National Gallery of Art OPENING EXHIBITION

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

National Gallery of Art OPENING EXHIBITION NOVEMBER 12:30 Film: Joseph Cornell: America, part I 2:00 Gallery Talk: The Age of the 2:00 Gallery Talk: A Perfect Day Enlightenment Worlds in a Box 7:00 Concert: The Maggini String Baroque in Portugal (EB) for Some Familiar Steps: Jan 6:00 Film: Short Films from Latin See bottom panels for introduc­ 2:00 Gallery Talk: A Perfect Day Quartet 2:00 Family Program: Meet Ed­ Steen's "The Dancing Couple" America, part VI tory and foreign language tours; for Some Familiar Steps: Jan ward Hicks (WB) 7:00 Concert: Ney Salgado, piano See reverse side for complete film Steen's "The Dancing Couple " 16 TUESDAY 4:00 Sunday Lecture: Winthrop 's 2:30 Film: Short Films from Latin information. (WB) 12:00 Gallery Talk: "The Fortress Turner Prints ... America, part V 30 TUESDAY of Konigstein " by Bernardo 6:00 Film: Short Films from Latin 12:00 Gallery Talk: Renaissance 2 TUESDAY 13 SATURDAY Bellotto (new acquisition) (WB) America, part IV 28 SUNDAY Personalities in National Gallery 12:00 Gallery Talk: John James 10:30 Portuguese Baroque 1:00 Gallery Talk: Self-Portraits 7:00 Concert: Oleg Volkov, piano 12:00 Gallery Talk: Reading Art: Portraits (WB) Audubon: The Watercolors for Symposium: The Age of the (WB) Birds in Paintings (WB) "The Birds of America" (EB) Baroque in Portugal 2:00 Gallery Talk: Lovis Corinth: 23 TUESDAY 1:00 Films: Daumier's Law and 12:00 Gallery Talk: The Age of the Master Prints and Drawings (EB) 12:00 Gallery Talk: The Age of Daumier 3 WEDNESDAY Baroque in Portugal (EB) the Baroque in Portugal (EB) 2:00 Gallery Talk: John James 10:15 American Art Lecture 17 WEDNESDAY Asher Brown Duran, Pastoral Landscape, 2:00 Gallery Talk: Daumier as Audubon: The Watercolors for Series: "America the Beautiful": 14 SUNDAY 10:15 American Art Lecture 1861. National Gallery of Art, Gift (Partial and Promised) of the Manoogian Painter (WB) "The Birds of America" (EB) Landscape Painting 12:00 Gallery Talk: The Age of the Series: Scenes of Farm, Frontier, Foundation, in Honor of the Fiftieth 4:00 Sunday Lecture: Portuguese 12:00 Gallery Talk: Giambo- Baroque in Portugal (EB) arid City: Genre Painting Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art 24 WEDNESDAY Architecture and the logna's "Cesarini Venus" (WB) 2:00 Gallery Talk: Giambologna's 12:00 Gallery Talk: The Age of 12:00 Gallery Talk: Renaissance 12:30 Film: Jim Dine: Childhood Edward Hicks, The Grave of William Perm, c. 1847/1848. Gift of Edgar William and "Cesarini Venus" (WB) the Baroque in Portugal (EB) Personalities in National Gallery Bemice Chrysler Garbisch Stories 2:00 Family Program: Meet Ed­ 12:30 Film: Beatrice Wood: Mama 20 SATURDAY Portraits (WB) ward Hicks (WE) ofDada 10:15 American Art Lecture 12:30 Films: Daumier's Law and 4 THURSDAY 2:00 Film: The American Docu­ 9 TUESDAY 3:00 Sunday Lecture: Music of 4:30 Evening with Educators: The Series: Scenes of Farm, Frontier, Daumier 10:15 Western Art Survey Course: mentary: The Diary 12:00 Gallery Talk: John James Baroque Portugal Age of the Baroque in Portugal and City: Genre Painting 2:00 Gallery Talk: Daumier as The Early Renaissance in Italy 2:00 Gallery Talk: A Perfect Day Audubon: The Watercolors for 6:00 Film: Short Films from Latin 12:00 Gallery Talk: Renaissance Painter (WB) 12:30 Film: Jim Dine: Childhood for Some Familiar Steps: Jan "The Birds of America" (EB) 18 THURSDAY Personalities in National Gallery Stories Steen's "The Dancing Couple" 10:15 Western Art Survey Course: Portraits (WB) 26 FRIDAY (WB) 10 WEDNESDAY Fifteenth-Century Northern Art 12:30 Film: Beatrice Wood: Mama 12:00 Gallery Talk: The Age of 5 FRIDAY 12:00 Gallery Talk: "Untitled 12:00 Gallery Talk: "The Fortress ofDada the Baroque in Portugal (EB) 12:00 Gallery Talk: John James 7 SUNDAY (Medici Prince) " by Joseph Cornell of Konigstein " by Bernardo Bel- 1:00 Gallery Talk: Self-Portraits 12:30 Films: Daumier's Law and Audubon: The Watercolors for 1:00 Film: Jim Dine: Childhood (EB) lotto (new acquisition) (WB) (WB) Daumier "The Birds of America" (EB) Stories 12:30 Film: Joseph Cornell: 12:30 Film: Beatrice Wood: Mama 2:00 Gallery Talk: Old Testament 1:00 Gallery Talk: John James 12:30 Film: Jim Dine: Childhood 4:00 Sunday Lecture: Portugal Worlds in a Box ofDada Heroines in Late Venetian Ren­ Audubon: The Watercolors for Stories and the Wider World 7:00 Film: The Sweet Smell of 1:00 Gallery Talk: The Age of the aissance Painting (WB) "The Birds of America" (EB) 2:00 Gallery Talk: Old Testament 6:00 Film: The American Docu­ Success (doors open at 6:45) Baroque in Portugal (EB) 2:30 Film: Short Films from Latin Heroines in Late Venetian mentary: The Form under America, part II 27 SATURDAY Renaissance Painting (WB) Scrutiny 11 THURSDAY 19 FRIDAY 12:00 Gallery Talk: Reading Art: 7:00 Concert: National Gallery 1:00 Gallery Talk: Giambologna's 12:30 Film: Beatrice Wood: Mama 21 SUNDAY Birds in Paintings (WB) 6 SATURDAY Orchestra, George Manos, "Cesarini Venus" (WE] ofDada 12:00 Gallery Talk: Renaissance 12:30 Films: Daumier's Law and 10:15 American Art Lecture conductor 2:00 Gallery Talk: Old Testament Personalities in National Gallery- Daumier Lovis Corinth, Walchen Lake, 1919. National Gallery of Art, The Marcy Family Series: "America the Beautiful": 12 FRIDAY Heroines in Late Venetian Portraits (WB) Collection Landscape Painting 12:00 Gallery Talk: "Untitled John James Audubon, Northern Goshawk Renaissance Painting (WB) 1:00 Film: Short Films from Latin 12:30 Film: Jim Dine: Childhood (Medici Prince) " by Joseph Cornell and Cooper's Head, 1809 and 1830. America, part III Collection The New-York Historical Stories (EB) Society 6249 or write to: Education Divi­ Introducing Art 11 at 1:00; November 14 at 2:00 Sunday Concert Sunday Lectures Special Lecture Introductory Tours Audio Tours sion, Tour Scheduling, National Self-Portraits (45 minutes). Eric (WB). Series Lectures Gallery of Art, Washington, B.C. Denker, lecturer. November 16, given by National Series Introduction to the West Building Audio tours are $3.75 ($3.25 for Gallery staff and distinguished senior 20565. Include the type of tour 20atl:00(WB). The Age of the Baroque in Por­ Concerts take place at 7:00 every American Painting: Collection citizens, students, and scholars at 4:00 in the East groups of you are requesting, two alternative tugal (60 minutes). Philip L. Sunday evening through June 26, Subjects of the Artist Monday-Saturday 10:30, 12:30, ten or more). Special Building Auditorium headsets and/or dates and times, the number in Reading Art: Birds in Paintings Leonard or J. Russell Sale, lectur­ 1994. Admission to the National Wilford W. Scott, lecturer and 2:30 scripts are avail­ your group, a contact person, and (45 minutes). Philip L. Leonard, er. November 13, 14, 17, 23, 26 Gallery and its concerts is always Sunday 12:30, 2:30, and 4:30 able for visitors who are hearing NOVEMBER 7 impaired. an address. You will be notified in lecturer. November 27, 28, at noon; November 18 at 1:00; free. Concertgoers are admitted to This series of lectures, continuing West Building Rotunda Portugal and the Wider World To reserve audio tours writing of the status of your December 1 at noon (WB). November 21 at 2:00 (EB). the East Garden Court on a first- from October, examines the ex­ for John Russell-Wood, groups, call (202) 842-6592. request. come, first-served basis beginning panding range of subjects depict­ Introduction to the East Building professor of history Special Exhibitions Lovis Corinth: Master Prints and at 6:00. Concertgoers arriving ed by American artists from the Collection Permanent Focus: The Permanent Collection John James Audubon: The Drawings (60 minutes). between 6:00 and 7:00 may enter The Johns Hopkins University colonial