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BAMcinemafest Opens In Brooklyn
Jamel Shabazz
Movie-watching in New York is kicking off with a “BAM” this week.
BAMcinemaFest, an 11-day movie extravaganza running June 16-26, “celebrates emerging voices in American independent and international cinema and highlights repertory classics.” The third annual festival will feature 20 New York premieres and a world premiere.
“Not only has Brooklyn become a premier venue for showcasing important works of global cinema, it is home to an active new wave of filmmakers. We’re happy to see BAMcinemaFest, in just its third year, be at the forefront of both these movements,” says Florence Almozini, BAMcinématak’s program director.
Weekend, a film by Andrew Haigh and a Sundance Selects release, will kick off the festival with a “heartrending and naturalistic romance” between an artist and his partner that explores “how two people can come together only briefly, yet impact each other in a profound way.” While this is Haigh’s first time stepping into the shoes of director, he is no stranger to cinema, having worked as assistant editor for films including Gladiator and Black Hawk Down.
The festival will also feature the world premiere of Jamel Shabazz Street Photographer. Veteran hip-hop director Charlie Ahearn uses interviews and vintage shots to reveal a “definitive portrait” of Brooklyn native Shabazz, who documented the urban street culture of New York.
In addition to the “impressive lineup of international works,” Almozini says there is also a “particularly strong roster of films from local directors.” Among these local movie makers is Mike Cahill, whose film Another Earth tells the story of a famous composer and an MIT astrophysics student whose lives intersect after a duplicate planet Earth is found.
The wide variety of festival selections offers a little something for every moviegoer. There is the “deep, enigmatic bond” between a female artist and scientist and urban legend Big Foot himself presented in Christopher Munch’s Letters from the Big Man. Dave Boyle explores a story filled not with “sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll,” but rather “love, tea and indie folk” in Surrogate Valentine, the story of a songwriter who sets out to learn guitar and also receives some valuable life lessons. Marshall Curry explores “the rise and fall of the radical environmental group which the FBI called America’s ‘number one domestic terrorist threat’” in his piece If a Tree Falls: The Story of the Earth Liberation Front.
For a full list of films showing at BAMcinemaFest, visit here.