Proof of vaccination is required for on-site film screenings. Learn more about visiting us safely.
As part of a citywide centennial celebration of Amos Vogel (1921–2012), the pioneering cofounder of Cinema 16 and the New York Film Festival and the author of Film as a Subversive Art, MoMA presents several programs of science-and-nature films that were featured in Cinema 16 screenings between 1947 and 1963. Organized, in the spirit of Vogel’s wit and iconoclasm, by themes of “animal,” “vegetable,” and “mineral,” these programs include MoMA’s own restoration of Alexander Hammid’s The Private Life of a Cat (1947); the French documentary Life Begins Tomorrow (1950), the first X-rated film shown in British cinemas, which was directed by Nicole Védrès, edited by Alain Resnais, and stars Pablo Picasso, Jean-Paul Sartre, and others; and Charles and Ray Eames’s A Communication Primer (1963). Also presented are films by Leo Seltzer, Stan Vanderbeek, Roman Vishniac, Årne Sucksdorff, the TX-O digital computer, and the underappreciated Madeline Tourtelot. Except where noted, all film descriptions are from the original Cinema 16 program notes.
Organized by Joshua Siegel, Curator, Department of Film.
Film at MoMA is made possible by CHANEL.
Additional support is provided by the Annual Film Fund. Leadership support for the Annual Film Fund is provided by Debra and Leon D. Black and by Steven Tisch, with major contributions from The Contemporary Arts Council of The Museum of Modern Art, Jo Carole and Ronald S. Lauder, MoMA’s Wallis Annenberg Fund for Innovation in Contemporary Art through the Annenberg Foundation, the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP), The Junior Associates of The Museum of Modern Art, the Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation, Karen and Gary Winnick, and The Brown Foundation, Inc., of Houston.
