![]() Many a struggling young filmmaker has been helped by the Hirshhorn program, notably those from Film Crash, a New York art-performance group that first showed its student shorts, then graduated to feature films. He returned a year and a half later to show the finished film." We had one director come in with a script for a work in progress and rehearse scenes with the actors. We call attention to the art and craft of it, and what it takes to complete a film. ![]() "We get people from the art community, from the diplomatic community, or people who simply want something different. "What surprises me most is how diverse our audience is," says Gordon. Director Chantal Akerman's sometimes difficult films are featured here, as are works by Cindy Sherman and Matthew Barney, artists who have made forays into filmmaking. Nearly one out of three of the films she screens are premieres for the Washington area or even the nation. She accepts about 10 percent of the work she sees. Then there are the Italian festivals at Taormina (in Sicily) and Florence, Spain’s San Sebastian, and Canada's Toronto festival. She attends Sundance (the festival popularized by Robert Redford) and Slamdance, its offshoot, where she got a number of the films shown at the Hirshhorn this year. Gordon goes to film festivals all over the world, from Rotterdam to Jerusalem. In November we're showing B Movie, a work in progress by our projectionist, Edgar Davis, who happens to teach film at Howard University." "We screen works in progress," Gordon tells me. Of course, just about every museum worthy of the name features some sort of film program, mostly documentaries connected with the exhibitions, or regular commercial releases that you pay to see, such as the spectacular IMAX productions at the National Air and Space Museum. And at the National Gallery of Art, which is not a Smithsonian museum but is definitely a presence on the Mall, Peggy Parsons regularly packs the 470-seat state-of-the-art theater, selecting the kinds of movies that attract long lines of fans. At the Freer, Michael Wilpers has found rare treasures in the Asian cinema, especially works from mainland China, and more recently, Iran. In this era of the $7 movie, Washington harbors a great secret: there are all sorts of free films showing day and night on the Mall.Īt the Hirshhorn, Kelly Gordon screens up to 400 pictures a year to bring us important new art-house films from all over the world.
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