MoMA Announces Partnership with Berlinale and Deustche Kinematek

By: Kelsey Denette Jan. 10, 2012

The Museum of Modern Art announce a new partnership with the Berlin International Film Festival and the Deutsche Kinemathek to co-organize Berlin International Film Festival's annual Retrospective program. The 2012 Retrospective launches a long-term collaboration with MoMA, bringing this year's installment,Mezhrabpom-The Red Dream Factory, to The Museum of Modern Art, April 11-30, 2012. Each year, Retrospective devotes itself to showcasing an important director or a topic relevant to film history. Organized by the Deutsche Kinemathek-Museum für Film und Fernsehen since 1977, this popular Berlinale section gives viewers a first look at the oeuvre of a filmmaker, an epoch or a genre in a larger context, and provides unexpected discoveries. In the future, the Berlin International Film Festival, the Deutsche Kinemathek and The Museum of Modern Art will cooperate closely in selecting themes and organizing the Retrospective section.

"This collaboration between MoMA, the Deutsche Kinemathek, and the Berlinale represents the culmination of a decades-long tradition of cooperation and intellectual exchange between our institutions. The opportunity to jointly organize and present the Retrospective section at the Berlin Film Festival brings these efforts together in a coherent and highly visible manner. We are thrilled to announce this important new phase of our partnership," says Rajendra Roy, The Celeste Bartos Chief Curator of Film at MoMA.

Rainer Rother, Artistic Director of the Deutsche Kinemathek and Section Director of the Retrospective comments: "I'm extremely pleased to have our New York colleagues as our new partner. We share a long history of cordial relations. This new partnership will allow the Retrospective, which is frequently the outcome of extensive preparations over years, to reach more audiences worldwide."

In April, MoMA will present a large portion of this year's program under the title Mezhrapbom-The Red Dream Factory. This will make it possible for audiences in New York to explore a little-known period of film history, presenting the achievements of Soviet film studio Mezhrabpom from 1922-36, one that, nevertheless, had a far-reaching impact on the development of cinematic language around the world.

In the past, the Deutsche Kinemathek and MoMA have teamed up in a similar fashion on projects such as the film series East Side - West Side. Treasures from the MoMA Film Archives that screened in Berlin in 2004; and on the comprehensive presentation Weimar Cinema, 1919-1933: Daydreams and Nightmares that was shown in New York in 2010/2011. The Berlin International Film Festival has also enjoyed close ties with The Museum of Modern Art, most recently when Dieter Kosslick was invited by MoMA to present his vision of film, culture, cuisine and environment under the title Carte Blanche: Dieter Kosslick, the Culinary Cineaste successfully in New York.

"By collaborating with MoMA, we are expanding the Berlinale's international network and increasing the sustainability of our commitment to explore film history," comments Berlinale Director Dieter Kosslick.

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