Film Comment Selects Opening Night

Hey movie lovers! I've been working at the Film Society of Lincoln Center for a little while now, and they've just sent me an invite that they'd like my friends (read: YOU) to get! It's the opening night of their latest series, the Film Comment Selects, which is TONIGHT. You should come, and definitely check out the rest of this cool series of little-known films selected by the wise people at Film Comment.

Film Comments Selects
Friday, February 20th, 2009
6:30pm Screening of Paradise
8:00pm Talkback with Director Michael Almereyda
& Author Jonathan Letham

Afterparty to follow
The Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th Street

Please RSVP to Rob Mooney at rmooney@filmlinc.com if you would like to attend.

PARADISE

Michael Almereyda is best known for his hip, update of HAMLET, with Ethan Hawke, and his black-and-white vampire film NADJA. PARADISE continues his recent foray into documentary that began with WILLIAM EGGLESTON IN THE REAL WORLD. Like all of Almereyda's films, PARADISE is a lyrical, melancholy journey that reflects on the nature of creativity, and on what it means to be beautiful or exceptional in the world. It is an intricately arranged journal of Almereyda's own travels. Each section of the film (none longer than a few minutes) is introduced by the name of the city where the action takes place. In long uninterrupted takes, Almereyda introduces us to acquaintances, friends, children of friends and total strangers as they do everyday tasks: flying planes, watching birds, performing music, conducting funeral services. Some of these people are marginal and eccentric. Some, like Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth and Elina Löwensohn, are performers associated with Almereyda's previous work. Towards the end, we see one of the most admired and reclusive directors in the world at his everyday job of making films. Working in the diary tradition associated with Chris Marker and Jonas Mekas, Almereyda has constructed a synthesis of documentary reality and poetic atmosphere.