March 11, 2025 • 33 mins
Mike welcomes Eric Hynes and Edo Choi, curators of First Look 2025 at the Museum of the Moving Image, running running March 12-16 in Astoria, New York. Now in its 14th year, the festival remains a vital showcase for bold, boundary-pushing cinema from around the world.
This year’s lineup includes 38 films—20 features and numerous shorts—spanning 21 countries, with three world premieres and 24 U.S. or North American premieres. Each evening culminates in a Showcase Screening at MoMI’s Sumner Redstone Theater. The festival opens with the U.S. premiere of Durga Chew-Bose’s Bonjour Tristesse, a contemporary take on the classic novel, and closes with Giovanni Tortorici’s Diciannove, an intimate portrait of a young man’s journey across Italy.
Mike, Eric, and Edo dive into the festival’s mission of discovery, its rigorous selection process, and the importance of in-person filmmaker appearances. They also highlight First Look’s unique inclusion of work-in-progress screenings and discussions, offering a behind-the-scenes look at emerging cinematic voices. Whether you’re attending or just love adventurous filmmaking, this episode provides an insightful preview of what makes First Look a can’t-miss event for cinephiles.
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Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth
This year’s lineup includes 38 films—20 features and numerous shorts—spanning 21 countries, with three world premieres and 24 U.S. or North American premieres. Each evening culminates in a Showcase Screening at MoMI’s Sumner Redstone Theater. The festival opens with the U.S. premiere of Durga Chew-Bose’s Bonjour Tristesse, a contemporary take on the classic novel, and closes with Giovanni Tortorici’s Diciannove, an intimate portrait of a young man’s journey across Italy.
Mike, Eric, and Edo dive into the festival’s mission of discovery, its rigorous selection process, and the importance of in-person filmmaker appearances. They also highlight First Look’s unique inclusion of work-in-progress screenings and discussions, offering a behind-the-scenes look at emerging cinematic voices. Whether you’re attending or just love adventurous filmmaking, this episode provides an insightful preview of what makes First Look a can’t-miss event for cinephiles.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth-podcast--5513239/support.
Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Oh jeez, folks, it's showtime.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
People say good money to see this movie.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
When they go out to a theater, they want clothed sodas, pop, popcorn,
and no monsters in the projection booths. Everyone for tend
podcasting isn't boring?
Speaker 4 (00:20):
Got it off?
Speaker 5 (00:40):
Hey, folks, welcome to a special episode of the Projection Booth.
This is your host, Mike White. I am joined once
again by Edo Choi and Eric Hines, two of the
programmers at the MOMI First Look Festival. The festival is
happening this year March twelfth through March sixteenth over at
the Museum of the Moving Image. Had a great time
(01:02):
talking with Ato and Eric yet another great batch of
films that they have curated for us to see this year.
Check out everything over at movingimage dot org and just
search for First Look twenty twenty five. You'll find the
whole program, as well as where you can get passes
and how much those are. Thank you so much for listening,
(01:25):
and I hope you enjoyed this interview. Eric and Edo,
thank you so much for joining me again today. I'm
super excited to talk about this latest First Look festival. Gosh,
remind me how many years have you been doing this now?
Speaker 3 (01:37):
This is the fourteenth year of Wower of Worse Look,
and it's the tenth year that I've been a part of,
so it had to be strong four years before I
even got there, and now we're looking at fourteen, So
very on the cusp of the fifteenth en verse.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
I kind of use you guys as my canary and
Nicole mine. As far as the state of new films festivals,
the work all year going out looking at new things,
bringing in the best of the best to have this festival.
What was your experience like this year? Feels like everything's
back now. Are we open across the board? Are you
(02:12):
still virtual festing?
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Very much back, very much traveling, And honestly, all but
Sundance has abandoned online in any significant way. There are
a few festivals that still will do once the festival
proper is done in first and they'll do a little
online version, but really Sundance is the only one that's
continuing to do online availability during the course of the festival.
(02:38):
So no fully in person Ato and I made our
way around quite a bit, I can say for myself.
I went to can and Docufest in Kosovo, Millennium, Doxkan's
Gravity in Warsaw, if An Amsterdam, doc Leipzig in Germany,
and on at over the spots that I'm missing that
you went to.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
I only went to one festival I think this year
I went to, but it was a big It was Venice.
I quite enjoyed myself and saw one movie that we
brought to the festival, which is Israel Palestine on Swedish TV,
which hopefully we'll get to talk about more today.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Yeah. The way that Ed and I do it is
that we certainly do a fair amount of watching links
and getting sent things, but we also really like to
not rely on that and find things on our own
that we're interested in that we think would be a
good fit first look. I think the good thing is
that as first look goes along, we get sent things
people walk to play with us. But also not good
(03:37):
at rest and think that everybody's coming our way. There
are still films and filmmakers and festivals that were not
as familiar with us, so we can make our presence known.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
I'd also ask about the themes that you might have
seen throughout the year, some of these new films. Obviously,
when we talked a few years ago, we were talking
a lot about Ukraine and just the situation there. We've
been undergoing the Israeli Palestine conflict for over a year now.
But I'm curious, apart from just more torn stuff, but
what kind of trends are you guys seeing as far
(04:08):
as the films that are out there, if any.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
One thing, I'll say before we get to some discernible trends,
one thing that we're also conscious of is to not
follow those trends to slavishly or because you know, put
it this way, a couple of years ago, the Ukraine
films were multiple and important. We're also made a point
(04:31):
to pick up a film this year that's an extraordinary
film about the war in Ukraine that I think that
has been overlooked because other festivals are a little done
with it. But I feel like that trend was a
couple of years ago. But war doesn't really work that way.
I think programming should work that way either. So we're
showing this film that ETO saw in Venice called Sums
of Slow Burning Earth, which is extraordinary and so glad
(04:56):
that we have an opportunity to show it. It is
both a harrowing picture of war but also at the
same time almost just be basically exquisitely made and has
a sequence in there that's probably the most powerful as
scene of any film coming out of that conflict. So
just noting that there are new trends, but there's also
things that maybe others think are no longer in trend,
(05:18):
but we make sure that if the films are strong,
that we make space for them.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
I think that there are trends in programming as much
as there are trends in movies, and we definitely try,
in our kind of modest facitating to push the envelope
a little bit in terms of trying to, you know,
veer away from some of the trends that we see
in these larger festivals that we visit around the world.
