"I've always been interested in reality, and
I've always been terrified of escape. I don't
like escape in my personal life or in my art,
and I prefer to try to understand how I should
behave in this world based on what's really
around me. And I try to do that with my eyes
open to the best of whatever knowledge
I have, which is finite – I don't know everything."
- Ramin Bahrani
The 2012 Dorothy H. Hirshon Film Festival with Distinguished Director in Residence Ramin Bahrani
Tuesday through Friday May 8–11
Events include: screening hosted by distinguished director Ramin Bahrani, followed by Q&A; a student script reading presented by the New School screenwriting certificate program; a master class director Bahrani (invitation only); and the 33rd annual New School Invitational Film Show featuring the year's best works made by New School student filmmakers curated by a panel of industry professionals.
A bequest from the late Dorothy Hirshon, a trustee of The New School for over 60 years, established this annual event with the mission of promoting excellence and education in the filmmaking arts.
This years distinguished director was born in 1975 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina to Iranian parents. He has directed three feature films: Man Push Cart (2005), Chop Shop (2007), and Goodbye Solo (2008). Man Push Cart had its premiere at the Venice Film Festival and was also shown at Sundance. It was nominated for three Independent Spirit Awards, including Best First Film. Chop Shop premiered at the Cannes Film Festival as part of the Director's Fortnight. For that film, Bahrani was nominated for Best Director at the Independent Spirit Awards and was given the Someone to Watch Award. Goodbye Solo premiered at the Venice Film Festival and won the critic's prize (FIPRESCI) for Best Film.
Plastic Bag, a short, premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2009 and was also screened at Telluride and the New York Film Festival. It has a voiceover by Werner Herzog and music by Sigur Rós. Bahrani, an assistant professor in the School of the Arts at Columbia University, received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2009. Retrospectives of his work have taken place at MoMA, Harvard University, and at the La Rochelle Festival in France. Chosen as "Director of Decade" by critic Roger Ebert, Bahrani is nearing completion of his fourth feature film.
Schedule of Public Events
Tuesday, May 8
Director in Residence Screening: Man Push Cart and Plastic Bag
7:00 p.m. Admission free
Kellen Auditorium, Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, 66 Fifth Avenue
Man Push Cart (2005, 87 mins.)
This charming film is the story of Ahmad, a former Pakistani rock singer, who ekes out a living selling coffee and donuts to morning commuters from his push cart in Midtown Manhattan, because he wants to provide a better life for his estranged young son. The routine of his hard life is brightened by two developments: the arrival of a young Spanish woman working in a nearby newspaper kiosk; and an offer of assistance from a wealthy fellow Pakistani who remembers Ahmad's former life as a rock star.
Plastic Bag (2009, 18 mins)
In the not too distant future, a Plastic Bag (voice of Werner Herzog) goes on an epic journey in search of its lost Maker, wondering if there is any point to life without her. Plastic Bag encounters strange creatures, brief love in the sky, a colony of prophetic torn bags on a fence, and the great unknown. Longing to be with its own kind, the Bag goes out into the ocean into the 500 nautical miles of spinning garbage known as the North Pacific Trash Vortex. Will our Plastic Bag be able there to forget its Maker?
Wednesday, May 9
Original Script Reading
7:00–9:30 p.m. Admission free
Tishman Auditorium, 66 West 12th Street
The 3rd Annual Original Script Reading event celebrates the creative work of students who are completing The New School's Screenwriting Certificate program. With actors reading on-stage and video dramatizations, the audience experiences compelling stories brought to dramatic life as the Script Reading publicly showcases our student writers' talents.
Friday, May 11
The 33rd Annual New School Invitational Film Show
7:00 p.m. Admission is free.
Tishman Auditorium, 66 West 12th Street
This annual gala screening concludes the Dorothy H. Hirshon Film Festival. The best recent motion pictures made by New School students in the School of Media Studies (including narratives, documentaries, and experimental shorts), were selected for exhibition in a juried competition by a panel of distinguished filmmakers and film industry professionals. The screenings are followed by presentation of awards and a reception with the filmmakers, members of the faculty, and judges.
Schedule of Private Events
Friday, May 11
Ramin Bahrani Master Class
12:00–5:00 p.m. Admission is free, but advance reservations are required. RSVP to media@newschool.edu.
66 Fifth Avenue, Room 404
This year's Distinguished Director in Residence leads a master class for New School students that includes both a lecture and a workshop component. Seating is limited. The class is open only to students taking film production classes in The New School for Public Engagement: bachelor's degree students in the School of Undergraduate Studies and graduate students in the School of Media Studies. Seating is on a first-come, first-serve basis. Students must reserve seats in advance by email to media@newschool.edu.