Museum of the Moving Image Releases Overview of Programs & Exhibitions for Summer 2014

Astoria, New York, June 18, 2014-Museum of the Moving Image announces its major film series and exhibitions for the summer. Highlights include a new exhibition and accompanying film series exploring the work of the legendary animation director Chuck Jones(opening July 19), films by Gustav Deutsch (July 25-27), See It Big! Hollywood Melodrama (August 2-31), films by Hong Kong producer, director, and actor Patrick Lung Kong, with Lung Kong and Tsui Hark in person (August 15-24), and a complete retrospective of Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien (beginning September 12). Additional programs and exhibitions will be announced as they are confirmed. See below for schedule and descriptions.

FILM PROGRAMS

See It Big! Science Fiction (70mm shows)
July 5-12, 2014
In July, the Museum's popular big-screen series concludes with rare 70mm showings of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (July 5, 6, 12). Audiences can also catch Douglas Trumbull's Brainstorm (July 12) in 70mm, the 1983 sci-fi thriller starring Christopher Walken and Natalie Wood (in her final performance). Note: The Museum is also screening Trumbull's 1971 directorial debut, Silent Running (June 28).

Star Presence on Screen
July 18-27, 2014
In conjunction with the publication of James Harvey's insightful new book, Watching Them Be: Star Presence on the Screen from Garbo to Balthazar (2014, Faber & Faber), this series showcases some of film history's most transcendent performers and performances. They include (as the subtitle suggests) the donkey Balthazar (Au hasard Balthazar), Marlene Dietrich (Blonde Venus), John Wayne (The Searchers), the ensemble cast led by Pam Grier in Jackie Brown, Bette Davis (Little Foxes), Robert De Niro (The King of Comedy), and more. Harvey will introduce a screening of Journey to Italy on July 20.

Chuck Jones Matinees
July 19, 2014-January 19, 2015 (every Saturday and Sunday)
To accompany the new exhibition What's Up, Doc? The Animation Art of Chuck Jones, the Museum will present matinees of films directed by Jones, many presented in archival prints from The Academy Film Archive and the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity.

Film Ist. Gustav Deutsch
July 25-27, 2014
A master of found-footage cinema, Austrian filmmaker (and architect and musician) Gustav Deutsch combed film archives throughout the world for neglected or forgotten material to create his epic Film Ist trilogy. The Museum will screen all three parts, as well as Deutsch's new film Shirley: Visions of Reality (2013) a live-action movie that brings thirteen Edward Hopper paintings to life. Deutsch and his collaborator Hanna Schimek will present a master class on Friday, July 25. Presented with support from the Austrian Cultural Forum.

See It Big!: Hollywood Melodrama
August 2-31, 2014
For August, the Museum's popular big-screen series focuses on melodrama, a genre defined by outsized passion and grand tales of love and death that are almost operatic. This edition features the finest work of some of the masters of the form: William Dieterle (Portrait of Jennie), Alfred Hitchcock (Rebecca), Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain), Joseph Mankiewicz (Suddenly, Last Summer), Vincente Minnelli (Some Came Running), Max Ophuls (Letter from an Unknown Woman), Nicholas Ray (Rebel without a Cause), Douglas Sirk (All That Heaven Allows, Imitation of Life, Written on the Wind), Steven Spielberg (The Color Purple), John Stahl (Imitation of Life), and William Wyler (The Letter).

10th Annual Rural Route Film Festival
August 8-10, 2014
The Rural Route Film Festival, the annual showcase for international films that focuses on unique peoples and places outside of urban centers, organized by Alan Webber, returns this summer to the Museum. One of the themes of the tenth annual festival is a focus on the ancient pagan cultures of Eastern Europe. Highlights include a 50th anniversary screening of Sergei Paradjanov's Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, American indie star Josephine Decker in person with Butter on the Latch, the North American premiere of Ukrainian director Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk's documentary Krasna Malanka, and Aleksei Fedorchenko's Celestial Wives of the Meadow Mari. The lineup also includes the world premiere of Daniel Peddle's Sunset Edge, featured short films, and more to be announced. The festival also features live world/folk music, and food from guest chefs. Closing night takes place at the Brooklyn Grange Farm on Northern Boulevard.

Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow: The Cinema of Patrick Lung Kong
August 15-24, 2014
With Patrick Lung Kong and Tsui Hark in person on August 15 & 16
The Museum presents a tribute to the visionary Hong Kong director Patrick Lung Kong, who made his first film nearly 50 years ago, and who had a profound impact on following generations of filmmakers, including John Woo and Tsui Hark. Lung Kong drew on the rich traditions of Cantonese cinema while bringing new social dimensions to genre filmmaking. In addition to the fourteen feature films he wrote and directed between 1966 and 1979, Lung Kong acted in 60 films between 1958 and 2002. Though scarcely shown outside of Hong Kong today, he endures as one of the most original and uncompromising auteurs Hong Kong has ever produced. This program-consisting of seven features that he directed and one he produced, plus a special screening of A Better Tomorrow-is a celebration of the life and achievements of Lung Kong. Co-presented with the Hong Kong Economic Trade Office New York and New York Asian Film Festival/Subway Cinema. Special thanks to Patrick Lung Kong, Paul Lung, and Hong Kong Film Archive, Leisure and Cultural Services Department.

