THE GOTHAMIST INTERVIEW: FEB. OSCAR WEEK DAY 3 – DANIEL SCHWARTZ (MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE)

For day three of film programmer week at the Gothamist Interview we head across the East River to Astoria, Queens where those brave enough to leave the isle of Manhattan have the ability to visit the Museum of the Moving Image, formerly known as the American Museum of the Moving Image. Apparently, the original Museum of the Moving Image was in London, but since it recently closed, it gave the Queens institution the ability to become the MMI rather than just the American MMI.

MMI is unique among our featured institutions this week because not only do they show screening programs, but they’re actually a museum … of the moving image. What I mean is that while MoMA is a museum and may have some film and video related exhibitions from time-to-time, MMI is solely dedicated to film, TV, video etc. They have galleries and exhibitions that focus on the history and production of the moving image we have all come to love so much whether via motion pictures or television.

For our purposes, though, we’re focusing on the man behind their repertory screening program, David Schwartz. David will celebrate his 20th year at MMI this coming September. I must admit, I’ve found our programmers Oscar predictions/hopes to be a bit interesting. I guess I’m not surprised that they don’t care much about them, but what is interesting is that for the second day in a row, the film mentioned by our interview subject as the one he most hopes will win is one nominated in the Animated Short film cateogy. Equally interesting, David and yesterday’s interview Laurence Kardish did not mention the same animated short! Maybe it has something to do with programming at museums. Or, maybe not.