Flying Lessons

With director Elizabeth Nichols in person 

Dir. Elizabeth Nichols. U.S. 2024, 84 mins. DCP. With Philly Abe. At a community meeting held to address their gentrifying landlord’s aggressive treatment of longtime tenants, filmmaker Elizabeth Nichols meets Philly Abe, an older punk artist who swiftly becomes the younger woman’s muse, attentive neighbor, and friend. While tracking Philly’s activism and struggles in the face of harassment, Nichols surfaces her life story through extraordinarily candid conversations as well as a gloriously SD video archive of concert footage and decades of DIY downtown New York films by the likes of Todd Verow and Mike Kuchar in which the fabulously brash Abe starred. The magnetic pull between artist and filmmaker yields something beguiling and precious, celebrating the fiery Philly even as she and the world she fought to protect are being actively extinguished. New York premiere 

Preceded by:
This Is for Jonas Mekas 
Dir. Friedl vom Gröller. Austria/U.S. 2023, 3 mins. 16mm. Filmed in the Village, Soho, and the Lower East Side, this black-and-white street report from vom Gröller, one our greatest film portraitists, finds the spirit of her old friend Jonas Mekas in a still youthful, proud, and unruly populace. U.S. premiere 

Tickets: $15 / $11 senior and students / $9 youth (ages 3–17) / discounted for MoMI members ($7–$11). There is a $1.50 transaction fee per ticket for all online purchases. The cost of admission may be applied toward a same-day purchase of a membership. 

Order tickets. Please pick up tickets at the Museum’s admissions desk upon arrival. All seating is general admission. 

---

Elizabeth Nichols is a writer, director and cinematographer of both non-fiction and narrative films. She currently lives in Tanzania, East Africa, where she works as an educator. Elizabeth has an MFA in Filmmaking from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and a BA in History and Literature and History of Art and Architecture from Harvard University. She has received several awards and scholarships in support of her filmmaking, including being featured in Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces in Independent Film.

 

Friedl vom Gröller was born in London. She spent her childhood in Vienna and Berlin. From 1965-1969 she studied photography at the School of Graphic Arts. First films released in 1968. In 1971, she got her masters certificate and commercial atelier for photography. In 1990, she was founder and director of School for Artistic Photography, Vienna until 2010. In 2005, a national award for photography. In 2006, she was founder and director of School for Independent Film, Vienna. In 2017, she received a national award for film. Screenings/Exhibitions (Selection): Centre Pompidou, Paris; Frankfurter Kunstverein; Generali Foundation, Wien; Anthology Filmarchives, New York; documenta 12, Kassel; Österreichisches Filmmmuseum, Wien; International Film Festival Toronto; International Film Festival Hong Kong; Berlin Biennale; Diagonale, Graz; Viennale; Lentos, Linz; Media-City, Windsor, HGB-Leipzig, Mumok Wien; Galerija SC, Zagreb; Berlinale; Tate Modern, London; La Coruna; Bafici Buenos Aires.