Jan 10, 2017
SFFILM
SAN FRANCISCO, CA — The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) and the San Francisco Film Society announce the second season of Modern Cinema, the collaborative film series that explores the dynamic relationships between the past and present of cinema as one of the modern era’s essential art forms. Season two, entitled Werner Herzog and Ecstatic Truth, starts February 9, 2017, and is dedicated to the nonfiction work of legendary filmmaker Werner Herzog. It also includes important documentaries from other filmmakers that consider the world from a poetic, dream-infused and existential perspective. All screenings and talks take place in the newly renovated Phyllis Wattis Theater at SFMOMA, and several programs will feature special introductions by notable Bay Area figures, to be announced at a later date.
“Werner Herzog is a unique master of cinema, combining fiction and non-fiction filmmaking to make a bracingly fresh art form entirely his own,” said SF Film Society Executive Director Noah Cowan. “We have taken inspiration from him for our own unique collaboration with SFMOMA to bring a new perspective to the history and culture of cinema as a treasured art form, embedded within the larger story of art making. It’s a perfect follow-up to the smash success of Modern Cinema’s first season, paying tribute to the Janus Films / Criterion library alongside the contemporary work of Apichatpong Weerasethakul.”
“For nearly 50 years, Werner Herzog has brought us amazing stories and images from the far ends of the earth and the limits of human experience,” said Dominic Willsdon, Leanne and George Roberts Curator of Education and Public Practice at SFMOMA, “It’s exciting to able to celebrate his work in this way, alongside other great hunters of rare and vivid truths.”
Modern Cinema seeks to highlight the ongoing dialogue between the critically acclaimed filmmakers of today—particularly those showcased in contemporary visual culture—and the great masters of cinema’s past, in an attempt to shine a light on the historical continuity and ongoing impact of this modern art form. The second season explores the boundaries of nonfiction filmmaking—between “fact” and “truth”—in the work of Herzog and in other canonical works in which the filmmaker’s powerful point of view similarly bends the rules of traditional documentary storytelling.
In his 2010 essay “On the Absolute, the Sublime, and Ecstatic Truth,” Herzog put forth his feelings about veracity in life and documentary filmmaking, stating that he “can only very vaguely begin to fathom the Absolute; I am in no position to define the concept.” Distinguishing between the factual and what he calls “ecstatic flash” of truth, he writes, “What moves me has never been reality, but a question that lies behind it: the question of truth.”
Taking Herzog’s idea of the Ecstatic Truth as its organizing principle, the second season of Modern Cinema combines a vast range of this master filmmaker’s documentaries with complementary works that operate along similar lines. A number of the films presented are seminal works from early in Herzog’s career. Whether it’s the unforgettable landscapes and nightmarish visions of Fata Morgana and Lessons of Darkness; the probing looks at preaching and spirituality in Huie’s Sermon, Wheel of Time and Pilgrimage; or some of his more recent investigations into the natural world, Herzog’s films almost always seek to surprise and provoke in how they approach their topics.
The films by other directors presented alongside Herzog’s work share some of his interests while reflecting their creators’ own particular styles. From idiosyncratic portraits of unique individuals (Shirley Clarke’s Portrait of Jason and Herzog’s Little Dieter Needs to Fly) to unforgettable depictions about spirituality (Philip Gröning’s Into Great Silence and Herzog’s Bells from the Deep) to behind-the-scenes stories of filmmaking itself (Les Blank’s Burden of Dreams and Herzog’s My Best Fiend), the subjects presented in Werner Herzog and Ecstatic Truth offer visionary realizations of nonfiction work.
WEEK ONE
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9
6:00 pm – Burden of Dreams (Les Blank, USA, 1982, 95 min.)
8:30 pm – Grizzly Man (Werner Herzog, USA, 2005, 104 min.)
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10
6:00 pm – The Great Ecstasy of the Woodcutter Steiner with How Much Wood Could a Woodchuck Chuck (Werner Herzog, Germany, 1972/1976, TRT 92 min.)
8:30 pm – The Gleaners and I (Agnès Varda, France, 2000, 82 min.)
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11
3:00 pm – Jag Mandir: The Eccentric Private Theatre of the Maharaja of Udaipur (Werner Herzog, Austria/Germany, 1991, 85 min.)
