A monthly and bi-monthly program highlighting challenging, controversial, and though-provoking new documentary films of outstanding artistic merit. The series offers a unique opportunity for audience members to discuss the films with each other and with the films' creators in a community setting. Curated by Livia Bloom.

Box office open for advance ticket purchases Mon-Fri 12-6 & from 1 hour before until the end of all events. During these hours, knock on the window if door is locked.
Press Contact: Sylvia Savadjian. Twitter: Follow Documentary in Bloom @docsinbloom

Talking Landscape: Early Media Work, 1974-1984 (2012)
Dir. Andrea Callard, 2012, 80 min.
World Premiere
Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jenny Holzer, Kiki Smith, Christy Rupp and Jack Smith were among the artists who filled a ex-massage parlor with artwork from top to bottom for The Times Square Show, a legendary exhibit co-organized by Andrea Callard as part of the 1970s powerhouse collective Colab. (Keith Haring even painted the air conditioner). Callard, whose own work will not long remain one of New York's best-kept secrets, includes her never-before-seen documentation of that event in Talking Landscape, her first feature film. This compendium of short pieces (including 11 thru 12, Fluorescent/Azalea, Flora Funera (for Battery Park City) and Lost Show Blues) here making its world premiere, was culled from a decade of her playful and strikingly innovative cinematic experiments. Dry wit and personal perception infuse Callard's colorful, existential documentary interventions. Whether climbing a seemingly endless series of ladders in her downtown loft apartment; creating quirky, private games to play with the camera; or ruminating on the clover, Ailanthus trees, and azalea bushes sneakily colonizing New York's parks and vacant lots, she casts a thoroughly original gaze on the city around her. Callard even visits New York's U.S. Customs House, now the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, though a series of ten hand-colored print collages overlaid with text.

Q&A discussion with director Andrea Callard, moderated by curator Livia Bloom, will follow the screenings on Thursday, February 16, and Saturday, February 18.

Callard's original prints will be on exhibit at The Maysles Cinema from February 1-March 1, 2012.

Good Hair
Dir. Jeff Stilson, 2009, 95 min.
Good Hair seeks to explore some of the aspects of African American hair and hair care. According to Chris Rock, he was prompted to produce the movie after his 5-year old daughter, Lola, asked him, "Daddy, how come I don't have good hair?" During his quest for knowledge, Chris Rock delves into the $9 billion black hair industry, and visits such places as beauty salons, barbershops, conventions, scientific laboratories (to learn the science behind chemical relaxers that straighten hair), and India, where many of the hair weaves worn by African American women are from. Special thanks to Meghann Burns and Roadside Attractions.

Preceded by:
Me Broni Ba
Dir. Akosua Adoma Owusu, 2008, 22 min.
Me Broni Ba is a lyrical portrait of hair salons in Kumasi, Ghana. The tangled legacy of European colonialism in Africa is evoked through images of women practicing hair braiding on discarded white baby dolls from the West. The film unfolds through a series of vignettes, set against a child's story of migrating from Ghana to the United States. The film uncovers the meaning behind the Akan term of endearment, me broni ba, which means "my white baby."

- November 12 and 13: Discussions with Good Hair producer/writer Nelson George and Me Broni Ba director Akosua Adoma Owusu.

Me Broni Ba

Good Hair

Paradise
Michael Almereyda, 2009, 122 min. USA
Harlem Premiere
Michael Almereyda’s Paradise is an audacious and profound collage of seemingly unrelated scenes of life around the world, from New York to New Orleans, from Korea to Iran. "Michael Almereyda’s Paradise is essentially a series of home movies, but home movies of a very high order. Paradise comprises 44 discrete scenes culled from digital video footage that director Michael Almereyda shot over the course of ten years during which he nearly always carried a camera with him. Aside from music at the beginning and end, only ambient sounds and voices are heard. Although it lacks most of the usual devices that indicate a director’s point of view, it’s hard to imagine a more personal film." -Mike Hale, The New York Times
"Glorious fragments forming a breathtaking whole" -Robert Koehler, Variety

- December 5 and 12: Discussions with director Michael Almereyda.

