EMERGING FILMMAKER ALEX ROSS PERRY CELEBRATED WITH MUSEUM RETROSPECTIVE

Museum of the Moving Image to screen the director’s four features, including his newest,Queen of Earth, with Perry and star Elisabeth Moss in person August 22–25, 2015

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Alex Ross Perry has become one of the most accomplished and provocative American independent filmmakers, with four disparate feature films that reinvent genres, are emotionally transgressive, feature scabrous dark humor, and evoke great cinema of the past while pushing ahead towards new forms. From August 22 through 25, 2015, Museum of the Moving Image will present all of his features, including a special preview screening of the new film Queen of Earth, with Perry and Moss in person, on August 25.

“Alex Ross Perry’s two most recent films feature unforgettable and vivid performances—most notably Elisabeth Moss’s daring portrayal of emotional despair in the astonishing Queen of Earth,” said Chief Curator David Schwartz. “The Museum is pleased to offer New Yorkers an opportunity to catch up on an impressive body of work by this unique emerging talent who has incorporated his love of cinema into his own original vision.”

The full schedule is included below. Except for Queen of Earth ($25 with discounts for Film Lover members and above), tickets are $12 ($9 for senior citizens and students / $6 for children 6–12 / free for members at the Film Lover level and above). Order tickets online at movingimage.us.


SCHEDULE FOR ‘THE FILMS OF ALEX ROSS PERRY,’ AUGUST 22–25, 2015
Screenings take place in either the Sumner M. Redstone Theater or the Celeste and Armand Bartos Screening Room atMuseum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35 Avenue in Astoria, New York. Unless otherwise noted, tickets for MOMI screenings are $12 adults ($9 seniors and students / $6 children 3–12) and free for Museum members at the Film Lover level and above. Advance tickets are available online at  http://movingimage.us. Ticket purchase includes same-day admission to the Museum’s galleries.


Impolex
SATURDAY, AUGUST 22, 4:30 P.M.
Dir. Alex Ross Perry. 2009, 73 mins. 35mm. With Riley O'Bryan, Kate Lyn Sheil, Bruno Meyrick Jones. In his feature debut, Perry was loosely inspired by Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow. Taking place just after World War II, the film follows the shambling young soldier Tyrone S. as he wanders through the forest looking for German V2 rockets and encounters a number of inexplicably figures, including an eyepatch-wearing Englishman, a garrulous octopus, and the girlfriend he left behind to join the army.

The Color Wheel
SUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 3:00 P.M.
Dir. Alex Ross Perry. 2011, 83 mins. 35mm. With Carlen Altman, Alex Ross Perry. Having recently broken up with her boyfriend and former professor, aspiring TV weathergirl JR calls on her estranged younger brother Colin to help retrieve her possessions at her ex’s apartment. What follows is one of the most uncomfortable road movies ever, as the two equally despicable characters incessantly pick on, undercut, and attack one another. “Perry gives a harsh, sarcastic twist to the intimate rivalry of siblings…. [He] directs these uproarious rapid-fire flareups with exquisite comic timing and incisive comic framing,” wrote Richard Brody in The New Yorker.

Listen Up Philip
SUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 5:30 P.M.
Dir. Alex Ross Perry. 2014, 109 mins. With Jason Schwartzman, Elisabeth Moss, Jonathan Pryce. Feeling alienated by the pressures of the New York literary world and the girlfriend who financially supports him, the narcissistic and self-involved author Philip Lewis Friedman seeks refuge in the country home of his equally self-obsessed idol, the older, more established writer Ike Zimmerman. “Words do more than hurt, they also slash and burn in this sharp, dyspeptic, sometimes gaspingly funny exploration of art and life […],” noted Manohla Dargisin The New York Times.


