Netflix new release roundup for November ‘20

I’m watching much more Netflix now than before, and not just for the new releases. I think I’ve come to depend on it a bit, as a way of coping. A movie a day, plus two or three TV episodes, isn’t too much, is it? At least I’m not bingeing.

—The Trial of the Chicago Seven. The anti-Vietnam protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, and the violence that resulted as a result of the confrontation with the Chicago police, gets revisited in this film from writer-director Aaron Sorkin. Specifically, it’s about the trial of an unconnected group of individuals at the heart of the protests, including irreverent activist Abbie Hoffman, memorably played by Sacha Baron Cohen. He’ll get Oscar nominated for certain. Sorkin uses cross-cutting between places and times to bring life to a very talky but riveting screenplay, in addition to actual television footage from the late 60s. In a time when Americans have been agitating for more drastic change in society than ever before, this movie leaves a deep impression.

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So Death on the Nile and Free Guy moved to next year and Wonder Woman 1984 will debut in theaters and on HBO Max simultaneously. The Tom Hanks western News of the World and the video game adaptation Monster Hunter are still expected to play theatrically in 2020... for the moment. This Slate article goes into streaming amidst the current status quo and how unsatisfying it can ultimately feel in a world with diminished theatrical distribution.

More on the other side.

Queens World FF goes online and streams movies for free!

I don’t have to describe the situation we’re all facing now. While we wait for a resolution (and may it come soon), there’s good news to be had: the Queens World Film Festival, the annual event I’ve blogged about here on WSW, has arranged to stream online many of this year’s crop of movies. I’ve told you about this festival for years and this year, QWFF’s tenth anniversary, you can see it for yourself beginning tonight at 7PM EST, and continuing through March 29, absolutely FREE, on Discovered.tv.

I gotta say, I’m not very surprised that Don & Katha Cato found a way to keep the festival going, because if you knew them and understood their commitment to independent film and their ability to get things done even in the face of great challenges, you’d know that not even a worldwide virus could stop them from putting on the show. I’m glad to be reminded.

QWFF 2019 part 2

Part two of my Queens World Film Festival report and while part of me feels a bit guilty over missing days, it's okay because I still saw some good movies.

QWFF 2019 part 1

I cannot believe this year's Queens World Film Festival is a week and a half long! While it's still not quite as huge as the Tribeca or New York fests, it has gained a whole lot of attention over the years as more and more filmmakers contribute to the event. Don & Katha Cato maintain the drive to keep it going, year in and year out, and they have a passion for film that has to be seen to be believed.

I, on the other hand, am not capable of keeping up for the whole eleven days, so this year's highlights are more abbreviated than usual. I still expect to find good stuff at the two venues, the Museum of the Moving Image and the Kaufman Astoria Studios, here in Queens.

This year I'm gonna try something different: because the majority of films at QWFF are shorts, I see lots of them. I think it'll be easier if I wrote about the ones that leave the biggest impressions on me. Trying to describe the more abstract ones is a pain in the ass and I don't like most of them anyway. Plus, I can say more about the ones I like most, and I'd rather do that.

Link: impossible

Here's something I haven't talked about yet: the Disney/Fox deal. Last month it was approved by the shareholders, and now I gotta believe Disney won't be satisfied until they own all of Hollywood. This is kinda disturbing. Should one studio have this level of power? If it's not a monopoly yet, it's beginning to feel like one.

One wonders what Unca Walt himself would have made of all this. It's a cinch he wouldn't recognize the business he started so long ago. Maybe I'll do a post on him.

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It occurs to me I haven't been to any outdoor movies this summer. This is unusual; it's something I've indulged in for as long as WSW has been around, but not this year.

Meeting Virginia has meant doing different things with my spare time, so there's that. She's actually not a big moviegoer (I had to remind her who Tom Hanks is), and as you've read, we've been doing things like going to plays and concerts instead.

I don't mind; she's exposed me to new stuff I wouldn't have known of before, and being with her has been more than worth it, even if the play or concert bored me on occasion.

Perhaps going to outdoor movies was a way to occupy my time in the absence of someone like her in my life. Don't know — but I find I haven't missed them much. Hope you haven't either.

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So Spock is gonna appear in Discovery; this does not surprise me in the slightest. As soon as I saw in the first half of the pilot that Cmdr. Burnham was raised on Vulcan and conveniently knew Sarek, I knew it was only a matter of time before they figured out a way to work Spock into the series. That's not what I wanna talk about.

I read the news on a Star Trek Facebook group. I'm not part of the group; I was just lurking. Ever since I chose not to subscribe to CBS All Access to watch Discovery, I've shied away from the fan groups, blogs, and news sites because I knew Discovery would be a big part of their coverage. I looked at this group, though, because I missed being part of the fandom.

The Trek canon (not owned by Disney) is growing, and will continue to grow in the near future —maybe not in all the ways I want it to, but it is happening. Will it follow the Discovery model and be part of the streaming service? Unless someone says otherwise, I can only assume so, which means I may have to reassess my anti-streaming stance. I know I said Trek fandom no longer needs to rely on CBS or Paramount, but things have changed in a big way since then. Maybe I need to get with the times?

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Starting to pick up a little around here; we got some more blogathons scheduled for the coming months, and some good-looking movies are on deck. Hope you'll stick around.

