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November at MoMI: Rediscovering a Japanese documentary filmmaker, holiday favorites, and more

NOVEMBER 1, 2022

LAIKA Studios' ParaNorman turns 10!

In-person appearances by title sequence designer Dan Perri, scholar Kinitra Brooks, and filmmakers Iliana Sosa, Vanessa Renwick, and Glenn Belverio 

This month, the Museum is very pleased to present the first major U.S. retrospective of Noriaki Tsuchimoto, the Japanese documentary filmmaker whose best-known works chronicle the environmental disaster in the town of Minamata, but whose 50-year career also took him to Siberia and throughout Japan.

After the community-focused Day of the Dead Celebration on November 2, we take a short recess as we host the Queens World Film Festival, then return on Sunday, November 6 (New York Marathon Day—take the train!) with scholar Kinitra Brooks introducing two of her favorite horror films with a focus on the idea of the Black final girl, and the monthly Greek film offering presented in collaboration with the Hellenic Film Society USA. Please find November highlights below.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR ARTISTS
2023 Marvels of Media Awards
Call for submissions now open for MoMI's festival, exhibit, and awards ceremony celebrating media-makers with autism. Deadline: January 31, 2023. More info

COMMUNITY EVENT
Day of the Dead Celebration  
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 4:00–6:30 P.M.
Join the Museum for a free community celebration of Day of the Dead featuring performances by Mariachi Nuevo Amanecer Academy and the indigenous dance troupe Yayauhki Tezcatlipoka. Visitors can also enjoy face-painting inspired by historical characters from Día de Muertos, take gallery tours, and participate in a catrina and catrin contest hosted by artist historian Rosa Ruíz and Catrinamía. All are welcome to explore Museum’s ofrenda or public altar in the Kaufman Courtyard. Followed by a big-screen showing of Pixar’s beloved feature Coco—perfect for Day of the Dead viewing! Learn more

See It Big: Extended Cuts!  
THROUGH JANUARY 1
Some films really never end. This See It Big edition gives audiences the rare chance to theatrically experience alternate cuts of some of our most beloved films, which have mostly in the past been relegated to home viewing. In many cases, these are how their makers originally would have wanted us to see them. November screenings include The Cotton Club: Encore (Dir. Francis Ford Coppola, 1984/2017), Donnie Darko: The Director’s Cut (Dir. Richard Kelly, 2001/2004), The New World (Limited Release Edition) (Dir. Terrence Malick, 2005), The Act of Killing: Director’s Cut (Dir. Joshua Oppenheimer, 2012/2013), and Ishtar (Director’s Cut) (Dir. Elaine May, 1987/2013). Get tickets

Queens World Film Festival: Hosted at MoMI  
NOVEMBER 3–6
The 12th annual Queens World Film Festival, organized by Don and Katha Cato and their team of collaborators, will take place November 1–6, with screenings at Museum of the Moving Image and other venues in Queens. On Thursday, November 3, Sandra Schulberg, president of the film preservation organization Indie Collect, will be honored with a Spirit of Queens Award at a screening of Filmmakers for the Prosecution (a Kino Lorber release). Visit queensworldfilmfestival.org for schedule.

The Black Final Girl: Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight & 28 Days Later  
Introduced by Kinitra Brooks  
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 3:30 P.M.
Kinitra Brooks, the Audrey and John Leslie Endowed Chair in Literary Studies in the Department of English at Michigan State University, specializes in the study of Black women, genre fiction, and popular culture as seen in her weekly column for The Root, “The Safe Negro Guide to Lovecraft Country,” and her multiple visits as a commentator on NPR’s 1A. She will introduce screenings of Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (Dir. Ernest Dickinson, 1995), which stars Jada Pinkett-Smith, and 28 Days Later (Dir. Danny Boyle, 2002), one of the most influential horror films of the 21st century and which features a breakout performance by Naomie Harris (Moonlight). Get tickets 

Smyrna: The Destruction of a Cosmopolitan City, 1900-1922  
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 4:00 P.M.
To commemorate the 100-year anniversary of the Smyrna Holocaust, the Hellenic Film Society USA presents Maria Iliou’s documentary in its first New York theatrical showing in ten years. Using astonishing archival footage and informative interviews with scholars and individuals with family ties to Smyrna’s Greek, Armenian, Jewish, and Turkish residents, this fascinating documentary presents a balanced account of the destruction of the richest and most cosmopolitan predominantly Christian city in Asia Minor. Get tickets

ParaNorman – New 4K digital presentation  
NOVEMBER 11–20
Celebrating its 10th anniversary, LAIKA's ParaNorman follows the adventures of eleven-year-old Norman Babcock (voiced by Kodi Smit-McPhee), a boy who can speak with the ghosts of dead people and must use his special skill to challenge a centuries-old curse to save his town from an all-out zombie apocalypse. Directed by Chris Butler and Sam Fell, ParaNorman was the studio's second feature after Coraline and combines a handmade stop-motion texture with groundbreaking technical innovation. Get tickets

