Art of the Real 2016
The Other Side
Our annual nonfiction showcase, founded on the most expansive possible view of documentary film, returns with new work from around the world and in a variety of genres. This year’s festival includes a retrospective of a titan of the avant-garde film world, Bruce Baillie; New York premieres of new films by Roberto Minervini, Ben Rivers, José Luis Guerín, and Thom Andersen; as well as the usual eclectic, globe-spanning host of discoveries by artists who are reenvisioning the relationship between cinema and reality. With many filmmakers appearing in-person with their work, Art of the Real continues to be one of the essential showcases for boundary-pushing nonfiction film.
All My Life: The Films of Bruce Baillie
Bruce Baillie’s lyrical and keenly observational work evades genre and explores narratives in nontraditional forms—from short films to longer explorations. His film Castro Street (1966) was selected for preservation in 1992 by the United States National Film Registry. His work has been inexpressibly influential to the world of avant-garde cinema, and his role as founding member of both Canyon Cinema and the San Francisco Cinematheque speaks to his importance in creating spaces and systems of support and distribution for experimental filmmakers. But the nonfictional dimension of Baillie’s work remains underemphasized: the documentary aspects of such masterpieces as Castro Street and Quick Billy (1970) are both salient and integral to his career-spanning fusion of the mystical and the mundane, the cosmic and the personal, mythology and autobiography. The selection of Baillie’s films in this year’s Art of the Real pays homage to his body of work, and recognizes his legacy as an artist as well as his outstanding work as a distributor and promoter of avant-garde filmmakers. Organized by Garbiñe Ortega.
“There were ages of faith, when men made natural connections between themselves and the place in which they lived, the plants they cultivated, the fuel they used for warmth, their beasts, and their ancestors. My work will be discovering in American life those natural and ancient contacts through the art of cinema!” – Bruce Baillie
Organized by Dennis Lim and Rachael Rakes; Bruce Baillie retrospective organized by Garbiñe Ortega. Presented with support from MUBI.
All films are projected digitally unless otherwise noted.
Special thanks to: Austrian Cultural Forum New York; Harvard Film Archive; Istituto Luce Cinecittà—Film Italia.[b_jumper]
Our annual nonfiction showcase, founded on the most expansive possible view of documentary film, returns with new work from around the world and in a variety of genres. This year’s festival includes a retrospective of a titan of the avant-garde film world, Bruce Baillie; New York premieres of new films by Roberto Minervini, Ben Rivers, José Luis Guerín, and Thom Andersen; as well as the usual eclectic, globe-spanning host of discoveries by artists who are reenvisioning the relationship between cinema and reality. With many filmmakers appearing in-person with their work, Art of the Real continues to be one of the essential showcases for boundary-pushing nonfiction film.
See more and save with a 3+ Film Package and series All Access Pass. Tickets on sale now!
Lineup
The Other Side
Roberto Minervini’s follow-up to his acclaimed “Texas Trilogy” is an indelible, surprising, and often unnerving portrait of bayou nihilism, tactfully portraying Louisianian junkies and a militia in all their contradictions, and immersing us in their daily routines with an eye and ear for unexpected comedy and poetry, as well as for the political ramifications of their downtrodden, hedonistic libertarianism.
What Means Something
Opening Night · World Premiere · Q&A with Ben Rivers · Pre-show reception open to all ticketholders
Ben Rivers’s latest exploration of solitude is an intimate, real-time portrait of the painter Rose Wylie at work in her home studio in the English countryside, and a film that truly illuminates a singular creative process.
A Magical Substance Flows Into Me
Closing Night · North American Premiere · Q&A with Jumana Mann followed by a reception open to all ticketholders
Artist Jumana Manna picks up the torch of seminal ethnomusicologist Robert Lachmann and records contemporary musicians from a variety of Palestinian communities. Unpretentious in its approach and beautifully photographed, this infectious film proves Manna a master of conveying both the quotidian and the staged.
Academy of the Muses
U.S. Premiere
In this thought-provoking meditation on film form, art, love, and gender, José Luis Guerín (In the City of Sylvia) invents a university seminar about the role of women in the creation of art, led by Professor Raffaele Pinto and attended entirely by actresses. A favorite at the Locarno Film Festival and Film Comment’s fourth best undistributed film of 2015.
