THE FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER announces
Roberto Minervini’s Texas Trilogy
September 19-25

The filmmaker’s latest, STOP THE POUNDING HEART,
begins an exclusive one-week only run at the Film Center
on September 19

New York, NY (September 4, 2014) – The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced the presentation of Roberto Minervini’s Texas Trilogy (September 19-25) to screen along with an exclusive one-week only run of STOP THE POUNDING HEART at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center (144 West 65th Street).

Minervini strips away Lone Star preconceptions in a trilogy of films that burrow deep into the mores of the Italian-born filmmaker’s new homeland. Observant but unobtrusive, Minervini merges documentary and neorealist techniques to render his stories, and the people inhabiting them, with dignity and compassion.

Films, Descriptions & Schedule

The Passage
Roberto Minervini, USA/Belgium, 2011, DCP, 85m
In writer/director Roberto Minervini’s feature debut, Ana (Soledad St. Hilaire), a middle-aged woman living alone in a border town, is told she has terminal cancer. With just weeks to live, she asks new acquaintance—and ex-con—Jack (Mean Gene Kelton) to drive her to a faith healer in Marfa, Texas. They are joined on the road by friendly British artist Harold (Alan Lyddiard). Though the trio have few commonalities in worldview or life experience, time spent together brings out unexpected affinities. What might have been a sentimental medley of clichés emerges as a graceful character study, with Minervini revealing a keen ear for regional expression and a generosity of spirit comparable to Sayles and Linklater.
September 21, 4:30pm
September 23, 7:00pm

Low Tide
Roberto Minervini, USA/Italy/Belgium, 2012, DCP, 92m
Bearing traces of Huck Finn and Antoine Doinel, Low Tide’s nameless adolescent hero (Daniel Blanchard) runs errands and cares for his substance-abusing mother (Melissa McKinney). Roberto Minervini’s second feature casts nonprofessionals to magnificently truthful effect, and the writer/director demonstrates his characteristic sensitivity for small Texas towns and their resilient denizens. Blanchard is seldom off-screen, as Minervini follows him on his “rounds” from the nursing home where his mother works to a slaughterhouse, but also to the river to catch frogs and fish. Minervini does not mute the hardships of his protagonist’s life, nor does he deny him the right to be 12 years old.
September 21, 7:00pm
September 24, 7:00pm

Stop the Pounding Heart
Roberto Minervini, Belgium/Italy/USA, 2013, DCP, 100m
Sara (Sara Carlson, playing herself) is part of a devout Christian goat-farming family with 12 children, all home-schooled and raised with strict moral guidance from the Scriptures. Set in a rural community that has remained isolated from technological advances and lifestyle influence—no phones, TVs, computers, or drunken-teen brawls—the subtly narrative film follows Sara and Colby, two 14-year-olds with vastly different backgrounds who are quietly drawn to each other. In Minervini’s intimate documentary-style portrait—the third in the Italian-born filmmaker’s Texas trilogy—Sara’s commitment to her faith is never questioned. It’s the power of the director’s nonintrusive handheld-camera style that reveals his protagonist’s spiritual and emotional inner turmoil about her place in a faith that requires women to be subservient to their fathers before becoming their husbands’ helpers. By also presenting an authentic, impartial portrayal of the Texas Bible Belt, Minervini allows humanity and complexity behind the stereotypes to show through. A Big World Pictures release.
Opens September 19

Tickets go on sale Thursday, September 4. Tickets: $13; $9 for students and seniors (62+); and $8 for Film Society members. 3+film discount package option includes screenings of Stop the Pounding Heart

Film Society of Lincoln Center
Founded in 1969 to celebrate American and international cinema, the Film Society of Lincoln Center works to recognize established and emerging filmmakers, support important new work, and to enhance the awareness, accessibility, and understanding of the moving image. The Film Society produces the renowned New York Film Festival, a curated selection of the year's most significant new film work, and presents or collaborates on other annual New York City festivals including Dance on Camera, Film Comment Selects, Human Rights Watch Film Festival, Latinbeat, New Directors/New Films, NewFest, New York African Film Festival, New York Asian Film Festival, New York Jewish Film Festival, Open Roads: New Italian Cinema and Rendez-Vous with French Cinema. In addition to publishing the award-winning Film Comment magazine, the Film Society recognizes an artist's unique achievement in film with the prestigious Chaplin Award. The Film Society's state-of-the-art Walter Reade Theater and the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, located at Lincoln Center, provide a home for year-round programs and the New York City film community.

The Film Society receives generous, year-round support from Royal Bank of Canada, Jaeger-LeCoultre, American Airlines, The New York Times, HBO®, Stella Artois, The Kobal Collection, Variety, Trump International Hotel and Tower, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York State Council on the Arts. For more information, visit www.filmlinc.com and follow @filmlinc on Twitter.

For more information, visit www.filmlinc.com and follow @filmlinc on Twitter.

For Media specific inquiries, please contact:
John Wildman, (212) 875-5419
[email protected]

David Ninh, (212) 875-5423
[email protected]