Up the Lazy River & Claw

With Manfred Kirchheimer in person

Up the Lazy River

Dir. Manfred Kirchheimer. 2021, 33 mins. DCP. This buoyantly mobile film is the climactic movement of the urban symphonic suite Kirchheimer began with 2018’s Dream of a City. Carrying us back again to late fifties New York for a final trip through the lost illusions of a city and civilization, Kirchheimer works at an even greater contemplative remove than in the film’s predecessors, ultimately expressing the contingent status of all human eras.

Claw

Dir. Manfred Kirchheimer. 1968, 30 mins. DCP. In wistful tones, Kirchheimer paints an ironic picture of urban progress. The hand-carved gargoyles of New York’s prewar buildings stare gauntly at the streets below, while the claw of a crane demolishes brick and mortar, making way for a future of glass and steel. Kirchheimer’s long lens compositions resemble reliefs, flattened pileups of form and texture. Adrift within this congested space, the people his camera discovers feel like shipwreck survivors, castaways on a sea of time.

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.