Amos Vogel and Film as a Subversive Art Honored with Series of 16 Iconic Films

Amos Vogel (1922-2012) was one of the most influential film programmers of the 20th century, as the co-founder of the avant-garde film club Cinema 16, co-founder of the New York Film Festival, and author of the seminal 1974 book Film as a Subversive Art. From March 16 through 31, 2013, Museum of the Moving Image will present a celebration of Vogel's life's work with a series of sixteen iconic films championed by Vogel in his book. These films elucidate through provocation, joy, and transgression-each one a testimony to the power of cinema and of Vogel's unique vision.

"Film curators everywhere owe a debt of gratitude to Amos Vogel, a man who was forever in love with the power and beauty of cinema in all its forms," says Chief Curator David Schwartz. "Vogel's legacy is that of the intrepid pioneer, who staked out a claim for American film practice that existed outside the strict and traditional boundaries of Hollywood cinema. Thanks in large part to Vogel, an appreciation of new forms and different perspectives was born into the cinema, and continues to be very much with us today."

"A Tribute to Amos Vogel and Film as a Subversive Art" opens on March 16 with an appearance by poet and critic Wayne Koestenbaum, with screenings of the Marx Brothers's film Horse Feathers and Andy Warhol's Kiss and Blow Job. Koestenbaum will be signing copies of his new book The Anatomy of Harpo Marx, and his earlier work Andy Warhol. The series also includes a new 35mm restoration of Dziga Vertov's The Man With the Movie Camera by the EYE Film Institute (Netherlands), presented with live music by Donald Sosin. Other films in the series are Jean Cocteau's Blood of a Poet and Jean Genet's Un Chant d'Amour on a double bill; Luis Buñuel's Viridiana; Frederick Wiseman's Titicut Follies; Joris Ivens's The Spanish Earth; Peter Watkins's The War Game; Werner Herzog's Fata Morgana; Jean-Luc Godard's 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her; Agnès Varda's Le Bonheur; and a trio of avant-garde shorts: Carolee Schneemann's Fuses (presented in a new digital restoration), Yoko Ono's The Fly, and James Broughton's The Bed.

A groundbreaking book when it was published in 1974, Film as a Subversive Art is an exhilarating and mind-expanding catalogue of hundreds of films that break aesthetic, sexual, and ideological boundaries. Through his programs at Cinema 16 as well as his writing, Vogel taught generations of cinephiles and filmmakers to take risks and to appreciate a wide range of films from all over the world.

This series has been organized in collaboration with Anthology Film Archives, which is presenting its own Vogel tribute through March 16. For more details visit: anthologyfilmarchives.org/film_screenings/series/40458.

Tickets for films in the series are included with paid Museum admission and free for Museum members. For information about membership and to join, visit http://www.movingimage.us/support/membership.

All screenings take place at Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35 Avenue in Astoria. Screenings are included with Museum admission and free for Museum members unless otherwise noted. Tickets for Friday evening screenings (when the Museum offers free gallery admission) are $12 adults / $9 students and senior citizens.

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