The Lower East Side Film Festival: Crazy, Smart, & Cool Films in Downtown NYC

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Wednesday, 01 May 2024 16:33

Written by Brad Balfour

Heartfelt romances, oddball dystopias, and hard hitting documentaries will be screened at the Lower East Side Film Festival. Running May 2 to 6 at various venues of NYC’s lower east side, the LESFF features up-and-coming filmmakers and beloved classics with ties to downtown NYC.

Opening night kicks-off with Your Monster, director Caroline Lindy’s debut feature, starring Melissa Barrera (In The Heights, Scream). Your Monster is the musically inclined tale of Laura Franco, a soft-spoken actress who finds her voice again when she meets a terrifying, yet weirdly charming Monster living in her closet. The MindF*ck Shorts block features a selection of the strangest short films you’ve seen. Nathan-ism looks at the life and art of Nathan Hilu. The son of Syrian Jewish immigrants to New York, he received a life-changing assignment from the U.S. Army at the end of WWII: to guard the top Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg trials. Nathan spent the next 70 years obsessively creating a visual narrative from his memories. Set in a polarized world where having a job is illegal, Love and Work follows the budding romance of Diane and Fox, two people who love to work. Directed by Pete Ohs and starring actress and writer Stephanie Hunt (Friday Night Lights, Californication) and Will Madden (The Wolf of Snow Hollow). This charming, absurd comedy with an Orwellian bent asks us to imagine what would make us love the things we loathe a little more. The closing night film is the New York premiere of  Puddysticks, which follows anxious videogame designer Liz and her therapeutic odyssey into a secret society of adults who play like little kids.

The festival also includes a special curated selection of classics. On May 3 is a special 25th anniversary of Cruel Intentions with Director Roger Kumble in attendance for a Q&A ahead of the screening. The cult documentary American Movie from Chris Smith will be screened on May 4th as well as the queer comedy classic, But I’m A Cheerleader on May 5th.

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

The Lower East Side Film Festival
May 2 - 6, 2024

Various venues in NYC

20th Bosnian-Herzegovinian Film Festival Presents New & Classic Films

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Monday, 22 April 2024 20:01

Written by Brad Balfour

Now in its 20th entry, the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Film Festival (BHFF) returns to NYC April 24th to the 27th. Held at the SVA Theatre (333 West 23rd Street) the festival features a total of fourteen films as part of the competition program. 

This year, the festival will also feature a retrospective screening of the newly restored Life of a Shock Force Worker (1972), directed by the legendary Bahrudin Bato Čengić. Shock Force Worker is about the life and times of shock force worker Alija Sirotanovic and his comrades that commemorates the coal miners’ dignity and sacrifice. The story begins in 1947 and follows the life of these workers from the moment they join the shock force movement until their retirement. The film is a collaboration between several notable names of New Yugoslav Film: the screenplay was co-written by Bato Čengić and Branko Vučićević, and the director of photography was Karpo Aćimović Godina.

In Bosnian Pot, Faruk Šego, a Bosnian writer living in Austria, is suddenly left without a residence permit due to stricter emigration rules and his own negligence. In order to not be deported, Faruk must prove to the authorities, that he's made a cultural contribution to Austrian society. His last chance is an off-theatre group that can stage a play he once wrote as a young man. The ensuing adventure brought on by Faruk's reluctant return to the theatre could transform his life and force him to realize what is truly important.

Cherry Juice, which takes the viewer from Hamburg to Sarajevo, tells the story of two people for whom cinema means everything. Selma, a Bosnian screenwriter from Sarajevo, has written a screenplay processing her experiences as a refugee in Germany from the Yugoslav War. But four weeks before the shoot is scheduled to begin, the project is canceled. While drowning her frustrations in alcohol, Selma fails to inform all of the crew members of the shoot’s cancellation, while an Hamburg-based actor named Niklas is preparing his role for the film—only learning upon his arrival in Sarajevo that the film is no more. Spontaneously, he decides to stay in Sarajevo, where he crosses paths with Selma, and their worlds collide: the pessimistic, reserved Bosnian and the optimistic, charming German, both connected by the same dream of making movies. They spend New Year's Eve together and experience an exciting and life-changing night.

This is a sampling of films that will be screen at the BHFF. Special guests to the festival include Una Gunjak, Mersiha Husagic, Amna Hadžić, Pavo Marinković, Ines Tanović, and Zulfikar Filandra.

To learn more, go to: https://www.bhffnyc.org/

Bosnian-Herzegovinian Film Festival
April 24 - 27, 2024

SVA Theatre
333 West 23rd Street
New York, NY 10011

16th Annual ReelAbilities Film Festival: New York.

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Tuesday, 02 April 2024 19:22

Written by Brad Balfour

Since 2007 the ReelAbillities Film Festival has presented films by and about people with disabilities and it is continuing that proud tradition for the 16th edition of the festival. Running April 3 to the 10th at various venues in NYC and online, the mission statement of the ReelAbillities Film Festival is “celebrating disability, promoting inclusion, and advancing accessibility through film.” 

The opening night film is Ezra which follows Max Bernal (Bobby Cannavale), a stand-up comedian living with his father (Robert De Niro), while struggling to co-parent his autistic son Ezra (introducing William Fitzgerald) with his ex-wife (Rose Byrne). When forced to confront difficult decisions about their son’s future, Max and Ezra embark on a cross-country road trip that has a transcendent impact on both their lives. Daruma is a film about a day-drinking, unemployed paraplegic Patrick finds out he is the father of a 4-year-old girl he never knew existed, he enlists the help of his double amputee veteran neighbor Robert to drive him and his newfound daughter across the country to live with her maternal grandparents. In the closing night film, Good Bad Things, Danny is a young man with muscular dystrophy who steps out of his comfort zone and into the world of online dating after being disillusioned by failed relationships. An unexpected match with Madi, an enigmatic photographer, challenges him to be vulnerable and sparks a profound journey of self-acceptance, discovering the extraordinary beauty of his unique body.

All film screenings will be followed by a conversation with guest filmmakers, protagonists and other guests. In addition to the opening night VIP guests, some notable guests include Amy Smart (Varsity Blues, Starship Troopers), Brett Dier (Jane the Virgin), Abigail Hawk (Blue Bloods), and Tobias Forrest (How To Get Away with Murder, Wisdom of the Crowd). This year will also include an expanded edition of its successful Crip Script Pitch Competition, to include both fiction and non-fiction film and TV projects in development, and a section for projects in completion / rough-cut stage with a cash prize supported by the Loreen Arbus Foundation.

To learn more, go to: https://reelabilities.org/newyork/

ReelAbillities Film Festival: New York
April 3 - 10, 2024

Venues throughout New York and Online