The MacNider Art Museum’s 2011 Winter Film Series, Films in February, Movies in March, continues Saturday, February 12th, at 2:00 p.m. with Downside UP. This is the second installment in the 2011 Film Series. Admission is free and open to the public. Popcorn will be provided.
America’s largest museum of contemporary art, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA), opened in 1999 in an enormous abandoned factory in the filmmaker, Nancy Kelly’s, hometown of North Adams, Massachusetts. This first person documentary captures the struggle of the people of North Adams in their redefinition of their community and in puzzling with their role in an alien form of expression: contemporary art.
Downside UP offers a strong sense of hope that viewers from all walks of life can relate to. It’s about working class people and their unspoken class distinctions, who must find a common ground with contemporary art world visionaries without losing their own sense of self. Each side has something tremendous to gain that goes far deeper than re-cycling an old mill. The people of North Adams see art not only as the road to economic success, but most importantly, the way to restoring profound self-respect.
Downside UP is a 2002 documentary feature that is not rated and is 54 minutes long. It was produced by Nancy Kelly. Co-produced by WMHT Schenectady and the Banff Centre for the Arts, Banff, Alberta, Canada. Produced in association with ITVS with funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Additional funding was provided by a grant from the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities, a state program of the National Endowment for the Humanities. This film is sponsored locally by generous donations to the Foreign and Independent Film Series.
Films in February, Movies in March will be shown in the Museum’s Salsbury Room on Saturdays at 2:00 p.m. For more information about the Film Series or the MacNider Art Museum, please visit www.macniderart.org/films.html or call 641-421-3666. |
