VIEWS FROM THE AVANT-GARDE (Friday through Sunday) Presented as a sidebar to the New York Film Festival, this annual survey organized by Mark McElhatten and Gavin Smith offers an enlightening overview of recent activity in a field, the “experimental” film, that is still yielding vital work despite decades of critical neglect. Among the 60 or so titles on offer are new works by Leslie Thornton, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Harun Farocki, Michael Snow, Peggy Ahwesh, Lewis Klahr, Ken Jacobs, Lynne Sachs, Ernie Gehr and other giants of the avant-garde, as well as a generous selection of films by emerging artists. At 3 p.m. on Saturday there will be a tribute to the late Chick Strand, a major figure in the field, whose interests ranged from ethnographic documentaries to sensual abstractions and creatively edited found-footage films. Walter Reade Theater, 165 West 65th Street, Lincoln Center , (212) 975-5600, filmlinc.org; $11. (Kehr)