STATIONS OF THE ELEVATED Begins Screenings at BAM Tonight

Tonight, October 17 through Thursday, October 23, BAMcinématek presents the US theatrical premiere run of Manfred Kirchheimer's Stations of the Elevated (1981) in a new restoration.

The earliest filmed document of graffiti, Manfred Kirchheimer's richly chromatic city symphony -- originally shot in 1977 on 16mm color reversal film and now remastered in high definition -- sets images of New York City to a soundtrack that interweaves ambient city noises with the gutbucket gospel squall of jazz titan Charles Mingus and Aretha Franklin's transcendent rendition of "Amazing Grace."

Regarded by cinephiles and hip-hop heads as a cult masterpiece since its premiere at the 1981 New York Film Festival, Stations of the Elevated is a celebration of a quintessentially urban art form at a time when it was largely dismissed as vandalism. With lyrical shots of tagged trains, desolate rail yards, and other details of the urban landscape, it remains a priceless portrait of a bygone era of New York City culture.

Back by popular demand after a sold-out screening at this year's BAMcinemaFest, Stations will be presented in its US theatrical premiere run alongside Kirchheimer's Claw (1968), a poetic, deeply critical examination of urban renewal. Kirschheimer will appear in person for Q&As on October 17 and 18.

An Artists Public Domain/Cinema Conservancy release | 1981 | 45min | In English | Color | DCP
Stations of the Elevated and Claw (30min)
Screen Fri, Oct 17-Thu, Oct 23: Fri & Sun at 2, 4, 6, 7:45*, 9:45pm; Sat at 7*, 9:15pm; Mon - Thu at 4:30, 6:15, 8:00, 10:00pm
*Q&A with director Manfred Kirchheimer on Fri, Oct 17 at 7:45pm and Sat, Oct 18 at 7pm

About Cinema Conservancy / Artists Public Domain - Cinema Conservancy is the releasing program of Artists Public Domain, a New York-based non-profit production and distribution company. Cinema Conservancy helps to ensure the legacy and public availability of crucial works of American Independent cinema. Previous Cinema Conservancy releases include Jamel Shabazz Street Photographer, the John Hubley Centennial, Nothing But a Man, Little Fugitive, Northern Lights and The Color Wheel. APD's recent productions include Towheads, Another Earth, and The Forgiveness of Blood.

About BAMcinématek - The four-screen BAM Rose Cinemas (BRC) opened in 1998 to offer Brooklyn audiences alternative and independent films that might not play in the borough otherwise, making BAM the only performing arts center in the country with two mainstage theaters and a multiplex cinema. In July 1999, beginning with a series celebrating the work of Spike Lee, BAMcinématek was born as Brooklyn's only daily, year-round repertory film program. BAMcinématek presents new and rarely seen contemporary films, classics, work by local artists, and festivals of films from around the world, often with special appearances by directors, actors, and other guests. BAMcinématek has not only presented major retrospectives by major filmmakers such as Michelangelo Antonioni, Manoel de Oliveira, Shohei Imamura, Vincente Minnelli (winning a National Film Critics' Circle Award prize for the retrospective), Kaneto Shindo, Luchino Visconti, and William Friedkin, but it has also introduced New York audiences to contemporary artists such as Pedro Costa and Apichatpong Weerasethakul. In addition, BAMcinématek programmed the first US retrospectives of directors Arnaud Desplechin, Nicolas Winding Refn, Hong Sang-soo, and, most recently, Andrzej Zulawski. From 2006 to 2008, BAMcinématek partnered with the Sundance Institute and in June 2009 launched BAMcinemaFest, a 16-day festival of new independent films and repertory favorites with 15 NY feature film premieres; the sixth annual BAMcinemaFest ran from June 18-29, 2014.