MoMA Set for 'Documentary Fortnight, 2010, International Festival of Nonfiction Films'

The 2010 edition of Documentary Fortnight, MoMA's ninth annual festival of international nonfiction film, includes 20 feature and 23 mid-length and short documentaries that represent the wide range of creative categories that extend the idea of the documentary form.

Established in 2001, MoMA's annual two-week showcase of recent nonfiction film and video takes place each February. On view in The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters at MoMA from February 17 through March 3, 2010, Documentary Fortnight, 2010 is organized by Sally
Berger, Assistant Curator, with Maria Fosheim Lund, Director Liaison, Department of Film, The
Museum of Modern Art. This year's festival consists of two parts: a series of thematic programs
based on community and collaborative filmmaking, chosen by Ms. Berger; and an international
selection of films chosen by a committee which included Berger; Andrew Ingall, independent
curator, and Assistant Curator, The Jewish Museum; and Liza Johnson, artist, filmmaker, and
Associate Professor of Art, Williams College.

Opening the festival on Wednesday, February 17, at 4:30 p.m., is the U.S. premiere of
Christoph Draeger's romantic The End of the Remake trilogy of films about the 1960s, including
My Generation (2007), Blow Up, Stroll On (2007), and Hippie Movie (2008); and, at 8:00 p.m.,
the U.S. premiere of David Christensen's feature The Mirror (2009), which follows the mayor of a
tiny Italian village as he attempts to build a gigantic mirror on a nearby mountaintop to reflect
sunlight into the town square during the dark winter months.

Other standout features include George Gittoes' Miscreants of Taliwood (2009)-the third
in a trilogy of documentaries that have premiered in this festival over the past several years-in
which the director enters the remote and forbidden Tribal Belt of the North West Frontier of
Pakistan disguised as an actor in the low-budget Pashto Tali Movie industry. Carol Dysinger's
work-in-progress Camp Victory Afghanistan is a verite look at the U.S. National Guardsmen
stationed in Herat, Afghanistan, and the Afghan officers assigned to them as mentees. Cathryn
Collins's Vlast (Power) (2010) reveals, through brilliantly detailed interviews, the hushed-up story
of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once Russia's wealthiest man now imprisoned in Siberia. The closing
night avant-premiere film is Johan Grimonprez's stunning Double Take (2009), a hybrid
documentary/narrative feature that casts Alfred Hitchcock as a paranoid history professor,
unwittingly caught up in the subterfuges of the cold war era, blackmailing housewives in coffee
commercials.

This year's shorts include Alla Kovgan and David Hinton's Nora (2008), based on the true
story of dancer Nora Chipaumire, who returned to her native Zimbabwe and brought her history to
life through performance. Closing night selections include Diane Nerwen's Open House (2009),
which documents the recent development spree in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and chronicles how the
neighborhood has been effected by the housing market, and Heidrun Holzfiend's Za Zelazna
(Behind the Iron Gate) (2009) looks at a modern housing estate built in Warsaw, Poland, in the
mid-1960s and how it functions for its residents today.

The festival's thematic programs focus on community and collaborative film and media
initiatives from around the world. A spotlight on the International Documentary Film Festival of
Amsterdam's Jan Vrijman Fund, which supports filmmakers in developing countries, features
Iranian filmmaker Massoud Bakhshi's Tehran Has No More Pomegranates! (2007), Chilean-based
filmmakers Bettina Perut and Ivan Osnovikoff's News (2009), and the Afghanistan/UK production
of Addicted in Afghanistan (2009) by Jawed Taiman.

Three U.S.-based initiatives include: Appalshop in Whitesburg, Kentucky, which began in
1968 as an experiment in community-based filmmaking and economic growth, and supports films
that celebrate Appalachian culture and an Indonesian video exchange project; New York City's
Deep Dish Television, which produces and distributes grass-roots film and television; and the
UnionDocs Collaborative, a program for nonfiction media research and group production, which
showcases their most recent innovative projects. A program of films by four directors-Patty
Chang, Liza Johnson, Sharon Lockhart, and Jeannie Simms showcases how artists interact with
their subjects in the creation of their films.

Many of the filmmakers will be present throughout the festival to introduce and discuss
their films, which are almost all world, U.S., or New York premieres.

For a list of films scheduled, please visit http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/films/1037

The Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53rd Street, New York, NY 10019 

Hours: Films are screened Wednesday-Monday. For screening schedules, please visit www.moma.org. 

Film Admission: $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.