(05:42):
And I would say, when it comes to Slow Burning Earth,
the Ukrainian film that we're so proud to be representing
that Eric just described so beautifully, it's a film that
I think was taken for granted, even in the sense
that people just saw it in a lineup and then
didn't actually go to see it. That I attended the
world premiere screening of that film at Venice, and frankly
(06:06):
it was a little under attended relative capacity in that room,
and actually the other film I mentioned from Venice, Israel
Palestine on Swedish TV, also a little undertended for a
world premiere. These are big rooms, so it's all relative.
But I do think it kind of points to a
certain fatigue that people have with some of the storylines
that they see in the news. But these are really
(06:27):
important stories, obviously, and the films more even more importantly,
are very good treatments of these subjects and they're very illuminating.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Ones mentioned the Israel Palestine on Swedish TV. Can you
talk a little bit more about that, because I mentioned
the conflict that's going on, But this comes at things
a little bit differently.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
The filmmaker Goren Hugo Olsen has been making arkibal films
for several years now and has developed quite a reputation
as a master of arkibol, a foot in filmmaking and research,
and he's best known for a film that he made
I think over a decade ago now called The Black
Power Mixtape. And I was, you know, quite honestly surprised
(07:13):
that this latest film from him, especially considering that it's
on such an important subject, hasn't been out of Venice.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
It hasn't traveled as much.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
We're going to be giving it its us premier and
so I'm very proud of that for us.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
And it's just power.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
What Lauren does is that he allows this very rich
trove of archival material to speak for itself and to
tell a story that can't be reduced to one narrative
or another interests narrative or another. And I think, you know,
it's kind of immense achievement what he's done.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
With That would add to that too, is that what's
interesting about it is he's good at this in terms
of his other prior films that he takes what it
could is a limitation of an archive or the parameters
of an archive, and lets that define what it is.
In this sense, it is exactly what's in the title right.
This is basically how Swedish team it covered this conflict
(08:12):
over the course of forty years, and so what you
get is how that coverage evolves over times. You get
the history of the concept b you also get this
kind of third element, which is the sort of Swedish
coverage of it. And so it allows you, as a viewer,
I think, to approach this topic in a way they
couldn't otherwise, which is sort of look over people's shoulders
(08:33):
as they make their way through time. Like that really
unique experience to watch this them.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Another film that plays with limitations that is going to
be playing at the festival is Zodiac Keller Project. Can
you talk a little bit about that, because trying to
describe this film it's a little bit of a challenge,
but it's so interesting and so much fun to watch.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
So this is Charlie Shackleton, who I think in my
ten years at the festival, maybe this is the sixth
time had him. I think that's the record. I can't
imagine there being a different record. Maybe I don't knows
of somebody else who maybe in the experimental circles who
even beats that. But Charlie's, again, the as far as
I'm concerned, like the ideal first look filmmaker in this
(09:16):
sense that he's changing every single year. It seems project
to project what he does and how he does it.
He thinks about the form, he thinks about the implications
of form, and he is also in conversation with what
popular culture is doing. He made a film with Fear Itself,
which is about it kind of dissecting horror films and
(09:37):
making an archival film that is an essay in horror films,
and the so called beyond Clueless, examining the legacy of clueless.
He's played in VR, he's done live live performance work,
and last year he did a three D film that
kind of takes on the sort of mechanics of three D.
This is in some ways, I totally say what you're saying, Mike,
(09:57):
but it's someways it's hard to describe. In other ways,
it's almost like too simple, in the sense that he
was trying to make a true crime film with his
own take on it, and was looking to license the
rights of a book written by a police officer who
was or a detective who was involved in the Zodiac
killer chase at some point, and got funding, got it
(10:20):
all set up as even found locations, and then the
rights just didn't come through, And so, rather than abandoning
the project as most people would in that situation, being Charlie,
he decides to dance a tightrope around telling you the
film that she would have made and sometimes showing you
the things he would have done, while constantly telling you
(10:41):
where he may be going too far. In terms of
violating the right right. So it's about there is information
there about the Zodiac Killer who the book at its core,
but it's also about the challenges of adaptation, and also
about true crime as a culture right now and what
it does to documentary film and how dominant it is
in questioning that along the way. So it does what
(11:04):
you're saying, all these things at the same time, and
yet on its core it's basically I'm going to tell
you a story about a film I can't make.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
I love that experimental nature of things and just having
the movie opening with that parking lot and saying what
would have happened? And I just love that. So many
of these films are just pushing that envelope and really
giving you something that you wouldn't see obviously at like
an your mainstream multipleax. Another one that I really enjoyed
was A Frown Gone Mad. The approach to that topic
(11:33):
was very interesting as well.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
I'm so glad you mentioned that Edo and I are
both really excited about that one. I'd seen it at
IFA in Amsterdam and I was pretty much convinced that
we have to do this. This is so good, this
is so perfect for us. But also being aware that
it's the sort of film maybe not as surprising as say,
Israel Pal Scienceweos TV. Not that's surprising that it hasn't
(11:57):
had more play at festivals, but this maybe less surprising,
just simply because of the content. It's not easy to watch,
but I'm so glad when Eto saw it as well
and was immediately responded to it. It's another one that's
very simple and minimalists in its approach. It's a single frame,
basically looking at the chair in a beauty shop in Beirut,
(12:19):
and what you're watching is people getting fillers and botox
injections while having conversations with the beautician and chit chat
that you would have in any kind of stylist shop
about what's going on in the world outside. And it
really becomes apparent that contrast between the micro control that
(12:39):
is going on in terms of people's appearances versus what's
out of control in Beroot and outside the walls is
what it's playing with.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
Olmar, the filmmaker, deals with allowing the space of the
film to open out onto other things. It's a very
restricted space that he presents to you. It's just the
space of this particular corner of this botox parlor beautician parlor,
but through the dialogues between the customers and woman who's
(13:12):
giving them their botox injections, the space of the film
opens out onto a much larger and geopolitically spraught reality
that everyone's day to day lives are embroiled in. And
that's a really exciting aspect of the film is that
through something so small, it can address very large issues.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
To be a little slip about this, if there's a
body horror documentary out there, there's a good chance that
I do, and I have the stomach to program it.
So it challenged to filmmakers out there.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
It reminded me at times of that movie. I think
you guys showed it a few years of the apartment
move where it was all taking place from the guy's balcony.
