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ARTS AND CULTURE REVIEW
International House Philadelphia is a home for scholars from around the world, and the venue for the most ambitious and diverse film programming in the city of Philadelphia. Through its distinctive programming, IHP maintains a diverse and welcoming community and broadens the horizons of its residents and the Philadelphia community through high quality international arts and humanities programs. At the core of the mission of International House exists an interest and dedication to community building and serving, and through programmatic choices this intent is explored and satisfied. The Fiscal Year 2013 season was an extraordinary success as audiences filled the Ibrahim Theater to sample a wide range of thoughtful and engaging arts programs. Whether it was newly restored lost classics from the 1960s, or the newest documentaries from some of today’s most forward thinking artists, International House was the place to see it all, and continued to carve out its role as a gathering place for all people of the Greater Philadelphia area to discover and grow within this multicultural environment. The summer started on a particularly cosmic note with a tribute to the recently deceased West Coast filmmaker Jordan Belson. The program was organized and introduced by Cindy Keefer, founder and director of the Center for Visual Music. The summer outdoor screening series launched into the “outer limits” with two 1970s sci-fi classics Dark Star and Silent Running. IHP’s longtime friends and collaborators at the ICA brought visual artist Wu-Tsang to screen his documentary Wildness which premiered at the Whitney Biennial just a few months earlier. International House was also the venue for the inaugural edition of the Blackstar Film Festival, a three-day celebration of films by and about artists from the African diaspora. Summer wrapped up with a visit from critic and curator Ed Halter, who hosted a screening of the newly restored and rarely seen film Normal Love by Jack Smith. Fall is generally one of the busiest times of the year at International House, and this fall was no exception. The Fall Arts Preview featured music by Philadelphia’s own Arc in Round with selections from French filmmaker Gerard Courant’s epic film portrait Cinematon. The work of British filmmaker and founding member of the Black Audio Film Collective, John Akomfrah, was examined in a two-day spotlight. Controversial performance artist Marina Abramovic was showcased in the new documentary The Artist is Present, which was screened in conjunction with the Live Arts Festival. Though he’s known as one of Britain’s foremost filmmakers, Richard Lester is originally from the Philadelphia area. International House celebrated his 80th birthday with some of the director’s most beloved films. One of the most overlooked figures in American independent cinema, Shirley Clarke finally got her dues as Milestone Films’ Project Shirley began rolling brand new restorations of the visionary director’s feature films. IHP presented her first feature, The Connection, along with one of her final works Ornette: Made in America. Also beginning in the fall was an ongoing series of programs dedicated to the life and work of Jonas Mekas, the Lithuanianborn artist and critic, and perhaps the most important figure in American underground cinema. International House was thrilled to honor this legend as he turned 90, participating in a world-wide celebration of his birthday. Culminating in a weekend of screenings and panel discussions in April 2013, The Cinema is Jonas Mekas was a major highlight of the programming year. The year ended with a special screening of Beauty is Embarrassing, a new documentary on artist and rabble-rouser Wayne White. White was present for a Q&A after the screening thanks to the magic of Skype. January began with the monumental touring program L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema. The program, organized by the UCLA Film & Television Archive for the Pacific Standard Time project and sponsored by the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, consisted of a month long exhibition of feature and short films by many of the key artists to come out of the UCLA film program in the 1970s and 1980s, including Charles Burnette, Larry Clark, Julie Dash, and Billy Woodbury. Following this important series, direction shifted to J.G., which is the title of the latest film installation by renowned British artist Tacita Dean. The film, her first to be shot on 35mm, made its US debut at the Arcadia University Art Gallery in early February. International House partnered with Arcadia to present a series of screenings curated by Dean which were inspired by her collaboration with the late author J.G. Ballard. Dean came to introduce the first screening, Elem Klimov’s devastating war epic Come and See. Other films in the series included the Australian dystopian sci-fi film The Road Warrior aka Mad Max 2 and the 1953 cult film The Incredible Shrinking Man. With visits from the legendary French New Wave director Agnes Varda as well as a program of rare Japanese genre films, the spring at International House was overflowing with activity. IHP was also proud to receive a grant from the Dolfinger-McMahon ??[?][? ???X^H^N?[XY?\?????[??]?? ][?H?[H ?\?Y\?[? ??\?^X?][?[????X^H^K H[?\??][?[^H? H ???\??H ? L? ?X\??[?Y ?] H[???[??[Y[? ][?\??][?[?\?H\? ?X?Z]?YH
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