“Weekend” and “Tournée” Bookend 3rd Annual BAMcinemaFest
IndieWire Staff
BAMcinématek has released the lineup for the third annual BAMcinemaFest. The festival will open with the New York premiere of Andrew Haigh’s “Weekend” and close with the New York premiere of Mathieu Amalric’s “Tournée.” Additional highlights include 17 more New York premieres, the world premiere of Charlie Ahearn’s “Jamel Shabazz Street Photographer” and a new 35mm print of Bryan Forbes’ “Whistle Down the Wind.”
The festival runs Jun 16-26 in Brooklyn.
Below is a full list of the films, courtesy of BAMcinemaFest.
“Another Earth” (Mike Cahill, US)
Upon the discovery of a duplicate planet Earth, the lives of an MIT astrophysics student—Brit Marling (“Sound of My Voice”) in a remarkable performance—and a famous composer (William Mapother from “Lost”) intersect in this science fiction tale. Winner—Sundance Special Jury Prize, Alfred P. Sloan Prize. A Fox Searchlight release. Sneak Preview
“The Catechism Cataclysm” (Todd Rohal, US)
An absurdist comedy by the director of “The Guatemalan Handshake” follows a confused Catholic priest and his high school idol on a canoe trip. Stars a hilarious Steve Little (“Eastbound and Down”) and an equally marvelous Robert Longstreet (“Septien”). An IFC Midnight release. NY Premiere
“The Color Wheel” (Alex Ross Perry, US)
This dryly funny second feature from Perry follows the transformative road trip of a brother, played by the director himself, and sister (stand-up comedienne Carlen Altman). NY Premiere
“Green” (Sophia Takal, US)
The debut feature of actor-director Takal (“Gabi on the Roof in July”) starring Kate Lyn Sheil (“The Color Wheel”) is a psychosexual drama breaking down the expectations of intellectual city dwellers in the countryside. NY Premiere
“Jess + Moss” (Clay Jeter, US)
The first feature by child actor-turned-cinematographer and director Clay Jeter (Christy) is a series of expressionistic and elegiac vignettes about the bond between second cousins played by Sarah Hagan (“Freaks and Geeks”) and Austin Vickers, all shot on Jeter’s family tobacco farm in Tennessee. Winner—Dallas International Film Festival Best Narrative Award. NY Premiere
“Letters from the Big Man” (Christopher Munch, US)
Not your typical girl-meets-Sasquatch tale, Christopher Munch’s (“The Sleepy Time Gal”) gorgeous, mystical film stars Lily Rabe as an artist and scientist who, while exploring the Oregonian forest, encounters Big Foot himself and forms a deep, enigmatic bond. NY Premiere
“On the Ice” (Andrew Okpeaha MacLean, US)
A tense, compelling drama with a nonprofessional cast about two Inuit teenagers who, while on a seal hunting trip in the tundra, mistakenly kill a friend. Winner—Berlin International Film Festival Best First Feature. NY Premiere
“Septien” (Michael Tully, US)
A darkly comic tale from film critic Tully (“Silver Jew”) focuses on the unexpected return of a high school football star (played by the director) to his family’s dilapidated farm after 18 years, co-starring Robert Longstreet (“The Catechism Cataclysm”). A Sundance Selects release. NY Premiere
“Stranger Things” (Eleanor Burke & Ron Eyal, US)
A touching character-driven drama about the relationship between a vagabond (“Four Lions”’ Adeel Akhtar) and a homeowner (Bridget Collins) from first-time writer-director husband and wife team. Winner—Slamdance Grand Jury Prize, Woodstock Film Festival Best Narrative Feature. NY Premiere
“Surrogate Valentine” (Dave Boyle, US)
From the director of “White on Rice” comes a story of not sex but love, not drugs but tea, and not rock ‘n’ roll but indie folk, as mirthful SF singer-songwriter Goh Nakamura (playing himself) goes on tour with a z-list actor, teaching him to play guitar but learning about life in the process. NY Premiere
“Terri” (Azazel Jacobs, US) Jacobs follows his critically acclaimed “Momma’s Man” with this brilliantly perceptive, unique coming-of-age tale about the relationship between a 15-year-old overweight outsider and a jocular assistant principal (John C. Reilly) who takes an interest in the boy. An ATO Pictures release. Sneak Preview
“Tournée (On Tour)” (Mathieu Amalric, France)
NY Premiere—Closing Night
“Weekend” (Andrew Haigh, UK)
NY Premiere—Opening Night
“The Woods” (Matthew Lessner, US)
A group of 20-somethings drop everything and step into the Oregon forest in this debut feature—the first Kickstarter-funded Sundance premiere—an irreverent satire of today’s idealistic yet Wii-addled youth. NY Premiere