I think it actually was called Balcony.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Oh, the Balcony movie.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Yeah, just that whole idea of slice of.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
The world, slice of the world through a particularly restricted angle,
and yet so much has shown over the course of time. Yeah,
I love factly, what are.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Some of the other films that you guys are excited
to show? I know, obviously these are all your babies,
so you can't just say, oh, all of them, but
tell me some of the other ones that you're just like, Wow.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
I can't wait for more people to check this out.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
I'm particularly excited about Yoko Yamanaka's Desert of Namibia. Yamanaka
is a fairly young I would go so far as
say a prodigiously young filmmaker. She's under thirty and this
is already her second feature. She made her first feature
when she was twenty. She dropped out of film school
(14:36):
to make it, and this follow up, this sophomore after it,
I think has taken her a while to make because
she's now twenty eight years old. But it features a young,
very popular star in Japan, and the film deals with
you could say it deals with mental illness or someone
(14:56):
who probably has either borderline personality or by disorder. However,
that would be to limit the emotional, psychological, and expressive
suppleness of the movie and what it's doing. The character,
the young woman twenty one years old who's navigating the
(15:17):
stresses of intimate relationships and personal and professional life in
Tokyo in the present day, doesn't actually seek any kind
of professional help until near the end, and when that
diagnosis arrives, it doesn't derive as sort of something to
put a label on what she's going through. It arrives
as at further question about who she is, And so
(15:39):
the film isn't so much about suffering from some sort
of deviant condition. It's about actually the respect the way
in which all of us are dealing with trying to
discover who we are amid a very constantly kind of
rupturing modern existence. It very much deals with in a
(16:01):
way that I've never seen a film yet, because Generation
Z filmmakers are all still very young. It deals with
the experience of the rhythm I hyped up but also
slightly disassociated rhythm of young people's wives today, and it
finds formal correlatives for that. It's a kind of shape
(16:22):
shifting movie. A lot of it is shot hand held,
but then gradually she starts introducing locked off, more distance
shots on a tripod, and then sometimes there are these
there's bounds that feel like they're almost out of nowhere
that kind of interrupt the composition that you're watching. And
then slowly there are superb positions between scenes that are
(16:44):
hard to explain, and then eventually it even goes into
kind of a surreal territory in the last kind of
act of the film, and it's just really thrilling filmmaking,
and it's really amazing to see this from someone that
young and something so confident and so brash and also
seemingly thematically daring. There's no limit to where she'll go.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
You could even say it's like a gen Z Cassavetti's
approach to a portrait of a woman in the sense
that you can't really tell at any moment if it's
a comedy or if it's something more serious, and not
knowing how to approach her as a character is similar
to challenging you as a viewer to not visionhole or either,
(17:29):
which I think is also part of what Cassavetti's project
was really fantastic film. We saw that out of Doctor's
Fortnite and Ken. Another film that I would put out
there another portrait of a woman which is a want
in her as a documentary that we saw out of
Ifa by the Irish filmmaker Myrat Carton, who works more
in some more experimental terrain, but this is something more
(17:52):
of a straightforward documentary, and it's a portrait of her
mother who is suffering from alcoholism and mental illness, and
at various points goes missing. And so Mari's the daughter
who's had to parent her own mother for a lot
of her life, taking a break from her own life
and her own concerns to care for her mother and
(18:13):
all the complicated things that come up from that. For
anybody who's experienced anything like that with a parent, a relative,
there's something here that's never I've never really seen in
terms of finding a language or trying to find a
language to articulate all these complexities in terms of love
(18:33):
and affection, adoration and also just disgust and impatience. And
even though it's closer to a observation where we've been
talking head documentary at times, part of that searching for
a language winds up being she does these experiments inside
the apartment where she's just making this banal space something
(18:56):
stranger and threatening even and trying to find angles within
this space. It almost comes off as just doodling, but
doodling that is a comes from like a real psychic
we damaged and challenged place really unique and was excited
because I was just at the True False film Fest
last weekend, and that's the film. It also played there,
(19:19):
and that's the film that people seem to be most
excited about and blown away by. So I'm excited that
we're showing.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
It in New York and that folks that we catch
up to it. I love how so many of these
films are just going past what we feel like films are,
and like you said, pushing that envelope being very avant garde.
But then also one of the films that you are
showing looks back at a older avant garde film and
in a new way. The fifth Shot of Laete, that
(19:47):
was one of the very first experimental films I remember
seeing in college, and so to have that explored from
a different angle, I've found that to be fascinating as well.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
This is Dolnique Cabrera, French hillmaker who's well renowned and
made a lot of films over time, both sort of
an observential mode, but then it also makes films that
are more personal. This is more on the personal side
of her filmmaking. But as you say, in taking on
pretty widely known other film Lagite Chris Markers, and its
(20:19):
approach on it is so unique and it almost like
playfully takes on the mode of a detective film. It
takes place mostly in an editing suite, and in a
that editing suite, there's basically the discovery of a relative,
a cousin of hers, that he's actually in Lageta. The
(20:41):
fifth shot of Lagtay and if you've seen the film,
like there are only so many shots, so they're all
pretty iconic, and it's a shot of a young man
and parents looking at the airport watching planes come in,
and takes that playing and expands on that to look
into the making of the film, look into the conditions
around the making of the film, what was happening in
(21:03):
France and Algeria at that time, and really honing in
on to this moment when so many Francophone folk who
were either working or born in Algeria were coming back
to France because of the revolution, and that site in
the airport, Charles de Gaul airport, I actually don't know
if it was called Charles Degaul at that time, but whatever,
(21:24):
that airport and and anyway, that moment in time, and
it winds up getting deep into her own family history,
deep into the sort of racial and colonial elements of
her family and of France at that time, and also
plays like I said it was like a detective movie
should try to discern if this is actually members of
her family and if they're threaded together with Chris Marker
(21:46):
in that way. So I mean so thrilling. If you've
seen Laja detay to see this film. I also I
saw at doc Leipzig and saw it with an intern
who had never seen Lagete before, and she was also
totally gripped by So I think it can also play
that way. If anything, maybe some folks will discover Loge
Day through this film too, that would be nice. Tell
(22:08):
me about some of the filmmakers that are coming out
to the event as ever, it's really important to us
to have filmmakers present. We're a scrappy, a little festival,
but really whatever resources we can raise for it goes
towards bringing filmmakers because I feel like there's no better effect,
there's no better cause for celebration than to have filmmakers
(22:29):
together showing their film, talking to the audiences, but they're
also talking to each other. We have three of the
daytimes of the five day festival dedicated to the works
in progress, and we bring in filmmakers to show their
new films. We also have filmmakers who are coming to
show these completed films to participate in those sessions. So
a density of filmmakers is really important to us. For
(22:52):
Opening Night, We've got bon George Fristees film a premiere
to Toronto and it's imminently going to come out through
US distribution. But director Durgatchubos is going to be there
as well as the star of that film, Lily McInerney.
