Screening Series 'The Life of Film' Celebrates a Decade of Reverse Shot

Founded in early 2003, the online film magazine Reverse Shot (reverseshot.com) is one of the most dynamic voices in contemporary film criticism. Made up of an ever-expanding community of writers in New York and beyond, Reverse Shot publishes reviews of contemporary films and essays that maintain a conversation with film history. Richard Porton of Cineaste magazine recently said: "Online magazines such as Reverse Shot . . . are in many respects, [this] generation's equivalents of Film Comment and Sight & Sound." To mark its tenth anniversary, Museum of the Moving Image is collaborating with Reverse Shot editors and writers to present a film series that celebrates the ongoing vitality of screen culture and film criticism-a sentiment that is especially urgent amidst constant media chatter about the death of film culture. The series The Life of Film: A Decade of Reverse Shot, taking place from April 4 through 7, 2013, features eight films from the past decade that the writers have selected as works that best represent the ongoing excitement and possibility of movies.

The series opens with two special screenings: Primer, the 2004 debut feature by Shane Carruth (Upstream Color) with the director in person on April 4; and a preview screening of Terrence Malick's new feature, To the Wonder, which stars Ben Affleck and Rachel McAdams, on April 5. Other, rarely screened titles in the series are Miguel Gomes's The Face You Deserve, Lucrecia Martel's The Headless Woman, Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno's Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait, and the avant-garde shorts O'er the Land by Deborah Stratman and Draft 9 and Shayne's Rectangle by Dani Leventhal. Each program will be accompanied by a new essay on Reverse Shot and introduced in person by a writer. On Sunday, April 7, there will also be a panel discussion of the state of film and criticism by a selection of the magazine's writers. With the exception of Primer and To the Wonder, all programs in the series are free with Museum admission.

"We wanted to do this series to counter all the tiresome talk about the so-called death of film and of film criticism with some concrete examples of why we should remain more than optimistic," said Michael Koresky, Reverse Shot co-editor. "All of these films-challenging and entertaining narrative, avant-garde, or documentary works-point the way to an exciting cinematic future."

"Reverse Shot has maintained a relationship with the museum via our ongoing programming collaboration around the series See It Big!," said Jeff Reichert, Reverse Shot co-editor. "We can't think of a better place to celebrate the past decade of our work and look to the bright future of movies than this essential, forward-thinking institution."

Koresky and Reichert conceived and have co-curated the Museum's ongoing screening series See It Big! since 2011.

"Reverse Shot has played a vital role in film culture in the past decade," said David Schwartz, the Museum's Chief Curator. "The popular film series See It Big!, at the Museum, celebrates the experience of seeing great movies in a theatrical setting. We are pleased to have this opportunity, with The Life of Film, to present an eclectic selection of great recent movies, and introduce our audience to some of Reverse Shot's finest writers."

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