BAMcinematek To Present Robert Redford September 8--16

From September 8-16, BAMcinématek, the repertory film program at BAM Rose Cinemas, presents Robert Redford: Artist & Activist, a 16-film tribute to Redford's 50-year career in film. Robert Redford will be at BAM in-person to discuss his work as one of the 20th century's most celebrated actors and as an Academy-award winning director, as well as a leading environmental and social change activist, and champion of independent cinema as founder of The Sundance Institute.

On September 12 and 13, Robert Redford will be making two rare in-person appearances at BAM to talk about his work. On Saturday, September 12, following the screening of All the President's Men (1976), Redford will discuss his key, behind-the-scenes role in the making of the film, his relationship with Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, and the historical significance of the film in the post-Watergate era. On Sunday, September 13, as part of the day's Redford: Film & Conversation program, Redford will participate in a more wide-ranging discussion about his career as actor, director and activist. The conversation on September 13 will take place in the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House and will follow the screening of four of Redford's best-loved films-The Way We Were, Out of Africa, The Natural, and The Electric Horseman-which will be shown simultaneously in all four BAM Rose Cinemas preceding his appearance in the Opera House.

BAM presented Redford with the idea of doing the retrospective following the organization's successful three-year partnership with The Sundance Institute (Sundance Institute at BAM, 2006 - 2008). "Robert Redford is a ground-breaking artist who can start a project at a grass-roots level and bring it to a much higher plane - he has done this repeatedly with his films, with his activism, and by nurturing countless films by other artists through The Sundance Institute," said Karen Brooks Hopkins, BAM President. "This retrospective is an opportunity to examine and appreciate all phases of Redford's singular contribution to the landscape of American cinema, as well as his immeasurable efforts as an environmental and political activist."

This 16-film retrospective was curated jointly by BAMcinématek's film curators and Robert Redford himself, and includes some of his most popular and memorable films, as well as work that he counts as his most personal and significant. In considering the films that would comprise the line-up, Redford also wanted to ensure that his frequent and influential collaborators were represented - among these directors Michael Ritchie, Sidney Pollack, George Roy Hill and actor Paul Newman. Seldom willing to be interviewed, Redford prefers to "let the work speak for itself," and views this series as an opportunity to have some of his essential films revisited in the broader context of his entire career and to discuss them in an open forum directly with his audience.

Achieving mainstream commercial success and realizing iconic status as a Hollywood leading man, Redford has also maintained a consistent focus on political and social issues with a distinctively American point of view. Shedding light on such difficult and controversial issues as government corruption, free speech, media deception, environmental pollution and abuses against Native Americans, Redford has managed to push forward an activist message without eclipsing his vocation as an artist. In 2002, the Harvard Business Review described him as a "quintessential tempered radical," someone who "rocks the boat without falling out of it." This classification is fitting for Redford's filmmaking career, as well as his role as founder of The Sundance Institute.

Robert Redford: Artist & Activist schedule
(All prints are 35mm unless noted.)

Tuesday, Sept 8 at 4:30, 6:50, 9:15pm
The Candidate (1972) 110min
Directed by Michael Ritchie
With Robert Redford, Peter Boyle
"...one of the few good, truly funny American political comedies ever made."-The New York Times
This Oscar-winning satire skewers the American political machine. Redford stars as a handsome young politician who compromises his liberal ideals in order to win a Senate race he was never supposed to have a shot at.

Wednesday, Sept 9 at 6:50, 9:15pm
Downhill Racer (1969) 101min
Directed by Michael Ritchie
With Robert Redford, Gene Hackman
"[...] an intriguing film that balances skiing and the majesty of Alpine scenery with an absorbing story... Redford contributes a sensitive, interesting portrayal. His interpretation is many-faceted and probing." -Variety
Redford stars opposite Hackman as a talented downhill skier whose cocky demeanor puts him at odds with his coach and his team. This look into the world of competitive skiing is a compelling character study of a man who lives only to win.

Thursday, Sept 10 at 6:50, 9:30pm
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) 110min
Directed by George Roy Hill
With Paul Newman, Robert Redford
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid launched Redford into superstardom and marked his first onscreen pairing with Paul Newman. Loosely based on the true story of the legendary bank robbers, the film garnered four Oscars the year it was released.

