Annual Museum Of Modern Art International Festival of Film

Our annual To Save and Project festival returns in 2025 with a rich selection of newly restored treasures from archives around the world. This year's program spans nearly a century of cinema, from pioneering German Expressionist works like Robert Wiene's Raskolnikow (1923) to groundbreaking independent films of the 1970s like James Bidgood's Pink Narcissus (1971). Films from Argentina, Thailand, India, Syria, the Czech Republic, and beyond highlight cinema's global diversity and the work of film preservation institutions worldwide.

Highlights include the rediscovery of Yevgeni Cherviakov's forgotten Soviet masterpiece My Son (1928), found in Argentina and restored by GEM; the racy pre-Code Hollywood comedy The Greeks Had a Word for Them (1932) from the Library of Congress; and Andre Bonzel's Flickering Ghosts of Loves Gone By, a powerful repurposing of home movies from Janus Films. The program features restorations by major archives and funders, including The Film Foundation, UCLA Film and Television Archive, the Cinemathèque française, and Filmmuseum München.

The series opens on January 9 with the world premiere of MoMA's newly upgraded restoration of Frank Borzage's transcendent romance 7th Heaven (1927), and concludes on January 30 with the world premiere of MoMA's new reconstruction of the long unseen, original 1918 version of Charles Chaplin's World War I comedy Shoulder Arms.

Schedule of Events:

4:30 pm: Mulher de Verdade (A Real Woman).1954. Directed by Alberto Cavalcanti

Mulher de Verdade (A Real Woman). 1954. Brazil. Directed by Alberto Cavalcanti. Screenplay by Oswaldo Molles, Miroel Silveira. With Inezita Barroso, Cole Santana, Jose Sanz. North American premiere. Courtesy Maristela Filmes. In Portuguese; English subtitles. 98 min.

After decades of celebrated work in Europe, Alberto Cavalcanti returned to his native Brazil to make this sophisticated satire of class and gender relations. What begins as a seemingly light comedy about a woman caught between two marriages-one to a reformed petty criminal, another to a wealthy playboy-develops into a pointed critique of Brazilian society. Popular singer Inezita Barroso, in an early film role, brings remarkable complexity to Amelia, a character who becomes a reluctant bigamist simply because society never allows her to say no. Cavalcanti's refined visual style, developed through his work with the French avant-garde and Britain's Ealing Studios, creates telling contrasts between Amelia's humble domestic life and the artificial world of São Paulo's elite. This restoration rescues a key work-long overlooked in discussions of Brazilian cinema-from one of world cinema's most cosmopolitan directors.

The 4K digital restoration was conducted for Locarno Heritage by Cinegrell Postproduction GmbH in Zurich by Nicole T. Allemann (Project Coordination and Colour Grading), Ursula Deiss (Digital Restoration), Peter Matthies (Film preparation and Scanning) and Daniel Nestler (Sound Restoration). The project was carried out in collaboration with Cinemateca Brasileira – Sociedade Amigos da Cinemateca, Heritage Online Partner, and Cinematografica Maristela.

7:00 pm: Pink Narcissus. 1971. Written and directed by James Bidgood

Pink Narcissus. 1971. USA. Written and directed by James Bidgood. With Don Brooks, Bobby Kendall, Charles Ludlam. World premiere. Courtesy Strand Releasing. 68 min.

A kaleidoscopic fever dream of queer desire, James Bidgood's underground masterpiece Pink Narcissus (1971) transforms a humble New York apartment into a technicolor fantasia of sexual awakening. Shot over seven years on 8mm film, this visually intoxicating work follows a young male prostitute (Bobby Kendall) as he retreats into elaborate fantasies, reimagining himself as a matador, a Roman slave, and the master of an exotic harem.

Predating the baroque aesthetics of Pierre et Gilles by decades, Bidgood's handcrafted sets and saturated lighting create a theatrical dreamscape in which artifice becomes transcendent. Classical music by Mussorgsky and Prokofiev underscores the film's ambitious fusion of high art and homoeroticism, while its confined domestic production speaks to both necessity and liberation-a queer creative spirit refusing to be constrained by material limitations.

Originally released anonymously in protest over creative differences, Pink Narcissus remained a subject of speculation until the 1990s, when writer Bruce Benderson confirmed Bidgood as its visionary creator. At once a milestone of experimental cinema and a landmark of queer representation, this haunting meditation on beauty, desire, and self-reflection remains as mesmerizing today as when it first emerged from its creator's private universe.

Restored by the UCLA Film and Television Archive with funding provided by Snapdragon Capital Partners.