World Premiere
Two Works-In-Progress: The Gates and The Dalai Lama in Central Park
| USA | 100 MINUTES | (Unknown)
In 1979, legendary filmmakers Albert Maysles and his brother David (1932-1987) started documenting The Gates just as Christo and Jeanne-Claude began pursuing their dream of adorning Central Park with saffron-colored cloth-a massive, controversial, and ultimately successful public art project. The long and exciting adventure culminated in 2005 with the installation of 7,503 16-foot-high vinyl poles and fabric panels throughout Central Park. Maysles, this time with Antonio Ferrera and 16 other cinematographers, recorded The Gates as the 16-day work of art was experienced by people from all walks of life, at all times of the day and night, and in all kinds of weather. The artists will join Albert Maysles and Antonio Ferrera in a discussion of this work-in-progress.
In 2004, one year earlier, Ferrera and Maysles headed a collaborative team of cinematographers in documenting the almost 200,000 people who gathered in Central Park to listen to the Dalai Lama. Like the film The Gates, this project concentrates on the people who attended the event as much as it focuses on His Holiness himself. You don't have to be a Buddhist to appreciate the Dalai Lama, but by listening to him you may find that you already are one.
An HBO documentary film.
Cast & Credits
Directed by
Albert Maysles
Direct Cinema pioneers Albert and David Maysles were among the first filmmakers to make nonfiction feature films (Gimme Shelter, Salesman, Grey Gardens) in which the drama of life unfolds without scripts, sets, interviews, or narration. In 1972, The Maysles Brothers' Christo's Valley Curtain was nominated for an Academy Award®. The pair collaborated until David's death in 1987. Albert has received a Guggenheim Fellowship (1965), a Peabody, an Emmy™, and five lifetime achievement awards. The film LaLee's Kin garnered him the Best Cinematography award at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, and was also nominated for an Academy Award®. In 1999, Eastman Kodak saluted him as one of the world's 100 finest cinematographers, and in 2004 he received the DuPont-Columbia Award. Albert also shot Jasmine Dellal's When the Road Bends…tales of a Gypsy Caravan, featured in the Festival's Discovery section this year.
Antonio Ferrera produced and codirected With the Filmmaker: Portraits by Albert Maysles. He has collaborated with Albert Maysles since 1998. He codirected and shot Voices of Cabrini, which follows the redevelopment of Chicago's Cabrini Green housing project and the ensuing effects of displacement on the African-American community. Ferrera's other films include It's an Adventure, Masada: Live at Tonic, and a work-in-progress titled Rain.
Matthew Prinzing edited and with Rebecca Marshall codirected Jonah and the Wail. He was the editor for With the Filmmaker: Portraits by Albert Maysles, It's an Adventure, and Masada: Live at Tonic, and served as a coeditor for National Anthem: The Vote for Change Tour.