Walker Art Center Moving Image January–February
A Monster Calls
Juan Antonio Bayona
Thursday January 5, 7:00pm
Free
Walker Cinema
Public tickets for this event are limited. Tickets are available at 6 pm at the box office while supply lasts.
Post-screening conversation between Executive Producer Bill Pohald and Jim Burke, President of Production for Focus Features, follows the screening.
“…an unforgettable, emotional experience…one that lets us grapple with our most basic human fears and worries, while lighting a beacon of hope that can shine through that darkness.”-The Verge
Helmed by J.A. Bayona (The Orphanage), with stunning production design from Eugenio Caballero, Academy Award winning production designer of Pan’s Labyrinth, A Monster Calls is a fantastical fable of grief and courage. With his mother (Felicity Jones) ailing, twelve-year-old Conor discovers an unlikely ally when he awakens a towering, twisted yew tree known as the Monster (voiced by Liam Neeson). Melding realism with the fantastical, the film follows Conor as the Monster teaches him to cope with loss. 2017, DCP, 108 minutes.
Fire at Sea (Fucoammare)
Gianfranco Rossi
January 13-15
Friday 7:30pm, Saturday 2pm & 7:30pm, Sunday 2pm
$10 ($8 Walker members, students, and seniors)
Walker Cinema
“He observes, with humility and precision. Instead of raising awareness, he cultivates alertness. Fire at Sea occupies your consciousness like a nightmare, and yet somehow you don’t want it to end.”-New York Times
Poetically rendering the European migrant crisis, Fire at Sea explores life on Lampedusa, the Mediterranean island which has become a point of entry for African refugees into Europe. The film juxtaposes the story of Samuele, a local teenager navigating the everyday challenges of youth, with Italian Navy rescue operations, contrasting the islanders’ lives with the brutal realities faced by the thousands of refugees. Fire at Sea won the Golden Bear at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival. 2016. Italy/France. In Italian with English subtitles. 108 minutes.
This presentation is made possible by generous support from the Bentson Foundation.
Son of Joseph (Le Fils de Joseph)
Eugène Green
January 20-22
Friday 7:30pm, Saturday 2pm & 7:30pm, Sunday 2pm
$10 ($8 Walker members, students, and seniors)
Walker Cinema
“Shot through with an intensely pleasurable intellectual playfulness, this is the American-born French director’s most accomplished and surprising film to date, boasting his trademark thoughtfulness and precision, yet also being almost puppyishly easy to love.”
–Indiewire
A stylized comedic delight that weaves biblical references to Abraham, Isaac, Mary and Joseph into the present day. The film tells the story of Vincent (newcomer Victor Ezenfis), a rebellious teenager searching for the father he has never known. Both serious and farcical, Green’s film employs his traditionally avant-garde techniques to new winning, clever ends, managing to both embrace and undermine the gravity of paternity and theology. 2016. France/ Belgium. In French with English subtitles. 115 minutes.
This presentation is made possible by generous support from the Bentson Foundation.
Notes on Blindness
James Spinney & Peter Middleton
January 27-29
Friday 7:30pm, Saturday 2pm & 7:30pm, Sunday 2pm
$10 ($8 Walker members, students, and seniors)
Walker Cinema
“The genius of the film is in allowing us to understand and visualize the world of blindness… A beautiful, accessible and thoughtful work of art.” –The Guardian
A striking adaptation of the audio diary theologian John Hull produced as he attempted to grapple with his loss of eyesight. Wielding the power of cinema to convey Hull’s deteriorating vision, filmmakers Spinney and Middleton use a combination of richly textured audio and lush visuality to explore Hull’s journey towards new ways of seeing. The film is accompanied by the downloadable VR experience Into Darkness. 2016. UK. 90 minutes.
This presentation is made possible by generous support from the Bentson Foundation.
Behemoth
Zhao Liang
February 3-5
Friday & Saturday 7:30pm; Sunday 2pm
$10 ($8 Walker members, students, and seniors)
Walker Cinema
“Colossal in scope… Behemoth seems to shudder with the destructive power of invisible, ubiquitous, and cruelly indifferent authority.” –The New Yorker
Zhao Liang’s most recent feature is a piercing exploration of the human and environmental costs of coal and iron mining in inner-Mongolia. Shot over the course of a year and a half, the film’s rich aural and visual palates draw the viewer into intimate proximity with the daily operations of the mine. Partially inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy, the film is both poetic and unflinching, offering a grand yet scorched landscape as evidence of unyielding, planetary devastation. In 2009 Zhao Liang’s work was included in the Walker Art Center exhibition Heavy Sleepers. 2015. China. In Mandarin with English Subtitles. 90 minutes.