She's extraordinary in that film and is one future star,
so excited to have her. The filmmakers, so filmmakers that
(23:13):
we've mentioned already are going to be in town. So
Yoko yamanaka Desert Namibia is going to be there. Iva Radovosovic,
Serbian filmmaker who made a film called When the Phone
Rang based on her own experience of the sort of
fracturing of Yugoslavia and memory piece, a fiction piece, but
(23:33):
basically a memory piece of her own experiences. She'll be
joining us. We have filmmakers from Bulgaria for the filmmaker
of Windless joining us from Moldova, Romania in Rado Chiornichuk
film Tata, the documentary, the film that you mentioned. Filmmakers
(23:53):
joining us from Lebanon. I would say most of the
films in our lineup, if you go through it, we
will have a filmmaker present, including on the last day
when we'll have Sophia Bodonovitch's in town with measures for
a funeral, and our closing night film, The Chenov the
young Italian filmmaker Giovanni proto Ricci. That film premiered I believe,
(24:15):
also in Venice last year and is also has an
imminent release in the US, but where I'm able to
sling it for closing night and have the filmmaker present. Yes,
So having folks around is just crucial to what we do.
That's part of what we want to offer the audiences
and we want to offer the filmmakers themselves. There are
some film festivals, if you've been to them, or if
(24:37):
you're curious about them, that are much more about the industry.
You're there to walk the red carpet, release your movie,
do a lot of interviews, but you don't necessarily in
that environment get to see other movies. You constantly run
into filmmakers who are talking to me and others and saying,
tell me what you saw. I don't get a chance
to see these How is that other film I heard
(24:58):
so much. First of tends to be a festival where
the filmmakers catch up on those things because you're encouraged
to spend those days with us watching movies. So you know,
you can discover films. You can also discover filmmakers because
filmmakers are engaging in the same activity.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
That's wonderful. So tell me some of the brass tacks.
As far as I know, it's March twelfth through the sixteenth,
taking place.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
At the Easy Movie Image. All of that happens there. Yeah,
we have two cinemas there. It all happens within that space.
There's never more than two things going on at the
same time. But things are staggered such that you can
take in as much as you would like to over
the course of the day. Yeah, everything plays once, so
you do have to make some choices. We try to
(25:41):
put very different types of films against each other so
that you're not making too tough a choice. But like
I said, the first three days of those five days,
the twelve, thirteen, fourteenth, we have these works in progress
sessions and then in the evening of those nights turn
it over to regular screens, and then the full days
of Saturday and Sunday we've got so there's twenty features total,
(26:02):
and there's one program extended program of experimental short films
that Edo and our friend and colleague David Schwartz put together,
as well as one program of student shorts from Jonathan B.
Murray Center for Documentary Journalism at the University of Missouri.
We always work with them on bringing their award winning
shorts filmmakers, So just twenty two programs on the coast
(26:24):
for five days. We also try to make it for
some For folks who live in Astoria, Long Island City, Queens,
you know, this is a gift that you can walk
there and spend every day there. For those who are
traveling from some farther distance, either in the city or beyond,
we do design it so that when you come, you'll
have an opportunity to see multiple films rather than just
(26:45):
a single film to make it worth your while. And
ideally also there'll be a little mini story within the
festival on each of those afternoons or evenings if you come,
So there's a design to that as well.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
And I imagine that passes are your best bargain.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
That's definitely a rest bargain. Absolutely. There's a full festival pass.
There's also day passes for Saturday Sunday, which are the
fuller days. If you want to come just for one
of those days, you can get a really reasonable pass.
I think basically for the price of two films, you
could see upwards of five or six.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
So it looks like it always having some technical difficulties.
We won't hear him on this wrap up, but Eric,
tell me a little bit more about what's going on
with you, what do you have looking forward to?
Speaker 3 (27:30):
So, yeah, this is for all I know, the west
First Look I'll be doing for a while because I
have just taken out a position as a director of
Film Creation and Programming at the Jacob Burns Film Center
in Clavetonville, New York, which is about forty five minutes
from Willmey and in Westchester, very well renowned art house
cinema that does both first run as well as repertory programming.
(27:53):
So excited about doing that. We'll be kind of full
steam ahead there come April. Feeling moved, heavy, conflicted, bittersweet
about First Look, a festival that have been very passionate
about for the ten years I've been at the museum
and feeling like we were leaving in good shape and
(28:16):
hoping that there's a great next chapter, both for the
programming at MOMI as well as First Look. I should note,
since i'll speak on behalf of Itto, that he's he
also moved on. He went to the Metrograph in downtown
New York to be one of their full time programmers,
which is a great opportunity for him as well. But
we're both fully on for First Look. We did the
(28:36):
entire program with our colleagues at the museum, Sarah Luciano
and our Paneda Sonya Epstein all participated in putting together
this version of First Look, and we'll all be back
together for one big bonanza for next week. But yes,
stay tuned for plans for next year and beyond. I
(28:58):
can't wait to come back and be a part of it.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
From a different perspective, well, I'll tell you, I get
those Metrograph emails all the time of what's playing there
and out here in Detroit. I am super jealous. I'm
also super jealous of all the people that get to
go to the First Look festival because it looks amazing
as well. And yeah, the films that I've seen from
it have been terrific, and I really am very jealous
(29:22):
of people that get to go and experience that, Like
you were saying live theaters back, we are in person
and to experience all of this with an audience is
just I was such a treat.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
Agreed, and Mike, I'm so grateful and glad of your
interest in first look in your interest in these films.
To me, it's not about our being territorial and being
the ones to find these films and show these films.
Nothing would make me happier than if these films have
more of a life because folks notice what's happening in
New York and are interested in the coverage that comes
(29:55):
out of it, that they ask their own venues to
show these films, or of other programmers attention and show
them elsewhere. They're all absolutely worth more engagements in the future.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Hopefully it will come to you and beyond. Fingers crossed, Eric,
thank you so much for your time. Please give Ada
my best. It's always great talking with you guys, and
I hope we can talk again in the future. Maybe
there's going to be some opportunity if you're in your
new role, so all this exciting stuff.
