The 13th edition of First Look at New York’s Museum of the Moving Image kicked off March 13, running through to March 17. Each year, First Look offers a diverse slate of major New York premieres, work-in-progress screenings and sessions, gallery installations, and fresh perspectives on the art and process of filmmaking. This year’s festival introduces New York audiences to more than three dozen works from around the world, of which many are docs and hybrids.
“The guiding ethos of First Look is openness, curiosity, and discovery, aiming to expose audiences to new art, artists to new audiences, and everyone to different methods, perspectives, interrogations, and encounters,” write organisers. “For five consecutive days the festival takes over MoMI’s two theaters, as well as other rooms and galleries throughout the Museum—with in-person appearances and dialogue integral to the experience.”
Notable doc or hybrid features include: 1489 by Shoghakat Vardanyan (IDFA 2023 International Competition Winner); Behind Closed Doors by João Pedro Bim (IDFA 2023 Frontline); Gwetto by Michaël Andrianaly (recipient of the True Vision Award at True/False 2024); Knit’s Island by Ekiem Barbier, Guilhem Causse and Quentin L’helgoualc’h (CIFF Cinematic Vision Award); The Echo by Tatiana Huezo (Berlin 2023 Encounters), and the international premiere of Faraz Fesharaki’s What Did You Dream Last Night, Parajanov?, and many more.
First Look will conclude with Bill and Turner Ross’s Gasoline Rainbow before the hybrid work hotfoots it to CPH:DOX where it is selected for the new section Parafictions.
The NY event will also present the US exhibition of Fiona Tan’s Footsteps, with a reception for the Dutch artist scheduled for March 15. Composed exclusively of archival films from the Netherlands captured at the birth of cinema, paired with narration written by Tan’s father in the late 1980s, the video work creates a dialogue between history, the artist’s past, and our present.
First Look again partners with Polish documentary festival Millennium Docs Against Gravity, welcoming Artistic Director Karol Piekarczyk and two filmmakers from their Warsaw showcase; and will again present student work from the Jonathan B. Murray Center for Documentary Journalism at the Missouri School of Journalism.
Comments Eric Hynes, MoMI Curator of Film: “Now in its 13th year, First Look has carved out a unique, and we think essential, place in New York’s film and cultural landscape. For five days in mid-March, MoMI is transformed into a space of active discovery, experimentation, dialogue, and possibility. We’re presenting a slate of films that we love and admire, and we can’t wait to show them to our audiences. We’re also welcoming artists from around the world to gather in Astoria, Queens, to meet and inspire one another with works completed and unfinished. It’s not a coincidence that First Look alums often recongregate and return to us—they’re a permanent part of our community, and we’re committed to growing a platform that champions adventurous works of cinema.”
