FROM JUNE 2-8,
NYC'S IFC CENTER CELEBRATES THE ART OF TELEVISION
WITH STAR-STUDDED SPLIT SCREENS FESTIVAL
Inaugural Week-Long Event, Programmed By Critic/Author Matt Zoller Seitz,
To Feature Exclusive Screenings and Panels Spotlighting Critically-Acclaimed Scripted Series
World Premiere Screening of HBO’s Highly Anticipated Drama
'The Deuce' Kicks Off Curated Lineup On Friday, June 2nd;
Featured Content To Include: 'Better Call Saul,' 'Billions,'
‘Brockmire,’ ‘Difficult People,’ 'The Get Down,' 'The Girlfriend
Experience,' 'Mr. Robot,' ‘Orphan Black,’ ‘Search Party,’ ‘Underground’
Plus Other Special Events To Be Announced
Specials
Guests Include Hank Azaria, Sarah Violet Bliss, Lilly Burns, Asia Kate
Dillon, John Fawcett, Nelson George, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Maggie
Gyllenhaal, Anthony Hemingway, Aisha Hinds, Lodge Kerrigan, Julie
Klausner, Brian Koppelman, Rami Malek, Tatiana Maslany, Michelle
MacLaren, Graeme Manson, Michael McKean, Amanda Peet, George Pelecanos,
Charles Rogers, Amy Seimetz and More
Tickets on Sale Beginning May 11
[New York, May 11, 2017] – IFC Center today announced the first portion of its impressive lineup for the inaugural Split Screens Festival taking place Friday, June 2 through Thursday, June 8, 2017,
at the IFC Center in New York City. Throughout the week, the festival
will host a series of special events celebrating the art and craft of TV
with exclusive screenings and vibrant panel conversations featuring the
biggest and boldest names in scripted content. Tickets to the public
go on sale beginning Thursday, May 11.
Curated
by one of television's biggest fans, author and critic Matt Zoller
Seitz, the festival will be anchored by four signature categories:
PREMIERES, an opportunity for audiences to be among the first to screen
an anticipated new series; CLOSE-UP, focused primarily on the work of
one or two celebrated actors in a series; SHOWCASE, which will take a
deeper look at a series through the lens of its creators, producers and
stars; and REWIND, revisiting an iconic episode of television via a
screening and conversation with the creatives who have brought their
vision to life.
The
festival's opening night will kick-off with a world PREMIERE of HBO’s
highly anticipated new NYC period drama, “The Deuce” followed by a
Q&A with series producer and co-star Maggie Gyllenhaal, pilot
director Michelle MacLaren and series co-creator George Pelecanos.
Additional highlights throughout the week include: SHOWCASE events on
acclaimed series “Difficult People” (Hulu), “The Get Down” (Netflix),
“Orphan Black” (BBC AMERICA), and “Search Party” (TBS); REWIND panels on
“The Girlfriend Experience”(STARZ), and “Underground” (WGN America);
CLOSE-UP conversations featuring Asia Kate Dillon of “Billions"
(Showtime), Hank Azaria and Amanda Peet of “Brockmire” (IFC), Rami
Malek, star of “Mr. Robot” (USA Network), and the many faces of Michael
McKean who currently stars as Chuck McGill on “Better Call Saul” (AMC).
Additional festival programs and special events, including awards presentations, will be announced in the coming days.
Most
festival screenings and panel discussions will be hosted and moderated
by Split Screens artistic director Matt Zoller Seitz. As Editor-in-Chief
of RogerEbert.com, TV critic for New York Magazine and Vulture.com, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism, and the author of TV (The Book) and studies on Wes Anderson, Oliver Stone and Mad Men, Seitz, the ultimate TV fan, knows that audiences can't get enough of good television content.
Seitz
said: "First and foremost, I am a fan--so studying the great work of
these casts and creators has been an honor. What we have done in this
inaugural Split Screens Festival is to cull what we believe to be the
best of the best in today's content landscape and it has been thrilling
and as a creative myself, incredibly humbling. I look forward to having
both powerful and meaningful dialogue throughout the week and am excited
about the opportunity to share art and craft of these programs with
passionate and enthusiastic TV fans from NY and beyond."
“We
are thrilled to welcome the first-ever Split Screens Festival to New
York City next month,” said Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment
Commissioner, Julie Menin. “Our city’s television production industry is
booming like never before, and the Festival is an ideal venue to
celebrate and reflect upon the groundbreaking content being created in
this increasingly popular medium. I thank the IFC Center for their
partnership and encourage New Yorkers to experience this celebration of
creativity in the entertainment world.”
