Gen Art Film Festival 2011 - NY Edition

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Monday, 06 June 2011 05:00

Written by L E Shannon

The 16th Anniversary of the Gen Art Film Festival is being held June 8 - 14, 2011 at the Visual Arts Theatre in Manhattan, New York City.

"We are honored to be presenting the 16th Anniversary of the Gen Art Film Festival," said Jeffrey Abramson, Co-President of Gen Art. "The Gen Art Film Festival provides incredible talent on the rise a dedicated spotlight and a unique opportunity to engage with an audience that will eagerly join their fan base. This year’s slate reflects great diversity in style and subject matter and reaffirms that the art of independent filmmaking is thriving."

The Gen Art Film Festival has long established its reputation as one of New York’s most celebrated film festivals showcasing emerging talent. With a unique format, the Gen Art Film Festival premieres one feature film and one short film from promising filmmakers for seven consecutive nights, each followed by an after-party at a New York hotspot.

The Festival allows film lovers to experience a movie premiere like a true insider. All tickets provide admission to both the premiere and after-party with the cast and filmmakers, allowing for a fun and interactive experience between audiences, filmmakers and media.

This year, GAFF‛s new lead partners are Disaronno and Brancott Estate Wines.

The Opening film is A Beginner’s Guide to Endings, directed by Jonathan Sobol. A hard living, gambling father has doomed his three sons to a horrible fate, and when his sons find out they don’t have much time left, they decide to make up for a lifetime of misdeeds in one day. Starring Scott Caan, J.K. Simmons, Tricia Helfer, Jason Jones, Paulo Costanzo, Harvey Keitel.

Closing the festival is Salvation Boulevard, "a comic romp in the world of Christian fanaticism" directed by George Ratliff (Hell House, Joshua - both at previous Gen Art Film Festivals). Starring Jennifer Connelly, Marisa Tomei, Ed Harris, Pierce Brosnan, Greg Kinnear.

The remainder of the slate includes:

Yelling to the Sky
dir. Victoria Mahoney
starring Zoë Kravitz, Tim Blake Nelson, Gabourey Sidibe
Sweetness O'Hara, 17, has more than basic teenhood to cope with. For starters, she's the daughter of mixed race parents in a less than tolerant community. Her father, abusive; her mother, mentally ill; older sister, pregnant. Add to this the outside world and all its challenges, in and out of school. "But this is all part of the way it goes growing up in a tough, working class Queens neighborhood - where to become an adult, you first must survive as a teenager."

Norman
dir. Jonathan Segal
starring Dan Byrd, Emily VanCamp, Richard Jenkins, Adam Goldberg
Norman is a high school loner who no sooner copes with his mother's sudden death, than he realizes his father is starting to lose his battle with stomach cancer. "Depressed and angry, Norman unintentionally gets caught up in a lie that is starting to spiral out of control. Then along comes Emily.

Goold’s Gold
dir. Tucker Capps and Ryan Sevy
A documentary about a man seizing the opportunity global warming has opened to search for gold in Alaska.

The Pill
dir. J.C. Khoury
starring Noah Bean, Rachel Boston, Anna Chlumsky
Fred wakes up to "the morning after the night before" and learns his one-night stand, Mindy, is not on birth control. Fred is forced to navigate his life through New York City in a panicked effort to avoid becoming a father.

American Animal
dir. Matt D’Elia
starring D’Elia, Brendan Fletcher, Mircea Monroe, Angela Sarafyan
Life is sweet for Jimmy Pistol: "sex crazed, terminally ill, maniacal modern day Kerouac" -- all this and independently wealthy, too. "But one day his life as a recluse is threatened by his roommate's desire to lead a "normal" life."

Gen Art has a successful track record for highlighting the next generation of directorial talent. GAFF alumni include:

• director Gavin Wiesen (for Kill The Day in 2008), who helms Fox Searchlight’s upcoming The Art of Getting By, starring Emma Roberts, Rita Wilson and Freddie Highmore
• director Jesse Peretz (for The Chateau in 2001) whose next film is The Weinstein Company’s upcoming My Idiot Brother, starring Paul Rudd, Zooey Deschanel and Elizabeth Banks
• director Drake Doremus (for The Shirt in 2006), who directed Like Crazy, which won the 2011 Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival,  to be released by Paramount this fall
• Brad Anderson (The Machinist & Transsiberian)
• Brad Furman (The Lincoln Lawyer)
• Cary Fukunaga (Sin Nombre & Jane Eyre)

For more information, visit www.genart.org.

Gen Art Film Festival
June 8 - 14, 2011

Visual Arts Theater
333 West 23rd Street
New York City.

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