Directed by Eric Mendelsohn
Eric Mendelsohn (Judy Berlin, ND/NF 1999) returns with this exquisite, unsettling trio of life-changing episodes set in a leafy, tranquil corner of Long Island suburbia. After his business trip is canceled, John (Elias Koteas) finds himself minutes from home yet lost and distanced from everything familiar. Part-time painter and full-time mom Peggy (Edie Falco) is delighted when asked by a celebrity neighbor for a lift to a distant ferry, but the trip has a trajectory profoundly different than what she’d expected. And when eight-year-old Christina (Rachel Resheff) runs to school after missing the bus, her journey takes her to places she never imagined existed. Endowed with the mystery of a John Cheever short story, 3 Backyards is a beautifully composed film, with light, color, sound, and action blending together to create the vibrant sense of a world full of interior and exterior secrets.
2010. USA. 85 min.
SCREENING WITH
Looking at Animals – Directed by Marc Turtletaub
After a lifetime photographing animals in the wild, Raymond retires to a small town and starts observing his neighbors. 2009. USA. 25 min.
BUY TICKETS ONLINE
Fri Mar 26: 9:00 (FSLC)
Sun Mar 28: 1:00 (MoMA)
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR:
Eric Mendelsohn has been working in the New York film industry for the past 20 years. His debut feature, Judy Berlin, was an Official Selection of the Cannes Film Festival (Un Certain Regard), won Best Director at Sundance and Best Independent Film at the Hamptons Film Festival, and was nominated for three Independent Spirit Awards. 3 Backyards premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Best Director Award, making Mendelsohn the award’s first two-time recipient. He is currently an associate professor of film in Columbia University’s film program.
