A scene from Kevin Jerome Everson's The Island of St. Matthews

This Sunday’s schedule predominantly revolves around Views of the Avant-Garde. The incredibly rich slate counts 45 programs, with a combination of returning artists, new entries, and retrospectives. The films formats range from Super-8 to video, and there is a vast diversity of mediums, topics, lengths, and nationalities on display. Rush tickets are available to many programs throughout the day.

Kicking off the day at 11:30am is Kevin Jerome Everson’s The Island of St. Matthews, in which the director explores the loss of family history through photography. The film is personal to Everson, as his family lost all family photographs in the 1973 Mississippi flooding. At 12:00pm, a very different kind of film will screen at the Francesca Beale Theater: Talena Sanders’ Liahona examines Mormonism in the state of Utah.

Later this afternoon, at 5:45pm, two features by Robert Nelson will be screened: Suite California Stops & Passes Part 1 (Tijuana to Hollywood Via Death Valley) and Part 2 (San Francisco to the Sierra Nevadas & Back Again). The event is co-presented with the Academy of Motion Picture Art and Sciences, who restored the prints. At 9:45pm, The Realist by Scott Stark explores the human relation to consumeristic culture through compelling images of mannequins and will be preceded by three shorts.

Speaking of short works, Views from the Avant-Garde has a ton of those. Momentary Light and Seasonal Songs: The Films of Nathaniel Dorsky and Jerome Hiler comprises three shorts, Landscapes in the Shadow of Time has four, (a noisy distance of None will be returned if, and only if, the ghost is captured) has 10, and the program Written on the Wind includes a total of 14! Later tonight, two series of shorts by American experimental filmmakers Ernie Gehr and Luther Price


Joaquin Pheonix and Marion Cotillard in James Gray's The Immigrant

But obviously, today is not exclusively about Views. Four highly acclaimed films from the Official Selection debut today, starting at 3:15pm with The Immigrant by James Gray, who will be present for a Q&A. The film stars Marion Cotillard as a Polish immigrant (Ewa) in 1920s New York, Joaquin Phoenix as a shady burlesque manager, and Jeremy Renner as a magician who wants to win Ewa’s affection. The Berlinale hit Gloria, for which actress Paulina Garcia won the Silver Bear, is the story of a middle-aged woman whose sexual desire is far from gone. The film will screen at 6:00pm with director Sebastian Lélio and star Paulina García in person for Q&A!

The personal story that French director Catherine Breillat brings to the big screen in Abuse of Weakness (Abus de faiblesse) sees Isabelle Huppert playing a fictionalized version of Breillat named Maud, a filmmaker who gets cheated by a conman after suffering a stroke. Both Breillat and Huppert will be present for a Q&A after the screening, which starts at 6:15pm at Alice Tully Hall and has rush tickets available. Claire Denis' new film Bastards (Les salauds) also screens for the first time in NYFF tonight at 9:00pm with Denis in person for Q&A.

Sunday, October 6
11:30am Kevin Jerome Everson: The Island of St. Matthews (Views, HBT)
12:00pm Talena Sanders : Liahona (Views, FBT)
1:00pm Shorts Program 2 (Shorts, WRT) RUSH AVAILABLE
1:30pm Momentary Light and Seasonal Songs: The Films of Nathaniel Dorsky and Jerome Hiler (Views, HGT)
2:30pm Breaking the Frame (Views, FBT)
3:15pm The Immigrant (Official Selection, ATH) STANDBY ONLY
3:15pm (a noisy distance of None will be returned if, and only if, the ghost is captured) (Views, HGT)
3:30pm Jimmy P: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian (Official Selection, WRT)
5:30pm Written on the Wind (Views, HGT)
5:45pm Robert Nelson: Suite California Stops &Passes Part 1 and 2 (Views, HGT)
6:00pm Gloria (Official Selection, WRT) STANDBY ONLY
6:15pm Abuse of Weakness (Official Selection, ATH)
7:30pm Ernie Gehr: Living Next Door to Magic (Views, FBT)
8:30pm Luther Price: Light Fractures (Views, HGT)
9:00pm Bastards (Official Selection, ATH) STANDBY ONLY
9:00pm When Evening Falls on Bucharest or Metabolism (Official Selection, WRT) ADDED SCREENING
9:45pm Scott Stark: The Realist (Views, HGT)
10:30pm Landscapes in the Shadow of Time (Views, HGT)