Links after the jump.

QWFF 2018 part 2

Part 1

MARCH 21

What would QWFF be without snow? There was a hint of the white stuff as I came home last night, but this morning it started in earnest, and it went on all damn day, to the point where tonight's screening of Vincent Gagliostro's After Louie was cancelled. I was interested in that one too...

Here's an interview with Gagliostro from last fall about After Louie.

QWFF 2018 part 1

The Queens World Film Festival is bigger and better than ever this year, and as someone who has been coming to it ever since 2012, it's breathtaking to see. Don & Katha Cato both go to extraordinary lengths to make the show as inclusive as possible without sacrificing quality, and little by little, the rest of New York City is noticing. I'm grateful to be back writing about the movies here. Expecting some good stuff, as always.

Once again, the Museum of the Moving Image and the Zukor Theater at the Kaufman Astoria Studios are the venues. This year's report will be split into two parts, one for today and the other for next week.

Links and a fare-thee-well

Let the record show that the final movies shown at the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas were the following: A Ciambra, The Insult, Darkest Hour, My Coffee with Jewish Friends, Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool, Happy End and Wonder Wheel. The final day of this beloved indy movie theater saw a packed house, with patrons and staff sharing memories and offering best wishes for the future.

I was one of a handful of people taking pictures of the joint, as you can see. It was tempting to pick a "souvenir" of some sort to take with me, but it wasn't like I could walk out with one of their framed movie posters under my arm — hence the pictures. I had never really noticed how much original non-film related art was in the lobby.

Vija was sick and couldn't make it; most of the others had already paid their last respects earlier this month, and some weren't interested in seeing Liverpool (I liked it), so it was just me and Sue from our film group who helped preside over the end, but we were part of a huge crowd for the movie. (More on it soon.)

Earlier in the day, there was a ceremony held in memory of the Lincoln and the late co-owner Dan Talbot attended by, among others, filmmaker Michael Moore (who blamed corporate greed for the closing).

It has been quite encouraging to see the love and support shown for this local, independent movie house, as well as for the Sunshine downtown (being replaced by this monstrosity), not just here in NYC but throughout the film industry in general. Even in this Netflix era, the movie-going experience still counts for something.

That's no small thing, especially when it's built on a foundation of quality films in a pleasant environment run by people with taste. If you have a theater like the Lincoln or the Sunshine where you are, consider yourself fortunate — and support them when you can. They're rare birds these days.

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That's Katha & Don in the front row.

In other news, I attended the kickoff party for the Queens World Film Festival a couple of weeks ago. Good news: it was held in the Astor Room, the chic supper club located at the Astoria Kaufman Studios. Bad news: they had to move us to the basement because of repairs.

That didn't diminish the spirit of the gathering, though with QWFF head honchos Don & Katha Cato in the house, diminished spirit is never a problem. By the time you read this, the updated website, with this year's lineup of films, should be live. If you're in the New York area in mid-March, consider coming out to Astoria for the show.

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I'm grateful for the turnout for the Time Travel Blogathon hosted by myself and Ruth from Silver Screenings. This is shaping up to be a very eclectic lineup, which is always cool to see. Plenty of time to get in on the fun if you want, but if not, you can always hop in your DeLorean or slingshot around the sun and, you know... It all goes down the weekend of March 9-11.

Links after the jump, plus more Lincoln Plaza photos.

QWFF 2017 All-purpose mega-post

It has snowed before during the Queens World Film Festival, but this is the first time I can recall the snow canceling a day of programming. Opening Night, no less! The Museum of the Moving Image opted to close last Tuesday, the 14th, meaning no gala first-night show, and I can hardly blame them for it, but I've seen worse blizzards than the one that hit New York last week. The roads in my neighborhood were clear relatively quickly. There was a party at a Jackson Heights restaurant, but I chose not to attend. Getting back home might not have been a problem, but I didn't want to take the risk. Besides, I'd see everyone during the week.

It was good to be back at QWFF after last year's hiatus. I've chosen to consolidate my report on the fest into one big post instead of a day-by-day account, to see if writing about it is any easier.

QWFF 2015 Day 5: One of those days

This was a crappy day. I had to wake up at seven in the morning on a Saturday just so I could go to Starbucks to write, because Starbucks on the weekend is always crazy packed with people and it's next to impossible to get a table. I missed breakfast (a tea and a pastry doesn't really cut it) so I went to a bagel shop right before heading back to the Secret Theater for a 12:30 show. It was one I had never been to before, and I neglected to check if their grilled chicken sandwich comes with mustard, which I don't like...

I didn't have time to eat it anyway, because the goddamn 7 train took its sweet time heading to Queensboro Plaza (construction work again, as usual), so I had to hurry to get to the Secret Theater on time only to find out that the show started late, so I didn't need to hurry in the first place. Anyway, I was fighting fatigue during the second movie. There was a cellphone user in the row behind me, but she was just barely outside of my peripheral vision, so all I had to do was lean forward in my seat to ignore her, which had the added benefit of keeping me awake, so that actually worked out alright, so there's that... but then I found out I couldn't get my schedule to match up with the person I wanted to interview.