Speaker 6 (31:02):
Look at the proof, So con went some pace, so
so so so a way so strong. I don't get me.
(31:26):
I don't get it.
Speaker 7 (31:27):
That's so mids a weak way, sound the waist, look
at the booth.
Speaker 8 (31:46):
A woman than at first witness that's hotter. Then go thanking,
No money got the fund.
Speaker 6 (32:24):
The way they go, the way they sing something like
the way they don.
Speaker 4 (32:33):
S.
Speaker 8 (32:34):
But what was letting down.
Speaker 6 (32:44):
Bills so quick? Look at the first.
Speaker 8 (33:00):
And she's gotta be swears he But I won't me
some money, so they're gonna be covered.
Speaker 6 (33:07):
With the rest, as long as she got some catching.
And I want to big my coin. One wants to
her
Oh jeez, folks, it's showtime.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
People say good money to see this movie.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
When they go out to a theater, they want clothed sodas, pop, popcorn,
and no monsters in the projection booths. Everyone for tend
podcasting isn't boring?
Speaker 4 (00:20):
Got it off?
Speaker 5 (00:40):
Hey, folks, welcome to a special episode of the Projection Booth.
This is your host, Mike White. I am joined once
again by Edo Choi and Eric Hines, two of the
programmers at the MOMI First Look Festival. The festival is
happening this year March twelfth through March sixteenth over at
the Museum of the Moving Image. Had a great time
(01:02):
talking with Ato and Eric yet another great batch of
films that they have curated for us to see this year.
Check out everything over at movingimage dot org and just
search for First Look twenty twenty five. You'll find the
whole program, as well as where you can get passes
and how much those are. Thank you so much for listening,
(01:25):
and I hope you enjoyed this interview. Eric and Edo,
thank you so much for joining me again today. I'm
super excited to talk about this latest First Look festival. Gosh,
remind me how many years have you been doing this now?
Speaker 3 (01:37):
This is the fourteenth year of Wower of Worse Look,
and it's the tenth year that I've been a part of,
so it had to be strong four years before I
even got there, and now we're looking at fourteen, So
very on the cusp of the fifteenth en verse.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
I kind of use you guys as my canary and
Nicole mine. As far as the state of new films festivals,
the work all year going out looking at new things,
bringing in the best of the best to have this festival.
What was your experience like this year? Feels like everything's
back now. Are we open across the board? Are you
(02:12):
still virtual festing?
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Very much back, very much traveling, And honestly, all but
Sundance has abandoned online in any significant way. There are
a few festivals that still will do once the festival
proper is done in first and they'll do a little
online version, but really Sundance is the only one that's
continuing to do online availability during the course of the festival.
(02:38):
So no fully in person Ato and I made our
way around quite a bit, I can say for myself.
I went to can and Docufest in Kosovo, Millennium, Doxkan's
Gravity in Warsaw, if An Amsterdam, doc Leipzig in Germany,
and on at over the spots that I'm missing that
you went to.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
I only went to one festival I think this year
I went to, but it was a big It was Venice.
I quite enjoyed myself and saw one movie that we
brought to the festival, which is Israel Palestine on Swedish TV,
which hopefully we'll get to talk about more today.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Yeah. The way that Ed and I do it is
that we certainly do a fair amount of watching links
and getting sent things, but we also really like to
not rely on that and find things on our own
that we're interested in that we think would be a
good fit first look. I think the good thing is
that as first look goes along, we get sent things
people walk to play with us. But also not good
(03:37):
at rest and think that everybody's coming our way. There
are still films and filmmakers and festivals that were not
as familiar with us, so we can make our presence known.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
I'd also ask about the themes that you might have
seen throughout the year, some of these new films. Obviously,
when we talked a few years ago, we were talking
a lot about Ukraine and just the situation there. We've
been undergoing the Israeli Palestine conflict for over a year now.
But I'm curious, apart from just more torn stuff, but
what kind of trends are you guys seeing as far
(04:08):
as the films that are out there, if any.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
One thing, I'll say before we get to some discernible trends,
one thing that we're also conscious of is to not
follow those trends to slavishly or because you know, put
it this way, a couple of years ago, the Ukraine
films were multiple and important. We're also made a point
(04:31):
to pick up a film this year that's an extraordinary
film about the war in Ukraine that I think that
has been overlooked because other festivals are a little done
with it. But I feel like that trend was a
couple of years ago. But war doesn't really work that way.
I think programming should work that way either. So we're
showing this film that ETO saw in Venice called Sums
of Slow Burning Earth, which is extraordinary and so glad
(04:56):
that we have an opportunity to show it. It is
both a harrowing picture of war but also at the
same time almost just be basically exquisitely made and has
a sequence in there that's probably the most powerful as
scene of any film coming out of that conflict. So
just noting that there are new trends, but there's also
things that maybe others think are no longer in trend,
(05:18):
but we make sure that if the films are strong,
that we make space for them.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
I think that there are trends in programming as much
as there are trends in movies, and we definitely try,
in our kind of modest facitating to push the envelope
a little bit in terms of trying to, you know,
veer away from some of the trends that we see
in these larger festivals that we visit around the world.
(05:42):
And I would say, when it comes to Slow Burning Earth,
the Ukrainian film that we're so proud to be representing
that Eric just described so beautifully, it's a film that
I think was taken for granted, even in the sense
that people just saw it in a lineup and then
didn't actually go to see it. That I attended the
world premiere screening of that film at Venice, and frankly
(06:06):
it was a little under attended relative capacity in that room,
and actually the other film I mentioned from Venice, Israel
Palestine on Swedish TV, also a little undertended for a
world premiere. These are big rooms, so it's all relative.
