Doc Fortnight 2017

February 16, 2017–February 26, 2017

The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters, MoMA

Doc Fortnight, MoMA’s annual international festival of nonfiction film, returns with 10 days of important new discoveries in documentary cinema. Featuring recent films by emerging and established artists—many of whom will introduce their work in person—the festival offers fresh ways of considering the world around us in a time of increasing political uncertainty.

This year’s selection includes a retrospective of several works by award-winning filmmaker Emiko Omori, as well as an unusual 3-D collaboration between Open-Ended Group’s Paul Kaiser and Marc Downie and acclaimed experimental filmmakers Ken and Flo Jacobs. Combining short and feature-length work, Doc Fortnight continues its commitment to highlighting the many, ever-evolving styles within nonfiction media arts.

Doc Fortnight 2017

February 16–26, 2017

The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters

Screening Schedule

Machines

Opening night | New York premiere

2016. India/Germany/Finland. Directed by Rahul Jain. 71 min.

In Rahul Jain’s debut film, the camera patrols the labyrinthine passages of an enormous textile

factory in Gujarat, India, fixated on the pulsing machines that make art from fabric—and the

ostensibly mechanized humans who run them. Interviews with workers in the midst of onerous

12-hour shifts give the film a political edge, but it’s the unsettling beauty of this industrial

underworld and the colorful textiles created there that will remain with viewers. In Hindi; English

subtitles

Post-screening discussion with Jain

Thursday, Feb 16, 7:30 p.m. T1

Acts and Intermissions

World premiere

2016. USA. Directed by Abigail Child. 57 min.

This experimental documentary circles around the life of Emma Goldman, viewed at the turn of

the 20th century as the “most dangerous woman alive”—and her relationship to the history of

protest, bringing it into the present day, overlapping past and present events. Goldman fought for

many social issues that are still not fully resolved all these years later, making the film seem even

more relevant to our current times.

Preceded by Kaputt (Broken)

U.S. premiere

2016. Germany. Directed by Alexander Lahl, Volker Schlecht. 7 min.

This animated doc is based on interviews with former political prisoners of the main prison for

women of former East Germany. In addition to the conditions of daily life in the prison, the film

explores issues of forced labor and the export of things produced there to West Germany.

Post-screening discussion with Child

Friday, February 17, 4:30 p.m. T1

Sunday, February 19, 4:30 p.m. T2

Ulysses in the Subway

North American premiere

2017. USA. Directed by Paul Kaiser, Marc Downie, Ken Jacobs, Flo Jacobs. 61 min.

This collaboration between avant-garde film luminaries Ken and Flo Jacobs and Open Ended

Group’s digital-art duo of Paul Kaiser and Marc Downie yields a “picturing of sound” in 3-D. A

recording of Ken’s journey through the New York subway—voices, footsteps, a steel-drum

performance—is transformed into grand visual renderings through the use of a sound-analysis

algorithm. The past invades the present when Thomas Edison’s 1905 film of the same path

through the subway—also rendered in 3-D—makes a fleeting appearance.

Preceded by Animation Hotline

2011–15. USA. Directed by Dustin Grella. 8 min.

This selection from among more than 200 entries in Grella’s ongoing Animation Hotline series

presents micro-animations of real-life stories crowdsourced via voicemail messages. These

creative renderings uncover insights into the apparently banal aspects of daily life. Anyone with a

story can call (212) 683-2490.

Post-screening discussion with Paul Kaiser, Marc Downie, Ken and Flo Jacobs

Friday, February 17, 5:00 p.m. T2

Saturday, February 18, 7:30 p.m. T2

The Revolution Won’t Be Televised

New York premiere

2016. Senegal. Directed by Rama Thiaw. 110 min.

In 2012, Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade began a highly controversial run for a third term,

in violation of the nation’s constitution. Among the forces that rose up in protest was a peaceful

political movement, an alliance of hip-hop artists and journalists. Rama Thiaw shadows rappers

Thiat and Kilifeu and their manager Gadiaga as they crisscross Dakar to rock the youth vote. In

Wolof, French; English subtitles

Preceded by #Bars4Justice

2015. USA. Directed by Queen Muhammad Ali, Hakeem Khaaliq. 9 min.

While performing a benefit gig in St. Louis, Missouri, on the one-year anniversary of the killing of

Michael Brown, hip-hop activist Jasiri X has his own encounter with the Ferguson police force.

