Curators' Choice to Feature Ten of 2016's Best Films at Moving Image

In its annual Curators'Choice series, a selection of some of the best and most adventurous films released in the past year, Museum of the Moving Image will present ten titles, from December 30, 2016 through January 8, 2017.

Selected by Chief Curator David Schwartz and Associate Film Curator Eric Hynes, the films are Richard Linklater's Everybody Wants Some!!; Happy Hour, the Japanese domestic epic by Ryusuke Hamaguchi; Yorgos Lanthimos's The Lobster, Cameraperson (with director Kirsten Johnson and editor Nels Bangerter in person); the ESPN "30 for 30" documentary O.J.: Made in America; The Fits (with Anna Rose Holmer in person); Gabriel Mascaro's Neon Bull; Vitaly Mansky's Under the Sun; Roberto Minervini's The Other Side; and Chantal Akerman's No Home Movie.

"This is a great mix of fiction and documentary films, including two epic-length works, the Japanese fiction film Happy Hour and the monumental documentary O.J.: Made in America," said David Schwartz. "It is especially poignant to include No Home Movie, the last film by the great director Chantal Akerman, and we're pleased to have an eclectic international selection."

Tickets for each film are $15 ($11 seniors and students / free for Museum members at the Film Lover and Kids Premium levels and above). Tickets include same-day admission to the Museum's galleries. Advance tickets are available online.

---

SCHEDULE FOR 'CURATORS' CHOICE,' DEC. 30, 2016-JAN. 8, 2017:
All screenings take place the Sumner M. Redstone Theater or the Bartos Screening Room at Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35 Avenue in Astoria, New York. Advance tickets are available online at movingimage.us. Ticket purchase includes same-day admission to the Museum's galleries.
Everybody Wants Some!!
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 30, 7:00 P.M.
Dir. Richard Linklater. 2016, 116 mins. DCP. Considered a "spiritual sequel" to Dazed and Confused by filmmaker Richard Linklater, Everybody Wants Some!! more than earns its double exclamation marks with its exuberant and completely delightful look at the first days of college for a group of testosterone-laden baseball-playing guys who live together at (the fictitious) Texas State University. Pulsing to a late-1970s soundtrack starting with a blast of "My Sharona," the movie is nothing less than a celebration of being young and restless, with a lot of energy, and big, strapping bodies. Like Dazed and Confused, the film is loosely autobiographical, evoking Linklater's days as a promising young baseball player.

The Other Side
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 30, 7:30 P.M.
Dir. Roberto Minervini. 2016, 92 mins. Digital projection. As topical as it is indelible, The Other Side sheds light on a community of Americans living at the extreme margins of society. Deep in the Louisiana bayou, Italian filmmaker Roberto Minervini finds disempowered veterans, drug addicts trying to escape addiction through love, ex-special forces soldiers still at war with the world, floundering young women and future mothers, all feeling neglected and ignored by the government and its institutions-and all granted both respect and a voice through this gorgeously lyrical documentary.

Happy Hour
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1:00 P.M.
Dir. Ryusuke Hamaguchi. 2015, 317 mins. Digital projection. In Japanese with English subtitles. Clocking in at just over five hours, this gently ambling but sharply written and performed comedy, which follows a group of thirty-something female friends in the seaside Japanese city of Kobe, is one of the year's great cinematic discoveries. As it unfolds, it is clear that the running time allows scenes to evolve with authenticity and depth; one section, a book-reading and dinner with a young author unfolds over an hour in virtual real time, immersing the viewer in a scene that is both recognizably awkward and deeply touching. After its U.S. premiere at New Directors/New Films, it played for a week at The Museum of Modern Art; here is a rare chance to experience a unique epic that is at once unassuming and revelatory, a film to live in.

Under the Sun (V paprscich slunce)
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2:00 P.M.
Dir. Vitaly Mansky, 2105, 106 mins. DCP. In Korean with English subtitles. After years of negotiations, Russian director Vitaly Mansky was granted permission by the North Korean government to film a documentary about an eight-year-old patriot and her hard-working family in Pyongyang. Considering the restrictions and controls set by government-assigned handlers, not to mention outright scripted fabrications, Mansky became less documentarian than tool of propaganda. Or he would have been, if not for one crucial act of rebellion: He kept the camera rolling before and after each scene, offering an unprecedented, and surprisingly poignant glimpse into the machinations of image control. Mansky's Independent Spirit-nominated marvel does more than just expose the charade of totalitarianism, it looks with empathy and subtle self-identification at those who have parts they are obliged to play.

The Lobster
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 31, 4:30 P.M.
Dir. Yorgos Lanthimos. 2016, 119 mins. DCP. With Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, Léa Seydoux, John C. Reilly, Ben Whishaw. Visionary Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos's first English-language film imagines a dystopian society in which single people must find a mate within 45 days or be transformed into an animal of their choice. They pass this time in a tightly controlled, remote hotel that is alternately homey and harrowing, encouraged to find a match from among the other single inhabitants and aggressively dissuaded from finding solitary contentment. After a potential coupling goes very awry, David (Farrell) finds himself on the run and in the company of anti-couple renegades whose rules are just as strict, with consequences for nonconformity that are just as grave.