But I do think it kind of points to a
certain fatigue that people have with some of the storylines
that they see in the news. But these are really
(06:27):
important stories, obviously, and the films more even more importantly,
are very good treatments of these subjects and they're very illuminating.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Ones mentioned the Israel Palestine on Swedish TV. Can you
talk a little bit more about that, because I mentioned
the conflict that's going on, But this comes at things
a little bit differently.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
The filmmaker Goren Hugo Olsen has been making arkibal films
for several years now and has developed quite a reputation
as a master of arkibol, a foot in filmmaking and research,
and he's best known for a film that he made
I think over a decade ago now called The Black
Power Mixtape. And I was, you know, quite honestly surprised
(07:13):
that this latest film from him, especially considering that it's
on such an important subject, hasn't been out of Venice.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
It hasn't traveled as much.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
We're going to be giving it its us premier and
so I'm very proud of that for us.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
And it's just power.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
What Lauren does is that he allows this very rich
trove of archival material to speak for itself and to
tell a story that can't be reduced to one narrative
or another interests narrative or another. And I think, you know,
it's kind of immense achievement what he's done.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
With That would add to that too, is that what's
interesting about it is he's good at this in terms
of his other prior films that he takes what it
could is a limitation of an archive or the parameters
of an archive, and lets that define what it is.
In this sense, it is exactly what's in the title right.
This is basically how Swedish team it covered this conflict
(08:12):
over the course of forty years, and so what you
get is how that coverage evolves over times. You get
the history of the concept b you also get this
kind of third element, which is the sort of Swedish
coverage of it. And so it allows you, as a viewer,
I think, to approach this topic in a way they
couldn't otherwise, which is sort of look over people's shoulders
(08:33):
as they make their way through time. Like that really
unique experience to watch this them.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Another film that plays with limitations that is going to
be playing at the festival is Zodiac Keller Project. Can
you talk a little bit about that, because trying to
describe this film it's a little bit of a challenge,
but it's so interesting and so much fun to watch.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
So this is Charlie Shackleton, who I think in my
ten years at the festival, maybe this is the sixth
time had him. I think that's the record. I can't
imagine there being a different record. Maybe I don't knows
of somebody else who maybe in the experimental circles who
even beats that. But Charlie's, again, the as far as
I'm concerned, like the ideal first look filmmaker in this
(09:16):
sense that he's changing every single year. It seems project
to project what he does and how he does it.
He thinks about the form, he thinks about the implications
of form, and he is also in conversation with what
popular culture is doing. He made a film with Fear Itself,
which is about it kind of dissecting horror films and
(09:37):
making an archival film that is an essay in horror films,
and the so called beyond Clueless, examining the legacy of clueless.
He's played in VR, he's done live live performance work,
and last year he did a three D film that
kind of takes on the sort of mechanics of three D.
This is in some ways, I totally say what you're saying, Mike,
(09:57):
but it's someways it's hard to describe. In other ways,
it's almost like too simple, in the sense that he
was trying to make a true crime film with his
own take on it, and was looking to license the
rights of a book written by a police officer who
was or a detective who was involved in the Zodiac
killer chase at some point, and got funding, got it
(10:20):
all set up as even found locations, and then the
rights just didn't come through, And so, rather than abandoning
the project as most people would in that situation, being Charlie,
he decides to dance a tightrope around telling you the
film that she would have made and sometimes showing you
the things he would have done, while constantly telling you
(10:41):
where he may be going too far. In terms of
violating the right right. So it's about there is information
there about the Zodiac Killer who the book at its core,
but it's also about the challenges of adaptation, and also
about true crime as a culture right now and what
it does to documentary film and how dominant it is
in questioning that along the way. So it does what
(11:04):
you're saying, all these things at the same time, and
yet on its core it's basically I'm going to tell
you a story about a film I can't make.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
I love that experimental nature of things and just having
the movie opening with that parking lot and saying what
would have happened? And I just love that. So many
of these films are just pushing that envelope and really
giving you something that you wouldn't see obviously at like
an your mainstream multipleax. Another one that I really enjoyed
was A Frown Gone Mad. The approach to that topic
(11:33):
was very interesting as well.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
I'm so glad you mentioned that Edo and I are
both really excited about that one. I'd seen it at
IFA in Amsterdam and I was pretty much convinced that
we have to do this. This is so good, this
is so perfect for us. But also being aware that
it's the sort of film maybe not as surprising as say,
Israel Pal Scienceweos TV. Not that's surprising that it hasn't
(11:57):
had more play at festivals, but this maybe less surprising,
just simply because of the content. It's not easy to watch,
but I'm so glad when Eto saw it as well
and was immediately responded to it. It's another one that's
very simple and minimalists in its approach. It's a single frame,
basically looking at the chair in a beauty shop in Beirut,
(12:19):
and what you're watching is people getting fillers and botox
injections while having conversations with the beautician and chit chat
that you would have in any kind of stylist shop
about what's going on in the world outside. And it
really becomes apparent that contrast between the micro control that
(12:39):
is going on in terms of people's appearances versus what's
out of control in Beroot and outside the walls is
what it's playing with.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
Olmar, the filmmaker, deals with allowing the space of the
film to open out onto other things. It's a very
restricted space that he presents to you. It's just the
space of this particular corner of this botox parlor beautician parlor,
but through the dialogues between the customers and woman who's
(13:12):
giving them their botox injections, the space of the film
opens out onto a much larger and geopolitically spraught reality
that everyone's day to day lives are embroiled in. And
that's a really exciting aspect of the film is that
through something so small, it can address very large issues.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
To be a little slip about this, if there's a
body horror documentary out there, there's a good chance that
I do, and I have the stomach to program it.
So it challenged to filmmakers out there.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
It reminded me at times of that movie. I think
you guys showed it a few years of the apartment
move where it was all taking place from the guy's balcony.
