Museum of Modern Art and Film Society of Lincoln Center Present 7 Selections for 2013 New Directors/New Films Festival, Beg. Today
The Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center present seven official selections for the 2013 New Directors/New Films Festival (ND/NF) (today, March 20-31). Dedicated to the discovery of new works by emerging and dynamic filmmaking talent, the 2013 edition marks the film festival's 42nd year.
Representing seven countries from around the world, the initial seven selections are Emil Christov's THE COLOR OF THE CHAMELEON (Bulgaria), Tobias Lindholm's A HIJACKING (Kapringen) (Denmark), Rachid Djaidani's HOLD BACK (Rengaine) (France), JP Sniadecki's and Libbie Dina Cohn's PEOPLE'S PARK (USA/China), Sarah Polley's STORIES WE TELL (Canada), Shane Carruth's UPSTREAM COLOR (USA), and Matías Piñeiro's VIOLA (Argentina).
"These first seven titles give a hint at the exciting versatility and accomplishment in storytelling by emerging directors this year. The New Directors class of 2013 promises to have some wonderful surprises in store for our film audiences and cineastes around the world," said Rajendra Roy, The Celeste Bartos Chief Curator, Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art.
Film Society of Lincoln Center Director of Year Round programming, Robert Koehler added, "Even with the vast majority of films still to be selected, these first selections for ND/NF set the tone for the introduction of a wide range of cinema and cinematic voices - both narrative and documentary - that has been the ambition of New Directors/New Films."
UPSTREAM COLOR, Shane Carruth's highly anticipated follow-up to his 2004 debut, PRIMER is a love story embedded within a kidnap plot and will be screened at the Sundance Film Festival, as will Sarah Polley's STORIES WE TELL, which marks the first documentary effort from the indie film actress turned Academy Award nominated writer/director as she turns the camera on her own family in an effort to explore how we tell our own personal stories.
Emil Christov's black comedy about a twisted secret police informant's plot, THE COLOR OF THE CHAMELEON received a Special Mention at the Thessaloniki Film Festival and nominations for a Discovery Award at the Toronto International Film Festival and a Bronze Horse at the Stockholm Film Festival.
Tobias Lindholm makes his solo debut with A HIJACKING (Kapringen), a tense hostage drama about cargo ship piracy. The film won the Golden Alexander at the Thessaloniki Film festival and was nominated for the Tokyo Grand Prix at the Tokyo International Film Festival. Rachid Djaidani's HOLD BACK (Rengaine), an ultra low-budget Romeo and Juliet-type drama set in contemporary multicultural Paris, marks his narrative debut. The film won a FIPRESCI Prize at last year's Cannes Film Festival.
Other films announced include JP Sniadecki's and Libbie Dina Cohn's PEOPLE'S PARK, which takes an immersive look at a Chinese community via a single tracking shot. The film was nominated for a Golden Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival, and Matías Piñeiro's VIOLA, in which a group of actresses staging a production of Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" get caught up in a web of romantic intrigue and revelation.
For more than four decades, New Directors/New Films has been a beacon for emerging directors eager to make their mark on contemporary cinema. The festival has introduced or cemented the status of some of the world's most celebrated filmmakers, including Chantal Akerman, Pedro Almodóvar, Darren Aronofsky, Ken Burns, Agnieszka Holland, Wong Kar Wai, Spike Lee, Christopher Nolan and Steven Spielberg.
THE SEVEN OFFICIAL SELECTIONS INCLUDE:
THE COLOR OF THE CHAMELEON (2012) 114min
Director: Emil Christov
Country: Bulgaria
Director: Tobias Lindholm
Country: DenmarkOn its way to harbor, the cargo ship MV Rozen is boarded and seized by pirates in the Indian Ocean. Moving between the claustrophobic and intensely fraught day-to-day life of the crew and their captors and the physically removed negotiations by the freight company in Denmark, Lindholm creates a climate of almost unbearable tension with an unexpected climax. As in his previous work (the prison drama 'R' and the television series 'Borgen') Lindholm's narrative is based on a true event and his use of actual locations-the film was shot under exceedingly difficult circumstances in the Indian Ocean-- and people who has been involved in similar situations (the negotiation team include a real-life hostage negotiator), provide the film with palpable authenticity and a lived-in feel. Augmented by a terrific cast, especially the amazing Pilou Asbæk as the ship's cook Mikkel who becomes the pirates primary conduit for communication, Lindholm has created a suspenseful drama whose essential subject matter is the innate danger of an overwhelming disparity between impoverished nations and the developed world. A HIJACKING is a Magnolia Films release.
HOLD BACK (Rengaine) (2012) 75min
Director: Rachid Djaïdani
Country: France
PEOPLES PARK (2012) 78min
Directors: JP Sniadecki and Libbie Dina Cohn
Countries: USA/China
Director: Sarah Polley
Country: CanadaWhat is real? What is true? What do we remember, and how do we remember it? Actor/director Sarah Polley (AWAY FROM HER, TAKE THIS WALTZ) turns from fiction to non-fiction and in the process cracks open family secrets in this powerful examination of personal history and remembrance. Using home movies, still photographs and interviews, Polley delves into the life of her mother, shown as a creative yet secretive woman. What parents and siblings have to say and what they remember about events that occurred years ago, show the pitfalls of making the past present and cast a sharp light on the complicated paths of relationships. But while she is talking to her own relatives, Polley's interest lies in the bigger picture of what families hold onto as truth. In an intimate setting, she shows us the process by which she tries to pluck information from family and friends: she interviews them but also delicately interrogates them as well as bringing them in as writers and collaborators in her own story. More than documentary, STORIES WE TELL is a delicately crafted personal essay about memory, loss and understanding.
UPSTREAM COLOR (2013)
Director: Shane Carruth
Country: USA
VIOLA (2012) 65min
Director: Matías Piñeiro
Country: Argentina
About The Film Society of Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art: Under the leadership of Rose Kuo, Executive Director, Robert Koehler, Director of Programming Year-round and Kent Jones, NYFF Director of Programming, The Film Society of Lincoln Center offers the best in international, classic, and cutting-edge independent cinema. The Film Society presents two film festivals that attract global attention: the New York Film Festival, which recently completed its 50th year, and New Directors/New Films, which, since its founding in 1972, has been produced in collaboration with MoMA. The Film Society also publishes the award-winning Film Comment Magazine, and for over three decades has given an annual award-now named "The Chaplin Award"-to a major figure in world cinema. Past recipients of this award include Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese, Meryl Streep, and Tom Hanks. For more information, visit www.filmlinc.com.
The Museum of Modern Art's Department of Film was established as the Film Library in 1935, and presented its first series as circulating exhibitions in 1936. The Film Department organizes over 50 film exhibitions every year, including annual programs such as To Save and Project:The MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation, Documentary Fortnight, and The Contenders. The Department also organizes exhibitions in MoMA's galleries, including Tim Burton (2009-10) and Pixar: 20 Years of Animation (2005-06). The department also has an extensive archive of over 27,000 film and video works, including the world's largest institutional collections of the works of D. W. Griffith, Andy Warhol, and Stan Brakhage. Rajendra Roy is the current Celeste Bartos Chief Curator of Film, appointed in May 2007.
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