Phillip Lopate has written about movies for The New York Times, Vogue, Esquire, and several other publications. He’s also won a Guggenheim Fellowship, two National Endowment for the Arts grants, and two New York Foundation for the Arts grants.
The Brooklyn native, who is also a professor at Columbia University, is getting ready to present two 1976 films at the Museum of the Moving Image as he promotes his latest book, a collection of film essays called “My Affair with Art House Cinema.”
First up is Insiang on Saturday, Aug. 24, at 3:30 pm. Directed by Lino Brocka, this melodrama is set in the slums of Manila. The main character exacts vicious revenge after she’s raped by her mother’s lover and abandoned by the young man who claims to care for her.
The other selection, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, will screen on Aug. 24 at 6:30 pm and again on Sunday, Sept. 1, at 4 pm. Directed by John Cassavetes, this neo-noir follows Los Angeles strip club owner Cosmo Vitelli, who runs up a debt to loan sharks. He has to decide between carrying out a deadly mission or losing everything.
Lopate will discuss these films – which he chose because they exemplfiy the unbounded adventurousness of independent cinema – and sign copies of his new book during both Aug. 24 screenings.
General admission to all three events is $15.
The Museum of the Moving Image is located at 36-01 35th Ave. in Astoria’s Kaufman Arts District.
Image: MoMI/Insiang