Mar 3, 2015
Artist Development
San Francisco, CA – In its first announcement of the season, the 58th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 23–May 7) has revealed its first key program in the popular Live & Onstage lineup. San Francisco Film Society (SFFS) and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) have teamed up to co-present the west coast premiere of acclaimed filmmaker and artist Miranda July‘s performance work New Society, Tuesday April 28 and Wednesday April 29, 8:00 pm at the Brava Theater Center (2781 24th Street).
“It is a thrill to partner with the San Francisco Film Society to bring this exceptional artist’s newest work to audiences in the Bay Area in the context of the SF International Film Festival and the Museum’s On the Go initiative,” said Neal Benezra, Director of SFMOMA. “We look forward to continuing to present contemporary performance as part of our curatorial mission and furthering our collaborations with the Film Society once our museum has re-opened.”
“Without question Miranda July’s creative style is one of the most recognizable, complex and fruitful in the media today,” said SFFS Programmer Sean Uyehara. “Unafraid to tackle the risqué, troubling or awkward, July’s work continuously surprises with its ability to lead audiences into murky terrain with charm, wit and critical insight. No matter what mode—performance, writing, film, installation—July always presents the everyday anew, prodding us to reinvest the world with wonder.”
Miranda July’s newest theatrical inquiry investigates the ways that groups form, change and disintegrate. A work involving audience participation, New Society relies in part on an absence of information about what will happen during the evening. But it can be revealed that the experience will be both funny and moving, and we’ve been told that it “will test the limits of what is possible given two hours and a room full of strangers.”
Already an award-winning short story writer, July recently published her first novel, The First Bad Man, described by the NYT Book Review as “a wry, smart companion on any day.” Festival audiences perhaps know her best as the writer-director-star of the innovative feature-length films Me and You and Everyone We Know (SFIFF 2005, winner of the New Director Prize) and The Future (SFIFF 2011), which also reference the tensions between individual identity and social norms. She also created “Somebody,” a mobile app that gets strangers to read messages aloud to one’s friends. Her internet artwork, “Learning to Love You More,” which slyly enlists web surfers to become performance artists, was created in collaboration with Harrell Fletcher and its archive is a part of SFMOMA’s collection. July defies categorization and her work confronts conventions, conscripts participants and continuously provokes us to re-think our assumptions of art and society.
Designed to take the film festival experience beyond the screen with live music, stage performance and interactivity, the Festival’s Live & Onstage section is an annual highlight for the bold festival-goer seeking special once-in-a-lifetime experiences. These programs offer opportunities for attendees to experience unique pairings of popular contemporary musicians and film presentations, cutting edge multimedia and cross-platform work and in-depth artist talks from key industry figures.
Tickets to New Society are $35 for SFFS and SFMOMA members, $40 for the general public. Box office opens March 3 for SFFS and SFMOMA members, March 5 for the general public, online at sffs.org.
For general information visit festival.sffs.org.
To request interviews, contact your Festival publicist.
For photos and press materials visit sffs.org/pressdownloads.
SFMOMA
Founded in 1935 as the first West Coast museum devoted to modern and contemporary art, SFMOMA is currently undergoing a major Snøhetta-designed expansion project to open in 2016 that will significantly enhance gallery, education, and public spaces, enabling the museum to better showcase more of its expanded permanent collection. While the museum is temporarily closed, from June 3, 2013, to early 2016, SFMOMA will be On the Go with an extensive array of off-site programming across the Bay Area and beyond.
Visit sfmoma.org or call 415-357-4000 for more information.
58th San Francisco International Film Festival
The 58th San Francisco International Film Festival runs April 23-May 7 at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas, Castro Theatre, Landmark’s Clay Theatre and the Roxie Theater in San Francisco and the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley. Held each spring for 15 days, SFIFF is an extraordinary showcase of cinematic discovery and innovation in one of the country’s most beautiful cities, featuring nearly 200 films and live events, 14 juried awards and nearly $40,000 in cash prizes, upwards of 100 participating filmmaker guests and diverse and engaged audiences with more than 60,000 in attendance.