What’s Old Is New Again: Confronting the Circumstances of Our Time  
With filmmakers Vanessa Renwick and Glenn Belverio in person  
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 7:30 P.M.
Featuring films by Vanessa Renwick and Glenn Belverio, this program spans more than 30 years, presenting a satirical, confrontational approach to coping with the absurd, often backwards political and societal machinations of the modern moment. Bombastic, riotous, poignant, and witty, these films provide commentary on culture critics then and now. Part of Persistent Visions. Get tickets

Noriaki Tsuchimoto  
NOVEMBER 12–24
One of the most unjustly overlooked of all documentary filmmakers, Noriaki Tsuchimoto (1928–2008) made films that are revelatory in their patient pursuit of humanity. Tsuchimoto is best known for his series of films set in the town of Minamata, which earned him a quiet reputation as the preeminent chronicler of life in the wake of industrial disaster, but his oeuvre also took him throughout Japan and to Siberia and Afghanistan in a career spanning the 1960s through 1980s. As part of this first ever major U.S. retrospective of Tsuchimoto, the Museum will be presenting twelve films, including many in imported archival prints and six with newly translated English subtitles. Organized by guest curator Max Carpenter. This program is co-organized by The Japan Foundation and supported through the JFNY Grant for Arts & Culture. Get tickets

Two Titles by Dan Perri: Taxi Driver & The Warriors  
With title designer Dan Perri in person   
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1:30 P.M.
Title sequence designer Dan Perri took a chameleonic approach to his craft, tailoring his aesthetic to the requirements of each film. Both Taxi Driver (Dir. Martin Scorsese, 1976) and The Warriors (Dir. Walter Hill, 1979) are set in 1970s New York, portraying the gritty underworld of a city in decline, and feature title designs by Perri that perfectly set the tone for the unique, compelling stories that follow. Perri, whose work is presented in a new exhibition at the Museum, will participate in a discussion following the screening of Taxi Driver. Get tickets

Beyond History and Revenge: The Northman & Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
Introduced by critic and author Simon Abrams and book signing
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 20
On the occasion of the new book The Northman: A Call to the Gods (2022, Simon & Schuster), critic and author Simon Abrams will present screenings of Sergei Parajanov's Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1965)—in 35mm—and Robert Eggers's The Northman (2022). Abrams will sign copies of his book in the Museum Shop between the screenings. Get tickets

What We Leave Behind  
With director Iliana Sosa in person   
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 6:00 P.M.
Iliana Sosa creates an intimate, lovingly patient portrait of her 89-year-old grandfather Julián, from his final, long, solo bus ride to visit his daughters in El Paso, Texas, to his efforts to build a second house on his property in Mexico. Intending one house for his blind son and the other for those he can no longer travel to visit, he prepares fastidiously for a future he may not share with them, and reflects poetically on the past that led to this present. Sosa’s film is a marvel of presence, filled with gorgeously attentive images and casually revelatory moments born of patience and loving complicity. Co-presented with Cinema Tropical. Get tickets

THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY FILMS

Home for the Holidays  
NOVEMBER 19 & NOVEMBER 25
Jodie Foster brings her genuinely eccentric directorial eye to this rollicking, yet immensely moving comic drama set in Baltimore at Thanksgiving that stands as one of the most perceptive of all American films about the sometimes unbearable dynamics of family. Featuring a starry ensemble cast that includes Holly Hunter, Robert Downey Jr., Anne Bancroft, Charles Durning, Dylan McDermott, Geraldine Chaplin, Cynthia Stevenson, Steve Guttenberg, and Claire Danes. Presented in 35mm! Get tickets

Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas – 45th Anniversary Screening 
NOVEMBER 26–DECEMBER 3
Featuring original songs by Paul Williams, Emmet Otter is one of Jim Henson’s most beloved television specials. It tells the story of Ma Otter and her son Emmet, who both secretly enter a talent contest to win money for each other’s Christmas presents. Jim Henson Legacy President Craig Shemin (producer of the award-winning documentary Behind the Scenes in Frogtown Hollow) present outtakes from the special and excerpts from the documentary. Get tickets 

Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead  
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 3:00 P.M.
The latest in our Disreputable Cinema series: when an unscrupulous fast food chicken restaurant builds its latest location on top of ancient Native American burial grounds, the spirits of the disrespected dead exact their revenge on the diners by turning them into chicken zombies. This underrated underground gem is a perfect blend of trademark Troma madness and Lloyd Kaufman’s cynical, crude black humor, representing a high point in the prolific cult filmmaker’s career. Get tickets