to the modern era. Each Monday-Saturday 11:30 and 1:30 Collection The Director's Tour, narrated Old Testament Heroines in Late Watercolors for "The Birds of Christopher With, head of art only at the 6th Street and subject of the artist reveals chang­ Sunday 11:30, 1:30, and 3:30 by Earl A. Powell III, treats fifteenth- Venetian Renaissance Painting America" (45 minutes). Wilford information. November 16 at Constitution Avenue entrance to NOVEMBER 14 ing attitudes toward the art of East Building, Art Information through early twentieth-century (45 minutes). Rebecca Albiani, W. Scott or Philip L. Leonard, 2:00 (EB). the West Building. Concerts are Music of Baroque Portugal^ painting, its place in American Desk masterpieces and includes graduate lecturing fellow. Novem­ lecturer. November 2, 5, 9 at broadcast on a one-month delayed 3:00 lecture society, and the ways in which some of the Gallery's best-loved ber 5, 19, 20 at 2:00 (WB). noon; November 26 at 1:00; Curators and Conservators and basis every Sunday evening at See Portuguese Baroque American artists evoked contem­ paintings. American Art, narrated by Joseph Cornell, Untitled (Medici Prince), November 28 at 2:00 (EB). Specialists: "The Fortress of 7:00 on radio station WGTS 91.9- Symposium Information porary themes of national identi­ Foreign Language Nicolai Cikovsky Jr., curator c. 1953. National Gallery of Art, Gift of A Perfect Day for Some Familiar Konigstein" byBernardo Bellotto FM. For further information, call ty. These lectures will be held in of the Collectors Committee American and British painting, Steps: Jan Steen 's "The Dancing Giambologna's "Cesarini Venus" (New Acquisition-Patrons' (202)842-6941. NOVEMBER 21 the East Building Auditorium at Tours features works by Copley, Stuart, Couple " (Widener Collection) (45 (30 minutes).
Recommended publications
  • 2012-Loft-Film-Fest-Program
    Festival Parties Join us as we cut the ribbon on our brand-new third screen! Ribbon cutting Friday November 9 at 5:00pm Open House 5:00 - 6:30pm Join the Loft staff, Board of Directors and local officials as we un- veil our new third screen (or what we affectionately call Screen 3)! You’ll be the first to step inside this new space for a behind-the- Loft Film Fest 2012 scenes tour! Join us for a champagne toast as we celebrate a job well done by an incredible team of dedicated people! loftfilmfest.com We will recognize the donors who made this phase of the project Inspired by film’s unique ability to entertain, engage, challenge and possible and we will especially honor those who have given their illuminate, The Loft Cinema will present its third annual international name to key parts of the project, including Bob Oldfather and film festival fromNovember 8th – 15th, 2012. Bookmans for the 3-D technology in Screen 3! Honoring Tucson’s richly diverse cultural community, The Loft Film Fest will present foreign films, documentaries and U.S. indies in a cin- You’re invited to The Loft Cinema’s ematic celebration of storytelling from around the world. 40th birthday party! The Loft Film Fest is an eight-day showcase of exclusive, one-time-only Friday November 15 from 5:30 - 7:30pm screenings and will feature: Yes, we know we don’t look 40, but The Loft is celebrating four • Festival favorites from Cannes, Sundance, Telluride, and more! decades of great film in Tucson! • Lively Q&A’s with talented filmmakers and actors Join us as we honor the last 40 years and toast the next 40! • Exciting retrospective screenings Where: The Lodge on the Desert • New international cinema 306 North Alvernon Way • Edgy Late Night movies When: 5:30 - 7:30pm, Thursday, November 15 (the actual 10th an- • Stimulating shorts from the filmmakers of tomorrow niversary of our purchase of The Loft as a nonprofit in 2002!) At the Loft Film Fest, audiences experience world-class film festival Who: Everyone! Loft Film Fest passholders get in free.