So I walked from the Secret Theater to 35th Street and wrote up yesterday's post at the Panera Bread, thinking that the next block at the Museum of the Moving Image was at 4:30 when it actually started at 4. I got to see one movie, at least. But then! - as I left MOMI, this chick walks up to me and says she lost her ATM card and she wants to see a QWFF movie and can she borrow my press badge to get inside? I swear to god! I might've felt pity for her if she had come from out of town just to see QWFF, but no, she lived in Astoria. I told her I didn't think her half-assed plan would work.

On top of all that, I didn't go to the party that night because I was too damn tired.

Waiting for QWFF screenings... or for the Mad Men exhibit?

But hey, at least it stopped snowing! In fact, you can't even tell there was snow yesterday. I'd say 90-95 percent of it is gone now. 

So yeah, I'm afraid I only saw three movies yesterday - but here they are:

- TNT: Tago Nang Tago.  An undocumented Phillipine immigrant, struggling with his future, makes a questionable decision to improve his lot in life. The title, loosely translated, means "constantly hiding," and indeed, the protagonist of this story feels like he's a fugitive, worried not only about the law but about members of his own family turning him in. It's an important story, it's a timely story, but it's also a story told with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

- Asintado. Set in the Phillipines, this one's about a teenager who falls in with the wrong crowd and makes a mistake that could cost him his life. This takes place during a festival that commemorates the time during WW2 when the populace were saved from the Japanese through what they believe was the intervention of St. John the Baptist. A riveting story. The acting was very good, especially the actress who played the teenage boy's mother.

- El Mal Trato. A tale of an abused husband - yes, husband - whose opportunity for payback comes through pure chance. Obviously, one rarely, if ever, sees this kind of story, especially in America, which explains why this film is from Chile. I missed the first few minutes, and at the time I had thought I was coming in at the beginning of the block when it was actually the end. Either way, I'm glad I saw this, even if I did have to sit in the nostril seats. More of a psychological thriller than a domestic drama, especially in the use of cinematography.

A good festival overall, though there weren't as many films that blew me away as in past years. It happens. Still glad I went, as always.

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Previously:
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4

QWFF 2015 Day 4: And then it snowed

It snowed. On the first day of spring, it snowed. Actually, it wasn't as terrible as it sounds; it's more the timing, I think, that has bothered everybody. And can you blame us? This winter wasn't as brutal as last winter, but it felt almost as bad, and for a brief moment, it looked as if we had finally put it behind us. It's like the killers in horror movies - never count 'em out until you're absolutely sure they're out! (Sometimes not even then.)

I came to P.S. 69, the third venue for the Queens World Film Festival, all the way from Bayside, which is far to the north and east. I thought the weather might impede traffic somehow, and indeed I had to wait awhile for a bus, but once it came, the ride was fairly quick. The weather didn't stop the great big crowd from coming - lotsa friends and family of the filmmakers who were in the house last night.

P.S. 69 in the snow

- Comic Book Heaven. The last days of a neighborhood comic book shop and its cantankerous octogenarian owner. Speaking as someone who used to work in a comic book shop a lot like the one depicted in this short documentary, I have to say that it's not surprising at all that it's out of business. It looked like little more than a hole in the wall, and I counted a grand total of one female customer and zero kids. It appeared as if the merchandise was mostly of the long underwear variety, and I couldn't tell if there were any trade paperbacks (collected editions of monthly issues).

Folks, comics were my life for a long time, so believe me when I say that that character on The Simpsons may be an exaggeration, but he is heavily based on reality, and he should not be any kind of role model when it comes to running an actual comic shop. I can only go by what I saw in the doc, and I concede that I may not have gotten the complete picture (it was only 12 minutes long), but what I saw was an owner who wasn't making any concerted effort to bring in more than just adult white men as customers, and for too many years, guys like him were not rare at all.

As a film, however, this was good. I can see why director EJ McLeavey-Fisher chose his subject. Joe Leisner makes for good sound bites, and his crankiness played very well to the crowd I saw this with. Hell, I laughed a few times, too. The film was shot and edited well, made nice use of the score. As a film, this works... but I only wish that the subject matter was someone who didn't perpetuate the worst stereotypes involved with comic book retail.

- Old Days. Aging rock band The Atomik Age Project reminisces about its glory days. They sound like a good band, in that Eddie and the Cruisers, nostalgia-rock vein, but the entirety of this short consisted of a couple of very brief talking head interviews and a music video. That's it. I learned more about them from this webpage than from this short.

Some of the filmmakers (and subjects) at P.S. 69 last night

- As You Pass By. Doc about a florist in an unusual part of town: next to a cemetery and under the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. The location of the business is as much an element in this short as the business itself: there are a number of shots of the oppressive-looking ceiling of the BQE covering the wide street, people on the tiny sidewalk, car traffic, etc., and this is apparently part of what will become a bigger piece about the BQE and its effect on those who live and work in its vicinity. If this film is any indication, that's something I'd like to see.

- The Walk. Boy whose father recently died befriends an old man who just wants to go for walks. I expected some kind of M. Night Shyamalan-type twist to this story, but it was exactly what it was on the surface - and I'm grateful for that.

- Gasper & Son. A father-and-son neon-making business. Neon lights have been a huge part of the visual iconography of New York for generations, but according to this doc, it's a dying art, and seeing how neon is made was pretty cool, as was the family dynamic at the heart of this story.

