If you’re eager to kick off 2017 with a great selection of intriguing films unlike anything else out there, the folks over at the Museum of the Moving Image have you covered. With works from more than twenty countries you’ll get an interesting look into the films and filmmakers pushing the envelope of what cinema can be. As chief curator David Schwartz put it, “One of the strongest undercurrents in the work this year is the notion of empathy and engagement, the way that filmmakers and their subjects relate to each other. All of the work in First Look is idiosyncratic and unique, inspiring strong responses from the audience.”
In particular, you may want to seek out Camila Rodriguez Triana’s delicate portrait of two elderly residents in a Colombian retirement home. A late-in-life love story told through a string of quiet moments together, Triana’s Atentamente (Sincerely) follows Libardo and Alba as they hope to gather enough money to allow them a double bed for them to share.
https://vimeo.com/126907797
Also repping Latin America is Ecuadorian filmmaker Alexandra Cuesta. Her film Territorio (Territory) takes as its inspiration and its source material the diaries of Henri Michaux. The French poet traveled through Ecuador in the late 1920s. Matching his quick impressions with her own voyage across her home country, Cuesta has captured both the country’s natural beauty and the sociability of its people who are all too eager to be filmed by her camera. The screening of Territorio will be preceded by Cuesta’s short Recordando el ayer which focuses on the nearby Queens neighborhood of Jackson Heights.
First Look runs at the Museum of the Moving Image January 6-16, 2017