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Avant-Garde Masters

Jan 15 — Feb 19, 2011

Avant-garde filmmakers make films that revel in, examine, and subvert the very medium that they are working in, and their work often focuses on the physical nature of celluloid. Yet because they are made independently, without commercial support, avant-garde films are in danger of deteriorating and disappearing over time. Thankfully, there are two major initiatives under way to preserve and restore significant avant-garde films. The National Film Preservation Foundation, with support from the Film Foundation, has an Avant-Garde Masters grant program to fund archives restoring experimental films. And the Academy of Motion Picture Archives, which is best known for awarding mainstream Hollywood filmmaking, devotes considerable resources to restoring well-known and neglected avant-garde films.

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Past Films in Series

A troupe of actors sprawled around a shadowy den, smoking.

A New Old Play
A troupe of actors sprawled around a shadowy den, smoking.

A New Old Play
A young boy and his grandfather look at each other at the dinner table.

Armageddon Time
A tiny shell with shoes perches on a keyboard

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
A woman in glasses and frizzy red hair looks in the camera away from a mirror

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Two people silhouetted in dark nighttime street

No Bears
Two men in conversation, one in foreground talking, the other looking at him intently

The Rehearsal
A navy pilot in helmet and mask flies in his cockpit while enemy planes fly close-by in the sky to his left

Top Gun: Maverick
A tiny shell with shoes perches on a keyboard

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
A man holds a woman's head, pushing her hair back from her head

Stars at Noon
A man and woman hug each other and smile surrounded by green trees

Both Sides of the Blade
A woman rests her forehead against an elderly man's forehead as he lies in bed, his mouth open and eyes closed.

Last Flight Home
A tiny shell with shoes perches on a keyboard

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
A teenage girl in an attic bedroom looks back at camera from her desk and laptop

We’re All Going to the World’s Fair
A bearded man in suspenders and a white shirt rides on horseback towards camera

RRR
An animated image of a family watching projected film on a wall

Apollo 10 ½: A Space Age Childhood

Decision to Leave
A silhouette of a man and two birds against a netting and blue, smoggy sky

All That Breathes
A woman in a tight cat suit walks across a rooftop with the Eiffel Tower behind her, lit up at night

Irma Vep (Episodes 5–8)
A woman in a bathing suit holds a bar on a boat

Murina
Two little girls seen from behind in the wood looking at a fort made of sticks

Petite Maman
A man in an arm cast holding a young girl as they recline on a couch

Aftersun
A woman in beige stands in a courtroom

Saint Omer
A woman in a zip-up black leather suit and the bottom of her face obscured by a mask looks past the camera; her shadow on the wall behind her

Irma Vep (Episodes 1–4)
The silhouette of a donkey against a blue horizon

EO
An animated image of a family watching projected film on a wall

Apollo 10 ½: A Space Age Childhood
An invader rides his motorcycle through the rainforest fire blaze.

The Territory
A man sits in a tent smoking a pipe

Benediction

Jackass Forever
A woman with a facemask dangling on her chin sits at a restaurant with a man and a woman

The Novelist’s Film
A woman sleeps on a couch

In Front of Your Face
Two women in coats stand outside

Introduction
A woman in a hallway holds a birthday cake against a green wallpaper background

The Eternal Daughter
Two people silhouetted from behind looking at fireworks

Dos Estaciones
A man in an orange hoodie sweatshirt on a horse in a desert

Nope
Two men and a woman in the middle in a blue dress look up at a screen with delighted expressions in a dark movie theater

The Fabelmans—with Paul Dano in person
Groups of people in riot gear standing in front of protestors.

Riotsville, USA
A man stands with back to camera staring out at a blue wide river

Descendant
Two animated women, one brunette and one with long pink hair, look up to the sky against a backdrop of glowing floating lanterns

We Met in Virtual Reality
Protestors in the street holding signs in South America

My Imaginary Country
Flames against a black background

Expedition Content + Dead Birds