Post-screening discussion with Thiaw, Ali, and Khaaliq

Friday, February 17, 7:30 p.m. T2

Saturday, February 18, 3:00 p.m. T2

Through the Repellent Fence: A Land Art Film

World premiere

2017. USA. Directed by Sam Wainwright Douglas. 74 min.

What began as a documentary on the “land art” movement in the US soon evolved to focus on

Repellent Fence—a temporary, two-mile-long art installation that intersected the US/Mexico

border in October 2015, spearheaded by Postcommodity, an activist/art collective consisting of

three Native American artists. The artists “put land art in a tribal context” in “a metaphorical

suture stitching together cultures that have inhabited these lands long before borders were

drawn.” The story of this timely work is intercut with scenes from major land art works like Robert

Smithson’s Spiral Jetty and Nancy Holt’s The Sun Tunnels.

Preceded by Smoke that Travels

2016. USA. Directed by Kayla Briët. 13 min.

This autobiographical doc by a young, award-winning, self-taught filmmaker transmits Prairie

Band Potawatomi teachings from her father—dance, music, history, and language—in hopes of

preserving and inspiring a new appreciation of her culture.

Post-screening discussion with Douglas and Postcommodity

Saturday, February 18, 4:30 p.m. T1

Sunday, February 19, 2:30 p.m. T1

The Book of Clarence

World premiere

2017. USA. Directed by Lee Breuer. 99 min.

A founding member of The Blind Boys of Alabama, one of the world’s most successful gospel

groups, Clarence Fountain has lived a remarkable life, full of music and passion. Now in his

eighties, slowed by age and diabetes, Clarence retains his brash charm, and wistfully recalls his

decades of glory, from beginnings in the choir of a school for the blind, to the group’s sudden rise

to stardom as “Oedipus” in the experimental musical The Gospel at Colonus. Here, that show’s

iconic creator, Lee Breuer, brings his artistry to bear on Clarence’s story, with inventive editing,

extensive interviews, archival footage—and a great deal of soul.

Post-screening discussion with Breuer and producer Eric Marciano

Saturday, February 18, 7:00 p.m. T1

Sunday, February 26, 2:00 p.m. T1

Austerlitz

US premiere

2016. Germany. Directed by Sergei Loznitsa. 94 min.

Perhaps no historical event is as appalling as the Holocaust, yet people’s need to understand the

unimaginable has birthed the curious oxymoron of “Holocaust tourism.” On the sun-drenched

grounds of a former concentration camp, Ukrainian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa’s camera sits

motionless, in quiet judgment, observing the comings and goings of these voyeuristic tourists. In

German, English, Spanish; English subtitles

Post-screening discussion with Loznitsa

Sunday, February 19, 5:00 p.m. T1

Monday, February 20, 7:30 p.m. T1

Gaza Surf Club

New York premiere

2016. Germany/Palestine/USA. Directed by Philip Gnadt, Mickey Yamine. 87 min.

Away from the rubble left by a decade of airstrikes, young Palestinians find new freedom surfing

on the Gaza Strip’s 26-mile coastline. Frustrated with the limitations of a state where surfing

equipment is contraband, one young man dreams of crafting his own boards, while a teen girl

resists strict cultural principles to follow her sporting passion. Shot in breathtaking widescreen,

this upbeat work reveals a new generation determined to be unencumbered by surrounding

political tragedy. In Arabic, English; English subtitles

Monday, February 20, 4:00 p.m. T2

Tuesday, February 21, 7:30 p.m. T2

Modern Mondays:

An Evening of New Media Nonfiction from the National Film Board of Canada

Hugues Sweeney and Rob McLaughlin, executive producers of the NFB’s Digital Studios in

Montreal and Vancouver, present a selection from their ongoing contributions to the global media

ecosystem, from interactive documentaries (A Journal of Insomnia, Bear 71) to mobile stories

(Barcode, Soldier Brother) to public spaces (Megaphone, Circa 1948) and virtual and augmented

reality (Way to Go, Enemy, Cardboard Crash).

