The Avignon/New York Film Fest offersindie film, paté and wine

The Avignon/New York Film Festival, now in its bar-mitzvah year, will ply cinephiles with French and U.S. indie films—and, of course, paté and wine--from November 9-11 and 16-18 at Manhattan’s Hunter College-CUNY. Co-sponsored with Hunter’s Film & Media Studies Department, this “transAtlantic crossroads of independent cinema” will serve up five feature films from the U.S. and three from Europe, including New York City Serenade, by writer/director/actor Frank Whaley; Thomas Mignone’s On The Doll, with Theresa Russell; and Il Sera Une Fois…, the fourth feature from Sandrine Veisset.

Seven documentaries grace the 2007 slate, among them the New York premiere of Maria de Medeiros’s I Love You, Me Neither : Artist and Critics, which rounds up the likes of Woody Allen, Pedro Almodovar and David Cronenberg as well as prominent critics who appraise their work for a venting of the “love-hate relationship” that bonds them. Another New York premiere in the non-fiction category is Welcome to Nollywood, Jamie Meltzer’s compelling and at times droll look at Nigeria’s mushrooming movie industry.

The festival will also screen 16 short films, including a special showcase of film and video works by Hunter students. Complementing the screening program are discussions with industry insiders, ranging from hour-long sessions with filmmaker Tom DiCillo and actor Christa Lang Fuller--co-memoirist of A Third Face with her late husband, Samuel Fuller—to a panel cathartically named The Wicked, Wicked Game of Distribution, presented in collaboration with Cavu Pictures.

Curated by festival director Jerome Rudes, this double weekend isn’t for those who call greasy potato sticks Freedom Fries. But for the non-xenophobic, it’s a chance to mingle with accented types and catch personal films from both sides of the Atlantic that may not make it to your Cineplex.

For a complete program, graze www.avignonfilmfest.com

Laura Blum