2014 AUDIENCE AWARD WINNER NYC PREMIERE An Upper East Side Hot & Crusty bakery serves as the unlikely setting for an old-fashioned David vs. Goliath story in Rachel Lears and Robin Blotnick’s rousing film. After years of exploitation, Mahoma López, an unassuming sandwich maker, leads his fellow service workers as they demand better working conditions […]
NYC PREMIERE Drawn to the Central African Republic to study the songs of the Bayaka pygmies 25 years ago, American musicologist Louis Sarno abandoned modern civilization to join the tribe and start a family. Fulfilling a long-standing promise to show his teenager, Samedi, the world, father and son trade the rainforest for the concrete jungle […]
2014 VIEWFINDERS COMPETITION WINNER NYC PREMIERE Cairo Drive expertly balances humor, frustration and a distinctive sense of fatalistic irony to offer a view of Egypt unseen in recent documentaries about the Arab Spring. Shot before, during and after the revolution, Sherief Elkatsha’s entertaining film explores Cairo from the street level through the perspectives of its […]
NYC PREMIERE Last October, when infamous street artist Banksy revealed his New York City residency, he set off a daily scavenger hunt among curious fans, would-be art collectors and, of course, the police. With camera phones at the ready, everyone wanted a piece of his ephemeral works before they were destroyed—or removed for profit. Chris […]
Nostalgia and changing times. The Photo Man (USA, 7 min., Ben Kitnick) trades in old photographs. An antique store owner welcomes visitors in Not for Sale (USA, 10 min., Matthew C. Levy). The Final Note (USA, 16 min., Mayeta Clark) profiles a South Bronx piano warehouse. A young couple takes over The Mercantile (USA, 16 […]
Unexpected environments. A Beautiful Waste (USA, 6 min., Jon Kasbe) explores NYC’s vibrant sewer system, while men reflect on their time living in the tunnels under Lost Vegas (USA, 24 min., Steve Birnbaum). White Blaze (USA, 22 min., Brian Bolster) profiles a trail angel who helps Appalachian Trail hikers. An artist becomes walking artwork to […]
Collectors, curiosity seekers, and compulsives. Flutter (USA/Canada, 8 min., Dara Bratt) explores a lonely retiree’s love of butterfly collecting, while Bug People (USA, 15 min., Paul Meyers) examines our odd aversion to insects. Tango (Brazil, 6 min., Louis Robin) questions racetrack attendees about gambling. Discarded photos lead to a search for vaudeville performers Derby & […]
NYC PREMIERE Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi’s observational film is a stunningly shot sensory immersion into the Grand Magaal, an annual Muslim pilgrimage which finds a million Sufis traveling to the holy Senagalese city of Touba to honor their ancestral leader and his code of non-violence. The three-day spectacle presents a unique and essential look at Islam—one […]
NYC PREMIERE Acclaimed at the Sundance Film Festival, John Akomfrah’s new film is an emotionally charged portrait of cultural theorist Stuart Hall. A complex and deeply insightful thinker about subjects as diverse as feminism, Marxist methodology, migration and American hippies, the 82-year-old, Jamaican-born Hall is one of the most inspiring voices of the post-war Left. […]
As construction began on Ground Zero, with new towers being raised in a symbolic rebirth from 9/11, artist and filmmaker Marcus Robinson documented the entire process. Stunning time-lapse photography, paintings, drawings and, most affectingly, interviews with the men and women working on the site capture both the physical enormity of the six-year task and the […]