Monday, February 20, 7:00 p.m. T2

Plastic China

New York premiere

2016. China. Directed by Jiu-liang Wang. 81 min.

China is the world’s largest importer of plastic waste; throughout the country there are nearly 30

towns engaged in processing this refuse in highly toxic environments. In this powerful critique of

global overconsumption, the stories of two families, and a particularly feisty and optimistic 11-

year-old girl, reveal the human and environmental costs of living and working in these artificial—

and truly plastic—landscapes. In Chinese; English subtitles

Post-screening discussion with Wang

Wednesday, February 22, 7:30 p.m. T2

Thursday, February 23, 4:00 p.m. T2

Irrawaddy Mon Amour

New York premiere

2015. Italy. Directed by Valeria Testagrossa, Nicola Grignani, Andrea Zambelli. 58 min.

Living under a repressive military regime is even more difficult for Myanmar’s LGBT citizens;

homosexuality remains taboo, many face overt discrimination and condemnation, and same-sex

marriage is illegal. Yet on the banks of the Irrawaddy River, a small, gay-friendly community goes

against the rules and helps two young lovers realize their dream. In Burmese; English subtitles

Preceded by Half a Life

North American premiere

2016. Egypt/USA/Indonesia/Netherlands. Directed by Tamara Shogaolu. 12 min.

In this animated documentary, a young Egyptian recounts a traumatic confrontation in Cairo that

inspired his gay-rights activism in what continues to be an oppressive, unstable social

atmosphere. In Arabic; English subtitles

Thursday, February 23, 7:00 p.m. T2

Friday, February 24, 4:00 p.m. T2

Ascent

North American premiere

2016. Netherlands/Japan. Directed by Fiona Tam. 80 min.

Made entirely using 4,500 photographs taken over the past 150 years, this experimental hybrid of

fiction and documentary takes viewers on an ascent up Japan’s iconic Mount Fuji. An English

woman and her deceased Japanese partner lead the way as viewers join the climb. In English,

Japanese; English subtitles

Thursday, February 23, 7:30 p.m. T1

Las Letras (The Letters)

New York premiere

2015. Mexico. Directed by Pablo Chavarría Gutiérrez. 77 min.

Las Letras is an exercise in (and exorcism of) outrage, a performative representation of an

indigenous Mexican professor’s random arrest and erroneous 13-year imprisonment for a brutal

slaying. Gutiérrez’s camera stalks the countryside, ghostlike, observing wandering lost children

and a woman’s balletic expression of grief, punctuated by Gómez’s proud, hopeful jailhouse letters

to his family. In Spanish, Tzotzil; English subtitles

Post-screening discussion with Gutiérrez

Friday, February 24, 4:30 p.m. T1

Sat, February 25, 4:00 p.m. T1

Tell Them We Are Rising

New York premiere

2017. USA. Directed by Stanley Nelson. 80 min.

Following the huge success of The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, which opened Doc

Fortnight 2015, Stanley Nelson turns his eye to another branch of African American history:

education. Expressly denied prior to the Civil War in order to keep blacks subordinate, higher

learning flourished at the more than 100 black colleges and universities founded in the century

that followed. Nelson shows how these institutions cultivated generations of leaders in

innumerable areas, including the Civil Rights movement, while redefining what it means to be

black in America.