Saturday, Sept 12 at 2pm*
Quiz Show (1994) 133min
Directed by Robert Redford
With John Turturro, Rob Morrow, Ralph Fiennes
"He captures the full scope of a fascinating, overlooked story, also adding something of his own. Like Clint Eastwood, Mr. Redford now takes a lifetime's worth of experience as an American icon and uses it as a mirror, reflecting the culture that chose to lionize him."-The New York Times
Redford recreates the true story of the Twenty One game show scandal that rocked 1950s television viewers. Nebbish ex-GI Herbert Stempel (Turturro)'s winning streak ends when producers rig it so that charismatic intellectual Charles Van Doren (Fiennes) can win, an act of deception that permanently tarnished the reputations of all involved.

Saturday, Sept 12 at 5pm
The Sting (1973) 129min
Directed by George Roy Hill
With Robert Redford, Paul Newman, Robert Shaw
"Paul Newman and Robert Redford are superbly reteamed...George Roy Hill's outstanding direction of David S. Ward's finely-crafted story of multiple deception and surprise ending will delight." -Variety
Redford and Newman, reunited with Butch Cassidy director Hill, star as Depression-era con-men who team up to pull of the ultimate "sting" to avenge the murder of a friend. Full of double crosses and out-of-left-field plot twists, this classic 70s caper took home seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

Saturday, Sept 12 at 8pm*
All the President's Men (1976) 138min
Directed by Alan J. Pakula
With Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman, Jason Robards
"Some ingenious direction by Alan J. Pakula and scripting by William Goldman remove much of the inherent dramatic lethargy in any story of reporters running down a story...Robert Redford and especially Dustin Hoffman excel in their starring roles."-Variety
This is the gripping story of Woodward and Bernstein, two reporters who stumbled upon the biggest political scandal of the 1970s, and ended up taking down the Nixon administration. Full of political intrigue, the film has kept audiences spellbound since its release.

*A Q&A with Robert Redford and special guests TBA will follow this screening.
Tickets for this film and Q&A: General audience: $20; Members & Moguls: $16

Sunday, Sept 13 at 12:15pm
A River Runs Through It (1992) 123min
Directed by Robert Redford
With Brad Pitt, Craig Sheffer, Tom Skerritt, Brenda Blethyn, Emily Lloyd
"A skilled, careful adaptation of a much-admired story, A River Runs Through It is a convincing trip back in time to a virtually vanished American West, as well as a nicely observed family study."
-Variety
Redford's lyrical adaptation of Norman Maclean's memoirs recounts two brothers' experiences growing up in Missoula, Montana during the early 1900s. While the dutiful Norman (Sheffer) pursues his love of writing, his rebellious brother Paul (Pitt) turns to alcohol and gambling. The two connect, however, over fly-fishing which forms the film's central metaphors of family and redemption in this beautifully shot, heartfelt slice of Americana.

Sunday, Sept 13 at 12:30pm
Jeremiah Johnson (1972) 116min
Directed by Sydney Pollack
With Robert Redford, Will Geer
"The quality of legend pervades Sydney Pollack's Jeremiah Johnson, which stars Robert Redford in a role that must be very real to his own mind and feelings. It is a very attractive role, and Redford plays it with a reticence and directness that also seem as much a part of the man as of the performance." -The New York Times
Redford shed his star image to play the rugged title character in this spectacularly shot revisionist Western. Seeking to escape the confines of society, Johnson retreats to the Rocky Mountains in hopes of leading a secluded life in harmony with nature. However, he finds himself locked in a battle with the punishing terrain and a neighboring tribe of Native Americans.

Sunday, Sept 13-SPECIAL EVENT, Redford: Film & Conversation
The Robert Redford panel discussion in the Howard Gilman Opera House is preceded by the screenings below. There is one ticket for both a film and the conversation. Or audience members can buy a ticket for the Conversation only. Please see pricing below.

