The New Directors/New Films festival starts today! Put on by The Film Society of Lincoln Center and MOMA, the festival is:

Dedicated to the discovery and support of emerging artists. New Directors/New Films has earned an international reputation as the premiere festival for works that break or re-cast the cinematic mold. Twenty-six features and six shorts, handpicked by curators of the Film Society of Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art, made the cut this year, as the 37th edition of this non-competitive program spotlights the very best in the current class of new directors, actors, producers, writers, cinematographers, editors and more. We expect many of the filmmakers will be attending the festival to discuss their work first hand. [Filmlinc]

The line-up looks pretty great this year, with many films lining up with Takepart’s motto of media inspiring social action. Below are the films I plan on seeing, and interestingly enough, they all coincide with ideas that encourage folks to examine the world we live and make it better. Stay tuned for specific updates on the films as I see them over the next two weeks. And to learn how you can take a filmmaking workshop at a great New York non-profit and become a “new director” yourself!

Ballast (directed by Lance Hammer) :

A man’s suicide irrevocably alters the already fraught relationship of three people in a rural Mississippi Delta township. First-time director Lance Hammer sensitively traces the innumerable ways one radical act affects life’s larger issues and daily details for those left behind. Nonprofessionals all, the three main actors’ nuanced performances accentuate the tentative ties that uneasily bind together a solitary bachelor, his brother’s embittered ex-girlfriend and her troubled 12-year-old son. The slow-burn trajectory of this story gradually unfolds, anchored in psychological truth and the authenticity of locale. Improvising scenes with his actors, Hammer makes his debut with a strong emotional impact. His is a distinct and courageous new voice in American cinema.

* * *

Sleep Dealer (directed by Alex Rivera) :

Sometime in the not too distant future, big corporations control the water supply and international borders are truly airtight. In a Mexican village, Memo, a young man who loves to tinker with technology, hacks into the wrong system and finds himself in big trouble. When he runs off to a border town, he finds a job and a girl”but no guarantee of a happy ending. In his debut feature, director Alex Rivera creates a chilling scenario that is not so far-fetched. With the look and energy of a futuristic computer game, the film treats us to a world where migrant workers’ nervous systems are plugged into a global network, allowing them to do menial jobs in the U.S. for the same low wages but without setting foot north of the border. A thriller of a ride that is a chilling indictment of global capitalism and a look at the lost promises of the World Wide Web.

* * *

Munyurangabo (directed by Lee Isaac Chung)

Set in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide, Lee Isaac Chung’s impressive debut feature is story of two young men”one a Tutsi, the other a Hutu”trying to create futures by putting their pasts behind them. For Munyurangabo, this means seeking justice for his parents, who were killed during the fighting. For his friend Sangwa, resolution might come once he’s able to re-visit the lands he fled so long before. The two reach the home of Sangwa’s parents, but the parents are scared of the intentions of their son’s companion”after all, “Hutus and Tutsi are supposed to be enemies.” Chung, a Korean-American, traveled to Rwanda with a small crew and a nine-page script outline. Working with the cast, he completed his script with their real experiences. The result is fresh, immediate and utterly authentic.

* * *

Eat, for This Is My Body (directed by Michelange Quay)

Michelange Quay’s extraordinary first feature invites us to abandon the rules of traditional storytelling and embrace a poetic cinematic language uniquely his own, as was evident in his ferocious short The Gospel Of The Creole Pig (ND/NF 2004). This seductive and radical film begins with a breathtaking aerial traveling shot over a tropical island where nature’s bounty vies with images of poverty and suffering. A woman with a huge belly undergoes a difficult birth; the sound of a rushing waterfall quells her plaintive cries. A voodoo ceremony erupts with fervor. A white woman serves an imaginary dinner to a group of black boys forced to reiterate “merci.” Vibrant musical sequences give way to contemplative tableaux of sexual ambiguity. More than playing the race card, Quay reflects on the political and sexual politics of a country with a stormy past and

* * *