OPENING NIGHT
THE COLLECTOR Wed. Jan. 24 at 7:15
Olympia Stone. 2006. 60 min. US. Floating Stone Productions.
In 1960 Allan Stone abandoned a secure future as a lawyer to open a gallery showing works by the Abstract Expressionists and then-emerging artists including Warhol and Thiebaud. Forty-seven years later the Allan Stone Gallery is still going strong. In this documentary by his daughter Olympia, we see Stone in his element—at openings, visiting artists, among family, and in his Westchester home overflowing with paintings, African figures, prints, advertising signs, and piles of every manner of stuff. What accounts for this collecting gift—or is it a compulsion? A look at a fascinating man and the curious business of art.
*GUESTS:
Producer/director Olympia Stone, whose documentaries have been shown on the Discovery Channel, A&E, WGBH, MTV, and ABC.
Gil Shapiro, founder of Urban Archaeology
Lorraine Shemesh, a NY-based painter represented by the Allan Stone Gallery.
James Grashow, a CT-based mixed-media artist represented by the Allan Stone Gallery
Christopher Beach, president and artistic director of La Jolla Music Society and former director of the Performing Arts Center at Purchase College, will moderate.
*Sadly, Allan Stone passed away on December 15.  At the request of his family, the evening will continue as planned. Click Here to read his obituary in the New York Times (free registration is required).
Join us after the discussion for an Opening Night reception catered by Mrs. Green's Natural Market.
Tickets: $12 (members), $16 (nonmembers)

LOUVRE CITY Wed. Jan. 31 at 7:15
Nicolas Philibert. 1990. 85 min. NR. France, in French with subtitles.
The massive Louvre Museum, a city within a city, houses a world of thousands of art objects, miles upon miles of subterranean passageways, and 1,200 employees—only a fraction of which is visible to the ordinary visitor. But Nicolas Philibert (To Be and To Have) opens it all up to us as the only filmmaker allowed inside when the museum closed its doors for a five-month renovation in 1988. As he captures the workaday routines and the sublime moments of this backstage world, the Louvre gradually reveals its secrets.
GUEST: Stephen Rustow was lead planner and senior designer with I. M. Pei & Partners on the Louvre's expansion and reorganization. He also led the architectural team on the recent renovation and expansion of NYC's Museum of Modern Art and is now the principal of SRA Consultancy, providing design services for museums and other art institutions. This screening has been made possible with the cooperation of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Tickets: $9/members; $13/nonmembers.

EADWEARD MUYBRIDGE, ZOOPRAXOGRAPHER
Wed. Feb. 7 at 7:15
Thom Andersen. 1975. 59 min. NR. US.
Muybridge's groundbreaking work occupies the intersection of art, photography, and science, offering a catalog of human "types" of the period and a fascinating display of the dynamics of motion. By transferring to film Muybridge's sequential photographs of humans and animals in action, director Andersen (Los Angeles Plays Itself) transforms them into moving pictures, demonstrating the frame-by-frame genius behind the late-19th-century studies. A very rare public screening of this inventive film, which succeeds as both a piece on the dawn of cinema and a revealing portrait of a reclusive genius.
GUEST: Fresh from the recent exhibition "Moving Pictures: American Art & Early Film, 1880–1910," Lucy Oakley, Head of Education and Programs for NYU's Grey Art Gallery, will talk about Muybridge's public lectures and the influence of motion photography on the birth of film.
Tickets: $9/members; $13/nonmembers.

MATTHEW BARNEY: NO RESTRAINT
Wed. Feb. 14 at 7:15
Alison Chernick. 2006. 70 min. NR. US. IFC First Take.
How did installation artist Matthew Barney—best known to film audiences for his "Cremaster" series—commandeer a whaling vessel and employ 45,000 pounds of petroleum jelly and traditional Japanese ritual in his latest work? And just what makes him such a sensation? Follow Barney, and his collaborator and partner Björk, as he constructs his massive film project Drawing Restraint 9, a "narrative sculpture" telling a surreal and sometimes unsettling love story.
GUEST: Michael Kimmelman, chief art critic of the New York Times, was invited to be an observer on the set of Cremaster 2. An early champion of Barney's work, he has called him "the most richly imaginative artist to emerge in years." Kimmelman will sign copies of his latest book, The Accidental Masterpiece, after the discussion.
Tickets: $9/members; $13/nonmembers.

WHO GETS TO CALL IT ART?
Wed. Feb. 21 at 7:15
Peter Rosen. 2006. 78 min. NR. US. Palm Pictures.
Wherever you looked across the American art panorama of the 1960s and '70s there was Henry Geldzahler, whether at Warhol's Factory or Hockney's poolside. From art critic he rose to become the Metropolitan Museum's controversial first curator of contemporary art and NYC's Commissioner of Cultural Affairs. Rosen's documentary, a "lively, intelligent collage" (Variety), conveys a multifaceted picture of a man who inspired both admiration and antagonism. Featuring great archival footage and interviews with habitués of the downtown scene and Rauschenberg, Stella, Kline, and other artists.
GUEST: Peter Rosen has directed or produced over 100 films and worked with some of the most important figures in the arts, including I. M. Pei, Leonard Bernstein, Yo-Yo Ma, Martha Graham, Beverly Sills, and Plácido Domingo. He's currently working on a film about Garrison Keillor.
Tickets: $9/members; $13/nonmembers.

THE RAPE OF EUROPA
Wed. Feb. 28 at 7:15
Directors: Richard Berge/Nicole Newnham/ Bonni Cohen. Co-Producer: Robert M. Edsel. 2006. 116 min. US. Menemsha Films.
"A mesmerizing morality play" (Variety)
This epic new documentary chronicles the systematic theft and wholesale destruction of Europe's art treasures during World War II—as well as the heroic rescue efforts in the years that followed. Interweaving unseen footage of Nazi art looting, scenes of collections being carted off for hiding, and stories of contemporary restitution cases, the film also recounts the unprecedented mission of the US Monuments Men who were sent to Europe to safeguard and return pillaged art at the end of the war.
GUEST: Co-director and co-producer Bonni Cohen is a co-founder of Actual Films, the production company for such critically acclaimed documentaries as the award-winning Lost Boys of Sudan. She is currently working on a film about the making of the atomic bomb.
Click Here for the Variety review.
Tickets: $9/members; $13/nonmembers.

The Rape of Europa is also showing on Mar. 17, 18 & 20 in the "Westchester Celebrates Jewish Film 2007" series.