JOURNAL
Essay
Woof!: Making The Werewolf of Washington
The long, bumpy road from crazy idea to the release of a definitive version nearly 50 years later, as told by the film’s writer/director.
Interview
Milton Moses Ginsberg
The director of the satirical Watergate-era chiller The Werewolf of Washington considers the nexus of horror and politics, and recalls his attempt to exorcise personal and national demons
with his camera.
Discussion, Introduction
Deliberating
Puppet Show & Mayday
In August, writers Price and Haslett joined us for a screening of two short works made in 1970 in support of the Black Panther Party’s New Haven chapter. This is a transcription of their illuminating intro and conversation.
Essay
The Collective Creation of Christopher’s Movie Matinee
How a director turned the reins of a documentary made at the height of the late ’60s counterculture movement over to a group of Toronto youth eager to tell their own story.
Essay
Roberta Cantow’s Intimate
NYC Portraits
On the award-winning director’s short works Clotheslines and If This Ain’t Heaven, whose subjects of isolation and domestic chores feel extra prescient these lonely, housebound days.
Interview
Marie Rivière
The actress who worked closely with Éric Rohmer, and made her own film in tribute to him, reminisces about the unforgettable roles he provided her with—specifically in The Aviator’s Wife, Le Rayon Vert, and Autumn Tale—and the joys of their collaboration.
Interview
Mary Stephen
A life-spanning conversation with the Hong Kong-born filmmaker and long-time Éric Rohmer editor, co-composer—and friend, who, off the set, was welcomed into the Rohmer circle, engaging in discussions on life and film, much music, and even more tea-drinking.
Interview, Video
Charlie Kaufman
The Oscar winner responsible for some of modern cinema’s most inventive and uncomfortable screenplays talks about the art of adaptation and getting a movie made, upon the release of his fourth feature as a writer-director, I’m Thinking of Ending Things.
Interview
Moussa Sene Absa
The Dakar-based filmmaker and visual artist, who was a close friend of Djibril Diop Mambéty’s, talks about coming on as the assistant director during the troubled production of Hyenas.
Essay
Oumou Sy: The Grande Dame of Senegalese Fashion
A look at the career of the fashion and costume designer whose contributions to Djibril Diop Mambéty’s Hyenas served to heighten the film’s exquisite beauty.
Essay
Ulrike Ottinger in Six Contradictions
On the vivacious films of New German Cinema’s most prominent female director, the subject of a recent retrospective at Metrograph theater, which is now carrying on digitally.
Interview
Judy Irving
Dark Circle co-director Irving recounts the long journey of making a film on the history and aftereffects of nuclear energy and how her documentary subjects have grown more heartening since.
Interview
James Gray
The director of Two Lovers spoke to Metrograph just prior to making an appearance at a Members-Only screening of his latest film Ad Astra this past September.
Interview
Michael Roemer
The director, co-writer, and co-producer of Nothing But a Man talks about the inception of his groundbreaking 1964 debut feature, which is still finding the audience it deserves.
Video
About Stations of the Elevated
A 20-minute illustrated history of the production of the film, with director Manfred Kirchheimer, recorded for Oscilloscope Laboratories’ limited-edition DVD release.
Essay
St. Clair Bourne and Paul Robeson United
The cinematic intersection of two African-American pioneers yielded a pair of Robeson explorations, made by Bourne 30 years apart, and a doc that feels as if driven by Robeson’s guiding principles.
Video
“Stations” Locations
The NYC settings of Stations of the Elevated revisited by the film’s director. This video originally appeared as a bonus feature on Oscilloscope Laboratories’ DVD.
Introduction
Claire Denis Introduces L’Intrus
Last April, Denis joined Metrograph theater to present two of her finest works. These are the words she shared prior to her 2004 film L’Intrus, which screened alongside No Fear, No Die.
Essay
Blood Work: A Reevaluation of Trouble Every Day
Claire Denis’s often misunderstood Trouble Every Day only gets better with age, and, like all of Denis’s work, stays inside you long after viewing.
Essay
Improvisational Jamming: The Process and Production of Personal Problems
A detailed look at the long, fascinating history of Bill Gunn‘s groundbreaking soap opera.
Interview
Alain Resnais
Resnais on the making of and motivations behind Je t’aime Je t’aime, which he insists is not science fiction, in an interview from 1968.
Essay
An Introduction to Duet for Cannibals, the Screenplay
Written New York in 1969, this intro appeared in the Noonday Original Screenplay edition, published in 1970 and now long out of print.
Essay
Jackson Heights on Screen
A cinematic journey through the Queens neighborhood explored in Frederick Wiseman’s 2015 documentary, In Jackson Heights.
Interview
The Hyena’s Last Laugh: A Conversation with
Djibril Diop Mambéty
The Senegalese master talks about making Hyenas and his plans for the future in a 1999 Transition 78 piece.
Essay
On Downtown 81
Edo Bertoglio’s vital and amazing document of the New York New Wave features Jean-Michel Basquiat and assorted cameos from important figures in the music world.
Interview, Video
Sontag/Varda: Lions and Cannibals
In 1969, Susan Sontag and Agnès Varda sat down together while promoting their films Duet for Cannibals and Lions Love.
Essay
Escaping Isolation with Éric Rohmer’s Summer Lovers
The ultimate pleasure of Éric Rohmer’s movies in recent months? Little breaths of fresh country air.
Interview
Fruit Chan
Fruit Chan talks about his sophomore feature, Made in Hong Kong, in this interview that first appeared in Hong Kong Panorama 97-98.