My Neighbor, My Killer
Dir. Anne Aghion, 2009, 80min. USA/France/Rwanda
U.S. Theatrical Premiere
Could you ever forgive the people who slaughtered your family? In 1994, Rwanda’s Hutu populace was incited to wipe out the country’s Tutsi minority, with 800,000 lives claimed in 100 days.. In 1999, the government began the Gacaca—open-air hearings with citizen-judges meant to try their neighbors and rebuild the nation. Through their fear and anger, accusations and defenses, blurry truths, inconsolable sadness and hope for life renewed, follow this emotional journey to co-existence. Winner of the Human Rights Watch 2009 Nestor Almendros Prize for courage in filmmaking and an Official Selection at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, this stunning documentary was ten years in the making.
Film website>
"Striking, remarkable, and quietly devastating" -Kenneth Turan, LA Times
"Restrained and ethically nuanced" -Jeannette Catsoulis, The New York Times
"This remarkable documentary about the Gacaca community tribunals is the most calmly moving guide yet to the emotional landscape of those who were left behind," -Lee Marshall, Screen Magazine

January 12, 14, 15, 16, 18: Discussions with director Anne Aghion.

Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi
Directed, photographed, and edited by Ian Olds, 2009, 84 min. USA/Afghanistan
U.S. Theatrical Premiere
Fixer is a harrowing film that follows Ajmal, a 24-year-old Afghan man who "fixes" meetings for foreign journalists with high-ranking members of the Taliban. "I bring one enemy to meet another," Ajmal explains in the film. When he was kidnapped along with an Italian reporter in 2007, their situation quickly goes from bad to worse. Fixer uses vivid interviews, a tumultous editing style and a variety of sources of digital footage--including contemporary video released by the Taliban--to tell the story of a man caught in the crossfire of the perilous conflict in Afghanistan. Fixer had its world premiere at the 2009 International Film Festival Rotterdam. In the U.S., it premiered at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival, where Olds won the award for Best New Documentary Filmmaker. Fixer also won the First Prize of the Jury at Documenta Madrid; the University Jury Prize at Pesaro, Italy; and was an official selection at more than 20 international film festivals.

*New York Times Critic's Pick!* As unsettling and complex as the country it traverses, Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi, Ian Olds’s stunning documentary is a deeply disorienting film propelled by a jagged anxiety that permeates every image and interview -Jeannette Catsoulis, The New York Times
The best documentary I've seen on Afghanistan--so good it's hard to imagine a better one. All jagged edges, blurs, and disconnects -Ann Jones, The Huffington Post

March 12 and 13: Discussion with Christian Parenti, The Nation journalist and Fixer field producer.

The Philosopher Kings
Dir. Patrick Shen, 2009, 70 min. USA
Harlem Premiere
"If you can't keep the house of God clean, you can't keep no house clean."
In search of wisdom found in unlikely places, The Philosopher Kings travels the halls of prestigious colleges and universities across America to learn from the staff members who see it all and have been through it all: the janitors. This thought-provoking, feature-length documentary weaves together the untold stories of triumph and tragedy from the members of society who are often disregarded and ignored, and seeks out the kind of wisdom that gets them through the day.
Website >
"Moved me to tears" -Jay Youngdahl, East Bay Express
“A supremely designed, fluent and delicately shot film that is everything that you don’t expect, and nothing that you do.” -David Day, The Boston Weekly Dig
“A hypnotic, moving paean to the complex lives of its subjects. The visuals are crisp, and Shen’s seamless editing creates conversation between his various subjects, as the spoken musing of one plays over the images of another. Kings arcs hard toward its uplifting ending, but it also completely earns it” -Ernest Hardy, LA Weekly

ON BEAUTY: THREE RARE SCREENINGS
DAISY: THE STORY OF A FACELIFT / FAROCKI'S AN IMAGE / YOUTH KNOWS NO PAIN
"A fascinating program comprised of three rarely shown films all dealing with plastic surgery and the construction of beauty. Definitely recommended."
-Scott Macaulay, Filmmaker Magazine

Daisy: The Story of a Facelift
Dir. Michael Rubbo, 1982, 58 min. Canada
NY Premiere
Middle-aged Daisy shares her decisions, doubts, and stomach-turning medical procedure in this rare featurette from the earliest days of cosmetic surgery.

