Dear Colleagues:

The Film Society of Lincoln Center has announced its full lineup of repertory programs and festivals for the 2016 fall season, featuring restorations of works by Charles Burnett and Eric Rohmer; a new film festival for kids, My First Film Fest, with essential family classics and sneak previews of new releases; director retrospectives of Paul Verhoeven and Raúl Ruiz; and a series dedicated to the legacy of the Steadicam. Please see below for the complete list of repertory programs and festivals with run dates and synopses.

We would also like to let you know that the Walter Reade Theater will officially reopen September 9 with the new restoration of Burnett’s To Sleep with Anger, featuring the filmmaker in person.

If you have any questions, please let us know.
Best,
Lisa & Rachel

Opening September 9

To Sleep with Anger – New Restoration!
Charles Burnett, USA, 1990, 102m
Charles Burnett became known to world cinema when his 1978 UCLA thesis film, Killer of Sheep, won the Critics’ Prize at the 1981 Berlin Film Festival. His legendary reputation among cinephiles never quite segued into mainstream recognition, even though his 1990 drama To Sleep with Anger—novelistic in its narrative density and rich characterization—is one of the finest films about the black experience in modern America. Danny Glover (also the film’s executive producer) stars as Harry Mention, a mysterious drifter from the South who visits an old acquaintance (Paul Butler), now leading a middle-class life with his family in South Central Los Angeles. Though imbued with charm and traditional manners, Harry has a knack for mischief that creates powerful rifts throughout the family. Burnett’s overlooked masterpiece connects the past to the present in emotionally resonant ways, making this film as imaginative and insightful as his debut feature. To Sleep with Anger returns to the Film Society in a beautiful digital restoration. A Sony Pictures release. Charles Burnett in person on September 9 and 10.

Starting September 16

Eric Rohmer’s Six Moral Tales – New Restorations!
September 16-29
In 1950, leading French publisher Gallimard rejected a manuscript of a short-story collection called Moral Tales, submitted by a 30-year-old fiction writer. More than a decade later, the writer in question—by then an influential critic and a late-flowering movie director—resolved to adapt the stories for the screen, each inspired by F. W. Murnau’s Sunrise, in which a man, committed to one woman, is tempted by another. The resulting series of works, which took a decade to complete, established Eric Rohmer’s international reputation as a filmmaker. Thrillingly intelligent portraits of self-centered, articulate, often foolish men and the women they belittle, idolize, long for, and stalk, staged with offhand visual imagination and full of electrifying high-stakes verbal showdowns, the six Moral Tales represented an entirely new way of handling male-female relationships on screen. Occasioned by our weeklong revivals of La collectionneuse and Love in the Afternoon, the Film Society is pleased to present all six Moral Tales—newly restored—in September. Courtesy Janus Films and Les Films du Losange.

Starting September 30

The 54th New York Film Festival
September 30 – October 16
Press accreditation for the 54th New York Film Festival is officially closed, and all sections have been announced (find complete information here). If you have last minute inquiries, please email [email protected].

Starting November 3

My First Film Fest
November 3–7
All kids remember the first movie they ever saw or the first time they went to a movie theater. Now, the Film Society of Lincoln Center wants them to remember their first film festival. This November, we present the inaugural edition of what will hopefully be an annual tradition: My First Film Fest aims to bring the excitement and vibrancy of the festival experience to young movie lovers. Showcasing titles from the U.S. and around the world appropriate for children of various ages and adults, this five-day event will feature filmmaker appearances, goodie bags and giveaways, and free educational screenings of films that promote cultural awareness and diversity. Whether showing a sneak preview of a highly anticipated new kids’ movie; the latest, must-see international family gem; or an unforgettable, evergreen classic, My First Film Fest promises to be the fall’s biggest event for young filmgoers. Screenings will include the beautiful Ethiopian drama Lamb, the gotta-see-it-big insect documentary Microcosmos, Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times with live musical accompaniment, and more.

Starting November 9

Total Verhoeven
November 9–23
The provocative, entertaining films of Paul Verhoeven push the boundaries of sex, violence, and accepted good taste to daringly subversive ends. This series encompasses Verhoeven’s entire career, including his early Dutch films (rare Turkish Delight and debut Business Is Business among them), short films, cult classics, and beyond. On the occasion of his acclaimed new film, Elle (which makes its U.S. premiere in October at NYFF), the Film Society revisits the work of one of our most fearless directors. Paul Verhoeven to appear in person.

Starting December 2

Life Is a Dream: The Films of Raúl Ruiz (Part One)
December 2–22
Arguably Chile’s most internationally renowned and prolific filmmaker, Raúl Ruiz completed over one hundred films in numerous national cinemas. The mind-bending works that comprise Ruiz’s eclectic and deeply influential oeuvre are labyrinthine, beguiling, and oneiric; obsessed with questions of theology, philosophy, psychoanalysis, literature, and visual expression; wildly experimental and slyly humorous; surrealist, magical realist, gothic, and neo-Baroque. This November, the Film Society will present the first part of a retrospective devoted to Ruiz, among the great visionaries in film history and perhaps its most intrepid explorer of the unconscious. His films are unified by his singular imagination, idiosyncratic working methods, and the incomparably dreamlike experience of watching them.

Starting December 16

Going Steadi: 40 Years of Steadicam
December 16 – January 2
Combining the freedom of a handheld camera with the stability of a dolly, the Steadicam made its groundbreaking debut in Hal Ashby’s 1976 film Bound for Glory, which won the Oscar for best cinematography. Since then, it has become an essential tool of filmmaking and has allowed cinematographers to execute some of their most iconic, astonishing camera movements. The Film Society is proud to celebrate 40 years of the Steadicam’s usage this December, presenting films like John G. Avildsen’s Rocky, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas, and many more. Steadicam inventor and cinematographer Garrett Brown to appear in person.

FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER

The Film Society of Lincoln Center is devoted to supporting the art and elevating the craft of cinema. The only branch of the world-renowned arts complex Lincoln Center to shine a light on the everlasting yet evolving importance of the moving image, this nonprofit organization was founded in 1969 to celebrate American and international film. Via year-round programming and discussions; its annual New York Film Festival; and its publications, including Film Comment, the U.S.’s premier magazine about films and film culture, the Film Society endeavors to make the discussion and appreciation of cinema accessible to a broader audience, as well as to ensure that it will remain an essential art form for years to come.

The Film Society receives generous, year-round support from American Airlines, The New York Times, HBO, The Kobal Collection, Variety, Loews Regency Hotel, Row NYC Hotel, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York State Council on the Arts. For more information, visit www.filmlinc.org and follow @filmlinc on Twitter.


For media specific inquiries regarding the Film Society of Lincoln Center, please contact:

Lisa Thomas
[email protected]
212-671-4709

Rachel Allen
[email protected]
212-875-5423