The Americas Film Festival of New York 2024 Present Films from North America, Central America, and South America

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Wednesday, 12 June 2024 16:54

Written by Brad Balfour

The 11th edition of The Americas Film Festival New York runs June 13th to the 21st and presents eight feature films plus more than 25 shorts, celebrating the rich diversity of the stories, languages, and cultures of the Americas.  Held at venues across the city, TAFFNY represents the cultures, languages and stories of North America, Central America, and South America along with their associated islands. TAFFNY events are free and open to the public, and all foreign language films are subtitled in English. The Festival opens on Thursday, June 13, at 6:00 pm at the Instituto Cervantes New York (211 E 49th Street, NYC) with the New York premiere of The Extorsion. Renowned actor Guillermo Francella stars as Alejandro, a pilot on the verge of retirement who is blackmailed and forced to carry a mysterious cargo from Buenos Aires to Madrid to avoid being penalized for a serious fault he committed on the job. The biggest box office hit from Argentina in 2023.

TAFFNY closes on Friday, June 21, at 6:00 pm with its awards ceremony for short films in competition at the National Museum of the American Indian (1 Bowling Green, NYC), followed by the NY premiere of Frybread Face and Me by Navajo/Hopi/Laguna Pueblo filmmaker Billy Luther. The film follows two adolescent Navajo cousins from different worlds as they bond during a summer on their grandmother’s Arizona ranch, learning more about their family’s past and themselves. Director Billy Luther will be present for a Q&A session.

TAFFNY was created to generate a cinematographic appreciation space focused on multiculturalism, diversity, and new societies around the Americas, as well as to encourage the work of new film directors.

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

The Americas Film Festival of New York
June 13 - 21, 2024

Various venues in NYC

Margaret Mead Film Festival 2024 Searches of Language, Birds, & Happiness

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Tuesday, 07 May 2024 10:30

Written by Brad Balfour

Sugarcane

New York’s American Museum of Natural History will host a four-day celebration of voices and perspectives from around the world. The Margaret Mead Film Festival will take place from Thursday, May 9, to Sunday, May 12 with globally focused documentaries.

The festival opens with a performance of Soundtrack ‘63 by Soul Science Lab, a multimedia orchestral retrospective of the Black experience in the United States, combining live music, archival footage, and animation. The opening night film is the Sundance award-winning film Sugarcane, a documentary that uncovers the legacies of pain stemming from “residential schools” in British Columbia, ultimately hinting at an ongoing journey toward healing.

Catch the New York premiere of Porcelain War, winner of the Grand Jury Prize at 2024 Sundance Film Festival. . In Ozogoche, filmmaker Joe Houlberg Silva draws a parallel between human and avian voyages and shows the annual migration of the mysterious “Cuvivi” sandpiper bird to the remote Andean lakes of Ecuador. ᏓᏗᏬᏂᏏ (We Will Speak), directed by Schon Duncan and Michael McDermit, is a documentary shot over three years on the preservation of the Cherokee language. The festival closes with Agent of Happiness, a documentary which looks at life in Bhutan and Amber, a bureaucrat who measures the nation's “Gross National Happiness”, while also searching for fulfillment in his own life.

To learn more, go to: https://www.amnh.org/explore/margaret-mead-festival

Margaret Mead Film Festival
May 9 - 12, 2024

American Museum of Natural History
Festival entrance on 77th Street between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue.

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