The Walker Art Center’s Dialogue and Retrospective Series brings together some of the most innovative and influential filmmakers of our time with leading critics, writers, and historians. As we celebrate the 25th anniversary of this important program, we look back to the beginning. The series, which launched with support from the MacArthur Foundation from 1990–1993, was later funded by the Regis Foundation from 1994–2012 and continued with support from Myron and Anita Kunin. It provides an intimate space for directors and actors to discuss their creative process, influences, and body of work. Punctuated with film clips, anecdotes, and personal insights, these conversations take place in the state-of-the-art 340-seat Walker Cinema. In addition to the dialogue, a retrospective of the filmmaker’s work is shown, which sometimes includes screenings of rare and archival prints along with newer digital projections. Since the inaugural dialogue between Clint Eastwood and Richard Schickel in 1990, the series has hosted many guests, including international directors, American masters, independent visionaries, artists, auteurs, and leading screen actors in discussion with writers and critics who help shape the way we think about contemporary film.

The Walker Dialogue and Retrospective Series initially emerged from the efforts of Film/Video curator Bruce Jenkins in the late 1980s to collaborate with the Director’s Guild of America (DGA) in celebration of its 50th anniversary. Before the generous funding of the MacArthur and Regis Foundations made regular events possible, Jenkins sought to create space for critical exploration of the medium and highlight the vast diversity of contemporary, experimental, and classical filmmakers. Working with DGA, he curated a series of four dialogues with directors Stanley Donen, Sam Fuller, Miloš Forman, and Martha Coolidge to share their work with Walker audiences. As a devoted film scholar, Jenkins commissioned written pieces to accompany these events, which were also distributed in printed programs to inspire critical conversation within the cinema space and beyond. The tradition of the dialogue series has now continued for 25 years.
The Dialogue and Retrospective Series emerged from Jenkins’s early mission and programming and continues today under the leadership and vision of current senior curator Sheryl Mousley. These events are often integrated into the department’s regional premieres and community engagement programs, bringing local audiences together in the Walker Cinema and throughout the community to experience innovative filmmaking and inspire love of the medium. Béla Tarr´s 2007 visit included a master class at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and projects at the University of Minnesota. In November 2013, Walker audiences also experienced the Midwest premiere of British artist and filmmaker Steve McQueen’s Twelve Years a Slave and an insightful dialogue between McQueen and Stuart Comer, MoMA’s chief curator of media and performance art. Through an archive of these recorded events on the Walker Channel have now replaced earlier pamphlets, the Dialogue and Retrospective Series continues the long tradition of community engagement, innovation, and critical discussion that is essential to the mission of the Moving Image Department and the Walker Art Center.

• September 5, 1990
  Clint Eastwood Directs
  Dialogue: Clint Eastwood with Richard Schickel
  Regional Premiere: White Hunter, Black Heart
• November 10, 1990
  Merchant Ivory Productions Re-viewed
  Dialogue: James Ivory with David Sterritt
  Benefit Preview: Mr. & Mrs. Bridge
• February 23, 1991
  Jodie Foster: Growing Up on Screen
  Dialogue: Jodie Foster with B. Ruby Rich
