit home for those who have seen the directors other films such as ICE POISON  since it reveals how much he got right.

RETURN TO BURMA
A Burmese worker in Thailand decides to go home again and finds everything hasn't changed as he had hoped.

Portrait of Burma through its lower classes this is film that seems to border on being a documentary. Its a slice of life where everyone is trying to figure what do do next. Our hero has returned home hoping that the new elections changed things but instead finds t really hasn't. Indeed his brother is plotting to get the hell out of dodge himself.

Midi Z's first feature is a good film but is a bit raw around the edges. There are times when he lets things go a bit too long or that he didn't know how to sum things up. Still it is a film of quiet power and worth  a look/

14 APPLES
Midi Z follows his friend who is sent to a monastery with 14 apples, one for each day he will be there in the hoe of curing his insomnia. Instead of finding a life of meditation instead he finds a place of hard scrabble existence.

Unplanned, and shot on the fly 14 APPLES is documentary that is frequently shifting as Midi Z discovers things to look at such as sifting from his friends experiences to those of the villagers in the town around him. The result is a film that frequently delights with something new and just as frequently get a little dull as Midi Z's long takes go on a bit too long.

With the good out weighing the bad , 14 APPLES is recommended, particularly if you only think of monks in terms of Christianity.

Midi Z talked with Mondocurry about his film ICE POISON in 2014

With The Museum of the Moving Image running a six film series of the the films of Midi Z including his latest NINA WU starting Friday here is a chance to look back to 2014 when Mondocurry interviewed Midi Z and his star Ke XI Wu about his then current film ICE POISON which is running as part of the MOMI series.

One of the more well-hidden discoveries of the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival was ICE POISON, a cinema veritae-inspired tale of poverty and drug affliction in the breathtaking rural environs of Burma and neighboring parts of China. To make the film, director MIDI Z returned to his native Burma after a lengthy stay in Taiwan, where he studied filmmaking. Populating his film with both professional actors and natives of the provincial areas where he shot the film, he sought to achieve a truly lifelike depiction of the Burmese people, with their relatively lethargic pace, in the face of increasing worldwide industrialization. Z, along with Taiwanese lead actress Ke-xi Wu, discussed the inspiration for the story, challenges of maintaining a sense of realism, and adventures of filming in areas without permission.

MondoCurry: You lived in Burma at a very young age. How much of situations shown in your film were familiar to you growing up?

MIDI Z: I was born in Burma and  went to Taiwan when I was 16 to study Chinese. In 2008 I returned to my hometown for the first time in ten years.  I met my mom and my childhood friends. At that time a guy who escaped from Thailand was arrested at the border and put in jail. He used crystal meth, or “ice Poison,” and got crazy. He’s still living in my hometown. I met with him but he didn’t realize who I was anymore. And I did some research about the family and wrote this story.

(The story) is about how Burma is changing. Many businessmen come to Rangoon to for trade. And most of the people, the lower class people, like the farmers at the base of the mountain, will plow the fields but the harvest is very poor. So most of them imagine what they could’ve done to make a better life. They imagine making a better life…like in this story, the father buys a motorcycle to run a scooter taxi…But mostly (these native Burmese) aren’t suited for this modernized life.

For me this is a common story that is happening everywhere. In my view, this is not just a story about Myanmar. It’s about globalization everywhere.

MC: For some viewers, there may appear to be various forms of drug use. Can you give some context to clear up any possible confusion?

M Z: (the old men smoking in front of houses) is nothing bad, it’s just like smoking tobacco cigarettes with a water pipe. But crystal meth is also so easy for people to get. For example a boy, after graduating from junior high school, can get a job and then get the ice very easily. One reason people get into it is to help escape something.

MC: There are a few very surreal and distorted visuals when characters are taking ice. Can you talk about how you came up with the way you showed the drug’s effects?

M Z: It is based on the truth. I interviewed so many friends after I did research. Actually, one of my classmates in Burma was just 13 years old when he started to use ice and. It’s a common situation…You bring a bag of ice to a hotel in China, and then waiting in the hotel for the buyer…In his case, before the buyer came, he was just curious so he started using. After that he fell asleep for two nights. When he woke up, he was arrested by the police. His memory became distorted.

MC: Did you work with a lot of non-actors on the film?

M Z: Yes, in my previous 3 films most of the supporting actresses were not professionals. But their real life was connected to the story. That is why it is really easy for me to get their performance. But the main character, like (Ke-Xi Wu) has always been played by a professional.

MC: How do you work with the nonprofessional actors to get the performance you want?

M Z For the nonprofessional, it’s very easy. I don’t tell them how to act. I just told them the main structure of the story and main point of the dialogue, but they can be free to act their own way as long the main subject of their dialogue is maintained. They can move wherever they want. Sometimes it is difficult to capture them because they move. But the professionals, they realize the camera too much. We should discourage them from showing their realization of the camera. 

