World Cinema Foundation: Safeguarding Cinematic Treasures 

1/15/11 to 2/10/11

The mission of Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Foundation is to preserve, restore, and share the worldwide patrimony of film. This series presents restored 35mm prints of classics from Egypt, Hungary, Mexico, Morocco, Senegal, South Korea, Taiwan, and Turkey.

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  • Upcoming
    Films
  • Upcoming
    Events
  • Selected
    Objects
  • Past
    Films
  • Past
    Events

Past Films

  • Trances

    • Thursday, February 10 7:00 PM

    Ahmed El Maanouni (Morocco, 1981). The mighty Moroccan music group Nass El Ghiwane is the subject of this powerful concert film/documentary, a must-see for anyone interested in Moroccan music and culture. Martin Scorsese's first choice for his World Cinema Foundation's restoration work, and a key influence on Peter Gabriel's Last Temptation of Christ soundtrack. (87 mins)

  • Touki Bouki

    • Saturday, January 29 6:30 PM

    Djibril Diop-Mambéty (Senegal, 1973). Two youths cruise the streets of Dakar on a motorbike, looking for adventure and scams, in this African Easy Rider, awash with the raw energy of urban Senegal and global psychedelic youth culture. “Surreal, richly sumptuous, quite extraordinary”(Telegraph UK ). (88 mins)

  • The Wave

    • Sunday, January 23 4:00 PM

    Fred Zinnemann, Emilio Gómez Muriel (Mexico, 1936). Photographer Paul Strand shot this dramatized documentary about a fishermen's strike against an exploitative merchant in the Gulf of Veracruz. A fascinating document of Mexican Indian culture and social reform. (65 mins)

  • Al Momia

    • Saturday, January 22 6:30 PM

    Shadi Abdel Salam (Egypt, 1969). One of the first Egyptian films ever released in the United States, Al Momia tells the story of an isolated tribe whose only means of subsistence is to raid their nation's historic tombs for profit. A detective story, historical drama, and cultural metaphor rolled into one. “The picture has a sense of history like no other, and in the end, the film is strangely, even hauntingly consoling” (Martin Scorsese). (103 mins)

  • The Housemaid

    • Saturday, January 22 8:35 PM

    Kim Ki-Young (South Korea, 1960). This “Korean expressionist masterpiece . . . makes Fatal Attraction look like The Brady Bunch” (Chris Berry). Lecherous fathers, hard-working mothers, lewd housemaids, looming staircases, and rat poison: just another “normal” Korean household, gone to seed. “One of the best Korean films of all time” (Koreanfilm.org). (107 mins)

  • Dry Summer

    • Thursday, January 20 7:00 PM

    Metin Erksan (Turkey, 1964). Banned for years in its native Turkey, this Berlin Film Festival prize-winner from 1964 infuses Italian neorealism with the vibrant traditions of Turkish folk culture and songs, and tells of a wealthy farmer who exploits his fellow villagers. “An uncompromisingly brutal portrait of power, greed, and passion, yet stylistically it is quite startling” (London Film Festival). (75 mins)

  • Two Girls on the Street

    • Sunday, January 16 3:00 PM

    André De Toth (Hungary, 1939). A surprisingly polished, sophisticated melodrama from prewar Hungary, made by Hollywood genre-master André De Toth (Pitfall, House of Wax, Crime Wave) before he fled his native land. Two young women attempt to get ahead in Budapest, with predictably uncertain results. (85 mins)

  • A Brighter Summer Day

    • Saturday, January 15 6:30 PM

    Edward Yang (Taiwan, 1991). Young teens come of age in the politically charged Taipei of the 1960s in this Taiwanese New Wave masterpiece, starring a young Zhang Zhen (Red Cliff). “It has a novelistic richness of character, setting, and milieu unmatched by any other 90s film . . . a Rebel Without a Cause with much of the same nocturnal lyricism and cosmic despair”(Jonathan Rosenbaum). (240 mins)