FILM

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston present Blank City and New York's No Wave. Céline Danhier’s excellent new documentary Blank City is accompanied by several of the films made in New York during the period she examines.

Schedule of Films:

Blank City (pictured)
2010
Céline Danhier
FOR MATURE AUDIENCES

Show Times
Fri, Aug 12 7:00 PM
Sat, Aug 13 7:00 PM
Sun, Aug 14 5:00 PM
Fri, Aug 19 7:00 PM
Sat, Aug 20 7:00 PM

Blank City chronicles the brief history of talented group of renegade filmmakers who emerged from an economically bankrupt and dangerous moment in New York’s history. From the late-1970s - mid-1980s, when the Lower East Side was a wasteland of cheap rent and communal cheap drugs, these artists forged a new aesthetic, crafting daring works that would go on to profoundly influence the development of independent film as we know it today.

Wild Style
1983
Charlie Ahearn

Show Times
Fri, Aug 12 9:00 PM
Sat, Aug 13 9:00 PM

Wild Style takes audiences to the source of the street movement that conquered the world, showing how old-school hip-hop began as a youth movement played out in New York City basements.

Born in Flames
1983
Lizzie Borden

Show Times
Sun, Aug 14 7:00 PM

The movie that rocked the foundations of the early indie film world, this provocative, thrilling and still-relevant classic is a comic fantasy of female rebellion set in the United States ten years after the Second American Revolution.

Permanent Vacation
1980
Jim Jarmusch

Show Times
Fri, Aug 19 9:00 PM
Sat, Aug 20 9:00 PM

“Jim Jarmusch made his directorial debut with this episodic profile of one troubled hipster trying to make sense of his life.  While Permanent Vacation made the rounds of European film festivals after its completion in 1980, it was all but ignored in the United States, and it wasn’t until Jarmusch released Stranger Than Paradise in 1984 that his star began to rise on the independent film scene.”—Mubi.com

Bette Gordon Program: Anthology Preservations
1972-1977
Bette Gordon
FOR MATURE AUDIENCES

Show Times
Sun, Aug 21 7:00 PM

Introduced by Andrew Lampert, film archivist at Anthology Film Archives. Cosponsored by Aurora Picture Show.

Called “an independent filmmaker with a penchant for unorthodox subjects” by critic David Sterritt, Gordon’s films have been widely noted for their willingness to tackle topics like eroticism and motherhood from a decidedly feminist point of view. Gordon is on the faculty of Columbia University School of the Arts, and this program features a selection of her early shorts, shot in 16mm and recently restored by Anthology Film Archives.

Program:
Michigan Avenue (Bette Gordon and James Benning, 1973, 7 minutes, 16mm) A narrative film concerning an investigation of two women in time and space, to the point where the investigation becomes the narrative.

i-94 (Bette Gordon and James Benning, 1974, 3 minutes, 16mm) An exploration of sex and male/female identities following two people who never appear on screen together.

The United States of America (Bette Gordon and James Benning, 1975, 27 minutes, 16mm) A true masterpiece of 70s cinema, more remarkable today than ever before.

Still Life (Bette Gordon, 1972, 3 minutes, 16mm) A meditation on the American rustic where various objects within the composition are re-presented in unnatural colors and unusual spatial arrangements, emphasizing the illusion of movement while exploring film grain and its graphic nature.

An Erotic Film (Bette Gordon, 1975, 3 minutes, 16mm) The moment before and the moment after…

An Algorithm(Bette Gordon, 1977, 10 minutes, 16mm) A visually stunning kinetic rhythm produced by looped footage (mathematical curves) in and out of phase with each other.