The Film Society of Lincoln Center announces the fourth edition of Art of the Real, an essential showcase for boundary-pushing nonfiction film, April 20 - May 2. A survey of the most vital and innovative voices in nonfiction and hybrid filmmaking, this edition features an eclectic, globe-spanning host of discoveries, including seven North American premieres and eight U.S. premieres, with many of the filmmakers in person.
"In our fourth year we've put an emphasis on placing works by first-time and emerging filmmakers alongside established names, with the aim to highlight the experimentation happening across generations, and to trace a new trajectory of documentary art that points to its promising future," said Film Society of Lincoln Center Programmer at Large Rachael Rakes, who organized the festival with Director of Programming Dennis Lim.
The Opening Night selection is the New York premiere of Theo Anthony's eye-opening Rat Film, a buzzed-about title out of the Locarno and SXSW film festivals that creates a damning account of segregation and injustice in Baltimore via the cultural history of rats in the city.
New works by familiar names at the festival include World Without End (No Reported Incidents) from director Jem Cohen (Museum Hours, Benjamin Smoke), a sweet, structuralist look at three small English towns along the Thames Estuary; Pow Wow, a series of visually striking vignettes by Robinson Devor (Zoo); and Untitled, a moving elegy to the late Michael Glawogger composed of remarkable footage from the filmmaker's unfinished final project, lovingly assembled by his longtime editor Monika Willi. Complementing the roster of esteemed filmmakers are works by innovative and exciting new artists, including Salomé Jashi, whose acerbic The Dazzling Light of Sunset follows a local news team in rural Georgia, and Shengze Zhu, whose compassionate Another Year follows a series of meals shared by a family of Chinese migrant workers, revealing both intimate household dynamics and the broader socioeconomic realities of the country.
Highlights also include the North American premiere of two works from Heinz Emigholz's ambitious "Streetscapes" series-his magnum opus Streetscapes [Dialogue], and 2+2=22 [The Alphabet], a response to Godard's One Plus One- and special events with artists Basma Alsharif, whose cine-performance Doppelgänger has been performed around the world, and Moyra Davey, who will participate in a career-spanning discussion after the U.S. premiere of her two new works, essayistic tributes to Chantal Akerman, Karl Ove Knausgård, and Virginia Woolf.
In addition, there will be a spotlight on Ignacio Agüero and José Luis Torres Leiva, two prominent Chilean documentarians whose works act in conversation. They will be represented here by one new premiere and one older film each, including Agüero's This Is the Way I Like It II, in its U.S. premiere, which moves between past and present and follows the director as he interviews fellow filmmakers, and his personal The Other Day (2013), beautifully shot in his own home; and José Luis Torres Leiva's The Sky, the Earth, and the Rain (2008), about four rural Chileans struggling to find meaningful connection, alongside the U.S. premiere of his The Wind Knows That I'm Coming Back Home, a hybrid work that features Agüero, following the elder filmmaker as he prepares to shoot his first fiction film.
This year's Art of the Real also features a tribute to the late Brazilian filmmaker Andrea Tonacci, a key figure in Brazil's udigrudi ("underground") or marginal cinema movement, who passed away last December. Three rarely screened key films will be presented on 35mm, including Blah Blah Blah and Bang Bang, two short classics of the marginal cinema movement that opposed both Cinema Novo and Brazil's military government, and Hills of Disorder, which tells the story of an indigenous man who survived the massacre of his tribe through a blend of re-enactments and archival news reports.
The complete lineup is listed below. Press screenings for the series will take place the week of April 3, and will be announced soon.
This year, Art of the Real is proud to continue its collaboration with curated streaming platform MUBI. A selection of titles from the 2017 program will be featured on MUBI after their presentation at the festival. Details on the films and schedule will be announced at a later date.
Organized by Dennis Lim and Rachael Rakes. Art of the Real is sponsored by MUBI.
Tickets go on sale April 6, with Film Society members receiving an early access period beginning April 4. Tickets are $14; $11 for students and seniors (62+); and $9 for Film Society members. See more and save with a 3+ film discount package and
ALL ACCESS Pass. Learn more at filmlinc.org.
Acknowledgments:
Cinémathèque française; Goethe-Institut; Cinemateca Brasileira; Cristina Amaral, Daniel Tonacci, Patrícia Mourão, Gustavo Beck;
Christopher Allen, UnionDocs
