NewFilmmakers Hits the Road at the Anthology Film Archives, New York

Join us at the Anthology Film Archives in New York for a documentary and short film series followed by a short film. This is a great opportunity to see genuinely original work with people passionate about film and cinema.

6:00PM NEWFILMMAKERS DOCUMENTARY SERIES

• Shannon Sonenstein TALKIN' WATER (2008, 38 Minutes, Video)

Four teenage girls embark on a life changing journey as they pick up cameras to search for truth in post-Katrina New Orleans. While exploring issues of race, class, and community, the girls learn the importance of asking questions and, ultimately, the power of their own voices.

• Nicole Tarver ATHENA (2009, 20 Minutes, Video)

A film about a homeless ex prostitute with young daughters

7:15PM NEWFILMMAKERS SHORT FILM PROGRAM

• Andrew Ching FOR CEREAL LOVERS ONLY (2006, 1 Minute, 16MM)
• Assal Ghawami BEISTAND IN BEDLAM (2009, 4 Minutes, Video)
• Eunha Choi RED REVENGE (2009, 6 Minutes, Video)
• Ryan Brown BROKEN SWELL (2008, 8 Minutes, Video)
• Marie Tang THE BIRTHDAY GIFT (2009, 14 Minutes, Video)
• Tekeshi Fukunaga K (2009, 13 Minutes, Video)
• Cyd Katz DINNER FOR ONE (2009, 15 Minutes, Video)
• Deborah Geffner GUITAR LESSONS (2009, 34 Minutes, Video)

9:15PM NEWFILMMAKERS FEATURE PRESENTATION

• Jason Shahinfar CUT FROM HOME (2009, 84 Minutes, Video)

Sam and Dani are a young couple dealing with the usual ups and downs of a relationship. Things seem fine on the surface, but below a cheerful exterior something is missing. They wander around a small section of coastal Georgia with no apparent direction or destination. And while it is uncertain where they are going, it is clear that Sam does not want them to go back where they came from. Dani’s suggestions to go 'home' result in arguments - and a growing gap between them.

Anthology Film Archives evolved from roots and visions that go back to the early Sixties, when Jonas Mekas, the director of the Film-Makers’ Cinematheque, a showcase for avant-garde films, dreamed of establishing a permanent home where the growing number of new independent/avant-garde films could be shown on a regular basis.

This dream became a reality in 1969 when Jerome Hill, P. Adams Sitney, Peter Kubelka, Stan Brakhage, and Jonas Mekas drew up plans to create a museum dedicated to the vision of the art of cinema as guided by the avant-garde sensibility. A Film Selection committee — James Broughton, Ken Kelman, Peter Kubelka, Jonas Mekas and P. Adams Sitney — was formed to establish a definitive collection of films (The Essential Cinema Repertory) and form the structure of the new institution.

Anthology Film Archives opened on November 30, 1970 at Joseph Papp’s Public Theater. Jerome Hill was its sponsor. After Jerome Hill’s death, in 1974 it relocated to 80 Wooster Street. Pressed by the need for more adequate space, it acquired in 1979 Manhattan’s Second Avenue Courthouse building. Under the guidance of the architects Raimund Abraham and Kevin Bone, and at a cost of $1,450,000, the building was adapted to house two motion picture theaters, a reference library, a film preservation department, offices, and a gallery.

At the Courthouse, Anthology has found an ideal home as a chamber museum, dedicated to the preservation, study and exhibition of independent and avant-garde film. It is the first museum devoted to film as an art form, committed to the guiding principle that a great film must be seen many times, that the film print must be the best possible, and that the viewing conditions must be optimal.