You Can Still Enjoy Special MoMI Film Screenings With Their New ‘Virtual Cinema’

Though the Museum of the Moving Image is of course temporarily closed, you can still enjoy renowned film screenings like always. As the Museum works to create and share online and virtual resources for its now digital visitors, they have just released a whole new schedule of highly acclaimed international films that you can watch right at home!

It’s a great way to make use of your extra time indoors, plus help support a local cultural institution. This initiative is in partnership with independent distributors Kino Lorder, Magnolia Pictures, Grasshopper Film, and Film Movement.

Here’s what’s currently showing, as shared by the Museum:

Tickets are $12. When purchased through the MoMI-branded page (links below), a portion of ticket sales go to Museum of the Moving Image.

BACURAU

Through April 7

Dirs. Kleber Mendonça Filho, Juliano Dornelles. 2019, 131 mins. In English and Portuguese with English subtitles. With Sonia Braga, Udo Kier.

Bacurau, a small remote village in Brazil, mourns the loss of its matriarch, Carmelita, who lived to be 94. Days later, its inhabitants (among them Sonia Braga) notice that their village has literally vanished from online maps and a UFO-shaped drone is seen flying overhead. There are forces that want to expel them from their homes, and soon, in a genre-bending twist, a band of armed mercenaries led by Udo Kier arrive in town picking off the inhabitants one by one. A fierce confrontation takes place when the townspeople turn the tables on the villainous outsiders, banding together by any means necessary to protect and maintain their community. A Kino Lorber release. Watch here

THE WHISTLERS

Through April 17

Dir. Corneliu Porumboiu. 2019, 97 mins. In Romanian, English, and Spanish with English subtitles. With Vlad Ivanov, Catrinel Marlon, Rodica Lazar.

The latest film from acclaimed Romanian auteur Corneliu Porumboiu (Infinite Football; Police, Adjective) is a neo-noir thriller about a police inspector who embarks on a high-stakes heist with a beautiful femme fatale. Inspired by a real-life regional whistling language, Porumboiu crafts a stylish, infectious genre film that jets between the mountains of the Canary Islands and streets of Bucharest, with a cast of classic movie characters that somehow all fight perfectly within the director’s warmly caustic worldview. A hit at the Cannes and New York Film Festivals. A Magnolia Pictures release. Watch here

CORPUS CHRISTI

Through April 15

Dir. Jan Komasa. 2019, 116 mins. In Polish with English subtitles. With Bartosz Bielenia, Eliza Rycembel.

After spending years in a Warsaw prison for a violent crime, 20-year-old Daniel is released and sent to a remote village to work as a manual laborer. The job is designed to keep the ex-con busy, but Daniel has a higher calling. Over the course of his incarceration he has found Christ, and aspires to join the clergy—but his criminal record means no seminary will accept him. When Daniel arrives in town, one quick lie allows him to be mistaken for the town’s new priest, and he sets about leading his newfound flock. Though he has no training, his passion and charisma inspire the community. At the same time, his unconventional sermons and unpriestly behavior raise suspicions among some of the townsfolk. A Film Movement release. Watch here

VITALINA VARELA

Through April 14

Dir. Pedro Costa. 2019, 124 mins. In Portuguese with English subtitles.

A film of deeply concentrated beauty, acclaimed filmmaker Pedro Costa’s Vitalina Varela stars nonprofessional actor Vitalina Varela in an extraordinary performance based on her own life. Vitalina plays a Cape Verdean woman who has travelled to Lisbon to reunite with her husband, after two decades of separation, only to arrive mere days after his funeral. Alone in a strange forbidding land, she perseveres and begins to establish a new life. Winner of the Golden Leopard for Best Film and Best Actress at the Locarno Film Festival. A Grasshopper Film release. Watch here

THE HOTTEST AUGUST

April 3–17

Dir. Brett Story. 2019, 94 mins.

A complex portrait of a city and its inhabitants, The Hottest August offers a window into the collective consciousness of the present. The film’s point of departure is one city over one month, canvassing the five boroughs of New York City during August 2017—a month heavy with the tension of a new President, heightened anxiety over everything from rising rents to marching white nationalists, and recurring news reports of wildfires and hurricanes along the coasts. A Grasshopper Film release. Watch here.

And if you’d rather do more reading than watching, did you know the Museum also has two online publications? Perfect if you’re a film geek or if you want to delve deeper into fascinating subjects like the crossroads of science and film. They are:

REVERSE SHOT (reverseshot.org)

Founded in 2003 by Michael Koresky and Jeff Reichert, who serve as Editors in Chief, Reverse Shot is published by Museum of the Moving Image (since 2014). Articles include film reviews, interviews, festival coverage, and Reverse Shot’s annual Symposium series, a collection of articles on a single theme, concept, or filmmaker. New weekly columns, launched since the coronavirus outbreak: “Connected,” an exchange between two writers, each focused on one film, and “Our House,” reflections on the theatrical movie going experiences of the past.

SLOAN SCIENCE & FILM (scienceandfilm.org)

This online publication edited by Sonia Epstein covers the intersection of science and cinema by featuring interviews with filmmakers and scientists, news about goings on in the world of science and film, and original articles exploring the cinematic depictions of scientific ideas as well as the science of film. Regular columns include “Peer Review,” publishing writing by research scientists about topics in current film and television. In addition, more than 60 science-themed short films are available to stream, all of which have received grants from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. These films are part of the over 600 film projects that have been supported by the Sloan Foundation, and which are catalogued with loglines and filmmaker biographies on the site. Also available: STEM education guides to those shorts and features which have been released.