First Features
The first time’s a charm for certain filmmakers, a fact attested to by the films gathered together in this collection of distinctive feature film debuts, the works of audacious young talents who came onto their sets with a lifetime of ideas about cinema stored up and ready to be put to the test. A selection of auspicious beginnings that not only show the promise of mature masterpieces to come, but are great films in their own right.
-
Spa Night
Directed by Andrew Ahn | 97 mins | 2016
Andrew Ahn’s remarkably assured debut feature is a portrait of forbidden sexual awakening set in the nocturnal world of spas and karaoke bars in Los Angeles' Koreatown. David Cho (Joe Seo, who won the Special Jury Award at Sundance for his breakthrough perf... -
Our Nixon
Directed by Penny Lane | 85 mins | 2013
Using an array of archival materials including television interviews, Nixon’s secretly recorded White House tapes, and more than 500 reels of long-out-of-circulation Super 8 home movies by presidential aides Dwight Chapin, John Ehrlichman, and H.R. Haldeman... -
Variety
Leaving June 1
Directed by Bette Gordon | 100 mins | 1983
A young woman lands a job as a cashier at a downtown porno theater, and soon finds herself inexorably drawn towards what’s happening onscreen—as well as other troubling fantasies. One of the great independent films of the ’80s, featuring ...
