The Film Society of Lincoln Center announces Illuminating Moonlight, a selection of major works of queer, black, and international art cinema handpicked by Moonlight director Barry Jenkins, January 4-9.
With the ravishing, unforgettable Moonlight, which made its New York premiere at the 54th New York Film Festival, Barry Jenkins has established himself as one of today's major voices in independent American filmmaking. This series brings together Jenkins's two features (including his ripe-for-rediscovery debut, Medicine for Melancholy) and a pair of his shorts with a selection of films that informed the making of his latest, handpicked by the director himself.
His selections are, like Moonlight, stylistically sensual, compassionate portraits of outsiders, and include Killer of Sheep, Charles Burnett's landmark of African American cinema and "milestone of eloquent understatement" (Wesley Morris, The Boston Globe); Carlos Reygadas's quietly devastating domestic drama Silent Light; Nagisa Ôshima's Gohatto and Claire Denis's Beau travail, both striking meditations on repression and release; and masterpieces by two of cinema's foremost empaths: Wong Kar-wai's Happy Together and Hou Hsiao-hsien's Three Times, which served as a direct inspiration on Moonlight's triptych structure.
Illuminating Moonlight also features two of Jenkins's short films-A Young Couple, a documentary companion piece to Medicine for Melancholy, and his student film, My Josephine-as well as shorts by Kahlil Joseph and Phil Collins. Taken together, the films in this series serve to contextualize Jenkins's work and offer insight into the making of a modern masterpiece.
Barry Jenkins will appear in person on January 5 for a conversation following Moonlight at 6:30pm, and will introduce Medicine for Melancholy at 9:30pm.
Tickets will go on sale Thursday, December 21 and are $14; $11 for students and seniors (62+); and $9 for members. Tickets for the Moonlight special screening featuring a conversation with Barry Jenkins are $18; $13 for members. Plus, see more and save with the 3+ film discount package. Learn more at filmlinc.org.