M+ Cinema announces its international and multifaceted Autumn 2022 screening programme

The new edition includes a thematic programme which complements the M+ opening exhibition The Dream of the Museum in the Courtyard Galleries and M+ Cinema’s first filmmaker profile programme

M+, Asia’s first global museum of contemporary visual culture in the West Kowloon Cultural District, announces today the international and multifaceted Autumn 2022 screening programme at M+ Cinema, available to the public from October to December 2022. Tickets will go on public sale on Friday, 9 September 2022. M+ Patrons, Affiliates, and Members can enjoy a priority booking period with discount from Tuesday, 6 September to Thursday, 8 September 2022.

This second edition of M+ Cinema continues its multi-layered curatorial approach with thematic programmes, recent arthouse releases, restored classics, documentaries, and artist films presented in a total of 100 screenings over three months. Celebrating the first anniversary of M+ and complementing the M+ opening exhibition The Dream of the Museum in the Courtyard Galleries, Museum Reimagined spotlights international artists and filmmakers whose work contributes to the appreciation—and critique—of museums as ever-evolving sites of cultural production. Fever Dreams: The Cinema of Claire Denis is M+ Cinema’s first filmmaker profile programme. Co-presented with Alliance Française de Hong Kong as part of the 2022 Hong Kong French Film Festival (HKFFF), the programme dives deep into the groundbreaking career of internationally acclaimed filmmaker Claire Denis. Fever Dreams pays tribute to Denis’s four-decade-long career of depicting the nuances of human relationships as well as the impact of colonialism.

Continuing its offer of arthouse cinema, the programme features the first extended runs of recent critically-acclaimed films Licorice Pizza by Paul Thomas Anderson and Red Rocket by Sean Baker. M+ Cinema deepens its exploration of moving image practice in launching two new recurring series that are integral to its curatorial vision: Rediscoveries foregrounds forgotten gems and restored masterpieces that merit fresh viewings on the big screen; and Afterimage features artists’ moving image works that cross formal and conceptual boundaries to investigate alternative histories and speculative futures.

The Makers and Making series explores the creative practices of artists from various disciplines. This edition features stories about a man intent on saving Polaroid photography, Bulgarian-born artist Christo, and fashion designers Martin Margiela and Rei Kawakubo. Also on view are a set of special screenings that pay tribute to key figures in independent cinema from the Philippines and Argentina, and an additional programme showcasing meditations on urban solitude. Finally, M+ explores youth culture on screen with Stair in the Dark, a new Friday evening series at the Grand Stair.

Programme details

M+ Cinema, together with the museum’s other moving image spaces, including the Grand Stair, M+ Facade, and the Mediatheque, offers audiences exciting and diverse viewing experiences that enrich their encounters with and appreciation of visual culture.

The Autumn 2022 edition offers a rich range of curated programmes:

• Museum Reimagined
  Museum Reimagined features international artists and filmmakers whose works portray museums as ever-evolving sites of cultural production. The films shed light on the processes of exhibition-making and interpretation and examine how gallery displays stage and fictionalise history. While museums can shape powerful narratives, individual artists also draw conceptual and formal inspiration from their microcosmic structures, aesthetic attributes, and the historical value of their collections. This thematic programme launches in early October 2022.

• Fever Dreams: The Cinema of Claire Denis and Claire Denis: Friends and Inspiration
  M+ Cinema’s first filmmaker profile celebrates the illustrious career of French filmmaker Claire Denis. Produced over four decades, Denis’s diverse body of work delves into the mystifying desires of the human heart and the ubiquitous impact of colonialism. Her elliptical storytelling and mood-inducing images evoke primal instincts and reveal the marks left on the human psyche by sociocultural developments. Whether portraying the unadulterated beauty of human connection in Chocolat (1988) and 35 Shots of Rum (2008), or grappling with human nature’s destructive tendencies in Bastards (2013) and Trouble Every Day (2001), Denis takes audiences to places where few would dare venture. The companion programme Claire Denis: Friends and Inspiration enriches the core programmes with Denis’ cinematic inspirations including Yasujiro Ozu and her outstanding collaborations with filmmakers such as Wim Wenders, Agnès Godard and Mati Diop. Fever Dreams: The Cinema of Claire Denis, co-presented by Alliance Française de Hong Kong as part of the HKFFF, begins in late November 2022.

