For more than 20 years, the Vienna-based nonprofit distributor Sixpack Film has been disseminating the robust independent film culture of Austria—an eloquent and compelling cinema that flourishes far away from the commercial realm. Connected with a wide variety of artists, producers, festivals, and funders, Sixpack ensures a long lifespan for fragile works that prove tough to market via conventional channels. For Austria's vibrant avant-garde and documentary communities, Sixpack is a welcome resource and, for the rest of the world, Sixpack sets a standard, remaining unique in a field where marketing methodologies and financing are precarious and complicated. The films in the series are all recent Sixpack acquisitions. With special thanks to Ralph McKay.

One of the forgotten figures of midcentury French cinema, Jean Grémillon (1901–1959) entered filmmaking as a musician for the silent cinema. Caught up in the avant-garde spirit of Paris, he began making experimental shorts in the impressionistic style then in vogue. (In Maldone, an early presound feature, one can feel the vitality of these early experiments.) With the arrival of sound in the 1930s and the rise of new popular genres in France such as musicals and filmed theater, Grémillon left film temporarily but returned to make his mark in a new trend that was to become the ideal of French cinema in the prewar years. Poetic realism—dark and lyrical, populated by marginalized people in working-class locales—had captured the world's imagination. This series presents five of Grémillon’s beautifully crafted works. With thanks to Cinémathèque de Toulouse, CNC, Tamasa, and Cinémathèque Française.

The well-crafted cinema of Catalan filmmaker Isaki Lacuesta (born 1975) is a smooth blend of fiction, essay, allegory, documentary, compilation, even dramatic reenactment. Now building a reputation in Europe (in 2009 and 2011 he won the major award at the San Sebastián Film Festival), Isaki is a visual adventurer who seeks subjects that others would find daunting: a dadaist poet boxer, an ex–Argentine revolutionary, and a famous Spanish double agent are among his projects. Eschewing formal scripts, Isaki classifies his work as cine escrito (written cinema) and cine no escrito (unwritten cinema). "I always look, in an intuitive way, for a surprise." The series has been organized with the support of the Institut Ramon Llull and the Embassy of Spain.

Within European cinema, Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne occupy an exclusive spot, holding more coveted awards from Cannes than any other filmmaker. Their artistic success derives directly from the rigor of their method—meticulous use of natural light and handheld camera, and a documentary-like naturalism tinged with spiritual undertones. Scenarios consist of controlled studies of marginalized, often self-effacing characters, portrayed by unknown or amateur actors. Philip Mosley, author of The Cinema of the Dardenne Brothers: Responsible Realism, introduces the program. With thanks to the Embassy of Belgium. Presented in association with the Francophonie DC Cultural Festival.

"At a particular time and place in American cinema history, a critical mass of filmmakers of African origin or descent together produced a rich, innovative, sustained, and intellectually rigorous body of work, independent of any entertainment industry influence"—Shannon Kelley. The National Gallery joins the American Film Institute Silver Theatre in presenting a selection of films closely associated with the creative renaissance realized by of a group of African and African American students who entered the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television during the 1970s and 1980s. Extraordinary windows on the legacies of Black communities, the films in the series are remarkable not only for their evocations of everyday life, but even more for the revelation of a diverse talent pool and political resolve. Presented in association with UCLA Film & Television Archive and supported in part by grants from the Getty Foundation and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. The series curators are Allyson Nadia Field, Jan-Christopher Horak, Shannon Kelley, and Jacqueline Stewart. The series continues in April.

A master of the essay film, Su Friedrich has built an international reputation with dynamic films dedicated to a personal exploration of the self. Her approach, neither didactic nor exclusive, brims with humor and pathos, perhaps the most recognizable elements of her style. A tireless experimenter since the late 1970s and a major contributor to the development of gay-themed cinema in the 1980s, Friedrich's feminist perspective never ceases to reveal the complexities—or question the cultural assumptions—of everyday life. Her films have won numerous awards and have been the focus of retrospectives, including the Museum of Modern Art. Since 1998, Friedrich has taught film and video production at Princeton University.

