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Program Archive: The 1998 New Directors / New Films Festival March 27 - April 12, 1998
The 1998 New Directors/New Films festival is sponsored by Interview Magazine, A | X Armani Exchange, National Geographic Traveler and Julien J. Studley, Inc
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 SHERMAN ALEXIE'S SMOKE SIGNALS 
WESTERN 
GOSHOGAOKA 
UNDER THE SKIN 
LUCKY STAR |
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Two stories of unlikely friendships open the 27th edition of New Directors/New
Films. The first is the engaging SHERMAN ALEXIE'S SMOKE SIGNALS (89 minutes,
USA, 1997), directed by 28-year-old Chris Eyre. Adapted by the celebrated
Spokane/Coeur d'Alene writer Sherman Alexie from his book The Lone Ranger and
Tonto Fistfight in Heaven and directed by Eyre, a Cheyenne/ Arapaho from
Oregon by way of NYU's film school, SMOKE SIGNALS is the first dramatic
feature film made by Native Americans. The film, which opens on a crystalline
morning on the expansive Coeur d'Alene reservation, is as much about the joy
of storytelling as it is about a very good story. This comedy of an unlikely
friendship between Thomas Builds-the-Fire (Evan Adams), the bard, and the
angry Victor (Adam Beach), whose father just passed away, may be as universal
as the drama of estranged fathers and sons, but the idea of home has never
been inflected in such a spirited and meaningful way. The film,voted best film
by both audiences and filmmakers at the Sundance Film Festival, also stars
Gary Farmer, Tantoo Cardinal, and Suzy Song who was the voice of Disney's
Pocahontas. A Miramax Films Release.
Also on opening night is WESTERN (121 minutes, France, 1997), a comic and
gentle look at two misfits trying to make it in a foreign land. Set in
Brittany, or "western France," -- its rugged locations beautifully shot in
CinemaScope -- this contemporary road movie follows Paco, a Spaniard who is
very successful with women, and Nino, a humble Russian immigrant who would
like to be successful with one woman in particular. Their relationship begins
when Paco (Sergi Lopez) picks up Nino (Sacha Bourdo), who is hitchhiking, and
Nino takes off with the car and all of Paco's possessions. Not a very
auspicious beginning for a lasting friendship, but through twists of fate and
circumstances, including the introduction of Marinette (Elisabeth Vitali), a
local gift shop operator, Paco and Nino learn to rely on each other. An
affectionate portrait of small town life in France, WESTERN, which won the
1997 Jury Prize in Cannes, is a delightful and accomplished work by Manuel
Poirier. A New Yorker Films Release.
The renowned American photographer and visual artist Sharon Lockhart makes her
debut with GOSHOGAOKA (63 minutes, Japan/USA, 1997), a work that underscores
the idea that some of the most exciting films are those that appear the
simplest. GOSHOGAOKA is a mesmerizing piece that refreshes the eye and ear as
it liberates the mind. Not far outside Tokyo, there is Goshogaoka, a junior
high school with a girls' basketball team. The team practices. Lockhart, whose
works were included in the most recent Whitney Biennial exhibition, attended
practice and recorded straight-on some of the routines that constitute the
workout. GOSHOGAOKA may be read as pure ethnography, detached and calibrated,
but that would be missing just about everything in this most pleasurable film.
Although there is no narrative, there is surprise, expectation, and even the
creation of a new entity: out of the synchronous behavior of adolescent girls
comes the group. The film invites speculation on the notion of communal
achievement, the melancholy of transience, and the beautiful sound of
footfalls.
Carine Adler's much-talked-about film UNDER THE SKIN (82 minutes, UK, 1997)
features a career- making performance by actress Samantha Morton as Iris, an
androgynous 19-year-old, trying desperately to get through a savage rite of
passage, triggered by her mother's death. In her journey to get under her own
skin, our fierce heroine goes for broke in her search for sexual and emotional
selfhood and dives into an increasingly surreal hell of humiliating one-night-
stands, alienating friends and family. Morton's dramatic courage is daunting;
Adler's assured direction never wimps out; and Barry Ackroyd (Ken Loach's
frequent cinematographer) strongly catches the instability and hot colors of
Iris's underworld. The film also stars Rita Tushingham, cannily cast as Iris's
mother and once the star of coming-of-age movies, such as A TASTE OF HONEY,
and Clare Rushbrook (SECRETS AND LIES) as the favorite daughter Rose. An Arrow
Entertainment Release. Preceded by Betsy Kalin's ROOF (22 minutes, USA, 1997).