Ticket information:
- Tickets for the opening night premiere of “The Deuce” are $30 ($25 IFC Center members)
- Tickets for individual events are $12-$19 ($10-$16 IFC Center members)
- A festival pass, providing admission to all festival programs, is available for $125 ($95 IFC Center members)
Tickets and festival passes are available online at splitscreensfestival.com, or in person at the IFC Center box office at 323 Sixth Ave. (at West 3rd St.), open daily 10:30am-10:00pm
SPLIT SCREENS FESTIVAL SCHEDULE
FRIDAY, JUNE 2
7:00PM - “THE DEUCE” (HBO) OPENING NIGHT PREMIERE
In
person: Series producer and co-star Maggie Gyllenhaal, pilot director
Michelle MacLaren and series co-creator George Pelecanos
Split Screens premieres
the pilot episode of HBO’s eagerly anticipated New York period drama
from executive producers David Simon and George Pelecanos (The Wire),
about the rise of the porn industry in and around Times Square in the
1970s. The cast includes Maggie Gyllenhaal as an entrepreneurial sex
worker and James Franco as twin brothers who serve as fronts for the
Mafia. True to form for a producing team that shepherded The Wire and Treme into existence, The Deuce
is a beating-heart-of-the-city drama that explores the
interconnectedness of characters from different social classes and
ethnicities, some of whom find themselves at odds over money, honor and
the obligation to uphold the law.
SATURDAY, JUNE 3
4:30 PM – “MR. ROBOT” (USA Network) CLOSE-UP with Rami Malek
In person: Actor Rami Malek
It’s tricky enough to
be the lead actor on a TV drama, more so when you’re in almost every
scene, and trickier still when your character narrates the show. USA
Network’s Golden Globe® award winner Mr. Robot tasks
its star, Rami Malek, with all these responsibilities, then adds more:
It’s one of the most relentlessly interior shows, inviting you into the
headspace of its lead character—computer expert and secret vigilante
hacker Elliot Alderson—and showing you the world as he sees it.
Through
clips and discussion, the event takes a deep dive with Malek into his
performance as the show’s title character. Playing an introvert turned
underground revolutionary, Malek shapes his role through research and
prep work, posture and gestures, and even the way he modulates his voice
between Elliot’s dialogue with different characters and his voiceover
narration directly to the audience.
9:00 PM – “SEARCH PARTY” (TBS) - SHOWCASE
In person: Series creators, co-directors and executive producers Sarah-Violet Bliss and Charles Rogers, and Executive Producer Lilly Burns
It’s rare to encounter a TV series that could accurately be described as a satire, much less an unsparing one, but Search Party
absolutely qualifies. It’s a mystery about people trying to get to the
bottom of a young woman’s disappearance, but that’s just what’s
happening on the surface. The mystery is the gimmick that draws you in
so that this exceptional and surprising show — credited to a rogue’s
gallery of executive producers, including Michael Showalter,
Sarah-Violet Bliss, and Charles Rogers, Lilly Burns and Tony Hernandez
— can work its dark magic. Chantal’s vanishing is a device that the
show uses to explore Dory’s (Alia Shawkat) world and make uncomfortable
observations about modern life, in particular the tendency to confuse
the ego-stroking virtual busywork of the text- and social media-driven
era for actual, meaningful action. There’s an even deeper level to this
series, something on the order of an existential quest, a long journey
into the heroine’s emotional interior. The condition of believing
oneself sensitive while feeling very little has rarely been examined
with such exactness.
SUNDAY, JUNE 4
2:30 PM - “THE GET DOWN” (Netflix) - SHOWCASE
In person: Series co-executive producer Stephen Adly Guirgis, supervising producer Nelson George
“Unfold your own myth,” blares a graffiti tag on the skin of a subway car in The Get Down.
Baz Luhrmann and Stephen Adly Guirgis’s 1970s musical melodrama about
the birth of hip-hop and the fall of dirty-glorious Gotham is forever
characterizing itself this way: like a rapper nimbly reframing a story
as he tells it. It’s a multimedia work—television, cinema, a novel, a
scrapbook; collage, decoupage, a montage barrage. The sheer, shameless
entertainment value of The Get Down camouflages how formally
inventive it is. The gleeful way that the image texture changes from
shot to shot (1970s TV news video, 16mm, what looks like enhanced
YouTube footage) suggests the filmmakers are glorying in a crazy-quilt
aesthetic instead of knocking themselves out trying to make every piece
seem like part of a seamless whole. The show is sampling pop culture
history, New York City history and music history to create its own
sound.
