B IS FOR BOGART and More Among MoMA Film Exhibitions for September 2016

The Museum of Modern Art has announced its film exhibitions for September 2016. Scroll down for details!

All films and events take place in the Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters, unless otherwise noted.

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Modern Matinees: B Is for Bogart
September 1-October 28
Wide ranging in theme and narrative, this chronological selection captures the evolution of Humphrey Bogart (1899-1957) from typecast tough to superstar of the Hollywood studio system. These films-all drawn from MoMA's collection-underscore the canny mutability of both Bogart's acting style and his choices of starring vehicles and directors. Bogart began his career in two short films, The Dancing Town (1928) and the Vitaphone short Broadway's Like That (1929), before garnering his first key role in John Ford's Up the River (1930), costarring with Spencer Tracy and Claire Luce. The next few years saw Bogart commuting coast to coast, trying to build a movie career while paying the bills with Broadway stage work. Bogart landed the lead role. Though he was still playing a tough, his career shifted to an A-list trajectory. Bogart eventually won an Oscar for his portrayal of the brassy Charlie Allnut inThe African Queen (1951), the culmination of his longtime professional relationship with John Huston.

Full description and screening schedule

From Doodles to Pixels: Over a Hundred Years
of Spanish Animation
September 7-15
This major retrospective of the little-known art and industry of Spanish animation comprises eight programs featuring historic work from 1908 through the end of the dictatorship, in 1975; commercial animation created in the shadow of Hollywood; Europe's first animated color feature, Garbancito de la Mancha (1945); and internationally celebrated 21st-century work inspired by personal cinema, music videos, and the graphic novel. Taking advantage of new scholarship and restoration initiatives organized by the Contemporary Culture Centre of Barcelona and Acción Cultual Española, the wide-ranging work in this series includes classic hand-drawn animation, stop-motion, and innovative digital works, and ranges from cultural and political themes and literary adaptations to adult fare, children's stories, and advertising. Among the distinguished artists, designers, humorists, and studios represented are K-Hito, Francisco Macián, Robert Balser, José Antonio Sistiaga, Isabel Herguera, Javier Mariscal, Mercedes Gaspar, Rodrigo Blaas, Anna Solanas, César Díaz Meléndez, Nicolai Troshinky, Jossie Malis, Laura Ginès, Alberto Vázquez, Estudios Moro, Balet y Blay, and the Headless Studio.

Full description and screening schedule

Movie in My Head: Bruce Conner and Beyond
September 12-30
In conjunction with Bruce Conner: IT'S ALL TRUE, this series presents an open survey of Conner's films alongside contemporaneous and later works that illustrate his relationships with his peers and his continuing influence. Each program begins with TEN SECOND FILM, Conner's rejected trailer for the 1965 New York Film Festival, followed by a program of Conner's films and related shorts.

Best known for a transgressive, pioneering use of found footage throughout his career, Conner was equally dedicated to the use of self-shot and self-edited film. His career serves as an index of American countercultural attitudes, from the psychic experiments of the Beats and hippies to the jaded appropriations of punk rock. Late in his life, Conner even waded into the immersive information-stream of digital media. This series, ranging from his earliest films to his final digital undertakings, reaffirms Conner's stature as a continuously innovative filmmaker of transformative influence.

Full description and screening schedule

Berlin Alexanderplatz Remastered
September 13-18
This is a reprise presentation of MoMA's restored 35mm print of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Berlin Alexanderplatz-called the "Mount Everest of modern cinema" by film critic Andrew Sarris-which was last screened at the Museum in 2006. Produced for German television in 1980, the film was released theatrically in New York in 1983.

Based on Alfred Döblin's epic novel about the declining days of the Weimar Republic, Berlin Alexanderplatz traces the fall of Franz Biberkopf, an urban Everyman, as he slogs through a debased society compromised by unemployment, violence, anomie, and promises of social order proclaimed by contradictory political parties. Fassbinder adapted Döblin's complex narrative for the screen and also composed an original two-hour epilogue in which Biberkopf ventures through a tempestuous dreamscape, metaphorically emerging from his and Germany's experiences.

Full description and screening schedule

AMPAS and MoMA Present: Richard Williams's The Thief and the Cobbler: A Moment in Time
September 22-27
Richard Williams's The Thief and the Cobbler is a legend in animation circles, both as a breathtakingly beautiful work of hand-drawn animation-a conscious attempt to better Walt Disney at his own game-and for its troubled production history. An Arabian Nights fantasy about a mischievous thief and a resourceful shoemaker who save a golden city from the clutches of a wicked vizier, the film entered production in 1964. As the scope widened and financiers came and went, production only reached an endpoint in 1992, when Williams lost control of the film and other animators were brought in to finish what was eventually released in the US, in a much altered version, as Arabian Knight. Luckily, Williams was able to make a copy of his work print as it existed on May 13, 1992, the last day of production, and the "moment in time" of the title. This print has been preserved and restored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Academy Film Archive. MoMA and the Academy are proud to be able to present the film's New York premiere.

Mr. Williams, a three-time Oscar winner, will be present for a discussion hosted by the animation historian John Canemaker on September 24. The program will include a selection of clips from Mr. Williams's work (including his brilliant animation for Who Framed Roger Rabbit) as well as his (personally) hand-drawn 2015 short film, the Oscar-nominatedPrologue.

Full description and screening schedule

MoMA Presents: Pema Tseden's Tharlo
September 28-October 4
Tharlo (Shide Nyima), an innocent shepherd living a secluded life in the mountains, has been ordered by the local police chief to obtain an ID. Claiming, "I know who I am," Tharlo doesn't see the point of the document, but he reluctantly travels into town to have an ID photo taken. There he encounters a young, modern, and beautiful barber, Yangsto. Immediately smitten by her charms, Tharlo spends the night with Yangsto at the karaoke bar and discovers a world completely unknown to him.

Renowned Tibetan filmmaker Pema Tseden continues the exploration of the conflicts between modern and traditional Tibetan life he began in previous features Old Dog, The Search, and Silent Holy Stones. Shot entirely in black and white, Tharlo reveals in vivid contrast the simplicity of the countryside and the disorientation of a fast-changing small town.

Full description and screening schedule

Ongoing Exhibition:

Gaumont: Cinéma pour tout le monde
Through September 7
Full description and screening schedule

Pictured: The African Queen. 1951. USA. Directed by John Huston.