The Stock Interview - Tim McHenry

Nitrate Stock is happy to present the first in a series of interviews designed to bring you closer to your NYC film community. From the people who program the films to the ones who pop the corn, our aim is to broaden the dialogue and further personalize the experience. For our inaugural entry I was happy to welcome Tim McHenry to the iPhone mic.

As director of public programs at the Rubin Museum of Art in Manhattan, Tim McHenry oversees the programmatic life of the museum. With a festival background at Edinburgh, in London, and most recently at The New Yorker, his programs place as much emphasis on music and conversation as on film. Many leading filmmakers have appeared on the Rubin stage in less than conventional configurations including Martin Scorsese, Wim Wenders, John Boorman and Jonathan Demme. The weekly Cabaret Cinema started the same week the Rubin opened its doors in 2004 and has continued virtually unbroken ever since.

What was your favorite film when you were twelve years old, and is it still your favorite?

I can tell you the first film I saw; The Crimson Blade, 1963. I won't tell you how old I was. It was about Cavaliers and Roundheads, the English Civil War. I remember one scene where a Roundhead kneels to talk to a little girl who knows where the Cavaliers are hidden. And you know, just like in The Night of the Hunter, she's going to reveal the secret. It's all I remember from the film.

At 12, however, we had television at that point. I grew up in Switzerland, and English language film was hard to come by.

Was all foreign cinema hard to come by, were you limited to mostly Swiss film?

Our only source for English-speaking cinema was TV. That's how I came to appreciate the classics. The film I remember most from that age is Some Like It Hot. One of the best films ever made.

And that was your favorite?

Certainly in my top ten, along with The Lady Eve.

Did you feel like you grasped it at that age?

I grasped elements of it, certainly without any great sophistication, but I got it. I knew where it was coming from.

Did you then begin to follow the works of Billy Wilder, or of any other filmmakers?

No, I didn't associate the films with directors' names at all. Not until much, much later. One of the great joys of the Cabaret Cinema series is the opportunity to discover and rediscover cinema that I wasn't very familiar with. So I don't approach it as an expert in any sense, but more as someone who's curious and likes to connect the dots.

So your true love affair with film bloomed with the inception of the Cabaret Cinema series?

Yes. Cabaret Cinema is 9-plus years old, it's one of the first programs we planned. Quite frankly I have a real soft spot for it, and one of the reasons is the ability (and excuse) to continue exploring film in interesting ways. I think the distinction between the way I need to program and the way more orthodox cinema venues do is the context of the museum. It's a place that explores the big questions, and the cinema has to connect to these questions.

For example the current series (I Don't Know, running through December 27th) explores the idea of ignorance. In Buddhism ignorance is the big stumbling block toward enlightenment, and these expressions are found in the cinema very beautifully.

Are there limitations on what you can screen, in terms of securing the rights?

Never a rights issue, but we have had issues where films couldn't be shown due to their screening quality. We have to test everything we choose. We have wish lists that get whittled down from around 26 to twelve, because the transfers aren't up to par. We get the films in, run them through the system, check them for all the imperfections found in an inferior copy, and if they betray any of those signs out they go. We try to stay as true to the cinematic experience as possible. Because of the design of the building we knew early on we couldn't equip the space for 35mm presentation. So that aspect of it is still a struggle.

Do you take note of the demographic?

It varies. It's become increasingly younger. I think it's because of the 9:30pm start time, positive word of mouth and the fact that we're using social media much more to promote. You'd be surprised. We don't just get the Manhattan crowd, we get Brooklyn too.

One of my favorite moments in the series' history was when we showed Casablanca for the first time. It was packed. No one particularly special was introducing the film but it was packed. I asked the twenty-something crowd, "who's seeing this for the first time?" Every hand but two went up. Can you imagine? I thought, wow, they're getting to see Ingrid Bergman in the proper aspect ratio to themselves for the first time. How impactful is that? Sure enough they were blown away. That communion with cinema is something I don't often experience in other venues. There's something at Cabaret Cinema that forges a special experience. It's more than just watching a movie, it's about sharing a movie.

I would imagine you get a high percentage of repeat attendees.

There is, not a hardcore crowd, but a group of regulars who'll come 3 or 4 times a season. Clearly not for every film because there's such an eclectic range that I can't imagine one person wanting to sit through all of them.

The spoken introductions to each film are a highlight of the series, and guests vary in occupation. You're as likely to welcome artists from the film world to architects and consulate employees. How easy or difficult is it to book the guest speakers?

It's hard. It's terribly hard. It's wrangling, trying to connect the dots, hunting people down. It's obviously more work than choosing the films. But it is an essential connecting point between the screening and the audience, between the museum and its audience. I ask someone like Thelma Schoonmaker very sparingly, and only ask her very selectively, because of her limited availability. But even she's done Cabaret Cinema four times. Never for Black Narcissus funnily enough.

I'm hugely grateful because these are the best people there are in the business. I mean, Liv Ullmann came to introduce Persona, and you could've heard a pin drop in the place. Usually we ask the speakers to limit their time to around 7 or so minutes, but of course someone like her can take as long as she likes. She spoke about reincarnation, her relationship with Bergman, about what happened after he died. It was quite something.

Do you reach out to people directly associated with the films first?

Not necessarily. For Blood Simple, for example, we did have Dan Hedaya. Makes sense. But usually it's someone who wants to shed a different light on the film. I mean, why is Rachael Dratch introducing Lord of the Flies? I gave her a list of the upcoming screenings and that's what she chose. The architect you mentioned, Professor Louise Harpman, introduced Resnais' Last Year at Marienbad, a film profoundly about shape and space, and how they shape recollection. She really thought it through, she had a whole art to her presentation, and it was much more formal than most of our introductions. She really put the work in and I'm glad she did, because she expressed something very cogent, which we were then allowed to look for in the film. It allowed the audience to see the film in a different way than, say, a screening at a more traditional venue would have yielded.

It can be very hit and miss, but I think that's one of the charms of the series; you never know until showtime.

Cabaret Cinema is presented Fridays at 9:30pm at the Rubin Museum, with only the occasional series break. The purchase of a cocktail at the museum's lounge admits you to that evening's screening. Seating is casual but limited, so our advice is to get there early and snag a choice table. Upcoming films include Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters, Jean Renoir's Grand Illusion, Roger Corman's The Little Shop of Horrors, and George Lucas' American Graffiti.

-Joe Walsh

joew@nitratestock.net