New Films? Sure. New Directors? Not So Much.

Thursday, the line-up for the 2009 edition of New Directors/New Films was announced.  Now, ND/NF is a pretty major film event, but we almost never touch on it, because we view the event as no great friend to documentary.  Nonfiction films are lucky to capture 2 or 3 slots per year, a bizarre ratio considering the quality of independent documentaries vis a vis independent narratives of late.

But this year, as the series (brought to you by the Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center - which also produces the docaphobic New York Film Festival) took care to highlight it's three major nonfiction selections - THE COVE and WE LIVE IN PUBLIC from Sundance and EVERY LITTLE STEP, which debuted at Toronto.

Now, we really, really liked WE LIVE IN PUBLIC and we haven't seen EVERY LITTLE STEP, although, for the sake of argument, we're gonna assume that we'll love it.

But is there anyone who considers WE LIVE IN PUBLIC director Ondi Timoner, set to run the circuit with her third feature film, a new director?  Or EVERY LITTLE STEP's James D. Stern (now directing film #4) or Adam Del Deo (#3)?

I'm sure that there's some kind of justification that I couldn't find at the ND/NF website that indicates just how these doc veterans fit the "new director" rubric.  But whatever the excuse, it strains credulity.

It might make you start to think that MOMA and the FSLC don't take nonfiction very seriously.

Comments

[John Smith]

Ondi Timoner is on her 4th feature, and, I agree, it is very strange to call her or any of the other two a new director.

[Karina]

I had thought that there was a rule that you had to be on your first or second film to get into ND/NF. Then I assumed that PUBLIC was invited anyway because they seem to always invite the Sundance winners (although no ROUGH AUNTIES this year is odd, no?), and frankly, it's possible they weren't all that conscious of Ondi's second film. But you're right that the closer you interrogate the "new"-ness of these directors, the more that classification falls apart.

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