NEW YORK MOVIE JOURNAL (Feb.-Mar. 2017)

[Chris Knipp]

Cries from Syria (Evgeny Afineevsky 2017). The whole six years of Syrian war in four chapters ending with the weakest (as Boyd van Hoeij says in Variety) being about the refuges as the end. Heavy on the torture and atrocities such as sarin and chlorine gas use by Bashar al-Asad. There is a ton of Syria docs but this might be the most likely to make you cringe and weep. Afineevsky and a major talking head in the film, activist and liberation Kholoud Helmi, were present for a Q&A after the showing at Cinema Village, the only venue currently for this Strand Releasing release locally, released yesterday. Watched at Cinema Vilage 11 Mar. 2017.

NEW DIRECTORS/NEW FILMS SCREENINGS
During the past two weeks I watched and reviewed through press screenings at Lincoln Center and MoMA the entire 29 films of the 2017 New Directors/New Films series. This was after covering 18 of the 23 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema films the previous two weeks, overall 46 festival films during the period of this MOVIE JOURNAL.

Links to the reviews
4 Days in France/Jours de France (Jérôme Reybaud 2016)
Albüm (Mehmet Can Mertoglu 2016)
Arábia (João Dumans, Affonso Uchoa 2017)
Autumn, Autumn/Chuncheon, Chuncheon (Jang Woo-jin 2017)
Beach Rats (Eliza Hittman 2017) Centerpiece Film
By the Time It Gets Dark/Dao khanong (Anocha Suwichakornpong 2016)
Boundaries/Pays (Chloé Robichaud 2016)
Challenge, The (Yuri Ancarani 2016)
Diamond Island (Davy Chou 2016)
Dreamed Path, The/Der Traumhafte Weg (Angela Schanelec 2016)
Future Perfect, The/El Futuro Perfecto (Nele Wohlatz 2016)
Giant, The/Jätten (Johannes Nyholm 2016)
Happiness Academy/Bonheur académie (Kaori Kinoshita & Alain Della Negra 2017)
Happy Times Will Come Soon/I tempi felici verranno presto (Alessandro Comodin 2016)
Lady Macbeth (William Oldroyd 2016)
Last Family, The/Ostatnia Rodzina (Jan P. Matuszynski 2106)
Last of Us, The/Akhar Wahid Fina 2016)
Menashe (Joshoa Z. Weinstein 2016)
My Happy Family/Chemi Bednieri Ojakhi ((Naa Ekvtimiishvili, Simon Gross 2017)
Patti Cake$ (Geremy Jasper 2017) Opening Night Film
Pendular (Julia Murat 2017)
Person to Person (Dustin Guy Defa 2017) Closing Night
Quest (Jonathan Olshefski 2016)
Sexy Durga (Sanal Kumar Sasidharan 2017)
Strong Island (Yance Ford 2017)
Summer Is Gone/Ba yue (Zhang Dalei 2016)
White Sun/Seto Surya (Depak Rauniyar 2016)
Wound, The (John Trengove 2017)
Wùlu (Daouda Coulibaly 2016)