MoMA Presents Modern Monday Film Series for April & May

The Museum of Modern Art announces its Modern Mondays Film Series for April and May 2011 at The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 2.

An Evening with Laurence Gavron
April 25, 7:00 p.m.

Laurence Gavron (French, b. 1955) is a filmmaker, photographer, and novelist who lives in Dakar and became a Senegalese national in 2008. Over the last 30 years, she has completed several notable documentary films about the extraordinary life, music, architecture, and religion of Senegal. For this evening, Gavron will introduce two of her films.

Yandé Codou Sene, Diva Séeréer. 2008. Senegal. Directed by Laurence Gavron. Yandé Codou Sene, one of Senegal's most beloved voices, was the griot (an a capella history singer or poet) of former President Leopold Senghor, and would accompany him across the nation singing of the history and merits of his family. In Senegalese; English subtitles. 64 min.

Saudade á Dakar. 2005. Senegal. Directed by Laurence Gavron. Groups of Cape Verdean émigrés congregate in Dakar, where they transform the Portuguese saudade, a melancholy music, into something all their own. 48 min.

Organized by Laurence Kardish, Senior Curator, Department of Film.

Stories Untold
Radical Light: Alternative Film and Video in the
San Francisco Bay Area
May 9, 7:00 p.m.
In conjunction with Radical Light: Alternative Film and Video in the San Francisco Bay Area, this evening will screen select shorts and follow with a conversation between the series curators and San Francisco and New York artists. The discussion will focus on the differences in style, support, and filmmaking environment that shapes film and video production by artists on the two U.S. coasts.

The Bed. 1968. Directed by James Broughton. 19 min.
Visit to Indiana. 1970. Directed by Curt McDowel. 10 min.
I, An Actress. 1977. Directed by George Kuchar. 10 min.
Easy Living. 1984. Chip Lord & Mickey McGowan. 19 min.
Peggy and Fred in Hell: The Prologue. 1984. Directed by Leslie Thornton. 21 min.
Futility. 1989. Directed by Greta Snider. 9 min.
Chronicles of a Lying Spirit (by Kelly Gabron). 1989. Directed by Cauleen Smith. 5 min.

Organized for MoMA by Jytte Jensen, Curator, Department of Film and Barbara London, Associate Curator, Department of Media and Performance Art.

An Evening with Karen Finley
Monday, May 16, 7:00 p.m.
In conjunction with the gallery exhibition Looking at Music 3.0, the interdisciplinary artist Karen Finley (American, b. 1956) discusses how the worlds of music, art, and language have intersected in her practice. Finley honed her theatrical work on downtown Manhattan's "alternative" stages in the early 1980s, channeling the rage and sense of mourning caused by the AIDS crisis, violence against women, war, and censorship into personal expression. Her visual art, often taking the form of large-scale installations, encourages viewer participation by utilizing aspects of memento mori, theatrical staging, and tableau. Her recent work has embraced sentimentality and humor, while maintaining a definitive political point of view.

Finley will read from her latest book, The Reality Shows (2011), and discuss her song Tales of Taboo, (1986) which is included in the Looking at Music 3.0 gallery exhibition.

Organized by Barbara London, Associate Curator, Department of Media and Performance Art.

An Evening with Steve Paxton
May 23, 7:00 p.m.
This evening with experimental dancer and choreographer Steve Paxton (American, b. 1939), will focus on his history and influences. When Paxton developed Contact Improvisation in 1972, he indelibly transformed the vocabulary of dance. His movement technique-influenced by his studies in the martial arts and based on ideas of improvisation, gravity, and momentum between two bodies-has significantly influenced contemporary approaches to dance and physical movement. Paxton, who still actively teaches and writes, is widely regarded today as one of the most influential choreographers of his generation.

Organized by Jenny Schlenzka, Assistant Curator, Department of Media and Performance Art.

Tickets: $10 adults; $8 seniors, 65 years and over with I.D. $6 full-time students with current I.D. (For admittance to film programs only.) The price of a film ticket may be applied toward the price of a Museum admission ticket when a film ticket stub is presented at the Lobby Information Desk within 30 days of the date on the stub (does not apply during Target Free Friday Nights, 4:00-8:00 p.m.). Admission is free for Museum members and for Museum ticketholders.

Modern Mondays is a weekly program that brings contemporary, innovative film and moving-image works to the public and provides a forum for viewers to engage in dialogue and debate with contemporary filmmakers and artists. Modern Mondays presents new-and newly rediscovered-film and media works with the director in attendance, stimulating discourse, dialogue, and interaction in a social setting.