From April 6-12 the New York based German independent film festival presented its fifth edition with nine features and the next generation’s short film section including five premieres. A non-film component of the program were two episodes of the widely acclaimed German six-part thriller series Bad Banks which has been acquired by numerous countries apparently including the large US streaming site Hulu. As in past years, Bertelsmann, the huge German media corpo...
At Manhattan’s Czech Center 12 film masterpieces covering 120 years of Czechoslovak film history were presented in one day long session on March 24th in three screening facilities. The selection of these outstanding films from a country at the center of Europe’s political and cultural cross roads reflected a compelling record of the principal film makers of one of the oldest European film industries.
The Czech film industry was born during the earliest d...
Though the New York Sephardic community is relatively small its film festival has been staged for the last 21 years presenting programs which promote the broad differentiated culture of global Sephardic communities, emphasizing their history, tradition and the issues they face. The 2018 edition was held from March 5-15 at New York’s Center for Jewish History with a full schedule of cultural programs as well as feature and short films. The principal sponsor of the fes...
From February 15 to 26 The Museum of Modern Art presented its 17th annual edition of Doc Fortnight with more than 20 documentary feature films and numerous short films. The international program included filmmakers and artist leading post screening discussions. Virtually all documentary features were shown for the first time in New York, including several world premieres. The program carried several productions shown before at major film festivals like Sundance and Berlinale. The selection ref...
Covering the seven year formative period of Karl Marx before he published The Communist Manifesto with Friederich Engels this documentary style biopic provides a holistic view of young Marx by focusing as much on his family and social life as on the development of his ideas. The roles of the principle protagonists Karl Marx and Friederich Engel are portrayed compellingly by August Diehl and Stefan Konaske respectively. The director, Raoul Pack, could hardly improve on this selection. Vicky Kri...
The Jewish Museum and the Film Society of Lincoln Center organized the 27th edition of the Jewish Film Festival which is one of the oldest global Jewish film festivals, ranking among the most important ones. Its program presented 37 films including 25 world, U.S. and New York premieres covering a wide spectrum of themes and formats. It showcased documentaries, feature and short films, restored productions and animated films. Topics addressed ranged from minority group issues, bio pic...
The Outsider Art Fair (OAF) returned for its 26th year from January 18-21 at New York’s Metropolitan Pavilion, hosting 63 international exhibitors presenting 60 galleries with works from artists expanding creative boundaries. Nine new exhibitors joined the fair including galleries from Beijing China, Seoul South Korea, and Tokyo Japan expanding the international presence of the fair. The program included presentations on “The Raw and the Cooked” with several multime...
The rapid addition of video streaming platforms has considerably expanded program viewing choices accessible to the internet audience. Netflix and Amazon have made a large number of foreign feature films, documentaries and television productions available and foreign series have increasingly become more prominent in their programs which are a mix of acquisitions and sometimes co-productions. Another new feature in the differentiated internet programming scene is subscription video on demand se...
One of the most important documentaries shown at the November 2017 edition of The Other Israel Film Festival held by the Manhattan JCC [Jewish Community Center] was Born in Deir Yassin by Neta Shoshani. She introduces her production with text stating the essentials:
April 1948: The Jewish state and army are soon to be established in Palestine. The underground paramilitary organizations – the liberal “Haganah” and the radical “Irgun” and...
DOC NYC, the largest documentary festival in America, was held from November 9-16 under major sponsorship of Netflix, HBO, Amazon, A&E, History Films, and support from more than 40 other media companies. The festival had its most successful edition since its establishment in 2009. Compared to 2016 it grew by 20% with respect to film submissions and attendance. 111 feature-length and 85 short documentaries were shown in three downtown New York City locations including 24 world premier...
Presented by New York’s Israel Film Center with funding from Carole Zabar, the Other Israel Film Festival was held at the New York Jewish Community Center with support from numerous small partners from November 2-9. The guiding themes of the fest: film, change, action reflect the transformational philosophy of the festival ever since its establishment in 2007. Among the more than 60 Jewish film festivals in the United States the Other Israel Film Festival is unique becaus...
From October 19-22 the annual Margaret Mead Film Festival sponsored by New York’s American Museum of Natural History presented 41 productions from 42 countries and numerous special events including 14 US premieres and one film shown for the first time, with half of the films directed by women. Following the guiding theme of “activation”, films shown this year had the objective of reflecting about and acting on our understanding of the complex diversity of the cultures t...