I think it actually was called Balcony.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Oh, the Balcony movie.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Yeah, just that whole idea of slice of.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
The world, slice of the world through a particularly restricted angle,
and yet so much has shown over the course of time. Yeah,
I love factly, what are.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Some of the other films that you guys are excited
to show? I know, obviously these are all your babies,
so you can't just say, oh, all of them, but
tell me some of the other ones that you're just like, Wow.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
I can't wait for more people to check this out.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
I'm particularly excited about Yoko Yamanaka's Desert of Namibia. Yamanaka
is a fairly young I would go so far as
say a prodigiously young filmmaker. She's under thirty and this
is already her second feature. She made her first feature
when she was twenty. She dropped out of film school
(14:36):
to make it, and this follow up, this sophomore after it,
I think has taken her a while to make because
she's now twenty eight years old. But it features a young,
very popular star in Japan, and the film deals with
you could say it deals with mental illness or someone
(14:56):
who probably has either borderline personality or by disorder. However,
that would be to limit the emotional, psychological, and expressive
suppleness of the movie and what it's doing. The character,
the young woman twenty one years old who's navigating the
(15:17):
stresses of intimate relationships and personal and professional life in
Tokyo in the present day, doesn't actually seek any kind
of professional help until near the end, and when that
diagnosis arrives, it doesn't derive as sort of something to
put a label on what she's going through. It arrives
as at further question about who she is, And so
(15:39):
the film isn't so much about suffering from some sort
of deviant condition. It's about actually the respect the way
in which all of us are dealing with trying to
discover who we are amid a very constantly kind of
rupturing modern existence. It very much deals with in a
(16:01):
way that I've never seen a film yet, because Generation
Z filmmakers are all still very young. It deals with
the experience of the rhythm I hyped up but also
slightly disassociated rhythm of young people's wives today, and it
finds formal correlatives for that. It's a kind of shape
(16:22):
shifting movie. A lot of it is shot hand held,
but then gradually she starts introducing locked off, more distance
shots on a tripod, and then sometimes there are these
there's bounds that feel like they're almost out of nowhere
that kind of interrupt the composition that you're watching. And
then slowly there are superb positions between scenes that are
(16:44):
hard to explain, and then eventually it even goes into
kind of a surreal territory in the last kind of
act of the film, and it's just really thrilling filmmaking,
and it's really amazing to see this from someone that
young and something so confident and so brash and also
seemingly thematically daring. There's no limit to where she'll go.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
You could even say it's like a gen Z Cassavetti's
approach to a portrait of a woman in the sense
that you can't really tell at any moment if it's
a comedy or if it's something more serious, and not
knowing how to approach her as a character is similar
to challenging you as a viewer to not visionhole or either,
(17:29):
which I think is also part of what Cassavetti's project
was really fantastic film. We saw that out of Doctor's
Fortnite and Ken. Another film that I would put out
there another portrait of a woman which is a want
in her as a documentary that we saw out of
Ifa by the Irish filmmaker Myrat Carton, who works more
in some more experimental terrain, but this is something more
(17:52):
of a straightforward documentary, and it's a portrait of her
mother who is suffering from alcoholism and mental illness, and
at various points goes missing. And so Mari's the daughter
who's had to parent her own mother for a lot
of her life, taking a break from her own life
and her own concerns to care for her mother and
(18:13):
all the complicated things that come up from that. For
anybody who's experienced anything like that with a parent, a relative,
there's something here that's never I've never really seen in
terms of finding a language or trying to find a
language to articulate all these complexities in terms of love
(18:33):
and affection, adoration and also just disgust and impatience. And
even though it's closer to a observation where we've been
talking head documentary at times, part of that searching for
a language winds up being she does these experiments inside
the apartment where she's just making this banal space something
(18:56):
stranger and threatening even and trying to find angles within
this space. It almost comes off as just doodling, but
doodling that is a comes from like a real psychic
we damaged and challenged place really unique and was excited
because I was just at the True False film Fest
last weekend, and that's the film. It also played there,
(19:19):
and that's the film that people seem to be most
excited about and blown away by. So I'm excited that
we're showing.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
It in New York and that folks that we catch
up to it. I love how so many of these
films are just going past what we feel like films are,
and like you said, pushing that envelope being very avant garde.
But then also one of the films that you are
showing looks back at a older avant garde film and
in a new way. The fifth Shot of Laete, that
(19:47):
was one of the very first experimental films I remember
seeing in college, and so to have that explored from
a different angle, I've found that to be fascinating as well.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
This is Dolnique Cabrera, French hillmaker who's well renowned and
made a lot of films over time, both sort of
an observential mode, but then it also makes films that
are more personal. This is more on the personal side
of her filmmaking. But as you say, in taking on
pretty widely known other film Lagite Chris Markers, and its
(20:19):
approach on it is so unique and it almost like
playfully takes on the mode of a detective film. It
takes place mostly in an editing suite, and in a
that editing suite, there's basically the discovery of a relative,
a cousin of hers, that he's actually in Lageta. The
(20:41):
fifth shot of Lagtay and if you've seen the film,
like there are only so many shots, so they're all
pretty iconic, and it's a shot of a young man
and parents looking at the airport watching planes come in,
and takes that playing and expands on that to look
into the making of the film, look into the conditions
around the making of the film, what was happening in
(21:03):
France and Algeria at that time, and really honing in
on to this moment when so many Francophone folk who
were either working or born in Algeria were coming back
to France because of the revolution, and that site in
the airport, Charles de Gaul airport, I actually don't know
if it was called Charles Degaul at that time, but whatever,
(21:24):
that airport and and anyway, that moment in time, and
it winds up getting deep into her own family history,
deep into the sort of racial and colonial elements of
her family and of France at that time, and also
plays like I said it was like a detective movie
should try to discern if this is actually members of
her family and if they're threaded together with Chris Marker
(21:46):
in that way. So I mean so thrilling. If you've
seen Laja detay to see this film. I also I
saw at doc Leipzig and saw it with an intern
who had never seen Lagete before, and she was also
totally gripped by So I think it can also play
that way. If anything, maybe some folks will discover Loge
Day through this film too, that would be nice. Tell
(22:08):
me about some of the filmmakers that are coming out
to the event as ever, it's really important to us
to have filmmakers present. We're a scrappy, a little festival,
but really whatever resources we can raise for it goes
towards bringing filmmakers because I feel like there's no better effect,
there's no better cause for celebration than to have filmmakers
(22:29):
together showing their film, talking to the audiences, but they're
also talking to each other. We have three of the
daytimes of the five day festival dedicated to the works
in progress, and we bring in filmmakers to show their
new films. We also have filmmakers who are coming to
show these completed films to participate in those sessions. So
a density of filmmakers is really important to us. For
(22:52):
Opening Night, We've got bon George Fristees film a premiere
to Toronto and it's imminently going to come out through
US distribution. But director Durgatchubos is going to be there
as well as the star of that film, Lily McInerney.
