Series Site
UFOs is a set of three programs – curated by filmmaker Marie Losier (who will be the subject of an extensive retrospective at MoMA in November, including the NYC premiere of her new film, CASSANDRO, THE EXOTICO) in collaboration with art critic and curator Pascale Cassagnau (CNAP) – highlighting the works that have emerged in recent years from a diverse and singular constellation of contemporary French filmmakers including Antoine Barraud, Didier D’Abreu, Claire Doyon, Yann Gonzalez, Bertrand Mandico, Joana Preiss, and Losier herself. Generating a dialogue between contemporary art and cinema, these films – which we’re calling “Unidentified Filmic Objects” – foreground a new experimental language and are animated by an indulgence in unrestrained fantasy. Although each film is unique, together they share a number of common topics, such as a proclivity for deconstructed narratives and melodramas, vivid visions, a strong use of sound and music, and artificial sets and colors. Gently subverting narrative and aesthetic forms, these filmmakers attempt to re-invent cinema in order to create a kind of experimental utopia for the present.
“Five years ago I left NYC and my family of cinema there. While living in Paris, I was asked by Pascale Cassagneau (art critic/curator, CNAP, France) to curate a series of film programs devoted to a new family of cinema I’ve developed – this time in Paris – and to present these programs in NYC on the occasion of my retrospective at MoMA. I am overjoyed that the screenings will be hosted by Anthology, a cinema that was dear to my heart during my 20 years in NYC. All the filmmakers are close friends and collaborators, and artists I admire deeply. Many of them are not only filmmakers but also producers, painters, cameramen, screenwriters, set designers, and actors, which is what makes them so unique and free in their filmmaking. It is a joy to have gathered these films I cherish and to show them along with Pascale in the most exciting city of my heart, NYC.” –Marie Losier
Most of the films presented here have been supported by the Centre national des arts plastiques (National Centre for Visual Arts, CNAP, Paris), a public institution attached to the French Ministry of Culture. CNAP fosters and supports artistic creation in France in all areas of the visual arts. For more info visit: www.cnap.fr/en
This program is presented in connection with the Museum of Modern Art’s focus (November 1-11) on the work of Marie Losier, who will be here in person to introduce selected screenings, alongside Pascale Cassagnau (CNAP) and filmmaker Didier D’Abreu! In addition, from November 15-21, Anthology will be presenting the U.S. theatrical premiere run of Bertrand Mandico’s THE WILD BOYS; click here for more details.