    [Show full text]
  • Landscapes of the Self: the Cinema of Ross Mcelwee Paisajes Del Yo: El Cine De Ross Mcelwee
    LANDSCAPES OF THE SELF: THE CINEMA OF ROSS MCELWEE PAISAJES DEL YO: EL CINE DE ROSS MCELWEE EFRÉN CUEVAS ALBERTO N. GARCÍA (eds.) EDICIONES INTERNACIONALES UNIVERSITARIAS MADRID Queda prohibida, salvo excepción prevista en la ley, cualquier forma de reproducción, distribución, comunicación pú bli ca y transformación, total o parcial, de esta obra sin contar con autorización escrita de los titulares del Copy right. La infracción de los derechos mencionados puede ser constitutiva de delito contra la propiedad intelectual (Artículos 270 y ss. del Código Penal). Primera edición: Febrero 2008 © 2007. Efrén Cuevas Álvarez y Alberto N. García Martínez (eds.) Ediciones Internacionales Universitarias, S.A. Pantoja, 14 bajo – 28002 Madrid Teléfono: +34 915 193 907 - Fax: +34 914 136 808 e-mail: [email protected] Diseño cubierta: Irene Cuevas ([email protected]) ISBN: 978-84-8469-226-3 • Depósito legal: NA 2.731-2007 Impreso en España por: Imagraf, S.L.L. Mutilva Baja. (Navarra) TABLE OF CONTENTS ÍNDICE Introduction Introducción .......................................................................................................... 9 Establishing Shot [a profile of the filmmaker] Plano de situación [un perfil del cineasta] Stephen Rodrick The Meaning of Life El sentido de la vida ............................................................................................... 21 Wide Angle [essays on the cinema of Ross McElwee] Gran angular [estudios sobre el cine de Ross McElwee] Efrén Cuevas Sculpting the Self: Autobiography According to
    [Show full text]
  • Three Experiments in Cinéma Vérité by Ross Simonton Mcelwee
    Three Experiments in Cinéma Vérité by Ross Simonton McElwee, III A.B., Brown University 1971 Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Science at the MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY June, 1977 Signature of Author . Department of Architecture, May 19 1977 Certified by . Richard Leacock, Professor of Cinema Thesis Supervisor Accepted by . Nicholas Negroponte, Chairman Departmental Committee for Graduate Students - 1 - The entire work of Jean Renoir is an esthetic of sensuality; not the affirmation of an archaic rule of the senses or of an unrestrained hedonism, but the assurance that all beauty, all wisdom, even all intelligence live only through the testament of the senses. To understand the world is above all to know how to look at it and make it abandon itself to your love under the caress of your eye. André Bazin - 2 - TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract . page 4 I. Introduction. page 6 II. First Films: Filene’s and 68 Albany Street . page 7 III. Charleen . page 13 IV. Backyard . page 34 V. Space Coast . page 44 VI. Technical Appendix . page 56 - 3 - Three Experiments in Cinéma Vérité Ross Simonton McElwee, III submitted to the Department of Architecture on May 19, 1977 in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science The two short films I have written about, Filene’s and 68 Albany Street, were shot during the semester I was a special student at the M.I.T. Film Section. The three major films discussed were shot durinq the three semesters I was a candidate for the degree of Master of Science.
    [Show full text]
  • The Great Documentaries II Instructor: Michael Fox Mondays, 12 Noon-1:30Pm, June 7-28, 2021 [email protected]
    The Great Documentaries II Instructor: Michael Fox Mondays, 12 noon-1:30pm, June 7-28, 2021 [email protected] With nonfiction films entrenched as a genre of mainstream movie entertainment, we examine standouts of the contemporary documentary. The five-session lineup is comprised of a trio of films about recent historical events bookended by personal documentaries. This lecture and discussion class (students will view the films on their own prior to class) encompasses perennial issues such as the responsibility of the filmmaker to his/her subject, the slipperiness of truth, the tools of storytelling and the use of poetry and metaphor in nonfiction. Four of the films can be streamed for free (three on Kanopy, one on Hoopla) and the other can be rented from Amazon Prime and other platforms. All the films are probably available via Netflix’s DVD plan. The Great Documentaries II is a historical survey that follows and builds on Documentary Touchstones I and II, which I taught at OLLI a few years ago. I’ve appended a list of those films and more information at the end of the syllabus, if you have never seen them and wish to journey further back into the history of documentaries. Most of the titles are available to watch for free on YouTube, although the quality of the prints varies. June 7 Sherman’s March (1986, Ross McElwee, 158 min) Kanopy After his girlfriend leaves him, McElwee voyages along the original route followed by Gen. William Sherman. Rather than cutting a swath of destruction designed to force the Confederate South into submission, McElwee searches for love, camera in hand, “training his lens with phallic resolve on every accessible woman he meets.” Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, named one of the Top 20 docs of all time by the International Documentary Association, added to the Library of Congress National Film Registry in 2000.
