Over the Past Ten Years, Good Machine, a New York-Based

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For Immediate Release February 2001

THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART TO CELEBRATE TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF GOOD MACHINE, NEW YORK-BASED PRODUCTION COMPANY

Good Machine: Tenth Anniversary February 13-23, 2001 The Roy and Niuta Titus Theatre 1

Over the past ten years, Good Machine, a New York-based production company helmed by Ted Hope, David Linde and James Schamus, has become one of the major forces in independent film culture worldwide. Dedicated to the work of emerging, innovative filmmakers, Good Machine has produced or co-produced films by, among others, Ang Lee, Todd Solondz, Nicole Holofcener, Ed Burns, Cheryl Dunye and Hal Hartley. Beginning with Tui Shou (Pushing Hands) (1992), the first collaboration between Good Machine and director Ang Lee, The Museum of Modern Art presents eight feature films and five shorts from February 13 through 23, 2001 at the Roy and Niuta Titus Theatre 1.

"Good Machine proves that audiences do want to be entertained intelligently and engaged substantively," remarks Laurence Kardish, Senior Curator, Department of Film and Video, who organized the series. "Their achievements are reflected in this Tenth Anniversary series and are, in large part, due to Good Machine's collaborations with filmmakers and its respect for the creative process."

In addition to producing and co-producing films, Good Machine has gone on to establish an international sales company involved in distributing diverse and unusual works such as Joan Chen's Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (1998) and Lars Von Trier's Dancer in the Dark (2000).

Good Machine: Tenth Anniversary was organized by Laurence Kardish, Senior Curator, Department of Film and Video. The Department of Film and Video gratefully acknowledges Ted Hope, David Linde, James Schamus and Beth Binnard, Good Machine International, and Laura Kim, MPRM, for their participation in the exhibition.

Good Machine: Tenth Anniversary screening schedule

Tuesday, February 13, 6:00 p.m.; Friday, February 16, 2:30 p.m. Ang Lee to present screening on February 13.

Tui Shou (Pushing Hands). 1992. Taiwan. Directed by Ang Lee. Screenplay by Lee and James Schamus. Cinematography by Jong Lin. With Sihung Lung, Lai Wong, B. Z. Wang,

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and Deb Snyder. Many of the themes of Lee's later films - cultural adaptation, family relationships, the preparation of food, and even the practice of martial arts - are here in his rewarding debut feature, the first collaboration between the director and the Good Machine team of Schamus and Ted Hope. A middle-aged man, permitted to leave mainland China, comes to live in an American suburb with his successful son; his daughter-in-law, a novelist trying to write her second book; and his grandson. Differences in behavior, attitude, and expectations escalate into palpable domestic tension until the family fractures. Then the surprises begin. 107 min.

Thursday, February 15, 2:30 p.m.; Monday, February 19, 5:00 p.m.

Happiness. 1998. USA. Written and directed by Todd Solondz. Cinematography by Maryse Alberti. With Jane Adams, Dylan Baker, Lara Flynn Boyle, Jared Harris, and Ben Gazzara. The 1998 New York Film Festival notes say, "Controversial and ambitious, Happiness takes director Solondz (Welcome to the Dollhouse) into dangerous and riveting new territory. The lives of three sisters, their parents, friends, and neighbors intersect in this black comedy of missed connections. On the surface, they're your typical suburban extended family diligently seeking out companionship, love, and stability. Yet gradually, inexorably, dark forces bubble up from below the thin veneer of normalcy, eventually taking over their lives." 139 min.

Thursday, February 15, 6:00 p.m.; Monday, February 19, 2:00 p.m.

Walking and Talking. 1996. USA. Written and directed by Nicole Holofcener. Cinematography by Michael Spiller. With Catherine Keener, Anne Heche, Todd Field, Liev Schreiber, and Kevin Corrigan. In the notes for the 1996 New Directors/ New Films program, Holofcener's debut feature is called "an intelligently written, universal tale of female friendship first, romantic comedy second. ... This is snappy, buoyant filmmaking which takes specific, recognizable moments of embarrassment and seemingly without effort turns them into hilariously funny scenes without compromising any emotional depth." 90 min.

Friday, February 16, 6:00p.m.; Sunday, February 18, 5:00 p.m.

Hsi Yen (Wedding Banquet). 1993. Taiwan. Directed by Ang Lee. Screenplay by Lee, Neil Peng, and James Schamus. Cinematography by Jong Lin. With Mitchell Lichtenstein, Jeanne Kuo Chang, Winston Chao, May Chin, and Chih Juan. Lee's second feature was one of the most popular independent films of the 1990s. Shot in English and Mandarin, the film is a genial comedy of manners. Wai Tung, a successful manager of Manhattan real estate, and his lover, Simon, share a household. Wai Tung's parents, who live in Taiwan, want a daughter-in-law because they desire grandchildren. Simon suggests a marriage of convenience between Wai Tung and Wei Wei (Chin, a popular Taiwanese star), one of Wai Tung's impoverished tenants who happens to need a green card. Complications ensue. 111 min.