In a suburb where the less said, the better an unlikely attachment is formed.
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THE PERFECT CIRCLE 
BUFFALO 66 
PI 
THIRTEEN |
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That some see more clearly than others, literally and emotionally, is a
preoccupation of Ricardo Franco's finely paced, nuanced film THE LUCKY STAR
(105 minutes, Spain, 1997). Thus the unexpected takes quiet turns to deepen
and shade love among an unlikely trio. Based on true events, this resonant
retelling of passion and devotion is anchored by Antonio Resines as the
gentle, soft-spoken butcher Rafa, whose warmth and tenderness transform the
bittersweet relationship of Marina, Maribel Verdu's almost lost lady, and her
lover, Daniel (Jordi Molla), to create a new family and get the chance to
search for their lucky star. Preceded by Debra Solomon's animated view of the
current rage for family life, EVERYBODY'S PREGNANT (6 minutes, USA, 1997).
Cosmos, the man, is an engaging and philosophical Greek immigrant taxi driver
who takes us on a highly entertaining and often hilarious trip through inner-
city Montreal, and, COSMOS (100 minutes, Canada, 1996), the film, is a modern
mosaic of the urban jungle, an ensemble piece by six talented Canadian
filmmakers, who seamlessly interweave their six separate stories, with the
taxi driver as the connecting thread. Both comedy and nightmares abound in
these tales of the young and disenchanted. The film was shot in brilliant
black and white by Andre Turpin, who also directed one of the sequences, along
with Manon Briand, Marie-Julie Dallaire, Denis Villeneuve, Jennifer Alleyn,
and Arto Paragamian.
From one of Iran's foremost filmmakers, Dariush Mehrjui (THE COW, THE CYCLE,
PARI), comes LEILA (102 minutes, 1997), a deeply affecting film about a
wealthy but childless couple who married for love and who are now confronted
by a mother-in-law desperate for an heir. This intricate, penetrating look at
contemporary Iranian society throws love and commitment into tricky,
potentially devastating competition. The film features a stunning performance
by Leila Hatami as the wife and daughter-in-law, set against both families --
strengthening a mesmerizing yet revealing, elegant yet provoking, portrayal of
the clash of tradition and modern marriage, of manipulation and the power of
love.
Surely one of the most audacious French filmmakers to have recently emerged,
François Ozon is in New Directors/New Films with two works. In the harrowing
SEE THE SEA (52 minutes, France, 1997), a young backpacker, after getting
permission to pitch her tent on a family's lawn, gradually finds a way to move
into the house and into the life of her host. In A SUMMER DRESS (16 minutes,
France, 1996), a gaily colored, lightweight dress is the connection between
the poles of a young man's sexual experiences during a brief vacation. In each
film, Ozon masterfully counterpoints drop-dead gorgeous seaside locations and
the carefree, holiday atmosphere with the dark, nefarious currents swirling
around his characters. Both films are Zeitgeist Films Releases.
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SECRETS OF THE HEART 
SOMERSAULT IN A COFFIN 
JUNK MAIL 
MOJO |
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In her debut feature, THE FIRST TIME (89 minutes, Germany, 1997), director
Connie Walther deftly exposes the magic and trauma of being a teenager in
love. Fili is fifteen, and in love with Johnny Depp. Granted, they've never
met, but she's convinced that when they do, he will know that she's the girl
for him. So she composes a series of audio letters to him that have yet to be
sent and has imaginary conversations with him (in his various film personae)
in the privacy of her room, while she saves up money for a plane ticket to Los
Angeles. Meanwhile, the talk among all her friends is of boys and sex.
Convinced that Johnny is only interested in girls with some experience, Fili
is in a hurry to lose her virginity -- but with whom? THE FIRST TIME is
preceded by Laura Bennett's DOUBLE D (12 minutes, USA, 1997), a film about a
girl who is still growing, but her parents are falling apart, so she turns to
a role model who can really help her.
