18th New York Polish Film Festival Features New Crop of Polish Filmmakers

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Tuesday, 30 May 2023 15:29

Written by Brad Balfour

Braty

In June 2023, The New York Polish Film Festival will celebrate its 18th Anniversary, with a slate of curated films. The NYPFF has in person screenings at Scandinavia House (58 Park Ave, NY NY), as well as online screenings from June 9th to the 30th. Touted as the only Polish film festival on the East Coast, The NYPFF includes features, documentaries, and short films. Visitors will also be able to meet with filmmakers, actors, and directors featured in the fest.

NYPFF showcases young and up and coming  filmmakers, such as Damian Kocur with his film Bread and Salt. An honest and heartbreaking look at a working class Polish town, Bread and Salt premiered in the Horizons section of the 79th Venice Film Festival, winning the Special Jury Prize. Braty by Marcin Filipowicz is a story of two brothers adjusting to life with their newly widowed father. Roving Woman from Michał Chmielewski is a road trip film across America in search of the self and Dangerous Gentlemen by Maciej Kawalski is equal parts detective story and grotesque comedy.  

To learn more, go to: https://www.nypff.com/

New York Polish Film Festival
June 9 - 11 & 14 - 30, 2023

Scandinavia House
58 Park Ave
New York, NY 10016

New York Indian Film Festival Returns To In Person Screenings

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Wednesday, 10 May 2023 17:06

Written by Brad Balfour

The New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) is four days of screenings, post-screening discussions, industry panels, award ceremonies, and much more focused on Indian and Indian diaspora cinema. Running May 11 to the 14th at multiple venues in NYC, the NYIFF features a massive slate of shorts, features, and documentaries from independent directors. This is the first physical edition of the festival after a three year hiatus.

The festival opens with Three Of Us, directed by Avinash Arun Dhaware.  While grappling with the early symptoms of dementia, Shailaja finds herself at the cusp of her past, present and future. She decides to go on a trip to revisit her childhood before her memories ebb away. Shailaja embarks on a confrontational journey that makes her deal with questions related to a traumatic event in her childhood, the mundanity of her marriage, and the complexity of her future. As Shailaja travels through the sprawling coastline of Konkan with her husband and childhood-love by her side, we see her inching closer towards the forgiveness and liberation she has yearned for. The film will be followed by Q & A with Avinash Arun, Shefali Shah, Jaideep Alhawat, and Swanand Kirkire

Other films include the murder mystery Mushroom, directed by Samik Roy Choudhury. In the documentary One Small Visit, directed by Jo Chim, tells the true story of an immigrant Indian family who unexpectedly passes through the tiny Midwest hometown of Neil Armstrong in the wake of the '69 moon landing and the civil rights movement and ends up on the doorstep of the Armstrong home. NYIFF will also hold a special screening of Rahul Chittella's critically acclaimed film Gulmohar on May 12 at 6.30 PM. In attendance will be actors Sharmila Tagore and Manoj Bajpayee and director Chittella.

To learn more, go to: https://www.nyiff.us/

New York Indian Film Festival
May 11 - 14, 2023

Various Locations

African Film Festival New York: The Cinema of Diaspora

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Wednesday, 10 May 2023 16:32

Written by Brad Balfour

Xalé 

The 30th New York African Film Festival (NYAFF) kicks off at Lincoln Center on May 10, 2023, with a slate of films reflecting African diaspora and a wealth of stories.

“The New York African Film Festival was founded to counteract the voice over, where Africans were being spoken for over grim images and to provide a place where the seventh art could become a weapon for us to reclaim our voices, to reappropriate our images and to add layers to the narrative,” said NYAFF founder and AFF Executive Director Mahen Bonetti. “In each frame presented by the festival over three decades we have found our connection with each other and our footing in other people’s spaces, while presenting myriad stories about all corners of the African diaspora and the human experience itself.”

The festival opens with the New York premiere of Moussa Sène Absa’s Xalé, the third film in his trilogy focused on women. When twin brother and sister Awa and Adama’s grandmother passes away, their Aunt Fatou and Uncle Atoumane pledge to marry to preserve the family union. Tired of waiting to consummate their marriage, Atoumane commits an act from which there is no return.

There will also be the premiere of Hyperlink, an anthology film from South African filmmakers Mzonke Maloney, Nolitha Mkulisi, Julie Nxadi, and Evan Wigdorowitz, centered around the very human foibles of the internet.

Speaking of the internet, the festival will also have AFF Digital, with certain films being streamed online as well as panel discussions and lectures.

The festival continues at Maysles Documentary Center in Harlem from May 19 to 21 and culminates at the Brooklyn Academy of Music under the name Film Africa from May 26 to June 1 during Dance Africa.

To learn more, go to: https://africanfilmny.org

African Film Festival New York/
May 10 - June 1, 2023

Various Locations