Sag Harbor Cinema: “Think Like A Filmmaker” @ S.H. Cinema Preservation Festival / Opens 11.8th

“THINK LIKE A FILMMAKER”

AT SAG HARBOR CINEMA PRESERVATION FESTIVAL

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A new gallery exhibit from acclaimed filmmaker Alan Berliner opens November 8th on the Cinema’s third floor featuring materials of filmmaking’s “bygone era” repurposed as sculptural art objects

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In conjunction with its annual Preservation Film Festival, Sag Harbor Cinema is proud to present “Think Like a Filmmaker,” an exhibition of works by Alan Berliner – an acclaimed documentarian (Nobody’s Business, Wide Awake, Letter to the Editor), experimental filmmaker, film essayist, and fine artist.

The exhibit will feature extraordinary art objects created using Berliner’s own collection of old motion picture film, leader, reels, splicers, synchronizers, and projectors – reimagined, reinvented, and transformed into sculptural forms, translucent collages, Constructivist compositions, Color Field studies, conceptual gestures, found objects, time capsules, and sometimes simply as unexpectedly beautiful things.

“Think Like a Filmmaker lives in a post-motion picture film world where projection bulbs have gone dark, mechanical gears have stopped turning, shutters have stopped spinning, and metal tools have slowly begun to rust. All that’s left is the heavy silent stillness of the basic objects and materials of filmmaking, now relics of a bygone era – sold and collected around the world as ‘mid-century’ antiques,” says Berliner. “I have tried to breathe new life into my collection.”

“Alan and I started talking about this exhibit over two years ago. The fact that it is finally happening is first and foremost a testament to the power of Alan’s artistic vision and his kindness. It is also a sign of how much our little 3rd floor gallery has evolved since we opened. In its mix of depth, exuberance, ingeniousness and sheer craft, Think Like a Filmmaker is the perfect embodiment of the magic combination of material and immaterial that lies at the heart of the notion of preserving cinema, as reflected by our Festival,” says Sag Harbor Cinema’s Founding Artistic Director Giulia D’Agnolo Vallan.

Berliner’s Audiofile (1993), shown at Walter Reade Theater Gallery at Lincoln Center and at Anthology Film Archives (Seoul/Nymax), will also be featured as part of the exhibition. The interactive audio installation consists of 108 individual drawers each containing a continuous loop recording of a unique sound element. At rest, the work is silent; when engaged, any number of drawers, from 1 to 108, may generate sound simultaneously. From Gregorian Chants to Rap Music, from water torture to crocodile tears, from a chorus of frogs to piano chords, the range of rhythms, textures, subjects and references contained within Audiofile is diverse and eclectic and allows the participant to compose their own unique sound collage. By giving sound a “spatial” dimension, within the physical domain of a filing cabinet, Audiofile attains a sculptural presence not generally found within the growing body of audio/installation artworks.

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ZOOM

“Think Like a Filmmaker” opens in conjunction with Sag Harbor Cinema’s Festival of Preservation, the East End’s annual festival dedicated to preserving film and its culture which runs November 8-11th, 2024. Please join us on November 8th at 5pm for a toast to Alan and his new exhibit.

This program is fully funded by the County of Suffolk. It will remain open to the public on the Cinema’s third floor through January 2025.

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ALAN BERLINER

Alan Berliner’s uncanny ability to combine experimental cinema, artistic purpose, and popular appeal in compelling film essays has made him one of America’s most acclaimed independent filmmakers. The New York Times has described Berliner’s work as “powerful, compelling and bittersweet… full of juicy conflict and contradiction, innovative in their cinematic technique, unpredictable in their structures… Alan Berliner illustrates the power of fine art to transform life.”

Berliner’s films, FIRST COUSIN ONCE REMOVED (2013), WIDE AWAKE (2006), THE SWEETEST SOUND (2001), NOBODY’S BUSINESS (1996), INTIMATE STRANGER (1991), THE FAMILY ALBUM (1986), and LETTER TO THE EDITOR (2019) have been broadcast all over the world, and received awards, prizes, and retrospectives at many major international film festivals. Over the years, his films have become part of the core curriculum for documentary filmmaking and film history classes at universities worldwide. All of his films are in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art.

Alan will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at the DOC NYC Visionaries Tribute on November 13, 2024. In 2006, the International Documentary Association honored Berliner with an International Trailblazer Award “for creativity, innovation, originality, and breakthrough in the field of documentary cinema.” Berliner is a recipient of Rockefeller, Guggenheim, and Jerome Foundation Fellowships and multiple grants from the NEA, NYSCA, and NYFA. He’s won three Emmy Awards and received seven Emmy nominations.

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As a not-for-profit 501(c)3, community-based organization, Sag Harbor Cinema is dedicated to presenting the past, present and future of the Movies and to preserving and educating about films, filmmaking, and the film-going experience in its three state-of-the-art theaters. The Cinema engages its audiences and the community year-round through dialogue, discovery, and appreciation of the moving image – from blockbusters to student shorts and everything in between. Revitalized and reimagined through unprecedented community efforts to rebuild the iconic Main Street structure after a fire nearly destroyed it in 2016, SHC continues a long historic tradition of entertainment in the heart of Sag Harbor Village.