Which side of the desk are you on? The Museum of the Moving Image is about to offer programs centered on a famous professor and then screen films by students.
A Weekend with University of Chicago Professor Emeritus Tom Gunning goes first on Saturday, April 26, and Sunday, April 27. Then, the venue hosts the NYC Public School Film Festival on Tuesday, April 29, at 3 pm.
Gunning’s work has influenced generations of artists, film lovers, and scholars. He also has deep ties to New York as an NYU Cinema Studies PhD who taught at Brooklyn College and Purchase College before heading to the Midwest.
He’s set to lead two programs on April 26 and two more on April 27 that will include screenings of short films, conversations, discussions, and promotion of his new book, “The Attractions of the Moving Image: Essays on History, Theory, and the Avant-Garde.” The schedule follows.
April 26
The Cinema of Attractions at 3:30 pm
Gunning and guest organizer Daniel Morgan talk about Gunning’s notion of cinema that is “less a way of telling stories than a way of presenting a series of views to an audience.” The program includes screenings of some of the films he writes about in his new book, which he’ll sign in the MoMI Shop afterward. The lineup follows.
How It Feels to Be Run Over (Cecil Hepworth, 1900, one minute)
Conway Castle–Panoramic View of Conway on the L. & N.W. Railway (William K.L. Dickson, 1898, two minutes)
Hooligan in Jail (Billy Bitzer, 1903, one minute)
The Lonedale Operator (D.W. Griffith, 1911, 17 minutes)
Untitled 1977 (Ernie Gehr, 1977, four minutes)
Doctor’s Dream (Ken Jacobs, 1978, 23 minutes)
Monogram (Lewis Klahr, 2019, nine minutes)
Mothlight (Stan Brakhage, 1963, three minutes)
First Hymn to the Night – Novalis (Stan Brakhage, 1994, three minutes)
M at 6:30 pm
Gunning introduces this 110-minute German film which was released in 1931. Director Fritz Lang’s most celebrated work tracks the search for serial killer Hans Beckert, who’s played by Peter Lorre, in a haunted cityscape. It’s a late-Weimar era milestone and a vivid precursor to film noir that Gunning critiqued in “The Films of Fritz Lang: Allegories of Vision and Modernity.”
April 27
Flirt at 3 pm
Gunning introduces this 85-minute Hal Hartley film. It screens. Then, Gunning participates in a panel discussion on it with Film Comment co-editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute, and Schwartz. Released in 1996, this movie tells a simple story of love and loss in three cities (New York, Berlin, Tokyo), repeating the same situations with subtle shifts.
Films by Ken Jacobs, Stan Brakhage, and Peggy Awash at 6 pm.
Again, Gunning introduces these avant-garde films inspired by his own writing. The lineup follows.
Visions in Meditation #2: Mesa Verde (Stan Brakhage, 1989, 16 minutes)
The Chinese Series (Stan Brakhage, 2003, two minutes)
Blonde Cobra (Ken Jacobs, 1963, 33 minutes)
Perfect Film (Ken Jacobs, 1986, 22 minutes)
Martina’s Playhouse (Peggy Ahwesh, 1989, 20 minutes)
General admission for each event is $17.50, but $12 for seniors and students, and $10 for youth (ages 3–17).
The Students
As mentioned in the second paragraph, the NYC Public School Film Festival is on April 29 at 3 pm.
Now in its seventh year, the five-hour event includes student film screenings, a career-and-educational expo with production companies, and a panel discussion with information on how to apply for specialized arts high schools.
The keynote speaker is Celine Song, an Academy Award-nominated Writer and Director of Past Lives and the upcoming film Materialists.
Admission is free for all New Yorkers and includes access to the Mission Impossible exhibition.
Museum of the Moving Image is located at 36-01 35th Ave. in Astoria’s Kaufman Arts District.
Images: Museum of the Moving Image