For Immediate Release
August 25, 2022

CLARK ART INSTITUTE DEBUTS FILM AND ART SERIES

Williamstown, Massachusetts—A new Film and Art series debuts at the Clark Art Institute this autumn with five screenings. The Clark shows O Horizon on Thursday, September 29 at 7:30 pm, Foragers on Thursday, October 13 at 7:30 pm, Zurbarán and His Twelve Sons on Thursday, October 27 at 6 pm, Mur Murs on Thursday, November 10 at 7:30 pm, and F for Fake on Thursday, November 17 at 7:30 pm. All screenings are free and open to the public and take place in the Clark’s auditorium.

O Horizon
September 29, 7:30 pm
O Horizon (2018) is an experimental documentary that explores the environmental teachings of prolific Bengali writer and poet Rabindranath Tagore, the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. Tagore was also a social reformer who cared deeply for the land. The film title references the surface layer of soil, changed in the area around Santiniketan, in West Bengal, India, as a result of Tagore’s introduction of new flora there. O Horizon was commissioned by research project bauhaus imaginista and produced by artist-led collective The Otolith Group, an organization that creates research-based films, installations, and performances. O Horizon is part of The Otolith Group’s larger engagement with the environment and serves as a powerful meditation on Indian modernism. Alena Williams, assistant professor of Art at Williams College, introduces O Horizon prior to its showing.
Run time: 90 minutes

Foragers 
October 13, 7:30 pm
In Foragers (2022), Berlin-based Palestinian sculptor and filmmaker Jumana Manna blends documentary and fiction, profiling the age-old Palestinian practice of gathering wild edibles such as za’atar and the delicacy ’akkoub, which is outlawed by Israeli nature conservation laws. The film presents a meditative portrait of the resistance, joy, and deep ecological knowledge held by today’s foragers. Manna’s approach mirrors the gentleness of her subjects and the work of other documentarians like Agnès Varda (see related November 10 event). A post-film discussion with Williams College Arabic Studies and Comparative Literature Professor Amal Eqeiq and master’s students Max Gruber (’22) and Meghan Clare Considine (’22) follows. Commissioned in part by the Pacific Film Archive.
 Run time: 65 minutes

Zurbarán and His Twelve Sons
October 27, 6 pm 
This documentary (2020) explores the meaning of Jacob and His Twelve Sons, a series of thirteen canvases painted by Francisco de Zurbarán in Seville around 1640. Learn how the canvases disappeared for a century until they were acquired at auction in the 1720s by the London merchant James Mendez. In 1756, a significant gesture in support of English Jews was made by Bishop Richard Trevor of Durham, who obtained the paintings and hung them in his dining room at Auckland Castle in England, where they remain. Screenwriter John Healey introduces the documentary.
Run time: 72 minutes

Mur Murs
November 10, 7:30 pm 
After returning to Los Angeles from France in 1979, filmmaker Agnès Varda created this kaleidoscopic documentary about the striking murals that decorate the city. Bursting with color and vitality, Mur Murs (1981) is as much an invigorating study of community and diversity as it is an essential catalog of unusual public art. 
Run time: 82 minutes

F for Fake
November 17, 7:30 pm 
In F for Fake (1975), a free-form sort-of documentary by Orson Welles, the legendary filmmaker (and self-described charlatan) gleefully reengages with the central preoccupation of his career: the tenuous lines between illusion and truth, art and lies. Beginning with portraits of the world-renowned art forger Elmyr de Hory and his equally devious biographer, Clifford Irving, Welles exposes and revels in fakery and fakers of all stripes—not the least of whom is Welles himself. F for Fake is an inspired prank and a clever examination of the place of duplicity in cinema and art.
Run time: 88 minutes

All Film and Art screenings are free; no registration is required. For more information, visit clarkart.edu/events. 

ABOUT THE CLARK
The Clark Art Institute, located in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, is one of a small number of institutions globally that is both an art museum and a center for research, critical discussion, and higher education in the visual arts. Opened in 1955, the Clark houses exceptional European and American paintings and sculpture, extensive collections of master prints and drawings, English silver, and early photography. Acting as convener through its Research and Academic Program, the Clark gathers an international community of scholars to participate in a lively program of conferences, colloquia, and workshops on topics of vital importance to the visual arts. The Clark library, consisting of more than 285,000 volumes, is one of the nation’s premier art history libraries. The Clark also houses and co-sponsors the Williams College Graduate Program in the History of Art.

The Clark, which has a three-star rating in the Michelin Green Guide, is located at 225 South Street in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Its 140-acre campus includes miles of hiking and walking trails through woodlands and meadows, providing an exceptional experience of art in nature. Galleries are open 10 am to 5 pm Tuesday through Sunday, from September through June, and daily in July and August. Advance tickets are strongly recommended. Admission is $20; free year-round for Clark members, all visitors age 21 and under, and students with a valid student ID. Free admission is available through several programs, including First Sundays Free; a local library pass program; and EBT Card to Culture. For information on these programs and more, visit clarkart.edu or call 413 458 2303. 

Use of facemasks is optional for all visitors. For details on health and safety protocols, visit clarkart.edu/health.

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