• Licorice Pizza (2021) and Red Rocket (2021)
  Bringing recent arthouse and festival favourites to the big screen, M+ Cinema continues to lead conversations about contemporary cinema. The Autumn 2022 edition presents two new films: the Oscar-nominated Licorice Pizza, a coming-of-age story set in 1970s California, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson; and the Cannes Palme d’Or–nominated Red Rocket, a tragicomic portrait of a washed-up prodigal son, directed by Sean Baker. Screenings begin in early October 2022.

• Rediscoveries
  Rediscoveries foregrounds films that merit fresh viewings and fosters new critical discourse. Presenting lesser-known or forgotten gems, rediscovered archival films, and recently restored classics, this series introduces audiences to key filmmakers whose contributions to cinema discourse and cultural histories are significant. This edition presents three feature film debuts by major international filmmakers Pedro Costa, Nietzchka Keene, and Clara Law. Audiences are invited to revisit the first films by these diverse artists to perceive the origins of their uncompromising visions. Rediscoveries launches in early October 2022.

• Afterimage
  This new series presents moving image works that cross formal and conceptual boundaries, such as hybrid documentaries, essay films, video art, and experimental cinema. Featuring both foundational and emerging figures, the series spotlights the artists’ figurative and abstract investigations into alternative histories and speculative futures within and beyond the screen. In this edition, M+ Cinema presents essay films The Anabasis of May and Fusako Shigenobu, Masao Adachi and 27 Years Without Image (2011) by Eric Baudelaire, and Fifth Cinema (2018) by Nguyễn Trinh Thi. This programme launches in early October 2022.

• Makers and Making
  Featuring thought-provoking documentaries, hybrid works, and essay films about the personalities and stories behind creative practice of all kinds, Makers and Making gives audiences insight into the personal and collective stories that contribute to a broader view on visual culture. The four films in this edition explore the worlds of analogue photography, fashion, and large-scale installation art. The selection includes An Impossible Project (2020) by Jens Meurer; Rei Kawakubo - Comme des Garçons - Renegades of Fashion Film Series (2019) by Paul G Roberts; Martin Margiela: In His Own Words (2019) by Reiner Holzemer; and Walking on Water (2018) by Andrey Paounov. Screenings in Makers and Making begin in mid-October 2022.

• Special Screening: La Flor (2018)
  A decade in the making, Mariano Llinás’ La Flor was filmed at locations around the world. Over a span of fourteen hours six distinct episodes unfold, each starring the same four actresses. Abounding with subplots, genre reinventions, and narrative digressions, this multi-pronged work from the legendary Argentine filmmaker is not only a tribute to literary sources and cinematic conventions, but also a masterful gesture of liberation from all manner of norms and expectations about where cinema came from, and where it might be headed. Audiences will relish the joy of storytelling and filmmaking with this one-of-a-kind-viewing experience, beginning in early October 2022.

• Dear Loneliness: Urban Solitude on Screen
  For centuries, urban living has been associated with a melancholic sense of loneliness. Despite living in close proximity, urban dwellers often find themselves trapped in a pervading sense of isolation, especially during the pandemic. Dear Loneliness: Urban Solitude on Screen configures moving image practices that arise from everyday solitude. Whether it is deserted landscapes or inner monologues of grievances, these video works project a longing for connections and unfold visual narratives that enable us to find solace on screen. This programme expanding on the related programme at the Mediatheque launches in mid-October 2022.

