Queens residents – co-founder/Artistic Director Donald Preston Cato and Executive Director Katha Cato — have done it again: brought the world of independent films from 19 countries in 152 films to celebrate the 13th edition of the Queens World Film Festival (QWFF) with screenings taking place in the heart of Queens’ film lovers’ central: The Museum of the Moving Image and Kaufman Astoria Studios.
Last night’s opening night kicked off with six films that refuse to back down: The Unthinkable Conversations by Emma Richards, U.K.; New Moon Episode1 by Ken Forman, U.S.; The Steak by Kiarash Dadgar Mohebi, Iran Together Forever by Barbara Medajska, Poland; Keep It Open by Lucy Teitler, U.S.; Coda by Joshua Elias Palmer, Hungary; and JADE by Robert Manning Jr., U.S.
With 47 thematic blocks, the festival showcases a wide range of genres and stories, addressing themes such as survival, empowerment, conflict, immigration, family, traditions and the environment.
Several Italian and Italian American actors and filmmakers are making their debuts: The Sound of Hope (April 20), a documentary by Emanuele Michetti, focuses on an inspiring music education program aimed at at-risk youth in El Salvador called El Sistema; Always, Already (April 24) is an experimental film directed by Ken Sackheim featuring well-known Italian actress Cara Buono (Stranger Things, Mad Men, The Sopranos); Gorgona (April 21) by Australian-born Antonio C. Tibaldi, spotlights Europe’s last agricultural penal colony, located 19 miles off the Tuscan coast, still home to 90 inmates; and Monica Lisa Stambrini’s Chutzpah (April 22) confides that the film is an autobiographical process of “coming out” that inevitably clashes with privacy; and director Marc Acito whose work appeared in the 12th Edition of QWFF, submitted a narrative short, King Me (April 19) about two neighbors, one game in a bloc of films about “Those Strange Relationships.”
Scammers (April 23), a short by Carl Kelsch, features an up-and-coming young Italian American actress he discovered in a high school musical production; a first-time submission from Matthew Petti, Playing with Matches (April 26), zooms in on online dating apps; Dancing Without Steps (April 27) follows the journey of improvisational dancer Margaret Beals, who this reporter had the opportunity to interview more than 50 years ago for The Villager. Co-produced with Kathleen Drinane Davis and director Adriana Davis, it gives context to an essential chapter of American modern dance history and Beals’ own influences from Jackson Pollack to Franz Kline to Martha Graham and Meredith Monk.
Looping into the global pandemic of loneliness, Stoop Chat with Jimmy & Shanaya (April 21) is Marj Kleinman’s short documentary of two neighbors who forge an unlikely friendship as they discover their shared love of poetry, music and street games. Kleinman hopes this is the first in a series of Stoop Stories. It will be screened in concert with two other films in this bloc: Curbside Composting and Under Construction. In the Empowerment and Elevating Others bloc, is Lobe Yourself (April 25), a coming of age story about 21-year-old Gracie who finds herself alone with her wine as the clock ticks toward midnight on New Year’s Eve and a perennial list of how she is less than perfect, starring producer, Amy Pan. Other entries in this bloc include Big George and Ultimate Citizens.
Other highlights include the International Premiere of Who to Love by Giorgio Testi, which was written and stars Grammy and Golden Globe-winning artist/producer Dave Stewart, with Greta Scarano and Mokadelic; Freedom Hair by Academy Award Nominated Dianne Houston, and the Sundance Grand Jury prize- winning director and the stunning paper mache’ art documentary Piñatas of Earthly Delights by Emmy-nominated Tom Maroney.
Additionally, The Spirit of Queens Award from QWFF honoree is Oscar-nominated director and producer Yance Ford, whose documentary Strong Island premiered at Sundance in 2017. His new documentary POWER that will launch on Netflix in May, takes a look at the 300-year growth and expansion of police power in the United States.
Choosing the participants has always been challenging and this year even more so: QWFF received almost 600 submissions from 38 nations and 28 filmmakers from Queens, 19 from Brooklyn, 19 from Manhattan, 3 from the Bronx and one from Staten Island vied for the opportunity to participate; 28% of the films are by women and 40% of the films were screened by women.
Since its founding in 2010, QWFF has screened more than 1,800 films representing 92 nations, including 281 films from filmmakers located in Queens and has produced more than 600 screening events to more than 80,000 audiences. The global pandemic did not stop QWFF: on March 19, 2020 it was the first festival to move online and broadcast live from Queens: that year the festival produced its 11-day virtual festival with 191 films from 30 nations earning over 30,000 views from a world that had suddenly shut down.
Visit https://queensworldfilmfestival.org/2024-queens-world-film-festival-film-line-up/