Ademir Kenovic's Bosnia/France co-production, THE PERFECT CIRCLE (110 minutes,
1997), his third feature, was filmed under exceptionally difficult conditions
during the assault on Sarajevo. The film captures the atmosphere of the
devastated city and the spirit of the people who chose to remain. Two orphaned
boys, fleeing war and ethnic cleansing, find refuge in the apartment of a poet
whose family has fled Sarajevo. The three of them, with the addition of a dog
wounded by snipers, develop a relationship based on love, friendship and self-
discovery which helps them cope with the harshness of daily life in the
ravaged city. THE PERFECT CIRCLE is a testimony to the courage and resilience
of ordinary people caught in the middle of a war not of their making.Milos
Radovic's absurdist comedy, MY COUNTRY (10 minutes, Yugoslavia, 1997), about
some recent tragic events in modern Serbia, precedes THE PERFECT CIRCLE.
The dynamic debut feature BUFFALO '66 (110 minutes, USA, 1998) is a dazzlingly
innovative film directed, co-written, and composed by actor Vincent Gallo. He
also stars as Billy, a grunge who has just been released from prison. After
some difficulty finding a bathroom, Billy kidnaps Layla, a kewpie-doll tap
dancer, played with all the pubescent allure of Christina Ricci. Layla is
forced to pretend to Billy's parents that she is his wife whom he met on CIA
business. A dinner with Billy's Buffalo Bills-obsessed mother (Anjelica
Huston) and his frustrated singer of a father (Ben Gazzara) is a scene not to
be forgotten. Nor is Ricci's performance as Layla, who takes increasing
delight in her role in this coerced fantasy. Gallo is a talent to be reckoned
with -- he plays brilliantly with depth, cutting and color and even evokes Ozu
(as the three letters of the license plate of Layla's car). A Lions Gate Films
Release.
PI, (85 minutes, USA, 1998), the directorial debut of writer/director Darren
Aronofsky, tracks math whiz Max, obsessed with divining the meaning of life
through numbers while living like a hermit in Chinatown. He's rigged up his
own version of a supercomputer and is on the verge of discovering a method to
the madness that is the stock market. His solitary quest is intruded upon by
two distinctly different types: heavies in Wall Street suits aiming to co-opt
this discovery, and a group of Hasidim in a frantic quest to break the code of
their religious texts. Pulled in two extremely different directions, Max
becomes paranoid in his attempt to make order out of chaos. Aronofsky has
created a mind-tripping sci-fi thriller for the new millennium with stunning
black and white photography shot on reversal film and with dead-on
performances by Sean Gullette as Max, and Ben Shenkman as an orthodox sect
member. A Live Entertainment Release.
In David Williams' poignant second feature, THIRTEEN (87 minutes, USA, 1997),
love and pain and owning the right car are key to Nina's growing up in
Virginia. Nina's mother takes the viewer along on a wryly funny and deeply
touching journey of her remarkable daughter, from her thirteenth through her
fourteenth birthdays, amid a lively, though fatherless, extended family.
Confused yet extraordinarily mature, lonely but much loved, Nina determines
her goals. She sees no reason why everyone around town shouldn't pay her fair
wages for the odd jobs she carries out so oddly, or why she shouldn't run away
for a while to figure out her feelings for her mother. The follow-up to
Williams' moving 1989 film LILLIAN, THIRTEEN is a film of gentle wonder and
delight, with superb performances by Wilhemena Dickens and Lillian Folley.
Preceded by Stephen Leeds' GET THAT NUMBER, (22 minutes, USA, 1997), a film
about a wannabe cool dude who learns how not to pick up chicks.
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MOMENT OF IMPACT 
KITCHEN PARTY 
TWENTYFOURSEVEN |
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In the Academy Award-nominated (for Best Foreign Film from Spain) SECRETS OF
THE HEART (105 minutes, Spain/France/Portugal, 1997), nine-year-old Javi goes
off to spend a vacation at his family's country house in northern Spain.