Three film monographs from different stages of Lichtenstein's career include Roy Lichtenstein by Michael Blackwood (1976, 53 minutes); Lichtenstein in London by Bruce Beresford with David Sylvester and Alan Solomon (1968, 30 minutes); and Lichtenstein: Tokyo Brushstrokes by Mark Trottenburg (1995, 30 minutes). (DigiBeta and 16 mm, total running time 113 minutes)

Washington premiere

Peter Kubelka (born 1934) is without peer in the film world. The famous Austrian avant-gardist integrates cinema with architecture, music, ethnography, writing, performance art, and, above all, food preparation ("a meal is the ancestral sculpture of mankind"). Kubelka believes that film, like theater and painting, will never be obsolete ("digital is something else altogether"). Czech filmmaker Martina Kudláček spent hours with Kubelka at home, weaving a frank portrait and going beyond biography to uncover new insights. "Kubelka's cinema is like a piece of crystal . . . one could easily conceive that it was picked up from among the organic treasures of nature"—Jonas Mekas. (Martina Kudláček, 2012, HDCam, 232 minutes with intermission)

Introduction by Christel Schmidt

The marriage of Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, a union of two popular stars and two of the cofounders of United Artists, gave Hollywood its first power couple and one of the 20th century's celebrated romances. Although the pair worked side by side at a studio they co-owned, it was not until the end of the 1920s that they finally appeared together on film. Taming of the Shrew became a lavish showcase for their legendary talents. Preceding the feature is footage of Pickford, including archival newsreel clips and home movies. (Sam Taylor, 1929, 35 mm, 66 mins) Christel Schmidt is the editor of Mary Pickford: Queen of the Movies. A book signing follows the screening. Preserved by The Museum of Modern Art with support from the Celeste Bartos Fund for Film Preservation.

Fifty years ago, in August 1963, the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom became one of the biggest political rallies in the history of the United States. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech, and the rally encouraged passage of the Civil Rights Act (1964) and the Voting Rights Act (1965). James Blue's documentary, produced for the United States Information Agency (USIA), was intended for use outside the country. In 1990 Congress authorized the screening of USIA films domestically and, in 2008, The March to Washington was selected for preservation by the National Film Registry. (James Blue, 1964, 35 mm, 33 minutes)

Washington premiere of the director's cut

Nobel Prize winner Günter Grass's celebrated The Tin Drum—the prewar tale of young Oskar living in Danzig (Gdansk), who resolves to arrest his own development when he sees the awful savagery of adults—became an epic screen version, shot on location with a stunning international cast that included Charles Aznavour and Daniel Olbrychski. Extra footage restoring The Tin Drum to its original cut, including contextual details present when it won the Palme dor at Cannes but missing in release versions, adds 30 minutes of running time to earlier prints. (Volker Schlöndorff, 1979, DCP, German with subtitles, 163 minutes)

Washington premiere of the digital restoration

One of the great antiheroes of film history, Zbigniew Cybulski (1927–1967) plays Maciek Chelmicki, a soldier in the anticommunist and antifacist Home Army who receives one final demoralizing command, in Wajda's adaptation of the 1948 novel by Jerzy Andrzejewski. Set in a provincial town on May 8, 1945, as Poland was poised between a fresh Nazi defeat and the onset of the new Soviet dominance (the Red Army had pushed the Nazis out before taking hold), Ashes and Diamonds brings visual experimentation to a charged political thriller filled with symbols and haunting tableaux. This new theatrical restoration reinforces the film's reputation as "the seminal masterpiece of Polish cinema and one of the great masterworks of all time."—Peter Keough. (Andrzej Wajda, 1958, DCP, Polish with subtitles, 104 minutes)