More pics at the Tumblr page.

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Previously:
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3

QWFF 2015 Day 3: Sentimental journeys

My first night at P.S. 69 in Jackson Heights was a relatively short one. It was also Parent-Teacher Conference night, so the Queens World Film Festival activities didn't get under way until around 9:30, but it was worth the wait. All four movies I saw were good:

- Dollar Night. The ancient projectionist of a movie theater on its last legs tries to bring back the patrons with a promotional event. Shamelessly saccharine and manipulative, with a way-over-the-top score specifically designed to tug at your heartstrings, but you know what? I'm giving this one a pass, and I'll explain why.

Before the show, I talked to a fella named Sam, who was the projectionist for this venue. He's nowhere near as old as the one in the movie, but he said he was in the game for 40 years, and as you might expect, the industry's transition from celluloid to digital projection has meant less work for him, but, as he told me himself, he takes the time to do the job right - and the filmmakers (the ones screening at QWFF, at the very least) appreciate him for that.

Sam, the projectionist at P.S. 69.
Forgive the blurriness; I didn't take this shot.

In this digital age of online streaming and video-on-demand and watching movies on your friggin' iPad, we're forgetting what watching movies used to be like, and a generation is growing up knowing no other way of watching them. I accept that there are faster, cheaper, easier ways to make and watch movies, but that shouldn't mean setting the old ways aside if they're still viable. I believe they are, and I know others think the same - and this movie, as sentimental and fetishistic towards 35mm film as it is (long, loving shots of celluloid strips held up for examination, watching the projectionist carefully load up the film projector, the dust particles floating through the flickering light of the projector, etc.), comes from what I believe is a genuine love and appreciation for the medium by director Marco Antonio Martinez, and I can't knock him for that. Sadly, he wasn't in attendance last night; I wish he had been.

With the love of celluloid also comes a love of classic films, and that's part of Dollar Night. We see the torch being passed to a new generation, which, let's face it, is necessary if the old stuff is to survive. No matter how often I see it, I'm still amazed whenever I see bloggers or fans of Old Hollywood under 30, and not just casual ones, but hardcore cinephiles. Over the years, I've introduced you to some of them at this very blog, and I expect I'll see more in the future.

Finally, when you get right down to it, sometimes - not always, but sometimes - sentiment is okay! For all of the genuine quality of films on display here at QWFF every year, many of them are deadly serious. It's good to also see a few that are simply uplifting, feel-good crowd-pleasers... and Dollar Night is definitely that.

Diversity Plaza, at Jackson Heights

- Between Times. A tale of two clocks, one indoors, one outdoors, and the different ways they perceive time and the world of humans around them. Yes, the narrator of this stop-motion animated film from the Netherlands is a clock, and she has a personality and a perception of her surroundings that makes this story quite clever. The look of the animation is nice, especially the village street and the design of the clocks.

- The Shed. Portrait of a happy, healthy, normal marriage. It's a lie, of course, but not in the way you think. This nine-minute Irish film has not one, but two plot twists, and it ends at exactly the right moment! Great fun.

- Mousse. Dog Day Afternoon if it were a comedy, and if Al Pacino and the cops spoke different languages, and if the cops were a bunch of old men. This Swedish film could've ended in the first ten minutes by having the cops shoot the robber (they have ample opportunity to do so without hurting the hostages), but that's not what happens. It goes in a different direction for a little while before arriving at the inevitable finish, but once you embrace the absurdity of it, it's not bad.

More pics at my Tumblr page.

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Previously:
Day 1
Day 2

QWFF 2015 Day 2: They say it's your birthday

St. Patrick's Day always comes right before my birthday, but Tuesday night was the first time I had ever bothered to take advantage of it by getting drunk the night before. Who cares if everyone else is getting plastered for a completely different reason? I've always considered myself a kind of honorary Irish by virtue of being born the day after, anyway!

The crazy part is that it only took me one beer to get drunk! But that one beer looked like this. I think the bar where the Queens World Film Festival Opening Night after-party was held at was offering a special, but it was an odd one: either that one humongous beer or two smaller ones, and I couldn't get one now and the second later, so I bought the one big one and carried that mug around with me all night as I talked to old friends and made new ones. 

Long Island City,
where the Secret Theater is located

How did I get home? Well, I wasn't totally out of it. I was coherent enough to get on the train and then the bus, but what it came down to was that I told myself one thing, over and over: DON'T FALL DOWN.

Yesterday, I treated myself to a late lunch/early dinner before heading to Long Island City for Day 2. I had salmon. And that was the extent of my celebrating...

...because I had other plans. The Secret Theater in LIC once again hosts QWFF screenings. I wouldn't mind coming back here for something else one day, though it's easy to see what puts the "Secret" in Secret Theater: if you were walking past it, you'd think it was just another loading dock to a warehouse. Yes, despite all the development in LIC, there are still warehouses, and artists' spaces. My friend Nancy has an art studio there, not unlike what you'd see in SoHo or DUMBO.

