DOC NYC 2024 Looks at Graphic Novelists, Outlaw Hot Air Balloons & Taking on the Russian Government

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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

Woodstock Film Festival 2024: 25 Years of Cinema

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Wednesday, 09 October 2024 15:16

Written by Brad Balfour

Celebrating 25 years of independent cinema, the Woodstock Film Festival returns October 15th to the 20th. Held in pastoral Woodstock, New York, the festival features independent greats and up-and-coming filmmakers from America and around the world. Narrative features include Sean Baker’s Anora, Bob Trevino Likes It from Tracie Laymon, and Hardcore Never Dies by Jim Taihuttu, among many others. 

The festival boasts 38 films including 4 World Premieres, 2 US Premieres, 1 New York Premiere, and 9 Hudson Valley Premieres. Special highlight films include the Opening Night Film Men of War by Jen Gatien and Billy Corben, Nickel Boys by RaMell Ross, No Other Land by Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, September 5 by Tim Fehlbaum, Rumours by Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson and Guy Maddin and Of Dogs and Men by Dani Rosenberg.

The festival also plays host to the Maverick Awards, honoring winners in a range of categories. The evening will also feature special recognition for the outstanding contributions of several filmmakers to independent film. Acclaimed filmmaker Paul Schrader will receive the Honorary Maverick Award, renowned producer Ira Deutchman will be presented with the Honorary Trailblazer Award, and celebrated filmmakers Pamela Yates and Paco de Onís will be honored with the inaugural Art of Activism Award.

In addition to great works of film, the festival also has panels and live discussions. Panels include a conversation between Carla Gutiérrez and Roger Ross Williams, State of the Industry and How To Break Into It, The Future of Documentary and more.

There will also be a Virtual Festival for those that can’t attend in person and want to watch many of the films streamed.

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

Woodstock Film Festival
October 15 - 20, 2024

Woodstock, NY

The 47th Asian American International Film Festival

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Wednesday, 31 July 2024 14:20

Written by Brad Balfour

The Queen of My Dreams 

Featuring filmmakers old and new from independent Asian directors, the Asian American International Film Festival returns August 1 - 11, 2024 in NYC.

The opening night film is Nobuko Miyamoto: A Song in Movement from filmmakers Tadashi Nakamura and Quyên Nguyen-Le. As a singer, dancer, and long-time activist of the AAPI communityNobuko Miyamoto encapsulates the festival’s theme of memory, reconnection, and vibrant community of Asian American creatives across the country. Smoking Tigers, from writer/director So Young Shelly Yo, is a film set in Los Angeles in the early 2000s where  a lonely Korean American teen named Hayoung who is taken under the wings of three wealthy students she meets at an elite academic boot camp. As she falls deeper into their world, Hayoung works harder to hide her insecurities about her problematic family and lower-income background, only to discover the bittersweet pains of adulthood that will forever shape her life. The closing feature is The Queen of My Dreams, by South Asian Muslim filmmaker Fawzia Mirza. Queer Pakistani grad student Azra is worlds apart from her conservative Muslim mother. When her father suddenly dies on a trip home to Pakistan, Azra finds herself on a Bollywood-inspired journey through memories, both real and imagined—from her mother’s youth in Karachi to her own coming-of-age in rural Canada.

The festival also features a wide array of features, documentaries, and shorts, with portions of the festival also being streamed online for those unable to attend.

Established in 1978 by Asian CineVision, the Asian American International Film Festival is the nation’s first and longest running festival of its kind and the premier showcase for the best independent Asian, Asian diaspora, and Pacific Islander cinema. AAIFF is committed to film and media as a tool for social change and to supporting diversity and inclusion in the media arts.

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

Asian American International Film Festival
August 1 - 11, 2024

Various venues in NYC