The complete BAMcinemaFest 2011 documentary slate includes:
“The Ballad of Genesis & Lady Jaye” (Marie Losier, US)
A portrait—made over the course of seven years—of legendary musician and artist Genesis P-Orridge of Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV, her relationship with Lady Jaye, a conceptual artist and dominatrix, and how they transformed themselves to look like one another through body modification. Winner—Berlin International Film Festival Teddy Award Sneak Preview
“Dragonslayer” (Tristan Patterson, US)
A gorgeously shot, expressionistic portrait of Josh “Skreech” Sandoval, a professional yet poverty-stricken SoCal skateboarder. Winner—SXSW Best Documentary Award. NY Premiere
“Elevate” (Anne Buford, US)
First-time director Buford helms this moving documentary of four Senegalese teenagers with hoop dreams of playing in the NBA. Winner—Dallas International Film Festival Best Documentary Award NY Premiere
“If a Tree Falls: The Story of the Earth Liberation Front” (Marshall Curry, US)
The director of the Oscar-nominated documentary “Street Fight” trains his lens on the rise and fall of the radical environmental group which the FBI called America’s “number one domestic terrorist threat.” Winner—Nashville Film Festival Documentary Grand Jury Prize. An Oscilloscope Laboratories release. Sneak Preview
“Jamel Shabazz Street Photographer” (Charlie Ahearn, US)
World Premiere
“Last Days Here” (Don Argott & Demian Fenton, US)
A harrowing and startling but redemptive portrait of Bobby Liebling, the self-destructive frontman of legendary doom metal pioneers Pentagram by the Philadelphia directing and editing team of “The Art of the Steal” and “Rock School.” A Sundance Selects release. NY Premiere
“Magic Trip” (Alex Gibney, US)
Oscar winner Gibney (“Taxi to the Dark Side”) and Alison Ellwood (producer, “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room”) assemble miles and miles of never-before-seen footage of author Ken Kesey (“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”) and his Merry Pranksters on their LSD-drenched, freewheeling 1964 cross-country road trip. A Magnolia Pictures release. NY Premiere
“The Redemption of General Butt Naked” (Daniele Anastasion & Eric Strauss, US/Georgia/Liberia)
This riveting documentary follows Joshua Milton Blahyi, “General Butt Naked,” once a merciless and brutal warlord during Liberia’s civil war, as he reinvents himself as an evangelist and seeks forgiveness from the survivors of his victims, raising difficult questions about the limits of forgiveness and deliverance. NY Premiere
“Senna” (Asif Kapadia, UK/France/US)
Using archival racing footage from the 70s—90s, British filmmaker “Kapadia (The Warrior)” directs both an exhilarating and kinetic motorsports movie and a heartbreaking and spiritual portrait of legendary Brazilian Formula 1 racer Ayrton Senna, considered by many as the best racecar driver of all time. Winner—Sundance World Cinema Audience Award. A Cinetic Media release. Sneak Preview
“Separado!” (Dylan Goch & Gruff Rhys, Wales/Argentina/Brazil)
“Star Trek” meets “Buena Vista Social Club” as Welsh rock superstar Gruff Rhys, of the irreverent Super Furry Animals, takes a psychedelic, time-warped transcontinental journey from his native Cymru all the way to Patagonia to look for his long-lost Argentine uncle, the poncho-donning Welsh-language flamenco singer René Griffiths, in this costume epic/western/doc hybrid. NY Premiere
“Where Soldiers Come From” (Heather Courtney, US)
Shot over the course of four years, this revelatory documentary follows friends from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula as they enlist in the National Guard, are deployed to Afghanistan, and return to their home and loved ones. Winner—SXSW Best Editing Award. NY Premiere
BAMcinemaFest 2011 special events include:
“Whistle Down the Wind” (Bryan Forbes, UK, 1961)
A new 35mm print of the unsung British gem starring Alan Bates, Bernard Lee (“James Bond”’s M), and Hayley Mills in a daring post-Pollyanna turn, follows a fugitive in a small town mistaken by the local children as the second coming of Christ. This directorial debut by Oscar nominated actor-writer-director Forbes (“Séance on a Wet Afternoon,” “The Stepford Wives”) was written by Waterhouse and Hall (“Billy Liar”), produced by Richard Attenborough, and nominated for four BAFTAs.
Shorts Programs
Brand new acclaimed short-form works in their New York and world premieres. Includes a program devoted to Sundance shorts. (Films TBA).
