NYC PREMIERE Sonia runs the Okutiuka orphanage in Huambo, Angola’s second largest city, nearly decimated by decades of civil war. Her boyfriend, Wilker, is a death metal guitarist. To raise awareness and funds for the orphanage, the industrious couple organizes the country’s first-ever national rock concert, tapping into the unexpected healing power hardcore music can […]
Millions know their voices, but no one knows their names. Award-winning director Morgan Neville shines a spotlight on the untold true story of the backup singers behind some of the greatest musical legends of the 20th century. Triumphant and heartbreaking in equal measure, the film is both a tribute to the unsung voices who brought […]
CENTERPIECE GALA Introduced by Russell Simmons US PREMIERE Three-time felon, one-time Tony Award winner, Lemon Andersen is an acclaimed poet who broke out on Broadway in Russell Simmons’ Def Poetry Jam. But Lemon has landed back in the projects, living with thirteen family members and desperate for a way out. He turns to the only things he has […]
2011 METROPOLIS COMPETITION WINNER US PREMIERE Inside the legendary (and soon to be transformed) Chelsea Hotel, first-time director Corinne van der Borch discovers Bettina, a resident since the 1960s, once a mysterious beauty and now a recluse. Filmed over two years, Bettina lets down her guard and reveals a treasure trove of her artwork. This exquisite portrait captures […]
Young musicians from the world over are plucked from obscurity when they win online auditions for a prestigious Carnegie Hall concert. With only two days to rehearse a complicated program under classical masters Michael Tilson Thomas and Tan Dun, the musicians face language barriers, jet lag, a daunting schedule and the temptations of New York […]
2010 METROPOLIS COMPETITION AND AUDIENCE AWARD WINNER Karina, Pearl and Anthony are three New York teenagers in a radical poetry workshop called Power Writing that has a profound affect on their lives. Putting pen to paper they’re able to imagine a future where fathers aren’t in jail, mothers aren’t abusive and college isn’t something you […]
PUPPET interweaves a broad look at the fraught history of American puppetry (its marginalization as children’s theater and its sudden explosion as high art) with an intimate thread following Dan Hurlin, a downtown artist who is creating a complex puppet work called “Disfarmer” based on the life of a Depression-era portrait photographer. Hurlin’s struggle to mount […]
The visionary theater director Richard Foreman has been an icon of New York’s avant garde for 40 years. Whether or not you’re familiar with his work, this portrait gives an accessible entry to understanding an important chapter of cultural history, packed with interviews including F. Murray Abraham, Eric Bogosian, James Cromwell, Willem Dafoe, Yoko Ono, […]