THE GOTHAMIST INTERVIEW: FEB. OSCAR WEEK DAY 2 – LAURENCE KARDISH (MoMA)

Day two of film programmer week at the Gothamist Interview takes us across town from a vital New York cultural institution on the west side to one of the most venerable and popular centers of art on the east side. Often overshadowed by the painters and sculptors featured in its galleries, the Department of Film and Media at the Museum of Modern Art has long been one of the most important and interesting repertory screens in town. A major reason for that is the presence of Laurence Kardish, Senior Curator of the department, who has programmed much of what the MoMA has screened for more than 35 years. (Can you imagine working for the same company since 1968? I can’t — I wasn’t born until 1971!)

With the MoMA out in Queens for the past couple years while its midtown home was under renovation, MoMA film moved in to the Gramercy Theater on 23rd Street. Now with the building on 53rd reopening, MoMA film has moved back home, and it did so with a bang: a year-long, still ongoing series surveying the first “112 Years of Cinema.” MoMA also is responsible, along with yesterday’s subject, the Film Society of Lincoln Center, with the annual New Directors/New Films festival which starts this year on March 23.

Larry gives us a bit of an inside peak into what goes into some of the decision making programming the MoMA, and interestingly enough, when asked about what film he hopes win an Oscar, he doesn’t mention any of the big favorites but rather one of the animated shorts. Hey, at least he’s seen them. I also find it funny, although maybe not surprising, that Larry’s “guilty pleasure” — “seeing something mindless at the AMC Empire on 42nd Street — is basically my home away from home.