• Nick Deocampo: A Counter-Cinema in the Philippines
  Nick Deocampo is a documentary filmmaker and film historian. A key figure of experimental filmmaking in the Philippines, Deocampo’s films offer insights into the struggle of queer and other marginalised communities during the 1986 revolution that led to the toppling of President Ferdinand Marcos’ regime in the Philippines. Screenings include Oliver (1983), Revolutions Happen Like Refrains in a Song (1987), The Philippines: A Legacy of Violence (1989), The Sex Warriors and the Samurai (1996), Isaak (1993), and Private Wars (1997). This programme debuts in early November 2022.

Moving Image programmes at the M+ Grand Stair

• Daytime Screenings and Museum Playtime
  The new edition features a wide array of free-admission programmes located at the Grand Stair. The Grand Stair Daytime Screenings continue to offer visitors a closer look at the museum building and the artists in its collection. In conjunction with the thematic programme Museum Reimagined, the family-friendly screening programme Museum Playtime contains amusing and entertaining portraits of the museum as a playful site of visual culture and collective discoveries.

• Stair in the Dark: Beautiful Losers
  On a Friday night of every month, M+ presents Stair in the Dark, a ticketed screening series taking place during the museum’s extended opening hours. The inaugural 2022–2023 programme, Stair in the Dark: Beautiful Losers, features films that offer expansive and inclusive depictions of youth and the time and place in which their stories take place. The series kicks-off with a feverish portrait of late 1960s Tokyo counterculture with Toshio Matsumoto’s Funeral Parade of Roses (1969), screened with Keiichi Tanaami’s animated works from the M+ Collection. Musical or performative preludes related to the film of each evening will be offered as a mood-setting introduction before each screening. The first Stair in the Dark screening takes place on Friday, 7 October 2022.

Suhanya Raffel, Museum Director, M+, underscores the importance of M+ Cinema for the museum, ‘M+ Cinema reflects the museum’s commitment to presenting groundbreaking international visual culture to audiences in Hong Kong and beyond, and we welcome all visitors to enjoy the diverse viewing experience that M+ Cinema has to offer.’

Doryun Chong, Deputy Director, Curatorial and Chief Curator, M+, highlights the curatorial approach of M+ Cinema, ‘We are excited to present Museum Reimagined, a cinematic response to our opening exhibition The Dream of the Museum. Through international artists’ personal readings and creative interpretations, the programme expands on the exhibition’s display and narrative and takes viewers on a critical exploration of the role museums play in contemporary society. M+ curators aim to present our research in various spaces across the building and establish new connections between different artistic disciplines and the creators behind them.’

Silke Schmickl, Lead Curator, Moving Image, M+, shares her excitement about M+ Cinema’s continuous offerings, ‘A highlight of M+ Cinema programme for Autumn 2022 is the presentation of Claire Denis’ pathbreaking oeuvre, organised with the HKFFF. Building on the success of our inaugural edition, we expand the geographical scope for this new edition and add Rediscoveries and Afterimage, two important new recurring series to the programme. With over fifty works from Hong Kong and the rest of the world we welcome film lovers to make M+ Cinema a site for memorable, one-of-a-kind screening experiences and encounters.’

For M+ Cinema’s details, ticketing information and programme introduction, please visit the M+ website.

Remarks

About M+
M+ is a museum dedicated to collecting, exhibiting, and interpreting visual art, design and architecture, moving image, and Hong Kong visual culture of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District, it is one of the largest museums of modern and contemporary visual culture in the world, with a bold ambition to establish ourselves as one of the world’s leading cultural institutions. M+ is a new kind of museum that reflects our unique time and place, a museum that builds on Hong Kong’s historic balance of the local and the international to define a distinctive and innovative voice for Asia’s twenty-first century.

About the West Kowloon Cultural District
The West Kowloon Cultural District is one of the largest and most ambitious cultural projects in the world. Its vision is to create a vibrant new cultural quarter for Hong Kong on forty hectares of reclaimed land located alongside Victoria Harbour. With a varied mix of theatres, performance spaces, and museums, the West Kowloon Cultural District will produce and host world-class exhibitions, performances, and cultural events, providing twenty-three hectares of public open space, including a two-kilometre waterfront promenade.