Presented in conjunction with the gallery exhibition It’s Alive! A Century of Animation from the Collection, this eight-month series of animated films, featuring over 250 selections across 41 programs, offers unprecedented access to the Museum’s animation collection. A survey of grand proportions, It’s Alive! Animation Archive Matinees demonstrates the Museum’s sustained commitment to one of cinema’s foundational mediums and the artists whose work has advanced it. The series opens on October 21 with an evening screening and conversation about the last decades of the pre-digital animation scene in New York, with guests John Canemaker, Candy Kugel, Emily Hubley, George Griffin, Jeff Scher, Skip Blumberg, J. J. Sedelmaier, and Robby Gilbert.
These matinee screenings feature silent pioneers Emile Cohl, Winsor McCay, Otto Messmer, Raoul Barre, Paul Terry, Ub Iwerks, Max and Dave Fleischer, and Ladislas Starewicz; independent animators Jane Aaron, Lisa Crafts, Richard Protovin, Mary Beams, Sally Cruikshank, Michael Sporn, Suzan Pitt, Howard Beckerman, Sara Petty, Sky David, Robert Breer, John and Faith Hubley, Caroline and Frank Mouris, M. Henry Jones, Caroline Leaf, Vincent Cafarelli, Al Jarnow, Philip Stapp, and James Duesing; avant-garde works from Len Lye, Oskar Fischinger, David Ehrlich, Norman McLaren, Larry Jordan, the Quay Brothers, and the National Film Board of Canada; classical cartoon animation by Shamus Culhane, Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, Bob Clampett, and Robert McKimson; and feature-length films from Lou Bunin, Lotte Reiniger, Tim Burton, Jerome Hill, Richard Williams, and the Pixar and Ghibli studios.
Organized by Ron Magliozzi, Curator, Steve Macfarlane, Department Assistant, and Cara Shatzman, Collections Specialist, Department of Film, with thanks to Seth Mitter, Alma Macbride, and Joseph Shepherd at MoMA’s Celeste Bartos Film Preservation Center.
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 The Contemporary Arts Council of The Museum of Modern Art, Agnes Gund through The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art, the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP), and The Young Patrons Council of The Museum of Modern Art.