MoMA Announces Film Exhibitions for January and February 2013

Global Lens 2013
January 10-24, 2013
MoMA and the Global Film Initiative (GFI) present Global Lens, an annual touring exhibition conceived by GFI to encourage filmmaking in countries with developing film communities. This selection of 10 films from as far afield as Iran, Serbia, Chile, Kazakhstan, and Iraq includes projects developed with seed money from GFI, and represents a concise survey of contemporary filmmaking from areas where local political restrictions and/or economic realities make such expensive and technology-driven endeavors a challenge. Global Lens 2013 will be headlined by ten award-winning narrative feature films from Brazil, Chile, China, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Mexico and Serbia, all of which are deeply rooted in the social and political realities of the countries where their talented and resourceful makers live and set their stories.

Andy Warhol's San Diego Surf
January 23-28, 2013
Andy Warhol's San Diego Surf concerns an unhappily married couple (Taylor Mead and Viva), new parents who rent their beach house to a group of surfers. Filmed with two 16mm cameras by Warhol and Paul Morrissey in May 1968, this was the first movie Warhol made in California in the five years since Tarzan and Jane Regained, Sort of.... It was also one of the last films in which the artist had direct involvement; in June 1968, Warhol was shot by Valerie Solanas, after which his work behind the movie camera came largely to an end. San Diego Surf was only partially edited and never released. In 1995, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. commissioned Morrissey to complete the editing, based on existing notes and the rough cut. San Diego Surf is a significant addition to an epic oeuvre. The film is a part of MoMA's To Save and Project series, and has been restored by The Andy Warhol Foundation and released by The Andy Warhol Museum as part of the museum's larger mission of promoting and safeguarding Andy Warhol's legacy.

Oscar's Docs, 1955-2002: American Stories
February 2-14, 2013
This year Oscar's Docs, the annual collaboration between the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and MoMA's Department of Film, highlights documentary films that explore the history, culture, and politics of the United States. These Oscar nominees and winners reveal stories of the nation's many complicated facets-ugly, funny, terrifying, and inspiring. This wide range of shorts and feature-length films celebrates issues of art, science, invention, politics, religion, labor, education, aging, race, and sexuality.

Alejandro Landes's Porfirio
February 8-14, 2013
Paralyzed from the waist down by a stray bullet, the title character in Alejandro Landes's remarkable film spends his days selling minutes on his cell phone, flirting with his comely neighbor-and secretly plotting his revenge. Landes worked on the film for five years, creating a tale that joins the most intimate details of Porfirio's day-to-day life with the astonishing recreation of his attempt to hijack an airplane.

Documentary Fortnight 2013: MoMA's International Festival of Nonfiction Film and Media
February 15-March 4, 2013
Since 2001, every February has marked the return of Documentary Fortnight, MoMA's annual two-week showcase of recent nonfiction film and media. The festival includes an international selection of films and thematic programs that extend the idea of the documentary form, examine the relationship between contemporary art and nonfiction filmmaking, and reflect on new areas of nonfiction practice. This year's thematic programs include New Cuban Shorts, recent documentary films by emerging Cuban filmmakers on Cuban life and history, which have never been screened in the U.S.; POV at 25, which highlights award-winning films from the past 25 years of television's longest-running showcase for independent documentary, plus a sneak preview of the upcoming season; and panel discussions with Documentary Fortnight 2013 filmmakers on critical issues in nonfiction film practice. The majority of films in the festival are premieres, and filmmakers will be present at most screenings.