MUBI, the premier streaming service for curated films, has revealed its September lineup, including new retrospectives, tributes and exclusive premieres, the month kicking off with the exclusive online premiere of Isadora’s Children, a deftly choreographed drama by emerging French auteur Damien Manivel that brings together his passions for film and dance.
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Other exclusive online premieres include a new restoration of Maria Saakyan’s The Lighthouse, the first film directed by an Armenian woman, and Bird Island, a hybrid, fictionalized documentary by up-and-coming directorial duo Sergio da Costa and Maya Kosa. MUBI will close September with End of Summer, the directorial debut of the late, renowned Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson, which documents his meditative journey to the Antarctic Peninsula.
MUBI is excited to launch in September a retrospective featuring a pair of Taiwan’s most celebrated directors: Edward Yang and Hou Hsiao-hsien. From Yang’s 1986 masterpiece The Terrorizers to Hou’s coming-of-age trilogy, which includes The Time to Live and the Time to Die and Dust in the Wind, this series highlights early works of the New Taiwanese Cinema movement that placed an unflinching eye on Taiwanese society and culture, and successfully put Taiwanese cinema on the map.
Next month’s slate will also include the most celebrated works by the legendary Marguerite Duras. Following their exclusive presentation of India Song in April, MUBI is excited to present Baxter, Vera Baxter andLe Navire Night, two other notable films by Duras, who is known as one of France’s most important and prolific writers.
Additional programs of note include: a double bill featuring two new restorations of Arthur J. Bressan Jr.’s enduring landmark works of LGBTQ+ cinema, Gay USA and Buddies, as well as Marcell Iványi’s The Wind, winner of the Palme d’Or for Best Short Film at Cannes 1996.
Highlights from the September lineup are as follows:
Isadora’s Children — September 2
After presenting the online premieres of his previous two features The Night I Swam and The Park, MUBI returns to the work of French auteur Damien Manivel. His latest and most ambitious feature, Isadora’s Children, won him Best Director at Locarno last year and is an affectionate tribute to the legendary dancer Isadora Duncan.
The Wind — September 14
Winner of the Palme d’Or for Best Short Film at Cannes 1996, Marcell Iványi’s The Wind restages Lucien Hervé’s photo “Les trois femmes” and then pans to reveal a distressing reality just outside the photograph. The Hungarian director paints a sobering look at post war Hungary in a single 360-degree shot.
The Lighthouse — September 17
After premiering at Rotterdam 2019 and having a run at New York’s Film at Lincoln Center earlier this year, MUBI is excited to exclusively present a new restoration of Maria Saakyan’s The Lighthouse. Considered the first film directed by an Armenian woman filmmaker, this is a visually stunning, dreamlike window into Soviet-era Armenia. A singular artist, Saakyan sadly died from cancer in 2018 at age 37.
Bird Island — September 24
MUBI will exclusively present Sergio Da Costa and Maya Kosa’s hybrid fictionalized documentary portrait of a Swiss bird sanctuary. Bird Island (Locarno ‘19) is a beguiling, cautionary parable about the hostile modern world and the current environmental crisis.
End of Summer — September 30
The exclusive online premiere of the late Jóhann Jóhannsson’s directorial debut. End of Summer documents the renowned Icelandic composer’s journey to the Antarctic Peninsula. This personal portrait of austere landscapes is layered with an emotional, enduring original score, which was also conceived as an album and is now newly released on vinyl.
Edward Yang, Hou Hsiao-Hsien and New Taiwanese Cinema
MUBI is proud to present this retrospective dedicated to renowned directors Hou Hsiao-hsien and Edward Yang, foundational figures behind the first wave of New Taiwanese Cinema in the 1980s. Embracing a cinematic style that emphasized long takes, elliptical editing, and shifting points of view, this movement put Taiwanese cinema on the map for international audiences.
This series focuses on the early works that sparked this dynamic run of auteur driven films that compassionately meditated on daily life in a transforming Taiwan, including Hsio-hsien’s semi-autobiographical drama A Time to Live and a Time to Die (Berlin ‘86) and Yang’s groundbreaking film The Terrorizers (Berlin ‘87).
The Terrorizers — September 5
In Our Time — September 6
A Time to Live and a Time to Die — September 11
The Sandwich Man — September 12
Dust in the Wind — September 18
Growing Up — September 19
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Marguerite Duras: Passions
Next month, MUBI will celebrate the one-of-a-kind, visceral cinema by renowned writer, playwright, and filmmaker Marguerite Duras, exclusively presenting three of her most celebrated films. This includes her compassionate meditation on the anguish of love, Baxter, Vera Baxter (Cannes ‘75), featuring mighty performances from Claudine Gabay and Delphine Seyrig.
India Song — Now streaming
Baxter, Vera Baxter — September 3
Le Navire Night — September 9
Double Bill: Renoir, Beginnings and Endings
To celebrate the birthday of one of cinema’s most important directors and one of the 20th century’s greatest artists, MUBI will present a double bill by Jean Renoir. To showcase Renoir’s incredible range, the selection features films that bookmark his prolific filmography. This includes his third feature, the silent film Nana starring his first wife Catherine Hessling, and his penultimate work The Elusive Corporal (Berlin ’62), a spiritual follow-up to his classic Grand Illusion.
Nana — September 15
The Elusive Corporal — September 16
Love & Loss & Liberation: Two Classic Gay Films by Arthur J. Bressan Jr.
MUBI is proud to present the streaming premieres of two new restorations of Arthur J. Bressan Jr.’s enduring, landmark works of LGBTQ+ cinema. Gay USA documents a variety of Pride parades across the United States in the late 70s, capturing a key moment in the American gay rights movement. Bressan’s devastating drama Buddies was the first-ever feature to explore the AIDS pandemic. Bressan died of an AIDS-related illness two years after the release of the monumental film.
Gay USA — September 28
Buddies — September 29
