WORLD PREMIERE For decades, Queens’ Willets Point has been the site of an interconnected network of hundreds of small auto repair shops, known for no-frills but inexpensive, quality service. The owners, many immigrants, have persevered despite a lack of city support, but their luck may have just run out. With the Iron Triangle declared a […]
WORLD PREMIERE In the 1970s, New York City was hit with a financial crisis just as a planned luxury apartment building was being constructed in Hell’s Kitchen. With its future uncertain, a bold plan was hatched to offer subsidized housing to people working in the performing arts. The result was Manhattan Plaza, a harbinger for […]
2017 AUDIENCE AWARD WINNER WORLD PREMIERE Rick Crom, comedy’s everyman, was the long-running emcee at the Comedy Cellar in New York City’s Greenwich Village. The piano-playing funnyman integrated his talent for musical theater into his act, while artfully shifting the way comedians discuss homosexuality in their routines. A gentleman and the quintessential host, Rick is […]
WORLD PREMIERE In Bushwick, where rapid gentrification is pushing out Latino families, a unique alternative after-school program serves as a haven for the community. Led by a former high school teacher disillusioned with mainstream education’s focus on testing, Still Waters in a Storm serves 40 children, ages 5-15, free of charge, and encourages creativity and […]
WORLD PREMIERE In 1979, Curtis Sliwa, a McDonald’s night manager in the Bronx frustrated with rampant crime, decided to take a stand. Recruiting a diverse crew, and adopting a distinctive uniform of a white t-shirt and red beret, the Guardian Angels were born. Targeting lawlessness on the New York City Subway, the Guardian Angels attracted […]
INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE Occupying the former Bell Laboratories, the West Village’s Westbeth Artists Housing has been home to an eclectic community of professional artists since 1970. The film puts the spotlight on three longtime residents as they engage with their craft over the course of a year: 75-year-old contemporary dancer Dudley; 82-year-old poet Ilsa; and 95-year-old […]
NYC PREMIERE A fixture of the NYC nightlife and fashion scenes for decades, photographer Rose Hartman has shot some of the most indelible images of pop culture, such as Bianca Jagger atop a white horse at Studio 54. Known for her ability to gain entrance into any social gathering, and possessed of an uncanny eye […]
2016 METROPOLIS COMPETITION WINNER NYC PREMIERE Off the Rails tells the stranger-than-fiction story of serial MTA imposter Darius McCollum, who has been jailed more than 30 times for illegally driving buses and conducting subway trains. After finding sanctuary from childhood bullies in the subway, McCollum, who has Asperger’s syndrome, developed an obsession with the transit […]
NYC PREMIERE Presenting rare insight into a little understood but stigmatized condition, Borderline follows the experiences of Regina, a New Yorker living with Borderline Personality Disorder. Subject to extreme emotional shifts and aggressiveness, she has had a history of suicide attempts and trouble maintaining relationships. But she is also witty and self-aware, and desperately wants […]
NYC PREMIERE Sixty-something Orthodox Jewish identical twins Abraham and Shraga live together in their childhood home in Brooklyn. Since the death of their parents, they have lost control of their surroundings, allowing trash to pile up and stray cats and vermin to move in. Forced into action by their neighbor, the brothers agree to let […]