Dedicated to the discovery and support of emerging artists, New Directors/New Films has earned an international reputation as the premiere festival for works that break or re-cast the cinematic mold. Twenty-six features and six shorts, handpicked by curators of the Film Society of Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art, made the cut this year, as the 37th edition of this non-competitive program spotlights the very best in the current class of new directors, actors, producers, writers, cinematographers, editors, and more.
Curated by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and MoMA team, the films in the 2008 festival represent 17 countries: Argentina, China, France, Greece, Haiti, Israel, Japan, Lebanon, Mexico, the Philippines, Rwanda, South Korea, Spain, Thailand, Venezuela, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Chadi Zeneddine’s Falling From Earth is a non-narrative, multi-chapter meditation on memory and the psychological aftermath of the Lebanese civil war. He spoke with us about his unique approach to storytelling, the challenge of making his first feature film, and why his graduate work in cinema studies at the Sorbonne have influenced his style. Hailing from Greece, Thanos Anastopoulos arrived at ND/NF with his ultra-tense Correction, about a laconic man’s Odyssean journey through marginal Athens after he’s released from prison. Is he a stalker? A pedophile? An assassin? Anastopoulos sat down to chat with us about Greek politics, shooting amid the chaos of a bustling city, and how he managed to keep a suspenseful edge on a minimal, character-driven drama.
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Desertion is the theme and landscape is the character in the films of two directors at ND/NF. Conrad Clark takes us on a road trip from urban Shanghai through the rural countryside, exploring how one man navigates the isolation of urbanized China. The British director speaks about his foreign language film, Soul Carriage, focusing on characters rather than politics, and understanding Chinese people through filmmaking. Serge Bozon's La France takes us back to the country during the first World War. The film follows a disguised Camile and the army brigade she joins to find her worn-torn husband. The filmmaker and critic speaks about portraying the mysterious men on their journey, mixing the film with live-recorded 60's psychedelic pop, and telling a fairytale love story.
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We sat down with two women filmmakers addressing differing sexual taboos across the globe. With her second feature, A Lost Man, Danielle Arbid tells the story of two men, one an amnesiac Lebanese the other an erotic photographer from France, wandering through Jordan on a kind of existential quest. Arbid spoke with us about living without rules, her unorthodox approach to depicting the Middle East, and why she loves filming sex. Lucia Puenzo talks with us about her project XXY, an initimate film exploring the decisions a young hermaphrodite, raised as a woman, must make when it comes to sexual identity and love.
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Lee Isaac Chung and Naoko Ogigami may share an Asian heritage, but their sensibilities couldn’t be farther apart. Chung’s haunting neorealist fable Munyurangabo trails two teenage friends, one Hutu and one Tutsi, on a fateful journey across Rwanda in the aftermath of the genocide, where ethnic tensions still have the power to separate soulmates. Ogigami’s delicate comedy Megane, however, is as peacable and refreshing as the pastel-colored seaside resort where a harried urbanite comes for a much-needed respite—only to find herself irritated at the odd group rituals of her curious cohabitants and their elderly exercise guru. We chatted with Chung about the making of Munyurangabo in his DUMBO office, and spoke with Ogigami about the contemplative life at the MOMA.
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France has its share of visionary filmmakers, and at ND/NF, we had a chance to speak with two promising young Parisian directors debuting their maiden features. At a hotel on Central Park South, we found synchronized swimming fan Céline Sciamma, and chatted about her deeply sensual Water Lilies, a mysterious, ethereal drama about adolescent sexuality from an audaciously feminine point of view. We then sat down with Michelange Quay to discuss Eat, For This Is My Body, a dreamlike, allegorical journey into the spiritual heart of postcolonial Haiti, starring Sylvie Testud (La Vie en Rose) and French stage and screen veteran Catherine Samie (Les Revenants, The Divorce).
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