This spring, the Hirshhorn provides the opportunity to view some of the best in contemporary film and the chance to meet celebrated filmmakers and animators as they introduce screenings of their award-winning work and provide glimpses into projects in the making. All screenings are free.
“Bill Cunningham New York” (2009)
Thursday, March 10, 8 p.m.
Ring Auditorium
Twice weekly, there are photo essays in The New York Times that double as cultural anthropology. “On the Street” makes a case for the fashion trend of the moment, and “Evening Hours” covers power brokers, swells and celebs out on the town. Richard Press’s first feature is a portrait of Bill Cunningham, the photographer who produces these eye-popping chronicles. The octogenarian bikes to his assignments on his Schwinn, attired as always in a stylish yet utilitarian outfit: oversize lab coat, pinwale cords, black shoes and thick socks.
Under the Volcano: An Evening with Semiconductor
Thursday, March 24, 8 p.m.
Ring Auditorium
As Smithsonian Artist Research Fellows, Semiconductor (UK-based Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt) spent three months at the Smithsonian Mineral Sciences Lab. Their insights into volcanoes, meteorites, and those who study them are at the core of a three-screen work-in-progress, “Worlds in the Making.” The artists, who recently performed at After Hours and whose “Magnetic Movie” (2007) entered the museum’s collection from Black Box, screen and talk about their latest projects. This event is presented in conjunction with the Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital.
DJ Spooky with Selections from the Washington Project for the Arts 2011 Experimental Media Series
Thursday, March 31, 8 p.m.
Ring Auditorium
Filmmaker, musician and writer Paul D. Miller (aka DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid) is this year’s judge for the WPA’s international competition. He shows his favorites and tells you how he selected them from hundreds of submissions.
Paul Fierlinger: Animation Now
Thursday, April 28, 7 p.m.
Ring Auditorium
Fierlinger, born in 1936 in Japan to Czech diplomats, is an award-winning animator and the subject of the autobio-doc “Drawn from Memory” (1995). He is best known, however, for his breakout feature “My Dog Tulip” (2009) adapted from J.R. Ackerley’s 1956 cult memoir about breeding his German shepherd, Queenie. Fierlinger, who runs his own studio and teaches hand-drawn animation at the University of Pennsylvania, joins his wife and collaborator, Sandra, to discuss “Tulip,” show samples of their work and talk about the inspirations for their quirky, endearing hit movie.
“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” [Le scaphandre et le papillon] (2007)
Friday, May 13, 8 p.m.
Ring Auditorium
Julian Schnabel introduces his celebrated feature based on the memoir of Jean-Dominique Bauby. At the age of 42, the editor of the French fashion magazine Elle is stricken with locked-in syndrome, which leaves him mentally alert but unable to speak or move. When his eyes are also compromised, doctors determine that one must be sewn shut. With blinks of the remaining eye, Bauby communicates his thoughts letter by letter to dictate his book. Schnabel’s inventive and unsentimental film vividly relates Bauby’s will to live, work and connect. In French with English subtitles.
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