NOW PLAYING: Paula Gaitán’s DAYS IN SINTRA

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NOW PLAYING: Paula Gaitán’s DAYS IN SINTRA

For many, November is a month of remembrance. The intersection of various civic, religious, and seasonal traditions — from Veterans Day to All Souls Day to Thanksgiving — make the penultimate month of the year one of familial rituals, reflection, mourning, and gratitude. In this spirit, we present Paula Gaitán’s deeply moving documentary and (in the words of critic Ronnie Scheib) “alchemic tone poem” about her late husband, filmmaker Glauber Rocha: 2008’s DAYS IN SINTRA. Curator and GME President Jon Gartenberg originally programmed Gaitán’s film at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival. 18 years later, GME is pleased to distribute DAYS IN SINTRA as a Digital Site License to academic and cultural institutions in the United States.

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

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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.

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NOW PLAYING: A King Double Bill

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NOW PLAYING: A King Double Bill

During her time as a curator in MoMA's Department of Film, Adrienne Mancia was a major proponent of unearthing important and often overlooked treasures from film history. As noted by her close friend and colleague Jon Gartenberg, “[Adrienne] celebrated American directors of a bygone era who had worked within the Hollywood studio system.” King Vidor's THE JACK-KNIFE MAN (1920) and Henry King's THE SEVENTH DAY (1922) are among the early Hollywood films Mancia championed. Both films, which were featured in MoMA's 2023 In Memoriam tribute to Mancia, stream this month in the Adrienne Mancia Streaming Room.

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NOW PLAYING: Francis Ford Coppola's DEMENTIA 13

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NOW PLAYING: Francis Ford Coppola's DEMENTIA 13

In 1963, while working as an assistant for producer Roger Corman, Francis Ford Coppola made his directorial debut with the mystery horror film DEMENTIA 13. As a programmer at The Museum of Modern Art, Adrienne Mancia was an advocate of progressive “New Hollywood” filmmakers such as Coppola who, in the late 1960s and early ‘70s, subverted the moral and aesthetic traditions (and limitations) of the studio system by producing thematically and stylistically challenging work influenced by European cinema, the American avant-garde, and the countercultural ethos of the era at large. Part of Mancia’s advocacy of these filmmakers was seeking out their first works (often made for low-budget producers like Corman and production companies like American International Pictures) in order to chart the trajectory of their careers and connect their early output to the later works that brought them mainstream fame.

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