I think for the professionals, they feel their character needs to cry or act or perform. And it’s very easy for them. But sometimes I’ll just say to the actors to sit there, and do something very natural, for example, have a conversation with the mother. It’s no performance…

MC: How did you feel about improvisational acting?

Ke-xi Wu: I was a stage actor before and I especially liked improvisation. To me it’s not very stressful. It is very challenging. In the beginning, around 2009,  I had a lot of experience to learn about this way of acting.

MC: Oftentimes it appears that only one camera is used, and scenes are filmed with one long shot. Was this done to capture the Burmese pace of life?

M Z: Yes, mostly one camera was used and filming was only one take. In such type of story, timing is important. It’s all about waiting.  The poor people are waiting for changes. They may be waiting for a phone call from Mainland China, so the long shot from the camera will show this timing….

MC: The selling of drugs comes across as matter of fact, not so dramatic…

MIDI: They show up like a guest and just come in and give the person something and get the money. It’s so normal and simple.

MC: Was it a typical situation that police would be there waiting, like what happens in the film?

MIDI: Maybe the police would come to arrest the woman. They would let her go if she pays. They wouldn’t just be arresting her because of the law. No…everyone everywhere has his own reason to do something. Here they are doing that to make their living.

MC: The reaction of the male lead also seemed very genuine, and not necessarily heroic…

MIDI: Yes, that is very human. Actually Ice Poison is a very mainstream narrative, a dramatic story. But I didn’t allow it to happen in a dramatic way because I wanted to make a film very realistic.

MC: The setting has a natural beauty. Did you know what you were looking for when seeking out filming locations?

MIDI: I was very familiar with the setting because I lived there for 16 years. Doing research, I found some places. There is one scene on a hill. Just 100 meters from this hill is the CIA station. During the shooting, they came to us and asked ‘what are you doing?’ Then I went to negotiate with them.

K W: That scene was shot without a D.P.

MIDI: I just told the actress ‘ok, now the cinematographer will be the director. You are going to be shooting and I am going to negotiate with the police.’

K W: We quickly finished two shots and then pretended we were tourists.

MC: Is there anything else that you feel might be misunderstood by an international audience that you would like to make clear about the film?

MIDI: At the beginning people may think it’s political or about drugs but really it’s a story about globalization. It occurs even in America and Europe.

MIDI Z’s next project is expected to be a love story about immigrants in Thailand. ICE POISON has been screened internationally at various festivals.

me on twitter = @mondocurry

Nina Wu (2019) hits MOMI March 26 as part of their Midi Z series before hitting theaters across the country April 2nd

NINA WU is the story of a woman, who after eight years in the big city looking to get her big break as an actress, makes the leap but finds that the sexual abuse and harassment is too much to bear.

The film was co-written by star Ke-Xi who based it on her experiences in the entertainment industry and upon the Harvey Weinstein scandal. The film is a long scream about the treatment of women in the film industry. Yea they may rise up from humble beginnings in the eyes of the fans and critics but to the industry and the powerful men who control it they are little more that objects to abuse or screw. It is a chilling way of life that the Weinstein cases have only just begun to shine a light on after a century being in the darkness.

Director Midi Z’s film is a good, if mixed, affair. Containing some absolute wrenching sequences and images that will hang with you forever. Ke-Xi's performance is really good and one gets the sense that in writing her part she really held nothing back. If you have kids who want to entertain you now will have second thoughts about sending them out into the slaughterhouse that is the entertainment industry.

However as good as the film is many ways it has a few bumps that make the film less than what it could be. As horrible as what happens to Vivian is shouldn’t have been a complete surprise since she has been living knocking on doors for almost a decade. On some level its kind of shocking that she is so unprepared what she finds on the other side of success. The other big problem is that Vivian isn’t completely likeable, she is very self-absorbed and disconnected. I could chalk that up to what happens in the film, but from the glimpses of her earlier life we get a sense that this is the way she always was. While the self absorption doesn’t lessen the horror of what happens it does keep us several slightly distant from her soul.

I would also quibble with the shift in tones, I think the fact the film is such a visceral gut punch with her plight I’m not sure that it needs to gild the lily and push some of the psychological disintegration. I’m not saying it shouldn’t be there, it should, but more that the tone of horror film sometimes takes on is pushing it a half a step too far.

Reservations aside- NINA WU is a gut punch. Recommended.