SPECIAL PREVIEW SCREENING
Queen of Earth
With Elisabeth Moss and Alex Ross Perry in person
TUESDAY, AUGUST 25, 7:30 P.M.
Dir. Alex Ross Perry. 90 mins. With Elisabeth Moss, Patrick Fugit, Katherine Waterson. Catherine (played in what Variety calls “an utterly fearless central performance by Elisabeth Moss”) has entered a particularly dark period in her life. Following her father’s death and a bad breakup with her longtime boyfriend, she decides to spend a week recuperating in the lake house of her best friend, Virginia. However, fissures between the two women begin to appear, sending Catherine into a downward spiral of delusion and madness. As Scott Foundas points out in his Variety review, ”Perry is working in a style that seems equally influenced by doppelganger narratives like Bergman’s Persona  and Brian De Palma’s Sisters. 
Tickets: $25 public/$15 Museum members at the Film Lover level or above/Free for Silver Screen members and above.


Museum of the Moving Image (movingimage.us) advances the understanding, enjoyment, and appreciation of the art, history, technique, and technology of film, television, and digital media. In its stunning artifacts. image-moving also houses a significant collection of Museum presents exhibitions; screenings of significant works; discussion programs featuring actors, directors, craftspeople, and business leaders; and education programs which serve more than 50,000 students each year. The Museumfacilities—acclaimed for both its accessibility and bold design—

  • The Hours: 

Wednesday-Thursday, 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Friday, 10:30 to 8:00 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, 11:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. 

  • Film Screenings:

Friday evenings, Saturdays and Sundays, and as scheduled. Unless otherwise noted, tickets for screenings are $12 ($9 students and seniors / free for Museum members at the Film Lover level and above) will be available for advance purchase online at movingimage.us. Screening tickets include same-day admission to the Museum’s galleries.

  • Museum Admission:

12.00 for adults; $9.00 for persons over 65 and for students with ID; $6.00 for children ages 3–12. Children under 3 and Museum members are admitted free. Admission to the galleries is free on Fridays, 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. 

  • Location:

36-01 35 Avenue (at 37 Street) in Astoria.

  • Subway:

M (weekdays only) or R to Steinway Street. Q (weekdays only) or N to 36 Avenue.

Academy Award Nominee Shohreh Aghdashloo Joins Oscar Isaac, Charlotte Le Bon, Christian Bale, Angela Sarafyan, Daniel Giminez Cacho and Marwan Kenzari in ‘The Promise’

Film to be lensed by acclaimed cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe

Survival Pictures announced that Academy Award nominated and Emmy winning actress Shohreh Aghdashloo (Septembers Of Shiraz, X-Men, House of Sand and Fog) has joined the cast in The Promise, the epic love story directed by Academy Award winning filmmaker Terry George otel Rwanda, Reservation Road, The Shore). Additionally, acclaimed cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe (Blue Jasmine, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, The Others) has joined George’s production team. 

As previously announced, the cast includes Golden Globe nominee, Oscar Isaac (Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Ex Machina, A Most Violent Year), Charlotte Le Bon (The Walk, The Hundred-Foot Journey, Yves Saint Laurent), Academy Award winner Christian Bale (The Fighter, American Hustle, The Dark Knight), Angela Sarafyan (The Immigrant, Paranoia), Daniel Giminez Cacho (Y Tu Mamá También,Bad Education, Snow White) and Marwan Kenzari (Autobahn, Ben-Hur). 

Set during the last days of the Ottoman Empire, The Promise follows a love triangle between Michael (Isaac), a brilliant student, the beautiful and sophisticated Ana (Le Bon), and Chris (Bale)—a renowned American journalist based in Paris. 

The script was written by award-winning writer Terry George and Academy Award nominee Robin Swicord (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Memoirs of a Geisha).

“We have assembled a stellar cast to make this epic love story,” says George.“Christian Bale and Oscar Isaac are now joined by the beautiful and talented actress Shohreh Aghdashloo, and an international cast including Charlotte Le Bon, Angela Sarafyan, Daniel Giminez Cacho and Marwan Kenzari. The actors and I relish the challenge of bringing this sweeping love story to the screen."

Eric Esrailian will produce on behalf of Survival Pictures and the film will also be produced by Mike Medavoy for Phoenix Pictures (Black Swan, Shutter Island, Zodiac, The Thin RedLine), Ralph Winter (X-Men, Fantastic Four, The Giver) and William Horberg (Milk, Cold Mountain, The Talented Mr. Ripley). Production is slated to start this fall in Southern Europe.

