Established in 2001, MoMA’s annual two-week showcase of recent nonfiction film and video takes place each February. This selection of international feature and short documentaries represents the wide range of creative categories that extend the idea of the documentary form. This year’s program includes Gideon Koppel’s Sleep Furiously, a sweeping portrait of time’s passage in the Welsh hamlet of Trefeurig, and Alla Kovgan and David Hinton’s Nora, based on the true story of dancer Nora Chipaumire, who returned to her native Zimbabwe and brought her history to life through performance.
In addition to a juried selection, the festival also includes thematic programs that focus on film initiatives from around the world. A spotlight on the International Documentary Festival of Amsterdam’s Jan Vrijman Fund, which supports filmmakers in developing countries, features Iranian filmmaker Massoud Bakshi’s Tehran Has No More Pomegranates!; the Appalshop in Whitesburg, Kentucky, which began in 1968 as an experiment in community-based filmmaking and economic growth, brings us films that celebrate Appalachian culture and an Indonesian video exchange project; Deep Dish Television produces and distributes grass-roots film and television; and UnionDocs Collaborative in New York City, a new program for nonfiction media research and group production, showcases their collective’s most recent innovative projects. Many of the filmmakers will be present throughout the festival to introduce and discuss their films.
Organized by Sally Berger, Assistant Curator, with Maria Fosheim Lund, Director Liaison, Department of Film. The selection committe is Sally Berger; Andrew Ingall, independent curator and Assistant Curator, The Jewish Museum; and Liza Johnson, artist, filmmaker, and Associate Professor of Art, Williams College.