NY Polish Film Fest 2017 Looks Back at Director Wajda

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Tuesday, 02 May 2017 05:32

Written by Brad Balfour

Now in its 13th year, the NY Polish Film Fest (May 2 - 7, 2017) will be paying tribute to Polish director Andrzej Wajda with a gala screening of his final film, Afterimage. The film, a biopic of painter Władysław Strzemiński, will be held at the Directors Guild of America (110 West 57th Street, New York, NY) with an introduction and live appearance by Martin Scorsese. The screening is in cooperation with the Wajda Film School in Warsaw (which Wajda founded) celebrating its 15th anniversary-  the NYPFF will present a selection of its students’ short, documentary, and first feature projects.

The NYPFF will include screenings of some of the best new films from Poland, including The Last Family by Jan P. Matuszyński, United States of Love by Tomasz Wasilewski, and the Polish blockbuster comedy Singles Planet by Mitja Okorn at the Anthology Film Archives (32 2nd Avenue).

In conjunction with the NYPFF, Columbia University Film Professor Annette Insdorf will introduce a screening of Wojciech Has’s How to be Loved, which the Museum of Modern Art will present daily from April 29 to May 4 (together with his first feature The Noose).

To learn more, go to: http://www.nypff.com/

13th Annual NY Polish Film Fest
May 2 - 7, 2017

Directors Guild of America
110 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019

Anthology Film Archives
32 2nd Avenue, New York, NY 10003

Museum of Modern Art
11 W 53rd St, New York, NY 10019

The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival 2017: Passion, Pain, & History

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Published on Thursday, 20 April 2017 17:04

Written by Brad Balfour

Featuring 180 films from 31 countries, and Asian actors playing Asian characters (something a certain action blockbuster sorely lacked), the The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (April 27 - May 4, 2017) presents the breadth and scope of lives, experiences, struggles, and hopes of Asian Pacific and Asian American filmmakers across Los Angeles from Hollywood to Little Tokyo to the Arts District in Downtown Los Angeles to Koreatown to Westwood to West Hollywood and to Buena Park in Orange County with a slate of shorts, narrative features, documentaries, and international films.

Kicking off the festival is the 15th anniversary celebration of Justin Lin’s film Better Luck Tomorrow, with a 35mm print of the Sundance cut being shown. Better Luck Tomorrow delves into the lives of a group of Asian American teens become overcome by a combination of ennui, the pressure of overachievement, and a desire for more out of life. Lin and the cast will be in attendance for the screening.

Commemorating the 25th Anniversary of the L.A. Uprising/Rodney King verdict, Justin Chon’s Gook examines the lives of a struggling community of shop owners in the Los Angeles suburb of Paramount, set against the backdrop of that heated and violent spring of 1992. “Justin Chon has been one of the hardest working actors out there and has been in a number of films at our past fests.  Watching him grow into a formidable writer/director/actor with this film makes us all proud and hopeful.  This film has come at a time when we truly need our voices and our stories out there, while addressing hot button issues such as race and community in an America that is quickly changing and becoming extremely polarized. “ says Festival Co-Director David Magdael.

Closing the fest is Columbus, directed by Kogonada. A hit at Sundance, Columbus stars John Cho, Haley Lu Richardson, Parker Posey, Rory Culkin and Michelle Forbes.  The film centers on Casey (Richardson) who lives with her mother in a little-known Mid-western town haunted by the promise of modernism. Jin (Cho), a visitor from the other side of the world, attends to his dying father. Burdened by the future, they find respite in one another and the architecture that surrounds them.

And with a plethora of panels, screenings, competitions, and events, the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival is a festival to hear voices from the lifeblood of Los Angeles.

To learn more, go to: http://festival.vconline.org/2017/

The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival
April 27 - May 4, 2017

Various Locations

17th Annual New York Indian Film Festival: Bold & Brave

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Published on Wednesday, 15 March 2017 16:24

Written by Brad Balfour

New York’s longest running film festival made by, about, and of the people of the Indian subcontinent, the 17th Annual New York Indian Film Festival brings daring works of cinema, panels, and special events celebrating the films of India. Running April 30 to May 7, 2017, the gala opening night will be held at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian (1 Bowling Green, New York, NY). The festival opens with Alankrita Shrivastava's Lipstick Under My Burkha, a film India's Central Board of Film Certification refused to certify because it claimed the story was too "lady-oriented," effectively banning the film in India, but it has gone on to garner acclaim in Tokyo and Mumbai film festivals.

The festival's centerpiece film is the New York premiere of Khushboo Ranka and Vinay Shukla's critically-acclaimed documentary about India's Aam Aadmi Party activist, Arvind Kejriwal, called An Insignificant Man. The festival will close its programming on Sunday, May 7th, with the North American premiere of Milind Dhaimade's You Are My Sunday, an uplifting, slice-of-life comedy about five close friends who struggle to find a place to play soccer in Mumbai every Sunday.

In addition to the New York, North American and World Premieres of 44 shorts, documentaries and feature films over a week-long period, NYIFF will present the following sidebar festival programming:

• Sibling Filmmakers: Deepa Mehta & Dilip Mehta present their respective New York premieres of Anatomy of Violence and Mostly Sunny on Saturday, May 6th. Both films' world premieres took place at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2016.

• A Death in the Gunj, directed by Konkona Sen Sharma, pays tribute to the late Om Puri, one of India's most versatile character actors who starred in more than 147 films during his illustrious career; he was awarded the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award of India in 1990. NYIFF Screening on Monday, May 1st.

• Priyanka Produces: Ventilator and Sarvaan, produced by actor Priyanka Chopra - NYIFF Screenings on Thursday, May 4th.

• Mobile Bollywood: One Minute Cell Phone Films presented by NYU Tisch Cinema Studies students.

• SHOOT A SHORT FILM: Workshop by National Award-Winning Filmmaker Umesh Kulkarni - May 5th & 6th

To learn more, go to: http://www.iaac.us/nyiff2017/

17th Annual New York Indian Film Festival

April 30 - May 6, 2017

Various Locations