Tickets for Redford: Film & Conversation go on sale Monday, August 24.
The tickets are for both the films and conversation and will ONLY be available through the Opera House box office, online at BAM.org and by calling BAM's Ticket Services at 718.636.4100.
Tickets for Redford: Film & Conversation:
General audience: $20; Members and Moguls: $16
Tickets for Conversation Only:
General audience: $15; Members and Moguls: $11

At 3pm
Out of Africa (1984) 150min
Directed by Sydney Pollack
With Meryl Streep, Robert Redford
Based on the memoirs of Isak Dinesen, this sweeping romance recounts the experiences of European colonists in Kenya during the early 1900s. Stuck in a marriage of convenience, the willful Karen (Streep) falls in love with a charismatic but aloof hunter (Redford).

At 3:10pm
The Natural (1985) 134min.
Directed by Barry Levinson
With Robert Redford, Robert Duvall, Glenn Close, Kim Basinger
Based on the Malamud novel, The Natural follows middle-aged baseball rookie (Redford) who leads a losing 1930s baseball team to victory with a magical talent and a bat forged from a lightning struck tree. The Natural is a rousing paean to the game of baseball, destiny, and has the makings of legend.

At 3:15pm
The Electric Horseman (1979) 122min
Directed by Sydney Pollack
With Robert Redford, Jane Fonda
"...[an] invigorating new comedy that is acted to the nines by a fine cast, in particular by Robert Redford as an over-the-hill rodeo rider..."-The New York Times
One of his many fruitful collaborations with director Pollack, the film stars Redford as Sonny Steele, a washed up rodeo star and corporate shill who, disillusioned with his life, steals a horse during a publicity stunt and heads into the desert to release it into the wild. The Electric Horseman includes a memorable turn by Willie Nelson, who is also featured on the soundtrack.

At 3:30pm
The Way We Were (1973) 118min
Directed by Sydney Pollack
With Robert Redford, Barbra Streisand
Redford and Streisand are a pair of star-crossed lovers who meet in college: she's a Marxist Jew and he's a WASP-y jock with a knack for writing. Their relationship is tested when her politics threaten to undermine his screenwriting career during the height of the Hollywood blacklist. This work is at once a bittersweet romance and a pointed rebuke of McCarthyism.

Monday, Sept 14 at 6:50, 9:30pm
Ordinary People (1980) 124min
Directed by Robert Redford
With Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore, Timothy Hutton, Judd Hirsch
"...what I admire most about the film is that it really does develop its characters and the changes they go through...an intelligent, perceptive, and deeply moving film." -Chicago Sun-Times
Redford's directorial debut is an emotionally-charged account of the unraveling of a picture-perfect family. In the wake of their eldest son's death in a boating accident, an upper-middle class family is thrown into turmoil. Ordinary People is a pitch-perfect and devastating American tragedy.

Tuesday, Sept 15 at 6:50pm
El Norte (1983) 141min
Directed by Gregory Nava
With Zaide Silvia Gutiérrez, David Villalpando
"From the very first moments of El Norte we know that we are in the hands of a great movie. It tells a simple story in such a romantic and poetic way that we are touched, deeply and honestly, and we know we will remember the film for a long time." -Chicago Sun-Times
Following their parents' murder, two Guatemalan teenagers go to the US in search of a better life. Once there, they're met with more hardship, bigotry, and fear of being caught living as illegal immigrants. This watershed film of American independent cinema is a hugely moving chronicle of the immigrant experience. El Norte is one of the first films to emerge from Redford's Sundance Institute.

Tuesday, Sept 15 at 9:40pm
The Unforeseen (1992) 88 min
Directed by Laura Dunn
"Visually rich, narratively ambitious social-problem docs are as uncommon as point-and-shoot nonfiction harangues (and the ills they chronicle) are abundant, so Laura Dunn's The Unforeseen is a rare gift. Plainspoken yet urgent, it makes the wrist-slashingly depressing topic of real-estate development somehow transcendent." -Time Out
The American Dream goes head to head with environmental sustainability in this documentary about a massive real-estate development outside Austin, Texas that jeopardized Barton Springs, a water source treasured by locals, and became a lightning rod to mobilize environmental activism in the 1980s. Produced by committed conservationist Redford, the film chronicles the destruction of the natural world as it falls victim to the forces of unchecked development and makes an impassioned plea for sustainability.

