Open Roads Italian Festival May 28-June 4
Lincoln Center’s 25th Italian fest proves eternal cinema themes endure for eternity Dollar for dollar, year after year, Lincoln Center…
Film Festival
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‘Drunken Noodles’ Review: Lucio Castro’s Quaint Second Feature Threads the Needle Between Drama and Fantasia
In his sophomore feature ‘Drunken Noodles,’ filmmaker Lucio Castro captures a plethora of these quiet moments, contrasting them with euphoric tableaus of various gay dalliances. The film spiritually evokes a space between two worlds: the hushed atmosphere of a cruising site and the unburdened revelry of one of Sal Salandra’s canvases (the real-life artist who inspires a crucial character in the film). Inside of this delicately drawn world, protagonist Adnan — a graduate student house sitting for his uncle in New York City while working at a small art gallery — seeks to fulfill his desires.
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New Directors/New Films April 8-19
In a world where most film directors start by making shorts, just one New York fest shows them all to…
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Caught Between Tragedy and Utopia: A Review of Liz Sargent’s ‘Take Me Home’
Within minutes of the feature, L. Sargent’s intention to shift away from her proof-of-concept 2023 short becomes obvious. Though captured by different cinematographers, both films share similar documentary-style camera work and capture a tone of devastating and tender social realism. A striking difference, however, is the father’s, Bob’s (Victor Slezak), absence in the short and significant presence in the feature, in which he almost completely replaces Anna’s fellow adoptee sister, Emily (Ali Ahn). This drastically shifts the film from a depiction of sisterhood to one of parenthood complimented by sisterhood.
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Rendez-Vous With French Cinema – March 5-15
Unifrance serves up a delicious new edition of art cinema to Film at Lincoln Center patrons Surprises galore pop up…
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The Wrong Kind of American: On ESPN’s “The Brittney Griner Story”
When WNBA star Brittney Griner was detained at a Russian airport in February 2022, after she was accused of traveling with vape cartridges containing cannabis oil, her wife, Cherelle Griner, became her unwavering lifeline. For 294 days, while Brittney was kept in a Russian prison, Cherelle and Brittney’s agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, fought tirelessly — galvanizing public attention, refusing to let Brittney’s story fade and ultimately turning a wrongfully detained athlete into a national priority. ESPN’s documentary “The Brittney Griner Story,” directed by Alex Stapleton, which premiered at Sundance this year, follows both the public campaign for Brittney’s release and what she endured to survive it.
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Everything Before Was Prologue: The Radical Cinema of Barbara Hammer
Barbara Hammer spent decades filming lesbian bodies and desire, insisting audiences feel what they’d largely never seen. A pioneering experimental filmmaker, she created over 80 films that made queer life visible when very few others would. This year, “Barbara Forever,” premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, telling Hammer’s life story through her own voice and archive.
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The New York Jewish Film Festival Jan. 14-28
An uptown museum and Lincoln Center fest offer unbending Jewish support in a time fraught with peril in the worldwide…
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A Call for Film Festivals to Choose Bravery: The Story of Jafar Panahi’s ‘It Was Just An Accident’
Currently, the United States faces its own wave of censorship catalyzed by book bans, the destruction of DEI programs and overwhelming budget cuts to universities, news organizations and national education/art programs like PBS. All the while, the implementation of artificial intelligence around the world brings a threat of unreliable media and the decentralization of individual thought. With all of these elements at play, the need to combat suppression in the creative world is more dire than ever. With the potential for films to champion a diverse array of voices and stories, one of the most powerful spaces to protect this freedom is in the film festival realm.