Post-screening discussion with Nelson

Friday, February 24, 7:00 p.m. T1

Saturday, February 25, 2:00 p.m. T2

Solar

North American premiere

2016. Argentina. Directed by Manuel Abramovich. 76 min.

Flavio Cabobianco was 10 years old when his messianic message of self-salvation, I Come from

the Sun, became a bestseller in Argentina. As Flavio releases a 20th-anniversary edition, first-time

feature filmmaker Manuel Abramovich follows him and his family to try to understand the book’s

origins and tangled authorship. But Flavio’s escalating attempts to control the film give rise to a

compelling tale about the complexities of artistic collaboration. In Spanish; English subtitles.

Post-screening discussion with Abramovich

Friday, February 24, 7:30 p.m. T2

Sunday, February 26, 5:00 p.m. T2

Wolf and Sheep

New York premiere

2016. Denmark, France, Sweden, Afghanistan. Directed by Shahrbanoo Sadat. 86 min.

Screened in the Directors’ Fortnight section at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Art

Cinema Award, this hybrid film by Afghanistan’s first female feature director mixes narrative,

ethnography, and a bit of magical realism to portray the lives of those in an Afghanistan shepherd

community. Inspired by the director’s teenage years in a similar remote village, the film’s

characters are played by real people, translating everyday life 1:1 to the screen.

Saturday, February 25, 5:00 p.m. T2

Sunday, February 26, 1:30 p.m. T2

Tip of My Tongue

Closing night |World premiere

2017. USA. Directed by Lynne Sachs. 80 min.

To mark her 50th birthday, filmmaker Lynne Sachs gathers a group of her contemporaries—all

New Yorkers but originally hailing from all corners of the globe—for a weekend of recollection and

reflection on the most life-altering personal, local, and international events of the past halfcentury,

creating what Sachs calls “a collective distillation of our times.” Interspersed with poetry

and flashes of archival footage, this poignant reverie reveals how far beyond our control life is,

and how far we can go despite this.

Post-screening discussion with Sachs

Saturday, February 25, 7:30 p.m. T1

Sunday, February 26, 5:00 p.m. T1

Shorts Program: The Presence of Place

State of Rest and Motion

World premiere

2017. USA. Directed by Edin Velez. 16 min.

This cine-portrait of New York City uses digital effects to turn the countless riders of the subway

system into living, breathing paintings.

Irradiant Field

New York premiere

2016. USA. Directed by Laura Kraning. 10 min.

In the Mojave Desert, fields of solar panels follow the sun’s daily journey in perfect synchronicity.

Coal Creek

North American premiere

2015. USA. Directed by George Griffin. 10 min.

Animator George Griffin recalls racial discord in his eastern Tennessee hometown. A collage of

photographs, maps, interviews, cartoons, and jazz highlights the horrors of a hatred that

reverberates to this day.

489 Years

New York premiere

2016. France. Directed by 권하연 Hayoun Kwon. 11 min.

The oral history of a former South Korean soldier who once patrolled the DMZ is brought to life by

computer graphics in a style that conjures first-person-shooter video games. In Korean; English

subtitles

Chitrashala

US premiere

2015. India. Directed by Amit Dutta. 19 min.

Doc Fortnight alumnus Amit Dutta continues to explore his fascination with Indian miniature

painting. At the Amar Mahal Palace in northern India, several exquisite works come into focus,

before springing to life before our eyes.

Jungle

North American premiere

2016. France. Directed by Colia Vranici. 18 min.

The Calais “Jungle” refugee camp was demolished in October 2016. At the tail end of its brief

existence, director Colia Vranici follows a 16-year-old Afghan boy as he passes through, dreaming

of a future in England. In Pashto, English; English subtitles

Post-screening discussion with Griffin, Kraning, and Velez

Friday, February 17, 6:30p.m. T1

Sunday, February 19, 2:00 p.m. T2

Emiko Omori Retrospective

This year Doc Fortnight honors the work of Bay Area filmmaker Emiko Omori with a selection of

her films. Omori’s work has been featured in many festivals and broadcast on public television,

but is less known here on the East Coast. In 2016, she was among a select group of documentary

filmmakers invited to join the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.

