Manfred Kirchheimer is a documentarian whose films explore urban life. The tireless 92-year-old is also a professor at the School of Visual Arts.
Meet him and watch three of his shorts — including two world premieres — during the Celebrating Manfred Kirchheimer program at the Museum of the Moving Image on Saturday, Dec. 9, at 4 pm.
First the movies.
Up the Lazy River (33 minutes, 2021) is about New York City in the late 1950s.
Sons (67 minutes, 2023, world premiere) is a generational portrait of aging baby boomers from Kirchheimer’s community of friends and family. The men share and reflect upon tender, often painful memories of their parents.
City Scraps (12 minutes, 2023, world premiere) is a collage of images spanning his work from 1960 to 2014. It’ll screen during the Q&A session.
Bonus: By Any Means: Manny Kirchheimer Makes “Sons” at 90 (11 minutes, 2022) is directed by Taiki Sugioka who follows Kirchheimer, who’s 90 at the time, and his crew as they make Sons.
Now the program.
It’s scheduled for the Bartos Screening Room, and general admission is $15. Seniors and students can attend for $11 and youngsters (ages three-17) pay $9.
Kirchheimer was born in Germany in 1931, but his Jewish family fled to New York City in 1936 to avoid the growing Nazi threat. He graduated from The City College of New York in 1952 and embarked on a career that included shooting, making, editing, and teaching film at New York Institute of Technology and then SVA.
In addition to the already mentioned works, his other notable pieces include Stations of the Elevated, Tall: The American Skyscraper and Louis Sullivan, and Art Is… The Permanent Revolution.
MoMI is located at 36-01 35th Ave. in Astoria’s Kaufman Arts District.
Image: MoMI