Several of Harry Smith's films are being screened today at the Anthology Film Archives. You may want 
to check out MAHAGONNY, which will be shown at 7:00 p.m. Much of the film was shot at the Chelsea Hotel.
From the Archives' website, "Smith worked obsessively on MAHAGONNY for over ten years, shooting it from 1970-72 and editing it from 1972-80. Based on the Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht opera RISE AND FALL OF THE CITY OF MAHAGONNY, the film was an epic, four-screen projection which the filmmaker considered to be his magnum opus and described as a mathematical analysis of Marcel Duchamp's "Large Glass."
MAHAGONNY is an allegory of contemporary life; it explores the needs and desires of man amid the rituals of daily life in New York City. Smith's New York, like Brecht's Mahagonny, is a place where everything is permitted and the only sin is not having enough money. Much of the film takes place within the Chelsea Hotel and contains invaluable portraits of important scenesters such as Allen Ginsberg, Patti Smith and Jonas Mekas. These appearances are intercut with installation pieces from Robert Mapplethorpe's studio, New York City landmarks of the era, and Smith's unique, visionary animation.
This 35mm print represents the completion of an ambitious preservation project by Anthology Film Archives and The Harry Smith Archives. The film was originally shown ten times at Anthology in 1980 on four 16mm projectors with the filmmaker present at each screening. This recently restored print is a composite of all four original 16mm masters (and the Weill soundtrack) that have been optically printed into a single "tiled" 35mm film image."
Harry and the Zombie
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