For all of us who couldn’t make it to Sundance, there will be a chance to see several of the top films that played in January at the New Directors/New Films Festival in NYC that runs from March 25-April 5 at the Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center.
New York based director Cherien Dabis’ Amreeka starring Nisreen Faour and Hiam Abbas will open the festival, and Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner Push will close the Fest. Here’s an interview I did with Cherien Dabis at Sundance. The Berlin Film Festival’s award winning The Milk of Sorrow will also play.
Other women directed and women centric films:
$9.99 Tatia Rosenthal, Israel/Australia, 2008; Can the mysteries of life really be known for “the low-price of $9.99”? This timely and compelling stop-motion animated feature explores urban dreams and dilemmas. A Regent Releasing release.
Cold Souls Sophie Barthes, USA/Russia, 2008; Screenwriter/director Sophie Barthes deftly balances fantasy and reality in her witty, metaphysical tale of a successful actor (the great Paul Giamatti playing himself) undergoing a psychic breakdown while rehearsing a production of “Uncle Vanya.” A Samuel Goldwyn release.
Home Ursula Meier, Switzerland/France/Belgium, 2008; An ordinary middle class family lives an ordinary life in their ordinary house that sits next to an unused highway. With no neighbors or cars for miles, all it takes is the opening of the highway to change the family’s dynamic.
The Maid / La Nana Sebastian Silva, Chile, 2009; This sharply etched portrait of an tightly wound domestic servant and her passive-aggressive relationship to her middle-class family is given tremendous force and tragicomic relief in the remarkable, prizewinning title performance by Catalina Saavedra.
The Milk of Sorrow / La teta asustada Claudia Llosa, Spain/Peru, 2008; The legacies of rape and terror in Peru extend to the children born of victims. This remarkable film floats between fable and visceral reality, confronting fear and healing wounds through the power of the human spirit.
Stay the Same Never Change Laurel Nakadate, USA, 2009; This audacious, slyly hilarious work dares to grapple with the terrifying complexities of tween-age girlhood.
Treeless Mountain So Yong Kim, USA/South Korea, 2008; A gently told yet heart-wrenching tale of a young girl’s journey from abandonment to maturity. An Oscilloscope Pictures release.
We Live in Public Ondi Timoner, USA, 2008; Insurant, insightful, and authentic, Ondi Timoner’s Sundance winner is a boundlessly resourceful insider’s view of Internet pioneer Josh Harris’s rise and fall and the heady times in the art and technology Wild West of 1990s Manhattan.
(All descriptions from IndieWIRE)
“Push,” “Amreeka” Among ND/NF’s Chosen 25 (indieWIRE)
0 Response to “Amreeka and Push to Play New Directors/New Films”