Keepin’ It Reel

Documentary film has become increasingly popular because of controversial filmmakers like Michael Moore and Morgan Spurlock, and the worldwide acclaim for Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. Films that were once seen as educational (read: boring) are actually making box office bucks and reaping more than dry academic headlines. The artform evolved thanks to men like Marian Marzynski. The Polish-born Holocaust survivor is a legend in the doc game, and has been heralded as one of the founders of the cinema verité movement of the early Sixties. The Miami Beach Cinematheque will celebrate his legacy with the Masters of Documentary weekend.

On Friday, April 20, there will be a screening of some of Marzynski’s short films from cinema verité’s heyday, in which he explored life in then-communist Poland with an unflinching lens. Tonight at 8:30, Marzynski himself will host “Life on Marz: A Memoir of a Film Teacher,” the world premiere of his memoir, which traces his experiences teaching students like a young Gus Van Sant at the Rhode Island School of Design.
April 20-21