This presentation is made possible by generous support from the Bentson Foundation.
Lovesong
So Yong Kim
February 10-12
Friday 7:30pm, Saturday 2pm & 7:30pm, Sunday 2pm
$10 ($8 Walker members, students, and seniors)
Walker Cinema
“The wonder of this new film from So Yong Kim… is how deftly it digs beneath the clichés and formulas of familiar sub-genres… to come up with something specific, nuanced and insightful. It’s a quiet drama, full of unspoken hurt and free of histrionics, but it’s as raw and painful as a fresh wound.”-Hollywood Reporter
Lucidly documenting two encounters between college friends Sarah (Riley Keough) and Mindy (Jena Malone) over the course of three years, Lovesong is a clear-eyed examination of the romantic and emotional tensions that lie below the surface. The film finds Sarah unhappily married and searingly lonely, until a visit from Mindy brings her to cackling, playful life. Bolstered by beautiful, insightful performances, the film is a study in longing, insecurity, and the subtle contours of intimacy. 2016. US. 84 minutes.
This presentation is made possible by generous support from the Bentson Foundation.
Mimosas
Oliver Laxe
February 17-19
Friday 7:30pm, Saturday 2pm & 7:30pm, Sunday 2pm
$10 ($8 Walker members, students, and seniors)
Walker Cinema
“A Western with shades of the uncanny, Mimosas has the openness of a parable: it doesn’t dramatize so much as embody the mysteries of faith” –Film Comment
Winner of the Critics Week Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Part odyssey, part travelogue, Mimosas is a stunning modern-day western set in the Moroccan Atlas Mountains. The film tracks the perilous journey of a caravan, increasingly fearful of losing their way, as they transport a sheikh to his final resting place. Gorgeously shot on 16mm film, the film masterfully conveys Laxe’s desire “to manifest the ineffable, the mystery, through images, through cinema.” 2016. Morocco, Spain, France, Qatar. In Arabic with English Subtitles. 93 minutes.
This presentation is made possible by generous support from the Bentson Foundation.
Film Independent Spirit Awards Screenings
Independent Spirit Awards Screenings
For members of the Walker Art Center and IFP MN
Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 6:00pm and 8:00pm
January 10-February 8
Free
Walker Cinema
Members of the Walker and IFP MN are invited to free screenings of 21 films nominated for the 2017 Film Independent Spirit Awards, celebrating the finest achievements of today’s filmmakers. Exclusively for members, screenings of nominees four categories-Best Feature, Best First Feature, Best Documentary, and the John Cassavetes Award-are offered weekly in January and February. Copresented by the Walker, Film Independent, and Independent Filmmaker Project Minnesota.
Members See More
These events are only open to Walker and IFP MN members. Free tickets are available from 5 pm on screening nights on a first-come, first-served basis; two tickets per membership. Please bring your membership card.
Special Perks for Walker Film Club and IFP Members
Walker Film Club and IFP MN members can reserve two tickets in advance for each film. Please note: orders must be received by 12 noon on day of screening.
•Walker Film Club RSVP: filmclub@walkerart.org or call 612.375.7652
•IFP MN Members RSVP: rsvp@ifpmn.org
Not yet a Walker member?
Join today to receive two tickets to all 21 of the Independent Spirit Awards films at no charge, plus enjoy free gallery admission, 20% off event tickets, special invitations, and much more all year long. The Walker Film Club, at the Contemporaries level, offers premier access to advance tickets, members-only screenings, and evenings with special guests.
2017 Film Independent Spirit Award Screenings
Tuesday, January 10
•Sonita, Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami (Best Documentary), 6 pm
•Jackie, Pablo Larrain (Best Feature), 8 pm
Wednesday, January 11
•Lovesong, So Yong Kim (John Cassavetes Award), 6 pm
•Moonlight, Barry Jenkins (Best Feature), 8 pm
Tuesday, January 17
•Hunter Gatherer, Josh Locy (John Cassavetes Award), 6 pm
•13th, Ava DuVernay (Best Documentary), 8 pm
Wednesday, January 18
•Nakom, TW Pittman (John Cassavetes Award), 6 pm
•Cameraperson, Kirsten Johnson (Best Documentary), 8 pm
Sunday, January 22
•O.J.: Made in America, Ezra Edelman (Best Documentary), 11:30 am
Tuesday, January 24
•Spa Night, Andrew Ahn (John Cassavettes Award), 6 pm
•Other People, Chris Kelly (Best First Feature), 8 pm
Wednesday, January 25
•Chronic, Michel Franco (Best Feature), 6 pm
•American Honey , Andrea Arnold (Best Feature), 8 pm
Tuesday, January 31
•The Witch, Robert Eggers (Best First Feature), 6 pm
•Swiss Army Man , Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (Best First Feature), 8 pm
Wednesday, February 1
•The Fits, Anna Rose Holmer (Best First Feature), 6 pm
•I Am Not Your Negro, Raoul Peck (Best Documentary), 8 pm
Tuesday, February 7
•Under the Sun, Vitaly Mansky (Best Documentary), 6 pm
•The Childhood of a Leader, Brady Corbet (Best First Feature), 8 pm
Wednesday, February 8
•Free in Deed, Jake Mahaffy (John Cassavettes Award), 6 pm
•Manchester by the Sea, Kenneth Lonergan (Best Feature), 8 pm
“…I am not a Filmmaker”: The Films of Marcel Broodthaers
“…I am not a filmmaker. For me, film is the extension of Language. I begin with poetry, then visual art, and finally cinema which brings together several different elements of art …the difficult thing of course, is the harmony between these elements.”