"Michael Almereyda Here and Now" | MoMI virtual retrospective on the occasion of Almereyda's TESLA

MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE PRESENTS A SELECT RETROSPECTIVE OF SINGULAR AMERICAN AUTEUR MICHAEL ALMEREYDA ON THE OCCASION OF HIS NEW FILM, 'TESLA'

MoMI’s Virtual Cinema presentation includes four features and rarely shown shorts

August 21–September 20, 2020

A true American iconoclast, Michael Almereyda has been directing, writing, and producing unconventional, fiercely independent visions in a variety of genres and styles for more than three decades, whether working in documentary, fiction, or a combination of the two. From August 21 through September 20, Museum of the Moving Image will present Michael Almereyda Here and Now, a recent career retrospective featuring four of the director’s most memorable 21st-century visions — William Eggelston in the Real World, Experimenter, Marjorie Prime, and Escapes — and a collection of rarely shown shorts. The retrospective coincides with the release of his latest film, Tesla, which stars Ethan Hawke and Kyle MacLachlan, on August 21.

The prolific Almereyda has long challenged viewers with detailed, observant, and idiosyncratic portraits of the previously uncharted emotional depths of photographers, scientists, philosophers, and others who exist at a cross-point between tradition and the future, between the technological and the physical.

Tesla is the opening night film of the Queens Drive-In on Thursday, August 13, co-presented by MoMI, Rooftop Films, and New York Hall of Science. For tickets, visit rooftopfilms.com/drivein/queens. MoMI will also present an online members preview screening of Tesla and live online discussion with Almereyda at a later date (to be announced). Tesla, an IFC Films release, will be available in select theaters and VOD beginning August 21. For more information, visit tesla.movie.

All films in Michael Almereyda Here and Now will stream online via Virtual Cinema platforms. Tickets for individual programs are $3.99. A discounted series pass may become available. For more information, visit movingimage.us/almereyda. Descriptions are below.

William Eggleston in the Real World
Dir. Michael Almereyda. 2005, 87 mins. With William Eggleston.
Tracing connections between the groundbreaking images of William Eggleston—widely considered the father of modern color photography—and the artist’s private life, Michael Almereyda’s light-touch portrait invites viewers into intimate glimpses of the photographer at work, on the road, and on his home turf of Memphis, Tennessee, tracking his interest in music, drawing, and video as well as photography.

"Fascinating. Speaks for itself, in roughly the same mysterious way an Eggleston photograph does: it casts more light than you expect, and deeper shadows."
— Terrence Rafferty, The New York Times

Experimenter
Dir. Michael Almereyda. 2015, 98 mins. With Peter Sarsgaard, Winona Ryder, Jim Gaffigan, John Leguizamo, Kellan Lutz, Taryn Manning, Anton Yelchin.
In an adventurous biopic almost as radical as its subject—and foreshadowing a style seen in his new film Tesla — Michael Almereyda examines the life and work of social psychologist Stanley Milgram (Peter Sarsgaard). In the 1960s, as Adolf Eichmann’s trial is underway, we meet Milgram as he starts conducting his controversial obedience experiments at Yale University, hoping to uncover the truth about free will and acts of violence.

“Mr. Almereyda has a boundless gift for finding new ways to tell old stories, and Experimenter, as befits its title, is less a straight biography than a diverting gloss on human behavior, historical memory and cinema itself.” — Manohla Dargis, The New York Times

Marjorie Prime
Dir. Michael Almereyda. 2017, 99 mins. With Lois Smith, Tim Robbins, Geena Davis, Jon Hamm.
A film that takes us to the edge of the “uncanny valley,” Marjorie Prime is set in a near future where holograms of the dead serve as memory repositories for the living. Lois Smith, who starred in Jordan Harrison’s Pulitzer Prize–nominated stage version, is Marjorie, an elderly woman with dementia kept company by a hologram—a “Prime”—of her recently deceased husband, Walter (Jon Hamm), which she feeds memories.

Marjorie Prime was the second of three of Almereyda’s feature films (the others being Experimenter and Tesla) to be recognized by the prestigious Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, in this case for the film’s “imaginative and nuanced depiction of the evolving relationship between humans and technology, and its moving dramatization of how intelligent machines can challenge our notions of identity, memory, and mortality.”

Escapes
Dir. Michael Almereyda. 2017, 89 mins. With Hampton Fancher.
Actor, flamenco dancer, and unlikely producer-screenwriter of the sci-fi classic Blade Runner, Hampton Fancher has lived a life like no other. Michael Almereyda propels viewers down a wild path through mid-20th-century Hollywood, with Fancher recounting episodes from his remarkable life—romantic misadventures with silver-screen stars, wayward acts of chivalry, jealousy, and friendship—alongside a parallel world of film and TV footage of Fancher playing cowboys, killers, fops, cads, and the occasional hero. Escapes shows how one man’s personal journey can unexpectedly shape the future of an entire medium.

