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Dances With Films: NYC Presents Fiercely Original Films
- Details
- Parent Category: Film Festivals
- Category: Previews
- Published on Wednesday, 04 December 2024 10:11
- Written by Brad Balfour
Since 1998, Dances With Films touted itself as a film festival unfettered by the constraints and internal politics of mainstream film festivals. Now it’s New York installment is back, December 5th to the 8th at NYC’s Regal Union Square (850 Broadway) with 146 projects including features, documentaries, shorts, and midnight specials.
The festival opens with the world premiere of Peas and Carrots from director Evan Oppenheimer. Joey Wethersby is a typical 16 year-old New York girl — if your typical New Yorker had parents who were in a one-hit wonder band in the 90’s. And if your typical New Yorker found themselves traveling every night to a bizarre alternate reality, where everybody only says three words: “Peas and Carrots”.
The Midnight Series Features are films a little more out there, such as Itch!. In this gripping survival tale, a horrific outbreak called the ITCH! transforms its victims into self destructive shells. Jay, a widower grappling with grief, takes refuge in a seemingly safe department store with his estranged young daughter, Olivia. However, their sanctuary quickly becomes a nightmarish trap, revealing that danger lurks among them. As paranoia rises and the infection closes in, they must battle the outbreak and the darkness within themselves. With life-and-death decisions to make, they confront their fractured bond in a harrowing climax that challenges the true meaning of protection and love.
The festival closes with Here’s Yianni!. Yianni and Plousia (Joe Cortese and Julia Ormond) own a charming family diner by the beach, where Yianni is a convivial host. Lately, Plousia has noticed that her husband of 40 years is not quite himself and is often wistfully distracted. One day, Yianni slips into a parallel realm, a world of his fractured mind, imagining himself as the host of a latenight talk show. Plousia learns that Yianni is facing dementia but hides his illness from coworkers and best friends (Kevin Pollak and Rosanna Arquette). As his condition worsens, Plousia becomes Yianni’s full-time caregiver and lifeline. But then, long-suppressed grief and a heartbreaking delusion comes over Yianni. With Plousia’s determination and her whimsical inventiveness, they discover how to smile through the sadness, and celebrate every moment they have together. Inspired by a true story.
This is a sampling of the films being shown at the festival.
To learn more, go to: https://danceswithfilms.com/
Dances With Films: NYC
December 5 - 8, 2024
Regal Union Square
850 Broadway
New York, NY 10003
Curators’ Choice 2024: The First Batch at The Museum of the Moving Image
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- Parent Category: Film Festivals
- Category: Previews
- Published on Wednesday, 13 November 2024 15:53
- Written by Brad Balfour
No Other Land
Each year the Museum of the Moving Image (MoMI) conducts a survey of the best works in film and television from the past year as part of their Curators’ Choice series. From December 1–31, the Museum of the Moving Image (36-01 35th Ave, Queens, NY) will present Part I of the Curators' Choice program, The First Batch, with Part II taking place in January 2025.
Featured works include several documentaries. Oksana Karpovych’s Intercepted, No Other Land (directed by Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, and Rachel Szor), Black Box Diaries (with director Shiori Ito in person), and Union (with directors Brett Story and Stephen Maing in person).
The series also includes nonfiction works from Deborah Stratman (Last Things), Ben Russell (Direct Action), and Johan Grimonprez (Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat) and two TV/streaming works by Lance Oppenheim, Ren Faire and FX’s Spermworld (Dec. 8, with director in person). The series continues with art-house favorites and pop cultural hits such as Alice Rohrwacher’s La Chimera, Between the Temples (Nathan Silver and Chris Wells in person Dec. 15), I Saw the TV Glow (Jane Schoenbrun in person Dec. 14), and Denis Villeneuve’s Dune Part Two, to be presented in 70mm (Dec. 26–29, and accompanied by Dune), as well as independent film releases and discoveries, including Lisandro Alonso’s Eureka, Bas Devos’s Here, Phạm Thiên Ân’s Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell, Good One (with India Donaldson in person Dec. 6), Tyler Taormina's Christmas Eve in Miller's Point, and Kazik Radwanski’s Matt and Mara. More additions may be coming to the First Batch, so keep an eye out.
