MoMA SHOWCASES AWARD-WINNING INDEPENDENT FILMMAKER RAMIN BAHRANI

Trio of Films Includes an Advance Preview Of Goodbye Solo, Opening Theatrically In March

Filmmaker in Focus: Ramin Bahrani
March 4–7, 2009
The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters

The Museum of Modern Art announces Filmmaker in Focus: Ramin Bahrani, an exhibition of three feature films by independent writer/director Ramin Bahrani (American, b. 1975), comprising his award-winning films Man Push Cart (2005),and Chop Shop (2007), as well as an advance preview of his third feature Goodbye Solo, which will have its theatrical release in New York on March 27. Filmmaker in Focus: Ramin Bahrani runs March 4 through 7 in The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters. Bahrani, who was awarded the 2007 Someone to Watch Independent Spirit Award, will introduce the screening of Goodbye Solo on March 5 and will participate in a post-screening discussion.
           The exhibition is organized by Laurence Kardish, Senior Curator, Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art.
           Born and raised in the United States, Bahrani studied film at Columbia University in New York City before moving to his parents’ homeland of Iran, where he lived for three years. He returned to the United States in 2005 and made Man Push Cart, which captures the beauty of midtown Manhattan and the complexity of life in a multicultural city; it was the opening film at MoMA’s 2006 New Directors/New Films festival. Bahrani followed it with Chop Shop (2007), set in the junkyards and auto-repair shops of Willets Point, Queens.  His most recent feature, Goodbye Solo, premiered at the 2008 Venice and Toronto International Film Festivals and is the story of a young Senegalese cab driver who, having relocated to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, picks up a fare which changes his life.
           All films, written and directed by Bahrani, have found distributors and great acclaim in the U.S. as well as at respected film festivals abroad. Known for an admirable consistency and integrity in his vigorously humanist cinema, Bahrani often shoots on location with first-time actors, focusing on individuals on the margins of society who are vulnerable, under pressure, and determined to cope.

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Public Information:

    

The Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53rd Street, New York, NY 10019

Hours:

    

Films are screened Wednesday–Monday. For screening schedules, please visit www.moma.org.

Film Admission:

    

$10 adults; $8 seniors, 65 years and over with I.D. $6 full-time students with current I.D. (For admittance to film programs only.) The price of a film ticket may be applied toward the price of a Museum admission ticket when a film ticket stub is presented at the Lobby Information Desk within 30 days of the date on the stub (does not apply during Target Free Friday Nights, 4:00–8:00 p.m.). Admission is free for Museum members and for Museum ticketholders.

 

SCREENING SCHEDULE

Wednesday, March 4

6:15

    

Man Push Cart. 2005. Screenplay by Bahrani.
First-time actor Ahmad Razvi plays a man fleeing his past among the urban multitudes. Man Push Cart captures the siren beauty of midtown Manhattan and the complexity of life in a multicultural, multiethnic city that suddenly reneges on its comforting promise of anonymity. Print courtesy Films Philos, New York. 87 min.

8:15

    

Chop Shop. 2007. Screenplay by Bahrani, Bahareh Azimi. With Alejandro Polanco, Isamar Gonzales, Rob Sowulski, Carlos Zapata.
A streetwise kid and his slightly older sister, played by a pair of nonprofessional actors, cope with adolescence amid the junkyards and auto-repair shops of Willets Point, Queens. "A giant billboard from Shea Stadium looms and reads, 'Make dreams happen.' I was curious to know what dreams can happen in this place, and who these Dreamers were. The more time I spent there, the more I was drawn to the lives of the young kids who work and live in the auto-body shops" (Bahrani). Print courtesy Koch Lorber. 85 min.

Thursday, March 5

7:00

    

Goodbye Solo. 2008. Screenplay by Bahrani, Bahareh Azimi. With Soulemane Sy Savane, Red West, Diana Franco Galindo.
Combining his extraordinary ability to coax memorable performances from nonprofessional actors, his interest in location shooting, and his understanding of how so much of human drama is internalized, Bahrani relocates, to some extent, Abbas Kiarostami's Taste of Cherry from Tehran to Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The film tells the story of a Senegalese cab driver and his passenger, a seventy-year-old man who wants to be driven to a distant and lonely location. Print courtesy Roadside Attractions. 91 min. Introduced by Bahrani.

Friday, March 6

6:00

    

Chop Shop. 2007. Screenplay by Bahrani, Bahareh Azimi. Print courtesy Koch Lorber. 85 min. See Wednesday, March 4.

Saturday, March 7

6:00

    

Man Push Cart. 2005. Screenplay by Bahrani. Print courtesy Films Philos, New York. 87 min. See Wednesday, March 4.

Comments

[errolmorrisfan]

Be sure to check out 'Goodbye Solo' when it opens in theaters on March 27th. Roger Ebert has called it "a force of nature" and The New York Times' A.O. Scott says it has "an uncanny ability to enlarge your perception of the world." You can check out the trailer and theater listings at www.goodbyesolomovie.com.