There, he becomes fascinated by a locked room from which, he comes to believe,
one can hear the voices of the dead. The truth about that room will be but one
of the secrets that will unravel for Javi on that vacation, as he discovers
that "growing up" means learning to accept how mysterious so much of the world
really is. Directed by Montxo Armendáriz (TASIO, HISTORIAS DEL KRONEN),
SECRETS is a delicate, subtle work that captures the terror and pleasure of
childhood's end while creating a vivid, revealing portrait of the waning years
of the Franco era.
By turns darkly comic and unsettling, writer/director Dervis Zaim (ROCK AROUND
THE MOSQUE, 1993) focuses his camera on a rarely seen side of Turkish life
with SOMERSAULT IN A COFFIN (76 minutes, Turkey, 1997). Mahsun, unemployed and
homeless, steals cars to keep warm in winter and sponges off his friends for
food. A sympathetic fisherman tries to help by paying Mahsun's tab at a local
café, and arranging a job for him there. But Mahsun's attention soon drifts to
Rumelihisar Castle, a tourist attraction of this very old neighborhood, and
the fifty peacocks that occupy the grounds. These beautiful birds symbolize
prosperity, fertility, and protection from evil. To Mahsun they symbolize all
that and more. Shot in a cinema verité style, SOMERSAULT is a compassionate
portrait of a man who just can't get it right, and a gritty look at those left
behind when the economy booms.
Beto Brant's auspicious fast-moving feature debut BELLY UP (90 minutes,
Brazil, 1997) is an imaginative mixture of genres which never stops surprising
-- and amusing -- by deftly turning cliches upside down. Set in a seedy
Brazil-Paraguay border town, the protagonists are murderers, or murderers-in-
waiting, killing time (pun intended) in a sleazy bar while waiting for their
next assignment. To motivate a young thief on his way up the assassin's
ladder, his mentor (in flashbacks) tells him the saga of Mucio, a legendary
Paraguayan hit-man. The characters of these cowboy-gangsters are so
impressively drawn that even the ruthless Mucio ends up with an all-too-human
face. Brant's entertaining and dazzling film introduces a filmmaker whose
insights display an assured and original talent.
The accomplished, promising feature film debut by documentary filmmaker
Dominique Cabrera, THE OTHER SHORE (89 minutes, France, 1997), is infused with
Cabrera's understanding of the importance of place, roots and the complexity
with which political reality manifests itself in the lives of individuals. In
Paris, during the summer of 1994, a small-time industrialist, Georges Montero,
played with understated intensity by the beloved French actor Claude Brasseur,
arrives for the first time in France for a cataract operation to be performed
by an assimilated Arab surgeon who has cut himself off from his Algerian
roots. Montero is an Algerian-born Frenchman (a pied noir) who chose to remain
in Algeria after its 1962 independence. The meeting between these two men
becomes a catalyst for the unsolved problems in their individual lives and
their connection to the larger political questions. The film will be preceded
by SILENCE (11 minutes, UK, 1997), an inventive animated film by Orly Yadin
and Sylvie Bringas that tells the true story of one of the few child survivors
of the Holocaust.
JUNK MAIL (83 minutes, Norway, 1997) is the story of Roy, the postman from
Hell. Pity his unfortunate clients: if their mail isn't read, then it's
covered in his favorite food -- spaghetti. One day, Roy, true to character,
takes advantage of keys left dangling, and his life suddenly changes. But it
is not clear whether this is for the better or for the much worse. First time
filmmaker Pal Sletaune, whose hilarious short film EATING OUT was in the 1994
New York Film Festival, makes a neat comedy in Oslo, that famously polite
city, about people behaving not at all well. Full of cool narrative surprises,
JUNK MAIL is suspenseful and hilarious, romantic and mysterious, and proof
positive that even slobs can become heroes. A Lions Gate Films Release.
London, summer of 1958, and British kids hurl themselves into the glittering
culture of rock 'n' roll. In Jez Butterworth's MOJO (90 minutes, UK, 1997),
the place to be is Ezra's Atlantic, where handsome Silver Johnny's nightly
performances have won him a throng of adoring teenagers. Yet perhaps Johnny
and Ezra's are getting too successful. The fledgling British pop scene is soon
transformed into a brutal battleground for rival power brokers. Butterworth's
acclaimed play has been brilliantly brought to the screen by the playwright
himself. His film version, which stars Ian Hart and Ricky Tomlinson and
features a remarkable performance by playwright Harold Pinter, maintains the
theatrical sense of the original, with each new encounter charged with an
almost mythic quality.
