July-August, 2013 2046 Museum of the Moving Image has a The Museum also recently received major We have been successful because we have milestone birthday coming up this grants for its online initiatives. Sloan always been a Museum that looks forward, September, and I am pleased to report Science on Film, a dynamic website with while celebrating the past. But there is that we are entering our second quarter- short films, news items, feature articles, also plenty going on in the present, as century with a lot of momentum. A major and more, all contributing to the public you will see in these pages. Our summer gift of $3 million from the Sumner M. understanding of science through the schedule is filled with spectacular movies, Redstone Foundation was a tremendous use of film and television, will receive including big-screen American epics in vote of confidence in the Museum’s great continued, generous support from The our beloved series See It Big!, a complete track record and, more importantly, its Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. And the Wong Kar-wai retrospective highlighted promising future. In recognition, we are Museum’s acclaimed online publication, by a special screening of his eagerly very proud to name our showcase venue Moving Image Source, has received awaited new film The Grandmaster, and the Sumner M. Redstone Theater. We renewed support from the National Fun City, a series of New York City films are also thrilled to announce the naming Endowment for the Arts. from the 1960s and 1970s, guest curated of our brand new George S. Kaufman by film critic J. Hoberman. In our galleries, Courtyard. A strikingly modern, beautifully Although our major renovation and you’ll see two new exhibitions: PERSOL landscaped space, the Kaufman expansion is complete, with the opening MAGNIFICENT OBSESSIONS: 30 stories Courtyard is an inviting and comfortable of the Kaufman Courtyard, we continue to of craftsmanship in film, highlighting the place to enjoy during a Museum visit. We grow and transform in many ways, like our work of meticulous and accomplished are very grateful for the contributions subject matter. Thanks to an extremely filmmakers and actors, and Cut Up, a of George S. Kaufman, the visionary generous donation of hundreds of artifacts thoughtful and delightful selection of developer of the Kaufman Astoria Studios, from the Jim Henson family, and a capital video works that re-edit and re-imagine who donated $1 million, and the City of grant from the City of New York, plans popular movies and television programs. New York, which donated $1.25 million, are now underway for the creation of a thanks to the efforts of New York City permanent gallery devoted to the work and As always, there is a lot going on here. So Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer in legacy of Jim Henson. Mayor Bloomberg, come spend some of your summer with partnership with the NYC Department of Miss Piggy, and members of the Henson us, and we also hope to see you again in Cultural Affairs. family were here in May for a memorable the fall, to celebrate our 25th anniversary! press conference announcing the Jim Henson donation and gallery. Carl Goodman Executive Director 2 Cut Up 4 SINGLE STREAM 5 PERSOL: 6 MAGNIFICENT OBSESSIONS 30 stories of craftsmanship in film CUT UP See It Big! 7 4 Wong Kar-wai 10 Rural Route Film Festival 12 Fun City 14 Sholay 3-D 16 Changing the Picture 17 Fist and Sword 18 PERSOL DVD Dead Drop 18 MAGNIFICENT SEE IT BIG! 7 OBSESSIONS 6 Behind the Screen 19 From Mr. Chips to Scarface: 20 Walter White’s Transformation in Breaking Bad Focus on the Collection 21 Summer Media Camp 22 Become a Member 23 Our Supporters 24 RURAL Host Your Event 25 ROUTE FILM Daily Schedule 26 FESTIVAL 12 FUN CITY 14 Museum Information 27 3 IN THE AMPHITHEATER GALLERY JUNE 29–SEPTEMBER 15, 2013 Organized by Jason Eppink, Associate Curator of Digital Media From supercuts to mashups to remixes, Cut Up celebrates the practice of re-editing popular media to create new work, presenting contemporary videos by self-taught editors and emerging artists alongside landmarks of historic and genre-defining reappropriation. Easy access to editing tools and distribution platforms now gives more people than ever before the opportunity to respond to the commercial products that shape our cultural dialogues. By plumbing a vast shared vocabulary of image and sound, audiences can express affiliation, criticize, or construct entirely new content using popular media as raw material. Re-edited videos are created and shared online daily by publics that spend increasing amounts of social time in front of networked screens. As the distinction between consumer and participant becomes ever more fluid, re-editing popular media has emerged as a common way of participating in a shared cultural conversation. The exhibition presents a selection of short- form video works that take movies, music videos, television series, and news broadcasts as their source material, focusing on genres and techniques that have emerged online over the past decade and their on- and offline precedents. 