Published: December 12, 2001
SFMOMA and San Francisco Film Society Announce New Film Series to launch in January 2002
The Seventh Art: New Dimensions in Cinema
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) and the San Francisco Film Society (SFFS)-presenters of the San Francisco International Film Festival-have joined forces to present a new film series titled The Seventh Art: New Dimensions in Cinema. This innovative film series will pair monthly screenings at SFMOMA with discussions with filmmakers, directors, curators and critics. The series is organized by Benjamin Weil, SFMOMA curator of media arts, and Roxanne Messina Captor, executive director of the San Francisco Film Society.
Cinema is often referred to as the seventh art in France, the first six being music, painting, sculpture, theater, dance and photography. Weil states, "The concept behind The Seventh Art series is to reveal the various ways in which cinema is constantly being stretched, resulting in new hybrids or oddities that then create more widespread trends. Often these films go overlooked for years before they get rediscovered. They are found to be important sources of inspiration for forthcoming generations of artists and cinematographers alike." Messina Captor adds, "We're pleased that our initial collaboration with SFMOMA, which started during last year's 44th San Francisco International Film Festival with the presentation of Be Now Here, a three-dimensional cinema installation by Michael Naimark, has blossomed into an ongoing series that will explore the multifaceted art of cinema. The sneak screening of Richard Linklater's Waking Life last month gave viewers a preview of the groundbreaking style of films, which we will show-from Erich von Stroheim's Greed (1925) to Steve Lisberger presenting TRON, as he develops the sequel TRON 2002." All the films in the series were chosen because their creators pushed the envelope of the film medium and inspired future filmmakers and artists to explore new technologies and visions. Many of these hybrid films reflect upon the effects of evolving technology and how it affects the field. While exploring the fringes of cinema's formal conventions, these films also address the ever-blurring boundary between reality and fiction, dreamscapes and life.
The Seventh Art: New Dimensions in Cinema will premiere on January 10, 2002, at 7 p.m. and will continue on the second Thursday of every month in SFMOMA's Wattis Theater. (See schedule below.) Tickets for each film are $12 SFMOMA and SFFS members, students with current ID and seniors, $15 general admission. Advance tickets may be purchased at the SFMOMA admissions desk. Tickets may also be purchased online at www.sffs.org or at www.ticketweb.com (surcharge may be applied). Seating is limited and advance purchase is encouraged.
The Seventh Art: New Dimensions in Cinema is generously supported by the Susan Wildberg Morgenstein Fund. Media sponsor: SFSTATION.COM.
Film Schedule
Thursday,
January 10 . 7 p.m.
TRON, 1982, directed by Steven Lisberger
Discussion with director Steven Lisberger
Since its release in 1982, TRON has become legendary as a pioneering vision of our cyber age. Jeff Bridges plays a real-world video-game wizard who crosses into an electronic world in which games become real. Combining live action with a computer-generated world, TRON introduced techniques and imagery that would forever influence film production. Director Steve Lisberger will attend this rare screening to discuss his landmark fusion of cinema and computer culture.
Thursday,
February 14 . 6:30 p.m. (please note start time change)
Greed, 1923/1999, directed by Erich von Stroheim/reconstructed by Rick Schmidlin
Introduction and question and answer by Rick Schmidlin
Never seen it in its entirety, Erich von Stroheim's powerful drama Greed, 1923, is one of the most influential silent films ever made. Much of the ten hours of original footage was lost after being reduced to a scant two hours by studio editors. In 1999, producer and silent film scholar Rick Schmidlin attempted to recreate the film using over 650 stills and Stroheim's long-lost continuity script. Schmidlin will introduce his painstakingly reconstructed version of Stroheim's masterpiece, the closest we will ever get to Stroheim's original artistic vision.
Running time: 250 minutes.
Thursday,
March 14 . 7 p.m.
San Francisco Cinematheque 40th Anniversary
Tribute: Recent Bay Area Films and Videos
Presented by Cinematheque Director and film curator Steve Anker
Cinematheque has produced thousands of original programs devoted to the art of the moving image as personal expression, premiering scores of significant, provocative works and championing emerging artists who were to go on to become key voices of their generations. We salute the continued vitality of San Francisco Cinematheque with a program of recent film and video by Bay Area artists including Jeanne C. Finley & John Muse, Lynn Marie Kirby, Steve Polta and Greta Snider.
Thursday,
April 11 . 7 p.m.
Up & Out, 1998, created by Christian Marclay
Discussion with artist Christian Marclay
In Up & Out, Marclay synchronizes the visual footage of Michelangelo Antonioni's celebrated 1966 film Blow-Up with the soundtrack and dialogue of Blow Out, Brian De Palma's 1981 homage to the Antonioni classic, to create an experience that provokes new insights into the way we see, hear and experience film. This work, presented in conjunction with the exhibition Sampling/Christian Marclay on view at SFMOMA from April 10 to July 28, 2002, has never been shown on the West Coast.
Thursday,
May 9 . 7 p.m.
Hotel, 2001, directed by Mike Figgis
After the exciting possibilities suggested by Time Code, Mike Figgis pushes the aesthetic and narrative boundaries of cinema another step forward. In Hotel, Figgis again employs this split screen technique, this time adding a large single image, night-vision shooting and smaller images within the full frame. The four frames follow prostitutes, tourists, a killer, a maid, a film crew and a tour guide through the city's streets, piazzas and canals. Figgis's characters are a mixed bunch, which is to be expected when one opens the doors of an international hotel. The film stars Salma Hayek, Lucy Liu, Burt Reynolds, David Schwimmer, Julian Sands and Saffron Burrows.
Thursday,
June 13 . 7 p.m.
Teknolust, 2001, directed by Lynn Hershman-Leeson
Critic B. Ruby Rich in conversation with Lynn Hershman-Leeson.
Anxious to use artificial life to improve the world, a biogeneticist creates a recipe for Cyborgs and uses her own DNA in order to breed three self-replicating, part-human, part-computer automatons. The characters struggle to find love in a world that no longer needs sex to reproduce, a world that is changing and is populated with people who use provisional identities and are seen through virtual selves and a world where love is the only thing that makes things real.
Thursday,
July 11 . 7 p.m.
Scratch Cinema
Introduction by Carl Spence, SFFS director of programming
Scratching has traditionally been limited to vinyl and dj's (aka turntablists). In this performance, Scratch Cinema will stretch the boundaries of film by taking the concept of scratching to celluloid in a live fusion of music and moving images. Inspired by turntablists and digital film technology this new hybrid art form will push the boundaries defining current cinema. Filmmakers and turntablists performing to be announced.
The San Francisco Film Society, presenter of the 45th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 18-May 2, 2002), is a nonprofit arts organization whose goal is to lead in expanding the knowledge and appreciation of international film art and its artists. This release and future press releases will be available in the Press Room at www.sffs.org.
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is a private, not-for-profit institution supported by its members, individual contributors to Donor Circle, corporate and foundation support, federal and state government grants, and admission revenues. Annual programming is sustained through the generosity of Grants for the Arts/San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund and The James Irvine Foundation. Visit our Web site at www.sfmoma.org or call 415/357-4000 for more information.
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