One More Time & Stations of the Elevated

With Manfred Kirchheimer in person

One More Time

Dir. Manfred Kirchheimer. 2021, 17 mins. DCP.  A coda to the suite Kirchheimer began with 2018’s Dream of a City, One More Time poignantly intercuts our last glimpses of the cycle’s black-and-white, late-fifties New York with color outtakes from 1981’s Stations of the Elevated, depicting a different yet equally distant moment in the life of the city. Placed simultaneously between and beyond these two eras, the film becomes a lyrical lament for the promised New York that never was.

Stations of the Elevated

Dir. Manfred Kirchheimer. 1981, 45 mins. DCP. Nearly forgotten for thirty years, this sun-soaked meditation on the graffiti that once adorned NYC subway cars during the “Drop Dead” era was at last restored and re-released in 2014, solidifying its status as a classic portrait of the period. Set to the abrasively soulful sounds of Charles Mingus and crescendoing with Aretha Franklin’s rapturous rendition of “Amazing Grace,” the film presents a study in contrasts. Kirchheimer juxtaposes the illegal pictorial expressions of Lee Quiñones, The Fabulous 5, Daze, Pusher, et al. with sanctioned billboard advertisements for fast food, liquor, and cigarettes. His percussive editing underscores the symbolic violence of this propagandistic imagery, while his drifting pans and unmoored compositions invite us to a hip-hop reverie. Post-screening Q&A.

Tickets: $15 / $11 senior and students / $9 youth (ages 3–17) / discounted for MoMI members ($7–$11). Order tickets. Please pick up tickets at the Museum’s admissions desk upon arrival. All seating is general admission. Review safety protocols before your visit.