National Gallery of Art - PROGRAM AND EVENTS
Film Programs
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Events will be added as they are scheduled. Please check back regularly for the most up-to-date calendar of events information.

Events By Type
Isaki Lacuesta: The Artist's Ruse
February 3, 10, 17, 23, 24

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.

Garbo the Spy
February 3 at 4:30PM

Juan Pujol García (code name Garbo, after the actress) was a famous double agent whose well-timed trickery made possible the success of the Normandy invasions. As a star player for both Britain and Nazi Germany during the war, he was the only spy to receive both the Order of the British Empire and the Iron Cross II. Isaki was a cowriter on this compelling and polished documentary that features historians Nigel West and Mark Seaman, and a host of informants including Garbo himself. (Edmon Roch, 2008, 35 mm, English, German, Spanish, and Catalan with subtitles, 88 minutes)

Cravan vs. Cravan
February 10 at 4:30PM

Maverick poet Arthur Cravan (1887–1918)—provocateur, professional boxer, and celebrated nephew of Oscar Wilde—is an ideal theme for Isaki's idiosyncratic method. Born in Switzerland, Cravan established himself in Paris and became involved with the art community there, crafting a persona as a flamboyant individualist and even editing his own avant-garde journal. Isaki uses French pugilist-turned-filmmaker Frank Nicotra as the vehicle to pursue the realities and myths of Cravan's life, his comings and goings in Europe and North America, and his uncanny disappearance in the Gulf of Mexico in 1918. (2002, 35 mm, Spanish, Catalan, and French with subtitles, 100 minutes)

All Night Long
February 17 at 4:30PM

Inspired by travel writer Marcos Ordóñez's Beberse la vida: Ava Gardner en España (2004), Isaki explores Hollywood star Ava Gardner's fanatical attachment to Spain. The actress visited the country for the first time in 1951 when cast as the lead (opposite James Mason) in Pandora and the Flying Dutchman, a story based on folkloric legend and shot in Tossa de Mar on the Costa Brava north of Barcelona. Working there changed Gardner's life. "A playful, accessible, and engagingly unorthodox documentary with countless clips from the actress’ back catalogue"—Neil Young. (2010, 35 mm, Spanish with subtitles, 80 minutes)

Los Condenados (The Condemned)
February 23 at 2:00PM

Los Condenados is Isaki's first work of pure fiction—a story, he says, "about the moral dilemma of remaining mute about the past." In Argentina, one-time 1970s revolutionaries (their lives interrupted by the so-called "Dirty War") gather in a mysterious jungle setting to find the remains of murdered friends believed buried there, their quest to dig up the missing bodies at odds with the lush green surroundings. At the center of the group is Martín (Daniel Fanego), rebel leader now living in Spain, who is persuaded to join the dig in spite of his ambivalent mood. (2009, 35 mm, Spanish with subtitles, 94 minutes)

La Leyenda del tiempo (The Legend of Time)
February 23 at 4:00PM

At the heart of La Leyenda del tiempo is the figure of Camarón de la Isla, a celebrated gypsy flamenco singer and hero-celebrity who continues to inspire even after his untimely death at age 42. The narrative unfolds in thematic segments, centering on the lives of two characters deeply affected by Camarón's voice: Isra, a gypsy boy unable to sing, and Makiko, a young Japanese woman captivated by the famous cantaor, who makes a pilgrimage to Spain to learn more. A third character, a Japanese tuna fisherman (inspired by Rossellini's Stromboli), links the separate stories. (2006, 35 mm, Spanish with subtitles, 109 minutes) Special thanks to ICAA.

El Cuaderno de barro (The Clay Diaries)
followed by Los Pasos dobles (The Double Steps)
February 24 at 4:30PM

As a truck filled with four tons of wet clay arrives from Spain in the Dogon region of Mali, the local people are mystified. What ensues then is an astonishing performance by Spanish artist Miquel Barceló and French choreographer Josef Nadj on top of the Bandiagara cliffs—El Cuaderno de barro is an athletic, stunning, and comical choreography for two men dressed in black suits using only their bodies to attack the wet clay, creating a magnificent work of art that harmonizes with the surroundings. (2011, HDCam, Bambara and French with subtitles, 60 minutes)

A second collaboration in Mali between Isaki Lacuesta and Miquel Barceló, Los Pasos dobles was awarded the top honor at the 2011 San Sebastián Film Festival. One of Barceló's obsessions is the French writer and artist François Augiéras (1925–1971), who loved exploration and mystery. In the mid-20th century Augiéras painted a series of massive frescoes (known as the "Sistine Chapel of the desert") that were swallowed up by the advancing sand. Isaki's quasi-fictional narrative is inspired by Augiéras, Barceló, and the Mali Dogon storytelling tradition, "concerned with creating a visual realm that approximates an internal reaction to Augiéras's painting and writing"—Chuck Bowen. (2011, HDCam, Bambara and French with subtitles, 87 minutes)