New York Int'l Children’s Film Festival: Perspectives from Around the World

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Friday, 01 February 2019 17:10

Written by Brad Balfour

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

Spanning theaters across New York City, the New York International Children’s Film Festival features new and classic films from around the world for all audiences. Founded in 1997, the festival has screened hundreds of films from the world over for audiences from toddler to teen to parent.

The fest opens with The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, from director Chiwetel Ejiofor. Produced in Malawi, the film (based on a true story) follows 13-year-old William Kamkwamba, who is thrown out of the school he loves when his family can no longer afford the fees. Sneaking back into the school library, he finds a way, using the bones of the bicycle belonging to his father Trywell (Ejiofor), to build a windmill which then saves his Malawian village from famine.

In the Peruvian themed animated film Pachamama Tepulpai and his pet armadillo embark on a young heroes’ quest to locate their community’s stolen treasure, and must confront the Inca and newly arrived Spanish to retain their indigenous ways.

Hiroyasu Ishida’s Penguin Highway a young boy must juggle theoretical physics, the onset of puberty, and hordes of penguins mysteriously appearing in his quiet Japanese suburb.

The German film Queen of Niendorf is the coming of age story of a girl who bucks the expectations of the world and discovers a makeshift raft and treehouse boys’ club. Skeptical because she’s a girl, the club members make her prove her mettle. Lea realizes that true bravery is not just what you do, but sometimes what you don’t do—and isn’t afraid to prove it.

The festival also has special segments for shorts and animation, as well as Girls’ POV, a special selection of shorts by and for girls.

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

New York International Children’s Film Festival
February 22 - March 17, 2019

Various Venues

Dank Kush & Cinema Converge at NYC Cannabis Film Festival

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Tuesday, 08 January 2019 16:55

Written by Brad Balfour

With legalized marijuana hitting New York in the near future, the New York City Cannabis Film Festival has some fortuitous timing. Held at Brooklyn’s House of Yes (2 Wyckoff Ave, Brooklyn NY), the festival runs all day on January 13 with eight shorts, two features, and one web series. According to festival founder, Michael Zaytsev, the festival aims to “reverse the stigmas that have been perpetuated against Cannabis for decades – largely through media – and provide a safe space for filmmakers and enthusiasts to celebrate Cannabis positive art.” This event is produced by High NY, which has been building NYC's Cannabis community through educational and cultural events since 2014.

Films running at the fest include:

• Bodega - Bodega explores the role of bodegas in NYC communities and how it’s being impacted by gentrification. The film received honorable mention for best documentary short at the most recent IMDB Film Festival.
  
  
• Out of Options - Produced and directed by Edward R. Murrow award winner, Todd Wiseman, this documentary follows two families in Texas exploring Cannabis medicine for children with epilepsy.
  
  
• One Bedroom -  The story of an African American 30-something couple in a gentrifying Brooklyn neighborhood spending their final afternoon together. Winner of Best Feature at the Tallahassee Film Festival, London Film Awards, LA Film Awards, and Best Comedy Feature at the Manhattan Film Festival, One Bedroom was also recently selected for New Voices In Black Cinema.
  
  
• City of Dreams - This breakthrough non-narrative, non-commercial, experimental art film is a visual masterpiece. City of Dreams revives and develops upon concepts that trace their lineage to Dziga Vertov’s Man with a Movie Camera, the Canadian “Direct Cinema” movement, Chris Marker’s Sans Soleil, and Godfrey Reggio’s genre-defining Koyaanisqatsi. This movie will leave you in awe of NYC’s beauty and might leave you wondering if you’re high on more than just Cannabis.
  
  
• Occupied Heart - This Spanish language stoner adventure comedy from a first-time filmmaker recently won Best Foreign Language Screenplay at the Madrid International Film Festival.
  
  
• The Secret History: How Medical Marijuana Was Re-Legalized in the U.S. - The inspiring true story of a renegade, gay, hippy pot activist, Dennis Peron. Discover how the LGBTQ rights movement gave birth to the medical marijuana movement.

Expect films and an ample supply of popcorn and munchies too.

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

New York City Cannabis Film Festival
January 13, 2019

House of Yes
2 Wyckoff Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11237

1st Iranian Film Fest New York Comes to IFC Center

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Friday, 21 December 2018 00:22

Written by Brad Balfour

Featuring brand new works as well as art-house favorite, the first Iranian Film Festival New York comes to the IFC Center January 10 - 15. New, old, daring, frightening, and funny, these films represent a country’s work that is virtually unseen in the United States. The IrFFNY Opening Night selection will be the NY premiere of Bahman Farmanara’s Tale of the Sea (Hekayat-e Darya) on Thursday, Jan 10 at 7pm. Following the screening, there will be a Q&A with writer-producer-director-star Farmanara. The veteran producer and director has been active in Iranian cinema since the 1970s, and the festival is proud to have him as its Guest of Honor.

IrFFNY is co-founded and co-programmed by film critic Godfrey Cheshire, who has written extensively about Iranian cinema, and Festival Director Armin Miladi, who distributes Iranian films and runs the annual Iranian Film Festival of Australia. Of the three most prominent directors represented in the first IrFFNY, Farmanara and Abbas Kiarostami have had films banned in Iran, while Jafar Panahi was banned from making films for 20 years, an order he has defied by continuing to make them.

To learn more, go to: http://www.ifccenter.com/series/iranian-film-festival-new-york/

1st Iranian Film Festival New York
January 10 - 15, 2019

IFC Film Center
323 6th Ave.
New York, NY 10014