To learn more, go to: https://movingimage.org/series/curators-choice-2024-the-first-batch/
Curators’ Choice 2024: The First Batch
December 1 - 31, 2024
The Museum of the Moving Image
36-01 35th Ave
Queens, NY 11106
New York Baltic Film Festival 2024: Daring Cinema from the Baltic Region
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- Parent Category: Film Festivals
- Category: Previews
- Published on Tuesday, 05 November 2024 09:24
- Written by Brad Balfour
The 7th Annual New York Baltic Film Festival (NYBFF) returns November 6 to the 17th, 2024, with a mix of in-person and virtual screenings of Baltic cinema. From November 6-10, New York’s Scandinavia House (58 Park Ave) will host live screenings. Virtual screenings of six of the films will be available to viewers from November 9–17. Screenings will be accompanied by a range of in-person film talks with directors, producers and actors. All in-person evenings will be followed by receptions.
The opening film is the US premiere of Life and Love, directed by Helen Takkin. Set during the Great Depression in 1933, this compelling drama follows Irma, a young woman who leaves her rural home to pursue a writing career in the city. There, she is pulled into a toxic relationship with her boss at a local print shop, and as political tensions rise, Irma realizes that love and ambition come at a steep cost. 8 Views of Lake Biwa, directed by Marko Raat, is a poetic fairy tale set in an Estonian fishing village. In the wake of a recent tragedy, two teenage girls watch ships sail to Kyoto, while villagers create erotic art and engage in spiritual spells. Estonian documentary Kelly — Someone Else's Dream explores the dark side of competitive sports with the story of freestyle skier Kelly Sildaru, who shot to fame as an X-Games gold medalist at the age of 13 but was later revealed to have been abused. The closing night feature is Flow, a wondrous journey through natural and mystical realms, directed by Gints Zilbalodis. Flow follows a courageous cat and a capybara, lemur, bird and dog after their homes are devastated by a great flood. Teaming up to navigate a boat in search of dry land, the animals must rely on trust, courage and wits to survive the perils of their newly aquatic planet.
To learn more, go to: https://www.balticfilmfestival.com/
The New York Baltic Film Festival
November 6 - 17th, 2024
Scandinavia House
58 Park Ave.
New York, NY 10016
DOC NYC 2024 Looks at Graphic Novelists, Outlaw Hot Air Balloons & Taking on the Russian Government
- Details
- Parent Category: Film Festivals
- Category: Previews
- Published on Monday, 04 November 2024 14:43
- Written by Brad Balfour
Balomania
For over a decade DOC NYC has assembled documentary filmmakers from around the world to tell unique stories. DOC NYC returns, running November 13th to December 1 at theaters across New York City including the IFC Center and SVA Theater, with many of the docs also including appearances from the filmmakers.
Films include the world premiere of All God’s Children, directed by Ondi Timoner, about a rabbi and a pastor working together to de-escalate tensions between Jewish and Black Brooklynites. In Black Snow, directed by Alina Simone, Natalia Zubkova fights to expose the truth behind the Russian government’s corruption around coal. Balomania, from Sissel Morell Dargis, is a look at the free spirited and outlandish world of Brazilian baloeiros – secret groups of men who craft and launch elaborate hot-air balloons. Art Spiegelman: Disaster is My Muse is a documentary from Molly Bernstein and Philip Dolin on the acclaimed comic artist and creator of the Holocaust memoir Maus. This is only a sampling of the documentaries being screened.
DOC NYC’s eleventh annual Visionaries Tribute will take place on Wednesday, November 13, 2024 at Gotham Hall, bestowing Lifetime Achievement awards to Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Alan Berliner (Letter to the Editor) and Emmy Award-nominated filmmaker Marcia Smith (president and co-founder of Firelight Media, a nonprofit organization that supports, resources, and advocates on behalf of documentary filmmakers of color).
To learn more, go to: https://www.docnyc.net/
DOC NYC
November 13 - December 1, 2024
Various Venues in NYC
