by Sandy Mandelberger, Film New York Editor

Being an independent distributor of European films in the American market is more a labour of love than it is a ticket to monied success. Among the most hard-working and celebrated of these arthouse distribution companies is Los Angeles-based Strand Releasing, which is receiving a 20th anniversary tribute next week at the prestigious Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.

Several European co-productions that introduced international talents on the world film stage are also included in the tribute, including SUD PRALAD (Tropical Malady, 2004), Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Thai/French co-production about the mystical love affair between a young soldier and the country boy he seduces.; the French/Taiwan co-production TIAN BIAN YI DUO YUN (The Wayward Cloud, 2005), an erotic musical fantasy about a jaded porn film star that established the international reputation of Taiwanese writer/director Tsai Ming-Liang; and Argentine director Lucrecia Martel's LA MUJER SIN CABEZA (The Headless Woman, 2008), an arresting film about a bourgeois woman who loses all sense of memory, that was co-produced with Spain, France and Italy.