MoMA's Doc Fortnight Celebrates 10th Anniversary, Ends 2/28

Documentary Fortnight 2011: MoMA's International Festival of Nonfiction Film and Media, ends February 28 in The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters and celebrates its 10th anniversary with 20 feature-length documentary films representing 14 countries; two performance events; and thematic programs focusing on independently made contemporary Chinese documentaries and the legacy of New Day Films, the first distributor to be run by and for filmmakers. Documentary Fortnight 2011 is organized by Sally Berger, Assistant Curator, Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art. The festival's selection committee consists of Sally Berger; Debra Zimmerman, Executive Director, Women Make Movies; and Chi-hui Yang, independent curator.

The closing night film of the festival, The Arbor (2010, Great Britain), by artist filmmaker Clio Barnard, is based on the true story of the late playwright Andrea Dunbar (1961-1990) and her daughter Lorraine. The script was shaped around interviews with Lorraine Dunbar and family members, then partially filmed using an innovative technique known as "verbatim theater;" actors lip-synch the documentary recordings of the people they're playing. Dunbar's daughter comes to terms with her own struggles when reintroduced to her mother's letters and plays in this saga of alcoholism, drugs, prostitution, sexual abuse, and violence in the run-down neighborhood of Bradford, England. A discussion with Barnard follows the screening. The Arbor will begin its theatrical run in New York at The Film Forum on April 27.

Image courtesy of Paul Cox