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Film Festivals
Cinecittà in Manhattan with Open Roads: New Italian Cinema 2023
- Details
- Parent Category: Film Festivals
- Category: Previews
- Published on Wednesday, 31 May 2023 21:25
- Written by Brad Balfour
The Hummingbird
The summer festival season brings the return of the open skies and the Open Roads. Film at Lincoln Center and Cinecittà present the 22nd edition of Open Roads: New Italian Cinema, running from June 1 to 8, 2023.
Open Roads: New Italian Cinema features an extensive lineup of contemporary Italian films, mixing emerging talents and longtime veterans; commercial and independent fare; and outrageous comedies, gripping dramas, and captivating documentaries. The opening-night screening is Francesca Archibugi’s latest feature The Hummingbird, adapted from Sandro Veronesi’s Strega Prize-winning novel, an at once epic and intimate chronicle of love and familial ups and downs that spans six decades and three generations, featuring Pierfrancesco Favino, Berenice Bejo, Laura Morante, Nanni Moretti, and others.
Other films being screened include Gianni Amelio’s Lord of the Ants, a deeply stirring biopic of the poet/playwright Aldo Braibanti; Roberto Andò’s 12th feature Strangeness, which stars Toni Servillo as Nobel Prize-winning playwright Luigi Pirandello, who, on a trip to his native Sicily in 1920, encounters a pair of gravediggers/aspiring actors and unexpectedly arrives at the idea for what will ultimately become his signature work. This year’s presentation includes a focus on Mario Martone, one of the key Italian filmmakers of the past 40 years, who has completed 17 features since his 1992 theatrical feature debut Death of a Neapolitan Mathematician. Film at Lincoln Center and Cinecittà pay homage to Martone (a perennial presence in the Open Roads lineup) by showcasing his most recent fiction film, Nostalgia, alongside two essential works from earlier in his career: 1995’s Troubling Love (co-written with Elena Ferrante) and 2014’s Leopardi.
To learn more, go to: https://www.filmlinc.org/festivals/open-roads-new-italian-cinema/
Open Roads: New Italian Cinema 2023
June 1 - 8, 2023
Film at Lincoln Center - Walter Reade Theater
165 W 65th St.
New York, NY 10023
NewFest Pride: Queer Cinema Around the World & NYC
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- Parent Category: Film Festivals
- Category: Previews
- Published on Tuesday, 30 May 2023 20:00
- Written by Brad Balfour
Aristotle & Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
Held at New York’s SVA Theatre (333 West 23rd Street) and online, NewFest Pride celebrates Pride Month with a slate of LGBTQ+ cinema. Founded in 1988, NewFest is New York’s largest presenter of LGBTQ+ film & media and the largest convener of LGBTQ+ audiences in the city. NewFest Pride, running June 1st to the 5th, is a mini festival for Pride Month, with nine films (six narrative features and three documentaries). The festival also includes filmmaker Q&As and social events for attendees.
1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture is a documentary follows the story of tireless researchers who trace the origins of homophobia amongst Christians to a grave mistranslation of the Bible in 1946. Director Sharon “Rocky” Roggio chronicles the discovery of never-before-seen archives at Yale University which unveil astonishing new revelations, and casts significant doubt on any biblical basis for LGBTQIA+ prejudice. In Aristotle & Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, directed by Aitch Alberto, two teenage Mexican-American loners in 1987 El Paso explore a new, surprising friendship and the tough road to self-discovery. The screening will be followed by a filmmaker Q&A.
Having a special free outdoor screening at Meatpacking District's Gansevoort Plaza is the documentary Stroll. Stroll examines the history of New York’s Meatpacking District, from the perspective of transgender sex workers who lived and worked there. Filmmaker Kristen Lovell, who walked “The Stroll” for a decade, reunites her community to recount the violence, policing, homelessness, and gentrification they overcame to build a movement for transgender rights. The screening will include an introduction by directors Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker, producer Matt Wolf, and the subjects of The Stroll.
Screening exclusively on virtual platforms is Before I Change My Mind, from director Trevor Anderson. Before I Change My Mind follows an androgynous teen forging a complicated bond with the bully at their new school, set against the backdrop of 1980s America. The film will be followed by a virtual filmmaker Q&A.
This is a sampling of the NewFest Pride films being shown. NewFest’s mission statement is “…to give voice and visibility to the wide scope of LGBTQ+ experiences through films and programs that entertain, educate & empower.”
To learn more, go to: https://newfest.org/newfest-pride/
NewFest Pride
June 1 - 5, 2023
SVA Theatre
333 West 23rd Street
New York, NY 10011
18th New York Polish Film Festival Features New Crop of Polish Filmmakers
- Details
- 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
- Details
- 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
