THIS FALL’S CONTEMPORASIAN SERIES AT MoMA SHOWCASES RICH DIVERSITY OF CONTEMPORARY ASIAN CINEMA

Films from the , Pakistan, and Explore Current Issues in Documentaries and Features

MOMA PRESENTS: CONTEMPORASIAN October 23–29: (Slingshot), 2007, Philippines November 13-19: Dinner with the President: A Nation’s Journey, 2007, Pakistan December 11-17: Herbert, 2006, India

New York, October 22, 2008—ContemporAsian, The Museum of Modern Art’s monthly series spotlighting contemporary films by emerging directors throughout Asia, continues this fall with new films from the Philippines, Pakistan, and India. Digital filmmaking and international coproductions are rapidly transforming an industry in which the transnational flow of talent and resources—even between the U.S. and Asia—has become the norm. Each ContemporAsian program will have a week-long run in The Roy and Niuta Titus theaters, affording audiences expanded opportunities to see films that get little theatrical exposure, but which engage the various styles, histories, and changes in Asian cinema. The ContemporAsian exhibitions are organized by Jytte Jensen, Curator, Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art; and William Phuan, independent curator, with additional support from Asian CineVision. The Spring 2009 season will present films from Japan (March), Mongolia (April), and China (May). For more information, visit the ContemporAsian sub-site on MoMA’s web site, at www.moma.org/contemporasian.

MOMA PRESENTS: CONTEMPORASIAN Tirador (Slingshot) October 23–29

Tirador (Slingshot), 2007. Philippines. Directed by . With Jiro Manio, Kristoffer King, Coco Martin. One of the most prolific and acclaimed directors of the Philippine New Wave, Mendoza has created another virtuoso exploration of the volatile slums (his film FOSTER CHILD was a highlight of New Directors/New Films, 2008). The camerawork in this verité portrait of petty thieves and hustlers is fluid, sweeping, and seemingly untethered, as frantic as the overcrowded shacks and ditches it captures. Mendoza uses this hybrid fiction essay not to judge the questionable acts of his fringe-dwelling characters, but to subtly implicate political and religious institutions as a source of their problems. In Tagalog; English subtitles. 86 min.

Screenings Thursday, October 23, 6:00 Friday, October 24, 4:30 Saturday, October 25, 8:30 Sunday, October 26, 6:45 Monday, October 27, 4:30 Wednesday, October 29, 6:00

MOMA PRESENTS: CONTEMPORASIAN Dinner with the President: A Nation’s Journey November 13-19

Dinner with the President: A Nation’s Journey. 2007. Pakistan. Directed by Sabiha Sumar, Sachithanandam Sathananthan. With Pervez Musharraf. Sumar and Sathananthan’s documentary/diary interweaves personal reflection, an intimate dinner with President Musharraf, and testimonials from culturally conflicted Pakistanis of various classes: upper-class fashion designers, beach-bumming bourgeois teens, tribal religious heads, peasant families, activists, and even the president’s mother. What emerges is a portrait of a country struggling with its paradoxes, caught between stringent tradition and freewheeling globalization. Autocrats defend democracy, drunken revelers holler for their militaristic president, and conservative rural men tell the female documentarians, “We look at you and wish we could be like you.” The resulting film is an extraordinary example of visual reportage that includes rare footage of encounters with tribal leaders in the North West Frontier Province, the social environment that is the bedrock of the Taliban. In Urdu, English; English subtitles. 82 min.

Screenings Thursday, November 13, 8:30 Friday, November 14, 8:30 Saturday, November 15, 7:00 Sunday, November 16, 5:00 Monday, November 17, 5:00 Wednesday, November 19, 6:00.

MOMA PRESENTS: CONTEMPORASIAN Herbert December 11-17

Herbert. 2006. India. Directed by Suman Mukhopadhyay. Written by , Suman Mukhopadhyay. With , Sabyasachi Chakravarthy, Lily Chakravarty. Based on Bengali novelist Nabarun Bhattacharya's novel of the same title, Herbert is the kaleidoscopic saga of Herbert Sarkar, an idiot savant in Calcutta who incites the wrath of the International Rationalist Society with his successful business enterprise, “Dialogues with the Dead.” Rife with allusions to classic Hollywood, and to directors from Satyajit Ray to Jean-Luc Godard, Suman Mukhopadhyay’s debut feature is an astounding, encyclopedic parable: magical- realist fable, and a timely allegory of cultural imperialism. Wittily self-reflexive, in flashy reds and twilights blues that recall the techni-colors of MGM musicals, and featuring a remarkable lead performance from Subhashish Mukherjee, Herbert takes up its visionary madman as the only man in touch with the past, in a world rapidly turning to ghosts. 142 min.

Screenings Thursday, December 11, 8:00 Introduced by the director Friday, December 12, 6:00 Introduced by the director Saturday, December 13, 2:00 Sunday, December 14, 5:00 Monday, December 15, 4:30 Wednesday, December 17, 8:45

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R.S.V.P. to [email protected]

Wednesday, October 29

2:00 p.m. Dinner with the President: A Nation’s Journey. 2007. Pakistan. Directed by Sabiha Sumar, Sachithanandam Sathananthan. 82 min.

Wednesday, November 19

11:00 a.m. Herbert. 2006. India. Directed by Suman Mukhopadhyay. 142 min.

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Press Contact: Margaret Doyle, (212) 408-6400, [email protected]

For downloadable images, please visit www.moma.org/press

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Admission: Admission to film screenings is free with Museum admission ($20 adults; $16 seniors, 65 years and over with I.D.; $12 full-time students with current I.D. Free, members and children 16 and under). Target Free Friday Nights 4:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m.

Film only: $10 adults; $8 seniors, 65 years and over with I.D. $6 full-time students with current I.D. Free admission on Friday evenings courtesy of Target Free Friday Nights.

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