"A thoroughly charming, thoroughly engaging portrait of this great adventurer. Part of the pleasure of Escapes is how Mr. Almereyda, drawing deeply from the American pop archives... connects the original Blade Runner to Mr. Fancher’s life with its movie love, romanticism, beautiful women and mad, circuitous rides."
— Manohla Dargis, The New York Times

Fables, Poems, and Experiments: Recent Shorts
To the Unknown (2017, 7 mins.)
Skinningrove (2013, 15 mins.)
The Great Gatsby in Five Minutes (2011, 11 mins.)
The Ogre’s Feathers (2010, 20 mins.)
The North Wind’s Gift (2018, 20 mins.)

Concurrent with his acclaimed feature film work, Michael Almereyda has remained prolific as a maker of shorts. The elasticity of the form has been apt for an artist with an interest in unconventional chemical combinations, genre provocations, and formal fluidity. This program of recent work is representative of the director’s formal and topical breadth. To the Unknown is a tribute to poet John Ashbery by way of Kenneth Koch and an ambulating cat; Skinningrove is an award-winning, entrancing work of nonfiction in which photographer Chris Killip recounts stories behind his own projected images; The Great Gatsby in Five Minutes is very nearly what the title suggests, somehow both lightly and rigorously transposing F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic New York novel to contemporary Los Angeles; and The Ogre’s Feathers and The North Wind’s Gift are iterations of another visionary transposition, adapting Italo Calvino’s Italian folktales into contemporary American settings—the former is an urban quest to infiltrate a menacing ogre’s inner sanctum in a New York high-rise, while the latter is a rustic-set fable in which a struggling family petitions the unrelenting, temperamental wind and is gifted with a magical appliance, with conditions.

INDIA KALEIDOSCOPE FILM FESTIVAL, November 9–12, 2017 at The Museum of the Moving Image

MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE AND THE INDIA CENTER FOUNDATION PRESENT THE SECOND EDITION OF INDIA KALEIDOSCOPE FILM FESTIVAL, NOVEMBER 9–12, 2017

Festival to feature U.S. Premieres of The Brawler by Anurag Kashyap and Pahuna,produced by Priyanka Chopra

The opening night film is Dark Wind by Nila Madhab Panda, and the Festival closes with Prakash Kunte’s Cycle.

Three films are from the underrepresented northeast of India, and half of all the Festival’s films are directed by women.

NEW YORK, NY, October 17^th, 2017 — After a successful launch in 2016, Museum of the Moving Image and The India Center Foundation present the second annual India Kaleidoscope Film Festival (IKFF), to take place from November 9 through 12, 2017. India Kaleidoscope is a new festival that will present film lovers with a chance to immerse themselves in the unique sights and sounds that make up the Indian regional, independent film landscape. These films, which explore the most relevant and pressing topics facing the subcontinent, are being made by today’s most progressive filmmakers working in regional languages. This year, India Kaleidoscope will span seven different regional Indian languages and include new programming initiatives that bring independent regional Indian cinema to an even wider audience.

“The India Center Foundation is delighted to present India Kaleidoscope again with our friends and partners at MoMI,” said Priya Giri Desai, a Founding Director of The India Center Foundation. “It’s an honor to offer these cinematic works to the film-going community and to give exposure to new sights, sounds and languages from across the Indian subcontinent.”

MoMI Chief Curator David Schwartz said, “India Kaleidoscope, in just its second year, is already making a great impact as a showcase for the incredible diversity of Indian cinema, with its focus on artistic and independent films from the many regions of this sprawling, culturally rich country."

“Indian cinema today is independent and regional language cinema, and these films represent the best and most exciting work from the country. We are thrilled to present this eclectic and wholly original selection of films and filmmakers to the New York and U.S. audience,” said Sudeep Sharma, festival programmer.

India Kaleidoscope Film Festival 2017 will screen eight feature films, seven of which will be  U.S. or North American premieres. Most films will feature directors in person, and half of the directors are women. The Opening Night film is Dark Wind (Kadvi Hawa).

Other highlights include the U.S. premiere of The Brawler (Mukkabaaz) by acclaimed director Anurag Kashyap and Pahuna, a film produced by actress Priyanka Chopra (ABC’s Quantico). In an effort to expand IKFF to wider audiences, this year’s closing night screening will be held at the SAG-AFTRA Foundation Theater in Manhattan. See below for full lineup. All films will be screened with English subtitles.

The IKFF 2017 programming committee includes Priya Giri Desai (The India Center Foundation), Ashok Sinha (The India Center Foundation), Priyadarshini Shanker (NYU Cinema Studies), Anupama Kapse (Loyola Marymount), Tristine Skyler (writer and producer), Ritesh Mehta (Film Independent) and Sudeep Sharma (film programmer); with additional programming support from Uma da Cunha and Christina Marouda (Museum of the Moving Image, IFFLA).

