The Debut SR Socially Relevant Festival Offer Meaningful Fare This March

Details

Category: Film Festivals

Published on Friday, 14 March 2014 18:19

Written by Brad Balfour

The Rated SR Socially Relevant Film Festival New York focuses on socially relevant human stories to raise awareness of social problems by offering positive solutions through the medium of cinema. 

A new non-profit film festival, it runs from March 14 to the 20th, 2014, at New York’s Quad Cinema; its main slate offers an international selection of narrative and documentary features representing a dozen nations.

Founded by award-winning actor, filmmaker and curator Nora Armani, the festival showcases films with human interest stories and socially impactful themes as a response to the proliferation of violent storytelling. 

The festival founders and supporters believe that by expanding knowledge about diverse cultures and the human condition as a whole, it’s possible to create a better world free of violence, hate and crime.

The festival shines the spotlight on filmmakers who tell compelling, socially relevant narratives across a broad range of social issues without resorting to gratuitous violence and violent forms of movie making.

Over 30 narrative and documentary films will screen including 12 features that compete for the Grand Prize — a week-long theatrical engagement at the Quad Cinema, courtesy of the QuadFlix Select Program. The 10 documentaries will compete for the documentary prize which offers the winner will a VOD DVD distribution deal courtesy of Cinema Libre Studio, a leader in the distribution of social issue documentaries and independent feature films.

The following lists the main slate of films in competition.  

Coney Island: Dreams for Sale
Alessandra Giordano
USA, 81min., 2013
documentary

Dovid Meyer
Paul Mones
USA/Israel, 101 min., 2013
narrative

Flore
Jean-Albert Lievre
France, 2014, 85min.
documentary

Forward 13: Waking Up the American Dream
Patrick Lovell
USA, 120 min., 2013
documentary

Full Circle
Zhang Yang
China, 2012,104min.
narrative

If Only Everyone
Nataliya Belyauskene
Armenia, 2012, 94min.
narrative

Indian Summer
Simon Brook
France, 84 min., 2013
documentary

My Love Awaits Me by the Sea (Habibi Biyestannani and el Bahr)
Mais Darwazah
Palestine, Qatar, Germany, Jordan
80min., 2013
documentary

Offside Trap (Abseitsfalle)
Stefan Hering
Germany, 98min., 2012
narrative

Orphans of the Genocide
Bared Maronian
USA, 91min., 2013
documentary

Small Small Thing
Jessica Vale
USA, 85min., 2013
documentary

Feature Documentary:

Coal Rush
Lorena Luciano & Filipo Piscopo
USA, 85min., 2013
documentary

Control
Chris Bravo, Lindsey Schneider
USA, 50min., 2013 (NYFA artist)
documentary

Destiny’s Bridge
Jack Ballo
USA, 80min., 2013 (NYFA artist)
documentary

Fred Ho's Last Year
Steven de Castro
USA, 58min., 2013
documentary

From the Black You Make Color
Richie Sherman and Judy Maltz
USA, Israel, 75min., 2012
documentary

Hamshen Community at the Crossroads of Past and Present
Lucine Sahakyan
Armenia, Turkey, 60min., 2012
documentary

Not Who We Are
Carol Mansour
Lebanon, 72min., 2013
documentary

Stable Life
Sara MacPherson
USA, 52min., 2013
documentary

The Throwaways
Bhawin Suchak
USA, 62min., 2013
documentary

Journalist/author/radio commentator Amy Goodman, host of  will deliver the keynote address on "The Impact of Socially Relevant Films" and will present an award for a film in the Rated SR Social Justice Category.  Democracy Now! currently aired by more than 1,000 radio, television, satellite and cable TV networks in North America, and watched in dozens of countries via the Internet.

Partner supporters include:

· Academic partner, the School of the Visual Arts Social Documentary department, home of the new MFA in Social Documentary filmmaking.

· Dailymotion (http://www.dailymotion.com/RatedSR#video=x19e8px), the official video media partner. A selection of close to 100 film trailers from the festival submissions are viewable on an official festival page, garnering close to 100,000 visits to date.

· Village Voice (Media partner)

Other promotional partners of the festival include: 

NYFA, Indieflix, Unifrance Films International, Cineuropa, Alouette Communications, FIAF, Samuel Infirmier, Final Draft and Center for Remembering and Sharing.

New-York based metalsmith designer Michael Aram has donated a special trophy to be awarded to the recognized Rated SR honoree. 

The festival also presents the Vanya Exerjian award to a film that raises awareness to violence against women and girls, in commemoration of Armani’s late cousin and uncle, victims of a violent hate crime.

The closing night includes the Awards Ceremony reception which takes place at the Tenri Center (across from the Quad Cinema) where one can applaud the winners, see the filmmakers win their awards, and view the closing night films all on one night.

A portion of the proceeds from ticket sales each year of the festival will be donated to a charity selected from the fields of: poverty, homelessness, cancer and aging. Rated SR aims to promote positive social change through the powerful medium of cinema.   

For tickets there is a variety of packages and discounted ticket options are now on sale at: www.ratedsrfilms.org

Individual tickets are available at Quad Cinema: www.quadcinema.com

Rated SR Socially Relevant Film Festival New York
March 14-20, 2014

The Quad Cinema
34 West 13th Street
New York, NY
212-255-8800212-255-8800

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