Dead Slow Ahead
Winner of the Special Jury prize at Locarno 2015, Mauro Herce’s exquisitely shot, surreal journey of a freighter from Ukraine to New Orleans doubles as a piercing insight into global capitalism.
The Dreamed Ones
North American Premiere · Q&A with Ruth Beckermann
The poets Ingeborg Bachmann and Paul Celan exchanged letters for nearly 20 years, and the Austrian documentarian Ruth Beckermann presents this remarkable correspondence with two young actors (Anja Plaschg and Laurence Rupp) reading their words before the camera, occasionally commenting on the text. As emotionally wrenching as it is elegantly precise, The Dreamed Ones is a minimalist tour de force.
Factory Complex
U.S. Premiere · Q&A with Im Heung-soon on 4/10
A powerful document of the abusive, dangerous, grueling, and humiliating conditions under which “unskilled” female laborers in South Korea and Cambodia have suffered, and their attempts to receive better treatment. Winner of the Silver Lion at the 2015 Venice Biennale.
Fragment 53
Q&A with Federico Lodoli & Carlo Gabriele Tribbioli
An unflinching look at the First Liberian Civil War—and war itself—from the testimonies of seven former warlords and warriors. Crucial viewing for our current age of extremism. Screening with: Impression of a War (Camilo Restrepo, 26m).
A German Youth
Jean-Gabriel Périot charts the evolution of the Red Army Faction members from impassioned intellectuals to urban guerrillas using only a variety of footage from the era.
Il Solengo
North American Premiere · Q&A with Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis
A group of hunters tell stories about a local hermit who lived alone in a cave for over 60 years, advancing theories through personal reminiscences as to why he chose to abandon society. Winner of DocLisboa’s 2015 Best International Film Award.
The Moon and the Sledgehammer
New Digital Restoration · Introduction by Ben Rivers
Director Philip Trevelyan’s 1971 portrait of a family depicts a lifestyle rich in eccentricities, wit, and independence. Cut off from London society and its influences just 20 miles away, the Page family lives a simple but self-sufficient existence in their ramshackle house without electricity, gas, or running water.
The Monument Hunter
North American Premiere · Q&A with Jerónimo Rodríguez
After seeing a documentary that triggers a long-lost memory of visiting a park with his father, a Chilean filmmaker living in Brooklyn goes on a wild chase to track down a statue.
O Futebol
An unassuming and bitterly poignant portrayal of a father-son relationship, the wordless rituals around sport, and the transformative power of the World Cup.
Oleg and the Rare Arts
North American Premiere · Q&A with Andrés Duque
Andrés Duque’s affectionate, free-form portrait of Russian piano virtuoso Oleg Nikolaevitch Karavaychuk features the enigmatic maestro wandering through the halls of the Hermitage while speaking about the art on the walls, and eventually his own life.
Oyster Factory
Q&A with Kazuhiro Soda
A fly-on-the-wall look at a struggling Japanese fishery that slowly reveals the economic and xenophobic tensions that are bubbling under the surface of society.
Poet on a Business Trip
U.S. Premiere
A bawdy, absurdist journey across China’s remote Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region that yields 16 funny and astute poems. Grand Prize winner of the 2015 Jeonju International Film Festival.
The Prison in Twelve Landscapes
Q&A with Brett Story moderated by Pacho Velez
The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world, with the tentacles of the criminal justice system reaching far beyond the prison walls. Brett Story’s deftly photographed and elegantly structured film weaves together a captivating essayistic depiction of our quotidian carceral nation.
A Roundabout in My Head
Q&A with Hassen Ferhani
Filled with fascinating interactions between people and the different spaces they happen to occupy, Hassen Ferhani’s quietly profound slice of workers’ lives in and around a slaughterhouse in Algiers is a documentary that illuminates the entire region.
Tales of Two Who Dreamt
Q&A with Andrea Bussmann & Nicolás Pereda
A Roma family living inside a Toronto housing block awaits their asylum hearing by rehearsing stories about their past and apartment block, some true and others mythical.