Friday, February 16, 8:00 p.m.; Sunday, February 18, 2:00 p.m.

Ride with the Devil. 1999. USA. Directed by Ang Lee. Screenplay by James Schamus, based on the novel Woe to Live On by Daniel Woodrell. Cinematography by Frederick Elmes. With Skeet Ulrich, Tobey Maguire, Jewel, and Jeffrey Wright. Set on the Missouri-

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Kansas border when it was a frontier, Ride with the Devil is an action melodrama of young Southerners who become guerrilla fighters, bushwhackers resisting the Yankee way of life, marauders raiding the encampments of Northern soldiers. In an interview Lee stated, "It seems so much of the world is becoming Americanized. When I read Daniel Woodrell's book ... I realized that the American Civil War, was, in a way, where it all started. It was where the Yankees won not only territory but, in a sense, a victory for a whole new way of life and thinking. ... Everyone is equal, everyone has a right to fulfill himself: this is the Yankee principle. ... As a Taiwanese, I can [also] identify with the Southerners as the Yankees change their way of life forever." 134 min.

Saturday, February 17, 2:00 p.m.; Tuesday, February 20, 6:00 p.m.

Fuzzy Logic. 1998. USA. Written and directed by Tom Kreuger. 14 min. The Brothers McMullen. 1995. USA. Written and directed by Edward Burns. Cinematography by Dick Fisher. With Burns, Mike McGlone, Jack Mulcahy, Shari Albert, and Maxine Bahns. In 1994 notes for the Walter Reade Theater, this film is described as "a romantic comedy about three Irish-Catholic brothers forced to move back to the Long Island home where they grew up. Brothers Jack, Barry, and Patrick are recovering Catholics whose religious indoctrination constantly gets in the way of their seemingly healthy sexual relationships. ... Burns's film pokes fun at sibling rivalries and the baggage of being Irish in a New World, while telling a tale of young Irish romance - well, almost!" 98 min. This film is screened with a short by Tom Kreuger.

Saturday, February 17, 5:00 p.m.; Friday, February 23, 2:30 p.m.

The Golden Boat. 1990. USA. Written and directed by Raoul Ruiz. Cinematography by Maryse Alberti. With Michael Kirby, Mary Hestand, Federico Muchnik, Michael Stumm, and Kate Valk. Notes from the 1990 New York Film Festival remark that Ruiz "brings his special formula for movie magic to the streets of Lower Manhattan. A master of cinematic collage, Ruiz effortlessly weaves elements of Mexican soap opera, absurdist drama, and television crime serials into an eerie, at times unsettling, tale of a murderous father (Kirby) and his bewildered offspring. Featuring a stirring musical track by John Zorn, The Golden Boat has rich visual style and thematic complexity that belie the modesty of its production." 83 min.

Thursday, February 22, 2:30 p.m.; Friday, February 23, 6:00 p.m.

Greetings from Africa. 1994. USA. Written and directed by Cheryl Dunye. 8 min. The Sticky Fingers of Time. 1997. USA. Written and directed by Hilary Brougher. Cinematography by Ethan Mass. With Terumi Matthews, Nicole Zaray, Belinda Becker, James Urbaniak, and Thomas Pasley. The 1998 London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival notes state: "A hugely ambitious first feature, surely the first to feature time-travelling lesbians, finds a new hero in Tucker Harding, a chain-smoking, pulp fiction writer who pops out for coffee one day in 1953 and finds herself inexplicably transported to the present. Brought up with a jolt in New York's East Village, she befriends another woman, Drew, whose failed suicidal tendencies have left her equally dazed. But by the end of the day, a series of further twists, and the arrival of another traveler ... ensure that the fascination between this pair can only be thwarted." 90 min. The film is shown with a short by Cheryl Dunye.

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Tuesday, February 20, 2:30 p.m.; Friday, February 23, 8:00 p.m.

Three by Hal Hartley. Ambition. 1991. USA. 9 min. Surviving Desire. 1989. USA. 53 min. Theory of Achievement. 1991. USA. 17 min. With his dry, deadpan humor, embrace of the off-kilter, and complex narratives, Hartley has refreshed fictional filmmaking. In 1992 the London Film Festival compiled a program of three of his shorter works produced by Good Machine for public television. According to the program notes, "Surviving Desire concerns a brilliant, confused professor of literature and his obsession with a paragraph from The Brothers Karamazov. The professor suspects he may be an atheist experiencing a crisis of faith. This paradox is complicated by his infatuation with a student named Sophie. Theory of Achievement features a group of people bonded together by one fact: they can't afford to live in expensive Manhattan and must settle for Brooklyn - destined to be the next Paris. Group members can all quote philosophers, but no one can put theory to practice. 'I want to be awed by my own accomplishments,' says George in Ambition. 'I'm good at what I do.' And so he is. But according to his boss, he's wrong." Total running time 79 min.

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