-Marcel Broodthaers
Poet-turned-visual artist Marcel Broodthaers (1924-1976) employed film throughout his career, producing documentaries, animation and fictional shorts. A cross-disciplinary artist, Broodthaers incorporated film into gallery installations, performances and occasionally presented avant-garde works in commercial movie theaters.
Today, the Walker’s Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection is home to over twenty-two Broodthaers titles, many of which are extremely rare. Drawing on poetry, cinema and the visual arts “…I am not a Filmmaker”:The Films of Marcel Broodthaers presents a multidisciplinary investigation of Broodthaers’s filmic practice and his conceptual legacy within contemporary art.
This program is part of the Walker’s annual academic partnership with the University of Minnesota’s Department of French and Italian, the Graduate Minor in Moving Image Studies, the Department of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature, and the Department of Art.
All screenings and programs in “…I am not a Filmmaker”: The Films of Marcel Broodthaers are free and open to the public.
The Films of Marcel Broodthaers: From the Basement to the Berlinale
Thursday February 23
7:30pm-9:00pm, Walker Cinema
Lecture by scholar Bruce Jenkins
This talk reflects on a single year that commences in February 1988 with my first encounter with Marcel Broodthaers’s films, which were stored in the basement of the family home in Brussels, and my episodic viewing of these works in an editing suite at the Royal Belgian Film Archive. It concludes rather felicitously in February 1989, when Maria Gilissen and I traveled from Brussels to Berlin for the opening night of the Forum section of the Berlin International Film Festival-the Berlinale-devoted entirely to the long unseen films of Marcel Broodthaers. The critical success of that festival program set in motion a process that would eventually result in a catalogue raissone devoted to the artist’s filmmaking and a deepening awareness of the centrality of cinema to Broodthaers’s artistic career. -Bruce Jenkins
Bruce Jenkins is Professor of Film, Video, New Media and Animation at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Prior to coming to SAIC, he was the Stanley Cavell Curator at the Harvard Film Archive. Dr. Jenkins served for fourteen years as the Curator of Film/Video at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis where he organized major film retrospectives and worked on exhibitions devoted to Marcel Broodthaers, Bruce Conner, Chantal Akerman, and the Fluxus Group. Dr. Jenkins has written for numerous exhibition catalogues including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; the Centre Georges Pompidou; the Reina Sofia Museum; Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus; and the Guggenheim Museum. He has authored a book-length study on the work of Gordon Matta-Clark, edited a volume of writings by Hollis Frampton for MIT Press, and written the main essay for Ediciones Poligrafa’s recent catalogue on Michael Snow. He is currently at work co-authoring the catalogue raisonné of Andy Warhol’s films for the Whitney Museum and Yale University Press.
The Films of Marcel Broodthaers Revisited
Friday February 24
7:30pm – 9:00pm
Walker Cinema
Introduction by scholar Bruce Jenkins
A rare revisiting of Walker’s landmark 1989 cinema program The Films of Marcel Broodthaers. Bruce Jenkins, former Walker Curator of Moving Image and author of original 1989 Broodthaers film program, will introduce a newly revised 16mm program presenting recently reprinted Broodthaers titles from the Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection. 16mm, 90 Minutes.
Broodthaers’ Virtual, Artisanal, and Poetic Cinema
Saturday February 25, 3:00pm-4:15pm
Walker Cinema
Lecture by Christophe Wall-Romana
To understand better the puzzling short films made by Broodthaers, this talk will recast them within three intersecting experimental practices: artisanal cinema by avant-garde filmmakers often screened in art galleries or small cine-clubs; cinepoetry or cinema ‘in’ poetry, and virtual cinema, which acts as a radical opposition to commercial cinema. 16mm & video, 75 minutes 16mm & video, 75 minutes
Christophe Wall-Romana is Associate Professor in the Department of French and Italian at the University of Minnesota, where he is also affiliated with the new Graduate Minor in Moving Image Studies. His research has focused on the textual intersections of French poetry and cinema, especially around the post-WWI narrative avant-garde in France. Secondary interests include contemporary poetry, philosophy, and the translation of American poetry into French. He has written two books: Cinepoetry: Imaginary Cinemas in French Poetry, 1890-2008 (Fordham, 2012), and the first monograph in English on Jean Epstein (Manchester, 2012).
