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Selections include 11 world, four international and 22 North American premieres.
'We're pleased to be introducing the work of an exciting group of new moviemaking talents from all over the world and to be presenting the work of an additional dozen who aren't beginners but who have yet to get the recognition they deserve', said executive director Peter Scarlet. 'I think viewers will find it an intriguing, challenging and interesting selection.'
Four U.S. entries will premiere in the narrative feature competition for first- and second-time filmmakers. These are 23-year-old Adam Bhala Lough's trip inside the dangerous world of Gotham graffiti artists, 'Bomb the System'; Evan Oppenheimer's examination of post-Sept. 11 grief through the work of a maverick comic book artist, 'Justice'; Clark Walker's bittersweet tale of West Texas adolescents, 'Levelland'; and Ramin Niami's contemporary noir, 'Paris.'
Given the success of last year's Tribeca discovery and top prize winner, 'Roger Dodger', acquisition execs will be scouring this crop for a potential breakout title.
'I think the fact that just among the feature selections there are six world premieres, of which five are American, is promising', Scarlet added.
East Asia figures prominently in the feature lineup, including Berlin Silver Bear winner 'Blind Shaft' by Li Yang, about Chinese mine workers involved in murder and extortion; experimental theatre director Jinghui Meng's drama about the transition from idealism to commercialism in Chinese culture, 'Chicken Poets'; and South Korean helmer Chan-ok Park's 'Jealousy Is My Middle Name', an honouree at the Rotterdam and Pusan fests.
Also selected is the debut of French-Italian thesp Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, 'It Is Easier for a Camel ...', about a woman retreating into daydreams to maintain balance in her life, starring the director with Chiara Mastroianni, Jean-Hugues Anglade , Emmanuelle Devos and Lambert Wilson. The second entry representing France is 'Ballroom', by Patrick Mario Bernard, Pierre Trividic and Xavier Brillat, about an artist who sets up his studio in a former dance hall.
The struggles of Afghan emigrants in the U.S. are chronicled in Vida Zaher-Khadeem's 'Fire Dancer', completed after the director's brutal murder in 2001, while Homayoun Karimpour's 'Nilofar in the Rain' examines the troubled relationship between an Afghan refugee in Pakistan and another exiled in Paris.
Documentary selections are split into two competitions: one for first- and second-time directors, the other for more established filmmakers.
Entries in these sections include 'A Normal Life' about Albanian Kosovar refugees, by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Hugo Berkeley; 'Sumo East and West', Ferne Pearlstein's examination of foreign inroads into the ancient Japanese art of sumo wrestling; and 'Step Into Liquid', in which Dana Brown, the son of 'Endless Summer' director Bruce Brown , documents a surfing community.
Music films are cued up with Maxie Collier's study of hip-hop entrepreneurs, 'Paper Chasers', featuring Ludacris, Damon Dash and Public Enemy; and 'Keeping Time: The Life, Music & Photographs of Milt Hinton', David G. Berger, Holly Maxson and Kate Hirso's portrait of the jazz musician.
Also screening is 'This So-Called Disaster', director Michael Almereyda's look at the creation of a stage production, in this case Sam Shepard 's 'The Late Henry Moss', with Nick Nolte , Sean Penn and Woody Harrelson .
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