NEW YORK, NY.- The Museum of Modern Art announces the line-up for Doc Month, an annual initiative that showcases the best of contemporary and classic nonfiction films each February. This year’s edition comprises four distinctively focused series. At the centerpiece is the Museum’s eighth annual international festival of nonfiction film, Documentary Fortnight (February 11–25), a juried festival of more than 50 contemporary films from around the globe that explore a wide range of topics. Other series include the Angela Ricci Lucchi and Yervant Gianikian Retrospective, with 22 short and nine feature-length documentaries directed by the Italian filmmaking team (February 2–28); Oscar’s Docs, 1946-56: Optimism and Adventure!, a selection of post-World War II short and feature-length narratives from the archive of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (February 2–9); and the 81st Academy-Nominated Documentary Shorts, featuring the 2009 nominees (February 15). Doc Month screenings are presented from February 1 through February 28, 2009, in The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters and The Celeste Bartos Theater.

Other documentaries rounding out February’s Doc Month include Latin American Focus: Juan Mandelbaum’s Our Disappeared, a deeply personal film about kidnappings and torture that took place during Argentina’s military dictatorship of 1976-83 (February 26); A Tribute to George C. Stoney, with four films by the father of public access television and the dean of American documentary filmmakers (February 27, 28); Collaborations in the Collection, a selection of Helen van Dongen’s groundbreaking editing work with acclaimed documentary directors Joris Ivens and Robert J. Flaherty (February 26—28); and MoMA Presents: Kevin Merz’s Glorious Exit, a week-long run of a film about a son who returns to Nigeria to attend to his father’s traditional burial.

Documentary Fortnight, 2009
February 11–25
The 2009 edition of Documentary Fortnight, MoMA’s annual festival of nonfiction film, features 50 selections from around the globe, all but two of which are having their New York, U.S., or world premieres. Many of this year’s films focus on the American political landscape and zeitgeist and explore lyrical approaches to nonfiction film, including the festival’s opening night sneak preview of The People Speak. Inspired by Howard Zinn’s books A People’s History of the United States and Voices of a People’s History of the United States (co-authored with Anthony Arnove), the longanticipated opening night film will be followed by musical performances and readings by Stacey Ann Chin, Michael Ealy, Lupe Fiasco, Rick Robinson of the Black Crowes, David Strathairn, Marisa Tomei, Kerry Washington, and Harris Yulin, and by a discussion with directors Howard Zinn, Anthony Arnove, and Chris Moore. Many of the films in Documentary Fortnight are followed by discussions with the directors.

Other Documentary Fortnight films tackle American topics as varied as the tradition of marriage (Bachelorette, 34), nuclear missiles in North Dakota (Minot, North Dakota), and abandoned labor towns in California (California Company Town). Additional issues addressed include a rare glimpse into life on the frontlines of the war in Iraq (Iraqi Short Films, A Soldier’s Story); Japanese taboos on the subject of mental illness (Mental); a look inside the latest developments in human facsimile robotics (Mechanical Love); and personal experiences with chemotherapy treatment (The Face of a Woman and A Horse is Not a Metaphor). In keeping with tradition, a New York-themed story closes the festival, and this year’s feature is Brooklyn DIY, a long overdue examination of the creative renaissance and gentrification of Williamsburg, Brooklyn—one of the most vibrant and rebellious artistic communities to arise in the 1980s.

Supplementing the selection of nonfiction films, Documentary Fortnight features a night of storytelling by filmmakers with The Moth: Stories from Behind the Scenes of Nonfiction Film, a live gathering of five performers, each of whom will share behind-the-scene stories of documentary filmmaking.

Angela Ricci Lucchi and Yervant Gianikian Retrospective
February 2—28
The Italian filmmaking team of Angela Ricci Lucchi and Yervant Gianikian burst onto the film scene in 1986 with their landmark experimental work From the Pole to the Equator. This startling film of archival footage placed them at the forefront of the avant-garde documentary film movement and introduced what would become recurrent themes in their work: peace and war, imperialism, and the exploitation of the underprivileged. The pair’s signature style often involves the manipulation of rare footage through re-photographing, selectively hand-tinting, and altering film speed to produce a final work of a distinctly otherworldly quality. The stunning visuals Gianikian and Ricci Lucchi create—and often enhance with original music—unravel ideologies and conflicts in a given moment in history. This strategy reveals depths of meaning, symbols, and visual metaphors that might otherwise be lost to viewers.

The retrospective comprises 22 of their short and nine feature-length narratives, among them From the Pole to the Equator (1986), Oh! Uomo (Oh! Man) (2004), and the U.S. premiere of their most recent production, Ghiro ghiro tondo (2007), which explores issues of war and peace. All films are directed by Ricci Lucchi and Gianikian and are from Italy.

Oscar’s Docs, 1946—56: Optimism and Adventure!
February 2–9
Oscar’s Docs, the annual collaboration between the Academy Film Archive and the Department of Film, explores the evolution of documentary filmmaking through the mid-20th century. The postwar period ushered in an era of optimism that spawned an interest in exploration and adventure. Short-subject documentarians delved into the origins and aftermath of war (titles include Toward Independence, 1948; The Secret land, 1948; Daybreak in Udi, 1949; The Living desert, 1953; The Vanishing Prairie, 1954) and the promise of regeneration through the youth of the world (titles include Seeds of Destiny, 1946; First Steps, 1947; A Chance to Live, 1949; So much for So Little, 1949; Benjy 1951; Thursday’s Children, 1954).

Studios such as MGM, Columbia, and RKO, as well as innovative producers like Walt Disney and Jacques-Yves Cousteau, embraced the natural world as an enormous new canvas for heroic exploration. Much of the documentary filmmaking from this period can now be recognized as the inspiration for the “true-life” adventures that are omnipresent on television screens today.

Eighty-First Academy–Nominated Documentary Shorts
February 15
MoMA presents its annual screening of the Academy Award nominees in the category of Best Documentary Short. Details of individual titles will be available at www.moma.org.