60th New York Film Festival, September 30 to October 16, 2022

New York Film Festival, Sept.30-Oct.16

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Above is Nan Goldin’s photo that’s become the poster for this 60th NYFF.  Talk about a picture being worth a thousand words. It celebrates movies as they once were in the 1960s (and long before), when Irving Shulman’s 1947 The Amboy Dukes was the coming-of-age novel for NYC bonehead teens and wayward young adults. Youths… Read more »

Leonard Cohen Doffing his hat

Tribeca Festival June 8-20

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‘The city that never sleeps’ has awakened to two renamed institutions since the onset of Covid: The 92nd Street Y is now known as 92NY, signaling a momentous decision to begin streaming much of its top-drawer cultural programming to the world. And the former Tribeca Film Festival’s 22nd season of multiple events on a myriad… Read more »

Three men leaning on a police car

Dale Bell’s “Woodstock”

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Dale Bell’s Woodstock (Rare Bird Books, 2019) is a day-by-day, event-by-event diary by Bell, the associate producer, and 22 other professional volunteers who put together the Oscar-winning Best Documentary of 1970. As Martin Scorsese writes in a brief forward, “the second half of the 1960s is the only time I’ve ever heard people talk about… Read more »

Logo for Hampton Doc Fest

Hamptons Doc Fest Call for Submission

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The Hamptons Doc Fest is a 10-day festival focusd on “all docs all day,” The festival screens approximately 35 films including features and shorts in a hybrid of virtual and live in-theater screenings. The festival dates for 2021 are December 3 to December 12 and will include screenings, discussions, panels, and awards. The festival provides… Read more »

Photos of Black slaves in America and Jews in Nazi Germany

The New York Jewish Film Festival Jan. 13-26, 2021

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Sure, it was sorely disappointing not to view the 24 narrative dramas, documentaries and shorts up on the big screens at Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater. That’s where NYJFF, co-sponsored by The Jewish Museum and Film at Lincoln Center, shows its annual festivals. But the real loss for this viewer—an irreplaceable loss—came in not being… Read more »

Two shots of Fox Rich from the movie Time

New York Film Festival – Critic’s Choices

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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.

Photos of the main actors from the series, These Them

The Gay Agenda is Alive and Well: These Thems

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“Look at all these…thems, shes, hes, zirs…” Vero says, leaning against the bar, as the smile of a proud parent reaches across their face. This scene ends with a powerful, incredibly joyful, dance montage overlayed with the Hallway Swimmers’ Night Out, “We are the lucky ones; we have already won. We are together now. Can’t… Read more »

The New York Jewish Film Festival Jan. 15-28

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The nice curators at The Jewish Museum and Film at Lincoln Center have made their own special mitzvah to the city’s residents in January. Out of 30 narrative dramas, documentaries and shorts that comprise the 29th NYJFF, not one, not two, but three separate feature films having their New York premieres are intelligent father/daughter dramas…. Read more »