Walker Moving Image Heats Up the Cinema this July and August
Revisit the tumultuous moments of 1968 through the eyes of filmmakers that broke with tradition to capture the spirit of their changing times. Beginning with a star-spangled, superhero satire and ending with a lovers’ quarrel in Central Park, our summer series presents five distinctive visions of the year that defined a generation. Filled with tension, irony, expectation, lost innocence, confusion, and clarity, these films demonstrate the power of cinema to mirror—and shape—culture, society, and the very nature of revolution.
Unless otherwise noted, tickets are $10 ($8 Walker members, students, and seniors).
“Our aim was to showcase filmmakers who authentically responded to and represented the atmosphere and mood of a pivotal time and to make a case for the value of “looking back” as we consider 1968’s cultural and political relevance to today, viewed through a reflexive, cinematic lens.” —Walker Moving Image department
Read more in the Walker Reader:
Summer Heat ’68: Fracas at the Cinema
Mr. Freedom
Directed by William Klein
Wednesday and Friday, July 11 and 13, 7 pm
William Klein’s Mr. Freedom—a subversive farce with dazzling pop-art visuals—has renewed cultural resonance 50 years later. A raucous lampoon of American imperialism and self-righteousness, the film follows a ruggedly handsome superhero who goes to Paris to defeat Communism. The often-hilarious takedown is filled with exaggerated, blowhard narratives about supremacy, capitalism, and patriotic excess, all delivered by a dim-witted, trigger-happy leader in tight pants. 1968, 35mm, 92 minutes.
Watch
View Trailer
Read
Interview film review
Artforum on William Klein
British Film Institute interview with William Klein
Medium Cool
Directed by Haskell Wexler
Wednesday and Friday, July 18 and 20, 7 pm
“Combining fiction and documentary…it examines the way the media operate, the responsibilities of those employed in broadcasting and news journalism, and the highly confused state of America at the height of the Vietnam war.” —The Guardian (UK)
Renown cinematographer and socially-committed filmmaker Haskell Wexler’s Medium Cool is a visceral snapshot of the revolutionary summer of 1968. Masterfully blending fiction and nonfiction, the film traces the personal and political awakening of a television cameraman, culminating in his coverage of Chicago’s infamous Democratic National Convention. Anticipating the protests, Wexler shot footage for the climactic scenes in the midst of violent demonstrations. 1969, 35mm, 110 minutes.
Watch
View Trailer
Read
The Guardian film review
Haskell Wexler interview
Sympathy for the Devil (One Plus One)
Directed by Jean-Luc Godard
Wednesday and Friday, July 25 and 27, 7 pm
“It’s all great stuff: a snapshot of a far-off, lost world where rock music is still a redemptive and revolutionary force.” —The Guardian (UK)
Come for the documentary footage of the Rolling Stones transforming “Sympathy for the Devil” as they record the now classic song in a London studio. Stay for Godard’s exaggerated, provocative, and occasionally absurd skits of late-60s political spectacle. The French New Wave legend brings together music, art, power, and revolution in this convention-breaking, cinematic essay that’s not to be missed. 1968, UK, DCP, 111 min.
Watch
View Trailer
Read
New York Times review
Jean-Luc Godard interview
Godard hangs out with the Rolling Stones
Purple Haze
Directed by David Burton Morris
Director and writer in person
Wednesday and Friday, August 1 and 3, 7 pm
Filmed in Minneapolis, Purple Haze follows the alienated Matt Caulfield after his expulsion from Princeton in 1968. He spends the summer bumming around the West Bank with a “chemically dependent” childhood friend while navigating fraught relationships and contemplating his impending draft into the Vietnam War. A tribute to Catcher in the Rye set to a score of rock classics including Hendrix, Cream, and Jefferson Airplane. 1982, 35mm, 97 minutes.
Read
New York Times review
TimeOut review
Symbiopsychotaxiplasm Take One
Directed by William Greaves
Wednesday, August 8
Friday, August 10, 7 pm
“William Greaves turned cinéma verité on itself, never making it clear whether the story was in fact fiction, nonfiction, improvisation, or some combination of the above.”—Hyperallergic
What happens when you want to make a film about filmmaking without your crew knowing? Follow William Greaves as he presides over three crews in Central Park: one filming a couple repeatedly performing a break-up scene, one filming the crew filming the couple, and another crew to capture everything else. The result: a multilayered, masterful fiction/documentary hybrid with a kaleidoscopic 60s vibe and a score by Miles Davis. 1968, 35mm, 75 min.
Watch
View Trailer
Read
New Yorker review
Hyperallergic review
Sound for Silents: Film + Music on the Walker Hillside
Thursday, August 16
Dusk (about 8:30 pm)
Free
Grab a blanket, pack a picnic, and head to the Walker hillside for eclectic evening of new music and silent films from the 1920s. Local electro virtuoso Martin Dosh and his ensemble (Dan Bitney of Tortoise, Sarah Elstran, Mike Sopko, and Joey Van Phillips) present intriguing and new live cinematic scores set to silent works from the Walker’s Ruben/Bentson collection. Tunes from DJ Sean McPherson of 89.3 The Current and food trucks add to the mix for the perfect summer night out.
The evening’s avant-garde films will include Walter Ruttmann’s four abstract animated films Lichtspiel: Opus I (1921) and Opus II, III, and IV (1923–1925) plus his 1927 work Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (Berlin: Die Sinfonie der Grosstadt), made in collaboration with Alberto Cavalcanti; Charles Sheeler and Paul Strand’s Manhatta (1920–1921); and animation pioneer Winsor McCay’s The Sinking of the Lusitania (1918).
MNTV 2018 on the Big Screen
Wednesday, August 22, 7 pm, Free
Filmmakers in Person
For more than two decades, the collaboration between FilmNorth (formerly IFP Minnesota), Twin Cities Public Television (TPT), and the Walker Art Center has celebrated the talented local film community. MNTV 2018—two one-hour programs of short works—will premiere on TPT in September. Join many of the filmmakers in the Walker Cinema for a free preview of selected short films. A reception follows.
For more films, visit the Bentson Mediatheque and select the Legacy of ’68 playlist available all summer. The Bentson Mediatheque is a free self-select cinema experience unique to the Walker. Choose from more than 300 titles from the Ruben/ Bentson Moving Image Collection or view one of the featured playlists. Hours are Tuesday – Sunday, noon till museum close. Always free.
Coming soon:
In Moving Image this fall, the Twin Cities premiere of
Norah Shapiro’s Time for Ilhan
September 21-22
“…the film has the pace and suspense of a Hitchcock thriller. Even if you know the outcome, you will sit on the edge of your seat.” —Psychology Today
Ilhan Omar, a young, hijab-wearing, Somali refugee mother of three, takes on two formidable opponents in a highly contested race for a seat in the Minnesota State Legislature. If successful, she will become the first Somali Lawmaker in the United States. An intimate, behind-the-scenes portrait of one of America’s brightest rising political stars.