NYC Weekend Picks, January 6-8: "Illuminating Moonlight," First Look Festival, Best Films of 2016, More

"Illuminating Moonlight" at Film Society of Lincoln Center

Moonlight, Barry Jenkins' exquisitely moving and beautiful film charting the life of a young black man struggling to come to terms with painful life experiences and his own sexuality, has become one of the most acclaimed films this awards season, winning accolades and prizes left and right, and firmly establishing its director as one of the most powerful voices in filmmaking today.

This week, Jenkins visits the Film Society of Lincoln Center to personally curate "Illuminating Moonlight", a series that includes his other work and, most crucially, the works of international, black, and queer cinema that directly inspired and influenced Moonlight.

This weekend's screenings include:

Three Times (Hou Hsiao-hsien, 2005) (pictured), an achingly lovely masterwork set in three different time periods – 1966, 1911, and the present – with all three stories relating to a romance between characters played by the beautiful actors Shu Qi and Chang Chen. Three Times’ triptych structure directly influenced Moonlight’s similar three-part narrative architecture. (Jan. 8, 3pm)

Gohatto (Nagisa Oshima, 1999), the final film by Japanese New Wave stalwart Oshima, dealing with the taboo subject of homoerotic desire among the samurai class. Even in advanced age and declining health, Oshima remained to the end a boundary-breaking iconoclast. (Jan. 6, 7pm; Jan. 7, 9pm)

Beau Travail (Claire Denis, 1999), an adaptation of Billy Budd (both Melville’s novel and Britten’s opera) that, like Gohatto, also explores homoerotic desire, this time among soldiers in the French Foreign Legion. It’s one of Denis’ very finest films, a lovely paean to bodies in motion. (Jan. 6, 9pm; Jan. 7, 5pm)

Happy Together (Wong Kar-wai, 1997), charting the turbulent relationship between Hong Kong lovers set adrift in Buenos Aires, featuring Christopher Doyle’s ravishing camerawork and career-high performances by Tony Leung and the late Leslie Cheung. (Jan. 7, 7pm)

(More info/tickets)

First Look 2017 at Museum of the Moving Image

It's not long after the new year that that one of the city's most essential film festivals begins. First Look, now in its sixth year, screens challenging and innovative recent films and moving image work, expanding the possibilities of the medium. Several films this year explore the use of audio, as well as the intersections between theatrical performance and cinema.

This year's festival opens with the New York premiere of Hirokazu Kore-eda's latest film After the Storm (pictured) (Jan. 6, 7pm). Kore-eda's uniquely perceptive films, encompassing comedy, family drama, and other elements, has earned him an honored place on the world cinema landscape, and his newest film is no exception.

Other must-sees this year include Fear Itself (Jan. 7, 5:30pm), Charlie Lyne's provocative and appropriately haunting essay film on horror movies; Helmut Berger, Actor (Jan. 14, 4:30pm), Andreas' disturbing documentary portrait on the titular subject; and a program of new films by legendary avant-garde filmmaker Ken Jacobs (Jan. 14, 2pm).

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Curator's Choice at Museum of the Moving Image

This annual survey of some of the best films of the previous year concludes with two of last year's finest documentaries. Ezra Edelman's magisterial eight-hour work O.J.: Made in America made many critics' top-10 lists (including mine) for a reason; it's an engrossing, provocative, meticulously researched, and deeply cinematic (notwithstanding its TV-production origins) study of race, celebrity and the justice system in America. (Jan. 8, 1pm)

In contrast to the grand scale of O.J., the much more intimate Cameraperson (pictured), is no less impressive, as well as deeply moving. Veteran documentary cinematographer Kirsten Johnson weaves together unused footage culled from her 25-year career (as well as scenes featuring her own family), shot all across the globe, to explore filmmakers' relationship to their subjects, whose images and stories are the materials for their art. The personal and ethical considerations raised are explored in a wonderfully artful way. Cameraperson is a truly unique work, simultaneously a documentary, essay film, and autobiography. Johnson and editor Nels Bangerter will appear in person for this screening. (Jan. 8, 4:30pm)

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Martin Scorsese exhibition at Museum of the Moving Image

With Silence, Scorsese's three-decade long gestating passion project, now in theaters, the time is ripe for a reassessment, rediscovery, and celebration of the premier cinephile filmmaker. This major exhibition, the New York stop of the traveling show that originated at the Deutsche Kinemathek in Berlin, is a perfect way to do so.

The exhibition, which runs until April 23, is a multimedia show which includes production material (costumes, props, storyboards, set photographs) from many of his key films, including Silence. It draws extensively from Scorsese's own collection, and instead of a chronological organization, it looks at Scorsese's work thematically. Each section is titled with a different thematic category, and they are as follows: Family, Brothers, Men and Women, Lonely Heroes, New York, Cinephile, Cinematography, Editing, and Music.

Attached to this exhibition is a comprehensive retrospective of Scorsese's films that will screen concurrently, which will feature guest appearances by Scorsese's many artistic collaborators. The retrospective, in addition to Scorsese's own films, will also feature a selection of classics restored by his Film Foundation.

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The Contenders 2016 at The Museum of Modern Art

MoMA’s annual survey of the year’s best films continues with two notable films from Asia, one from a veteran Hong Kong action film maestro, the other from a relatively newer talent from South Korea.

Train to Busan (pictured) saw Yeon Sang-ho, the maker of such gritty animated features as King of Pigs and The Fake, make a great splash at Cannes with a sequel/remake of his last animated film Seoul Station. What he came up with was a thrilling, elegantly staged and directed work that took its high concept - zombies on a train - to eye-opening creative heights. (Jan 6, 7:30pm)

Three is Johnnie To's return to his bread-and-butter genre of police-and-gangster action films, and while the results don't match his greatest work, it still contains some great moments and setpieces - such as the tour de force shootout in a hospital - that remind us why he's great. And To, even on a slightly off day, betters many other directors on their greatest. (Jan. 8, 5pm)

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Marcel Pagnol's Marseille Trilogy at Film Forum

With this trilogy - Marius (Alexander Korda, 1931); Fanny (Marc Allegret, 1932); Cesar (Marcel Pagnol, 1936) (pictured) - playwright Pagnol made a successful transition from stage to screen, bringing to early French sound cinema the distinctive sights, sounds, and characters of the port city of Marseilles. The new 4K restorations of these classics will be a warm oasis of comedy during these bitterly cold days. The trilogy screens through January 12.

(More info/tickets)