On April Fool's Day, 1989, a man crossing the road between garage sales was
struck by a car, causing traumatic brain injury that left him unable to
perform even the simplest physical tasks. That man was filmmaker Julia
Loktev's father, Leonid; eight years later, she went home to Colorado to
document -- and discover -- the lives of her parents since the accident in her
documentary MOMENT OF IMPACT (117 minutes, USA, 1998), a film which garnered
her the Best Director (documentary category) prize at the 1998 Sundance Film
Festival. A profoundly moving experience, MOMENT OF IMPACT powerfully captures
the anger, the frustration, as well as the love and occasional glimmers of
hope. Moreover, the film blossoms into a remarkable portrait of Larisa Loktev
-- wife, mother, and former program analyst, now dedicated to her husband's
constant care while struggling for some semblance of a life of her own.
From Canada comes Gary Burns' delightfully cynical second feature, KITCHEN
PARTY (87 minutes, 1997). Scott's mother vacuums her living room rug into
patterns, which is just a symptom of her totally obsessive-compulsive
personality. Scott's brother lives in the basement and will socialize with no
one. Scott is leaving for college and decides to throw an unauthorized party
for a few friends while his parents are visiting elsewhere, but any disruption
of the decor means he will be forced to go to the local university instead of
an out-of-town campus where he can escape from his oppressive, dysfunctional
home. Frightening and frightfully funny, Burns (THE SUBURBINATOR) takes
audiences into his disquieting, nightmarish vision of middle-class suburbia.
Another talented Briton to debut stateside is the raw-and-edgy shorts filmmaker
Shane Meadows (WHERE'S THE MONEY, RONNIE?, NYFF 1997) with his first feature
film TWENTYFOURSEVEN (96 minutes, UK, 1997). In a performance equal to his
portrayal of the chauffeur in MONA LISA, Bob Hoskins plays a middle-aged
visionary, a nice bloke who sets out to resurrect his old boxing club to
provide a safe haven for a group of wayward lads in a working-class English
town. His diaries chart their often comic efforts to build not only their
physical prowess but also to regain their lost identities in a dysfunctional
landscape of brutish fathers, casual drugs, and a general sense of futility.
TWENTYFOURSEVEN is a work of impressive cinematic intelligence, breathtakingly
shot in remarkably beautiful black and white. An October Films Release.
While the Cold War heated the world on Wednesday, July 7, 1961, 101 babies
were born and added to the population of the Russian metropolis of Leningrad.
Filmmaker Viktor Kossakovsky, a noted cameraman who works mostly in Germany,
was one of these. At 35 he returned to his native city, since rechristened its
pre-Soviet name St. Petersburg, to find his contemporaries. In WEDNESDAY (93
minutes, Russia/Germany/UK/Finland, 1997), he documents meetings, some abrupt
and some welcoming, and films men and women of all personalities, sizes, and
strata. What emerges from these very human encounters is a richly revealing,
affectionate and invaluable mosaic of a society whose basic coordinates were
suddenly reversed. Preceding WEDNESDAY is Loren-Paul Caplin's HISTORY OF THE
WORLD IN EIGHT MINUTES (8 minutes, USA, 1998). On a Manhattan street corner,
recorded history is acted out, perhaps every day, in under 10 minutes.
This "ode to youth" as director Lin Cheng-sheng calls his film, MURMUR OF
YOUTH (106 minutes, Taiwan, 1997), beautifully evokes the feelings and
overwhelming confusion which characterize puberty. Two girls, both named Mei-
li ("Pretty"), come from vastly different backgrounds. Fate brings them
together at their first "adult" job as cashiers in the box office of a movie
theater, where they gradually learn to confide in each other. Director Lin (A
DRIFTING LIFE) visualizes with great subtlety and sensitivity each girl in
relation to her family and the shifting tones in the development of their
friendship. One of the main themes of Taiwanese cinema, the interaction of
family, society and individual that seems to steer fate, is given a
particularly incisive and original treatment by a director of unique vision.
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