Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You
November 24–27, 2006

In a new collaboration between IFP, its magazine Filmmaker, and the Department of Film and Media, MoMA will screen the five nominees for the Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You award. The nominees will be determined by Filmmaker magazine editors and MoMA curators and announced on October 23. The five nominees represent this year’s best American independent films on the festival circuit that have yet to be picked up for theatrical distribution. The award will be presented to the winner, selected by editors of Filmmaker magazine, on November 29 at the 16th Annual Gotham Awards. For film listings and details, visit www.ifp.org.

Organized by Jytte Jensen, Curator, Department of Film; Michelle Byrd, Executive Director, IFP; and Scott Macaulay, Editor, Filmmaker magazine.

In Between Days. 2006. USA. Directed by So Yong Kim. Screenplay by Kim and Bradley Rust Gray. With Jiseon Kim, Taegu Andy Kang. Aimie, a newly arrived Korean immigrant, has fallen in love with her best and only friend, Tran. Fearing the loss of his friendship, she has difficulty expressing her feelings. Their fragile relationship is challenged by the demands of living in a new country, and as Aimie loses him to an Americanized Korean girl, she becomes even further isolated. It takes great directorial courage to let silences speak and realizations grow organically out of largely uneventful situations, but Kim’s trust in her material and her actors is hugely rewarded. The film’s accumulated effect is completely satisfying, visually and emotionally. The space accorded the two leads is filled with the subtle, devastating shifts of real life captured on a digital camera. 82 min.
Friday, November 24, 6:00; Sunday, November 26, 2:00. T2

Colma: The Musical. 2006. USA. Directed by Richard Wong. Screenplay by H.P. Mendoza. With Mendoza, Jake Moreno, L.A. Renigen. Fresh out of high school in suburban Colma, California, three best pals find themselves in a state of limbo as they begin to explore a new world of part-time mall jobs and crashing college parties—all the while trying to assess how best to follow their dreams. Boasting thirteen musical numbers, Colma is a fresh, personal, and wholly original look at early adulthood. 113 min.
Friday, November 24, 8:00; Sunday, November 26, 4:00. T2

Choking Man. 2006. USA. Written and directed by Steve Barron. With Octavio Gómez Berríos, Eugenia Yuan, Mandy Patinkin. A morbidly shy Ecuadorian dishwasher toils in a shabby Jamaica, Queens, diner where he is continually tormented by a coworker and yearns for contact with the new Chinese waitress who befriends him—all as he struggles with inner demons at home. An intense blend of psychological drama and magical realism, Choking Man speaks eloquently of the contemporary immigrant experience in America. 85 min.
Saturday, November 25, 2:00; Sunday, November 26, 6:15. T2

Wristcutters—A Love Story. 2006. USA. Written and directed by Goran Dukic. Based on the novella Kneller’s Happy Campers by Etgar Keret. With Patrick Fugit, Shannyn Sossamon, Shea Whigham. Heartbroken by a break-up with his girlfriend, an aimless young man kills himself, only to wake up in the afterlife—a quirky universe that’s both strangely familiar and full of surprises. Learning that his “ex” is also there, he joins with an eccentric Russian rocker and a sexy goth hitchhiker on a road trip to find her. Visually, the film is every bit as enterprising and quirky as the story’s unexpected bends and shifts in a strange, commanding landscape. This could be the first film to express the philosophy that real growing up takes the courage to die first. The adventurous screenplay and camerawork deftly skirt the obvious, as this simultaniously sincere and funny look at adolescent unhappiness attains its own original brand of serenity. 91 min.
Saturday, November 25, 4:00; Monday, November 27, 6:00. T2

The Great Happiness Space: Tale of an Osaka Love Thief. 2006. USA. Directed by Jake Clennell. First-time director Jake Clennell captures an extraordinary Japanese subculture in this candid, poignant, and beautifully photographed documentary. At Osaka's Cafe Rakkyo, the charismatic, enigmatic Issei presides over a team of suave, seductive "host boys," who make beautiful young women laugh and feel good about their lives in exchange for a handsome fee. But the price these women pay for their pleasure can be much more damaging than a fat bar tab. 75 min.
Saturday, November 25, 6:00; Monday, November 27, 8:00. T2

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Pictured above left:

The Great Happiness Space: Tale of an Osaka Love Theif. 2006. USA. Directed by Jake Clennell

Pictured above right:

Choking Man. 2006. USA. Written and directed by Steve Barron