Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave
And on the twelfth day, the New York Film Festival gave us cinephiles much more to savor. Today, NYFF is filled to the brim with many notable screenings, director and actor Q&As, three live talks in our Elinor Bunin Monroe Center Amphitheater, two selections from our Revival screenings, and, starting the day off, a series of shorts.
Six short films will indeed be screened in our NYFF51: Shorts Program 1, and they deserve as much attention as any film featured in the festival. Ranging from twenty-nine to nine minutes in length, those looking to get a taste of a wide variety of talent and storytelling technique will find a smorgasbord of riches here. If you are free for the 1:00pm screening, take a chance on these up-and-comers.
Our Emerging Artists screenings conclude this afternoon with both directors (Fernando Eimbcke and Joanna Hogg) well represented. Eimbcke's Club Sandwich (1:00pm) and Hogg's Exhibition (3:30pm) will play in our Francesca Beale Theater (rush tickets available!) and, if the reviews are any indication, these are two works you won't want to miss. On Eimbcke's Club Sandwich, Variety wrote, “the essence of evocative simplicity, Mexican writer-director Fernando Eimbcke’s deadpan-comic Club Sandwich gently sketches the effect of a preteen’s budding puberty on his clingy mom. Not another coming-of-age story so much as a rarer study of a mother coming to accept the imminent end of her son’s childhood, the film, set during the pair’s brief vacation at a near-vacant hotel, gains poignancy in the most delicate manner, with Eimbcke (Duck Season) favoring long takes and a laid-back mood akin to that of a sunny day spent lazing around the pool.”
If you are frantically playing catch-up with our thirty-six Main Slate selections, you will get a chance to see five today, including three tonight making their NYFF debuts. If you weren't able to catch Rithy Panh's The Missing Picture (4:00pm) or Romanian New Wave director Corneliu Porumboiu's When Evening Falls on Bucharest or Metabolism (9:15pm), then our Howard Gilman Theater is where you will want to situate yourself. If you've been hearing a lot about J.C. Chandor's All Is Lost—a new film starring Robert Redford (and no on else) stranded at sea—since it premiered at Cannes, then come check out the film at 6:00pm. Both Chandor and Redford will be at the screening to discuss what's sure to be a harrowing tale of surivial and despair.
At 7:30pm (with an encore screening at 10:40pm), Steve McQueen's 12 Years A Slave will screen in our Walter Reade Theater as a special presentation of Film Comment magazine. Chances are pretty high you're aware of this film. Touted by many as the best film of 2013, McQueen and stars Chiwetel Ejiofor, Adepero Oduye, Michael Fassbender, Lupita Nyong'o, Alfre Woodard and Paul Dano will be in person tonight to offer insight into this crucial time in American history. Finally, at 9:00pm in Alice Tully Hall, Alexander Payne's Nebraska starring Bruce Dern will also premiere. Though the screening is standby only, there will be some special $15 tickets available at the door so come on out!
J.C. Chandor's All Is Lost
If you're looking for something older, then you may want to sample some films from our Revivals section, two of which screen today in our Francesa Beale Theater. Two foreign auteurs with quite the fanbase get their due: Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Mysterious Object at Noon (in 35mm no less) will screen at 6:00pm while Leos Carax's Mauvais Sang will screen at 8:00pm. And if you've been hearing a lot about the documentary The Dog, focusing on John Wojtowicz, the man who inspired Sydney Lumet's 1975 classic film Dog Day Afternoon, then you will have a chance to view the film tonight at 6:30pm. A labor of love for its filmmakers, both Allison Berg and Frank Keraudren will be in attendance for this screening in our Motion Portraits section.
One thing that makes this two week festival experience so, well, festive are the free talks we provide. Filmmakers, actors, producers and more come to speak graciously with the public, providing a more intimimate conversation between the viewer and the artist. Today is a pretty great representation of what we have to offer. At 4pm, the legendary documentary filmmaker and ever-supportive artist Albert Maysles (Salesman, Gimme Shelter, Grey Gardens) will be in our Ampitheater. Joined by BYkids founder Holly Carter and seventeen year old filmmaker Faiza Almontaser, Maysles will present an excerpt from Almontaser's new film, Being Muslim in New York.
If you love hearing writers talk about their craft (and focusing on a partiular aspect specifically), then you will definitely want to attend our free 7:00pm NYFF Live talk: The Hero Adrift. The screenwriters behind Open Water (Chris Kentis), Life of Pi (David Magee) and Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón's son, Jonás), currently the number one film in the country, will discuss crafting stories set in isolated enviornments. The talks get even more personal at 7:45pm, as NYFF Live talks with Joe Brewster & Michèle Stephenson, the husband and wife directorial team behind American Promise, a new documentary that follows their son and his friend for 12 years of their education. NYFF Director of Programming Kent Jones will moderate the discussion, a panel which will also include the Benjamin Banneker Academy's Debbie Almontaser and the Dalton School's Dr. Lisa Yvette Waller.
Hope to see you today at the festival for Day 12!
Tuesday, October 8
1:00pm NYFF Shorts Program 1 (Shorts Program, HGT)
1:30pm Club Sandwich (Emerging Artists, FBT) RUSH TICKETS AVAILABLE
3:30pm Exhibition (Emerging Artists, FBT) RUSH TICKETS AVAILABLE
4:00pm BYkids Preview: Being Muslim in New York (NYFF Talk, AMP)
4:00pm The Missing Picture (Official Selection, HGT)
6:00pm Mysterious Object at Noon (Revivals, FBT) RUSH TICKETS AVAILABLE
6:00pm All Is Lost (Official Selection, ATH)
6:30pm The Dog (Motion Portraits, HGT)
7:00pm NYFF Live: The Hero Adrift (NYFF Live, AMP)
7:30pm 12 Years A Slave (Film Comment Magazine Presents, WRT)
7:45pm NYFF Live: Joe Brewster & Michèle Stephenson (NYFF Live, AMP)
8:00pm Mauvais Sang (Revivals, FBT)
9:00pm Nebraska (Official Selection, ATH)
9:15pm When Evening Falls on Bucharest or Metabolism (Official Selection, HGT)
10:40pm 12 Years A Slave (Film Comment Magazine Presents, WRT)
