Documentary Fortnight @ MoMA

With the blizzard outside, what better time to head inside and check some art and film. This is the last weekend to catch some of the amazing documentary films on view through MoMA's Documentary Fortnight program. Established in 2001, this annual event brings some of the world's most compelling non-fiction stories to NYC. The dynamic programming covers stories big and small ranging from the housing market in Williamsburg Brooklyn to the amazing collection of Western masterworks housed at Tehran's Museum of Contemporary Art (see below). Check out the full program here and a selection from a series of films focused on Iran that are screening on Saturday.


The Treasure Cave
2009. Iran. Directed by Bahman Kiarostami. Residing under one of the most vehemently anti-Western governments in the world, Tehran’s Museum of Contemporary Art possesses a treasure trove of masterworks that—virtually unseen for all but a few of the last three decades—are all but forgotten outside knowledgeable art circles. The film recounts the history of a museum that, despite possessing the most extensive collection of late nineteenth- and twentieth-century Western art outside the West, has been transformed into a place for honoring the martyrs of the revolution and Iran/Iraq war. In Farsi; English subtitles. 43 min.

Statues of Tehran
2008. Iran. Directed by Bahman Kiarostami. Statues of Tehran provides a brief overview of sculpture in Iran’s capital city, with a focus on two works. One of the first modern works to be erected in Tehran was created in the 1970s by Bahman Mohassess for what was then the Royal Family. Following the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the Iran-Iraq War, the city’s public displays were limited to revolutionary and ideological works, and Mohassess’s sculpture was destined to disintegration and storage. In contrast, Iraj Esskandari’s statue in Enghelab (Revolution) Circus has been standing in a prominent location of Tehran for the last twenty-seven years, a symbol of the revolution and the war. Now this statue is set to be dismantled and replaced by a subway station. Presented by Howard Weinberg, President, New York Film/Video Council, in collaboration with the New York Film/Video Council. This program is supported by the E Ike Eshagian Foundation. In Farsi; English subtitles. 60 min.

Saturday, February 27, 2010, 4:00 p.m. , Theater 1, T1 (U.S. premieres. Followed by discussion with Bahman Kiarostami)