LOCAL Houston | The City Guide JULY 2015 | Page 36

GISH AT THE MOVIES

Marian Luntz by F. Carter Smith

MARIAN LUNTZ: MFAH’S FILM CURATOR CELEBRATES A QUARTER CENTURY!

Tracy Stephenson

A PIGEON SAT ON A BRANCH PONDERING EXISTENCE

Everyone loves MARIAN LUNTZ, the Film Program Director
and Curator of Film and Video at The Museum of Fine
Arts, Houston. Her enthusiasm for the art form is contagious and her sophisticated yet there’s-something-foreveryone film programming put Houston on the map as
a place to see films while endearing her to Houston
audiences who know her by her wide grin and funky
glasses. After being wooed from her native New York in
the 1980s to work at the Southwest Alternate Media
Project (SWAMP), Marian, very pregnant at the time,
was hired by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston’s
Director Peter Marzio and Curator of Photography Anne
Wilkes Tucker in 1990.
A diehard Astros fan with a “Renaissance Man” husband, a pastry chef daughter and a dog which is currently prepping for his bark mitzvah, Marian is an interesting mix of intelligentsia and down-to-earth enthusiasm. She’s a community collaborator who not only
brings cinema lovers and well-known industry pros into
her world but she also connects her film programming to
the Museum’s exhibitions and the Houston community at
large, hosting several recurring film festivals with groups
from the French, Latin American, LGBT, Turkish and youth
communities (among others) along with special screenings such as the trademark “Movies Houstonians Love”
series in which a local celeb shares their favorite film
and a new series, “A Second Look,” in which they’ll
bring back short-run films.

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Marian Luntz

It was at the MFAH that Marian became an expert on
filmmaker/photographer Robert Frank, serving as the
overseer of the Museum’s collection through an arrangement set in place by Tucker and previous Film Program
Director Ralph McKay. Alongside that, the Museum has
been her playground for serving up delicious and varied
film programming, supported by her bosses and a crew
that consists of two staff members and a robust film committee of local cinephiles and industry professionals.
Marzio loved film dearly and new Director Gary
Tinterow is a member at the “Ultimate Film Supporter”
level in their Film Buffs Program, the Museum’s cineclub
for movie lovers. No doubt it’s Tinterow’s passion and
Marian’s leadership that paved the way for a second
theater (yes, two!) as part of the Museum’s massive,
multimillion dollar campus expansion. Wyatt Theater,
made possible by founding film committee Chair Lynn
Wyatt and her husband Oscar, will be home to expanded programming from all of the Museum’s departments.
It seems perfectly fitting that as Luntz celebrates her silver
anniversary, so the Museum expands its theater offerings.
“Adventurous film lovers, take a leap of faith and check
this one out!” Marian wrote of the film A Pigeon Sat on
a Branch Pondering Existence, playing August 14–16
at the Museum. Luckily for us, Marian always leaps first!

By Sarah Gish

Ray Gomez

WANT TO SEE MORE ART FILMS?
CHECK OUT THESE VENUES

14 Pews (www.14pews.org)
Alamo Drafthouse (www.drafthouse.com)
Asia Society (www.asiasociety.org/texas)
Aurora Picture Show (www.aurorapictureshow.org)
Blaffer Art Museum (www.blafferartmuseum.org)
Café Brasil (www.cafe-brasil.net)
Contemporary Arts Museum (www.camh.org)
Discovery Green (www.discoverygreen.com)
DiverseWorks (www.diverseworks.org)
Holocaust Museum (www.hmh.org)
Jewish Community Center (www.erjcchouston.org)
Landmark River Oaks Theatre (www.landmarktheatres.com)
Miller Outdoor Theatre (www.milleroutdoortheatre.com)
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (www.mfah.org/films)
Orange Show (www.orangeshow.org)
Rice Cinema (www.ricecinema.rice.edu)
Sundance Cinemas (www.sundancecinemas.com)