Question The Wall Itself Gallery Walkthrough
Saturday February 25
4:30pm-6:00pm
Walker’s Bentson Scholar, Mason Leaver-Yap will join Walker Curatorial Fellow, Jordan Carter in a gallery walk though of Question the Wall Itself, focusing on Broodthaers’s influence within the exhibition.
“…I’m not a filmmaker” Panel Discussion
Saturday February 25
7:00-9:00
Bentson Mediatheque
Panel presentation moderated by Mason Leaver-Yap.
Provoked by Broodthaers influential statement “…I am not a filmmaker. For me film is the extension of language”, a panel of local scholars, artists, and filmmakers from the Bentson Critical Group present personal works and scholarship that challenge and expand upon Broodthaers filmic practice. The panel discussion will be moderated by Walker’s Bentson Scholar, Mason Leaver-Yap.
Translating Broodthaers
February 2017-April 2017
A workshop course offered to current BFA and MFA students in the Department of Art at the University of Minnesota.
In collaboration with University of Minnesota Professor of Sculpture, Chris Larson, the Walker will facilitate a workshop course examining ways interior spaces and décor shape our cultural identity. Students will use the Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection and the Question the Wall Itself exhibition and catalogue to research, internalize, and enact multidisciplinary strategies of critique. The course will result in a class programed Mediatheque screening and a student exhibition at Yeah Maybe project space.
For the past two decades, Minnesota-based artist and musician Chris Larson has developed a multimedia practice rooted in sculpture. His work incorporates film, video, photography and drawing. Larson has most recently had a solo exhibition at the Katonah Museum of Art in Katonah, NY, The Boiler (Pierogi) in Brooklyn, NY, his work was included in the 2014 Whitney Biennial, and he has a solo exhibition at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, MN. He is a professor of art and the Director of Undergraduate Studies at the University of Minnesota. Larson is the publisher of InReview, a quarterly print publication presenting critical responses to art in the Twin Cities.
Body Humor
February 2017
Bentson Mediatheque
From silent film to performance art, Body Humor is a collection of shorts that explore physical comedy. This playlist will be available to select and view during the month of February and March.
Bentson Mediatheque
Tuesday-Sunday 12:00pm, through gallery close
Free
Self-Select cinema in the new Bentson Mediatheque
The Bentson Mediatheque offers a free self-select cinema experience, unique to the Walker. Discover the history of cinema in the newly remodeled space, where you can choose from over 200 titles from the Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection, or select one of the featured playlists. Make new discoveries with works from some of the most influential experimental filmmakers from the 1920s through today, or get reacquainted with classics from Buster Keaton, Fritz Lang, and the Lumière brothers. It’s all at your fingertips via touchscreen controls, and projected onto the big screen, with quality digital image and sound.
The Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection is dedicated to community engagement, collecting classic and contemporary cinema, and supporting innovative programming, exhibitions, and screenings. It was established in 1973 with an endowment from Edmond R. Ruben and his wife Evelyn, who believed in collecting films as a way of preserving the art form. Today, the collection includes more than 1,000 distinct titles including documentaries, avant-garde films, and video works by artists. Each year select films from the collection are digitized and made available for viewing in the Bentson Mediatheque.
Featured Playlist
Tuesday-Sunday 12 noon, through gallery close
Free
Self-Select cinema in the new Bentson Mediatheque
Over 200 titles are available for viewing in the Bentson Mediatheque-but we’ve curated a series of playlists to help narrow it down for you. From the shorts series for Body Humor and Infrastructures, to feature-length film picks like The American Dreamer, we’ve made picking a work and settling into your seat easier than ever.
Playlists are available for self-select and are programmed on Target Free Thursday Nights from 6:00 pm to close.
C.A.V.E Festival (the Festival of Cinematic, Audio & Visual Experimentation)
Thursday January 12
6:00pm
Free Special Event
The Bentson Mediatheque hosts an evening of C.A.V.E (the Festival of Cinematic, Audio & Visual Experimentation), featuring experimental moving image works from artists and curators across North America, screened alongside titles from the Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection. Presented in collaboration with Cellular Cinema.
Major support to preserve, digitize, and present the Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection is generously provided by the Bentson Foundation.