From September 28 – October 15 the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s New York Film Festival presented its 55th edition with an enlarged program in five venues. It included 23 productions in its main slate, four sections with 24 short films covering narratives, genre stories, New York stories, and documentaries, 15 essential classic films which were recently restored or released, 18 documentaries. 41 short and feature films in the new Projections section, and 25 ...
Anthony used a unique approach in his first time documentary feature film devoted to presenting the everyday life of rats in the human community. Rather than following the traditional documentary presentation that is imbedded in a linear predictable story line, Anthony ties together disparate elements including segments which do not have a direct relation with the rat theme. Two segments introduce parts of a training program for investigative officers that use small and large reconstructed cri...
Dead on Arrival by Stephen C. Sepher is an extraordinarily captivating film ranking high on all criteria one can apply to a film noir thriller and bringing it close to an artistic exercise in film making.
We have the story’s lush location in Louisiana’s bayous, a superbly executed production design relying on the facilities the sleepy small town offers with its country roads and water ways, and sets ranging from junk yards to the local seedy night club with its assorted co...
Celebrating its 40th anniversary AAIFF is the oldest film festival in the United States focusing on productions by and about Asians and Asian Americans. The festival is unique given its close ties to the Asian-American community it serves as the listing of community partners for each presented film shows partners as diverse as the Taiwanese American Association of MU, the Asian American Arts Alliance, the Asian Women Giving Circle, AARP, the Japanese American Association of New York, and...
This thought provoking site specific installation was held at New York’s Park Avenue Armory from June 7 – August 6 in its huge drill hall which had been transformed into a dark project space where advanced digital technologies created surveillance conditions reminding the visitors of Orwell’s 1984 and Big Brother. The architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron and the renowned artist Ai Weiwei with his expertise in a wide ...
Japanese Americans, with a population in excess of 1.4 million, are an important part of the fastest-growing multi-cultural segment of the Asian American population and share with the other Asian-American groups high educational achievements and the highest mean household income($90,000 in 2017). Japanese Americans have strong ties with their cultural heritage as expressed by their access to Japanese films through digital media in the United Sates. They are not, however, as well presented in t...
The festival presents popular Asian cinema in North America and has been identified as “the best film festival in New York byThe Village Voice and as “one of the city’s most valuable events” by the New York Times. Because of its reputation the festival has been expanding its program and audience, approaching now more than 6000 people. NYAFF is growing even though two similar film festivals, Japan Cuts and the Asian American Internation...
David Wilentz was appointed last year as an Associate Programmer for the New York Asian Film Festival and Subway Cinema. Prior to his current position he worked as a Manager of Production and Distribution for Film Movement for nine years and spent several years as a film writer for The Brooklyn Rail with 17 publications to his credit. He also served as a film accountant at New Yorker Films. David attended the National Taiwan Normal University and the New School University...
At the age of 87 Alejandro Jodorowsky directed Endless Poetry, a film reflecting his creative biography, a cinematic masterpiece excelling his other films El Topo, The Holy Mountain, and his first biographical film The Dance of Reality. His artistic signature in these productions is an outstanding surreal representation of reality captured with superb photography and imaginative sets. Endless Poetry is more accessible than his other films in spite of a meandering storyline th...
As an independent international organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) investigates human rights abuses through rigorous research and publicizes evidence based findings widely through video and print channels. Through newsletters, reports, seminars, films and videos HRW exerts pressure on policy maker and institutions to rectify human rights violations and to develop mechanisms to prevent current and future abuses. As an independent international organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) ...
Held under the auspices of the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Instituto Luce Cinecitta the 17th edition of Open Roads was held from June 1- 7 presenting 14 feature films including eight North American and six New York premieres. The selection covered a broad range of approaches, independent productions, as well as work by established and new film makers. As distinct from other countries holding annual niche film fests in the United States such as the Polish Film Festival or the German ...
Held at Industry City in Brooklyn and the Terminal Stores building in Manhattan from May 17 – 23 with numerous partners this international design fair attracted more than 18,000 visitors with innovative North-American interior designs and exhibits from Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Spain, France, Germany and the Netherlands. Wanted Design included numerous talks and awards to participating designers and companies. The Swiss watchmaker Rado presented the finalists of its Radi...
The international art fair held its 6th New York edition in Randall’s Island Park from May 5-7, 2017, presenting more than 200 leading galleries from 31 countries showcasing contemporary and 20th century art. Its international character was reflected by galleries from the Americas, Europe and Asia and new comers from Brazil, Guatemala, Japan and Poland. Its highlights featured some of the most important contemporary arts, including artists showing their works at the current Ven...