4:30 PM – “DIFFICULT PEOPLE” (Hulu) - SHOWCASE
In person: Series creator, executive producer, writer and star Julie Klausner
Julie Klausner’s series about brilliant, acerbic,
self-defeating best buds on the fringes of stardom is tailor-made for
the YouTube era, when artists and entertainers act as their own agents,
publicists and managers and watch their colleagues’ successes and
failures unfold in real time, with envy or glee, depending.
Julie
(Klausner) and Billy (Billy Eichner) keep hatching schemes like a
couple of Lucy Ricardos, even though their quest is motivated less by a
burning urge to express themselves than a lust for fame and comfort.
They pop others’ delusions and preserve their own, but even at their
pettiest, there are moments when they speak the truth, and some of their
most penetrating insights have to do with the show you’re watching and
the medium that spawned it. One of Difficult People’s fiercest
convictions is that a sitcom’s first obligation is to be funny and
engaging, a surprisingly contrarian point of view now that every form of
scripted entertainment is striving to subvert rather than embrace
proven formulas. “When did comedies become 30-minute dramas?” Billy
asks, with an aghast tone that suggests Difficult People is not interested in becoming one. The upcoming third season of Difficult People premieres Tuesday, August 8 on Hulu.
6:15 PM – “BETTER CALL SAUL” (AMC) - CLOSE-UP with Michael McKean
In person: Michael McKean and series co-creator and co-executive producer Peter Gould
Better Call Saul, Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould’s improbably just-as-good prequel to Breaking Bad,
is a showcase for ace character actors, none as sneakily great as
Michael McKean, who costars as the slippery hero’s straight-arrow older
brother, Chuck McGill. Chuck is a feared trial lawyer at a top
Albuquerque, New Mexico law firm who claims to be hypersensitive to
electricity, and is equally allergic to laziness and ethical short cuts.
In lesser hands, he could have been an amusing if one-note foil. But
McKean, a wizardly comic actor with the soul of a Method chameleon,
imbues him with so many layers of personality, all operating
simultaneously, that you can’t help feeling for him and understanding
Chuck even when the character grates on you. This close-up panel will
explore McKean’s collaboration with the character’s creator,
writer-producer Peter Gould, and delve into McKean’s long and varied
history as a dramatic and comedic actor and improvisational comic.
TUESDAY, JUNE 6
6:30 PM – “ORPHAN BLACK” (BBC AMERICA) - SHOWCASE
In
person: Actors Tatiana Maslany, Jordan Gavaris, Maria Doyle Kennedy,
Kristian Bruun, Kevin Hanchard, Evelyne Brochu and Ari Millen, and
Executive Producers Graeme Manson and John Fawcett
BBC AMERICA’s clone conspiracy thriller stars Emmy® award
winner Tatiana Maslany as multiple genetically identical women. But
this is not merely a series about clones; it’s a continuous study in
nature versus nurture that routinely puts Maslany in conversations with
iterations of herself, and each iteration feels like a distinct human
being rather than a sketch-comedy caricature. Graeme Manson and John
Fawcett create a maze-like world where the reflections can not only
talk, but have their own opinions. The result is sorcery, and Maslany is
at the center, playing as many as four personalities at once while a
constellation of gifted supporting players, including, Jordan Gavaris,
Kristian Bruun, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Kevin Hanchard, Evelyn Brochu, and
others swirl around her. The show’s bottomless inventiveness and
persistent sense of fun are infectious. In addition to the suspense
generated by the story itself, there’s a secondary thrill from watching
the cast and crew struggle to top themselves in sheer outrageousness.
