2010-05-28

3rd NYDFF - May 28, 2010

Friday, May 28 - Anthology Film Archives - Maya Deren Theater

6:30 PM
PGA presents:
THE FEELING OF BEING THERE (1958 - 1965)
SEVEN YEARS OF DOCUMENTARY CINEMA
A journey through the creative forces that have crossed (and continue to cross) modern cinema. Eleven short films that have changed documentary film history in a period of great creative fervor corresponding to the birth of the Festival dei Popoli.

A HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY, by Joyce Chopra, Richard Leacock
(USA, 1965, b&w, 26’)
On September 14th, 1963, Mary Ann Fischer brought five magnificent twins into the world. The happy news immediately breaches the quiet borders of Aberdeen, South Dakota, and attracts the attention of the media, who transform the event into a national story. The family’s request for privacy is ignored by the community’s major exponents, who want to financially exploit this new tourist attraction. The film is still today a prime example of an America that is dogged by the deleterious effects of media coverage.

PULL MY DAISY, by Robert Frank, Alfred Leslie
(USA, 1959, b&w, 30’)
In a New York apartment, a group of poets, musicians and artists hang out, talk, dance, improvise poetry and scenes, and throw a dinner party with a bishop and his family. The film is structured to the free and wild rhythms of jazz. Based on a piece by Jack Kerouac, its editing breaks conventions and tunes into the improvisation of open music, even if foreseen and organized by the director. A manifesto of the Beat Generation and New American Cinema.
(The film and video of Robert Frank is distributed by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston)

TERMINUS, by John Schlesinger
(UK, 1961, b&w, 33’)
Twenty-four hours in the Waterloo train station in London. A symphony of footsteps, faces, expressions and voices in the rhythm of jazz. A careful study of the reality, the originality of the setting and a taste for improvisation raise timeless freshness to one of the most famous English short films of the Sixties.

8:30 PM
(ITALIAN CHRONICLES - FOCUS on ALESSANDRO ROSSETTO)
FELTRINELLI, by Alessandro Rossetto
(Italy/Switzerland /Germany/France, 2006, 81’)
The film tells the story of a great Italian publishing house «La Feltrinelli», about books and the work and passion that goes into their making, development and circulation. It’s a story that delves into the discovery of literature and into a world that has been changed by books.
With the director in-person.

Anthology Film Archives, 32 Second Avenue (at 2nd Street), New York, NY 10003
www.nydff.org

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