    [Show full text]
  • Elondocs Docfilmmaker DVD
    Contents Introduction to Documentary Film What is Documentary? (2:37) Why Documentary Matters (4:55) Why they make films (3:45) A Student of Film (2:37) Story Finding Good Stories (4:18) Finding Good People (2:14) Story into film (3:25) First Person Perspective (3:12) Shooting & Editing Sound & Picture (8:32) Editing (5:18) Screening your rough cut (1:08) Legal Issues Releases & Clearances (3:28) Fair Use (1:52) Music (2:38) Ethics General Ethics (4:21) Specific Ethics (7:30) Financial & Distribution Getting Your Film Made (7:30) Getting Your Film Out There (4:06) Documentary Filmmaking: Tips from the Trenches Every year I attend the Full Frame documentary film festival in Durham, North Carolina, bringing a group of students from Elon University. Without fail, we return from the Festival energized by the films and inspired by the expert advice from filmmakers. So I started thinking about ways to recreate that energy in the class- room, eventually arriving at the concept for this DVD. This DVD is a chance to hear from emerging and seasoned filmmakers as they discuss technical, legal, ethical and busi- ness issues of documentary film. It was created to be watched in brief topical sections, although it can also be watched straight through. We’ve organized the subjects as they might be encoun- tered in creating a film, from finding good stories to getting your film out there. This booklet also contains short discussion ques- tions to be used in class or by aspiring filmmakers to think more about the ideas and insights offered by our interviewees.
    [Show full text]
  • Nurturing Tomorrow's Doc Storytellers
    Nurturing Tomorrow’s Doc Storytellers American University Washington, DC September 17-18, 2006 Centerforsocialmedia.org Centerforsocialmedia.wikispaces.com Funded by the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation EXECUTIVE SUMMARY At “Nurturing Tomorrow’s Doc Storytellers,” a convening of teachers and mentors of documentary film practice held on September 17-18, participants discussed the opportunities provided by changing business and technological practice to teach next generations of documentary filmmakers. Social documentary is a vibrant zone of today’s public media, contributing to public knowledge and action. Films such as Fahrenheit 9/11, An Inconvenient Truth, and ENRON: The Smartest Guys in the Room have all played powerful roles in engaging publics. Projects such as the nationwide StoryCorps project featured on public radio and the Murmur Project in Toronto demonstrate the emerging strength of participatory media. As the opportunities to make social documentary expand, so do the opportunities and challenges that teachers and mentors of the practice face. In this meeting, participants identified key challenges, leading opportunities and potential areas of action and coordination. The greatest opportunities of the moment, participants concluded, lie in more information-sharing that can socialize knowledge being generated in many programs across the country. CHALLENGES What are today’s challenges for those cultivating the next generation of public media makers? Participants identified them in the following areas: Ethics of
    [Show full text]
  • Sights and Sounds of the Mysterious Side of Myself
    SIGHTS AND SOUNDS OF THE MYSTERIOUS SIDE OF MYSELF Marek Ryszard Dojs, B.A. Thesis Prepared for the Degree of MASTER OF FINE ARTS UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS August 2009 APPROVED: C. Melinda Levin, Major Professor and Chair of the Department of Radio, Television and Film Tania Khalaf, Committee Member Gabriel Ignatow, Committee Member Samuel J. Sauls, Director of Graduate Studies for the Department of Radio, Television and Film Michael Monticino, Dean of the Robert B. Toulouse School of Graduate Studies Dojs, Marek Ryszard. Sights and Sounds of the Mysterious Side of Myself. Master of Fine Arts (Radio, Television, and Film), August 2009, 69 pp., references, 31 titles. This film is an autobiographical documentary which tells the story of the process of documenting the filmmaker’s trip to his land of heritage. As his plans for his journey and film begin to go awry, he begins to question the entire process of trying to connect with nation and place. Copyright 2009 by Marek Ryszard Dojs ii TABLE OF CONTENTS PROSPECTUS ................................................................................................................1 Introduction Style and Approach Intended Audience PREPRODUCTION RESEARCH ....................................................................................7 Subject Matter Research People, Location Research Funding Distribution Possibilities Goals of the Production Feasibility RECONCEPTUALIZATION BEFORE PRODUCTION ..................................................15 THE INTEGRATION OF THEORY AND PRODUCTION ...............................................17
