About

Live music accompaniment will be by Madeleine Cocolas.

Daybreak Express 1953

Trains whoosh by and the sun crests the horizon. Daybreak Express is documentary filmmaker D A Pennebaker’s joyous and rhythmic portrait of a city waking up.

I wanted to make a film about this filthy, noisy train and it’s packed-in passengers that would look beautiful, like John Sloan’s New York City paintings, and I wanted it to go with my Duke Ellington record “Daybreak Express.”

...I took it to the Paris Theater to see if they would run it. By pure chance it ended up with the Alec Guinness comedy “The Horse’s Mouth,” which ran there for nearly a year. Since I had a large collection of jazz records, I figured I’d found a way to break into the film business with music films, and it did get me started, but I was never able to make another film like Daybreak. D A Pennebaker

5 minutes | All Ages

A Skewed Conversation 2019

A Skewed Conversation is an attempt to communicate with the city, asking are we integrated within it or do we disappear into it. We try to explore it and reconnect with it from a different point of view. Also, exploring if we connect with the surrounding space? With people? Do we realize our body is present in the spaces?

15 minutes | Ages 15+

Visions of a City 1978

'Originally shot in 1957 and edited in 1978. The protagonist, poet Michael McClure, emerges from the all-reflection imagery of glass shop and car windows, bottles, mirrors, etc. in scenes which are also accurate portraits of both McClure and the city of San Francisco in 1957. At the same time it is a lyric and mystical film, building to a crescendo of rhythmically intercut shots of McClure's face, seemingly trapped on the glazed surface of the city.' The Film-Makers' Co-op.

7 minutes | Ages 15+

A propos de Nice (On the Subject of Nice) 1930

‘Jean Vigo’s poignant view of the city of Nice is a creative "document" in the style of Dziga Vertov, and was in fact shot by Vertov’s brother, cameraman Boris Kaufman. The film rests mainly on the contrast between the idlers sprawled out in the sun, enjoying the luxuries of the hotels and casinos, and the poor sections of the old town.’ HFA

28 minutes | M