First Time Film Fest back with Stellar Line-Up (April 3-7)

Last year I discovered a new film festival that had an incredible amount of quality films and rare informative panels with accomplished filmmakers.  I was privileged to see Todd Solondz, Melvin Van Peebles, and Philip Seymour Hoffman in person discussing their craft, just to name a few.  This year the First Time Film Fest returns with another mouth-watering selection of films and once in a lifetime Q & As.  The festival screens the first films of several new directors as well as selected classic debut films from cinema legends.  This year will showcase the work and appearances of James Toback, Peter Bogdanovich, Julie Taymor, Michael Moore, and many others.  Be sure not to miss this special little film festival with big aspirations! 
-Marco Agnolucci

Between films, they will host an array of Industry Panels with notable producers, financiers, agents, composers, critics and other members of the entertainment industry. Among the panels are “What’s Up, Doc;” “Help Me Help You;” “Show Me the Money;” “We Need a Bigger Boat – producing Independent Cinema;” “The Critical Eye;” “From Rock to Score” presented by the Grammys; and “Sell Baby Sell.” 

For complete schedule and location of panels, go to http://www.firsttimefest.com/panels/

This year’s Competition Films boast a diverse and exciting lineup of directorial debuts, with ten accomplished and exciting fiction and documentary feature films from Germany, Israel, Norway, Slovenia, Sweden and the United States. Some have played to acclaim at international film festivals, some are premieres. Submissions were open to feature-length films made with first-time directors, producers, writers, cinematographers, editors or composers.

1982 (USA – Director, Tommy Oliver)

Set in Philadelphia at the onset of the crack epidemic, 1982 follows a father’s efforts to protect his 10-year-old daughter from her drug-addled mother, while trying to steer her towards recovery. A grant recipient from the San Francisco Film Society and winner of the US in Progress award, 1982 premiered to great acclaim at the 2013 Toronto Film Festival. Friday, April 4th – 4pm – Loews Village VII

Bittersweet (USA/Netherlands. Director, Marieke Niestadt) 

A thrilling, intimate, and unpredictable sports documentary follows Australian kickboxer and WIBA World Champion Diana Prazik’s seemingly impossible quest to defeat Frida Wallberg of Sweden.Sunday, April 6th – 5.30pm – Loews Village VII

Butter on the Latch (USA – Director, Josephine Decker)
At a Balkan music camp, one woman’s respite devolves into a thrilling, psychosexual drama as her friendship and sanity are tested to extremes. Butter on the Latch had its international premiere at the 2014 Berlin Film Festival, alongside Decker’s second film, Thou Wast Mild and Lovely.  Sunday, April 6th – 9pm – Loews Village VII

Class Enemy (Slovenia – Director, Rok Bicek) 

A group of students rallies against their new German professor when one of their classmates commits suicide. The film premiered at the 2013 Venice Film Festival, and was Slovenia’s official entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars. Sunday, April 6th – 11.30am – Loews Village VII

Fall to Rise  (USA – Director, Jayce Bartok)
In this multi-layered and absorbing New York drama, a famous principal dancer (Daphne Rubin-Vega) struggles to uphold her identity when a knee injury relegates her to motherhood. Saturday, April 5th – 8pm – Loews Village VII

Farewell, Herr Schwartz  (Germany/Israel – Director Yael Reuveny)

A brother and sister survive the concentration camps but are separated in 1945. She migrated to the Middle East; he returned to Germany, where he became a Communist and lived near the camp where he was imprisoned. Their grandchildren are haunted by family secrets; the two families, in Germany and Israel – not knowing each other for years – are strangely mirrored. Yael Reuveny’s epic documentary is a journey spanning three generations, two countries and one fateful decision. Friday, April 4th – 1pm – Loews Village VII

Getting to the Nutcracker (USA – Director, Serene Meshel-Dillman)

This behind-thescenes look at The Marat Daukayev School of Ballet’s herculean efforts to stage The Nutcracker is an absorbing, intimate documentary that looks at the sacrifices and passion of its children dancers, ages three to eighteen.Sunday, April 6th – 2:30pm – Loews Village VII

Love Steaks (Germany Director, Jakob Lass)
She is an alcoholic chef, he, a sensitive masseur. Together they forge an unlikely relationship in this energetic and darkly comic romance set at a sea-side resort, which won the Lions Film Award at the 2014 Rotterdam Film Festival. Saturday, April 5th – 4pm – Loews Village VII 

Miss Julie (Sweden – Director, Mikael Berg) 
A beautiful and bold new adaptation of Strindberg’s classic battle of the sexes play set on a midsummer’s night in a rustic mansion in 1920s Europe.Saturday, April 5th – 1pm – Loews Village VII

The Sleepwalker (USA/Norway – Director, Mona Fastvold)

A young couple’s renovation plans are thwarted by the unexpected arrival of her estranged sister in this thriller starring coscreenwriter Brady Corbett, Christopher Abbott and Gitte Witt, which premiered in Competition at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival.Friday, April 4th – 7.30pm – Loews Village VII

See You Next Tuesday (USA – Director, Drew Tobia)
A pregnant and abrasive grocery store clerk draws her troubled family close as she spirals toward her due date in this moving, dark comedy that recallsthe films of John Waters and Todd Solondz. Saturday, April 5th – 9pm – Loews Village VII

Nothing Left To Fear (USA – Director, Anthony Leonard III)

Producer/Composer, Slash. In this thrilling horror film, a family’s journey toward a better life is interrupted by an unstable man of the cloth. Saturday, April 5th – 11.30pm – Loews Village VII

Tickets can be purchased online at: www.FirstTimeFest.com Also at the Loews Box-Office and NeueHouse headquarters during First Time Fest.