New York, NY – The Museum of Modern Art presents Kim Longinotto, a two-week exhibition showcasing 14 documentaries made over a 30-year span by internationally-acclaimed WMM filmmaker Kim Longinotto. Renowned for creating extraordinary human portraits and tackling controversial topics with sensitivity, compassion and humor, Longinotto is noted for her fearlessness and unique style of cinéma vérité filmmaking. Set around the globe from London to Cameroon, Tehran to Tokyo, the films featured in the retrospective tackle a diversity of difficult topics, often from the perspective of the least heard members of society. Longinotto will be on hand from London for the New York premiere of her Sundance World Cinema Jury Prize winning ROUGH AUNTIES (2009) and several WMM and MoMA events throughout the opening weekend.
Kim Longinotto runs May 7-23, 2009 in The Roy and Nuita Titus Theatres at MoMA, and is organized by Sally Berger, Assistant Curator, Department of Film at MoMA, in collaboration with Women Make Movies, the distributor of all 14 films for the exhibition. It marks the first time such a comprehensive retrospective of Longinotto’s work has been shown in the U.S. “We’re thrilled that MoMA has decided to honor such a wonderful and accomplished filmmaker,” said WMM Executive Director, Debra Zimmerman.
Over the course of her career, Longinotto’s films have earned her international acclaim and dozens of premiere awards at festivals worldwide. Highlights include the award-winning ROUGH AUNTIES, which will be broadcast on HBO in 2010; as well as her best known work, SISTERS IN LAW (2005), winner of a 2008 Peabody Award and two Cannes awards; and the BAFTA Award-winning DIVORCE IRANIAN STYLE (1998). Another recent film, HOLD ME TIGHT, LET ME GO (2007), will be broadcast on PBS’ acclaimed P.O.V. series in July, 2009, and is the winner of the Special Jury Prize at the International Documentary Film Festival, Amsterdam (IDFA).
“Her unique style and directorial eye produce compelling film portraits grounded by the sensitive and compassionate observance of her subjects in a wide range of challenging situations,” said exhibition curator Sally Berger. Longinotto recently became the first female director to receive the True/False Film Festival’s True Vision Award for dedication to the creative advancement of the art of nonfiction filmmaking. She is also one of only two woman directors to ever receive a career retrospective at the world’s premiere documentary festival, International Documentary Film Festival, Amsterdam (IDFA). Previous honorees include Agnès Varda, Werner Herzog, and the Maysles Brothers.