A sequence from Margaret Tait's Where I am Is Here

Call it complete and total intellectual laziness, but this weekend's guide to worthwhile cinematic happenings around New York comprises the most obscure shit I could find, in its natural (i.e. cribbed) element--if only to do some business below the mainstream hype dogfight pitting Harry Potter against Johnny Cash:

--From the lovely folks at Anthology Film Archives:

NEW YORK PREMIERES
VIRGINIE MARCHAND
FAITH 2002/03 (Tonight through Sunday, 7 p.m.)
"These years my brain is funny; I have a bad taste full of blood." – V.M.

MENSTRUATION OF THE CRAYFISH (2002, 26 minutes)
THE LITTLE MERMAID (2001, 3:30 minutes)
TARGET DREAM (2002, 25 minutes)
MARYLIN AND HER MARYLINETTES (2001, 1 minute)
FOODFUCK IN NY/NICE AND ROME (2002, 33 minutes)
Total program time: ca. 95 minutes.

"These five earlier films by film-maker and writer Virginie Marchand predate her two feature films now in post-production. Despite appearances, Marchand's five films are not 'underground,' they are more an intimiste [sic] and chirurgical mise-en-scene of the real." – Jean-Baptiste Papailhau

--From the resoundingly sweet art fags at MoMA:

Stalking the Image: The Films of Margaret Tait
Margaret Tait’s pride of place in her native Scotland—and even more ardently in the Highlands and on the island of Orkney—manifested itself in exquisitely intimate films that combine poetry, portraiture, music, art, experimental documentary, home movie, and animation. A true auteur—she wrote, directed, photographed, edited, animated, and almost always financed her films—Tait (1918–1999) is the subject of an extensive touring retrospective that features newly preserved prints, including Portrait of Ga (1952) and Colour Poems (1974). Also presented is one of Tait’s earliest films, Three Portrait Sketches (1951), made in Rome when she was studying at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia during the height of the neorealist movement. Tait often quoted García Lorca’s phrase "stalking the image" to define her philosophy, believing that if you look at an object closely enough—a garden, a face, a street—it will speak its nature.

SELECTED FILMS:
Where I Am Is Here. 1964. Great Britain. Tait discovers the unusual in everyday Edinburgh. A film poem that possesses its own inner logic and rhythmic cohesion. 35 min. (Tonight at 6:45; Saturday at 2:00)
Happy Bees. 1955. Great Britain. "An evocation of what it was like to be a small child in Orkney" (Tait). 16 min.
Garden Pieces. 1998. Great Britain. Music by John Gray. Tait’s last work before her death, this three-part film looks at the garden as a philosophical and phenomenological space. 12 min. (Tonight at 8:00; Saturday at 3:45)

--And finally, from the refined tastes at Lincoln Center:

NEXT DOOR / NABOER (Sunday at 8:45 p.m.)
Director: Pål Sletaune, Country: Norway, Release: 2005, Runtime: 78
Hailed by Variety as one of the 10 most promising directors working today, Pål Sletaune starts off in his new film Next Door in the vein of offbeat comedy that characterized his earlier films Junk Mail and You Really Got Me, then gradually moves into darker, David Lynchian territory that exposes a new side to Sletaune’s already impressive talent. After breaking up with his girlfriend, John (Kristoffer Joner) gets better acquainted with the two young women who live next door. They invite him into their odd, maze-like apartment, and drop some strong hints that they know far more about John than he could have imagined. Soon, John realizes that his neighbors have been expecting his arrival into their very private world for quite a while.