Kurt Brokaw

Kurt Brokaw joined The Independent in 2010 as Senior Film Critic, covering New York’s six major film festivals and reviewing individual features and shorts of merit.  He was Associate Teaching Professor at The New School for 33 years, and has taught courses on film noir, early lesbian fiction and Jewish-themed cinema at The 92nd Street Y for 15 years. His memoir, The Paperback Guy, was published in 2020.

Two shots of Fox Rich from the movie Time
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New York Film Festival – Critic’s Choices

2020 New York Film Festival – For the first time in its 58 year history, Manhattan’s NYFF wasn’t shown in its  Lincoln Center home.  Senior Film Critic Kurt Brokaw watched it all online, reviewing his favorite narrative dramas, documentary features, and outstanding shorts.
The Apollo theater and 125th Street in the documentary The Apollo

DOC NYC Film Festival Nov. 6-15 – Critic’s Choices

America’s largest documentary film festival celebrates its 10th anniversary with 300 features, shorts and events, showing on 16 downtown Manhattan screens. Senior Film Critic Kurt Brokaw focuses on features and shorts set in and around New York City, selecting two shorts plus three features saluting The Apollo theater, rocker Lydia Lunch, and Cinema 5’s legendary exhibitor and distributor Donald Rugoff.

Examples of scripts from the book The Celluloid Paper Trail
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Checking Out “The Celluloid Paper Trail,” the Ultimate Guide to Screenplays

Could your screenplay one day be worth enough to display in Royal Books’ high-end collectors window in Baltimore? Owner/scholar Kevin Johnson’s new book, The Cellluloid Paper Trail, is the first definitive examination of movie scripts in the 20th century–their provenance and value from story scripts through the myriad drafts that follow. Senior film critic Kurt Brokaw deconstructs this landmark study.

Tribeca 2019 Short Films: Critic’s Choice

Tribeca 2019 Short Films: Critic’s Choice

Senior Film Critic Kurt Brokaw reviews his picks for short films from the 18th Annual Tribeca Film Festival—Carlito Leaves Forever directed by Quentin Lazzarotto; The Neighbors’ Window directed by Marshall Curry; The History of White People in America: These American Truths directed by Ed Bell, Clementine Briand, Pierce Freelon, Jon Halperin,  Aaron Keane, and Drew Takahashi; and Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (if you’re a girl) directed by Carol Dysinger.