Tickets: Tickets for Opening Night are $30; all other tickets are $15 (with discounts for Museum members at select levels). This year, IKFF will also have festival passes.Tickets will go on sale at the following link, beginning October 18: movingimage.us/indiakaleidoscope.

Location for most screenings: Museum of the Moving Image Summer M. Redstone Theater 36-01 35 Avenue, Astoria, Queens, New York 11106 | Phone: 718-777-6800

Location for closing night screening: SAG-AFTRA Foundation Theater,  247 W 54th St, New York, NY 10019

FILMS AND SCHEDULE FOR IKFF 2017: 
 

MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE PRESENTS FILM SERIES TO CELEBRATE THE 15th ANNIVERSARY OF NEW YORK FILM DISTRIBUTOR FILM MOVEMENT

June 8 – July 2, 2017

New York, New York, May 25, 2017— Museum of the Moving Image will present a screening series from June 8 through July 2 to mark the 15th anniversary of Film Movement, the pioneering New York–based film distributor of independent and foreign films. The series, Film Movement: A 15th Anniversary Celebration, includes fifteen features and a number of shorts, ranging from films by established directors Takeshi Kitano, Marleen Gorris, and Eric Rohmer; to Film Movement’s first Academy Award®–nominated film Theeb by Naji Abu Nowar; Maren Ade’s (Tony Erdrmann) first feature The Forest for the Trees; and a range of films from Italy, Argentina, and Mexico. The selections celebrate the vitality and vision of a company that has brought so much great cinema to North American audiences.

“With an innovative distribution strategy including theatrical runs and a film-of-the-month club, and a library of new films from the international festival circuit and classics by established directors, Film Movement plays a vital cultural role in introducing the best in global cinema to American audiences,” said Chief Curator David Schwartz. “We are pleased to present this series to celebrate the company’s fifteen anniversary.”

Michael E. Rosenberg, President of Film Movement, said, “Film Movement is thrilled and honored by this anniversary program at Museum of the Moving Image. The series reflects the intense care shown by David Schwartz and his team at this iconic New York cultural institution in selecting titles that truly reflect the vision of our company.”

Film Movement: A 15th Anniversary Celebration opens on Thursday, June 8, with In Between, an energetic and distinctly modern dramedy by the Palestinian director Maysaloun Hamoud, who will receive the Young Talents award at Cannes this year from Isabelle Huppert. In Between’s producer Shlomi Elkabetz (Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem) will introduce the screening in person and the film is scheduled to open theatrically at the end of the year. The series continues with Takeshi Kitano’s second feature Boiling Point; Naji Abu Nowar’s Academy Award®-nominated “Bedouin Western” Theeb; Pedro González-Rubio’s narrative documentary hybrid Alamar, Eric Rohmer’s ‘80s classic Full Moon in Paris; Alice Rohrwacher’s gritty exploration of Italian Catholicism, Corpo Celeste; Papirosen, Gastón Solnicki’s intimate portrait of multiple generations of his own family in Argentina; Wolf Gremm’s Kamikaze ’89, featuring the legendary director Rainer Werner Fassbinder in his final acting role; Human Capital, Paolo Virzi’s adaptation of Stephen Amidon’s acclaimed novel; Mexican director Fernando Eimbcke’s dreamy, mesmerizing Lake Tahoe; Toni Erdmann director Maren Ade’s debut feature, The Forest for the Trees; Argentine director Lucia Puenzo’s XXY, a delicate tale of sexuality and identity; Marleen Gorris’s Academy Award®Foreign Language Film winner Antonia’s Line; Shane Meadow’s English coming-of-age tale Somers Town; and a closing film, to be announced. See below for schedule and descriptions or visit movingimage.us/FilmMovement.

Sponsors for Film Movement: A 15th Anniversary Celebration include Deluxe, The ADS Group, Kobrand Corporation, and Bounce Creative Group.

About Film Movement
Celebrating its 15th year, Film Movement is a North American distributor of award-winning independent and foreign films based in New York City. Film Movement has released more than 250 feature films and shorts culled from prestigious film festivals worldwide, and last year it had its first Academy Award®-nominated film, Naji Abu Nowar’s Theeb. Film Movement’s theatrical distribution strategy has evolved to include promising American independent films, documentaries, and an even stronger slate of foreign art house titles. Its catalog includes titles by directors such as Hirokazu Kore-eda, Maren Ade, Jessica Hausner, Andrei Konchalovsky, Andrzej Wajda, Diane Kurys, Ciro Guerra, and Melanie Laurent. In 2015, Film Movement launched its reissue label Film Movement Classics, featuring new restorations released theatrically as well as on Blu-ray and DVD, including films by such noted directors as Eric Rohmer, Peter Greenaway, Bille August, Marleen Gorris, Takeshi Kitano, Arturo Ripstein, and Ettore Scola. For more information, please visit www.filmmovement.com.

