Art of the Real 2017

The Dazzling Light of Sunset
Now in its fourth year, the Art of the Real festival offers a survey of the most vital and innovative voices in nonfiction and hybrid filmmaking. This edition features titles from established figures such as Laura Poitras, Ignacio AgĂźero, Jem Cohen, Robinson Devor, and the late Michael Glawogger alongside up-and-comers Theo Anthony (Rat Film), SalomĂŠ Jashi (The Dazzling Light of Sunset), and Shengze Zhu (Another Year), as well as a tribute to the late Brazilian filmmaker Andrea Tonacci.
Save with our special student and member rate! 3 films for $24 and each additional film for just $8 per ticket.
Presented with support from MUBI.
Now in its fourth year, the Art of the Real festival offers a survey of the most vital and innovative voices in nonfiction and hybrid filmmaking. This edition features titles from established figures such as Laura Poitras, Ignacio AgĂźero, Jem Cohen, Robinson Devor, and the late Michael Glawogger alongside up-and-comers Theo Anthony (Rat Film), SalomĂŠ Jashi (The Dazzling Light of Sunset), and Shengze Zhu (Another Year), as well as a tribute to the late Brazilian filmmaker Andrea Tonacci.
Presented with support from MUBI.
Tickets on sale now! See more and save with a 3+ Film Package or All Access Pass. And, don't forget to take advantage of our discounted student tickets!
Rat Film
Risk
Closing Night ⢠North American Premiere ⢠Q&A with Laura Poitras and producer Brenda Coughlin ⢠Post-screening reception for all ticket-holders
Laura Poitras returns to the knotty territory of political truth-telling and international espionage with this years-in-the-making portrait of controversial WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.2+2=22 [The Alphabet]
North American Premiere ⢠Q&A with Heinz Emigholz
The first part of the directorâs ambitious new âStreetscapesâ cycle is a response to Godardâs One Plus One, an immersive look into both the recording of Kreidlerâs album ABC and the architecture of Tbilisi.Ama-San
U.S. Premiere
This intimate documentary focuses on the Japanese women who have been performing traditional dives (sans oxygen tanks) together for 30 years.Another Year
U.S. Premiere ⢠Q&A with Shengze Zhu and producer Zhengfan Yang
Through a simple premiseâ13 meals shared by a family of migrant workers over 14 months, rendered in leisurely long takesâShengze Zhuâs compassionate film speaks volumes about socioeconomic realities in contemporary China.Brothers of the Night
U.S. Premiere ¡ Q&A with Patric Chiha
With visuals inspired by Fassbinderâs Querelle, Patric Chihaâs stylized film follows a group of Bulgarian Roma in Vienna who support their families back home by taking on gay sex work.Casa Roshell
Mixing digital, 16mm film, and closed-circuit TV footage to locate a glamorous utopia within the confines of a Mexico City transgender club, Casa Roshell is a richly detailed and immersive portrait of a place whose patrons are allowed to own their identities and feel less alone.
The Dazzling Light of Sunset
Q&A with SalomĂŠ Jashi
In a provincial Georgian town, an ultra-low-budget local news team covers weddings, politics, and teenage beauty pageants with a remarkable code of professionalism.Dark Skull
Q&A with Kiro Russo
Made in collaboration with a crew of Bolivian miners, this formally ambitious work tells an unsparing tale of grueling work, family drama, and drug abuse.DoppelgaĚnger: a cine-performance by Basma Alsharif
Live Event ¡ U.S. Premiere
In this cine-performance, Alsharif weaves together the Occupation of Palestine, narrative cinema, and the possibility for Utopia.Empathy
North American Premiere ⢠Q&A with Jeffrey Dunn Rovinelli
Rovinelliâs rigorous yet sensitive debut follows Em, a queer sex worker struggling to kick heroin, and depicts what it means to be young and at odds with oneself today.From a Year of Non-Events
North American Premiere
Renninger and FrĂślkeâs latest tenderly traces the daily rhythms and rituals of 90-year-old Willi Detert on his rural northern German farm by way of an elegantly interwoven tapestry of 16mm and Super 8mm images.Gray House
North American Premiere ⢠Q&A with Austin Lynch and Matthew Booth
Austin Lynch (son of David) and Matthew Booth candidly explore the American working class through a stunningly photographed weave of veritĂŠ footage, interviews, landscapes, and fictional elements.In Time to Come
U.S. Premiere ⢠Q&A with Tan Pin Pin
Tan Pin Pin returns to themes of redevelopment and excavation of the past in Singapore, subtly questioning our relationship to time and each other.The Modern Jungle
Q&A with Charles Fairbanks and Saul Kak
This bold, reflexive ethnography charts the relationship of an indigenous couple struggling with health problems and land rights.Moyra Davey: Two Premieres
U.S. Premiere ⢠Q&A with Moyra Davey + Book Signing!