  Regional Premiere: The Silence of the Lambs
• April 20, 1991
  Produced by Pressman
  Dialogue: Edward R. Pressman with Julie Salamon
  Regional Premiere: Paris by Night
• May 26, 1991
  Keith Carradine: In Retrospect
  Dialogue: Keith Carradine with Phil Anderson
  Regional Premiere: The Bachelor and The Ballad of the Sad Café
• July 8, 1991
  John Sayles: From Alligators to Agitators
  Dialogue: John Sayles with Jay Carr
  Regional Premiere: City of Hope
• August 6, 1991
  Ken Burns: Imagining America
  Dialogue: Ken Burns with Terrence Rafferty
  Regional Premiere: E_mpire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio_
• December 13, 1991
  Wim Wenders: In the Course of Time
  Dialogue: Wim Wenders with J. Hoberman
  Preview Screening: Sis ans Ende der Welt (Until the End of the World)
• February 29, 1992
  Danny Glover: In Retrospect
  Dialogue: Danny Glover with Armond White
• April 25, 1992
  Robert Altman: An American Maverick
  Dialogue: Robert Altman with David Bordwell
  Preview Screening: The Player
• November 5, 1992
  Marcel Ophüls: A Course in Resistance
  Dialogue: Marcel Ophüls with Phillip Lopate
  Regional Premiere: Novembertage: Stimmen und Wege (November Days)
• February 6, 1993
  Liv Ullmann: From Actor to Auteur
  Dialogue: Liv Ullmann with Molly Haskell
  Regional Premiere: Sophie
• June 11, 1993
  American Playhouse: A Tribute
  Dialogue: Julie Dash with Lindsay Law
• October 18, 1993
  Chen Kaige: Fifth Generation Filmmaker
  Dialogue: Chen Kaige with Amy Taubin
  Regional Premiere: Ba wang bie ji (Farewell My Concubine)
• February 4, 1994
  On the Road with Jim Jarmusch
  Dialogue: Jim Jarmusch with Jonathan Rosenbaum
• February 3, 1995
  Passion in Perspective: The Films of Jane Campion
  Dialogue: Jane Campion with Richard Peña
• June 9, 1995
  Assertions of Resistance: The Films of Haile Gerima
  Dialogue: Dialogue: Haile Gerima with Arthur Jafa
  Regional Premiere: Sankofa
• September 29, 1995
  Agnieszka Holland: In Retrospect
  Dialogue: Agnieszka Holland with Amy Taubin
  Regional Premiere: Total Eclipse
• February 3, 1996
  The Brothers Quay: Alchemists of Animation
  Dialogue: Timothy and Stephen Quay with Bruce Jenkins
  Regional Premiere: Institute Benjamenta
• June 6, 1996
  Gordon Parks: In Retrospect
  Dialogue: Gordon Parks with Susan Robeson
• October 11, 1996
  Tom Hanks: In Retrospect
  Dialogue: Tom Hanks with Richard Schickel
• November 2, 1996
  Spike Lee: In Retrospect
  Dialogue: Spike Lee with Elvis Mitchell
• April 30, 1997
  G Is for Greenaway
  Dialogue: Peter Greenaway with Peter Wollen
  Regional Premiere: The Pillow Book
• October 3, 1997
  Jessica Lange: In Retrospect
  Dialogue: Jessica Lange with Molly Haskell
  Regional Premiere: Cousin Bette
• February 27, 1998
  Abbas Kiarostami: In Retrospect
  Dialogue: Dialogue: Abbas Kiarostami with Richard Peña
  Regional Premiere: Ta’m e guilass (Taste of Cherry)
• April 2, 1998
  À propos de Denis Retrospective: Claire Denis
  Regional Premiere: Nénette et Boni (Nénette and Boni)
• November 5, 1998
  And Now for Something Completely Different: The Films of Terry Gilliam
  Dialogue: Terry Gilliam with Stuart Klawans
• February 26, 1999
  Stan Brakhage: The Art of Seeing
  Dialogue: Stan Brakhage with Bruce Jenkins
  World Premiere: The Earth Song of the Cricket
  US Premiere: Birds of Paradise
• April 30, 1999
  The Great Ecstasy of the Filmmaker Herzog
  Dialogue: Werner Herzog with Roger Ebert
  Regional Premiere: Julianes Sturz in den Dschungel (Wings of Hope)
  Special Publication: “Declaration of Minnesota Manifesto”
• May 31, 2000
  John Waters: Shock Value
  Monologue: John Waters
• June 29, 2000
  Léos Carax: L’amour fou
  Dialogue: Léos Carax with Kent Jones
