Thu Dec 10 at 7:00pm! We’re happy to bring James Toback — the controversial writer-director whose films range from 1978’s Fingers to 2009’s Tyson – to the IFC Center for a special “Movie Night” on Thursday, December 10 at 7:00pm. Toback will be presenting one of his favorite films, Orson Welles’s late masterwork F FOR FAKE (1973), followed by a discussion with filmmaker Amir Bar-Lev (Fighter), whose recent documentary My Kid Can Paint That also tackled issues of deception and fakery in the art world.

Trickery, deceit and magic abound in Welles’s free-form documentary F FOR FAKE, with the legendary filmmaker (and self-described charlatan) gleefully engaging the central preoccupation of his career-the tenuous line between truth and illusion, art and lies. Beginning with portraits of world-renowned art forger Elmyr de Hory and his equally devious biographer, Clifford Irving, Welles embarks on a dizzying cinematic journey that simultaneously exposes and revels in fakery and fakers of all stripes-not the least of whom is Welles himself. Charming and inventive, F FOR FAKE is an inspired prank and a searching examination of the essential duplicity of cinema.

In our “Movie Night” series, we turn over a theater to special guests and lets them call the shots. Audiences can discover what some of their favorite authors, musicians, artists, and filmmakers would pick if it were Movie Night at their house. Participants appear in person to acknowledge the brilliance of a timeless classic, spotlight an unsung gem, or defend a guilty pleasure. Past guests include filmmaker David Gordon Green, Slovenian theorist and philosopher Slavoj Zizek, singer-songwriter-actor Will Oldham, director and Monty Python alum Terry Gilliam, French auteur Gaspar Noe, author Jonathan Lethem, performer and director John Cameron Mitchell, iconoclastic filmmaker David Lynch, actress and filmmaker Isabella Rossellini, and comedian and “Saturday Night Live” cast member Fred Armisen and Canadian cineaste Guy Maddin.

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Mon, Sep 14 at 8:00pm

New York premiere of the second annual Doxita, a traveling festival of short non-fiction films. Doxita presents films that are under 40 minutes in length, representing a wide variety of documentary-domestic and foreign, short and longer format, serious and funny-and showcasing accomplished short non-fiction work that people don’t often get a chance to see.

Doxita: All in a Day’s Work

Labor is an inevitable part of our lives. For some it’s an enjoyable and fulfilling endeavor, for others a difficult and unpleasant necessity. While not romanticizing this fact of life, it is possible to find beauty in the routines that people perform. These filmmakers have crafted beautiful, and sometimes humorous, portraits of their subjects’ daily work.

China’s Wild West (UK, Urszula Pontikos, 10 min.) – An observational and austere look at a group of miners in Western China who chip away at a dry riverbed, hoping to discover jade.

Breadmakers (UK, Yasmin Fedda, 11 min.) – A tender portrait of a unique community of workers with disabilities who work together to produce organic breads for delivery in Edinburgh.

Wood (USA, David Fenster, 21 min.) – Beautifully shot images of a Northwest logging company and stories from its employees form this elegy to a rapidly disappearing type of job that includes pride in work, generational history and physical labor.

Shika Shika (USA, Stephen Hyde, 10 min.) – Filmed in the Peruvian Andes, this spirited film follows one family that for three generations has scaled the Peruvian Andes to “harvest” ice for shika shika, a colorful shaved ice treat they sell in the market.

The Tailor (Spain, Oscar Perez, 31 min. ) – In a small shop in Barcelona, Pakistani tailor Mohamed holds court over mounds of plastic bags containing customer’s clothing.

Doxita films are also playing before our regular features in the Short Attention Span Cinema program. Click here to view the full schedule.

Special retrospective screening with filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky in person!

Tue, Sept 8 – SOLD OUT

Winner of the Audience Award for Best Documentary at Sundance and named Best Documentary of the year by the New York Film Critics Circle, the National Board of Review and the Directors Guild of America, BROTHER’S KEEPER delves into the case of Delbert Ward, a semi-literate, elderly farmer from upstate New York who was sent to trial on suspicion of killing his brother. Calling it “the year’s best documentary,” Roger Ebert wrote that the film “has an impact and immediacy that most fiction films can only envy.”

Joe Berlinger’s new documentary CRUDE, an examination of the infamous $27 billion “Amazon Chernobyl” suit against Chevron, opens at IFC Center on September 9.

Welcome to Astrophysics Indiana Jones style! Filmmaker Paul Devlin follows the story of his brother, Mark Devlin PhD, as he leads a tenacious team of scientists hoping to figure out how all the galaxies formed by launching a revolutionary new telescope under a NASA high-altitude balloon.

Their adventure takes them from Arctic Sweden to Inuit polar bear country in Canada, where catastrophic failure forces the team to try all over again on the desolate ice in Antarctica. No less than the understanding of the evolution and origins of our Universe is at stake on this exciting escapade that seeks to answer humankind’s most basic question, How did we get here?

BLAST! is about the crazy life of scientists. Their professional obsessions, personal and family sacrifices, and philosophical and religious questioning all give emotional resonance to a spectacular and suspenseful story of space exploration.

The actor, comedian, musician and “Saturday Night Live” cast member in person to present the New York premiere of ASHES OF AMERICAN FLAGS, a new documentary capturing Wilco’s 2008 tour, followed by a discussion with filmmakers Brendan Canty and Christoph Green.

The Canadian auteur behind such movie-mad visions as CAREFUL and the recent MY WINNIPEG in person to screen a double feature of two of his favorites: Jean Vigo’s ZERO FOR CONDUCT and Nicholas Ray’s ON DANGEROUS GROUND, followed by a book signing of Maddin’s new MY WINNIPEG companion book.

Named one of the ten best films of 1971 by Time, MINNIE AND MOSKOWITZ stars Gena Rowlands and Seymour Cassel as an unlikely couple thrown together when Cassel’s parking lot attendant intercedes during a blind date gone bad. Reviewing the film upon release, Roger Ebert wrote, “The movie is sort of a fairy tale, Cassavetes says; it’s dedicated to all the people who didn’t marry the person they should have. It is a movie on the side of love, and it is one of the finest movies of the year. Cassavetes has always been an interesting director, with an inspired unpredictability to his work… in MINNIE AND MOSKOWITZ it gives us performances by Gena Rowlands and Seymour Cassel that are so beautiful you can hardly believe it.”

John Cameron Mitchell directed, wrote and starred in the film Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001), for which he received the Best Director and Audience Awards at the Sundance Film Festival. He was also nominated for a Golden Globe as Best Actor. He was executive producer of Jonathan Caouette’s award-winning documentary Tarnation (2004). His latest film Shortbus was released in 2006. He has directed music videos for the bands Bright Eyes and Scissor Sisters.

In the “Movie Night” program, the IFC Center turns over a theater to special guests and lets them call the shots. Audiences can discover what some of their favorite authors, musicians, artists and filmmakers would pick if it were Movie Night at their house. Participants appear in person to share why they made their selections: to acknowledge the brilliance of a timeless classic, spotlight an unsung gem, or defend a guilty pleasure. Past guests include the filmmaker David Gordon Green, Slovenian theorist and philosopher Slavoj Zizek, singer-songwriter-actor Will Oldham, director and Monty Python alum Terry Gilliam, French auteur Gaspar Noe, author Jonathan Lethem, and iconoclastic filmmaker David Lynch.

Tickets to this special event are $9.50 IFC Center members, $15 general admission.