Aghdashloo is represented by Peter Levine at CAA and managed by Tamara Houston at Round Table Entertainment. Aguirresarobe is represented by Michael Lewis & Associates.

FSLC announces PRINT SCREEN event with The Mountain Goats's John Darnielle, book signing of WOLF IN WHITE VAN & screening of MEDEA

The Mountain Goats frontman John Darnielle to discuss debut novel, Wolf in White Van, and present restored 35mm print of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Medea on August 31

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Additional author spotlights to include James Hannaham (October), Susan Howe (November) & Garth Risk Hallberg (December)

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The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced additional Print Screen events, which are geared toward bridging the worlds of cinema and literature. Film Society’s newest recurring series invites notable authors to present films that complement and have inspired their work. On the occasion of the paperback release of his debut novel, Wolf in White Van (September 1 from Picador), The Mountain Goats frontman and indie-rock icon John Darnielle joins us to introduce a screening of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Medea, followed by a discussion and book signing on August 31. 

Upcoming Print Screen events include authors James Hannaham (October 29), Susan Howe (November 24), and Garth Risk Hallberg (December 10). Full details on these events and film pairings will be announced at a later date. The Print Screen series is organized by Rachael Rakes and Dennis Lim. 

John Darnielle Print Screen tickets will go on sale Thursday, August 13 and are $18; $13 for members, students, and seniors (62+). Visit filmlinc.org for more information.

Discussion with John Darnielle & screening of Medea

“Wolf in White Van is a novel that unspools rather than reads. Told in a tricky, deftly structured reverse chronology, the narrator, Sean Phillips, backtracks to a traumatic teenaged event . . . Darnielle has a masterful way of putting the reader in the position of reverse engineer. . . [His] is an art that spins pain into gold."—Emily M. Keeler, The Hairpin

“It’s a gripping and strange read that defies all genre expectations and captures a world that very few of us know about but that feels very real.”—John Green, author of The Fault in Our Stars, in Rolling Stone

John Darnielle is a writer, composer, guitarist, and vocalist for the band The Mountain Goats and is widely considered one of the best lyricists of his generation, crafting “songs that read like stories” (NPR) about society’s marginalized and underdogs—undercard boxers, meth addicts, teens who form death-metal bands. He took the name The Mountain Goats from a line in “Yellow Coat,” a Screamin’ Jay Hawkins song. While working toward an English degree at Pitzer College in 1991, a local label released Taboo VI: The Homecoming—10 initial songs, sung by Darnielle including a cover of “This Magic Moment.” Eventually pairing with others to form the indie-rock band The Mountain Goats, their 2002 first studio concept album Tallahassee was released to critical acclaim by British label 4AD (Pixies, Throwing Muses, Modern English) and centers on an embittered husband and wife who move from Southern California to Florida. The band has released multiple albums and over 500 songs, many written by Darnielle. After writing for his own blog, Last Plane to Jakarta, and publishing a book on Black Sabbath’s Master of Reality as part of the 33 1/3 series about classic albums, he penned Wolf in White Van. The novel takes place in a “tortured-adolescent head-space” (Rolling Stone) and centers on a man who is disfigured during his days as a heavy-metal loving teen. The book was nominated for the 2014 National Book Award. Darnielle lives in Durham, North Carolina, with his family. 

Medea
Pier Paolo Pasolini, Italy/France/West Germany, 1969, 35mm, 110m
Italian with English subtitles
Starring the legendary Maria Callas, Pasolini’s interpretation of Euripides’s play shifts the tragedy away from Medea’s betrayal by Jason and her bloody revenge to the loss of her mystical homeland of Colchis. Through poetic, desirous explorations of landscape and ritual, traditional North African music, and sparse dialogue, Pasolini shapes a biting Marxist allegory for Western nations’ menacing influence on the Third World. Glorious to witness for Callas’s performance and the superb costuming, Medea deserves repeated viewings on the big screen. Restored 35mm print from Instituto Luce Cinecittà. Restoration by S.N.C. Presentation of the film in its original 35mm format made possible by Gucci.
Monday, August 31, 7:00pm (Q&A with John Darnielle) at Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center (144 West 65th Street)