I stayed for the first two movie blocks of the night; this is what I saw (Reminder for all you newbies: QWFF shows mostly short films, so they're arranged in "blocks," and the audience pays by the block and sees about an hour or two worth of short movies):

- Into the Dark. In the future, two prisoners shipped on a space-worthy vessel headed for their execution find the only comfort they can - in each other. It always amazes me how modern software technology can make outer space and computer graphics and spaceships look as slick as anything JJ Abrams can come up with, and that's the case here as well, but the story by writer-director-star Lukas Hassel is equally compelling. It's a one-man show, like recent films Buried and Locke, with all other characters off-screen, a format that I think works better for short(er) films like this one. Genre fans will dig it.

Filmmakers from the first block of films at the Secret Theater

- 4AM Gas Station Muzak. Heaven and hell compete for the soul of an ordinary guy just trying to put his life back together. Maybe a little too clever for its own good (did they really think that by showing an angel and demon playing chess together that we wouldn't think of Ingmar Bergman?), but it's still a game effort. Multi-cultural cast, nice use of location shooting in the California prairie, among other places, good editing.

- Reuber. From Germany comes this Gilliam-esque modern-day fairy tale, a bedtime story about a boy whose act of negligence leads him to run away into a magic forest with some bizarre characters. Like The Wizard of Oz, characters in the real-world framing sequence play double roles in the fairy tale, which is a nice touch, and there are funny moments, as you'd expect, but I thought it rambled far off course at times and wrapped up too neatly. Worth a look, though.

- Bright in Here. A one-night stand between two lesbian women on New Year's Eve. A nice character study, but that's about it. One would like to spend more time with these characters, though, to see where their relationship leads.

- Middle Man. At a tele-texting service for hearing-impaired people, a phone operator facilitates a conversation between two gay dudes trying to patch up their relationship. Clever premise, well-executed (although it took me awhile to figure out why one half of the couple didn't speak), but this is a Scottish film, with very, very thick Scottish accents. That, plus the fast pace of the dialogue made it difficult for this Yank to follow the story. Subtitles would help tremendously.

- Intrinsic Moral Evil. From the Netherlands, a very unusual short that's more of a performance video than a narrative, in which the concepts of homosexuality and youth are expressed in interpretive dance. Excellent cinematography and editing that uses the Zack-Snyder-slow-down-then-speed-up trick well. Quite fascinating and hypnotic.

Filmmakers from the second block of films

- Fire Island. Could the end of this marriage be decided by pure chance? Shot on location at the titular strip just off of Long Island (right before Hurricane Sandy hit!), the dodgy American accents by the actors were a distraction for me, but otherwise, it was okay. Good mix of comedy and drama.

- The Blood of Love. A woman goes to any and all lengths to keep her husband from dying of an unusual blood disorder. If there's one genre that QWFF has been far too short of over the years, it's horror, and this one had a good mix of gore and genuine drama. I was worried that the audience was laughing in places that weren't meant to be funny, but director Jeff Meyers said afterward that the laughs, intentional or not, didn't bother him.

- Remains. I'm sorry, but this Israeli drama about two gay guys bored the living hell out of me. I was already a little drowsy by this point in the night, but I swear, it seemed like all the characters did was bicker and I didn't care about either one of them - and of course it was the longest one in the block. Ugh.

More pictures from QWFF at my Tumblr page.

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Previously:
Day 1

QWFF 2015 Day 1: Parental guidance

Five years may not seem like a big milestone, but for the Queens World Film Festival, it's a sign of rapid and remarkable growth. From its humble beginnings, it has drawn together the Queens film community at large and linked it up with filmmakers worldwide, giving independent films of every stripe an opportunity to shine. 

Credit, as always, must go to the dynamic duo who put it all together, Don & Katha Cato. The amount of energy and passion they put into this festival, as well as the truckloads of genuine love and respect they receive in return, cannot be understated. You only have to be around them once to understand. Last night, QWFF 2015 kicked off at the Museum of the Moving Image (MOMI), and once again, they were at the heart of it, doing what they do best: telling the world about the movies they love.

Queens Councilman Jimmy van Bramer (center), a QWFF
presenter, with Katha and Don Cato at MOMI

This year's QWFF is also significant in that MOMI's involvement is greater. In addition to hosting Opening Night, the museum, for the first time, is one of the screening venues, along with returning sites P.S. 69 in Jackson Heights and the Secret Theater in Long Island City. Within the past year, the area of Astoria/LIC which MOMI calls home was declared by the city an arts district, a further indication that Queens is being recognized for its unique culture and artistic contributions, and QWFF has been part of that.

This year's Spirit of Queens honoree was Cuban filmmaker Leon Ichaso. Among his best-known films, both in and out of the mainstream, include the Wesley Snipes crime flick Sugar Hill, El Cantante, a biopic of singer Hector Lavoe, with Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony, and the political drama Bitter Sugar (screening tonight at MOMI), in addition to a variety of theatrical and TV movies and shows in a career dating back to 1979. Here's a recent New York Times article about him.

The opening night "sampler" of films had parents (and surrogate parents) as a recurring theme:

Queens Borough President Melinda Katz

- Roxanne. From England comes this character study in which a young girl on the streets is taken in by a transgender sex worker. Not exactly warm and fuzzy. Borders on cliche, but the tension inherent in a situation where a child is in an environment of sex-for-money is addressed in the brief running time. Makes good use of the location shooting.

