The 49th New York Film Festival (NYFF) opened last Friday (Sept. 30) with an unprecedented 13 films and installations by CalArts School of Film/Video students, alumni and faculty on the festival’s schedule.
The films will screen at Lincoln Center this weekend in the NYFF’s Views From the Avant-Garde—one of the world’s most prestigious annual celebrations of experimental film and video.
Included on the slate are two thesis films by 2010 MFA Film/Video graduates: Natasha Mendonca, whose film Jan Villa also won the coveted Lion Award at the 2011 Rotterdam International Film Festival, and Laura Kraning, a 2010 Princess Grace Award recipient.
Other CalArtians in the New York Film Festival:
Faculty
- Betzy Bromberg’s Voluptuous Sleep has a solo screening on Oct. 8 at the Francesca Beale Theater.
- James Benning’s Twenty Cigarettes (2011) also screens in a solo program on Sunday, Oct. 9 in the Walter Reade Theater.
- Lewis Klahr has one short film, Well Then There Now (2011), included in John Zorn: A Film in 15 Scenes program on Oct. 8-9, and
on Oct. 9-10, Klahr’s feature The Pettifogger (2011) screens at the Water Reade Theater. - School of Theater faculty member Janie Geiser’s short Ricky is included in the Virgin Springs program on Oct. 9-10 at the Walter Reade Theater. (Her film also screens at REDCAT in Los Angeles during the Oct. 17 program Janie Geiser: “Nervous Films,” Secret Stories.
- Charlotte Pryce’s short Curious Light is included in the Cabinet of Curiosities program on Oct. 8 and 10 in the Francesca Beale Theater.
Alumni
- Robert Fenz has two films The Sole of the Foot (2011) and Correspondence (2011) screening alongside Mendonca’s Jan Villa during The Soul and the Stem program on Oct. 7 and 9.
- Laura Kraning’s Devil’s Gate screens on Oct. 9-10 at the Walter Reade Theater as part of the Virgin Springs program.
- Laida Lertxundi’s A Lax Riddle Unit (2011) is slated for Oct. 8 and 10 in the Looking through a Glass Onion program.
- Deborah Stratman’s Village, silenced (2011) shows on Oct. 7 and 9 during the Ladders and Tracks program.
49th New York Film Festival
Views from the Avant-Garde
Oct. 7-10