4 Image courtesy of the artists IN THE LOBBY JULY 3–NOVEMBER 3, 2013 Organized by Rachael Rakes and Jason Eppink, Associate Curator of Digital Media SINGLE STREAM by Pawel Wojtasik, Toby Lee, and Ernst Karel, explores a zero-sort recycling center in Charlestown, Massachusetts where hundreds of tons of refuse are sorted and processed every day. Blurring the line between observation and abstraction, SINGLE STREAM plunges the viewer into the steady flow of the plant, capturing the complex and fascinating processes devised to treat the enormous amount of waste Americans produce every day. As it moves among criss-crossing conveyor belts, industrial paper shredders, and glass-smashing drums, SINGLE STREAM examines the significant material consequences of our society’s culture of excess. 5 IN THE CHANGING EXHIBITIONS GALLERY PERSOL MAGNIFICENT OBSESSIONS: 30 stories of craftsmanship in film JULY 11–NOVEMBER 10, 2013 Guest curator: Michael Connor The third and final installation in a series of three exhibitions, PERSOL MAGNIFICENT OBSESSIONS: 30 stories of craftsmanship in film, uncovers ten powerful stories of obsessive workmanship within filmmaking. It offers a unique opportunity to view rarely seen artifacts from acclaimed films, as well as behind-the-scenes research notes, sketches, and materials used in the development process by some of the world’s best-known filmmakers. Among the craftspeople featured are Johnny Depp, who undertook extensive research to prepare for his role as Hunter S. Thompson in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas; Theadora Van Runkle, who created detailed illustrations to design the distinctive costumes for Bonnie and Clyde and The Thomas Crown Affair; the legendary editor/sound designer Walter Murch, who revolutionized the use of sound in film in Apocalypse Now; and Jennifer Connelly, who started making her own clothes in preparation for her part as the aspiring fashion designer Marion in Requiem for a Dream. The exhibition also looks at the work of director Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon); costume designers Eiko Ishioka (Bram Stoker’s Dracula) and Julie Weiss (Frida, Twelve Monkeys); cinematographer Sławomir Idziak (Three Colors: Blue); production designer Jeannine Oppewall (Catch Me If You Can), and director Spike Jonze / screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich). Publicity still from The Thomas Crown Affair. Courtesy of MGM Media Licensing / Core collection, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences persol.com 6 JULY 5–28, 2013 Organized by Reverse Shot editors Michael Koresky and Jeff Reichert, and Chief Curator David Schwartz What bigger subject is there for American filmmakers than the story of America itself? The grandeur of the American dream and the harsh realities faced in the effort to attain it; the terror and promise of the open landscape of the American West; the teeming diversity of urban life; the never-ending tension between ambition and greed; the battle between idealism and compromise—all of these themes and more are on view in the epic films in this distinctly American edition of See It Big, which includes some of the greatest movies ever made. The Right Stuff 7 Citizen Kane The Grapes of Wrath (Twentieth Century Fox) Imitation of Life SATURDAY, JULY 13, 2:00 P.M. Dir. Douglas Sirk. 1959, 125 mins. 35mm. With Lana Turner, John Gavin, Susan Kohner, Juanita Moore. This is the most thematically ambitious and powerful movie from Douglas Sirk, crafter of impeccable Hollywood weepies that contained searing social commentary. On the surface, Imitation of Life seems to be a sudser about the romantic and professional travails of a struggling actress. But as her woes are paralleled with the heartbreaking story of her black maid’s struggles with an ashamed daughter, it is revealed as a stealth portrait of racism in America. Do the Right Thing The Grapes of Wrath SUNDAY, JULY 7, 2:00 P.M. Dir. John Ford. 1940, 129 mins. 35mm. With Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, John Carradine. In the heart of the Great Depression, Tom Joad (a finely weathered Henry Fonda) and his family are pushed off their Oklahoma homestead and forced to head down Highway 66 toward California, in search of something, anything better. In the hands of John Ford and ace cinematographer Gregg Toland (Citizen Kane), this Oscar-winning adaptation of John Steinbeck’s classic became an unforgettable, mythopoetic elegy for the promise of America. El Norte SUNDAY, JULY 7, 5:00 P.M. Do the Right Thing Citizen Kane Sunrise Greed SATURDAY, JULY 13, 4:45 P.M. FRIDAY, JULY 5, 7:00 P.M. SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2:00 P.M. With live music by Dir.