- Godka Cirka (A Hole in the Sky). From France, but set in Somali, this one focuses on the lives of shepherdesses, narrated by a young girl. It almost seemed like a hybrid of fiction and non-fiction; the footage of the shepherdesses, young and old, have a documentary feel. We follow them around the countryside and the spare and ramshackle streets, we observe their rituals and gatherings and songs, and it looks like something you might see on the BBC, but imposed over all of it is this girl's narrative about her life, her family and her expectations. A unique approach.

- Dirty Laundry Day. An animated short about a laundromat change machine that is more than it seems. An American film, but the filmmaker is of Syrian descent, and recent events in that specific country inform the narrative in this film, although I kinda wish that it was a little bit more obvious within the story so that the film wouldn't need a post-script title card telling us so. Good otherwise. The sketchy artwork combined with computer effects made for an unusual contrast.

Spirit of Queens honoree Leon Ichaso

- Big Girl. Why is young Hannah's mother pulling her and her younger sister out of school for the day - and why does she need to be a "big girl," today of all days? The answer is as shocking as it is subtly depicted. My favorite of last night's films by a big margin. At first, you don't know what the mother's deal is - she almost seems like the bad guy at first - but the deeper the story gets, the more obvious her love for Hannah is. A movie that deals with a difficult and sensitive subject, yet it's handled so delicately, and you get just enough of the puzzle pieces to add it up yourself in the end. Outstanding film, with a moving performance from the young actress who plays Hannah.

- Carry On. From China, set during World War 2, a father has to figure out how to protect his daughter from the Japanese soldiers raiding his village. Another gem, one that shows how not even duty can get in the way of simple human compassion. Even mixes in some funny moments. Cinematography, screenplay, performances, all tops.

Plus, there was a bonus screening of Sundance award winner World of Tomorrow, an animated short about cloning that was as adorable as it was visually striking. There's quite a bit of buzz around it, from the looks of things, so I'd strongly advise you to look for it when it becomes available to watch later this month.

Look for more pictures from QWFF 2015 this week and next on the WSW Tumblr page.

QWFF wrap-up: Cinema and cupcakes

At the Queens World Film Festival Awards, held Saturday night at the Long Island City restaurant Dutch Kills Centraal, one of the winners (unfortunately, I forget who) was greatly enthused about her win, and her moment in the spotlight, to the point where she stood up on a chair and led a brief chant of "In-die film! In-die film!" It was a giddy moment, a moment of solidarity with her fellow filmmakers and an audience supportive of an artist at the start of her career.

When most people think of independent film, they think of movies from the likes of Fox Searchlight or The Weinstein Company or Lionsgate. Saturday night, however, one could see the true face of independent cinema - mavericks operating on shoestring budgets without the benefit of a studio of any kind to back their efforts. And yet, in that one moment, that filmmaker realized she had something quite valuable: she had her peers. Speaking as an creative person, I can assure you that the worth of having peers you can lean on cannot be underestimated.

But where will these filmmakers go from here? New York Times movie critic Manohla Dargis wrote a piece earlier this year about what she perceived as the glut of indie films flooding theaters. She argued that many of them are too mediocre for theatrical distribution and that this is having a deleterious effect on the industry. (At first I kinda sympathized with her point of view, but I've read some counter-arguments since then that made sense.)

Could the solution involve different screening locations? The majority of venues QWFF has used throughout their brief history have been non-traditional, and in many cases, off the beaten path, and people have come, in significant numbers. Getting a New York Times review is a goal worth shooting for, no question, but modern media has changed to the point where it's possible for word of mouth on a given film to spread through social media, or as the result of a crowdsourcing campaign - techniques many of the films at QWFF have used.

While I would love to see films like Recursion or The House That Jack Built get shown at places like Cinema Village or the IFC Center or Film Forum, at the same time, if showing these films in a tiny screening room in Brooklyn or Queens means the difference between keeping these films alive and building their audience, and oblivion, I know which option I'd take if I were in the filmmakers' places. 

Then again, maybe one doesn't have to think small. The success of AFFRM, for example, is a direct result of gathering together like-minded film festivals and using their collective clout to get independent films in mainstream theaters. I haven't seen this business model replicated anywhere else yet, but regardless, it's an example of a non-traditional solution to the long-standing problem of wider distribution - relying on one's peers. The idea implicit in that QWFF Award winner's victorious chant.

QWFF was very good this year, and I'm glad I was able to discover not only some new movies, but some places in Queens that were new to me... such as the cupcake shop in Astoria which raised a tiny bit of a stir when I talked about it on Twitter. It's called Sweets First, and they make these delicious cupcakes named after movies and TV shows. I first went there on Wednesday, when I was on my way to the Nesva Hotel and needed something quick and easy to eat. I'd seen the shop before, but had never been inside, and now I'm glad I did. 

I went there twice: the first time I had a "Twilight" - a chocolate cupcake with Oreo cookies and frosting - and on Saturday I had a "Vanilla Sky" - a vanilla cupcake with frosting and sprinkles. You can see the photos I took of the place and of my cupcakes on the WSW Facebook page. Definitely a place to visit if you're ever in Astoria.

