The Lost Chapters by Lorena Alvarado
Film at Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art have announced the lineup for the 54th edition of New Directors/New Films, which will showcase 24 features and 9 shorts, including four Latin American and U.S. Latinx titles: Lorena Alvarado's The Lost Chapters / Los capítulos perdidos from Venezuela, Laura Casabé's The Virgin of the Quarry Lake / La virgen de la Tosquera from Argentina, Mad Bills to Pay (Or Destiny, dile que no soy malo) by American-Dominican filmmaker Joel Alfonso Vargas, and the short film You Can’t See It From Here / No se ve desde acá by Colombian director Enrique Pedraza-Botero.
A celebration of emerging filmmakers from around the world, New Directors/New Films spotlights fresh cinematic voices whose distinctive visions and bold storytelling highlight the vitality and potential of contemporary cinema.
Alvarado's debut feature The Lost Chapters is a tender and inquisitive story about a father and daughter brought together by literature. After years abroad, Ena returns to Caracas to find her grandmother losing her memory and her father searching for rare Venezuelan books.
Directed by Argentine filmmaker Casabé and written by acclaimed screenwriter Benjamin Naishtat, The Virgin of the Quarry Lake follows three teenagers from the outskirts of Buenos Aires who all fall for Diego. While Natalia shares the strongest bond with him, their budding romance is disrupted by Silvia, an older and more experienced rival who captures Diego’s attention.
In Mad Bills to Pay (Or Destiny, dile que no soy malo), Rico’s carefree Bronx summer is filled with chasing girls and selling homemade cocktails at Orchard Beach. But when his teenage girlfriend Destiny moves in with his family, his life spirals out of control.
Screening in the ND/NF Shorts Program I, Pedraza-Botero's You Can’t See It From Here is a spatial exploration of Miami and the endless pursuit of the American Dream in an era of immigrant mass mobilization. Through archival footage vignettes, the short reflects on identity, cultural assimilation, and the nation's fixation on individualism.
The 54th edition of New Directors/New Films will take place April 2–13, 2025, at Film at Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