“The Greek and Roman tragedians had a profound and lasting effect on me when I immersed myself in them back in college—everything I write articulates at some point with strategies and visions found in those ancient poems. One interesting thing about ancient tragedy is that its threads lead in so many directions—from Renaissance reimaginings to crypto-tragic texts like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre to the syncretic masterpiece The Gospel at Colonus. Pasolini tried his hand at Greek tragedy twice: first Sophocles (Oedipus Rex [1967]), then Euripides (Medea, [1969]). It's not surprising that a lifelong maverick like Pasolini would be drawn to Euripides, whose plays speak so directly to the modern heart. Medea, which contains Maria Callas’s only dramatic role on film, hauls Euripides from the corridors of the academy into the stark, violent world of celluloid. There are few film treatments of ancient tragedy as hell-bent on getting the tone right as this one: the light, the scene, the horror. The film's final frames, once viewed, linger in the mind for a long, long time. It's my pleasure to host a screening of this sometimes-imperfect but genuinely remarkable film.”—John Darnielle

For more information, visit www.filmlinc.org

Salad Days: A Decade of Punk in Washington, DC (1980-90)

Scott Crawford and Jim Saah's Salad Days: A Decade of Punk In Washington, DC (1980-90) has been selling out screenings in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Seattle, Chicago, and more. The documentary film that examines the early DIY punk scene in the Nation's Capital. It was a decade when seminal bands like Bad Brains, Minor Threat, Government Issue, Scream, Void, Faith, Rites of Spring, Marginal Man, Fugazi, and others released their own records and booked their own shows-without major record label constraints or mainstream media scrutiny.

Contextually, it was a cultural watershed that predated the alternative music explosion of the 1990s (and the industry's subsequent implosion). Thirty years later, DC's original DIY punk spirit serves as a reminder of the hopefulness of youth, the power of community and the strength of conviction.

Director/writer Scott Crawford is a music journalist, musician, and graphic designer. As a teenager in the DC suburbs, he started a fanzine called Metrozine that documented much of what was happening in the DC hardcore punk scene in the 1980s.

"The DC punk music scene that I grew up with in the 1980s has always been a big part of who I am," says Scott. "I interviewed a lot of these bands for the first time over 30 years ago while doing a fanzine. Approaching them all again decades later offered a type of perspective and reflection that I wanted to capture in a film."

Crawford was also quoted in both Dance of Days and Banned in DC - the two most definitive books on the early DC punk scene. In 2001, he launched Harp Magazine and served as its Editor-in-Chief for over seven years. Crawford also launched the online music portal Blurt in 2009.

Serving as Director of Photography, Saah is a native of Washington, DC who has worked professionally in photography and video for over 25 years. He has shot for a variety of publications and websites ranging from the Washington Post to Rolling Stone. He's also an experienced videographer whose credits range from union organizing films to music documentaries. Recent films he has worked on include movies about the bands Wilco, Death Cab for Cutie, and Eddie Vedder.

On a side note, OBEY and Shepard Fairey were heavily influenced by the DC hardcore scene. Shepard has used numerous DC hardcore legends such as Ian Mackaye of Minor Threat and Fugazi, Henry Rollins of State of Alert and Black Flag, and Bad Brains in his artwork. When hearing that Crawford and Saah were planning a West Coast release of their film, OBEY wanted to get involved. They created this T-shirt which is on sale now (along with other cool Salad Days merchandise) HERE.

Quick Facts:
* Salad Days reached its Kickstarter goal in 6 days.
* Features never-before-seen photographs and performance footage of dozens of DC punk bands.
* Interviews with Ian MacKaye, Henry Rollins, John Stabb, Thurston Moore, Dave Grohl, and others
* Original score by guitarist Michael Hampton (SOA, Faith, Embrace, One Last Wish)

* Coming to DVD on September 18th, streaming now on Vimeo

*The critically acclaimed documentary chronicling the rise of punk rock in Washington, DC

* Check out an exclusive clip at IndieWire and the trailer below

DVD Pre-Order: http://bit.ly/1T3e709

Blu-ray Pre-order: http://bit.ly/1INahXL

Amazon: http://amzn.to/1faxxTO