The Museum of Modern Art presents two programs of shorts honoring the influential film society Cinema 16, which invigorated the New York City cultural scene with carefully chosen programs of documentaries, experimental films, classics, medical films, and animations from 1947 through 1963. This exhibition, which also honors Cinema 16’s director Amos Vogel, coincides with the publication by Temple University Press of Cinema 16: Documents Toward a History of the Film Society, a new book by Scott MacDonald, who will introduce the programs.
Many major independent and avant-garde filmmakers who premiered at Cinema 16 are reflected in the lineup for this series, which includes Georges Franju’s The Blood of the Beasts and Arne Sucksdroff’s A Divided World (both 1949), Weegee’s Weegee’s New York (1952), Kenneth Anger’s Fireworks (1947), Agnés Varda’s L’Opéra Mouffe (1958), and other titles rarely screened in recent years.
Organized by Jytte Jensen, Associate Curator, and Scott MacDonald, author and independent curator.