The Museum of Modern Art presents a complete, mid-career retrospective of the films of Ira Sachs, a filmmaker who, in the course of seven features and five short films, has established himself as one of the singular voices in American cinema. From July 22 to August 3, Thank You for Being Honest: The Films of Ira Sachs will showcase the complete range of Sachs's intimate work, from experimental shorts to insightful social comedies to piercing autobiographical dramas, in the Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters. The series begins and ends with films that premiered with Sundance. Forty SHADES OF BLUE (2005), which won the Sundance 2005 U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize, will open the retrospective. The film is the emotionally gripping story of an aging Memphis record producer, hard drinker, and cad (Rip Torn), and his relationships with his Russian girlfriend (Dina Korzun) and his son Michael (Darren Burrows). The July 22 screening will be followed by a Q&A with Sachs, conducted by Rajendra Roy, Celeste Bartos Chief Curator of Film at MoMA. The exhibition is organized by the Department of Film.
The series closes with Sachs's most recent film, Little Men (2016), starring Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Ehle, and Paulina Garcia, and featuring breakout performances by two extraordinary 12-year-olds, MichaeL Barbieri and Theo Taplitz. The film explores the lives of two Brooklyn families and how their relationships are impacted when one inherits a brownstone containing a storefront rented by the other. As their sons become fast friends, tensions erupt among the adults over a rent hike, putting the boys' friendship in peril. The August 3 screening will also include a Q&A with Sachs, conducted by Roy. In Sachs's early films-The Delta (1997), Forty Shades of Blue, and Married Life (2008)-the protagonists find themselves in their own very isolated and painful processes of self-discovery. In these three very different, but closely aligned works, the central relationships are either fueled or destroyed by secrets. Keep the Lights On (2012), Sachs's most autobiographical film, is a "bridge" between his earlier work and the present since it shows characters hiding important parts of themselves from each other. Inspired by Sachs's own troubled 10-year relationship with a charismatic-and drug-addicted-male partner, the film is a significant re-certification of Sachs's position as a leading voice in New Queer Cinema.Videos