African Film Festival New York: The Cinema of Diaspora

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Wednesday, 10 May 2023 16:32

Written by Brad Balfour

Xalé 

The 30th New York African Film Festival (NYAFF) kicks off at Lincoln Center on May 10, 2023, with a slate of films reflecting African diaspora and a wealth of stories.

“The New York African Film Festival was founded to counteract the voice over, where Africans were being spoken for over grim images and to provide a place where the seventh art could become a weapon for us to reclaim our voices, to reappropriate our images and to add layers to the narrative,” said NYAFF founder and AFF Executive Director Mahen Bonetti. “In each frame presented by the festival over three decades we have found our connection with each other and our footing in other people’s spaces, while presenting myriad stories about all corners of the African diaspora and the human experience itself.”

The festival opens with the New York premiere of Moussa Sène Absa’s Xalé, the third film in his trilogy focused on women. When twin brother and sister Awa and Adama’s grandmother passes away, their Aunt Fatou and Uncle Atoumane pledge to marry to preserve the family union. Tired of waiting to consummate their marriage, Atoumane commits an act from which there is no return.

There will also be the premiere of Hyperlink, an anthology film from South African filmmakers Mzonke Maloney, Nolitha Mkulisi, Julie Nxadi, and Evan Wigdorowitz, centered around the very human foibles of the internet.

Speaking of the internet, the festival will also have AFF Digital, with certain films being streamed online as well as panel discussions and lectures.

The festival continues at Maysles Documentary Center in Harlem from May 19 to 21 and culminates at the Brooklyn Academy of Music under the name Film Africa from May 26 to June 1 during Dance Africa.

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

African Film Festival New York/
May 10 - June 1, 2023

Various Locations

New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival: 25th Anniversary Edition

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Tuesday, 02 May 2023 13:49

Written by Brad Balfour

Now in its 25th year, the New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival is running May 7 to 11 at the Center For Jewish History (15 West 16th Street, NY, NY). The festival centers around Jews descended from the Iberian Peninsula, and their history of culture and diasporism.  The festival has a slate of features, documentaries, and shorts from the US, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, and more.

The festival opens with the 1988 documentary From Toledo to Jerusalem, in which Israeli singer and actor Yehoram Gaon retraces the footsteps of Jewish refugees from Spain and Portugal after the Expulsion of 1492, and the journey Sephardic Jews have gone on across Europe since then, with each site of the journey is accompanied by music from Gaon. On Monday, May 8 is the world premiere of The Guards of Memory, directed by Said Belli. A documentary set in the Moroccan city of Fez, it looks at the dwindling Jewish population in the city which has persisted for over 2000 years, but faces great hardships.

The comedy Matchmaking, directed by Erez Tadmore, in which a Jewish Orthodox Yeshiva student sets out to woo a Sephardic girl. Offspring, directed by Shirly Sasson-Ezer and Dana Keidar, is a dark comedy about a 32 years old careerist who is struggling to get pregnant amidst massive social pressure. She is dragged to a circumcision ceremony by her superstitious Bukharan grandmother, who has her own grotesque ideas about how to remedy the situation. Live and Become, directed by Radu Mihaileanu, is the story of an Ethiopian boy who is airlifted from a Sudanese refugee camp to Israel in 1984 during Operation Moses. Queen of the Deuce, directed by Valerie Kontakos, is a documentary on Queer icon and 42nd Street sleaze entrepreneur Chelly Wilson, who escaped the Holocaust to become a New York icon.

The Opening Night Ceremony on Monday, May 8th, with the festival’s Pomegranate Award for achievements in the arts will be going out to:

• Hélène Cixous, the Algerian-born, French writer and novelist, who will be the first woman to receive the “Pomegranate Lifetime Achievement Award for Literature.”

• Yasmin Levy, the world’s most popular contemporary Ladino singer-songwriter, will receive the “Pomegranate Award for Music.” Opening Night will feature a special performance by Levy.

• Shlomi Elkabetz, the Israeli-born Moroccan screenwriter/director/producer/actor, will receive the “Pomegranate Award for Filmmaking.” Elkabetz, a member of the Jury of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, will be part of the festival’s tribute series to his sister, Ronit Elkabetz, A”H. 

• Ghiora Aharoni, the Israeli-born Yemenite artist and designer, will receive the first “Pomegranate Award for Art, Design, and Architecture.” "Selected works for The Pomegranate Award", an exclusive, limited installation by Aharoni will be presented in the Centre for Jewish History's Great Hall on Opening Night
  
  

To learn more, go to: https://nysjff.eventive.org/welcome

New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival: 25th Anniversary Edition
May 7 - 11, 2023

Streamed online and live at
Center For Jewish History
15 West 16th Street
New York, NY 10011

Gods, Chimps, & Zombies at The 2023 Tribeca Festival

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Monday, 24 April 2023 15:37

Written by Brad Balfour

All Up in the Biz

One of the biggest festivals for film, TV, and entertainment returns this summer as The Tribeca Festival runs June 7 to the 8th in NYC.

With over 100 films being showcased there’s an ample selection of titles to pick from, including narrative features, documentaries, animation and more.. One of the fest’s highlights is the documentary Stan Lee directed by David Gelb (Jiro Dreams of Sushi), which looks at the life and legacy of one of Marvel’s founding fathers. Sav Rodger’s Chasing Chasing Amy is a documentary in which a filmmaker goes on a journey of self-discovery while also making a film about the creation of Kevin Smith’s controversial LGBTQ+ film, Chasing Amy. Starring Zachary Quinto, He Went That Way is a true crime period piece set in 1964 about celebrity animal trainer Dave Pitts and how he crossed paths with serial killer Larry Lee Ranes. Adipurush, directed by Om Raut, is an action packed special effects bonanza that retells the epic poem “Ramayana”. In All Up in the Biz, director Sacha Jenkins creates a collage of celebrity interviews, rare film, reenactments, and playful animation to share how Biz Markie left his mark on the history of hip-hop.

The Tribeca TV portion of the festival includes the premiere of the new The Walking Dead spin off series The Walking Dead: Dead City. Set in a zombie infested and lawless NYC, Dead City stars Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Following the screening is a conversation with executive producer and cast members Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Lauren Cohan, cast members Gaius Charles and Zeljko Ivanek, along with the chief content officer of The Walking Dead Universe and executive producer Scott M. Gimple, and showrunner and executive producer Eli Jorné.

This is but a small sampling of the screenings looking to become one of NYC’s biggest events for film and television.

To learn more, go to: https://tribecafilm.com/festival

Tribeca Festival
June 7 - 18, 2023

Locations TBA