    [Show full text]
  • Thematic Program Family Affairs
    Thematic Program Family Affairs The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation McElwee, Ross. 2012. Thematic Program Family Affairs. In, Full Frame Documentary Film Festival Program. 18-31. Durham: Horse and Buggy Press. Zebulon: Theo Davis Printing. Published Version http://issuu.com/fullframefest/ docs/2012_full_frame_documentary_film_festival_program Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:10861180 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA [running head: verso: THEMATIC PROGRAM | recto: Films About Family/Family Affairs [word count: 5,081] FINAL TITLE Ross McElwee Documentary cameras have long courted danger. Recently, they’ve been hauled onto the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, slipped behind the fences of polluting oil companies in Ecuador, smuggled into sweatshop factories in China, disguised in order to film ecological disaster in Tanzania, smuggled into brothels to document child prostitution in India, and brandished in the streets during crackdowns by government troops in Iran. But perhaps the most challenging place to try to film is within the realm of your own family. The danger of doing so is, of course, not physical but emotional. The challenge is to present a portrait of your own family with honesty and sensitivity—honoring the people you grew up with, the people who raised you, or tried to—while also occasionally revealing details and character traits that may be depressing, unsavory, or just plain sad.
    [Show full text]
  • Sherman's March
    - 76 - Art by Tom Martin McElwee’s Confessions A Meditation on the Possibility of Autobiographical Art in America During an Era of Social Media Narcissism by William Giraldi - 77 - how to tell tales as difficult and true as they are richly funny.” In one of his finest poems, Theodore Roethke wrote that “a man goes far to find out what he is.” McElwee has lived and worked in Boston since the late 1970s, and you’d think that returning to North Carolina to film his own family wouldn’t have been too far to go to find out, to be reacquainted with what he is—I’m helpless to remember that John Updike’s story collection about the ruination of a family is titled Too Far to Go—but it’s very far indeed when you’ve delved as deep into the familial morass as McElwee has. Backyard looks at his brother Tom as he prepares to depart Charlotte for medical school, and also at the dignities of the black domestic help employed by his family—it’s filmed almost entirely in the backyard of his boyhood home. Sherman’s March attempts again and again to focus on General Sherman’s incineration of the South, but the film keeps ertain works of art have an occult way of of the self in search of its own coordinates, veering into a self-portrait of an intelligent finding us when we are most in need of its own particular pitch of being in a world klutz baffled by romance, McElwee’s ode to them, of their example and wisdom and wit.
    [Show full text]
  • Press Release
    For Immediate Release Contacts: Cynthia López, 212-989-7425, [email protected], 646-729-4748 (cell) Cathy Lehrfeld, 212-989-7425, [email protected] Neyda Martinez, 212-989-7425, [email protected] P.O.V. on-line pressroom: www.pbs.org/pov/pressroom Tales of Tobacco Form Southern Saga of Filmmaker’s Family In P.O.V.’s “Bright Leaves” Acclaimed Filmmaker Ross McElwee Crosses His Native North Carolina In Search of a Lost Family Legacy in New Documentary Premiering August 23 on PBS Ross McElwee believes in movie magic. He is one of the great ironists of American film. In his 1986 breakthrough Sherman’s March, named one of best movies of that year, and in such subsequent works as Time Indefinite (P.O.V.) and Six O'Clock News, McElwee weaves psychological, familial, and social realities into wry meditations infused with Southern charm on the power and futility of life itself. But – dogged, disarmingly sincere, and with a sure instinct for revealing the oddities of the American experience – McElwee’s latest film is perhaps his most richly layered look at family, folklore and the art of filmmaking itself. In Bright Leaves, having its national broadcast premiere on public television’s P.O.V., McElwee returns with another gothic tale – one that popped up from deep in his own family’s past, involving “bright leaf” tobacco, a forgotten Hollywood potboiler starring Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal, a man named Duke whom everyone remembers, and another man named McElwee whom almost no one remembers. Along the way, Bright Leaves passes through the beautiful, rich farmlands of North Carolina, sewn green with the tobacco that may be the world’s best, and worked by proud people wrestling with society’s changed attitudes toward smoking.
