NOW PLAYING: Jim McBride's DAVID HOLZMAN'S DIARY

Jim McBride’s DAVID HOLZMAN’S DIARY (1967) is widely regarded as one of the first “mockumentaries,” and was once described by eminent film critic Richard Brody as an “ingenious, scruffy metafiction… an exotic fruit grown in New York from the seed of the French New Wave.” Filmed on a shoestring budget over the course of several days, it is a work of experimental fiction presented as an autobiographical documentary about aspiring filmmaker David Holzman (played by L.M. Kit Carson), who decides to make a filmed diary of his life on the Upper West Side.

DAVID HOLZMAN’S DIARY was one of the many boundary-pushing films that Adrienne Mancia championed during her time as a curator in MoMA’s Department of Film, wherein she redefined the field of film programming by showcasing new and innovative works by then-emerging artists. Mancia also later became a close friend of director Jim McBride’s, and even appeared in his 1974 film A HARD DAY FOR ARCHIE.

DAVID HOLZMAN’S DIARY has several significant connections to MoMA. The project was funded by a $2,500 advance that the Museum gave McBride and Carson to write a book about cinéma vérité filmmaking; they instead used the money to finance the film, which engages a cinéma vérité style to blur the lines between fiction and reality within a documentary structure. DAVID HOLZMAN’S DIARY was later selected as the inaugural film in MoMA’s “Cineprobe” series. Spearheaded by Mancia, “Cineprobe” was a forum for independent filmmakers to screen their films and interact with audiences in Q&A sessions. As festival audiences had previously reacted negatively to the reveal at the end of the film that it was not, in fact, a real documentary but a “mockumentary,” MoMA chose to publicize DAVID HOLZMAN’S DIARY as a comedy.

Finally, on November 24th, 2023, GME President Jon Gartenberg introduced the film at MoMA as part of their November—December 2023 Adrienne Mancia tribute. As noted in Gartenberg’s program note for this screening:

Adrienne Mancia was instrumental in the creation of the “Cineprobe” series at MoMA in 1968, a forum for experimental and independent filmmakers to show their films and interact with the audience in Q&A sessions. The films presented ranged from mesmerizing abstract movies by experimental filmmakers to the artful independent gay sexploitation films of Fred Halstead. The first film shown in this series was DAVID HOLZMAN’S DIARY, by first-time director Jim McBride… This ostensible documentary stars an aspiring filmmaker named David, who lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. With his 16mm camera in tow, he creates a film diary in his apartment and on the city streets. Only during the film’s credits is it revealed that an actor (L. M. Kit Carson) plays David, the film’s cinematography is by Michael Wadleigh… and McBride is the director. [The film] is a deft hybrid of documentary and fiction, and one of the most inventive movies about the act of filmmaking. As evidence of Mancia’s close professional and personal relationship with film directors worldwide, McBride would later cast [her]… in his 1974 sex comedy A HARD DAY FOR ARCHIE.

In 1968, DAVID HOLZMAN’S DIARY also screened at the Flaherty Seminar, for which Mancia was a longtime curator and advisor. Coincidentally, the opening night of the 70th Flaherty Seminar was held this year at MoMA.