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Previously:
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5

QWFF Day 5: Intergalactic planetary

Saturday was the last day of the Queens World Film Festival and the Nesva Hotel was buzzing with activity. The block of films I watched were genre movies of various stripes, including Recursion and My Art is Not Dead, which I saw opening night. The new stuff included:

- King Theodore Live, about an alien intelligence who inhabits the body of an Earth woman just to meet a member of his favorite rock band. Fun premise, and the original music wasn't bad, but I didn't feel any sense of urgency to the story. I didn't feel like anything was at stake on the part of the alien, or the musician, for that matter. It was simply a means to act out the wacky premise and nothing more.

- Talk to Strangers, in which an allegedly emotionless woman comes between a young couple. The woman is no Mr. Spock; she seems human but the movie never makes it clear whether she is or not, and anyway, the real conflict is what she does to the couple who are forced to temporarily take her in. As a short, it feels like the sketch of an idea; I'm just barely interested enough in it to wonder how this would work as a feature, especially given the Jarmusch-like approach to the characters.

LIC restaurant Dutch Kills Centraal
hosted the QWFF Awards

- The program guide describes the wordless French short Overnight thusly: "In a city under construction, between dreams and hidden desires, a trader falls down during a financial turmoil." Well-filmed, particularly with the cinematography and music, but I did not get this one at all.

- Day 6011. Imagine WALL-E as a Terminator-like sentry and you'll get the idea behind this computer animated short from Belgium. Loved the sudden twist the story takes near the end.

 'Strangers' director Brett Boshco (far left),
along with Nash, Buntrock & McClure (l-r)

The Recursion creators were in attendance at the Nesva: director Sam Buntrock, writer Stanton Nash, and star Rob McClure. I'll say a little more about the plot: as I mentioned before, it's a time-travel story in which the protagonist goes through loop after loop in time in order to meet his goal. He constantly course-corrects along the way, but that just leads to newer problems. Eventually he realizes the only way out is to do the one thing he must not do. The short would go on to win three QWFF awards at the afterparty in Long Island City, including the Founders Choice Award for Best in Show.

Buntrock said that it took five months in the editing room to put the 22-minute Recursion together, and indeed, editing is key here. Editing implies the idea of McClure in scenes with himself, occupying the same room or street or area, but there are only a few brief, fleeting moments where we actually see two McClures on the screen simultaneously. The rest of the time it's stunt doubles, but the footage is cut so sharply and clearly enough, that the illusion is convincing. And as a viewer, the fun of a movie like this is trying to figure out where and how the loops overlap, which is why I wanted to see this again.

Here's the trailer. This is a highly entertaining, fast-paced and cleverly put-together film that would play quite well at genre film marathons, like the ones in Columbus, Ohio and Boston, to name two off the top of my head. Look for it.

QWFF Day 4: Far away, so close

Let's get straight to the movies in this post. They were seen last night in two blocks at P.S. 69:

Odessa is a short about an astronaut on her last night before going up in space for a long, long time, and her chance encounter with a stranger in a bar. You could call this Gravity meets Before Sunrise: the key here lies not only in what the actors say, but what they don't say, which makes for a nice character study. Here's the website.

Katia, from Russia, is a doc about a girl traveling through India. She grew up dirt poor, and the narrative of her life story is juxtaposed with images of the abject poverty of the Indian slums, punctuated by occasional moments of bliss. It's a well-made, well-filmed movie, but man, is it brutal to sit through. No trailer or website that I can find, just the IMDB page.

'Odessa' co-star Ken Fuller
& director Cidney Hue

Thanks is a funny short about a guy who's unexpectedly saddled with a strange child who simply walks into his shop one day. But why is it this child in particular...? Lots of deadpan humor, good acting, and a perfect ending. Here's the trailer.

And then there was a film called The House That Jack Built. This one played before a great big, enthusiastic audience that almost filled the school auditorium. Many of the cast and crew were in attendance as well, and when they came up front afterwards for a Q-and-A, they filled up almost one whole side of the floor.

This feature-length dramedy concerns a Latino dude named Jack who buys an entire apartment building in the Bronx and moves his entire extended family into it to live rent-free. He always felt close to his family as a child, and as an adult, he thinks that providing his parents, grandmother, siblings, in-laws and so-forth with a single home (with their own apartments, naturally) would bring them closer together. He's wrong, to say the very least.

'Thanks' director Tom Patterson & co-stars
Dylan Dawson & Erica Tachoir

Jack is directed by Henry Barrial from a screenplay by the late Joseph Vasquez, a story that was completed in 1995, but he never lived to see it filmed; he died from AIDS. Vasquez had a modest breakout hit in 1991 with the film Hangin' With the Homeboys. Jack was his passion project, inspired by his own upbringing. Producer Michael Lieber (who was in attendance last night), along with co-producer Sam Kitt, kept the script alive through the years until they found the right director, Barrial, for the movie.

THIS IS A GREAT GODDAMN MOVIE PEOPLE. You have no idea. Everything works, beginning with a star-making performance by EJ Bonilla as Jack, a highly flawed yet believable character who does morally questionable things to keep his family together under one roof. He has his prejudices, his vices, his limitations, but he remains sympathetic throughout the whole story and Bonilla plays him with equal amounts of comedy and tragedy. It helps that he's surrounded by an outstanding supporting cast as well.

