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Previews
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
Intrigue & Pandemics at the 18th Making Waves New Romanian Cinema Film Fest
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- Parent Category: Film Festivals
- Category: Previews
- Published on Wednesday, 27 March 2024 18:37
- Written by Brad Balfour
MMXX
Taking place across three Manhattan venues (IFC Center, Roxy Cinema New York, and DCTV’s Firehouse Cinema), the 18th edition of the Making Waves New Romanian Cinema Film Festival showcases the best of contemporary Romanian filmmaking and a couple of unmissable cult classics. Running March 27 to April 2, the festival includes the US premiere of Cristi Puiu's uncompromising MMXX, a 4-episode anthology set against the start of the COVID pandemic.
Libertate by Tudor Giurgiu and Occasional Spies by Oana Bujgoi Giurgiu, are both historical reenactments of lesser-known chapters of the Romanian Revolution and World War II, respectively. Thrill-seekers can get their fix with Boss by Bogdan Mirică, a unique exploration of the noir genre within the current landscape of Romanian cinema.
Documentary aficionados can unlock the past with Vlad Petri’s inventive mix of archival material and literary fiction in Between Revolutions, and immerse themselves in a nuanced examination of a bewildering case of bureaucratic absurdity with Ilinca Călugăreanu’s darkly humorous A Cautionary Tale.
To learn more, go to: https://makingwaves.filmetc.org
Making Waves New Romanian Cinema
March 27 - April 2, 2024
IFC Center
Roxy Cinema New York
Firehouse Cinema
Milestone Movies: The Anniversary Collection Film Series Looks Back at 1974
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- Parent Category: Film Festivals
- Category: Previews
- Published on Thursday, 21 March 2024 19:55
- Written by Brad Balfour
1974 was a year that shook cinema as auteurs, punks, outsiders, and fledgling visionaries converged. Milestone Movies: The Anniversary Collection - 1974, running March 22 to the 28th at the Paris Theater in NYC is a look back at that momentous year and the works of directors such as John Waters, Martin Scorsese, and John Cassavetes.
Several lucky patrons at Saturday's 11:15am show of The Conversation will be selected at random to receive an exclusive mini-poster, personally signed by Francis Ford Coppola! Introducing the 6:30 pm show of Chinatown on March 22 will be noted entertainment journalist Jordan Hoffman (freelance critic and member of the New York Film Critics Circle).
On March 23, Introducing the 11:15 am show of The Conversation will be journalist and filmmaker Laura Poitras, whose works often deal with the intersection of technology, privacy and the creative spirit. Over the years, her documentary journalism has been recognized with an Academy Award, the George Polk Award, the Pulitzer Prize, and the Peabody Award. The 2:00 pm show of The Traveler on March 23 will be Introduced by filmmaker and author Godfrey Cheshire, co-founder of the Iranian Film Festival New York and author of In the Times of Kiarostami: Writings on Iranian Cinema. Introducing the 9:25 pm show of Female Trouble on March 23 will be John Early, comedian (Now More Than Ever) and actor (The Afterparty, the upcoming Stress Positions). John once asked his Search Party co-star, John Waters, for help adopting a baby.
Introducing the on March 24th show at 1:35 pm of The Taking of Pelham One Two Three will be Bruce Goldstein, Repertory Artistic Director at Film Forum. Introducing the 6:55 pm show of A Woman Under the Influence on March 26 will be Columbia University Film Professor Annette Insdorf. Ms. Insdorf is the moderator of the popular Reel Pieces series at Manhattan’s 92Y, where she has interviewed over 300 film celebrities.
The 7:00 pm show of Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore on March 28 will be Introduced by Stephanie Zacharek, film critic at TIME. Ms. Zacharek is the recipient of a Newswoman’s Club of New York award, and was a 2015 Pulitzer Prize finalist.
Films being screened are:
- Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (New 35mm print courtesy of the Academy Film Archive)
- Amarcord (shown in 35mm)
- Badlands (shown in 35mm)
- Blazing Saddles
- California Split
- Chinatown (shown in 35mm)
- The Conversation (Shown in 35mm. Several patrons, selected at random at the show, will receive an exclusive mini-poster, personally signed by Francis Ford Coppola)
- Female Trouble
- Foxy Brown (New DCP restoration)
- The Parallax View (shown in 35mm)
- The Phantom of Liberty (shown in 35mm)
- Solomon King
- The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (shown in 35mm)
- The Traveler
- A Woman Under the Influence (shown in a new restored 35mm print)
To learn more, go to: https://www.paristheaternyc.com/
Milestone Movies: The Anniversary Collection - 1974
March 22 - 28, 2024
The Paris Theater
4 West 58th Street
New York, NY 10019