8:45 PM - “BILLIONS” (Showtime) CLOSE-UP with Asia Kate Dillon
In person: Actor Asia Kate Dillon and creators David Levien and Brian Koppelman
In its second season, Showtime’s hit drama series Billions
made history by introducing TV’s first gender non-binary major
character, Taylor Mason, an intern at Axe Capital (played by Asia Kate
Dillon) who unexpectedly becomes a favorite of macho hedge funder Bobby
Axelrod (Damian Lewis). Dillon, who uses the singular they pronoun,
auditioned for the role shortly after playing the racist skinhead Brandy
on Netflix’s Orange is the New Black. Sharing the stage with series creators and executive producers Brian Koppelman and David Levien, they will discuss the
second season of Billions and the fine points of playing a trailblazing
character in a medium where starkly defined gender roles still rule the
perceptions of casting directors and viewers alike.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 7
7:00 PM – “BROCKMIRE” (IFC) CLOSE-UP with Hank Azaria and Amanda Peet
In person: Series executive producer and star Hank Azaria and star Amanda Peet
Although he’s perhaps best known as one of the versatile repertory actors on The Simpsons,
Hank Azaria is also a formidable live-action performer who can adjust
his body to suit the needs of a role as deftly as he can his voice. Jim
Brockmire, a minor-league sportscaster struggling with alcoholism and
his own monstrous ego, gives the actor a rare opportunity to hold the
spotlight for the entire running time of a series, as a character he’s
been developing for years. The results are dazzling.
He’s
matched by Amanda Peet, who brings a no-nonsense toughness to the role
of Jules James, the owner of both the team and a local bar. Peet is
equally comfortable as a romantic leading lady, a kitchen-sink drama
actress and a pratfaller, and she gets to combine all three of those
talents here. This detailed one-on-one discussion will delve into Peet
and Azaria’s varied careers, their chemistry on the show, and the ne
points of bringing these two eccentric characters to life.
8:45 PM –“THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE” (STARZ) REWIND with “Separation” episode
In person: Co-executive producers Lodge Kerrigan and Amy Seimetz
The most narratively complex single episode of an ongoing series since the hero of Louie went to China, this alternately unnerving, baffling and hilarious half-hour of The Girlfriend Experience
works as a psychological X-ray of the show’s heroine, escort Christine
(Riley Keough); a play within a play; and a meditation on voyeurism,
exhibitionism, sex, and acting. Co-written by series creators Amy
Seimetz and Lodge Kerrigan, and directed by Kerrigan, the episode
doesn’t just avoid the traditional sorts of closure that TV viewers tend
to crave; it throws the totality of the show’s first season into
question, making us question the intent and substance of everything
we’ve seen. As such, it owes less to current trends in scripted TV, even
the most rarified kinds, than to 1960s European art cinema classics
like Blow-Up, Last Year at Marienbad and The Exterminating Angel.
THURSDAY, JUNE 8
7:00 PM –“UNDERGROUND” (WGN America, produced by Sony Pictures Television) - REWIND with “Minty” episode
In person: Actor Aisha Hinds and executive producer/director Anthony Hemingway
WGN America’s
groundbreaking series “Underground” made television history with the
extended episode “Minty” that originally aired April 12. Featuring an
hour-long solo, and career-defining performance, Aisha Hinds brings
Harriet Tubman back to life, as she delivers a monumental and definitive
speech in character as the Underground Railroad's most famous
conductor. Set in 1858 against the backdrop of a nation deeply divided
by race, class and gender, Tubman makes a passionate plea to
abolitionists to shift their thinking as she challenges them to take
swift action against those who are determined to oppress others.
“Minty,” was written by series co-creators Misha Green and Joe Pokaski,
and directed by Emmy and Golden Globe Award® winner Anthony Hemingway.
ABOUT SPLIT SCREENS FESTIVAL
Split
Screens Festival is an annual event produced and presented by IFC
Center, one of New York’s leading independent cinemas, and is organized
by the core team of its successful DOC NYC documentary film festival,
including Executive Director Raphaela Neihausen, Partnerships Director
Deborah Rudolph and Operations Director Dana Krieger. Collaborating with
broadcasters, cable networks and streaming services, the festival will
highlight great content from a range of platforms to bring together the
creative talent behind TV’s most acclaimed shows and sophisticated New
York audiences.
ABOUT IFC CENTER
IFC
Center is a five-screen, state-of-the-art cinema in the heart of New
York’s Greenwich Village that opened in June 2005 following an extensive
renovation of the historic Waverly Theater. IFC Center presents the
very best in new foreign-language, American independent and documentary
features to audiences and is also known for its innovative repertory
series and festivals, showing short films before its regular features in
the ongoing “Short Attention Span Cinema” program, and special events
such as the guest-programmed “Movie Nights” and frequent in-person
appearances by filmmakers. In 2010, IFC Center launched the acclaimed
DOC NYC festival, a high-profile showcase that celebrates nonfiction
filmmaking and is now the largest documentary festival in the US. For
additional theater information, current and upcoming program details and
more, visit ifccenter.com.
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