During the past decade the world's filmmaking community has shown a heightened interest in Afghanistan, often transporting crews and cameras across the globe to film the cities and ancient landmarks in an effort to record, reveal, and romanticize the country. This series of films, organized in association with the exhibition Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul, brings together a variety of nonfiction, semi-fictional, and documentary works, along with short subjects and television films. A program of recent experimental video by Afghan and Afghan American artists illuminates both the breadth and the beauty of the country's artistic legacy.

Michelangelo Antonioni (1912–2007), the consummate modernist who converted the language of cinema into contemporary forms, was hailed on his death last July as "the most modern and controversial artist of his generation." Antonioni began as a critic, collaborated on scripts with the neo-realists, and directed his first feature, Cronica di un amore, in 1950. It was in the mid-1950s that he realized his own unique expression with Il grido. Subsequently, the world learned of that expression with the release of the much maligned L'avventura in 1960, arguably the most debated film of all time and today regarded as one of the most influential. This eight-part retrospective of Antonioni's most important Italian films (he began to work outside Italy after releasing Deserto rosso in 1964) is presented through the assistance of Luca Verdone; Sergio Toffetti; Laura Argento; Laura Boido; RAI International; Cineteca Nazionale, Rome; and the Italian Cultural Institute, Washington. Prints are from the British Film Institute and Cineteca Nazionale.

Born one hundred years ago in Oporto, Manoel de Oliveira embodies the last of the great twentieth-century auteurs. Today he is still making cinema of profound depth and candor with a style that is recognizable but never repetitive. During the last two decades he has released, on average, one film a year. All of this suggests that, at age 100, he has achieved critic Edward Said's definition of an artist who refuses to go gently into the night, "a restless sensibility, turning out works of unresolved contradiction." Thanks to the Embassy of Portugal, Instituto Camões, Cinemateca Portuguesa, ICA, Lusomundo, Antonio Pedroso, Florence Almozini, João Bénard da Costa, and BAM Cinematek.

Tuesdays at noon will feature unusual historical films in 16 mm from the National Gallery's film department, including artists' portraits and exceptional educational films on topics from prehistory to the present. Now considered an endangered format, these 16 mm prints are sometimes unique copies.

Hollywood's eccentric master of glamour and craft, Josef von Sternberg, proved the perfect foil for former reporter Ben Hecht, whose script for this early gangster genre gem was based on personal experiences working Chicago's crime beat. Von Sternberg's direction adds aplomb, while performances from bank robber George Bancroft and moll Evelyn Brent enchant. Boston's Alloy Orchestra performs live its dazzling new score for the film. (Josef von Sternberg, 1927, silent with live accompaniment, 80 minutes)

Sculptor John Sherrill Houser's most important commission was to create the world's largest equestrian bronze—Spanish conquistador Juan de Oñate. The Last Conquistador follows the intense battle among factions within the population, local authorities, and Houser himself. At the center of the controversy is conquistador Oñate—viewed as a genocidal war criminal by many, and admired by others as an iconic representative of the contributions made by Hispanic people to American history. Filmmaker John Valadez will be present to lead a discussion following his illuminating and complex film about the sculpture. (John Valadez, Cristina Ibarra, 2007, digital beta, 70 minutes)

The late British experimental artist-filmmaker Derek Jarman is the subject of a new and unusual documentary portrait by director Isaac Julien. Julien's unconventional approach includes the poetic narration Letter to an Angel composed by Jarman’s longtime friend and fellow artist Tilda Swinton, who over the years appeared in many of Jarman’s films, including Caravaggio.

This new film biography of Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti uses his writings and footage of discussions with friends and connoisseurs to reveal the artist's mental universe, his art, and the places where he lived and worked.

Narrated by Sir Derek Jacobi and produced by the National Gallery, this thirty-minute film examines the explosion of artistic activity around the Bay of Naples that began in the first century BC. The film includes original footage shot in the villas and houses on the Bay of Naples, including Pompeii, where many of the objects were found preserved in the ash that covered the area after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.