The Taking
Audience award nominated film. Vote after the screening.
Vast expanse and open sky separated by colossal boulders in expressive silhouettes, akin to monuments carved by the ancients, though actually shaped by the wind over millenia. Monument Valley remains one of America’s most iconic locations, thanks in no small way to westerns, including classic works by John Ford, the poet of the American wilderness. Alexandre O. Philippe's latest documentary, consisting of a montage of film materials supplemented by a polyphony of experts, looks at the process of constructing a collective imaginarium. It is an essay devoted to how the landscape, dissected from reality, became the setting of a national myth: a wonderful, though false, story about a harsh land that offers visitors unlimited freedom and a vast expanse of possibilities.
Audience award nominated film. Please pick up a voting card on entering the screening and tear in a place marking your opinion and throw it into an assigned box after the screening (cards and boxes will be available at the theaters). The filmmakers have a chance of winning $5,000 sponsored by BNY Mellon, Poland.
Alexandre O. Philippe
Alexandre O. Philippe was born in Geneva and studied at the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. He is a researcher of cinema and pop culture whose documentaries have covered production of The Exorcist, the Star Wars phenomenon, and the shower scene from Psycho. Philippe’s films have screened at festivals in Venice, Sundance and SXSW - as well as at the American Film Festival and New Horizons in Wrocław. He is currently completing work on a film analyzing The Wizard of Oz through the prism of David Lynch's work.
Selected filmography
2010 Skandalista George Lucas / The People vs. George Lucas (doc.)
2014 Doc of the Dead (doc.)
2017 78/52 (doc.)
2019 Na wiarę. „Egzorcysta” Williama Friedkina / Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on The Exorcist (doc.)
2019 Wspomnienia: Geneza „Obcego” / Memory: The Origins of Alien (doc.)
2021 Zdobywanie Dzikiego Zachodu / The Taking (doc.)
Cast & Crew
