ND/NF celebrates the re-emergence of Stanley Kubrick’s first feature by breaking precedent and presenting a film nearly 20 years older than the festival itself. Directed, photographed, and edited by the talented 24-year-old Kubrick, Fear and Desire was written by his high school classmate, Howard Sackler. Some Kubrick scholars see this wartime drama, about five soldiers behind enemy lines and their encounter with a native woman, as a dry run for Paths of Glory; others see it as the original second half of Full Metal Jacket. Whatever the interpretation, Fear and Desire enjoyed a brief, critically acclaimed run in 1953. But Kubrick, ever the perfectionist, was dissatisfied with the film, and later tried to buy all the prints and withdraw it from general circulation. We are glad he didn’t succeed. A Kino Lorber release