NEW YORK, NY.- The Museum of Modern Art launches a new, annual series of commissioned films by rising filmmakers with the debut of Azazel Jacobs’ I See, a 90-second film that offers a look at the parallels between art and life. I See is available for viewing through a variety of outlets, including MoMA’s YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpMuHDJRQfc) and the Museum’s web site (www.moma.org/isee), and is being shown as a prelude to film screenings in the Museum’s Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters.

I See shows a young man, played by actor Henry Wolfe Gummer, listening to an audio description as he stands in MoMA’s galleries viewing Symphony Number 1, a 1913 sculpture by Russian artist Vladimir Baranoff-Rossiné. He listens as the narration becomes more intimate, involving him emotionally and intellectually, and flashes back to events of his everyday life. The film seeks to communicate to viewers the personal rewards of looking at art using their own experience and worldview as a lens.

Director Jacobs was featured in the 2008 New Directors/New Films series with Momma’s Man (2008). I See was written and created by Paul Lavoie, chairman and cofounder of the advertising agency TAXI New York. The music was composed and performed by actor Gummer.

For this new initiative, each year MoMA will select one filmmaker from among those featured in New Directors/New Films, an annual showcase of new cinema organized by MoMA and The Film Society of Lincoln Center, to create a short film. Now in its 39th year, New Directors/New Films has earned an international reputation as the premier festival for works that break or re-cast the cinematic mold.