Best Movie Programming

Anthology Film Archives might be located in a desanctified courthouse and officially consecrated to the most rarefied expressions of cinematic art, but the atmosphere is wildly eclectic and the programming excitingly nonjudgmental: High, low, old, new, obscure, pop, the good, the bad, and the ugly. The venue alternates selections from its collection of avant-garde classics (the so-called Essential Cinema) with epic Chinese documentaries or obscure examples of the new Mexican cinema—often giving week-long runs to the most recondite of these. A series of work by the austere, ultra-left film essayist Harun Farocki is sandwiched in between retros devoted to pioneer gore-meister Herschell Gordon Lewis and post-punk transgressors Richard Kern and Nick Zedd. Last year's mix included a two-part series devoted to the déclassé Hollywood musicals of the '70s and '80s and a program of "auto remakes" (movies remade by their original makers), as well as regular shows of slide projections and home movies. The place is open to everything and bursting with ideas. It's like having a bit of Bushwick in the staid East Village. 32 Second Avenue, 212-505-5181, anthologyfilmarchives.org (10003)

Source: The Village Voice

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