Hemlock Forest (2016, 42m) + Wedding Loop (2017, 23m)These two new works by artist Moyra Davey are personal and essayistic tributes to Chantal Akerman, Karl Ove KnausgĂĽrd, and Julia Margaret Cameron.
The Other Day
Introduction by Ignacio AgĂźero
Ignacio AgĂźeroâs documentary encompassed his family and national history, Chileâs economic problems, identity, and nature even while being shot primarily inside his home and through a door that leads to the street.Pow Wow
Q&A with Robinson Devor
Robinson Devor (Zoo) illustrates the legend of a native American youth through breathtaking views of Californiaâs Coachella Valley and interviews with its oddball denizens.The Sky, the Earth, and the Rain
Introduction by JosĂŠ Luis Torres Leiva
In remote, rural southern Chile, Ana, Veronica, Marta, and Toro struggle to find connections with each other and discover themselves.Streetscapes [Dialogue]
North American Premiere ⢠Q&A with Heinz Emigholz
A director speaks at length to a psychoanalyst, confiding his obsessions, fears, ideas about cinema, and psychological blocks. Emigholzâs magnum opus is a playful, moving treatise on trauma and architecture in which foreground and background carry equal weight.This Is the Way I Like It II
U.S. Premiere ⢠Q&A with Ignacio Agßero
Moving between past and present, this fascinating portrait reveals todayâs Chile through the eyes of one director (who remained in Chile throughout the dictatorship) and his contemporaries.Untitled
North American Premiere
The late Michael Glawoggerâs longtime editor combines the remarkable footage from the directorâs final, unfinished project with excerpts from his journals for a revealing and moving elegy.Voyage to Terengganu
North American Premiere ⢠Q&A with co-director Badrul Hisham Ismail and composer Zulhezan
Retracing the early 19th-century travels of the great Malaysian writer Munshi Abdullah through the eastern Malaysian state of Terengganu, this humanistic travelogue explores contemporary beliefs about money, religion, and nationhood.The Wind Knows That I’m Coming Back Home
U.S. Premiere ⢠Q&A with JosÊ Luis Torres Leiva
A filmmaker prepares to shoot his first fiction film, about the real-life disappearance of two lovers in the woods of Chileâs remote MeulĂn Island in the early 1980s.World Without End (No Reported Incidents)
Q&A with Jem Cohen
Jem Cohen (Museum Hours) offers a sweet-hearted, structuralist look at three cities along the Thames Estuary: Southend-on-Sea, Leigh-on-Sea, and Canvey Island.Spotlight on Andrea Tonacci
Blah Blah Blah + Bang Bang
Two classics of the marginal cinema movement that opposed both the Cinema Novo movement and Brazilâs military government.
Hills of Disorder
Introduction by film scholar Ivone Margulies
Through a heady blend of re-enactments and archival news reports, the film tells the story of Carapiru, an indigenous man who survived the massacre of his tribe in 1978.
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Art of the Real 2018
Celebrating its fifth year, the Art of the Real festival offers a survey of the most vital and innovative voices in nonfiction and hybrid filmmaking. Read More
Art of the Real 2017
Now in its fourth year, the Art of the Real festival offers a survey of the most vital and innovative voices in nonfiction and hybrid filmmaking. This edition features titles from established figures such as Ignacio AgĂźero, Jem Cohen, Robinson Devor, and the late Michael Glawogger alongside up-and-comers Theo Anthony (Rat Film), SalomĂŠ Jashi (The Dazzling Light of Sunset), and Shengze Zhu (Another Year), as well as a tribute to the late Brazilian filmmaker Andrea Tonacci. Read More
Art of the Real 2016
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 yearâs 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, JosĂŠ Luis GuerĂn, 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. Read More
Art of the Real 2015
Our annual nonfiction showcase is founded on the most expansive possible view of documentary film. The second edition features new work from around the world and in a variety of genres alongside retrospective and thematic selections, including a tribute to the great French director Agnès Varda and a spotlight on the art and history of reenactment. Art of the Real is a platform for filmmakers and artists who have given us a wider view of nonfiction cinema and at the same time brought the form full circle, pointing to its early, boundary-pushing days. Read More
Art of the Real 2014
Our new annual series Art of the Real is a nonfiction showcase founded on the most expansive possible view of documentary film. The inaugural edition features new work from around the world alongside retrospective selections by both known and unjustly forgotten filmmakers. It is a platform for filmmakers and artists who have given us a wider view of nonfiction cinema and at the same time brought the form full circle, back to its early, boundary-pushing days. Read More