As you can imagine, the New York Jewish Film Festival marks my busiest time of the year, three stories in as many weeks, with a large collection of films to see and write about. Here are the kinks to the stories, one, two and finally three. This year's event was a little disappointing overall, but there are several films that are well worth seeking out, either in the festival or afterwards. My personal recommendations would be: Restoration, My Father Evgeni and Daas. In a perfect world, all three would be picked up for US distribution. (Heck, in a perfect world I would be -- oh, never mind.)
Looking ahead, the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art have announced seven selections for this year's New Directors/New Films. I thought it was worth passing along the titles because the geographical spread gives you an interesting picture of the state of cinema in the new year:
Representing nine countries from around the world, the initial seven selections are Karl Markovics' BREATHING (Austria), Anca Damian's CRULIC: THE PATH TO BEYOND (Romania), Julia Murat's FOUND MEMORIES (Brazil/Argentina/France), Pablo Giorgelli's LAS ACACIAS (Argentina/Spain), Joachim Trier's OSLO 31, AUGUST 31ST (Norway), Alejandro Landes's PORFIRIO (Colombia), and Angelina Nikonova's TWILIGHT PORTRAIT (Russia).
Finally, you may have noticed the presence of the Straub-Huillet film The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach on my top 100 list a few weeks back. Unfortunately, the great Gustav Leonhardt, who played Bach -- in both senses of the phrase -- in the film, died yesterday. It's more of a loss for the music world than for film, but I thought it was worth noting.
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