An Image
Dir. Harun Farocki, 1982, 26 min. Germany
NY Premiere
A Playboy Magazine centerfold photo-shoot in Munich was documented by celebrated international artist Harun Farocki in this very rarely-seen short film.

Youth Knows No Pain
Dir. Mitch McCabe, 2009, 88 min. USA
Harlem Premiere
"Since my own dad was a plastic surgeon, as a child I would find birthday cards from friends with breasts on them, before-and-after slides of patients, and the occasional implant lying around," says Mitch McCabe in her candid new documentary.
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"Youth Knows No Pain subjects America's anti-aging obsession to an intimate, often unflattering close-up, and with an appreciable lack of vanity, director Mitch McCabe also holds up her own face--lines, imperfections and all--for the camera's scrutiny. McCabe's unique perspective as a plastic surgeon's daughter informs this lively, candid and thoughtful piece, which avoids the fashionable alarmism of so many social-issue docs as it weighs the costs and benefits of wrinkle creams, breast implants and Botox injections and allows viewers to decide for themselves." -Justin Chang, Variety

July 14-16: Discussion with director Mitch McCabe.

Daisy: The Story of a Facelift


An Image


Youth Knows No Pain

The Battle of Chile Marathon
Often discussed but little-seen, three rare marathon screenings of the legendary documentary by Patricio Guzmán, The Battle of Chile, will take place for September 11, the anniversary of the Chilean military coup. A landmark in documentary history, this remarkable film brings viewers into the Chilean political conflict. The film, narrated by the director, includes one of cinema's most famous shots: a cameraman who captures his own murder on film.
Special thanks to Jonathan Miller and Icarus Films.

Part I: The Insurrection of the Bourgeoisie
Dir. Patricio Guzmán, 1975, 96 mins, Chile/France/Cuba
The Insurrection of the Bourgeoisie examines the escalation of rightist opposition following the left's unexpected victory in Congressional elections held in March, 1973. Finding that democracy would not stop Allende's socialist policies, the right-wing shifted its tactics from the polls to the streets. The film follows months of activity as a variety of increasingly violent tactics are used by the right to weaken the government and provoke a crisis.

Part II: The Coup d'Etat
Dir. Patricio Guzmán, 1976, 88 min, Chile/France/Cuba
The Coup d'Etat opens with the attempted military coup of June, 1973 which is put down by troops loyal to the government. The final showdown, everyone now realizes, is coming. The film shows a left divided over strategy, while the right methodically lays the groundwork for the military seizure of power. The film's dramatic concluding sequence documents the coup d'etat, including Allende's last radio messages to the people of Chile, footage of the military assault on the presidential palace, and that evening's televised presentation of the new military junta.

Part III: The Power of the People
Dir. Patricio Guzmán, 1978, 78 mins, Chile/France/Cuba
The Power of the People deals with the creation by ordinary workers and peasants of thousands of local groups of "popular power" to distribute food, occupy, guard and run factories and farms, oppose black market profiteering, and link together neighborhood social service organizations. First these local groups of "popular power" acted as a defense against strikes and lock-outs by factory owners, tradesmen and professional bodies opposed to the Allende government, then increasingly as Soviet-type bodies demanding more resolute action by the government against the right.

"No new Hollywood film on conspiracies or murders can reach the level of suspense that these images create" -Judy Stone, San Francisco Chronicle, 1977
"A capital testimony. To be watched so as to never forget" -Nouvel Observateur, Parigi 1977
"In the running for the most riveting and vital historical document ever put on celluloid, Patricio Guzmán's 1975–78 guerrilla epic The Battle of Chile, given three marathon screenings at the Maysles, is an unembedded, unfiltered political grenade that explodes anew this election season" - Michael Atkinson, The Village Voice
"Remarkable and electifying!" -Steve Dollar, The Wall Street Journal

Screenings introduced by Chilean artist and musician Christian Torres-Roje.

February 18-19: Discussion with Port of Memory director Kamal Aljafari.
Sugar Hill Ale reception follows the February 18 screening.