5:00 pm – Bells from the Deep with Pilgrimage (Werner Herzog, Germany/UK, 1993/2001, TRT 78 min.)
8:30 pm – My Winnipeg (Guy Maddin, Canada, 2007, 80 min.)
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 12
3:30 pm – Into Great Silence (Philip Gröning, Germany, 2006, 162 min.)
7:30 pm – Lessons of Darkness with La Soufrière (Werner Herzog, France/Germany, 1992/1977, TRT 83 min.)
WEEK TWO
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16
6:00 pm – Land of Silence and Darkness (Werner Herzog, Germany, 1971, 85 min.)
8:15 pm – Poto and Cobengo (Jean-Pierre Gorin, USA/Germany, 1980, 73 min.)
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17
6:00 pm – Fata Morgana (Werner Herzog, Germany, 1971. 79 min.)
8:00 pm – Gates of Heaven (Errol Morris, USA, 1978, 83 min.)
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18
3:00 pm – Goshogaoka (Sharon Lockhart, USA/Japan, 1997, 63 min.)
5:00 pm – Into the Abyss: A Tale of Death, A Tale of Life (Werner Herzog, USA, 2011, 107 min.)
8:00 pm – Encounters at the End of the World (Werner Herzog, USA, 2007, 99 min.)
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19
3:00 pm – God’s Angry Man with Huie’s Sermon (Werner Herzog, Germany, 1980, TRT 87 min.)
5:15 pm – Close-Up (Abbas Kiarostami, Iran, 1990, 97 min.)
8:00 pm – The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On (Kazuo Hara, Japan, 1987, 122 min.)
WEEK THREE
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 23
6:00 pm – Wodaabe: Herdsmen of the Sun (Werner Herzog, France, 1989, 52 min.)
7:30 pm – The Lion Hunters with The Mad Masters (Jean Rouch, France, 1965/1955, TRT 105 min.)
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24
6:00 pm – Cave of Forgotten Dreams (Werner Herzog, Canada, 2011, 90 min.)
8:30 pm – Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (Werner Herzog and Dmitry Vasyukov, Germany, 2010, 90 min.)
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25
3:00 pm – Portrait of Jason (Shirley Clarke, USA, 1967, 105 min.)
5:30 pm – A Man Vanishes (Shôhei Imamura, Japan, 1967 130 min.)
8:30 pm – My Best Fiend (Werner Herzog, Germany, 1999, 95 min.)
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 26
5:30 pm – Wheel of Time (Werner Herzog, Germany, 2003, 80 min.)
7:30 pm – Little Dieter Needs to Fly (Werner Herzog, Germany, 1997, 80 min.)
Tickets & Information
General public tickets are $12 and will be available online as of 10 a.m., January 17, 2017, or onsite at SFMOMA during regular business hours. Modern Cinema tickets do not include admission to SFMOMA galleries. Ticket-holders for Modern Cinema should enter through the museum’s Joyce and Larry Stupski Entrance on Minna Street (between Third and New Montgomery Streets). For up-to-date program information and tickets, visit sfmoma.org/modern-cinema.
About the Phyllis Wattis Theater at SFMOMA As part of the opening of the new and expanded SFMOMA in May 2016, the Phyllis Wattis Theater also received a major renovation and system update creating one of the most enjoyable places to see film in the Bay Area. A new, state-of-the-art NEC digital projector offers Modern Cinema the ability to present films on a 24 x 12-foot screen with the capacity to show aspect ratios of 1:37, 1:66, 1:85 and 2:39. The Wattis Theater can also screen films via new Kinoton projectors in 16 and 35mm formats. Because sound is integral to the cinematic experience, a new Meyer Sound Cinema Surround System enhances the nuance and precision intended by the filmmaker. Comfortable new seating with cup holders round out the Wattis Theater experience.
Modern Cinema’s Founding Supporters are Carla Emil and Rich Silverstein. Generous support is provided by Nion T. McEvoy and the Susan Wildberg Morgenstein Fund.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
SFMOMA is dedicated to making the art for our time a vital and meaningful part of public life. Founded in 1935 as the first West Coast museum devoted to modern and contemporary art, a thoroughly transformed SFMOMA, with triple the gallery space, an enhanced education center and new public galleries, opened to the public on May 14, 2016. www.sfmoma.org