SCHEDULE FOR ‘FILM MOVEMENT: A 15th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION’
Unless otherwise noted, tickets are $15 adults (ages 18+), $11 (Standard museum members, seniors and students), $7 youth (ages 3–17), free or discounted for Museum members. Advance tickets are available online at http://movingimage.us. Ticket purchase includes same-day admission to Museum galleries.

OPENING NIGHT FILM
In Between (Bar Bahar)
With producer Shlomi Elkabetz in person
THURSDAY, JUNE 8, 7:00 P.M.
Dir. Maysaloun Hamoud. Israel. 2016, 103 mins. DCP. With Mouna Hawa, Sana Jammelieh, Shaden Kanboura. A lively and distinctly modern dramedy by the Arab-Israeli female director Maysaloun Hamoud, In Between follows three women who live together in the vibrant heart of Tel Aviv. Lalia, a criminal lawyer with a wicked wit, loves to burn off her workday stress in the underground club scene. Salma, slightly more subdued, is a DJ and bartender. Nur is a young, observant Muslim woman who moves into their apartment to study at the local university. A visit by Nur’s conservative fiancé sets off a complicated tangle of conflicts between tradition and modernity, citizenship and culture, fealty and freedom.

Boiling Point (3-4 x Jugatsu)
FRIDAY, JUNE 9. 7:30 P.M.
Dir. Takeshi Kitano. Japan. 1990, 97 mins. 35mm. With Takeshi Kitano, Yurei Yanagi, Yuriko Ishida. In Japanese with English subtitles. In his second film, action auteur Takeshi “Beat” Kitano shows his masterful ability to blend drama and hilarity. An unlucky gas station attendant belongs to a losing junior baseball team whose coach has been captured by the local yakuza. The attendant and a friend travel to Okinawa seeking revenge; instead they tumble into a crazy night of karaoke, sex, gun dealing, and flower gathering, with Kitano in top form playing a mercurial gangster.

Theeb
SATURDAY, JUNE 10, 2:00 P.M.
Dir. Naji Abu Nowar. Jordan. 2014, 100 mins. DCP. With Jacir Eid, Hassan Mutlag, Hussein Salameh. In Arabic with English subtitles. Nominated for the 2016 Academy Award® for Best Foreign Language Film. Naji Abu Nowar’s powerful and assured directorial debut, set in the land of Lawrence of Arabia, is a wondrous and riveting “Bedouin Western” about a boy who, in order to survive, must grow up fast. In 1916, while war rages in the Ottoman Empire, Hussein raises his younger brother Theeb (“Wolf”) in a traditional desert community. The brothers’ quiet existence is suddenly interrupted when a British Army officer and his guide ask Hussein to escort them to a well located along the pilgrimage route to Mecca. Hussein agrees, and Theeb chases after his brother. The group is soon trapped amidst threatening terrain riddled with Ottoman mercenaries, Arab revolutionaries, and outcast Bedouin raiders.

Alamar
SATURDAY, JUNE 10, 4:15 P.M.
Dir. Pedro González-Rubio. Mexico. 2009, 73 mins. 35mm. With Jorge Machado, Natan Machado Palombini. In Spanish and Italian with English subtitles. In this “luminous semi-documentary film” (The New York Times), Jorge has only a few weeks with his five-year-old son Natan who is going to live with his mother in Rome. Intent on teaching Natan about their Mayan heritage, Jorge takes him to the pristine Chinchorro reef, and eases him into the rhythms of a fisherman's life. This lovely film observes the growing bonds between father and son, and between Natan and nature. Preceded by Ground Floor (Dir. Asya Aizenstein, Israel. 2015, 3 mins.)

Full Moon in Paris (Les nuits de la pleine lune)
SATURDAY, JUNE 10, 6:30 P.M.
Dir. Eric Rohmer. France. 1984, 103 mins. 35mm. With Pascale Ogier, Tchéky Karyo, Fabrice Luchini, Virginie Thévenet. In French with English subtitles. New York Times critic Vincent Canby called Eric Rohmer's Full Moon in Paris “a small masterpiece,” adding “it is small only in its scope, which focuses exclusively on one wonderfully headstrong, positive young woman and her pursuit of an impossible goal.” The late, luminous Pascale Ogier plays Louise, a young interior designer who is bored with the sleepy suburbs and her live-in boyfriend, and arranges to move back into her Paris apartment during the week. Balancing a steady boyfriend in the suburbs with a best friend, Octave (Fabrice Luchini), who makes plain his interest in her, and a bad-boy musician who catches her eye at a party, Louise tries to manage her tangled life in Rohmer’s modern, wry observation of youth and love. Preceded by Finale (Dir. Balázs Simonyi, Hungary, 2011, 8 mins.)