    [Show full text]
  • Bright Leaves
    Bright Leaves A Documentary by Ross McElwee USA, 2003; 107 min; Color First Run Features 153 Waverly Place New York, NY 10014 (212) 243-0600/Fax (212) 989-7649 email: [email protected] www.brightleaves.com www.firstrunfeatures.com SYNOPSIS This film describes a journey taken across the social, economic, and psychological tobacco terrain of North Carolina by a native Carolinian whose great-grandfather created the famous brand of tobacco known as "Bull Durham." Bright Leaves is a subjective, autobiographical meditation on the allure of cigarettes and their troubling legacy for the state of North Carolina. It's about loss and preservation, addiction and denial. And it's about filmmaking - homemovie, documentary, and fiction filmmaking - as the filmmaker fences with the legacy of an obscure Hollywood melodrama that is purportedly based on his great-grandfather's life. Bright Leaves explores the notion of legacy - what one generation passes down to the next - and how this can be a particularly complicated topic when the legacy under discussion is a Southern one and is tied to tobacco. Bright Leaves is Produced, Directed, Filmed and Written by Ross McElwee Edited by McElwee and Co-editor Mark Meatto Associate produced by Linda Morgenstern DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT In 1975, as a graduate student at MIT’s Film Section, I began filming ‘chapters’ from my own life and the lives of people close to me. Those chapters coalesced into two films, "Charleen," about my wise and flamboyant high school teacher, and "Backyard," about my relationship to my surgeon father and my medical school-bound brother. "Backyard" reveals my father's pride in my brother's choice of careers, as well as his somewhat puzzled concern about my choice--making documentary "home movies." He would say to me "Why don't you try to make films about nature?” Instead, I went on to make "Sherman's March: A Meditation on the Possibility of Romantic Love In the South During an Era of Nuclear Weapons Proliferation," an absurd title, but one which aptly summed up the major themes of the film.
    [Show full text]
  • Wide Angle [Articles on the Cinema of Ross Mcelwee] Gran Angular [Estudios Sobre El Cine De Ross Mcelwee]
    WIDE ANGLE [ARTICLES ON THE CINEMA OF ROSS MCELWEE] GRAN ANGULAR [ESTUDIOS SOBRE EL CINE DE ROSS MCELWEE] SCULPTING THE SELF: AUTOBIOGRAPHY ACCORDING TO ROSS MCELWEE ESCULPIR EL YO: LA AUTOBIOGRAFÍA SEGÚN ROSS MCELWEE EFRÉN CUEVAS “I eventually got a job in a television “Finalmente conseguí un trabajo en una station in Boston. I managed to save televisión en Boston. Logré ahorrar el enough money to buy some fi lm stock dinero sufi ciente para comprar película, and borrow a camera and return home alquilar una cámara y volver a casa para to make a fi lm about the South, which hacer un fi lme sobre el Sur, que para mi for me means to make a fi lm about my signifi ca hacer un fi lme sobre mi familia”. family.” This statement, which is nearly Esta declaración, que se encuentra casi at the beginning of Backyard (1984), in a al inicio de Backyard (1984), resume de way summarizes McElwee’s entire fi lm- algún modo la fi lmografía de McElwee, ography, which deals primarily with the articulada en sus líneas maestras en autobiographical and the historical, the torno a lo autobiográfi co y lo histórico, lo personal and the social. This fi rst chapter personal y lo social. Este capítulo inicial intends to analyze the autobiographical aborda el análisis del cine de Ross McEl- dimension of Ross McElwee’s cinema, wee en su dimensión autobiográfi ca, sin the most distinctive feature of this Ameri- duda el rasgo más característico de este can fi lmmaker. cineasta estadounidense. Ross McElwee’s fi lmography does La fi lmografía de Ross McElwee not solely consist of works of autobio- no se compone únicamente de obras de graphical nature.
    [Show full text]