NEW DIRECTORS/NEW FILMS 2022 (April 20-May 1, 2022)

[Chris Knipp]

ALBUM OF THE YOUTH/ALBUM PARA LA JUVENTUD (Malena Solarz 2021)

A series of scenes involving university students in the summer between exams and studies. Several of them have creative aspirations: one, as a writer, the other, as a composer. The filmmaker achieves a seamless, relaxed naturalism. Unfortunately these vérité sequences are pretty uninteresting. The project reflects the complacency of white, middle-class Argentinians. But there has been much festival attention. This is part of a larger project.
______________________
Thursday, April 21
8:45pm, FLC Walter Reade Theater (Q&A with Malena Solarz)
Sunday, April 24
6:45pm, MoMA T2 (Q&A with Malena Solarz)

[Chris Knipp]

WHITE BUILDING/BODENG SAR (Kavich Neang 2021

A beautiful, slow-moving autobiographical family portrait from Cambodia centering on a young man with dance ambitions whose family is getting pushed out of the old low-rise White Buliding, home to many artists and teachers, which is giving way to Phnom Penh's rapid, heedless development. Tellingly, this film, produced by the French Films du Losange, is coproduced by Jia Zhang-ke. This is a serene gem - it's silences are the best parts of it - that won its young star, Piseth Chhun, the best actor award in Venice's Orizzonti section last year. Neang has chronicled the building where he and his family lived (destroyed in 2017) in short films.

___________________
Thursday, April 21
6:00pm, FLC Walter Reade Theater (Q&A with Kavich Neang)
Friday, April 22
6:00pm, MoMA T2 (Q&A with Kavich Neang)

[Chris Knipp]

ROBE OF GEMS/MANTO DE GEMAS (Natalia López Gallardo 2021)

Feature debut by Carlos Reygadas' wife who has edited his films and those of Lisandro Alonso and is influenced by them. This very sophisticated, very creepy film deserves the attention of cinephiles for its unique artistry, but its depressing picture of Mexican drug dealing, kidnappings, and humiliations is too vaguely defined to assume real structural coherence.

______________________
Friday, April 22
6:00pm, FLC Walter Reade Theater (Q&A with Natalia López Gallardo)
Saturday, April 23
3:00pm, MoMA T1 (Q&A with Natalia López Gallardo)

[Chris Knipp]

REHANA/REHANA MARYAM NOOR (Abdullah Mohammad Saad 2021)

This film from Bangladesh (which we don't see films from very often) draws attention with its relentless portrait of a feminist medical school teacher whose obsession with a sexual harassment case goes way too far. The monomaniacal focus of the one-on-one scenes and the weird pervasive blue filter didn't appeal to me, but this film has drawn admiring reviews from some and was the first Bangladeshi film included at the Cannes festival, in the Un Certain Regard section.

____________________________
Friday, April 29
6:15pm, FLC Walter Reade Theater
Sunday, May 1
5:45pm, MoMA T2

[Chris Knipp]

FIRE OF LOVE (Sara Dosa 2022)

A documentary portrait of passionate husband and wife volcanologist team Katia and Maurice Krafft, from Alsace in France. They died together working too close to the hot fire of a volcano - the more dangerous "gray" kind (as opposed to the prettier but milder "red" ones) which became their focus. They left behind a voluminous record of themselves and of the volcanoes they studied that is the source. The film maybe emphasizes the romantic daredevil side of the Kaaffts at the expense of their very real scientific achievements. The hushed whisper of director Miranda July as the narrator doesn't help.

_________________________
Wednesday, April 27
8:30pm, MoMA T1 (Q&A with Sara Dosa)
Thursday, April 28
6pm, FLC Walter Reade Theater (Q&A with Sara Dosa

[Chris Knipp]

HAPPENING/L'ÉVÉNEMENT (Audrey Diwan 2021)

Opening night film of ND/NF, this is a superb French film based on the autobiographical novel by Annie Ernaux about an abortion in 1963, 12 years before abortion became legal in France, when you could go to jail for getting, providing, or aiding in an abortion. In academy ratio with beautiful painterly images, this is a forthright and vivid picture of the nitty-gritty of abortions when they're illegal, but it's also a picture of a bright, promising university student and the people around here and the memory the film leaves is less grim than gloom-fests like the US Never Rarely Sometimes Always or the earlier Romanian 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. Anamaria Vartolomei, in the lead, is a notable new talent as well. This is going to be coming out in May 6, 2022 and you should see it.

________________________________
Wednesday, April 20
7:00pm, MoMA T1 (Q&A with Audrey Diwan and Anamaria Vartolomei)
7:30pm, MoMA T2 (Introduction by Audrey Diwan and Anamaria Vartolomei)
Thursday, April 21
3:30pm, FLC Walter Reade Theater

[Chris Knipp]

CHILDREN OF THE MIST (Diễm Hà Lệ 2021)

A detailed, intimate work of documentary ethnography in which the filmmaker bonds with a young Hmong girl in North Vietnam and follows her people's life and customs, particularly the unfortunate, lingering habit of "kidnapping" child brides, which isn't good for anybody yet still goes on, even though there are schools now and girls have a chance at education and a better life - and with smart phones, they know something of the world outside.. This is a remarkable film and wholly admirable. The customs aren't at all, but that's ethnography for you: it does not constitute an endorsement.

________________________________
Saturday, April 30
3:15pm, FLC Walter Reade Theater (Q&A with Diễm Hà Lệ)
Sunday, May 1
12:00pm, MoMA T2 (Q&A with Diễm Hà Lệ)