Brooklyn’s Greenpoint Film Festival has a great lineup for its 13th edition, taking place August 7-11. GFF will kick things off with Marco Ricci’s Lucha: A Wrestling Tale on Opening Night, a two-film retrospective of New York City-based Spanish filmmaker Alex Lora’s The Masterpiece (above) and Unicorns as its Centerpiece presentation, and a documentary double feature including the US Premiere of Kelly Moneymaker’s Drum Song: The Rhythm of Life and festival favorite Miwene, directed by Keith Heyward, Jennifer Berglund, Gange Anita Yeti Enomenga, and Obe Beatriz Nenquimo Nihua for Closing Night.
Additional US Premieres among the narrative feature film lineup include; Marco Amenta’s Anna, Paweł Wyszomirski’s The Green Ink, Adrian Apanel’s Horror Story (image), Jan Jakub Kolski’s Loonies, Paweł Maślona’s Scarborn, and Maciej Adamek’s Unspoken is a portrait of a determined and resilient young man who stutters but refuses to let it hinder his aspirations to become the Polish champion in acrobatics. The documentary features making their US Premieres include Viktor Witkowski’s Moje Własne Słowa (In My Words), Dominic Allen’s Planet Wind – The Global Story of Offshore Wind, and Sonia Zawitkowski and Jenna Kathleen Taylor’s Thank You for Sharing.
The film festival has more than doubled the number of films screened from last year, now totaling 118 films (20 feature-length, 95 shorts, and 3 XR exhibits). GFF’s footprint has also become larger with additional screens added to The Boiler / ELM Foundation location (191 N. 14th Street), and Film Noir (122 Meserole Avenue) also added to the mix.
The screenings at Film Noir will be a special Polish Cinema Heritage Program offered free-to-the-public. Once again, the Greenpoint Film Festival will be dedicated to its mission to create a platform for local filmmakers to showcase films that carry riveting and thought-provoking stories, which strive to help others find meaning for a more insightful journey in their lives. GFF will also offer additional panels, workshops, and events focused on expanding the local film network in North Brooklyn with the goal of helping local filmmakers make connections and gain support for their projects. That will include GFF’s signature Green Carpet, and the Filmmaker Awards including the presentation of their special festival awards dedicated to films that champion environmental and social justice.
Greenpoint Film Festival Creative Director Ricardo Vilar, said, “Our film festival has grown with leaps and bounds both with the number of films offered and the expansion of our footprint here in Brooklyn. But it all still starts with our mission on behalf of the filmmakers and giving them a platform to tell their stories and connect with audiences and each other. As we continue to build our reputation as a place and event to celebrate cinema here in North Brooklyn, we are thrilled with each step we take to bring recognition to their work and talent.”
Marco Ricci’s documentary Lucha: A Wrestling Tale opens GFF on Wednesday, August 7. The film takes us inside the Bronx’s Taft High School women’s wrestling team on their journey to a championship. Personal challenges abound, from unsupportive families to homelessness, but four young women featured in the film find solace and hope in each other and on the mat. Their empowering story is a testament to the human spirit and true grit.
Saturday’s Centerpiece presentation will feature two films from acclaimed filmmaker Alex Lora. The NYC-based Lora will attend the Greenpoint Film Festival with his feature film Unicorns and his short film, The Masterpiece, which was a Grand Jury Prize winner at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Unicorns follows a young polyamorous feminist woman as she navigates the breakup of a relationship amid the pressure of social media’s scrutiny on her life. The Masterpiece pits a rich couple against two scrap dealers with an expensive painting as a potential prize following their interaction.
Alex Lora
Listed as one of the top 10 promising Spanish directors to watch for in Variety’s Cannes Edition, Alex Lora is a 12-time nominee and winner of 6 New York Emmys®. He was a finalist for the Oscars®-Student Academy Awards, Goya® Spanish Academy Award Nominee, and winner of two Gaudi® Catalan Academy Awards after being nominated on four occasions. He has taught film at several prestigious universities and received his MFA in Media Arts Production at City College of New York as a Fulbright scholar, mentored by Chantal Akerman.
The Closing Night presentation on Sunday, August 11, will feature a documentary double feature of Kelly Moneymaker’s Drum Song: The Rhythm of Life, Miwene, directed by Keith Heyward, Jennifer Berglund, Gange Anita Yeti Enomenga, and Obe Beatriz Nenquimo Nihua. Drum Song: The Rhythm of Life explores climate crisis impacts through the eyes of Alaska’s Indigenous peoples as they utilize their ancestral knowledge and modern science to adapt to the changing rhythms of seasons, cycles, and movements across eroding lands and melting Arctic ice. Steeped in the long oral tradition of Waorani storytelling, Miwene shares the coming-of-age story of a young Waorani woman living deep within the Amazon rainforest — determined to capture her grandmother’s unique experience while she still can.
Highlights among the other features include US Premieres of Marco Amenta’s Anna (above), an Italian drama about a woman who must take on the development of a mega resort to save her farm. The film was and FEDIC Award winner at the Venice Film Festival. Several Polish films will also make their US Premieres, including Paweł Wyszomirski’s The Green Ink about a rebellious audio engineering student who regrets relying on an artificial intelligence program of unknown origin to help her get out of a bad situation after it becomes apparent that the intervention may lead to even bigger problems. Adrian Apanel’s Horror Story about a recent graduate who settles into a cheap room in a creepy house with bizarre residents while looking for work.
Jan Jakub Kolski’s Loonies is about a pair of ex-parolees who have their attempts to forge a new, law-abiding life foiled by an urgent need to get a lot of money immediately, forcing them to plan a bank robbery. Paweł Maślona’s Scarborn is a period (1700’s) drama focusing on an uprising of the Poles against the Russians. Maciej Adamek’s Unspoken is a portrait of a determined and resilient young man who stutters but refuses to let it hinder his aspirations to become the Polish champion in acrobatics.
Three documentary features will make their US Premieres at the Greenpoint Film Festival. They include Viktor Witkowski’s German film Moje Własne Słowa (In My Words) which follows aspects of the filmmaker’s grandmother’s life from the 1930s, her post-WWII life as a farmer under Communism while raising four daughters, all the way to contemporary Poland. Dominic Allen’s Australian film Planet Wind – The Global Story of Offshore Wind follows Andy Evans, Australian renewable energy pioneer, as he follows the story of Offshore Wind across the globe, exploring our relationship to this immense planetary force. Sonia Zawitkowski and Jenna Kathleen Taylor’s Canadian film Thank You for Sharing documents the bizarre and absurd aspects of our mental health landscape.
Highlights among the short films at GFF include the following favorites from Clermont Ferrand: Laurier Fourniau’s French-Belgium Co-Production Vambora, and Iran-Iraq war exploring “In the Garden of Tulips”, NY premieres of “Krzyk – Losing Control” (SXSW 2024), Bye Bye Bowser (Sundance, 2024), Sojourn to Shang-ri-la (Berlinale, 2024) and The Eight day (Palmsprings Shortsfest, 2024). As well as Ireland’s official submission to the Academy Awards “In The Shadow of Beirut” and Iranian Mehdi Card Ghaderi’s “The Annoyed” (Shanghai Film Festival)
To purchase passes and tickets and to find more information on the Greenpoint Film Festival, please visit https://greenpointfilmfestival.org/.
Source/images provided by Wildworks PR
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