No Home Movie
SUNDAY, JANUARY 1, 2:00 P.M.
Dir. Chantal Akerman. 2015, 115 mins. DCP. Chantal Akerman's death in 2015, just as her final masterpiece No Home Movie was set to have its American premiere at the New York Film Festival, was a tremendous shock to the film world. Akerman had been making formally inventive, rigorous, and deeply intimate films since her astonishing debut Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1083 Bruxelles in 1985. Akerman's art was at once personal and engaged with history and politics, and No Home Movie was no exception. Built around a series of conversations in person and online between the filmmaker and her mother, a Belgian Holocaust survivor, the brilliantly deceptive No Home Movie is both diaristic and avant-garde, a meditation on family relations, memory, and death in the modern world.

The Fits
SUNDAY, JANUARY 1, 4:30 P.M.
Dir. Anna Rose Holmer. 2016, 72 mins. DCP. With Royalty Hightower, Alexis Neblett, Da'Sean Minor, Lauren Gibson. Eleven-year-old tomboy Toni hangs out at a community center in Cincinnati, Ohio, taking boxing lessons with her older brother Jermaine and growing curious about the all-girl dance group down the hall. Slowly she edges into the group, working hard to learn routines and socialize with older girls while remaining true to herself. But when a wave of mysterious fainting spells begins to plague the team, Toni grows more and more confused about what it might take to fit in. Nominated for two BREAKTHROUGH Gotham Awards for director Anna Rose Holmer and young actress Royalty Hightower, who gives a kinetic, quietly charismatic performance for the ages.

Neon Bull (Boi neon)
SUNDAY, JANUARY 1, 7:00 P.M.
Dir. Gabriel Mascaro. 2016, 101 mins. DCP. In Portuguese with English subtitles. Aptly described as "wild, sensual, and utterly transporting" by the Toronto International Film Festival, where it had its world premiere, Neon Bull marks a great leap forward for Gabriel Mascaro, the Brazilian writer-director whose background as a documentary filmmaker is revealed in his deeply observational style. He is creating a form of poetic realism, and Neon Bull is a bold and transgressive look at sexual identity within the context of the vaquejada, an exhibition sport in which cowboys try to pull bulls to the ground by their tails. The freewheeling film revolves around a traveling group of performers, including a rugged cowhand who spends much of his time fashioning sexy outfits for a truck-driving female exotic dancer.

O.J.: Made in America
SUNDAY, JANUARY 8, 1:00 P.M.
(1:00-4:00 p.m. Part One / 4:30-7:30 p.m. Part Two / 8:00-9:40 p.m. Part Three. Ticket purchase includes admission to all three parts.)
Dir. Ezra Edelman. 2016, 467 mins. Digital projection. It is perhaps the defining cultural tale of twentieth-century America, one that centers around two of our country's greatest fixations: race and celebrity. O.J.: Made in America explores these themes in tracing a personal journey, from how Orenthal James Simpson first became a football star, to why the country fell in love with him off the field, to his being accused of murdering his ex-wife, his subsequent acquittal, and later conviction for another crime. A saga of race, celebrity, media, violence, and the criminal justice system, it continues to fascinate, polarize, and even develop new chapters two decades later. From Peabody and Emmy-award winning director Ezra Edelman, O.J.: Made in America was commissioned by ESPN Films's "30 for 30" series, yet has also screened throughout the country as an epic feature film event.

Cameraperson
With director Kirsten Johnson and editor Nels Bangerter in person
SUNDAY, JANUARY 8, 4:30 P.M.
Dir. Kirsten Johnson. 2016, 103 mins. DCP. What does it mean to film another person? How does it affect that person, and what does it do to the one who films? A boxing match in Brooklyn, life in postwar Bosnia and Herzegovina, the daily routine of a Nigerian midwife, an intimate family moment at home: These scenes and others are woven into Cameraperson, a tapestry of footage captured over the 25-year career of documentary cinematographer Kirsten Johnson. Through a series of elliptical, free-associative episodes, Johnson explores the relationships between image MAKERS and their subjects, as well as the tension between the objectivity and INTERVENTION of the camera, in a work that combines documentary, autobiography, and ethical inquiry. Cameraperson is both a moving glimpse into one filmmaker's personal journey and a thoughtful examination of what it means to train a camera on the world.

---

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 facilities-acclaimed for both its accessibility and bold design-the 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 Museum also houses a significant collection of moving-image artifacts.

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. Holiday Hours: Closed December 25. Early closing on December 24 (at 4:00 p.m.) and December 31 (at 5:00 p.m.). Open Monday, December 26, and Tuesday, December 27, 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Museum Admission: $15 adults; $11 senior citizens (ages 65+) and students (ages 18+) with ID; $7 youth (ages 3-17). Children under 3 and Museum members are admitted free. Admission to the galleries is free on Fridays, 4:00 to 8:00 p.m.
Film Screenings: Friday evenings, Saturdays and Sundays, and as scheduled. Unless otherwise noted, tickets are $15 adults / $11 students and seniors / $7 youth (ages 3-17) / free for Museum members at the Film Lover and MoMI Kids Premium levels and above. Advance purchase is available online. Ticket purchase may be applied toward same-day admission to the Museum's galleries.
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.
Program Information: Telephone: 718 777 6888; Website: movingimage.us
Membership: movingimage.us/support/membership or 718 777 6877

Museum of the Moving Image is housed in a building owned by the City of New York and has received significant support from the following public agencies: New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; New York City Economic Development Corporation; New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; Institute of Museum and Library Services; National Endowment for the Humanities; National Endowment for the Arts; and Natural Heritage Trust (administered by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation). For more information, visit movingimage.us.