  Regional Premiere: Pola X
• July 15, 2000 Doris Dörrie: Straight through the Heart
  Dialogue: Doris Dörrie with Klaus Phillips
  US Premiere: Erleuchtung garantiert (Enlightenment Guaranteed)
• February 20, 2001
  Agnès Varda, cine-writer
  Dialogue: Agnès Varda with Bérénice Reynaud
  Regional Premiere: Les Glaneurs et la glaneuse (The Gleaners and I)
• September 29, 2001
  Tales of the City: Hanif Kureishi’s Rough Guide to London
  Dialogue: Hanif Kureishi with A.O. Scott
  Regional Premiere: Intimacy
• May 22, 2002 Filming to the Heart: Film Works by Heddy Honigmann
  Dialogue: Heddy Honigmann with Michael Tortorello
  Regional Premiere: Goede man, leve zoon (Good Husband, Dear Son)
• February 28, 2003 Gus Van Sant: On the Road Again
  Dialogue: Gus Van Sant with Scott Macaulay
  Regional Premiere: Gerry
• May 6, 2003
  Matthew Barney: Cremaster Cycle
  Dialogue: Matthew Barney with Richard Flood
  Regional Premiere: Cremaster Cycle
• November 21, 2003
  Frederick Wiseman: A Sense of Place
  Dialogue: Frederick Wiseman and Jim McKay
  Regional Premiere: La dernière letter (The Last Letter)
• February 6, 2004
  Guy Maddin: Pages from a Filmmaker’s Diary
  Dialogue: Guy Maddin and Elvis Mitchell
  Regional Premiere: The Saddest Music in the World
• November 20, 2004
  Apichatpong Weerasethakul: New Language from Thailand
  Dialogue: Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Chuck Stephens
  Regional Premieres: Sud pralad (Tropical Malady) and Sud sanaeha (Blissfully Yours)
• June 3, 2005
  Alexander Payne: Sideways Glance at America
  Dialogue: Alexander Payne and Kenneth Turan
• December 13, 2005
  Ang Lee with James Schamus: East Meets West
  Dialogue: Ang Lee and James Schamus
• February 4, 2006
  Lili Taylor: Independent Spirit
  Dialogue: Lili Taylor and B. Ruby Rich
• November 4, 2006
  Isabella Rossellini: Illuminated
  Dialogue: Isabella Rossellini and John Anderson
• June 23, 2007
  Michel Gondry: The Science of Dreams
  Dialogue: Michel Gondry and Jonathan Rosenbaum
  Regional Premiere: Happy-Go-Lucky
• September 14, 2007
  Béla Tarr: Mysterious Harmonies
  Dialogue: Béla Tarr and Howard Feinstein
  Regional Premiere: The Man from London (A Londoni Ferfi)
• April 12, 2008
  Miloš Forman: Cinema of Resistance
  Dialogue: Miloš Forman and Scott Foundas
• October 15, 2008
  Mike Leigh: Moments
  Dialogue: Mike Leigh and Scott Foundas
• June 26, 2009
  In & Out of Fashion: The Films of William Klein
  Dialogue: William Klein and Paulina del Paso
• November 25, 2009
  Joel and Ethan Coen: Raising Cain
  Dialogue: Joel and Ethan Coen and Elvis Mitchell
• May 8, 2010
  Kelly Reichardt: Off the Beaten Track
  Dialogue: Kelly Reichardt and Scott Foundas
• October 20, 2010
  Olivier Assayas: Between Love and Terror
  Dialogue: Olivier Assayas and Kent Jones
• March 19, 2011
  Julian Schnabel: Artist Director
  Dialogue: Julian Schnabel and Darsie Alexander
  Film Premiere: Miral
• March 15, 2012
  Harry Belafonte: Singing His Song
  Dialogue: Harry Belafonte and Scott Foundas
• April 14, 2012
  Lawrence Kasdan: Rugged Terrain
  Dialogue: Lawrence Kasdan and Scott Foundas
• November 17, 2012
  Claire Denis: Unpredictable Universe
  Dialogue: Claire Denis and Eric Hynes
• April 5, 2013
  Noah Baumbach: Visibly Human
  Dialogue: Noah Baumbach and Scott Foundas
  Regional Premiere: Frances Ha
• November 9, 2013
  Steve McQueen: Art and Cinema
  Dialogue: Steve McQueen and Stuart Comer
  Regional Premiere: 12 Years a Slave
• May 5, 2015
  Christopher Nolan: Moving Through Time
  Dialogue: Christopher Nolan and Scott Foundas
• November 12, 2016
  Robert Redford: Independent/Visionary
  Dialogue: Robert Redford with Amy Taubin
• April 6, 2018
  Dialogue: Lucy Walker