Corpo Celeste
SUNDAY, JUNE 11, 2:30 P.M.
Dir. Alice Rohrwacher. Italy. 2011, 100 mins. Digital projection. With Yle Vianello, Salvatore Cantaloupo, Pasqualina Scuncia. In Italian with English subtitles. Having recently returned to her native Italy after ten years away, the quiet but curious thirteen-year-old Marta is left to her own devices while her loving but worn-out mother works at an industrial bakery. Marta's only source of social outlet is the local church, where she is told to attend preparatory classes for her confirmation. But the doctrines of Roman Catholicism offer little in terms of life lessons or consolation, and Marta must forge her very own way of the cross. In her debut film, Rohrwacher updates the tradition of Neorealism, with her own poetic naturalism.

Papirosen
SUNDAY, JUNE 11, 4:30 P.M.
Dir. Gastón Solnicki. Argentina. 2011, 74 mins. Digital projection. In Spanish with English subtitles. Fashioning nearly 200 hours of footage shot over a decade into a family portrait at once epic and intimate, the young Argentinian filmmaker Gastón Solnicki (whose previous film was the music documentary Suden) elevates the home movie to an art. Four generations of his Buenos Aires clan are captured on vacations and at family gatherings, as well as in small everyday moments. Digging into the family archives (vintage 8mm footage, a video recording of a bar mitzvah) and incorporating the musings of his grandmother, Pola, a Holocaust survivor, Solnicki crafts a deeply affecting meditation on the meaning of family and the weight of history. Preceded by Aĭssa (Dir. Clément Tréhin-Lalanne, France, 2013, 8 mins.)

Kamikaze ‘89
FRIDAY, JUNE 16, 7:30 P.M.
Dir. Wolf Gremm. Germany. 1982, 106 mins. Digital projection. With Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Gunther Kaufmann. In German with English subtitles. In his final acting role, legendary director Rainer Werner Fassbinder (clad in an iconic leopard-skin suit) stars as the hardboiled detective Jansen. In a neon-drenched futuristic dystopia ruled by a multimedia conglomerate called The Combine, Jansen is sent on a labyrinthine investigation when their headquarters is threatened with mass destruction by a phantom bomber. This essential cult classic features a hypnotic electronic score by Tangerine Dream’s Edward Froese as well as gleefully mind-bending production design. Preceded by The Gunfighter (Dir. Eric Kissack, U.S., 2014, 9 mins. Narrated by Nick Offerman.)

Human Capital (Il capitale umano)
SATURDAY, JUNE 17, 4:00 P.M.
Dir. Paolo Virzì. Italy. 2014, 110 mins. Digital projection. With Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Valeria Golino, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi. In Italian with English subtitles. Paolo Virzì’s adaptation of Stephen Amidon’s acclaimed novel is a riveting and stylish modern day morality tale of class, greed and desire. With a lavish home and beautiful wife, hedge-fund manager Giovanni Bernaschi seemingly has it all. Meanwhile, real estate agent Dino Ossala struggles to maintain his family’s middle-class existence and faces even worse financial straits when his wife announces that she is pregnant with twins. Dino tries to leverage his daughter’s relationship with Giovanni’s son, and the destinies of both families become intertwined in surprising ways. Preceded by Job Interview (Dir. Julia Walter, Germany, 2013, 10 mins.)

Lake Tahoe
SUNDAY, JUNE 18, 2:00 P.M.
Dir. Fernando Eimbcke. Mexico. 2008, 81 mins. 35mm. With Diego Cataño, Hector Herrera, Daniela Valentine. In Spanish with English subtitles. Teenage Juan crashes his family’s car into a telegraph pole on the outskirts of town, and then scours the streets searching for someone to help him fix it. His quest will bring him to Don Heber, an old paranoid mechanic whose only companion is Sica, his almost human boxer dog; to Lucía, a young mother who is convinced that her real place in life is as a lead singer in a punk band; and to “The One who Knows,” a teenage mechanic obsessed with martial arts and kung fu philosophy. The second feature from the talented Mexican director Fernando Eimbcke (Duck Season, Club Sandwich), Lake Tahoe is a dreamy, mesmerizing film about death, family, love and sex. Preceded by Driving Lessons (Dir. Elodie Lélu, Belgium, 2012, 12 mins.)