Wednesday, Sept 16 at 6:50, 9:30pm
Three Days of the Condor (1975) 117min
Directed by Sydney Pollack
With Robert Redford, Faye Dunaway
When he returns from lunch to find his co-workers have been assassinated, CIA researcher Joe Turner (Redford) is thrust into a web of intrigue against a massive government conspiracy. Released during Watergate, this taut political thriller taps into anxieties about government corruption and surveillance.

BAM Rose Cinemas "offers one of the most civilized movie-going experiences in the city."-The New York Times

The four-screen BAM Rose Cinemas (BRC) opened in 1998 to offer Brooklyn audiences alternative and independent films that might not play in the borough otherwise, making BAM the only performing arts center in the country with two mainstage theaters and a multiplex cinema. In July of 1999, beginning with a series celebrating the work of Spike Lee, BAMcinématek was born as Brooklyn's only daily year-round repertory film program. BAMcinématek presents new and rarely seen contemporary films, classics from cinema history, work by local artists, and festivals of films from around the world, often with special appearances by directors, actors, and other guests.

Now in its 10th year, BAMcinématek has not only presented major retrospectives by well-known filmmakers such as Michelangelo Antonioni, Shohei Imamura, Manoel de Oliveira, and Luchino Visconti, but it has also introduced New York audiences to contemporary artists such as Pedro Costa and Apichatpong Weerasethakul. In addition BAMcinématek programmed the first U.S. retrospective of directors Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Arnaud Desplechin, and Hong Sang-soo. Recently BAMcinématek cocurated a three year summer collaboration of new feature/documentary/short films with The Sundance Institute, 2006-2008.

BAMcinématek launched the first BAMcinemaFEST, June 17-July 2, a sixteen-day festival of new independent films and repertory favorites.

Please visit BAM.org, and for more information, visit www.BAM.org/BAMcinemaFEST.

Sundance Channel is co-sponsor of Robert Redford: Artist & Activist. Additional support is provided by Jeanne Donovan Fisher. Rado Switzerland is the event sponsor of Robert Redford: Film & Conversation. Additional support for the screening The Unforeseen is provided by National Grid.

Leadership support for BAMcinématek is provided by The Joseph S. and Diane H. Steinberg Charitable Trust. BAM Rose Cinemas are named in recognition of a major gift in honor of Jonathan F.P. and Diana Calthorpe Rose. BAM Rose Cinemas would also like to acknowledge the generous support of The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation, The Estate of Richard B. Fisher, Jim & Mary Ottaway, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, Brooklyn Delegation of the New York City Council, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts, Bloomberg, and Time Warner Inc. Additional support for BAMcinématek is provided by The Grodzins Fund, and The Liman Foundation.

Special thanks to Sarah Eaton/Sundance Channel, Brian Block/Criterion, Paul Ginsburg/Universal, Mary Tallungan/Buena Vista, Jared Sapolin/Sony, and Sarah Finklea/Janus.

BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, BAM Rose Cinemas, BAMcafé, and Brownstone Books at BAM are located in the Peter Jay Sharp building at 30 Lafayette Avenue (between St Felix Street and Ashland Place) in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn. BAM Harvey Theater is located two blocks from the main building at 651 Fulton Street (between Ashland and Rockwell Places). BAM Rose Cinemas is Brooklyn's only movie house dedicated to first-run independent and foreign film and repertory programming. BAMcafé, operated by Great Performances, is open for dining prior to Howard Gilman Opera House performances. BAMcafé also features an eclectic mix of spoken word and live music for BAMcafé Live on Friday and Saturday nights with a special BAMcafé Live menu available starting at 8pm.

Subway: 2, 3, 4, 5, Q, B to Atlantic Avenue;
D, M, N, R to Pacific Street; G to Fulton Street; C to Lafayette Avenue
Train: Long Island Railroad to Flatbush Avenue
Bus: B25, B26, B41, B45, B52, B63, B67 all stop within three blocks of BAM
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Photo Credit: RD/ Leon & Dziekan / Retna Digital