Vasquez' script is a gem. It balances a wide variety of storylines throughout the family and it's pleasing to see them weave in and out of each other as the story unfolds, and the actors make the most of it. Director Barrial unleashes them on each other and he gets the right amount of bile and vitriol and pathos and silliness out of all of them. And when the tale takes a turn towards the dark side, Barrial does not flinch (though you might!).

Jack is a delight from start to finish, and it's such a shame that Vasquez is no longer around to see it because I have no doubt he would love it. Here's the website.

Members of the cast and crew of 'Jack,' including producer Michael Lieber (far right)

QWFF Day 3: Hands across the water

Iconoclastic director Spike Lee recently made some statements about the changing, gentrifying face of New York in general and Brooklyn in particular. Whether or not you think gentrification is a good thing is a separate issue. What had me thinking, especially after writing about the changes to Long Island City and Astoria yesterday, was how this issue relates to Queens. I've lived in both East Elmhurst and now Jamaica; I remember how Queens used to look and I'm familiar with how it looks now, and while I've certainly seen signs of changing demographics, the thought that whites are taking over neighborhoods in Queens at a rate similar to that in Brooklyn doesn't quite jibe with what I see.

Maybe LIC and Astoria (and Ridgewood, to a lesser extent) are becoming more like Park Slope and Williamsburg, in their own little way - and gentrification on a larger scale could sweep through Queens the way it has through Brooklyn one day - but right now, I still see enclaves of broad ethnicity. I can point out Orthodox Jewish and Indian and Chinese neighborhoods on a Queens map. I see pedestrian plazas bringing all kinds of people together in places like Jackson Heights and Corona. If I walk down Roosevelt Avenue long enough, I can hear Spanish, Korean, and Bengali languages spoken and more besides.

QWFF's Don Cato leading the procession of student
filmmakers at the PS 69 film premiere

And at a school like P.S. 69 in Jackson Heights, I can see children of color thriving in a curriculum that lets them explore their creativity through the arts - in particular, film. A major component of the Queens World Film Festival (QWFF) is its Young Filmmakers Program, in which school kids not only get the opportunity to learn how to make films, but they get shown as part of the festival and get treated like big shots for a day.

Yesterday was that day this year. Five films from five groups of fifth graders played at the school, and the atmosphere, while less than a world premiere at Cannes, was more than that of a typical school assembly. There was a delightful little "red carpet" down the center aisle of the auditorium made of construction paper, decorated and autographed by the student filmmakers, who walked down it amidst an audience of their schoolmates, their parents, faculty and others.

Led by Don Cato, in his role as QWFF programmer, the filmmaker mentors for this year - Sharif Sadek, Patti Lowenhaupt, Shelley H. Miller and Richard Calvache - assisted the students in making short films that mirror their lives, exploring themes that reflect their experiences, such as bullying and how to prevent it, or coping with wearing glasses or braces. Yes, there's an "afterschool special" vibe reflected in these shorts, but overall, they're fun to watch, they show the enthusiasm the kids bring to the work, and unlike many adult-made films, they don't try to be anything other than what they are. Katha Cato told me afterwards that she was amazed at how mature the kids looked on the screen, and to a degree, many of them did.

Councilman Daniel Dromm

Among the attendees included City Councilman and former teacher Daniel Dromm, a long-time supporter of QWFF, who was recently appointed chair of New York's Education Committee. After the screening, he assisted Don Kato in handing out certificates of achievement to the student filmmakers, along with CDs of the films.

And in case I didn't make it clear - these are (mostly) students of color: black, Latino, Indian, Asian, as well as white. They dressed up for the occasion (one girl wore a lovely sari), and some of them hammed it up a bit for the iPhone and iPad cameras as they walked down the "red carpet," as kids will do. They seemed pretty proud to be there. A few of them spoke to the audience, basically saying how much they enjoyed the experience of making films and how it changed them, and I have no doubt that this will stay with them, even if they never pick up a camera to shoot a movie again. So maybe gentrification is a thing in the rest of New York, and maybe it's something to be resisted... but here in Queens, diversity is by no means a four-letter word.

Later on yesterday, I headed west to the Secret Theater in LIC and had the place virtually to myself for much of the afternoon as I screened two outstanding feature-length documentaries:

The students receive certificates from Councilman Dromm

The Second Meeting deals with the relationship between a U.S. pilot, Dale Zeiko, and the Serbian officer, Zoltan Deni, who shot his stealth bomber down during the Balkan war in 1999. Both men's lives were changed as a result of the confrontation, and twelve years later, they met again, under much more peaceful, and kinder, circumstances. Both men were soldiers in wartime; they knew the risks that came with their jobs and they knew it was kill or be killed in that situation, but off the battlefield, we see how they were able to find common ground and put the fighting aside for good. It's the kind of tale that makes one wonder: if two men can leave their conflict aside and find peace, why can't two nations? Here's the trailer.

Breakin' LA is not an 80s breakdancing movie, but rather a German film about a group of German bicyclists who explore Los Angeles on their bikes. They take in not just the local biking scene, but aspects of American culture at large; we see them do things like volunteer at a homeless shelter and fire guns at a shooting range. The cinematography is dynamic, as we follow them breezing through the streets from various POV angles and doing biking tricks in parks. We also hear locals talk about the difficulties of biking in such a car-centric city, and how biking has become a thing, not only in LA but around the country. Entertaining and enlightening. Here's the website.