She's extraordinary in that film and is one future star,
so excited to have her. The filmmakers, so filmmakers that
(23:13):
we've mentioned already are going to be in town. So
Yoko yamanaka Desert Namibia is going to be there. Iva Radovosovic,
Serbian filmmaker who made a film called When the Phone
Rang based on her own experience of the sort of
fracturing of Yugoslavia and memory piece, a fiction piece, but
(23:33):
basically a memory piece of her own experiences. She'll be
joining us. We have filmmakers from Bulgaria for the filmmaker
of Windless joining us from Moldova, Romania in Rado Chiornichuk
film Tata, the documentary, the film that you mentioned. Filmmakers
(23:53):
joining us from Lebanon. I would say most of the
films in our lineup, if you go through it, we
will have a filmmaker present, including on the last day
when we'll have Sophia Bodonovitch's in town with measures for
a funeral, and our closing night film, The Chenov the
young Italian filmmaker Giovanni proto Ricci. That film premiered I believe,
(24:15):
also in Venice last year and is also has an
imminent release in the US, but where I'm able to
sling it for closing night and have the filmmaker present. Yes,
So having folks around is just crucial to what we do.
That's part of what we want to offer the audiences
and we want to offer the filmmakers themselves. There are
some film festivals, if you've been to them, or if
(24:37):
you're curious about them, that are much more about the industry.
You're there to walk the red carpet, release your movie,
do a lot of interviews, but you don't necessarily in
that environment get to see other movies. You constantly run
into filmmakers who are talking to me and others and saying,
tell me what you saw. I don't get a chance
to see these How is that other film I heard
(24:58):
so much. First of tends to be a festival where
the filmmakers catch up on those things because you're encouraged
to spend those days with us watching movies. So you know,
you can discover films. You can also discover filmmakers because
filmmakers are engaging in the same activity.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
That's wonderful. So tell me some of the brass tacks.
As far as I know, it's March twelfth through the sixteenth,
taking place.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
At the Easy Movie Image. All of that happens there. Yeah,
we have two cinemas there. It all happens within that space.
There's never more than two things going on at the
same time. But things are staggered such that you can
take in as much as you would like to over
the course of the day. Yeah, everything plays once, so
you do have to make some choices. We try to
(25:41):
put very different types of films against each other so
that you're not making too tough a choice. But like
I said, the first three days of those five days,
the twelve, thirteen, fourteenth, we have these works in progress
sessions and then in the evening of those nights turn
it over to regular screens, and then the full days
of Saturday and Sunday we've got so there's twenty features total,
(26:02):
and there's one program extended program of experimental short films
that Edo and our friend and colleague David Schwartz put together,
as well as one program of student shorts from Jonathan B.
Murray Center for Documentary Journalism at the University of Missouri.
We always work with them on bringing their award winning
shorts filmmakers, So just twenty two programs on the coast
(26:24):
for five days. We also try to make it for
some For folks who live in Astoria, Long Island City, Queens,
you know, this is a gift that you can walk
there and spend every day there. For those who are
traveling from some farther distance, either in the city or beyond,
we do design it so that when you come, you'll
have an opportunity to see multiple films rather than just
(26:45):
a single film to make it worth your while. And
ideally also there'll be a little mini story within the
festival on each of those afternoons or evenings if you come,
So there's a design to that as well.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
And I imagine that passes are your best bargain.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
That's definitely a rest bargain. Absolutely. There's a full festival pass.
There's also day passes for Saturday Sunday, which are the
fuller days. If you want to come just for one
of those days, you can get a really reasonable pass.
I think basically for the price of two films, you
could see upwards of five or six.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
So it looks like it always having some technical difficulties.
We won't hear him on this wrap up, but Eric,
tell me a little bit more about what's going on
with you, what do you have looking forward to?
Speaker 3 (27:30):
So, yeah, this is for all I know, the west
First Look I'll be doing for a while because I
have just taken out a position as a director of
Film Creation and Programming at the Jacob Burns Film Center
in Clavetonville, New York, which is about forty five minutes
from Willmey and in Westchester, very well renowned art house
cinema that does both first run as well as repertory programming.
(27:53):
So excited about doing that. We'll be kind of full
steam ahead there come April. Feeling moved, heavy, conflicted, bittersweet
about First Look, a festival that have been very passionate
about for the ten years I've been at the museum
and feeling like we were leaving in good shape and
(28:16):
hoping that there's a great next chapter, both for the
programming at MOMI as well as First Look. I should note,
since i'll speak on behalf of Itto, that he's he
also moved on. He went to the Metrograph in downtown
New York to be one of their full time programmers,
which is a great opportunity for him as well. But
we're both fully on for First Look. We did the
(28:36):
entire program with our colleagues at the museum, Sarah Luciano
and our Paneda Sonya Epstein all participated in putting together
this version of First Look, and we'll all be back
together for one big bonanza for next week. But yes,
stay tuned for plans for next year and beyond. I
(28:58):
can't wait to come back and be a part of it.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
From a different perspective, well, I'll tell you, I get
those Metrograph emails all the time of what's playing there
and out here in Detroit. I am super jealous. I'm
also super jealous of all the people that get to
go to the First Look festival because it looks amazing
as well. And yeah, the films that I've seen from
it have been terrific, and I really am very jealous
(29:22):
of people that get to go and experience that, Like
you were saying live theaters back, we are in person
and to experience all of this with an audience is
just I was such a treat.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
Agreed, and Mike, I'm so grateful and glad of your
interest in first look in your interest in these films.
To me, it's not about our being territorial and being
the ones to find these films and show these films.
Nothing would make me happier than if these films have
more of a life because folks notice what's happening in
New York and are interested in the coverage that comes
(29:55):
out of it, that they ask their own venues to
show these films, or of other programmers attention and show
them elsewhere. They're all absolutely worth more engagements in the future.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Hopefully it will come to you and beyond. Fingers crossed, Eric,
thank you so much for your time. Please give Ada
my best. It's always great talking with you guys, and
I hope we can talk again in the future. Maybe
there's going to be some opportunity if you're in your
new role, so all this exciting stuff.
Speaker 6 (31:02):
Look at the proof, So con went some pace, so
so so so a way so strong. I don't get me.
(31:26):
I don't get it.
Speaker 7 (31:27):
That's so mids a weak way, sound the waist, look
at the booth.
Speaker 8 (31:46):
A woman than at first witness that's hotter. Then go thanking,
No money got the fund.
Speaker 6 (32:24):
The way they go, the way they sing something like
the way they don.
Speaker 4 (32:33):
S.
Speaker 8 (32:34):
But what was letting down.
Speaker 6 (32:44):
Bills so quick? Look at the first.
Speaker 8 (33:00):
And she's gotta be swears he But I won't me
some money, so they're gonna be covered.
Speaker 6 (33:07):
With the rest, as long as she got some catching.
And I want to big my coin. One wants to
her
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