The Thoughts That Once We Had
Inspired by Deleuze, Thom Andersen’s film poetically associates clips from one to the next—surprising, enlightening, charming, and bewildering in their juxtapositions—to reflect a vision deeply linked to the moments and visions that have sculpted his cinematic and philosophical perspective.
The Woods Dreams Are Made Of
U.S. Premiere
Half-ecology, half-ethnography, this gorgeous documentary explores the different people who pass through (or take up residence) in Paris’s Le Bois de Vincennes park.
Shorts Program 1
Q&A with João Vieira Torres, Dane Komljen and James Lattimer
A Congolese protest song scores a history of activism, man-made caverns open deep beneath the surface of Singapore, outsiders witness a transformative Xucuru-Kariri tribe ritual, and the manic construction of Brasília sinks a neighboring town in these four nonfiction shorts: One.Two.Three (Vincent Meessen, 36m), Sea State Six (Charles Lim, 11m), Toré (João Vieira Torres & Tanawi Xucuru Kariri, 16m), and All Still Orbit (Dane Komljen & James Lattimer, 22m).
Shorts Program 2
Q&A with Philip Cartelli and Mariangela Ciccarello
A volcanic eruption off the coast of Sicily, the opening shot of Diary of a Country Priest, and a central concept of Scientology are manipulated to diverse effect in these three nonfiction shorts: Lampedusa (Philip Cartelli & Mariangela Ciccarello, 14m), The Mesh and the Circle (Mariana Caló & Francisco Queimadela, 34m), and Engram of Returning (Daïchi Saïto, 19m).
All My Life: The Films of Bruce Baillie
"A poetry in light... an alchemist... a tender anarchist. Bruce Bailie makes me see more colors in the world." —Apichatpong Weerasethakul
The legendary Bruce Baillie is an experimental filmmaker whose lyrical and keenly observational films evade genre and explore narratives in nontraditional forms—from complex short films to audacious longer explorations, from autobiographical documentary to cosmic mythology. The selection of Baillie’s work in this year’s Art of the Real pays homage to his work, and recognizes his legacy as an artist as well as his outstanding work as a distributor and promoter of avant-garde filmmakers. Organized by Garbiñe Ortega.
The following notes are a collage of Bruce Baillie’s statements about his films edited by Garbiñe Ortega. The sources are from the personal archives of the artist, “Bruce Baillie Papers l,” in the Special Collection Library, Stanford University; audio recordings from the James Stanley (“Stan”) Brakhage Collection, Special Collections and Archives, University of Colorado Boulder Library; Garbiñe Ortega’s interviews with the author; the Film-makers’ Cooperative Catalogues, the Canyon Cinema News, and MoMA film notes.
Program 1: Why Take Up the Camera
Q&A with Bruce Baillie
This program compiles a number of Bruce Baillie’s poetic and social documentaries created for Canyon Cinema venues, entitled The News. These little films provided a format for creating low-budget, urgent, and politically motivated works. They also demonstrated possibilities for a more immediate transition from production to exhibition.
Program 2: American Inner Landscape
Q&A with Bruce Baillie
Features three works surveying America’s (inner) landscape, this program includes Quick Billy, Baillie’s most personal piece; along with Pastorale D’Ete by Will Hindle, one of Baillie’s beloved filmmaker friends, and the astonishing Starlight by Robert Fulton.
Program 3: Searching for Heroes
Q&A with Bruce Baillie
The two films presented here—Quixote and To Parsifal—explore the imagistic heroic with which Baillie identified during his quest period with many idols.
Program 4: Correspondence – Bruce Baillie/Stan Brakhage
For more than five decades, Bruce Baillie corresponded with Stan Brakhage. They shared fascinating letters, films, and even audiotapes recorded from a van on the road. This program shows some possible connections and affinities between these two friends’ film universes.
Program 5: Let’s Not Be So Serious About Art – Canyon Cinema Community
Bruce Baillie and Chick Strand founded Canyon Cinema in 1961. The era was one of social idealism and communal energy, and the films they showcased boldly embraced purely cinematic visual expression and cultural critique. This program includes some works of the filmmakers that belong to that community and who were influenced by this spirit.
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