Search Museum of the Moving Image

Please be advised: the Museum is open April 22–26, 12:00–6:00, for NYC Public Schools’ spring recess. See all hours.

First Look 20/21

Jul 22 — Aug 1, 2021

First Look, the Museum’s acclaimed festival of innovative new international cinema, introduces New York audiences to formally inventive works that seek to redefine the art form while engaging in a wide range of subjects and styles. The festival’s tenth edition—shifting to mid-summer and extended to two weekends—First Look 20/21 presents still unseen works from the 2020 iteration of the festival alongside over a dozen additional programs, making it the biggest and most wide-ranging edition to date. All First Look 20/21 programs will be presented in the Museum’s two theaters, with filmmakers appearing either in person or via live video. A selection of films will also be available for online viewing after their on-site premiere, details forthcoming.

Opening Night, on Thursday, July 22, features the New York premieres of Claire Simon’s The Grocer’s Son, the Mayor, the Village, and the World…, and Yaara Sumeruk’s short film If We Say That We Are Friends, with Simon joining virtually and Sumeruk attending in person.

Closing Night, on August 1, features the New York premiere of Dash Shaw and Jane Samborski’s sui generis animated adventure Cryptozoo, which debuted at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, with Shaw in attendance.

Tickets & Passes:
Unless otherwise noted, tickets for individual screening programs are $15 ($11 seniors and students / $9 youth / free for MoMI members starting at the Senior & Student levels ($7 Classic members). Tickets for Opening and Closing Night are $20 ($15 for MoMI Members):

$100 All-Access Pass (including opening and closing night, in-person and virtual cinema screenings, and Working on It)

$65 In-Person Pass (including all on-site screenings and “Working On It” days; value can be applied to a year-round Museum membership)

Share

Past Films in Series

A child holding a sparkler in the dark, surrounded by family

A Rifle and a Bag
abstract black and white shapes and swirls

Double Wow and Other Works by Ken Jacobs
Two images of boys: a photograph on the left and a drawing on the right

Don’t Touch Me (Noli me tangere)
A couple walk down steps to a windswept beach

A Beautiful Summer (Le bel été)
A trans woman sits on the floor in her underwear in her apartment's pink-drenched neon glow

Searching Eva
A roller skater on a city street crosswalk

Are We Here, Together?: Experimental Shorts
A mountainside emblazoned with infrared laser missiles

There Will Be No More Night
An image of a forest

Maggie’s Farm

Forensickness
A computer desktop showing multiple open windows

Bottled Songs 1–4
Doctors in the ER in scrubs, shown from behind walking down a hall

Phases of Matter + When Two or Three
A young woman sits in a dark booth in profile

The Viewing Booth
A man sticks his tongue out at the camera and smiles

Bird Talk
A young girl looking at the camera and smiling

Transnistra
A woman in a hijab surrounded by grasping hands

180 Degree Rule
A shirtless man lies face down on a bed in a dark room

Silent Voice
A woman in sunglasses and a flowered dress on a city street

Intimate Distances
A woman kissing a woman who is lying down

Comets
A man in a purple suit and hat leans out of a window

Nofinofy
A man in a white shirt and tie cutting a child's hair in a barber chair

First Sight: 2021 Award-Winning Shorts from the Jonathan B. Murray Center for Documentary Journalism
A blurred image of a person in a blur and white shirt moving in a dark space

Cross Eyed
A pond surrounded by desert and sky

First Sight: 2020 Award-Winning Shorts from the Jonathan B. Murray Center for Documentary Journalism
A shirtless weight man sits on a weightlifting bench and looks at the camera

Zinder
A young man and woman embracing in a pool

First Sight: Four Short Films from the BFA Film Department, SVA
A man stands against a backdrop of a construction site in the Sicilian mountains

Il Mio Corpo + Three Songs for Benazir
A group of rams and sheep

Mementos: Family Fragments on Film and in Performance

Stories from the Chestnut Woods
Two sleeping men on a boat, the morning sun entering a window behind them

Ridge
A woman in a white dress walking down a city street, flanked by men in suits

The Grocer’s Son, the Mayor, the Village, and the World…
A hand reaching out from a bloody curtain in a haunted house

October Country (with Live Score)

First Look 20/21 was programmed by Eric Hynes, Curator of Film, and Edo Choi, Assistant Curator of Film; Becca Keating, Director of Development and curator of Persistent Visions program; Sonia Epstein, Associate Curator of Science and Film; and guest curator David Schwartz, Manager of Theatrical Programming, Netflix.

 

Sponsors:
The Museum is grateful of the support from The BFA Film Department, School of Visual Arts; The Jonathan B. Murray Center for Documentary Journalism at the Missouri School of Journalism; The Harriman Institute at Columbia University; The Polish Cultural Institute New York; Cultural Services of the French Embassy; Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program; Captain Lawrence Brewery; Bridge Lane Wine; The Collective Paper Factory Hotel, and Rooftop Films. Additional support was provided by the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.