To Chris Marker, An Unsent Letter

New York premiere

2012. USA. Directed by Emiko Omori. 78 min.

Omori was a personal friend of the late Chris Marker, the French filmmaker and artist best known

for his films La Jetée and Sans Soleil. This film, a kind of love letter/homage to Marker, is a

contemplative essay that honors and echoes his artistic style. In addition to Omori’s thoughts and

recollections, and a look at some of Marker’s major works, the film includes interviews with other

admirers, including film programmers Tom Luddy and Peter Scarlet, and 12 Monkeys

screenwriters Janet and David Peoples, summing up the legacy of a filmmaker who was both

elusive and beloved.

Preceded by When Rabbit Left the Moon

World theatrical premiere

2017. USA. Directed by Emiko Omori. 14 min.

Omori created this video poem from footage and outtakes from Rabbit in the Moon. “In 2017,” she

says, “I commemorate the seventy-fifth anniversary of my incarceration at the age of one by my

government, the United States of America.” When Rabbit Left the Moon is an elegy to her parents’

generation—the Issei (immigrants)—and the legacy of suffering that haunts the community to this

day.

Post-screening discussion with Omori

Tuesday, February 21, 4:30p.m. T2

Ed Hardy: Tattoo the World

2010. USA. Directed by Emiko Omori. 74 min.

As a young boy, Don “Ed” Hardy knew he wanted to be a tattoo artist, and after graduating from

the San Francisco Art Institute he rejected “fine art” and returned to his childhood passion. Today

he is a cult icon, “the godfather of modern tattooing,” whose imagery has moved into the fashion

world and beyond. This success has allowed him to return to his personal art, an arresting

synthesis of high and low. Omori’s film presents a portrait of the artist, operating in multiple

worlds.

Post-screening discussion with Omori and Hardy

Tuesday, February 21, 7:00 p.m. T1

Passion and Power: The Technology of Orgasm

2007. USA. Directed by Emiko Omori, Wendy Slick. 74 min.

Based on the book by Rachel Maines, this is the story of a simple invention—the vibrator—and its

relationship to female sexual pleasure. The film traces the vibrator’s progress from Victorian-era

treatment for “hysteria” to liberating sex toy, and features a cast of feminist luminaries, including 

Eve’s Garden founder Dell Williams, author and sexologist Betty Dodson, the performance artist

Reno, and author Rachel Maines.

Post-screening discussion with Omori, Slick, and author Rachel Maines

Wednesday, February 22, 4:30 p.m. T2

Rabbit in the Moon

1999. USA. Directed by Emiko Omori. 85 min.

This documentary/memoir recounts the story of two sisters, Emiko Omori and her co-producer,

Chizu Omori, who as children were uprooted from their home in southern California and

incarcerated with their family and thousands of others in concentration camps during World War

II. The film includes eye witness accounts from other detainees and delves into issues that created

deep divisions within the American Japanese community, revealing long-term effects still felt to

this day.

Preceded by Far East of Eden

New York premiere

2016. USA. Directed by Bruce Yonemoto, in collaboration with Karen Finley. 24 min.

This experimental video, created by Karen Finley and Bruce Yonemoto while artists-in-residence at

California’s Montalvo Arts Center, touches on the racism of the Center’s founder, James D. Phelan,

and brings the story up to the present. Finley’s performance channels Phelan, one of the biggest

proponents of anti-Japanese-immigration laws at the turn of the last century, before mutating into

a more recent political figure—presenting a jarring juxtaposition between Phelan and Donald

Trump.

Post-screening discussion with Emiko and Chizu Omori, Yonemoto, and Finley

Wednesday, February 22, 7:00 p.m. T1

Italian Perspective

New York premiere

2017. USA. Directed by Julia Heyward. 1,440 min.

This long-form cinematic observation captures film shoots in a downtown alley seen through the

artist’s bedroom window, simulating the real-time suspension of belief over the course of a full

day.

Presented throughout Doc Fortnight, film entrance lobby