Down and Out in America

World premiere of the new 35mm print

North American restoration premiere

Restoration world premiere

US restoration premiere

Los Angeles restoration premiere

North American restoration premiere

North American restoration premiere

Los Angeles restoration premiere

An animated, bubbly exploration of puberty; documentary portraits of staunch characters, working women, and single mothers; and bite-sized narratives of teenage and young adult ennui — these six works paint a portrait of independent filmmaking in the 1970s and beyond through a liberated female lens. This dynamic program of short films, each of which has been preserved by the Academy Film Archive, represent Student Academy Award-winning films, rediscovered independent works, and personal documentary portraits of family.

Total program runtime: 98 min.

In a Notting Hill hotel during Christmastime, Robina Rose collaborates with her friends to create a hypnotic, strangely beautiful world over the course of a night shift. The cinematic language, composed from a rich and warm color palette and meticulously designed, enigmatic soundscape, transports audiences into an impermanent dreamscape, free from the definition of both the real world and that of cinema.

Restoration world premiere

French American self-taught multidisciplinary artist Niki De Saint Phalle’s sculptures, action paintings, and colorful screenprints offer a whimsical, childlike vision of the world. Her values and hand-hewn aesthetic bridge to her works on film, including her first solo directorial effort, the feminist fairytale Un rêve plus long que la nuit. “I identified with the fool,” Saint Phalle once said of the film, "who takes risks, who goes out into the world not knowing what he’s doing but on a quest.” Casting her own daughter (Laura Duke Condominas) as a princess, Saint Phalle's personal yet universal allegory rips the rug out from under adolescence to expose the violence and chaos waiting in adulthood.   

Restoration world premiere

West Coast restoration premiere

West Coast restoration premiere

North American restoration premiere

Restoration world premiere

US restoration premiere

US restoration premiere

US restoration premiere

North American restoration premiere

The debut feature of director Prem Kapoor, this is considered the first Indian film to openly portray queer relationships. Based on the Hindi novel by Kamleshwar Prasad Saxena, the film focuses on truck driver and “dacoit” Sarnam Singh (Nitin Sethi), and his intimate bonds with dancer Bansuri (Nandita Thakur) and cleaner Shivraj (Amar Kakkad). Beyond its representation of bisexuality, Badnam Basti’s radical formal experimentation makes it exceptional even within the context of India’s New Wave movement. Long thought lost, a film print was discovered in 2019, and Badnam Basti has been restored to a new digital version by the Arsenal archive.

Note by Simran Bhalla, Curatorial Assistant of Curatorial, Academy Museum.

West Coast restoration premiere