Illustrated talk by Bruce Goldstein

The fabulous Nicholas Brothers, Fayard (1914–2006) and Harold (1921–2000), are among the greatest dancers of the 20th century. Despite racial hurdles, these self-taught African American entertainers became one of the biggest musical acts of their time, headlining on Broadway, radio, and television, and in vaudeville and nightclubs. Their show-stopping numbers in such films as Sun Valley Serenade and Stormy Weather made them international icons. Known for effortless balletic moves and jaw-dropping leaps, flips, and splits, along with a consummate grace and humor, they remain impossible to categorize. Bruce Goldstein, a friend of the brothers, is director of repertory programming at New York's Film Forum. (Various formats, total running time approximately 90 minutes)

Introduction by Brian Taves
Andrew Simpson, piano

Every film history hails Thomas Ince for transforming the chaos of early Hollywood production into an orderly process that evolved into the studio system. Brian Taves, author of Thomas Ince: Hollywood's Independent Pioneer, discusses the surprises to be found in his oeuvre. Ince created, for example, the first American cycle to star Asian performers—the team of Tsuru Aoki and Sessue Hayakawa. Their melodrama set in Japan, O Mimi San (1914), is followed by One a Minute (1919), with a conundrum no less vital now as then: how does the mom-and-pop business compete when the chain store comes to town? (35 mm, total running time 90 minutes) Special thanks to George Eastman House and the Library of Congress.

Railroad worker Duff (Ivan Dixon) walks into a small-town church in Alabama and falls for Josie (Abbey Lincoln), the preacher's daughter. Though both are African American, Josie's father is not supportive and, in the middle of a palpably racist town, the couple's difficulties only intensify. In the early 1960s, a naturalistic portrayal of the Black American experience spelled risky box office. Nonetheless, Nothing But a Man, with its Motown soundtrack, proved a huge success at international festivals. (Michael Roemer and Robert M. Young, 1964, 35 mm, 95 minutes) A Library of Congress restoration.

Alexandre Wimmer in performance

A celebration of Marseille—the largest port on the Mediterranean and a muse for filmmakers since the birth of cinema—begins with Marseille sans soleil, a poetic tale of three young people shooting a film about their city, with open-air cinematography reminiscent of the French new wave. This short was made by Marseille's self-taught cinéaste Paul Carpita, son of a dockworker, who was passionate about recording the daily life of the working classes. With thanks to Stephania Sandrone, Linda Lilienfeld, and Mary Baron. (Paul Carpita, 1961, DigiBeta from 35 mm, French with subtitles, 17 minutes)

In Coeur fidèle's spare silent melodrama, a Marseille barmaid tries to flee her lover for another man. From the old Marseille waterfront with its bistros and ramshackle buildings to the park with the old merry-go-round, the visuals capture vividly the sensations of another era. "All of modern poetry is here . . . the quais, the boats, the dirty rooms; the great inspiring themes of the literature of the day"—Henri Langlois. (Jean Epstein, 1923, 35 mm, silent, 65 minutes)

Washington premiere

Twilight touching down on a near-empty American townscape is the consistent theme of Gregory Crewdson's hyperrealistic photography. Fascinated by the power of light to transform a banal setting into a sublime scene, Crewdson goes to great lengths to understand the communities where he shoots, preferring the abandoned factory towns and tawdry suburban neighborhoods that have come to represent post-industrial America. When he is not working in a real place, he replicates "frozen moments" on a sound stage, shooting with a large cast and crew. (Ben Shapiro, 2012, DCP, 77 minutes) Presented in association with the Environmental Film Festival.

Washington premiere

In Belgium's secluded Ardennes, where people live close to the land, a mystifying force is changing the natural order—seasons are erratic, seeds don't sprout, and birds and bees ignore their labor. Without the cyclical rhythms, the local villagers are on the verge of lunacy and revert to their only hope for recovery—a sacrifice of one of their own. Weaving a surreal tapestry, The Fifth Season (La Cinquième saison) recalls the canvases of Magritte, Delvaux, and Ensor. "A mad elegy to the land"—Cameron Bailey. (Peter Brosens and Jessica Woodworth, 2012, HDCam, French and Flemish with subtitles, 94 minutes) Presented in association with the Environmental Film Festival.