The Forest for the Trees (Der Wald vor lauter Bäumen)
SUNDAY, JUNE 18, 4:30 P.M.
Dir. Maren Ade. Germany. 2003, 81 mins. 35mm. With Eva Lobau, Daniela Holtz. In German with English subtitles. The impressive debut film by Maren Ade (Toni Erdmann) is about Melanie Pröschle, an awkward and idealistic young teacher from the countryside, who starts her first job at a high school in the city. Although she wants to be a “fresh breeze” at the school, she finds that it is not easy to start a new life, as she copes with loneliness, the inertia of established teachers, and the whims of ninth-grade students. Preceded by House Arrest (Dir. Matthias Sahli, Switzerland, 2015, Switzerland, 13 mins.)

XXY
SUNDAY, JUNE 18, 7:00 P.M.
Dir. Lucia Puenzo. Argentina. 2007, 91 mins. 35mm. With Ricardo Darín, Ines Efron, Valerie Bertuccelli. In Spanish with English subtitles. Most adolescents confront tough choices and life decisions, but rarely any as monumental as the one facing fifteen-year-old Alex, who was born an intersex child. As Alex begins to explore her sexuality, her mother invites friends from Buenos Aires to come for a visit at their house on the gorgeous Uruguayan shore. Alex is immediately attracted to a young man, which adds yet another level of complexity to her personal search for identity, and forces both families to face their worst fears.

Antonia’s Line
SATURDAY, JULY 1, 2:30 P.M.
Dir. Marleen Gorris. Netherlands. 1995, 102 mins. With Willeke van Ammelrooy, Els Dottermans, Dora van der Groen. In Dutch with English subtitles. Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In the aftermath of WWII, strong-willed Antonia returns to her hometown after inheriting her mother's farm. With her free-spirited artist daughter Danielle, they ingratiate themselves into the town’s tight-knit and eccentric community. As the years unfold, love and tragedy come to Antonia and Danielle and the pair foster a vibrant circle of strong, liberated women.

Somers Town
SATURDAY, JULY 1, 5:00 P.M.
Dir. Shane Meadows. United Kingdom. 2008, 70 mins. 35mm. With Thomas Turgoose, Piotr Jagiello, Elisa Lasowski. The director (Shane Meadows) and star (Thomas Turgoose) of This is England created this wry and captivating coming-of-age tale about two teens, new to London, who forge an unlikely friendship during a hot summer. Marek lets homeless Tomo move into his room, and the pair forms a hilarious bond as they work odd jobs for an eccentric neighbor and compete for the attention of a beautiful young French waitress. Meadows “explores the comic and tragic absurdities of small-town life in a populist, invigorating fashion, moving with swagger and ease from laughs to tears and back again” (Time Out New York). Preceded by So You’ve Grown Attached (Dir. Kate Tsang, U.S., 2014, 15 mins.)


MUSEUM INFORMATION
Museum of the Moving Image (movingimage.us) advances the understanding, enjoyment, and appreciation of the art, history, technique, and technology of film, television, and digital media. In its stunning facilities—acclaimed for both its accessibility and bold design—the Museum presents exhibitions; screenings of significant works; discussion programs featuring actors, directors, craftspeople, and business leaders; and education programs which serve more than 50,000 students each year. The Museum also houses a significant collection of moving-image artifacts.

Hours: Wednesday-Thursday, 10:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Friday, 10:30 to 8:00 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, 11:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Museum Admission: $15 adults (18+); $11 senior citizens (65+) and students (18+) with ID; $7 youth (ages 3–17). Children under 3 and Museum members are admitted free. Admission to the galleries is free on Fridays, 4:00 to 8:00 p.m.
Film Screenings: Friday evenings, Saturdays and Sundays, and as scheduled. Unless otherwise noted, ticket are $15 adults / $11 seniors and students / $7 youth 3–17 / Free for members at the Film Lover and Kids Premium levels and above. Advance purchase is available online. Ticket purchase may be applied toward same-day admission to the Museum’s galleries.
Location: 36-01 35 Avenue (at 37 Street) in Astoria.
Subway: M (weekdays only) or R to Steinway Street. W (weekdays only) or N to 36 Avenue.
Program Information: Telephone: 718 777 6888; Website: movingimage.us
Membership: movingimage.us/support/membership or 718 777 6877

Museum of the Moving Image is housed in a building owned by the City of New York and has received significant support from the following public agencies: New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; New York City Economic Development Corporation; New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; Institute of Museum and Library Services; National Endowment for the Humanities; National Endowment for the Arts; and Natural Heritage Trust (administered by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation). For more information, please visit movingimage.us.

RAID 2: BERANDAL Q&A at Museum Of The Moving Image NYC on March 15, 2014

Chocko, Mondocurry and MrC went to the Museum of the Moving Image to see The Raid 2. Here's the's the Q&A that followed the screening with with Director Gareth Evans and stars Julie Estelle and Iko Uwais