The Day Was a Scorcher

Port of Memory

Preceded by:
The Third Body
Dir. Peggy Ahwesh. 2010, 9 min. USA
U.S. Theatrical Premiere
A hallucinogenic religious film is stitched together with early computer generated NASA video from 1980s virtual-reality tours in Peggy Ahwesh's inspired juxtaposition of the mysterious realms of faith and science.

"Critic's Pick! Robert Greene’s endearing documentary [finds] virtue in vagueness and significance in the everyday" - Jeannette Catsoulis, The New York Times
"Critic's Pick! This beguiling, intimate documentary...takes the ordinary and makes something uniquely cinematic out of it, thanks to Greene’s welcome flair for the poetic." - NY Magazine
"There's a strange and probably impossible purity to Kati with an I...Impossible because it's a contemporary story about young love that doesn't display or refer to any text messages or emails or Facebook, because it makes a Red Jumpsuit Apparatus song sort of make you want to cry, and because its central tension feels so profoundly earnest..." - Christopher Gray, Slant Magazine
"As part of curator Livia Bloom's bimonthly series devoted to new documentaries, Kati With an I, by New York filmmaker Robert Greene, gets a weeklong run, with bittersweet glimpses of a young life in transition that owes little to polished MTV realities." - Steve Dollar, The Wall Street Journal
"With a following built on the fest circuit, pic's weeklong run, starting Friday at New York's Maysles Cinema, could kick-start a grassroots national tour." - Robert Koehler, Variety
"Alluring, poetic...Among the best performances of the year"- Eric Kohn, indieWIRE
"Robert Greene’s lingering, lyrical film is an indelibly pure portrayal of contemporary young love that could have been made by Gus Van Sant" - Christopher Gray, The Boston Phoenix
"A revelation, lush and sensuous" - Pamela Cohn, Hammer to Nail
"9/10 stars! - Cynthia Fuchs, PopMatters

April 8 and 9: Discussion with Kati with an I director Robert Greene.
April 11: Discussion with Kati with an I producers Susan Bedusa, Douglas Tirola, and Sean Price Williams, who also co-photographed the film.

Kati with an I

The Third Body

Oct. 10 - 16, at 7:30 pm

Seven Songs for Malcolm X


Last Angel of History

Praise for Daguerréotypes:

"Daguerréotypes is required viewing for any Varda fan (really, for any serious student of cinema), and the opportunity to see it in a theater with an audience of other cinephiles should not be missed. Honestly, if I hadn't just made a trip to NYC last month, I would seriously consider a weekend trip out there for the sole reason of attending a screening. That's how much I love this film" - Kim Voynar, Movie City News

"Livia Bloom's Documentary in Bloom series at the Maysles Cinema usually introduces new nonfiction films, but it has something a little different in store for December: the U.S. theatrical release of a thirty-six-year-old French work. It’s hard to believe that Daguerréotypes, Agnès Varda's absolutely charming look at her longtime Parisian community, has never had a theatrical run in America, so it is exciting that her wonderful little tale is finally being shown on the big screen." Three and a half (out of four) stars review in This Week in New York

"Remarkable" - Pop Matters

"Varda is a brilliant filmmaker, and Daguerréotypes is a magnificent documentary." (Five stars review) - Jennifer Merin, About.com

"Agnès Varda's vérité documentary Daguerréotypes has aged splendidly, acquiring flavors that would've been inconceivable at the time it was made." - The Onion: A.V. Club

"Daguerréotypes is pleasant slice of cinema that shows a curious, confident artist [Agnes Varda] perfecting her craft, not just as a talented feature filmmaker, but also as an ethnographer who makes the voyage some fifty yards from her front door in order to redefine Paris" - Cinespect

"If the French are saving time capsules, this movie is a must for inclusion" - Trust Movies

Maria Garcia's excellent review of Daguerréotypes in Film Journal

"A portrait of an antique world that digs deep beneath its surface" - Slant Magazine

Rave review in L Magazine

"It's a lovely, small film, revealing a slice of 1970s Paris that is now long gone" - What (Not) to Doc

Melissa Anderson's review of Daguerréotypes in The Village Voice