Also Like Life: The Films of Hou Hsiao-hsien
September 12-October 12, 2014
Hou Hsiao-hsien, the leading figure of the Taiwanese New Wave, is one of the most important and influential filmmakers to emerge over the past three decades. His sensuous, richly textured work, marked by elegantly staged long takes, largely static camera positions, and a radically elliptical approach to storytelling, is instantly recognizable in such widely acclaimed movies as Flowers of Shanghai, The Puppetmaster, Café Lumière, A City of Sadness, Dust in the Wind, and The Flight of the Red Balloon. The retrospective Also Like Life: The Films of Hou Hsiao-hsien includes all of Hou's seventeen feature films as director, almost all shown in 35mm (with two new prints). The series will also include short films and commercials directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien, and a sidebar program of related films including Olivier Assayas's intimate documentary HHH: A Portrait of Hou Hsiao-hsien, Edward Yang's seminal Taipei Story (starring, and co-written by Hou), and more. This internationally touring retrospective was organized by Richard I. Suchenski (Director, Center for Moving Image Arts at Bard College) in collaboration with Amber Wu (Taipei Cutural Center, NY) and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of China (Taiwan).

ONGOING FILM SERIES

Changing the Picture, sponsored by Time Warner, Inc.
This monthly series celebrates the work of film and television artists of color who are bringing diverse voices to the screen. The Museum will present screenings of Finding Samuel Lowe: From Harlem to China, with Paula Williams Madison in person (July 11) and Tango Macbeth, with director Nadine Patterson in person (August 15).

Jim Henson's World
The imaginative, playful, creative, and prolific film and television work of Jim Henson is celebrated in this monthly screening series, organized by Craig Shemin, President of The Jim Henson Legacy. This summer, screenings include a 30th anniversary screening of The Muppets Take Manhattan (July 26) and the program The Muppets at the Movies (August 16), featuring the rarely seen television specialsThe Muppets Go Hollywood (1979) and The Muppets Go to the Movies (1981). In 2015, the Museum will open a new permanent exhibition devoted to the work of Jim Henson.

Fist and Sword
The Museum's popular monthly series of contemporary and classic martial arts and action movies, organized by co-curators Warrington Hudlin and Aliza Ma, will feature Once Upon a Time in Vietnam (July 25) and Saving General Yang (August 22).

EXHIBITIONS

What's Up, Doc? The Animation Art of Chuck Jones
July 19, 2014-January 19, 2015, third-floor changing exhibitions gallery
This new Smithsonian traveling exhibition explores the work of the legendary animation director who made some of the most enduringly popular cartoons of all time, featuring characters including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Wile E. Coyote, and the Road Runner. The Museum's presentation, accompanied by a screening series and education programs, kicks off a thirteen-city tour. The exhibition is a partnership between the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity, and Museum of the Moving Image. View full press release here.

AMERICAN MESHUGGANA
Through September 21, 2014, lobby installation
YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES, a two-artist collective composed of Young-hae Chang (South Korea) and Marc Voge (U.S.), uses Adobe Flash to synchronize rapidly moving text with jazz scores, to create videos that blur the boundary between poetry and moving image. AMERICAN MESHUGGANA, commissioned for the Museum's 50-foot-wide lobby wall, winds its way from an imaginary Chinese restaurant in Astoria to Nazi-occupied Paris in a moody daydream of assumed identities and tangled ambitions.

The World Comes to Queens: Films from the 1939 and 1964 World's Fairs
Through August 31, 2014, in the video screening amphitheater
The Museum celebrates the anniversaries of the 1939 and 1964 World's Fairs by showing sponsored films that capture the excitement and ingenuity behind the fairs while serving as revealing time capsules.

Lights, Camera, Astoria!
Through August 31, 2014, in the amphitheater gallery
An exhibition that explores the history of the Astoria studio, from its inception as Paramount Pictures's East-Coast production facility to its use by the Army Signal Corps beginning in World War II to today's Kaufman Astoria Studios.

Behind the Screen
Ongoing, second- and third-floor galleries
The Museum's core exhibition features more than 1,400 historical objects, art works, video clips, and interactive experiences that show how moving images are made, marketed, and exhibited.

MUSEUM INFORMATION
Museum of the Moving Image (movingimage.us) advances the understanding, enjoyment, and appreciation of the art, history, technique, and technology of film, television, and digital media. In its expanded and renovated facilities-acclaimed for both its accessibility and bold design-the Museum presents exhibitions; screenings of significant works; discussion programs featuring actors, directors, craftspeople, and business leaders; and education programs which serve more than 50,000 students each year. The Museum also houses a significant collection of moving-image artifacts.

Hours: Wednesday-Thursday, 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Friday, 10:30 to 8:00 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, 11:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Holiday hours: The Museum will be closed on Friday, July 4 for the holiday.
Film Screenings: Friday evenings, Saturdays and Sundays, and as scheduled. Tickets for regular film screenings are included with paid Museum admission and free for members.
Museum Admission: $12.00 for adults; $9.00 for persons over 65 and for students with ID; $6.00 for children ages 3-12. Children under 3 and Museum members are admitted free. Admission to the galleries is free on Fridays, 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. Tickets for special screenings and events may be purchased in advance by phone at 718 777 6800 or online.
Location: 36-01 35 Avenue (at 37 Street) in Astoria.
Subway: M (weekdays only) or R to Steinway Street. Q (weekdays only) or N to 36 Avenue.
Program Information: Telephone: 718 777 6888; Website: movingimage.us
Membership: http://movingimage.us/support/membership or 718 777 6877

The Museum is housed in a building owned by the City of New York and located on the campus of Kaufman Astoria Studios. Its operations are made possible in part by public funds provided through the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York City Economic Development Corporation, the New York State Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and the Natural Heritage Trust (administered by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation). The Museum also receives generous support from numerous corporations, foundations, and individuals. For more information, please visit movingimage.us.